- Issued:
- 2011-02-16
- Updated:
- 2011-02-16
RHBA-2011:0226 - Bug Fix Advisory
Synopsis
ksh bug fix and enhancement update
Type/Severity
Bug Fix Advisory
Topic
An updated ksh package that fixes various bugs and adds enhancements is now
available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.
Description
KSH-93 is the most recent version of the KornShell by David Korn of AT&T Bell
Laboratories, a shell programming language upwards-compatible with "sh" (the
Bourne Shell).
This updated package upgrades ksh to the more recent 2010-06-21 upstream version
(release ksh93t+), which adds multiple enhancements and fixes various bugs,
including the following:
- Running ksh scripts for a long time on an overloaded system resulted in a race
condition caused by an inner linear job list getting looped. This resulted in
ksh utilizing 100% of the CPU capacity. With this update, some operations on the
job list were reordered to prevent this race condition from occurring, allowing
ksh scripts to be run normally on the system. (BZ#455316)
- Previously, if the variable name contained certain characters such as a hyphen
or a space, ksh removed the variable from the environment. This error has been
fixed, and although ksh still does not use environment variables with names that
contain these characters, it keeps them available for sub-processes. (BZ#464156)
- Due to incorrect signal handling, receiving a signal while still processing
the same one caused ksh to terminate unexpectedly. With this update, the
subsequent signals are now deferred until the current one is processed, and ksh
no longer crashes. (BZ#628853)
All users of ksh are advised to upgrade to this updated package, which resolves
these and other issues, and adds various enhancements.
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
https://access.redhat.com/kb/docs/DOC-11259
Affected Products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 x86_64
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 ia64
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 i386
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 x86_64
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 ia64
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 i386
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 4 x86_64
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 4 i386
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 4 s390x
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 4 s390
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 4 ppc
Fixes
- BZ - 464156 - ksh does not declare shell variables with hyphen
- BZ - 519669 - debuginfo package is empty
- BZ - 538754 - Rebase request
CVEs
(none)
References
(none)
The Red Hat security contact is secalert@redhat.com. More contact details at https://access.redhat.com/security/team/contact/.