Coreutils version 6.0 has been released. If you haven't heard about the GNU coreutils, the FAQ is a good place to start: http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/faq/
Coreutils development branched after the stable 5.92 release.
Since then, there have been five releases from the stable branch:
5.93 through 5.97. I hope to make no more releases from that branch.
Coreutils 6.0 is the first release off the trunk since 5.92, and
considering the number and scope of the changes, I've labeled it
"unstable". However, many of the changes have been for improved
robustness and portability, and even the bug fixes usually address
unlikely failure scenarios. That said, the changes are numerous
enough and invasive enough that there are probably a few new bugs.
There is a new, implicit build requirement:
To build the coreutils from source, you should have a C99-conforming
compiler, due to the use of declarations after non-declaration statements
in remove.c. There is code in configure to find and, if possible,
enable an appropriate compiler. However, if configure doesn't find
a C99 compiler, it continues nonetheless, and your build will fail.
If that happens, simply patch remove.c with the following command,
and run make again:
cd src && patch remove.c c99-to-c89.diff
Here are some highlights from the NEWS below:
There are six new programs:
base64: base64 encoding and decoding (RFC 3548) functionality
by Simon Josefsson
sha224sum: print or check a SHA224 (224-bit) checksum
sha256sum: print or check a SHA256 (256-bit) checksum
sha384sum: print or check a SHA384 (384-bit) checksum
sha512sum: print or check a SHA512 (512-bit) checksum
by David Madore (based on work by Ulrich Drepper and Scott Miller)
shuf: shuffle lines of text
by Paul Eggert
We've finally added some often-requested functionality for ls,
with its new option: --group-directories-first, by Francesco Montorsi.
rm has a new -I option, added by Eric Blake:
rm now accepts the -I (--interactive=once) option. This new option
prompts once if rm is invoked recursively or if more than three
files are being deleted, which is less intrusive than -i prompting
for every file, but provides almost the same level of protection
against mistakes.
For the complete summary of changes, see the NEWS section below.
Special thanks to Paul Eggert for his many contributions.
Thanks to everyone else who contributed changes (attributions are
in the ChangeLog files), reported problems, and helped by fielding
questions on the mailing list.
----------------------------------------------------------------
The GNU coreutils package contains the following programs:
[ base64 basename cat chgrp chmod chown chroot cksum comm cp csplit
cut date dd df dir dircolors dirname du echo env expand expr factor
false fmt fold ginstall groups head hostid hostname id join kill link
ln logname ls md5sum mkdir mkfifo mknod mv nice nl nohup od paste
pathchk pinky pr printenv printf ptx pwd readlink rm rmdir seq sha1sum
sha224sum sha256sum sha384sum sha512sum shred shuf sleep sort split
stat stty su sum sync tac tail tee test touch tr true tsort tty uname
unexpand uniq unlink uptime users vdir wc who whoami yes
Here are the compressed sources:
ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/coreutils-6.0.tar.gz (7.9MB)
ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/coreutils-6.0.tar.bz2 (5.1MB)
Here are the xdelta-style diffs:
ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/coreutils-5.92-6.0.xdelta (1.9MB)
Here are the GPG detached signatures[*]:
ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/coreutils-6.0.tar.gz.sig
ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/coreutils-6.0.tar.bz2.sig
Here are the MD5 and SHA1 checksums:
0ebee745a7cf51f715eaa7dad3cfc389 coreutils-6.0.tar.gz
c15219721e6590fa13bf50af49e712c2 coreutils-6.0.tar.bz2
f82137b72a153e1f7eda7c3d8138df8e coreutils-5.92-6.0.xdelta
c979e82fec580a4f86267bc8900f5a2970260fdf coreutils-6.0.tar.gz
cc55a1bb5ce99115b8309cd75ce65221b7bc9098 coreutils-6.0.tar.bz2
ac3c7807408d547f40b32b2ee6b1270ebf1ff265 coreutils-5.92-6.0.xdelta
[*] You can use either of the above signature files to verify that
the corresponding file (without the .sig suffix) is intact. First,
be sure to download both the .sig file and the corresponding tarball.
Then, run a command like this:
gpg --verify coreutils-6.0.tar.gz.sig
If that command fails because you don't have the required public key,
then run this command to import it:
gpg --keyserver wwwkeys.pgp.net --recv-keys D333CBA1
and rerun the `gpg --verify' command.
*****************
How can you help?
*****************
If you're interested in lending a hand, or just want to use
the latest versions right now, you can build these programs
and run the test suite like this:
gzip -dc coreutils-6.0.tar.gz | tar xf -
cd coreutils-6.0
./configure
make
make -k check >& log
grep FAIL log
Be sure to use make's -k option so that make doesn't stop
just because one of the earlier tests fails.
Please report any build problems or test failures to the
bug-coreutils@gnu.org mailing list.
There are detailed instructions in the `Reporting bugs:' section
of the README file.
