Announcing the release of version 4.3.11 of GNU findutils

[James Youngman]

I announce the release of version 4.3.11 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 features
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 is primarily a bugfix release.  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/.


* Major changes in release 4.3.11

** Functional changes

When the POSIXLY_CORRECT environment variable is set, "find -perm
+a+w" is rejected as invalid.  Some other similar mode strings
starting with '+' which are not valid in POSIX are also rejected.

The -prune action now always evaluates as true (this is also a
bugfix).


** Bug Fixes

#21568: Switch to checking the gnulib code out with native git, not
CVS.  This affects mainly those who check findutils code out of CVS.
This is not the first time this bug has been fixed (the previous fix
used "cvs update -D", which git-cvspserver silently does not
support).

#21039: Setting the POSIXLY_CORRECT environment variable now turns off
warnings by default, because POSIX requires that only diagnostic
messages (and -ok prompts) are printed on STDERR, and diagnostic
messages must also result in a nonzero exit status.

#20970: Trailing slash on directory arguments breaks -name.  "find
foo/ -name foo" now correctly matches foo and printf foo/.  See POSIX
interp http://www.opengroup.org/austin/interps/uploads/40/14959/AI-186.txt

#20865: Using both -delete and -prune without explicitly using -depth
is now an error.  Traditionally, -delete has always turned -depth on
anyway, so this is not a functional change.   However, using -depth
(implicitly or explicitly) makes -prune a no-op.  This change is
intended to avoid nasty surprises for people who test with
"-print" and then change it to "-delete" when they are happy.

#20803: POSIX requires that -prune always returns true.  Previously it
returned false when -depth was in effect and true otherwise.

#20802: If -delete fails, find's exit status will now be non-zero.
However, find still skips trying to delete ".".

** Documentation Fixes
#21635: Some of the documentation files had missing copying
conditions.   The missing files now have copying headers, and these
are compatible with each other (GNU FDL 1.2).

#21634: No copy of FDL 1.2 included with the source code

#21633: Missing copyright/license header in some documentation.

#21628: find -perm /000 matches all files rather than none, since
findutils-4.3.3.  The Texinfo documentation is now consistent with the
manual page on this point.

#21270: Formatting fixes to the xargs.1 manual page, including making
options bold instead of italic and making OPTIONS a section header
rather than a subsection.


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