[Bug 1038468] Re: data loss on sort -u

[Launchpad Bug Tracker]

This bug was fixed in the package coreutils - 8.13-3.2ubuntu1

---------------
coreutils (8.13-3.2ubuntu1) quantal; urgency=low

  * Resynchronise with Debian.  Remaining changes:
    - [80] Make 'uname -i -p' return the real processor/hardware, instead of
      unknown.
    - Build-depend on gettext:any instead of on gettext, so that apt-get can
      properly resolve build-dependencies on the tool when cross-building.
  * Backport upstream patches to fix data-loss and free-memory read bugs in
    'sort -u' (LP: #1038468).

coreutils (8.13-3.2) unstable; urgency=low

  * Non-maintainer upload.
  * Don't declare separate build-arch/build-indep targets when they just
    fall through to the same common build rule, since they don't have correct
    target dependencies themselves.  Closes: #670481.
  * Enable hardening build flags.  Thanks to Moritz Muehlenhoff for the
    patch.  Closes: #653743.
  * debian/patches/99_Werror-format-string.dpatch: fix the gnulib test suite
    so that it doesn't fail to build with hardening flags on.
  * Mark coreutils Multi-Arch: foreign.  Thanks to Colin Watson.
    Closes: #649397.
  * debian/patches/99_tests-misc-sort-continue-Port-to-Fedora-15.dpatch:
    cherry-pick from upstream to fix a build failure whenever the build
    system happens to be holding an fd open, as happens when running in
    certain environments (e.g., Lucas's test rebuild farm, or bzr-builddeb).
    Closes: #669555.
 -- Colin Watson <cjwatson at ubuntu.com>   Mon, 10 Sep 2012 14:07:50 +0100

** Changed in: coreutils (Ubuntu Quantal)
       Status: Confirmed => Fix Released

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1038468

Title:
  data loss on sort -u

Status in “coreutils” package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in “coreutils” source package in Precise:
  Confirmed
Status in “coreutils” source package in Quantal:
  Fix Released
Status in “coreutils” package in Debian:
  New

Bug description:
  Last year a bug was reported to upstream coreutils [1] about problems
  on using 'sort -u'. Until recently, there was no known reproducing
  process; one such process was published last week [2].

  Although triggering the bug can be said to be a non-completely trivial
  use case, data loss in 'sort' should be looked at as a serious issue.

  Today Jim Meyering committed what looks like the final touches of the
  fix (incidentally also solving a different issue (a free memory read),
  also in 'sort'. There are 4 commits affected, and they are shown
  starting in [3].

  Given this is a data loss potential, I am opening this bug for all
  affected releases (this bug affects Coreutils 8.6 onwards -- Precise
  and Quantal). I am still to run the tests on Lucid, Natty, and
  Oneiric.

  [1] http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=9780
  [2]  http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2012-08/msg00027.html
  [3] http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2012-08/msg00057.html

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