RHBA-2014:1595 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

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

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:

• The /lib64/libproc.so development symbolic link was present in both the main

procps package and its devel sub-package. This caused file conflicts when
installing the devel sub-package. This update removes the duplicate symbolic
link from the main package so that the devel sub-package can be installed
without problems. (BZ#950748)

• The 'free' command always displayed zero in the 'shared' column as the

procps-ng library was attempting to read from non-existent 'MemShared' field in
/proc/meminfo file. With this update, the 'shared' column is reused for a value
representing the 'MemShared' field, thus fixing this bug.

This update also introduces a new '-a' option for the free command that enables
a new column that represents a recently added field called 'MemAvailable'. The
kernel does not export this field by default, so it needs to be explicitly
enabled. Refer to the free(1) man page for more details. (BZ#963799)

In addition, this update adds the following enhancements:

• Previously, only one configuration file could be passed to the 'sysctl' tool

with the '-p' option. This update allows users to pass multiple configuration
files with this option. As a result, users can perform shell expansion by using
braces and wildcard characters. (BZ#977467)

• With this update, the 'top' and 'watch' tools accept floating point numbers

representing the polling or refresh intervals. Both widely used floating point
separators ('.' and ',') can be applied, regardless of the locale settings in
use. (BZ#1105125)

• This update introduces man pages for the openproc(), readproc() and

readproctab() functions available in the libproc library. These manuals help
writing applications that utilize the aforementioned functions. (BZ#1034337)

• This update introduces a new 'q' option (alternatively '-q' or '--quick-pid')

to the 'ps' command. This option is essentially a speed-optimized enhancement of
the 'p' option. The new option is recommended in cases where users only need to
specify a list of PIDs to be shown, and do not need other selection and sorting
options. (BZ#1060681)

• This update also enhances several man pages. (BZ#1011216, BZ#1082877,

BZ#1089817)

Users of procps are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which fix
these bugs.

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/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 - 950748 - /lib64/libproc.so package both in procps and procps-devel, unable to build packages depending on it
• BZ - 1105125 - Locale dependent float delay in top and watch utilities

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)