2 * du would fail with more than one DIR argument when any but the last did not
3 contain a slash (due to a bug in ftw.c)
5 * du no longer segfaults on Solaris systems (fixed heap-corrupting bug in ftw.c)
6 * du --exclude=FILE works once again (this was broken by the rewrite for 4.5.5)
7 * du no longer gets a failed assertion for certain hierarchy lay-outs
8 involving hard-linked directories
9 * `who -r' no longer segfaults when using non-C-locale messages
10 * df now displays a mount point (usually `/') for non-mounted
11 character-special and block files
13 * ls --dired produces correct byte offset for file names containing
14 nonprintable characters in a multibyte locale
15 * du has been rewritten to use a variant of GNU libc's ftw.c
16 * du now counts the space associated with a directory's directory entry,
17 even if it cannot list or chdir into that subdirectory.
18 * du -S now includes the st_size of each entry corresponding to a subdirectory
19 * rm on FreeBSD can once again remove directories from NFS-mounted file systems
20 * ls has a new option --dereference-command-line-symlink-to-dir, which
21 corresponds to the new default behavior when none of -d, -l -F, -H, -L
23 * ls dangling-symlink now prints `dangling-symlink'.
24 Before, it would fail with `no such file or directory'.
25 * ls -s symlink-to-non-dir and ls -i symlink-to-non-dir now print
26 attributes of `symlink', rather than attributes of their referents.
27 * Fix a bug introduced in 4.5.4 that made it so that ls --color would no
28 longer highlight the names of files with the execute bit set when not
29 specified on the command line.
30 * shred's --zero (-z) option no longer gobbles up any following argument.
31 Before, `shred --zero file' would produce `shred: missing file argument',
32 and worse, `shred --zero f1 f2 ...' would appear to work, but would leave
33 the first file untouched.
34 * readlink: new program
35 * cut: new feature: when used to select ranges of byte offsets (as opposed
36 to ranges of fields) and when --output-delimiter=STRING is specified,
37 output STRING between ranges of selected bytes.
38 * rm -r can no longer be tricked into mistakenly reporting a cycle.
39 * when rm detects a directory cycle, it no longer aborts the entire command,
40 but rather merely stops processing the affected command line argument.
43 * cp no longer fails to parse options like this: --preserve=mode,ownership
44 * `ls --color -F symlink-to-dir' works properly
45 * ls is much more efficient on directories with valid dirent.d_type.
46 * stty supports all baud rates defined in linux-2.4.19.
47 * `du symlink-to-dir/' would improperly remove the trailing slash
48 * `du ""' would evoke a bounds violation.
49 * In the unlikely event that running `du /' resulted in `stat ("/", ...)'
50 failing, du would give a diagnostic about `' (empty string) rather than `/'.
51 * printf: a hexadecimal escape sequence has at most two hex. digits, not three.
52 * The following features have been added to the --block-size option
53 and similar environment variables of df, du, and ls.
54 - A leading "'" generates numbers with thousands separators.
56 $ ls -l --block-size="'1" file
57 -rw-rw-r-- 1 eggert src 47,483,707 Sep 24 23:40 file
58 - A size suffix without a leading integer generates a suffix in the output.
60 $ ls -l --block-size="K"
61 -rw-rw-r-- 1 eggert src 46371K Sep 24 23:40 file
62 * ls's --block-size option now affects file sizes in all cases, not
63 just for --block-size=human-readable and --block-size=si. Fractional
64 sizes are now always rounded up, for consistency with df and du.
65 * df now displays the block size using powers of 1000 if the requested
66 block size seems to be a multiple of a power of 1000.