For further reading, see the coreutils home page
http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/
and the FAQ list:
http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/faq/
*****************
NEWS
*****************
* Major changes in release 6.0 (2006-08-15) [unstable]
[since the preceding release, 5.92, from the trunk]
** Improved robustness
df: if the file system claims to have more available than total blocks,
report the number of used blocks as being "total - available"
(a negative number) rather than as garbage.
dircolors: a new autoconf run-test for AIX's buggy strndup function
prevents malfunction on that system; may also affect cut, expand,
and unexpand.
fts no longer changes the current working directory, so its clients
(chmod, chown, chgrp, du) no longer malfunction under extreme conditions.
pwd and other programs using lib/getcwd.c work even on file systems
where dirent.d_ino values are inconsistent with those from stat.st_ino.
rm's core is now reentrant: rm --recursive (-r) now processes
hierarchies without changing the working directory at all.
** Changes in behavior
basename and dirname now treat // as different from / on platforms
where the two are distinct.
chmod, install, and mkdir now preserve a directory's set-user-ID and
set-group-ID bits unless you explicitly request otherwise. E.g.,
`chmod 755 DIR' and `chmod u=rwx,go=rx DIR' now preserve DIR's
set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits instead of clearing them, and
similarly for `mkdir -m 755 DIR' and `mkdir -m u=rwx,go=rx DIR'. To
clear the bits, mention them explicitly in a symbolic mode, e.g.,
`mkdir -m u=rwx,go=rx,-s DIR'. To set them, mention them explicitly
in either a symbolic or a numeric mode, e.g., `mkdir -m 2755 DIR',
`mkdir -m u=rwx,go=rx,g+s' DIR. This change is for convenience on
systems where these bits inherit from parents. Unfortunately other
operating systems are not consistent here, and portable scripts
cannot assume the bits are set, cleared, or preserved, even when the
bits are explicitly mentioned. For example, OpenBSD 3.9 `mkdir -m
777 D' preserves D's setgid bit but `chmod 777 D' clears it.
Conversely, Solaris 10 `mkdir -m 777 D', `mkdir -m g-s D', and
`chmod 0777 D' all preserve D's setgid bit, and you must use
something like `chmod g-s D' to clear it.
`cp --link --no-dereference' now works also on systems where the
link system call cannot create a hard link to a symbolic link.
This change has no effect on systems with a Linux-based kernel.
csplit and nl now use POSIX syntax for regular expressions, not
Emacs syntax. As a result, character classes like [[:print:]] and
interval expressions like A\{1,9\} now have their usual meaning,
. no longer matches the null character, and \ must precede the + and
? operators.
date: a command like date -d '2006-04-23 21 days ago' would print
the wrong date in some time zones. (see the test for an example)
df now considers "none" and "proc" file systems to be dummies and
therefore does not normally display them. Also, inaccessible file
systems (which can be caused by shadowed mount points or by chrooted
bind mounts) are now dummies, too.
expr no longer complains about leading ^ in a regular expression
(the anchor is ignored), or about regular expressions like A** (the
second "*" is ignored). expr now exits with status 2 (not 3) for
errors it detects in the expression's values; exit status 3 is now
used only for internal errors (such as integer overflow, which expr
now checks for).
install and mkdir now implement the X permission symbol correctly,
e.g., `mkdir -m a+X dir'; previously the X was ignored.
install now creates parent directories with mode u=rwx,go=rx (755)
instead of using the mode specified by the -m option; and it does
not change the owner or group of parent directories. This is for
compatibility with BSD and closes some race conditions.
ln now uses different (and we hope clearer) diagnostics when it fails.
ln -v now acts more like FreeBSD, so it generates output only when
successful and the output is easier to parse.
ls now defaults to --time-style='locale', not --time-style='posix-long-iso'.
However, the 'locale' time style now behaves like 'posix-long-iso'
if your locale settings appear to be messed up. This change
attempts to have the default be the best of both worlds.
mkfifo and mknod no longer set special mode bits (setuid, setgid,
and sticky) with the -m option.
nohup's usual diagnostic now more precisely specifies the I/O
redirections, e.g., "ignoring input and appending output to
nohup.out". Also, nohup now redirects stderr to nohup.out (or
$HOME/nohup.out) if stdout is closed and stderr is a tty; this is in
response to Open Group XCU ERN 71.
rm --interactive now takes an optional argument, although the
default of using no argument still acts like -i.
rm no longer fails to remove an empty, unreadable directory
seq changes:
seq defaults to a minimal fixed point format that does not lose
information if seq's operands are all fixed point decimal numbers.
