Bug Fix Advisory coreutils bug fix update

Advisory: RHBA-2009:0959-1
Type: Bug Fix Advisory
Severity: N/A
Issued on: 2009-05-18
Last updated on: 2009-05-18
Affected Products: Red Hat Desktop (v. 4)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (v. 4)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES (v. 4)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS (v. 4)
OVAL: N/A

Details

Updated coreutils packages that fix several bugs are now available.

The coreutils package contains core GNU utilities. It is a combination of
the old GNU fileutils, sh-utils, and textutils packages.

These updated packages apply the following bug fixes:

* the "runuser" man pages for both x86 and x64 architectures are now
identical. In previous versions, the x86 version contained more details on
the usage of "runuser". This was caused by an incorrect file generation
rule at build-time, which is now removed. (BZ#241622)

* documentation for "su" now correctly states that DISPLAY and XAUTHORITY
environmental variables are preserved for the pam_xauth module when the "su
-l" command is used. (BZ#248012)

* the "date" command now prefers universal timezone tables over local time
zone tables. In previous versions, local time zone tables were preferred;
this could incorrectly return an "invalid date error" to commands such as
"date -d '18 17:03:23 2007 GMT'" if the time zone was set as per BST.
(BZ#340261)

* "date" can now properly handle signed offset times. In previous versions,
using signed offset times (for example, 'date -d "20071203 + 1 day" +%d')
incorrectly returned an "invalid date" error. (BZ#377781)

* "cp" no longer attempts to incorrectly create hardlinks in copy
operations involving symbolic links. With this update, using the "-L" and
"-r" options will instruct "cp" to copy source directories when
appropriate. This is the default behavior in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5,
and is now backported to this version of coreutils. (BZ#419621)

* unnecessary error messages from the /etc/profile.d/colorls.sh shell
script are now discarded. (BZ#430823)

* as documented, "chown -R" no longer follows symlinks by default. In
previous versions, "chown -R" incorrectly traversed symbolic links, which
could cause data loss in large directory trees with numerous subtrees and
varying ownerships. A fix for this bug was backported from Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 5. (BZ#433690)

* using the "date" comand using relative time offsets now works properly.
In previous versions, certain "date" operations involving daylight savings
dates could result in erroneous output. This bug was fixed by an upstream
patch, which is included in this update. (BZ#435766)

* the "--preserve-root" option of "chgrp" now works as documented. (BZ#436624)

* typographical errors in the man pages and --help messages of "su" and
"runuser" are now fixed. (BZ#439410)

* setting the output width of "date" to a value less than 9 now works
correctly. In previous versions, "date" ignored any specified output width
less than 9, incorrectly using a character width of 9 instead. This issue
was fixed by an upstream patch included in this update. (BZ#466505)

* "cp -a" now correctly preserves SELinux context when possible, improving
the portability of scripts between major Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases.
(BZ#470207)

* a missing build requirement and testing bug that prevented mockbuilder
from rebuilding the coreutils package is now fixed. (BZ#470265)

* the "-d" option has been removed from the --help message and man page for
"rm". (BZ#473662)

* error messages from FTS are now suppressed when using the "-f" option of
chmod, chown, and chgrp. (BZ#474232)

* with this release, all man pages were generated at build time to ensure
better synchronization with --help output. (BZ#485712)

* "install" no longer suppresses chown and chgrp errors. (BZ#487150)

All coreutils users should upgrade to these updated packages, which resolve
these issues.


Solution

Before applying this update, make sure that all previously-released
errata relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via Red Hat Network. Details on how to use
the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/FAQ_58_10188

Updated packages

Red Hat Desktop (v. 4)

SRPMS:
coreutils-5.2.1-36.el4.src.rpm     4a6acebe546537ed76b9dd841e1401c7
 
IA-32:
coreutils-5.2.1-36.el4.i386.rpm     a0eb0dce604048c06e210e4a5a1ba824
 
x86_64:
coreutils-5.2.1-36.el4.x86_64.rpm     ae438f46b14bbd114d1a2ee00836d761
 
Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (v. 4)

SRPMS:
coreutils-5.2.1-36.el4.src.rpm     4a6acebe546537ed76b9dd841e1401c7
 
IA-32:
coreutils-5.2.1-36.el4.i386.rpm     a0eb0dce604048c06e210e4a5a1ba824
 
IA-64:
coreutils-5.2.1-36.el4.ia64.rpm     626be22b15559289acd56914cecd1a69
 
PPC:
coreutils-5.2.1-36.el4.ppc.rpm     8134fb33e7e84753fec466fcb6d24331
 
s390:
coreutils-5.2.1-36.el4.s390.rpm     5e40ec2c217ae5231c1c59ddb9e864da
 
s390x:
coreutils-5.2.1-36.el4.s390x.rpm     313a7befc743dcee2ddd34b283344af7
 
x86_64:
coreutils-5.2.1-36.el4.x86_64.rpm     ae438f46b14bbd114d1a2ee00836d761
 
Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES (v. 4)

SRPMS:
coreutils-5.2.1-36.el4.src.rpm     4a6acebe546537ed76b9dd841e1401c7
 
IA-32:
coreutils-5.2.1-36.el4.i386.rpm     a0eb0dce604048c06e210e4a5a1ba824
 
IA-64:
coreutils-5.2.1-36.el4.ia64.rpm     626be22b15559289acd56914cecd1a69
 
x86_64:
coreutils-5.2.1-36.el4.x86_64.rpm     ae438f46b14bbd114d1a2ee00836d761
 
Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS (v. 4)

SRPMS:
coreutils-5.2.1-36.el4.src.rpm     4a6acebe546537ed76b9dd841e1401c7
 
IA-32:
coreutils-5.2.1-36.el4.i386.rpm     a0eb0dce604048c06e210e4a5a1ba824
 
IA-64:
coreutils-5.2.1-36.el4.ia64.rpm     626be22b15559289acd56914cecd1a69
 
x86_64:
coreutils-5.2.1-36.el4.x86_64.rpm     ae438f46b14bbd114d1a2ee00836d761
 
(The unlinked packages above are only available from the Red Hat Network)

Bugs fixed (see bugzilla for more information)

419621 - cp cannot follow symbolic link
430823 - should discard errors from dircolors
433690 - chown -R breaks -P and always follows symlinks
435766 - coreutils' date returns erroneous values on certain operations
436624 - chgrp option --preserve-root results in error
439410 - Typo in runuser and su man pages and help messages
470207 - cp -a does not preserve selinux context
470265 - coreutils fail to build with mockbuilder
473662 - rm -d broken
474232 - Behavior change for 'chmod -f' between rhel3 and rhel4/rhel5
485712 - man pages omit few options
487150 - install(1) does not check failed chown/chgrp



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