GNU findutils 4.3.2 is now available on alpha.gnu.org

[James Youngman]

I am pleased to announce the release of version 4.3.2 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".  More
information about findutils is available at
http://www.gnu.org/software/findutils/.

This is a "development" release of findutils.  It can be downloaded
from  ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/findutils.  The 4.3.x release series is
intended to allow people to try out, comment on or contribute to new
features of findutils.  During the 4.3.x release series some feaures
may be introduced and then changed or removed as a result of feedback
or experience.  In short, please don't rely on backward compatibility
later in the release series.

While this is a development release, it is tested before being
released, principally with the regression test suite (run "make check"
to use it).  The Savannah website
(http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=findutils) contains a current
list of known bugs in findutils (for both the stable and development
branches).

This release includes a range of changes, including bugfixes,
documentation improvements and small functional changes.  All the
changes since the previous release are summarised below.

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>.

To verify the GPG signature of the release, you will need the public
key of the findutils maintainer, James Youngman.  You can download
this from http://savannah.gnu.org/users/jay.  Alternatively, you
could query a PGP keyserver, but you will need to use one that can
cope with subkeys containing photos.  Many older key servers cannot do
this.  I use subkeys.pgp.net.  I think that one works.  See also the
"Downloading" section of http://www.gnu.org/software/findutils/.

I would like to thank Chris Evans, Tavis Ormandy, Rob Holland, Sylvain
Bertrand, WANG Yunfeng, Eric Blake, Jim Meyering and Andreas Metzler
as well as the members of the bug-findutils mailing list for their
help in preparing this release.


* Major changes in release 4.3.2

** Bug Fixes

#18222: find -printf '%H %P' once again prints the right result if
more than one start point was given on the command line.

#17782: find -execdir now correctly puts the prefix "./" before the
expansion of "{}" rather than at the start of the argument it appears
in.  Please note that if you use the -exec or -execdir actions with a
shell, then you may be vulnerable to shell code injection attacks, so
don't do that.  It's not a security defect in find - you should not be
passing untrusted data (such as file names chosen by other people) to
the shell.

#17490: find  -regex generated a segfault in findutils-4.3.1, but this
is fixed in findutils-4.3.2.

#17477: find -printf '%' (that is, where the format has a trailing %)
now generates an error message.

#17372: The fts-based find executable (the default configuration uses
fts) is now much faster when -maxdepth is used on filesystems with
high fanouts.

#15531: The -prune action now behaves correctly when applied to a file.

** Functional changes

The slocate database format is now supported.  Preliminary changes
intended to eventually allow setuid operation of locate have also been
made.  For the moment, please don't install GNU locate as a
set-user-ID program (except for testing purposes; if you do so, please
make sure that untrusted users cannot execute the set-user-ID locate
program).

Use of an slocate database which was built with a nonzero security
mode (at the moment, GNU updatedb will not do this) forces locate's
"-e" option to be turned on, which has an effect on the "-S" option
which is probably surprising for most users.


** Documentation Fixes

The global effect of options (other than -daystart and -follow) is now
explained more clearly in the manual page.   Savannah bug #15360.

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