coreutils/old/fileutils/NEWS

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.  FIXME.
* 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