Issued:
2011-12-06
Updated:
2011-12-06

RHBA-2011:1554 - procps bug fix update

Synopsis

procps bug fix update

Type/Severity

Bug Fix Advisory (none)

Topic

An updated procps package that fixes various bugs is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

The procps package contains a set of system utilities that provide system information using the /proc file system. The procps package includes free, pgrep, pkill, pmap, ps, pwdx, skill, slabtop, snice, sysctl, tload, top, uptime, vmstat, w and watch.

This updated procps package includes fixes for the following bugs:

  • There was a typo in the ps(1) manual page which caused the layout of the page to break. The typo has been fixed and the ps(1) manual page is now displayed correctly. (BZ#692397)

  • Incorrectly declared variables may have led to a memory leak or caused the pmap, ps and vmstat utilities to misbehave. The variables are now nullified and declared in the correct place, fixing the problem. (BZ#690078)

  • Prior to this update, the sysctl utility did not accept partial keys to display all the key pairs within a certain namespace of the /proc file system. The following error message appeared when running the "sysctl net.core" command:

    "Invalid argument" reading key "net.core"

With this update, the sysctl utility accepts the partial keys and all the keys with the specified prefix are now displayed. (BZ#697935)

  • Previously, the top utility displayed incorrect values in the SWAP field due to the values of the per-process swap being incorrectly calculated as a difference between virtual and physical memory used by a task. The /proc file system provided by kernel is now the main source of the swap information. (BZ#709684)

  • Previously, the vmstat utility displayed incorrect values of the free page count on 8TB SGI (Silicon Graphics) systems. The vmstat utility has been modified to display the correct free page count. (BZ#701710)

All users of procps are advised to upgrade to this updated package, which fixes these bugs.

Solution

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

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

Affected Products

ProductVersionArch
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian6ppc64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems6s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation6i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server6i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI6i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support6i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension6i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension (for IBM z Systems)6s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support (for IBM z Systems)6s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop6i386

Updated Packages

  • procps-debuginfo-3.2.8-21.el6.i686.rpm
  • procps-3.2.8-21.el6.x86_64.rpm
  • procps-3.2.8-21.el6.s390x.rpm
  • procps-3.2.8-21.el6.ppc64.rpm
  • procps-3.2.8-21.el6.src.rpm
  • procps-debuginfo-3.2.8-21.el6.x86_64.rpm
  • procps-3.2.8-21.el6.i686.rpm
  • procps-debuginfo-3.2.8-21.el6.s390x.rpm
  • procps-debuginfo-3.2.8-21.el6.ppc64.rpm

Fixes

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)

Additional information