coreutils/old/fileutils/NEWS

Changes in release 3.13:
* ls properly determines window size on SunOS and Solaris systems
* ls accepts new option --color[=WHEN] where WHEN is `always', `never',
  or `auto'.  --color=never is the default.  --color is equivalent
  to --color=always.
* new program: dircolors
* ls allows 0 as argument to --tabsize (-T) option.  Using --tabsize=0
  inhibits the use of TAB characters for separating columns.
* you can create a backup of FILE with cp --force --backup FILE FILE.  Before,
  that command failed saying that ``FILE' and `FILE' are the same file'.
* uses automake-generated Makefile templates
* chown and chgrp accept new option --no-dereference (-h)
* ln -f FILE FILE fails with a diagnostic rather than silently removing FILE
* when building on systems that have getopt_long (like Linux), the system-
  provided function will be used -- so executables may be a little smaller
* cp -p, and mv modify owner and/or group of symlinks on systems
  (like Solaris) that provide the lchown system call.
* df no longer invokes the sync system call by default.  You can use the
  --sync option to make df invoke sync before getting file system sizes.
* internationalized diagnostic messages
* mkdir accepts new option: --verbose
* `cp file D/' uses the full file name `D/file' instead of `D//file'.
* cp --backup a~ a fails instead of silently destroying the source file
* df and du have new options --human-readable (-h) and --megabytes (-m).
* install now honors --backup (-b), --suffix=SUFFIX (-S SUFFIX), and
  --version-control=WORD (-V WORD) options just as cp, ln, and mv do.
* ln --verbose output is less prone to misinterpretation
* ls -o works like -lG;  for compatibility with other versions of ls
* cp has a new option to control creation of sparse files:
  --sparse={auto,always,never}.  --sparse=auto is the default.
* rm -rf '' behaves properly on SunOS 4 systems
* touch: rename long option name, --file, to --reference.
  `touch --file' will continue to work a little longer.
* df fails if the same file system type is both selected and excluded.
* df works around SunOS statfs brokenness wrt filesystems larger than 2GB
* df better handles inconsistent mtab entries
* `ls -lDR dir dir2' works
* `ls -c' does what it's supposed to
* all programs include program name in --version output
* `ls --quote-name' works
* mv properly determines whether src and dest are the same file
  Before, it could (though with very low probability) fail to do the move,
  reporting that distinct source and destination are the same file.
* du --dereference (-L) works with directory symlinks
* du works on SunOS 4 systems even when accounting is enabled
* many programs that convert strings to integers now use strtol or strtoul
  and detect overflow

User-visible changes in release 3.12:
* None.
User-visible changes in release 3.11:
* None.
User-visible changes in release 3.10:
* mkdir -p now ignores arguments that are existing directories.  Before,
  (contrary to POSIX spec) it would attempt to change ownership and/or
  protections of existing directories listed on the command line.  And
  it would fail when such a directory was owned by another user.
* Fix bug in cp that made the commands `mkdir dir; touch foo; cp -P foo dir'
  incorrectly change the permissions on directory, dir.
* df accepts a new option, --no-sync, that inhibits the default invocation
  of the sync system call.
* ls accepts a new option, --dired, that makes emacs' dired mode more efficient
* skeletal texinfo documentation (mainly just the `invoking' nodes)
* ln accepts a new option: --no-dereference (-n).  With this option,
  if the destination command line argument is a symlink to a directory,
  use that as the destination instead of the file in the directory.
* `ln -i no-such-file existing-file' gives a diagnostic and fails.
  Before, if you responded `yes' to the prompt it would both remove
  `existing-file' and fail to make a link.
* du no longer requires read access to all of the directory components
  of the current working directory on systems with fchdir.
* touch -d 'date' is no longer off by one hour.
* New program: sync.
* Fix bug in cp that made the commands `ln -s . s; cp -rd s r' incorrectly
  create `r' as a symlink instead of as a regular file.
* du's -S and -c options now work when used together.
  Before, the grand total was always reported to be zero.

Major changes in release 3.9:
* --help gives a one-line description of each option and shows the
  correspondence between short and long-named options.
* work around systems with BROKEN_STAT_MACROS
* work around problem where $(srcdir)/config.h was used instead of
  ../config.h -- this happened only when building in a subdirectory
  and when config.h remained in $(srcdir) from a previous ./configure.
* GNU chmod treats symlinks the same way other vendor's versions do.
  Now symlinks listed on the command line are processed (they were
  ignored before); the permissions of the dereferenced files are
  changed.  Symlinks encountered in recursive traversals are still
  ignored.  This makes GNU chmod act more like e.g. Sun's.
* configure uses config.h, so DEFS won't exceed preprocessor limits of
  some compilers on the number of symbols defined via -D.
* ls and cp can handle mount points on more systems
* cp, mkdir, and rmdir long option --path renamed to --parents;  --path
  will still work for a while
* cp, ln, and mv convert `cp A B/' to cp A B/A when A is not a directory.
  This change affects only the two-argument form of the commands.  It makes
  such commands fail when the target has a trailing slash but is not a
  directory or symlink to a directory and the source is not a directory.
  They used to succeed, ignoring the implicitly contradictory trailing slash.

Major changes in release 3.8:
* install isn't as likely to produce spurious errors
* avoid redundant compilations for `dir' and `vdir';
* configure properly defines STAT_STATFS2_BSIZE on a Pyramid MIServer
  running OSx 5.1

Major changes in release 3.7:
* none
Major changes in release 3.6:
* `ln -s dir_pathname .' works when the pathname has a trailing slash
* with the --version option programs print the version and exit immediately
* GNU ls -f works like Unix ls -f
* mktime replacement works

Major changes in release 3.5:
* adds support for DEC Alpha under OSF/1
* configuring with gcc uses CFLAGS='-g -O' by default
* all programs accept --help and --version options
* long-named options must be introduced with `--'; `+' is no longer
  accepted since it is incompatible with the POSIX.2 standard
* chmod accepts long-named options
* dd conv=unblock doesn't hang
* new df option --exclude=fstype
* new ls option --full-time

Major changes in release 3.4:
* cp -p and mv preserve setuid and setgid bits
* chown works on systems where sizeof(uid_t) != sizeof(int)
  or sizeof(uid) != sizeof(gid)
* catch errors from spurious slashes at ends of arguments

Major changes in release 3.3:
* df sped up by not calling sync for every filesystem
* df ported to AIX (RS/6000 and PS/2), and SVR2 port fixed
* df -i now also prints the total number of inodes per filesystem
* ls sped up by not reading symlink contents unnecessarily
* du doesn't die on POSIX systems when the root filesystem is NFS mounted
* cp and mv report chown Permission denied errors when run by root