util-linux-v2.33

[Bruce Dubbs]

The rc1 version is available, but we will wait for the stable release.

[Bruce Dubbs]

Now at -rc2

[Bruce Dubbs]

Version 2.33 has been released.

[Bruce Dubbs]

Release highlights

choom -- NEW COMMAND to adjust and display the current OOM-killer score.

The library libsmartcols has been improved to differentiate between numbers, booleans and strings in JSON output. The old versions uses strings everywhere. It's recommended to re-test your applications if you parse JSON outputs from util-linux tools.

The command fstrim(8) has been extended to trim all mounted filesystems from /etc/fstab (-A | --fstab). This semantic is the default for systemd fstrim.service now. The original default for the service was to trim all (-a | --all) mounted filesystems (including for example removable media). Now it is also possible to test fstrim behavior by new command line option --dry-run.

The command hwclock(8) provides a new command line option --delay to overwrite internally used delay when set clock time. The default is 0.5 (500ms) for rtc_cmos, for another RTC types the delay is 0. If RTC type is impossible to determine (from sysfs) then it defaults also to 0.5 to be backwardly compatible. The 500ms default is based on commonly used MC146818A-compatible (x86) hardware clock.

The commands mount and umount, and libmount allow to mount and umount filesystem in another namespace. The namespace may be specified by --namespace <pid|path> command line option. The commands switch to the namespace when it reads /etc/fstab, writes /etc/mtab (or writes to /run/mount) and calls [u]mount system calls, otherwise it runs in the original namespace. It means that the target namespace does not have to contain any libraries or another requirements necessary to execute mount(8) or umount(8) commands.

The command rename(1) provides a new command line option --interactive to ask before overwriting.

The command setarch(8) does not require architecture when modify personality like ADDR_NO_RANDOMIZE. The architecture argument is optional now.

The command su(1) provides a new command line option --whitelist-environment to protect specified variables when su(1) starts a new session.

The command setpriv(1) provides a new command line option --reset-env to reset all environment. The another new command line option --pdeathsig allows to keep, clear or or set the parent death signal. Note that some LSMs, most notably SELinux and AppArmor, clear the signal when the process' credentials change.

The commands fdisk(8) and sfdisk(8) print disk model name to simplify device identification.

The command "column --table-empty-lines" allows to use empty lines in formatted output.

The command wipefs has been improved to postpone BLKRRPART (re-read partition table) ioctl until all magic strings are wiped. This semantic allows to avoid conflicts between on partition magic strings and partition tables.

The command script(1) has been extended to store more information about terminal size and type to the typescript header. The size of the output may be also restricted by a new command line option --output-limit.

The libblkid provides BitLocker and basic APFS detection now.

The command lsblk is possible to execute against /sys and /proc dumps if command line option --sysroot is specified. This allows to prepare regression tests for lsblk. So, if you have a complicated or unusual setup (RAIDs, pools, etc) than you can use

​https://raw.githubusercontent.com/karelzak/util-linux/master/tests/ts/lsblk/mk-input.sh

to generate the dump and send the tarball to upstream developers. (Thanks!)

The script ./configure has been improved and --with/without command line options should be more consistent now. It's recommended to re-test your build scripts.

[Bruce Dubbs]

Fixed at revision 11480.