67 * nl no longer gets a segfault when run like this `yes|nl -s%n'
70 * du --dereference-args (-D) no longer fails in certain cases
71 * `ln --target-dir=DIR' no longer fails when given a single argument
74 * `rm -i dir' (without --recursive (-r)) no longer recurses into dir
75 * `tail -c N FILE' now works with files of size >= 4GB
76 * `mkdir -p' can now create very deep (e.g. 40,000-component) directories
77 * rmdir -p dir-with-trailing-slash/ no longer fails
78 * printf now honors the `--' command line delimiter
79 * od's 8-byte formats x8, o8, and u8 now work
80 * tail now accepts fractional seconds for its --sleep-interval=S (-s) option
83 * du and ls now report sizes of symbolic links (before they'd always report 0)
84 * uniq now obeys the LC_COLLATE locale, as per POSIX 1003.1-2001 TC1.
86 ========================================================================
87 Here are the NEWS entries made from fileutils-4.1 until the
88 point at which the packages merged to form the coreutils:
91 * `rm symlink-to-unwritable' doesn't prompt [introduced in 4.1.10]
93 * rm once again gives a reasonable diagnostic when failing to remove a file
94 owned by someone else in a sticky directory [introduced in 4.1.9]
95 * df now rounds all quantities up, as per POSIX.
96 * New ls time style: long-iso, which generates YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM.
97 * Any time style can be preceded by "posix-"; this causes "ls" to
98 use traditional timestamp format when in the POSIX locale.
99 * The default time style is now posix-long-iso instead of posix-iso.
100 Set TIME_STYLE="posix-iso" to revert to the behavior of 4.1.1 thru 4.1.9.
101 * `rm dangling-symlink' doesn't prompt [introduced in 4.1.9]
102 * stat: remove support for --secure/-s option and related %S and %C format specs
103 * stat: rename --link/-l to --dereference/-L.
104 The old options will continue to work for a while.
106 * rm can now remove very deep hierarchies, in spite of any limit on stack size
107 * new programs: link, unlink, and stat
108 * New ls option: --author (for the Hurd).
109 * `touch -c no-such-file' no longer fails, per POSIX
111 * mv no longer mistakenly creates links to preexisting destination files
114 * rm: close a hole that would allow a running rm process to be subverted
116 * New cp option: --copy-contents.
117 * cp -r is now equivalent to cp -R. Use cp -R -L --copy-contents to get the
118 traditional (and rarely desirable) cp -r behavior.
119 * ls now accepts --time-style=+FORMAT, where +FORMAT works like date's format
120 * The obsolete usage `touch [-acm] MMDDhhmm[YY] FILE...' is no longer
121 supported on systems conforming to POSIX 1003.1-2001. Use touch -t instead.
122 * cp and inter-partition mv no longer give a misleading diagnostic in some
125 * cp -r no longer preserves symlinks
126 * The block size notation is now compatible with SI and with IEC 60027-2.
127 For example, --block-size=1MB now means --block-size=1000000,
128 whereas --block-size=1MiB now means --block-size=1048576.
129 A missing `B' (e.g. `1M') has the same meaning as before.
130 A trailing `B' now means decimal, not binary; this is a silent change.
131 The nonstandard `D' suffix (e.g. `1MD') is now obsolescent.
132 * -H or --si now outputs the trailing 'B', for consistency with the above.
133 * Programs now output trailing 'K' (not 'k') to mean 1024, as per IEC 60027-2.
134 * New df, du short option -B is short for --block-size.
135 * You can omit an integer `1' before a block size suffix,
136 e.g. `df -BG' is equivalent to `df -B 1G' and to `df --block-size=1G'.
137 * The following options are now obsolescent, as their names are
138 incompatible with IEC 60027-2:
139 df, du: -m or --megabytes (use -BM or --block-size=1M)
140 df, du, ls: --kilobytes (use --block-size=1K)
142 * df --local no longer lists smbfs file systems whose name starts with //
143 * dd now detects the Linux/tape/lseek bug at run time and warns about it.
145 * ls -R once again outputs a blank line between per-directory groups of files.
146 This was broken by the cycle-detection change in 4.1.1.
147 * dd once again uses `lseek' on character devices like /dev/mem and /dev/kmem.
