2 * du no longer truncates file sizes or sums to fit in 32-bit size_t
3 * work around Linux kernel bug in getcwd (fixed in 2.4.21-pre4), so that pwd
4 now fails if the name of the working directory is so long that getcwd
5 truncates it. Before it would print the truncated name and exit successfully.
6 * `df /some/mount-point' no longer hangs on a GNU libc system when another
7 hard-mounted NFS file system (preceding /some/mount-point in /proc/mounts)
9 * rm -rf now gives an accurate diagnostic when failing to remove a file
10 under certain unusual conditions
11 * mv and `cp --preserve=links' now preserve multiple hard links even under
12 certain unusual conditions where they used to fail
15 * du -S once again works like it did before the change in 4.5.5
16 * stat accepts a new file format, %B, for the size of each block reported by %b
17 * du accepts new option: --apparent-size
18 * du --bytes (-b) works the same way it did in fileutils-3.16 and before
19 * du reports proper sizes for directories (not zero) (broken in 4.5.6 or 4.5.7)
20 * df now always displays under `Filesystem', the device file name
21 corresponding to the listed mount point. Before, for a block- or character-
22 special file command line argument, df would display that argument. E.g.,
23 `df /dev/hda' would list `/dev/hda' as the `Filesystem', rather than say
24 /dev/hda3 (the device on which `/' is mounted), as it does now.
25 * test now works properly when invoked from a set user ID or set group ID
26 context and when testing access to files subject to alternate protection
27 mechanisms. For example, without this change, a set-UID program that invoked
28 `test -w F' (to see if F is writable) could mistakenly report that it *was*
29 writable, even though F was on a read-only file system, or F had an ACL
30 prohibiting write access, or F was marked as immutable.
33 * du would fail with more than one DIR argument when any but the last did not
34 contain a slash (due to a bug in ftw.c)
37 * du no longer segfaults on Solaris systems (fixed heap-corrupting bug in ftw.c)
38 * du --exclude=FILE works once again (this was broken by the rewrite for 4.5.5)
39 * du no longer gets a failed assertion for certain hierarchy lay-outs
40 involving hard-linked directories
41 * `who -r' no longer segfaults when using non-C-locale messages
42 * df now displays a mount point (usually `/') for non-mounted
43 character-special and block files
46 * ls --dired produces correct byte offset for file names containing
47 nonprintable characters in a multibyte locale
48 * du has been rewritten to use a variant of GNU libc's ftw.c
49 * du now counts the space associated with a directory's directory entry,
50 even if it cannot list or chdir into that subdirectory.
51 * du -S now includes the st_size of each entry corresponding to a subdirectory
52 * rm on FreeBSD can once again remove directories from NFS-mounted file systems
53 * ls has a new option --dereference-command-line-symlink-to-dir, which
54 corresponds to the new default behavior when none of -d, -l -F, -H, -L
56 * ls dangling-symlink now prints `dangling-symlink'.
57 Before, it would fail with `no such file or directory'.
58 * ls -s symlink-to-non-dir and ls -i symlink-to-non-dir now print
59 attributes of `symlink', rather than attributes of their referents.
60 * Fix a bug introduced in 4.5.4 that made it so that ls --color would no
61 longer highlight the names of files with the execute bit set when not
62 specified on the command line.
63 * shred's --zero (-z) option no longer gobbles up any following argument.
64 Before, `shred --zero file' would produce `shred: missing file argument',
65 and worse, `shred --zero f1 f2 ...' would appear to work, but would leave
66 the first file untouched.
67 * readlink: new program
68 * cut: new feature: when used to select ranges of byte offsets (as opposed
69 to ranges of fields) and when --output-delimiter=STRING is specified,
70 output STRING between ranges of selected bytes.
71 * rm -r can no longer be tricked into mistakenly reporting a cycle.
72 * when rm detects a directory cycle, it no longer aborts the entire command,
73 but rather merely stops processing the affected command line argument.
76 * cp no longer fails to parse options like this: --preserve=mode,ownership
77 * `ls --color -F symlink-to-dir' works properly
78 * ls is much more efficient on directories with valid dirent.d_type.
79 * stty supports all baud rates defined in linux-2.4.19.
80 * `du symlink-to-dir/' would improperly remove the trailing slash
81 * `du ""' would evoke a bounds violation.
