RHBA-2012:0857 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated yum packages that fix several bugs and add two enhancements are now
available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

Yum is a command-line utility that allows the user to check for, and
automatically download and install updated RPM packages.

Bug Fixes:

• The anacron scheduler starts the yum-cron utility with the default niceness

value of 10. Consequently, Yum RPM transactions ran with a very low priority.
Also, any updated service inherited this niceness value. This update adds the
"reset_nice" configuration option, which allows Yum to reset the niceness value
to 0 before running an RPM transaction. With this option set, Yum RPM
transactions run and updated services are restarted with niceness value 0 as
expected. (BZ#742363)

• When dependency resolving fails, yum performs RPMDB check to detect and report

existing RPMDB problems. Previously, yum terminated unexpectedly if a
PackageSackError exception was raised. The application now returns the message
"Yum checks failed" when a PackageSackError is raised and the remaining RPMDB
checks are skipped. (BZ#735234)

• The yum history rollback command could return a traceback if a history

checksum was used for the rollback. This happened due to incorrect handling of
keyword arguments in the _conv_pkg_state() function. The history checksum
argument is now handled correctly. (BZ#809392)

• When yum was started in a directory that no longer existed, it terminated with

a traceback. The yum utility now checks if the current working directory exists;
if this is not the case, it changes to the root directory, and continues its
execution as expected. (BZ#711358)

• If the "yum upgrade" command was run with the --sec-severity option arguments,

the command execution could enter an infinite loop. The code has been fixed and
the option works as expected. (BZ#804120)

• If user names and passwords for yum proxy server contained any of the

characters "@", ":", or "%", they were not properly quoted in the proxy server
URL and the values were misinterpreted by the HTTP client. As a result, yum
failed to connect to the proxy server. This update adds proper quoting, and user
names and passwords containing the characters are now resolved correctly.
(BZ#770117)

• The Yum transactions in yum history were ordered according to their

transaction time. However, this could be misleading. The transactions are now
ordered according to their IDs. (BZ#809373)

• The "yum makecache" command could fail if one of the repositories had the

"skip_if_unavailable=1" setting and was unavailable. Such repositories are now
skipped as expected. (BZ#769864)

• The Yum utility could terminate unexpectedly with a traceback similar to the

following:

_init__.py:2000:downloadPkgs:UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode
character

This happened because Yum failed to handle localized error messages with UTF-8
characters generated during package downloads. UTF-8 characters in error
messages are now handled correctly and localized error messages are displayed as
expected. (BZ#798215)

• On failure, the "yum clean" command returned an incorrect error code and

output containing messages that implied that yum performed the clean action
successfully. The yum utility now returns only the error message and the correct
error code. (BZ#735333)

• If the "yum provides" command was invoked with an empty-string argument, yum

terminated with a traceback. The command now returns an error message and
command usage information. (BZ#817491)

Enhancements:

• Yum now prints "Verifying" messages after finishing updates, which inform the

user that the respective packages were installed correctly. (BZ#737826)

• When run as a non-root user, yum cannot read local SSL certificate files and

the download process can fail. The yum utility now checks if it can access
repository certificate files. If the check fails, it returns more accurate
messages containing the filename that failed the check and information that the
repository was skipped. (BZ#690904)

Users of yum should upgrade to these updated packages, which fix these bugs and
add these enhancements.

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
https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/articles/11258

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 x86_64
• 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 (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 - 711358 - Traceback when you are running 'yum install' from directory which does not exist
• BZ - 735333 - 'yum clean' gives a wrong impression
• BZ - 742363 - yum-cron runs at nice 10 (from anacrontab), restarted service inherit that priority
• BZ - 769864 - 'yum makecache' exits on unreachable repo with 'skip_if_unavailabe=1' set
• BZ - 798215 - yum update crashes due to UTF-8 char
• BZ - 804120 - Certain code paths put yum in python infinite loop (Eg. some usage of yum --sec-severity).
• BZ - 809373 - yum history order deformation by changed date
• BZ - 809392 - yum history rollback ends with traceback
• BZ - 817491 - Command 'yum provides ""' generates traceback

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)