RHBA-2009:0959 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated coreutils packages that fix several bugs are now available.

Description

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

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

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)