148 On systems with the linux kernel (at least up to 2.4.16), dd must still
149 resort to emulating `skip=N' behavior using reads on tape devices, because
150 lseek has no effect, yet appears to succeed. This may be a kernel bug.
152 * cp no longer fails when two or more source files are the same;
153 now it just gives a warning and doesn't copy the file the second time.
154 E.g., cp a a d/ produces this:
155 cp: warning: source file `a' specified more than once
156 * chmod would set the wrong bit when given symbolic mode strings like
157 these: g=o, o=g, o=u. E.g., `chmod a=,o=w,ug=o f' would give a mode
158 of --w-r---w- rather than --w--w--w-.
160 * mv (likewise for cp), now fails rather than silently clobbering one of
161 the source files in the following example:
162 rm -rf a b c; mkdir a b c; touch a/f b/f; mv a/f b/f c
163 * ls -R detects directory cycles, per POSIX. It warns and doesn't infloop.
164 * cp's -P option now means the same as --no-dereference, per POSIX.
165 Use --parents to get the old meaning.
166 * When copying with the -H and -L options, cp can preserve logical
167 links between source files with --preserve=links
168 * cp accepts new options:
169 --preserve[={mode,ownership,timestamps,links,all}]
170 --no-preserve={mode,ownership,timestamps,links,all}
171 * cp's -p and --preserve options remain unchanged and are equivalent
172 to `--preserve=mode,ownership,timestamps'
173 * mv and cp accept a new option: --reply={yes,no,query}; provides a consistent
174 mechanism to control whether one is prompted about certain existing
175 destination files. Note that cp's and mv's -f options don't have the
176 same meaning: cp's -f option no longer merely turns off `-i'.
177 * remove portability limitations (e.g., PATH_MAX on the Hurd, fixes for
179 * mv now prompts before overwriting an existing, unwritable destination file
180 when stdin is a tty, unless --force (-f) is specified, as per POSIX.
181 * mv: fix the bug whereby `mv -uf source dest' would delete source,
182 even though it's older than dest.
183 * chown's --from=CURRENT_OWNER:CURRENT_GROUP option now works
184 * cp now ensures that the set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits are cleared for
185 the destination file when when copying and not preserving permissions.
186 * `ln -f --backup k k' gives a clearer diagnostic
187 * ls no longer truncates user names or group names that are longer
189 * ls's new --dereference-command-line option causes it to dereference
190 symbolic links on the command-line only. It is the default unless
191 one of the -d, -F, or -l options are given.
192 * ls -H now means the same as ls --dereference-command-line, as per POSIX.
193 * ls -g now acts like ls -l, except it does not display owner, as per POSIX.
194 * ls -n now implies -l, as per POSIX.
195 * ls can now display dates and times in one of four time styles:
197 - The `full-iso' time style gives full ISO-style time stamps like
198 `2001-05-14 23:45:56.477817180 -0700'.
199 - The 'iso' time style gives ISO-style time stamps like '2001-05-14 '
201 - The 'locale' time style gives locale-dependent time stamps like
202 'touko 14 2001' and 'touko 14 23:45' (in a Finnish locale).
203 - The 'posix-iso' time style gives traditional POSIX-locale
204 time stamps like 'May 14 2001' and 'May 14 23:45' unless the user
205 specifies a non-POSIX locale, in which case it uses ISO-style dates.
208 You can specify a time style with an option like --time-style='iso'
209 or with an environment variable like TIME_STYLE='iso'. GNU Emacs 21
210 and later can parse ISO dates, but older Emacs versions cannot, so
211 if you are using an older version of Emacs outside the default POSIX
212 locale, you may need to set TIME_STYLE="locale".
214 * --full-time is now an alias for "-l --time-style=full-iso".
