RHBA-2013:0430 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated ksh packages that fix several bugs and add one enhancement are now
available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

KSH-93 is the most recent version of the KornShell by David Korn of AT&T Bell
Laboratories. KornShell is a shell programming language which is also compatible
with sh, the original Bourne Shell.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Originally, ksh buffered output of a subshell, flushing it when the subshell

completed. This slowed certain processes that waited for a particular output,
because they had to wait for the subshell to complete. Moreover, it made it
difficult to determine the order of events. The new version of ksh flushes
output of the subshell every time the subshell executes a new command. Thanks to
this change, processes waiting for the subshell output receive their data after
every subshell command and the order of events is preserved. (BZ#827512)

• Previously, the sfprints() function was unsafe to be called during the shell

initialization, which could corrupt the memory. Consequently, assigning a
right-aligned variable to a smaller size could result in inappropriate output
format. With this update, the sfprints() call is no longer used in the described
scenario, which fixes the format of the output. (BZ#846663)

• Due to a bug in the typeset command, when executed with the -Z option, output

was being formatted to an incorrect width. As a result, exporting a
right-aligned variable of a smaller size than the predefined field size caused
it to not be prepended with the "0" character. A patch has been provided and the
typeset command now works as expected in the aforementioned scenario.
(BZ#846678)

In addition, this update adds the following enhancement:

• With this update, ksh has been enhanced to support logging of the shell

output. (BZ#869155)

Users of ksh are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which 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 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

Fixes

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)