RHBA-2011:0459 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

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

Description

The procps package contains a set of system utilities that provide system
information. The procps package includes the following commands: ps, free,
skill, pkill, pgrep, snice, tload, top, uptime, vmstat, w, watch, and pdwx.

This updated procps package includes fixes for the following bugs:

• The vmstat command, which reports virtual memory statistics, accepted as

arguments to its "-S" (size) option the letters "k", "K" or "M". These size
identifiers had to be preceded by whitespace, such as in "vmstat -S M". This
update removes the whitespace restriction so that the size-representing letter
can immediately follow the option; for example, "vmstat -Sk" is now equivalent
to "vmstat -S k". (BZ#531439)

• The manual page for the ps command (which displays a snapshot of currently

active processes) used a non-standard layout with faulty indentation. With this
update, the ps manual page has been modified to match the standard manual page
layout. (BZ#564310)

• The vmstat command restricted the length of a device name to 15 character,

when, in fact, the device name can be up to 32 characters long. As a result,
devices with a 15 and more character names were not displayed when the "vmstat

• d" command was issued. With this update, the character limit has been increased

to allow device names with up to 32 characters. (BZ#586078)

• Prior to this update, the manual page for the pmap command (which displays a

memory map of one or more processes) did not describe the column elements (that
is, Address, Kbytes, RSS, Dirty Mode, and Mapping) in the table provided by the
"pmap -x" command. With this update, the pmap manual page now provides a short
description for each of the aforementioned column elements. (BZ#586116)

• When using the top command (which provides a dynamic real-time view of active

processes), a slight inaccuracy in the computing of values in the "%CPU" column
caused the displayed values to be higher than 100%. This update fixes this
behavior and values displayed in the "%CPU" column can no longer exceed 100%.
(BZ#616829)

All users of procps are advised to upgrade to this updated package, which
resolves 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
https://access.redhat.com/kb/docs/DOC-11259

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 5 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 5 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 531439 - vmstat -SM doesn't work but vmstat -S M does
• BZ - 564310 - ps man page layout corrupted
• BZ - 586078 - vmstat disk device field is not long enough
• BZ - 586116 - add descriptions of columns to pmap(1) man page

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)