RHBA-2010:0573 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

An updated setup package that fixes various bugs is now available.

Description

The setup package contains a set of important system configuration and setup
files, such as passwd, group, and profile.

This updated setup package includes fixes for the following bugs:

• when logging in to an interactive login shell, the contents of the

/etc/profile script are executed in order to set up an initial environment.
Messages which should have been displayed to the user upon logging in to the
Korn shell (ksh) were suppressed due to an internal test to determine whether
the shell is a login shell that relied upon the value of the PS1 environment
variable having already been set before /etc/profile was executed. However, this
environment variable is set in the Korn shell only after /etc/profile is
executed, which led to messages never being displayed to Korn shell users. This
update provides an alternative test that does not rely on the PS1 variable being
set before /etc/profile execution, with the result that messages are properly
displayed to users of the Korn shell upon login. (BZ#616418)

• when logging in to the Korn shell (ksh), the shell output information about

processes running in the background to standard error. This was caused by use of
redirection syntax in the /etc/profile script which the Korn shell interpreter
did not understand. This update changes the redirection syntax in the
/etc/profile script such that the Korn shell no longer outputs extraneous
information upon login. (BZ#616757)

Users of setup, and particularly those who are using the Korn shell (ksh), are
advised to upgrade to this updated package, which resolves these issues.

Solution

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

This update is available via the Red Hat Network. Details on how to
use the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/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 for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 4.8 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 4.8 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 4.8 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 IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 4.8 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 4.8 s390
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 4 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 4.8 ppc

Fixes

• BZ - 616418 - ksh users can't see output from scripts in /etc/profile.d/
• BZ - 616757 - setup-2.5.37-3.el4.noarch.rpm (RHEL-4.8) has introduced /etc/profile's glitch causing ksh to print stuff to stderr

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)