82 * In the unlikely event that running `du /' resulted in `stat ("/", ...)'
83 failing, du would give a diagnostic about `' (empty string) rather than `/'.
84 * printf: a hexadecimal escape sequence has at most two hex. digits, not three.
85 * The following features have been added to the --block-size option
86 and similar environment variables of df, du, and ls.
87 - A leading "'" generates numbers with thousands separators.
89 $ ls -l --block-size="'1" file
90 -rw-rw-r-- 1 eggert src 47,483,707 Sep 24 23:40 file
91 - A size suffix without a leading integer generates a suffix in the output.
93 $ ls -l --block-size="K"
94 -rw-rw-r-- 1 eggert src 46371K Sep 24 23:40 file
95 * ls's --block-size option now affects file sizes in all cases, not
96 just for --block-size=human-readable and --block-size=si. Fractional
97 sizes are now always rounded up, for consistency with df and du.
98 * df now displays the block size using powers of 1000 if the requested
99 block size seems to be a multiple of a power of 1000.
100 * nl no longer gets a segfault when run like this `yes|nl -s%n'
103 * du --dereference-args (-D) no longer fails in certain cases
104 * `ln --target-dir=DIR' no longer fails when given a single argument
107 * `rm -i dir' (without --recursive (-r)) no longer recurses into dir
108 * `tail -c N FILE' now works with files of size >= 4GB
109 * `mkdir -p' can now create very deep (e.g. 40,000-component) directories
110 * rmdir -p dir-with-trailing-slash/ no longer fails
111 * printf now honors the `--' command line delimiter
112 * od's 8-byte formats x8, o8, and u8 now work
113 * tail now accepts fractional seconds for its --sleep-interval=S (-s) option
116 * du and ls now report sizes of symbolic links (before they'd always report 0)
117 * uniq now obeys the LC_COLLATE locale, as per POSIX 1003.1-2001 TC1.
119 ========================================================================
120 Here are the NEWS entries made from fileutils-4.1 until the
121 point at which the packages merged to form the coreutils:
124 * `rm symlink-to-unwritable' doesn't prompt [introduced in 4.1.10]
126 * rm once again gives a reasonable diagnostic when failing to remove a file
127 owned by someone else in a sticky directory [introduced in 4.1.9]
128 * df now rounds all quantities up, as per POSIX.
129 * New ls time style: long-iso, which generates YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM.
130 * Any time style can be preceded by "posix-"; this causes "ls" to
131 use traditional timestamp format when in the POSIX locale.
132 * The default time style is now posix-long-iso instead of posix-iso.
133 Set TIME_STYLE="posix-iso" to revert to the behavior of 4.1.1 thru 4.1.9.
134 * `rm dangling-symlink' doesn't prompt [introduced in 4.1.9]
135 * stat: remove support for --secure/-s option and related %S and %C format specs
136 * stat: rename --link/-l to --dereference/-L.
137 The old options will continue to work for a while.
139 * rm can now remove very deep hierarchies, in spite of any limit on stack size
140 * new programs: link, unlink, and stat
141 * New ls option: --author (for the Hurd).
142 * `touch -c no-such-file' no longer fails, per POSIX
144 * mv no longer mistakenly creates links to preexisting destination files
147 * rm: close a hole that would allow a running rm process to be subverted
149 * New cp option: --copy-contents.
150 * cp -r is now equivalent to cp -R. Use cp -R -L --copy-contents to get the
151 traditional (and rarely desirable) cp -r behavior.
152 * ls now accepts --time-style=+FORMAT, where +FORMAT works like date's format
153 * The obsolete usage `touch [-acm] MMDDhhmm[YY] FILE...' is no longer
154 supported on systems conforming to POSIX 1003.1-2001. Use touch -t instead.
155 * cp and inter-partition mv no longer give a misleading diagnostic in some
158 * cp -r no longer preserves symlinks
159 * The block size notation is now compatible with SI and with IEC 60027-2.
160 For example, --block-size=1MB now means --block-size=1000000,
161 whereas --block-size=1MiB now means --block-size=1048576.
162 A missing `B' (e.g. `1M') has the same meaning as before.
163 A trailing `B' now means decimal, not binary; this is a silent change.
164 The nonstandard `D' suffix (e.g. `1MD') is now obsolescent.
165 * -H or --si now outputs the trailing 'B', for consistency with the above.
