RHBA-2014:0755 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated less packages that fix one bug are now available for Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 6.

Description

The "less" utility is a text file browser that resembles "more", but allows
users to move backwards in the file as well as forwards. Since "less" does not
read the entire input file at startup, it also starts more quickly than ordinary
text editors.

This update fixes the following bug:

• Previously, the lesspipe script returned incorrect exit status codes. As a

consequence, the less utility failed to decompress empty files that had been
compressed with the gzip utility, and an unwanted message was displayed. With
this update, a pipe character ("|") has been added in front of the LESSOPEN
environment variable to enforce a new default behavior of lesspipe. For backward
compatibility, lesspipe has the same behavior if LESSOPEN remains unchanged. As
a result, the less utility now detects and displays empty files correctly.
(BZ#615303)

Users of less are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which fix this
bug.

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/site/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

• BZ - 615303 - less fails to decompress empty files that have been gzipped

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)