You no longer need the `-f%.f' in `seq -f%.f 1048575 1024 1050623',
for example, since the default format now has the same effect.
seq now lets you use %a, %A, %E, %F, and %G formats.
seq now uses long double internally rather than double.
sort now reports incompatible options (e.g., -i and -n) rather than
silently ignoring one of them.
stat's --format=FMT option now works the way it did before 5.3.0:
FMT is automatically newline terminated. The first stable release
containing this change was 5.92.
stat accepts the new option --printf=FMT, where FMT is *not*
automatically newline terminated.
stat: backslash escapes are interpreted in a format string specified
via --printf=FMT, but not one specified via --format=FMT. That includes
octal (\ooo, at most three octal digits), hexadecimal (\xhh, one or
two hex digits), and the standard sequences (\a, \b, \f, \n, \r, \t,
\v, \", \\).
With no operand, 'tail -f' now silently ignores the '-f' only if
standard input is a FIFO or pipe and POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.
Formerly, it ignored the '-f' when standard input was a FIFO, pipe,
or socket.
** Scheduled for removal
ptx's --copyright (-C) option is scheduled for removal in 2007, and
now evokes a warning. Use --version instead.
rm's --directory (-d) option is scheduled for removal in 2006. This
option has been silently ignored since coreutils 5.0. On systems
that support unlinking of directories, you can use the "unlink"
command to unlink a directory.
Similarly, we are considering the removal of ln's --directory (-d,
-F) option in 2006. Please write to <bug-coreutils@gnu.org> if this
would cause a problem for you. On systems that support hard links
to directories, you can use the "link" command to create one.
** New programs
base64: base64 encoding and decoding (RFC 3548) functionality.
sha224sum: print or check a SHA224 (224-bit) checksum
sha256sum: print or check a SHA256 (256-bit) checksum
sha384sum: print or check a SHA384 (384-bit) checksum
sha512sum: print or check a SHA512 (512-bit) checksum
shuf: Shuffle lines of text.
** New features
chgrp now supports --preserve-root, --no-preserve-root (default),
as it was documented to do, and just as chmod, chown, and rm do.
New dd iflag= and oflag= flags:
'directory' causes dd to fail unless the file is a directory, on
hosts that support this (e.g., Linux kernels, version 2.1.126 and
later). This has limited utility but is present for completeness.
'noatime' causes dd to read a file without updating its access
time, on hosts that support this (e.g., Linux kernels, version
2.6.8 and later).
'nolinks' causes dd to fail if the file has multiple hard links,
on hosts that support this (e.g., Solaris 10 and later).
ls accepts the new option --group-directories-first, to make it
list directories before files.
rm now accepts the -I (--interactive=once) option. This new option
prompts once if rm is invoked recursively or if more than three
files are being deleted, which is less intrusive than -i prompting
for every file, but provides almost the same level of protection
against mistakes.
shred and sort now accept the --random-source option.
sort now accepts the --random-sort (-R) option and `R' ordering option.
sort now supports obsolete usages like "sort +1 -2" unless
POSIXLY_CORRECT is set. However, when conforming to POSIX
1003.1-2001 "sort +1" still sorts the file named "+1".
wc accepts a new option --files0-from=FILE, where FILE contains a
list of NUL-terminated file names.
** Bug fixes
cat with any of the options, -A -v -e -E -T, when applied to a
file in /proc or /sys (linux-specific), would truncate its output,
usually printing nothing.
cp -p would fail in a /proc-less chroot, on some systems
When `cp -RL' encounters the same directory more than once in the
hierarchy beneath a single command-line argument, it no longer confuses
them with hard-linked directories.
fts-using tools (chmod, chown, chgrp, du) no longer fail due to
a double-free bug -- it could be triggered by making a directory
inaccessible while e.g., du is traversing the hierarchy under it.
fts-using tools (chmod, chown, chgrp, du) no longer misinterpret
a very long symlink chain as a dangling symlink. Before, such a
misinterpretation would cause these tools not to diagnose an ELOOP error.
ls --indicator-style=file-type would sometimes stat a symlink
unnecessarily.
ls --file-type worked like --indicator-style=slash (-p),
rather than like --indicator-style=file-type.
mv: moving a symlink into the place of an existing non-directory is
now done atomically; before, mv would first unlink the destination.
mv -T DIR EMPTY_DIR no longer fails unconditionally. Also, mv can
now remove an empty destination directory: mkdir -p a b/a; mv a b
rm (on systems with openat) can no longer exit before processing
all command-line arguments.
rm is no longer susceptible to a few low-probability memory leaks.
rm -r no longer fails to remove an inaccessible and empty directory
rm -r's cycle detection code can no longer be tricked into reporting
a false positive (introduced in fileutils-4.1.9).
shred --remove FILE no longer segfaults on Gentoo systems
sort would fail for large inputs (~50MB) on systems with a buggy
mkstemp function. sort and tac now use the replacement mkstemp
function, and hence are no longer subject to limitations (of 26 or 32,
on the maximum number of files from a given template) on HP-UX 10.20,
SunOS 4.1.4, Solaris 2.5.1 and OSF1/Tru64 V4.0F&V5.1.
tail -f once again works on a file with the append-only
attribute (affects at least Linux ext2, ext3, xfs file systems)
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