Findutils 4.2.12 is released on alpha.gnu.org

[James Youngman]

I'm happy to announce the availability of findutils version 4.2.12 at
ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/findutils. 

I believe that this is the first release containing a POSIX-compliant
version of 'find'.  This is because I have now implemented the 
"-exec ... {} +" action.   This is like "-exec" but collects as many 
filenames as possible before launching the specified command.  In 
other words, it brings the performance benefit that using "xargs" 
normally does.

Perhaps more importantly, this release of findutils is more secure
than previous releases, because it implements the "-execdir" action
pioneered in BSD.  This is like -exec but avoids the race conditions
which are inherent in the way that "-exec" works.  An "-okdir" action
is also implemented.  

There are also some changes to "locate" and a bugfix (the findutils
programs now exit with a nonzero status if they cannot write to
stdout).

The NEWS file for this release says:-

* Major changes in release 4.2.12
**  Functionality Changes
*** find is now POSIX-compliant, as far as I know.
*** -exec ... {} + now works.
*** New actions -execdir and -okdir which are like -exec and -ok but more 
secure.
*** "locate -w" is now a synonym for "locate --wholepath".
*** An empty path entry in the locate database path (for example "::" in 
    $LOCATE_PATH or in the argument to "locate -d") is taken to mean
    the default database, whose name is hard-coded in locate.
**  Bug Fixes
*** If find or xargs cannot write to stdout, for example because 
    output is redirected to a file and the disk is full, the 
    relevant program will return a non-zero exit status


The following Savannah bugs have been fixed:
#10771  Primary -exec lacks support for POSIX idiom "{}+" (the plus sign) 
#11495  bad output for hard links? 
#11517  find, xargs, locate, etc.: don't hide write failures 
#11528  locate: (dummy) support for FreeBSD's -s/-m? Enhance support for -d? 
#11625  Wrong return status for -exec ... \; when command fails 

If this release (to ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/findutils) receives a
reasonable amount of successful testing, I may upload it to
ftp.gnu.org as well.  I would appreciate some feedback.

        
Regards,
James Youngman