RHBA-2013:0062 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated procps packages that fix several bugs and add one enhancement are now
available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

Description

The procps packages contain a set of system utilities that provide system
information. The procps packages include the following utilities: ps, free,
skill, pkill, pgrep, snice, tload, top, uptime, vmstat, w, watch, and pwdx.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Due to an inaccurate internal evaluation of the CPU utilization, the "ps
• -sort" command did not work as expected in some cases. Consequently, some of

the values in the final sorted sequence were in an incorrect order. This bug has
been fixed and these values are sorted correctly in the described scenario.
(BZ#598561)

• Prior to this update, the description of the SWAP field in the top(1) man page

could be misleading and confusing. The man page has been fixed by using the SWAP
field description from the man page of the successor project procps-ng.
(BZ#730724)

• Descriptions for some of the top command switches were missing in the top(1)

man page. Switches "-m", "-M", and "-V", which represent sorting by memory
usage, memory units detection, and version/help, respectively, have been added
to these updated procps packages. (BZ#757734)

• Previously, values shown in the "si" and "so" columns were always zero for the

"m" or "M" conversion units. The evaluation has been modified to prevent losses
of the arithmetic precision and zero values no longer appears in this situation.
(BZ#839340)

This update also adds the following enhancement:

• This update introduces a new enhancement in using of the "w" command. Users

can switch the value shown in the FROM field to represent IP addresses instead
of hostnames. This behavior can be achieved with the "-i" switch. (BZ#586742)

All users of procps are advised to upgrade to these updated packages that fix
these bugs and add this enhancement.

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 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 - 586742 - RFE: "w" should have "-n" flag to suppress reverse name resolution of IP addresses
• BZ - 730724 - Discrepancy with SWAP field description on top man page
• BZ - 757734 - top: Sorting by memory usage is not documented

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)