[arch-dev-public] [signoff] coreutils-8.12-1

Allan McRae allan at archlinux.org
Wed Apr 27 07:14:37 EDT 2011


Upstream notes:

We released coreutils-8.11 less than two weeks ago.
Why a new release so soon?  Because under unusual conditions,
coreutils-8.11's copying code could cause trouble.  Data loss trouble.
The trouble could arise only when these conditions are all met:
   - when using linux-2.6.39-related kernels (including at least -rc3) and
   - using an xfs file system and
   - copying (via cp, install, mv) a file with a so-called "unwritten
       extent" shortly after it has been created, yet before some
       data in that unwritten extent has made it to disk.
       This would happen if you're using the "gold" linker, which
       preallocates using fallocate and then writes its output
       (the binaries) into those unwritten extents, and you then
       immediately copy those binaries into place via "make install".
Under those conditions, just building coreutils and running "make
install" quickly enough after compile and link would result in
installing files containing all 0 bytes.


Signoff both,
Allan


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