217 ========================================================================
218 Here are the NEWS entries made from sh-utils-2.0 until the
219 point at which the packages merged to form the coreutils:
222 * date no longer accepts e.g., September 31 in the MMDDhhmm syntax
223 * fix a bug in this package's .m4 files and in configure.ac
225 * nohup's behavior is changed as follows, to conform to POSIX 1003.1-2001:
226 - nohup no longer adjusts scheduling priority; use "nice" for that.
227 - nohup now redirects stderr to stdout, if stderr is not a terminal.
228 - nohup exit status is now 126 if command was found but not invoked,
229 127 if nohup failed or if command was not found.
231 * uname and uptime work better on *BSD systems
232 * pathchk now exits nonzero for a path with a directory component
233 that specifies a non-directory
236 * who accepts new options: --all (-a), --boot (-b), --dead (-d), --login,
237 --process (-p), --runlevel (-r), --short (-s), --time (-t), --users (-u).
238 The -u option now produces POSIX-specified results and is the same as
239 the long option `--users'. --idle is no longer the same as -u.
240 * The following changes apply on systems conforming to POSIX 1003.1-2001,
241 and are required by the new POSIX standard:
242 - `date -I' is no longer supported. Instead, use `date --iso-8601'.
243 - `nice -NUM' is no longer supported. Instead, use `nice -n NUM'.
244 * New 'uname' options -i or --hardware-platform, and -o or --operating-system.
245 'uname -a' now outputs -i and -o information at the end.
246 New uname option --kernel-version is an alias for -v.
247 Uname option --release has been renamed to --kernel-release,
248 and --sysname has been renamed to --kernel-name;
249 the old options will work for a while, but are no longer documented.
250 * 'expr' now uses the LC_COLLATE locale for string comparison, as per POSIX.
251 * 'expr' now requires '+' rather than 'quote' to quote tokens;
252 this removes an incompatibility with POSIX.
253 * date -d 'last friday' would print a date/time that was one hour off
254 (e.g., 23:00 on *thursday* rather than 00:00 of the preceding friday)
255 when run such that the current time and the target date/time fall on
256 opposite sides of a daylight savings time transition.
257 This problem arose only with relative date strings like `last monday'.
258 It was not a problem with strings that include absolute dates.
259 * factor is twice as fast, for large numbers
261 * setting the date now works properly, even when using -u
262 * `date -f - < /dev/null' no longer dumps core
263 * some DOS/Windows portability changes
265 * `date -d DATE' now parses certain relative DATEs correctly
267 * fixed a bug introduced in 2.0h that made many programs fail with a
268 `write error' when invoked with the --version option
270 * all programs fail when printing --help or --version output to a full device
271 * printf exits nonzero upon write failure
272 * yes now detects and terminates upon write failure
273 * date --rfc-822 now always emits day and month names from the `C' locale
274 * portability tweaks for Solaris8, Ultrix, and DOS
276 * date now handles two-digit years with leading zeros correctly.
277 * printf interprets unicode, \uNNNN \UNNNNNNNN, on systems with the
278 required support; from Bruno Haible.
279 * stty's rprnt attribute now works on HPUX 10.20
280 * seq's --equal-width option works more portably
282 * fix build problems with ut_name vs. ut_user
284 * stty: fix long-standing bug that caused test failures on at least HPUX
285 systems when COLUMNS was set to zero
286 * still more portability fixes
287 * unified lib/: now that directory and most of the configuration framework
288 is common between fileutils, textutils, and sh-utils
290 * fix portability problem with sleep vs lib/strtod.c's requirement for -lm
292 * fix portability problems with nanosleep.c and with the new code in sleep.c
294 * Regenerate lib/Makefile.in so that nanosleep.c is distributed.
296 * sleep accepts floating point arguments on command line
297 * sleep's clock continues counting down when sleep is suspended
298 * when a suspended sleep process is resumed, it continues sleeping if
299 there is any time remaining
300 * who once again prints whatever host information it has, even without --lookup
303 This package began as the union of the following:
304 textutils-2.1, fileutils-4.1.11, sh-utils-2.0.15.