166 * Programs now output trailing 'K' (not 'k') to mean 1024, as per IEC 60027-2.
167 * New df, du short option -B is short for --block-size.
168 * You can omit an integer `1' before a block size suffix,
169 e.g. `df -BG' is equivalent to `df -B 1G' and to `df --block-size=1G'.
170 * The following options are now obsolescent, as their names are
171 incompatible with IEC 60027-2:
172 df, du: -m or --megabytes (use -BM or --block-size=1M)
173 df, du, ls: --kilobytes (use --block-size=1K)
175 * df --local no longer lists smbfs file systems whose name starts with //
176 * dd now detects the Linux/tape/lseek bug at run time and warns about it.
178 * ls -R once again outputs a blank line between per-directory groups of files.
179 This was broken by the cycle-detection change in 4.1.1.
180 * dd once again uses `lseek' on character devices like /dev/mem and /dev/kmem.
181 On systems with the linux kernel (at least up to 2.4.16), dd must still
182 resort to emulating `skip=N' behavior using reads on tape devices, because
183 lseek has no effect, yet appears to succeed. This may be a kernel bug.
185 * cp no longer fails when two or more source files are the same;
186 now it just gives a warning and doesn't copy the file the second time.
187 E.g., cp a a d/ produces this:
188 cp: warning: source file `a' specified more than once
189 * chmod would set the wrong bit when given symbolic mode strings like
190 these: g=o, o=g, o=u. E.g., `chmod a=,o=w,ug=o f' would give a mode
191 of --w-r---w- rather than --w--w--w-.
193 * mv (likewise for cp), now fails rather than silently clobbering one of
194 the source files in the following example:
195 rm -rf a b c; mkdir a b c; touch a/f b/f; mv a/f b/f c
196 * ls -R detects directory cycles, per POSIX. It warns and doesn't infloop.
197 * cp's -P option now means the same as --no-dereference, per POSIX.
198 Use --parents to get the old meaning.
199 * When copying with the -H and -L options, cp can preserve logical
200 links between source files with --preserve=links
201 * cp accepts new options:
202 --preserve[={mode,ownership,timestamps,links,all}]
203 --no-preserve={mode,ownership,timestamps,links,all}
204 * cp's -p and --preserve options remain unchanged and are equivalent
205 to `--preserve=mode,ownership,timestamps'
206 * mv and cp accept a new option: --reply={yes,no,query}; provides a consistent
207 mechanism to control whether one is prompted about certain existing
208 destination files. Note that cp's and mv's -f options don't have the
209 same meaning: cp's -f option no longer merely turns off `-i'.
210 * remove portability limitations (e.g., PATH_MAX on the Hurd, fixes for
212 * mv now prompts before overwriting an existing, unwritable destination file
213 when stdin is a tty, unless --force (-f) is specified, as per POSIX.
214 * mv: fix the bug whereby `mv -uf source dest' would delete source,
215 even though it's older than dest.
216 * chown's --from=CURRENT_OWNER:CURRENT_GROUP option now works
217 * cp now ensures that the set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits are cleared for
218 the destination file when when copying and not preserving permissions.
219 * `ln -f --backup k k' gives a clearer diagnostic
220 * ls no longer truncates user names or group names that are longer
222 * ls's new --dereference-command-line option causes it to dereference
223 symbolic links on the command-line only. It is the default unless
224 one of the -d, -F, or -l options are given.
225 * ls -H now means the same as ls --dereference-command-line, as per POSIX.
226 * ls -g now acts like ls -l, except it does not display owner, as per POSIX.
227 * ls -n now implies -l, as per POSIX.
228 * ls can now display dates and times in one of four time styles:
230 - The `full-iso' time style gives full ISO-style time stamps like
231 `2001-05-14 23:45:56.477817180 -0700'.
232 - The 'iso' time style gives ISO-style time stamps like '2001-05-14 '
234 - The 'locale' time style gives locale-dependent time stamps like
235 'touko 14 2001' and 'touko 14 23:45' (in a Finnish locale).
236 - The 'posix-iso' time style gives traditional POSIX-locale
237 time stamps like 'May 14 2001' and 'May 14 23:45' unless the user
238 specifies a non-POSIX locale, in which case it uses ISO-style dates.
