RHBA-2011:1554 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

An updated procps package that fixes various bugs is now available for Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

The procps package contains a set of system utilities that provide system
information using the /proc file system. The procps package includes free,
pgrep, pkill, pmap, ps, pwdx, skill, slabtop, snice, sysctl, tload, top, uptime,
vmstat, w and watch.

This updated procps package includes fixes for the following bugs:

• There was a typo in the ps(1) manual page which caused the layout of the page

to break. The typo has been fixed and the ps(1) manual page is now displayed
correctly. (BZ#692397)

• Incorrectly declared variables may have led to a memory leak or caused the

pmap, ps and vmstat utilities to misbehave. The variables are now nullified and
declared in the correct place, fixing the problem. (BZ#690078)

• Prior to this update, the sysctl utility did not accept partial keys to

display all the key pairs within a certain namespace of the /proc file system.
The following error message appeared when running the "sysctl net.core" command:

"Invalid argument" reading key "net.core"

With this update, the sysctl utility accepts the partial keys and all the keys
with the specified prefix are now displayed. (BZ#697935)

• Previously, the top utility displayed incorrect values in the SWAP field due

to the values of the per-process swap being incorrectly calculated as a
difference between virtual and physical memory used by a task. The /proc file
system provided by kernel is now the main source of the swap information.
(BZ#709684)

• Previously, the vmstat utility displayed incorrect values of the free page

count on 8TB SGI (Silicon Graphics) systems. The vmstat utility has been
modified to display the correct free page count. (BZ#701710)

All users of procps are advised to upgrade to this updated package, which fixes
these bugs.

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 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 6 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 6 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support (for IBM z Systems) 6 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension (for IBM z Systems) 6 s390x

Fixes

• BZ - 690078 - bugs in procps-3.2.8-pmap-smaps.patch and dlopen leakage
• BZ - 692397 - Wrong formatting of ps man page
• BZ - 709684 - procps/top SWAP statistics makes no sense
• BZ - 736023 - Common realloc mistake: 'screen' nulled but not freed upon failure

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)