coreutils-5.90 released

[Jim Meyering]

The GNU coreutils package contains the following programs:

  [ 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 shred 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

The coreutils package replaces/unifies the fileutils, sh-utils, and
textutils packages.

There have been many changes since the last release (unstable 5.3.0).
So many that I feel 5.90 should also be considered unstable, at least
initially.

As usual, special thanks go 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.

Here are the compressed sources:
  ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/coreutils-5.90.tar.gz   (7.1MB)
  ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/coreutils-5.90.tar.bz2   (4.5MB)

Here are the xdelta-style diffs:
  ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/coreutils-5.3.0-5.90.xdelta   (1.8MB)

Here are the GPG detached signatures:
  ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/coreutils-5.90.tar.gz.sig
  ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/coreutils-5.90.tar.bz2.sig

Here are the MD5 and SHA1 checksums:

9483e5deb4b9217e2db96064508b1a43  coreutils-5.90.tar.gz
1314b50231da15a0fe49c26e7751d559  coreutils-5.90.tar.bz2
a108c185306c56dc8daea47d11d25fce  coreutils-5.3.0-5.90.xdelta
f23b16776db155c99891c8e2ed4a3b807fc78478  coreutils-5.90.tar.gz
bcaf64732f2b7c06e273f793094f5dd322370c93  coreutils-5.90.tar.bz2
df19054a0eecb888d513710210e4ce551d1129db  coreutils-5.3.0-5.90.xdelta

*****************
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-5.90.tar.gz | tar xf -
   cd coreutils-5.90
   ./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
address@hidden 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 5.90 (2005-09-29) [unstable]

** Bring back support for `head -NUM', `tail -NUM', etc. even when
  conforming to POSIX 1003.1-2001.  The following changes apply only
  when conforming to POSIX 1003.1-2001; there is no effect when
  conforming to older POSIX versions.

  The following usages now behave just as when conforming to older POSIX:

    date -I
    expand -TAB1[,TAB2,...]
    fold -WIDTH
    head -NUM
    join -j FIELD
    join -j1 FIELD
    join -j2 FIELD
    join -o FIELD_NAME1 FIELD_NAME2...
    nice -NUM
    od -w
    pr -S
    split -NUM
    tail -[NUM][bcl][f] [FILE]

  The following usages no longer work, due to the above changes:

    date -I TIMESPEC  (use `date -ITIMESPEC' instead)
    od -w WIDTH       (use `od -wWIDTH' instead)
    pr -S STRING      (use `pr -SSTRING' instead)

  A few usages still have behavior that depends on which POSIX standard is
  being conformed to, and portable applications should beware these
  problematic usages.  These include:

    Problematic       Standard-conforming replacement, depending on
       usage            whether you prefer the behavior of:
                      POSIX 1003.2-1992    POSIX 1003.1-2001
    sort +4           sort -k 5            sort ./+4
    tail +4           tail -n +4           tail ./+4
    tail - main.c     tail main.c          tail -- - main.c
    tail -c 4         tail -c 10 ./4       tail -c4
    touch 12312359 f  touch -t 12312359 f  touch ./12312359 f
    uniq +4           uniq -s 4            uniq ./+4

  These changes are in response to decisions taken in the January 2005
  Austin Group standardization meeting.  For more details, please see
  "Utility Syntax Guidelines" in the Minutes of the January 2005
  Meeting <http://www.opengroup.org/austin/docs/austin_239.html>.

** Binary input and output are now implemented more consistently.
  These changes affect only platforms like MS-DOS that distinguish
  between binary and text files.

  The following programs now always use text input/output:

    expand unexpand

  The following programs now always use binary input/output to copy data:

    cp install mv shred

  The following programs now always use binary input/output to copy
  data, except for stdin and stdout when it is a terminal.

    head tac tail tee tr
    (cat behaves similarly, unless one of the options -bensAE is used.)

  cat's --binary or -B option has been removed.  It existed only on
  MS-DOS-like platforms, and didn't work as documented there.

  md5sum and sha1sum now obey the -b or --binary option, even if
  standard input is a terminal, and they no longer report files to be
  binary if they actually read them in text mode.

** Changes for better conformance to POSIX

  cp, ln, mv, rm changes:

    Leading white space is now significant in responses to yes-or-no questions.
    For example, if "rm" asks "remove regular file `foo'?" and you respond
    with " y" (i.e., space before "y"), it counts as "no".

  dd changes:

    On a QUIT or PIPE signal, dd now exits without printing statistics.

    On hosts lacking the INFO signal, dd no longer treats the USR1
    signal as if it were INFO when POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.