241 You can specify a time style with an option like --time-style='iso'
242 or with an environment variable like TIME_STYLE='iso'. GNU Emacs 21
243 and later can parse ISO dates, but older Emacs versions cannot, so
244 if you are using an older version of Emacs outside the default POSIX
245 locale, you may need to set TIME_STYLE="locale".
247 * --full-time is now an alias for "-l --time-style=full-iso".
250 ========================================================================
251 Here are the NEWS entries made from sh-utils-2.0 until the
252 point at which the packages merged to form the coreutils:
255 * date no longer accepts e.g., September 31 in the MMDDhhmm syntax
256 * fix a bug in this package's .m4 files and in configure.ac
258 * nohup's behavior is changed as follows, to conform to POSIX 1003.1-2001:
259 - nohup no longer adjusts scheduling priority; use "nice" for that.
260 - nohup now redirects stderr to stdout, if stderr is not a terminal.
261 - nohup exit status is now 126 if command was found but not invoked,
262 127 if nohup failed or if command was not found.
264 * uname and uptime work better on *BSD systems
265 * pathchk now exits nonzero for a path with a directory component
266 that specifies a non-directory
269 * who accepts new options: --all (-a), --boot (-b), --dead (-d), --login,
270 --process (-p), --runlevel (-r), --short (-s), --time (-t), --users (-u).
271 The -u option now produces POSIX-specified results and is the same as
272 the long option `--users'. --idle is no longer the same as -u.
273 * The following changes apply on systems conforming to POSIX 1003.1-2001,
274 and are required by the new POSIX standard:
275 - `date -I' is no longer supported. Instead, use `date --iso-8601'.
276 - `nice -NUM' is no longer supported. Instead, use `nice -n NUM'.
277 * New 'uname' options -i or --hardware-platform, and -o or --operating-system.
278 'uname -a' now outputs -i and -o information at the end.
279 New uname option --kernel-version is an alias for -v.
280 Uname option --release has been renamed to --kernel-release,
281 and --sysname has been renamed to --kernel-name;
282 the old options will work for a while, but are no longer documented.
283 * 'expr' now uses the LC_COLLATE locale for string comparison, as per POSIX.
284 * 'expr' now requires '+' rather than 'quote' to quote tokens;
285 this removes an incompatibility with POSIX.
286 * date -d 'last friday' would print a date/time that was one hour off
287 (e.g., 23:00 on *thursday* rather than 00:00 of the preceding friday)
288 when run such that the current time and the target date/time fall on
289 opposite sides of a daylight savings time transition.
290 This problem arose only with relative date strings like `last monday'.
291 It was not a problem with strings that include absolute dates.
292 * factor is twice as fast, for large numbers
294 * setting the date now works properly, even when using -u
295 * `date -f - < /dev/null' no longer dumps core
296 * some DOS/Windows portability changes
298 * `date -d DATE' now parses certain relative DATEs correctly
300 * fixed a bug introduced in 2.0h that made many programs fail with a
301 `write error' when invoked with the --version option
303 * all programs fail when printing --help or --version output to a full device
304 * printf exits nonzero upon write failure
305 * yes now detects and terminates upon write failure
306 * date --rfc-822 now always emits day and month names from the `C' locale
307 * portability tweaks for Solaris8, Ultrix, and DOS
309 * date now handles two-digit years with leading zeros correctly.
310 * printf interprets unicode, \uNNNN \UNNNNNNNN, on systems with the
311 required support; from Bruno Haible.
312 * stty's rprnt attribute now works on HPUX 10.20
313 * seq's --equal-width option works more portably
315 * fix build problems with ut_name vs. ut_user
317 * stty: fix long-standing bug that caused test failures on at least HPUX
318 systems when COLUMNS was set to zero
319 * still more portability fixes
320 * unified lib/: now that directory and most of the configuration framework
321 is common between fileutils, textutils, and sh-utils
323 * fix portability problem with sleep vs lib/strtod.c's requirement for -lm
325 * fix portability problems with nanosleep.c and with the new code in sleep.c
327 * Regenerate lib/Makefile.in so that nanosleep.c is distributed.
329 * sleep accepts floating point arguments on command line
330 * sleep's clock continues counting down when sleep is suspended
331 * when a suspended sleep process is resumed, it continues sleeping if
332 there is any time remaining
333 * who once again prints whatever host information it has, even without --lookup
336 This package began as the union of the following:
337 textutils-2.1, fileutils-4.1.11, sh-utils-2.0.15.