Findutils 4.2.15 is now available on ftp.gnu.org

[James Youngman]

I am pleased to announce the release of version 4.2.15 of GNU
findutils.  GNU findutils is a set of software tools for finding files
that match certain criteria and for performing various operations on
them.  Findutils includes the programs "find", "xargs" and "locate".

The "stable" releases of findutils can be downloaded from
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/findutils.  The ftp.gnu.org site is very busy,
so you may find it more convenient to download findutils from one of
the mirror sites listed at http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html.

More information about findutils is available at
http://www.gnu.org/software/findutils/.

Bugs in GNU findutils should be reported to the findutils bug tracker
at http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=findutils.  Reporting bugs via
the web interface will ensure that you are automatically informed when
the bug has been fixed.  General discussion of findutils takes place
on the bug-findutils mailing list.  To join the 'bug-findutils'
mailing list, send email to <address@hidden>.

This is the first "stable" release of findutils since version 4.1.20.
The NEWS file within the distribution provides detailed information
about all the user-visible changes which have taken place, but this
announcement lists the most important ones.

General changes
---------------
Better support for 64-bit systems; compilation fixes for Solaris, AIX,
Irix, BeOS, Dolphin and UNICOS.  Better support for non-c99 systems.
The documentation has been made clearer and more detailed in places.
The Texinfo manual now has an extra "Security Considerations" chapter.

POSIX Compliance
----------------
* find is now POSIX-compliant, since "-exec {} +" has been
  implemented.

* Underscore is no longer the default "logical EOF" marker for xargs.
  The current POSIX standard allows us to have no default logical EOF
  marker.

* xargs now has support for the POSIX options -E, -I and -L; the -s
  option is now POSIX-compliant

Changes to find
---------------
* Significant performance improvement as compared to previous versions
  of findutils, if running under the Linux kernel (and probably *BSD;
  perhaps also MacOS X)

* The -execdir option (from FreeBSD) has been implemented.  This
  is a security enhancement.  Don't use -exec if you can avoid
  it.

* New actions -delete and -quit; more format options for -printf
 
* Usage error message are now easier to understand

* find now copes with automounters more robustly.

Changes to xargs
----------------
* xargs now works better when the environment is very large.  By
  default, xargs now also uses a longer command line by default where
  this is possible.
 
* xargs -i -n1 now works

Changes to locate
-----------------
* Glob patterns are correctly handled once more.

* New options --null, --basename, --limit, --count, --statistics,
  --wholepath, --regex.

* locate now supports all the options which the *BSD versions of
  locate do.

--
James Youngman <address@hidden>
GNU findutils maintainer