    If the file F is non-seekable and contains fewer than N blocks,
    then before copying "dd seek=N of=F" now extends F with zeroed
    blocks until F contains N blocks.

  fold changes:

    When POSIXLY_CORRECT is set, "fold file -3" is now equivalent to
    "fold file ./-3", not the obviously-erroneous "fold file ./-w3".

  ls changes:

    -p now marks only directories; it is equivalent to the new option
    --indicator-style=slash.  Use --file-type or
    --indicator-style=file-type to get -p's old behavior.

  nice changes:

    Documentation and diagnostics now refer to "nicenesses" (commonly
    in the range -20...19) rather than "nice values" (commonly 0...39).

  nohup changes:

    nohup now ignores the umask when creating nohup.out.

    nohup now closes stderr if it is a terminal and stdout is closed.

    nohup now exits with status 127 (not 1) when given an invalid option.

  pathchk changes:

    It now rejects the empty name in the normal case.  That is,
    "pathchk -p ''" now fails, and "pathchk ''" fails unless the
    current host (contra POSIX) allows empty file names.

    The new -P option checks whether a file name component has leading "-",
    as suggested in interpretation "Austin-039:XCU:pathchk:pathchk -p"
    <http://www.opengroup.org/austin/interps/doc.tpl?gdid=6232>.
    It also rejects the empty name even if the current host accepts it; see
    <http://www.opengroup.org/austin/interps/doc.tpl?gdid=6233>.

    The --portability option is now equivalent to -p -P.

** Bug fixes

  chmod, mkdir, mkfifo, and mknod formerly mishandled rarely-used symbolic
  permissions like =xX and =u, and did not properly diagnose some invalid
  strings like g+gr, ug,+x, and +1.  These bugs have been fixed.

  csplit could produce corrupt output, given input lines longer than 8KB

  dd now computes statistics using a realtime clock (if available)
  rather than the time-of-day clock, to avoid glitches if the
  time-of-day is changed while dd is running.  Also, it avoids
  using unsafe code in signal handlers; this fixes some core dumps.

  expr and test now correctly compare integers of unlimited magnitude.

  expr now detects integer overflow when converting strings to integers,
  rather than silently wrapping around.

  ls now refuses to generate time stamps containing more than 1000 bytes, to
  foil potential denial-of-service attacks on hosts with very large stacks.

  "mkdir -m =+x dir" no longer ignores the umask when evaluating "+x",
  and similarly for mkfifo and mknod.

  "mkdir -p /tmp/a/b dir" no longer attempts to create the `.'-relative
  directory, dir (in /tmp/a), when, after creating /tmp/a/b, it is unable
  to return to its initial working directory.  Similarly for "install -D
  file /tmp/a/b/file".

  "pr -D FORMAT" now accepts the same formats that "date +FORMAT" does.

  stat now exits nonzero if a file operand does not exist

** Improved robustness

  Date no longer needs to allocate virtual memory to do its job,
  so it can no longer fail due to an out-of-memory condition,
  no matter how large the result.

** Improved portability

  hostid now prints exactly 8 hexadecimal digits, possibly with leading zeros,
  and without any spurious leading "fff..." on 64-bit hosts.

  nice now works on Darwin 7.7.0 in spite of its invalid definition of NZERO.

  `rm -r' can remove all entries in a directory even when it is on a
  file system for which readdir is buggy and that was not checked by
  coreutils' old configure-time run-test.

  sleep no longer fails when resumed after being suspended on linux-2.6.8.1,
  in spite of that kernel's buggy nanosleep implementation.

** New features

  chmod -w now complains if its behavior differs from what chmod a-w
  would do, and similarly for chmod -r, chmod -x, etc.

  cp and mv: the --reply=X option is deprecated

  date accepts the new option --rfc-3339=TIMESPEC.  The old --iso-8602 (-I)
  option is deprecated; it still works, but new applications should avoid it.
  date, du, ls, and pr's time formats now support new %:z, %::z, %:::z
  specifiers for numeric time zone offsets like -07:00, -07:00:00, and -07.

  dd has new iflag= and oflag= flags "binary" and "text", which have an
  effect only on nonstandard platforms that distinguish text from binary I/O.

  du accepts new options: --time[=TYPE] and --time-style=STYLE

  join now supports a NUL field separator, e.g., "join -t '\0'".
  join now detects and reports incompatible options, e.g., "join -t x -t y",

  ls no longer outputs an extra space between the mode and the link count
  when none of the listed files has an ACL.

  md5sum --check now accepts multiple input files, and similarly for sha1sum.

  If stdin is a terminal, nohup now redirects it from /dev/null to
  prevent the command from tying up an OpenSSH session after you logout.

  "rm -FOO" now suggests "rm ./-FOO" if the file "-FOO" exists and
  "-FOO" is not a valid option.

  stat -f -c %S outputs the fundamental block size (used for block counts).
  stat -f's default output format has been changed to output this size as well.
  stat -f recognizes file systems of type XFS and JFS

  "touch -" now touches standard output, not a file named "-".

  uname -a no longer generates the -p and -i outputs if they are unknown.

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