Issued:
2009-12-16
Updated:
2010-03-30

RHBA-2009:1677 - net-tools bug fix update

Synopsis

net-tools bug fix update

Type/Severity

Bug Fix Advisory (none)

Topic

An updated net-tools package that fixes several bugs and corrects errors in the arp and ifconfig man pages is now available.

Description

The net-tools package contains basic networking tools, including ifconfig, netstat, route, and others.

This updated net-tools package includes fixes for the following bugs:

  • the OPTIONS section of the arp man page includes documentation for the "-s" switch (used to manually create ARP address mapping entries). Entries supplied with this switch are permanently stored in the ARP cache if the temp flag is not specified and the original English man page notes this. The German man page, however, noted "so werden die erzeugten Eintrage nicht dauerhaft... eingetragen", which is incorrect. This update corrects this, with the German man page now correctly noting "Der Eintrag wird permanent im ARP-Cache gespeichert" if the temp flag is not specified. (BZ#322901)

  • the ifconfig "tunnel" option creates a new Simple Internet Transition (SIT) or IPv6-in-IPv4 device and this option expects an IPv6-style address as a parameter. If an IPv4 address is used, the command fails. The ifconfig man page, however, listed the option and parameter as "tunnel aa.bb.cc.dd" which did not make it clear the IPv4 address must be provided in IPv6 notation. This update clarifies the man page notation. It now reads "tunnel ::aa.bb.cc.dd", making it clear IPv6-style address notation is required. (BZ#453918)

  • running netstat with the "-o" switch adds information about working TCP timers to the command ouput. TCP timers for a connection can include "on", "off", "keepalive" and "timewait". When network load is very high (ie when the TCP Window Size is zero) the probe timer should be listed. Previously, however, "unkn-4" was presented instead. With this update, if the probe timer is working in the kernel, it will now, correctly, be listed in the output of "netstat -o". (BZ#466845)

  • when setting the MULTICAST mode on and off, ifconfig was showing an unnecessary "Warning: Interface [interface name] still in ALLMULTI mode." message. With this update, the message no longer presents. (BZ#477876)

  • a fixed length, 1024 byte buffer in the statistics.c:process_fd() function caused "netstat -s" to fail with a "error parsing /proc/net/netstat: Success" error. The buffer has been increased to 2048 bytes and the command now displays summary statistics for each protocol as expected. (BZ#493314)

All net-tools users should install this updated package, which makes these corrections and addresses these issues.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure all previously-released errata relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via the Red Hat Network. Details on how to use the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at This content is not included.http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-11259

Affected Products

ProductVersionArch
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian5ppc
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems5s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation5x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation5i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server5x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server5ia64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server5i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI5x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI5i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop5x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop5i386

Updated Packages

  • net-tools-1.60-81.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • net-tools-1.60-81.el5.i386.rpm
  • net-tools-1.60-81.el5.ia64.rpm
  • net-tools-1.60-81.el5.ppc.rpm
  • net-tools-1.60-81.el5.src.rpm
  • net-tools-1.60-81.el5.s390x.rpm

Fixes

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)

Additional information