Shells and Command Line Tools

The following features, enhancements, and changes related to shells and command line tools are introduced in this Oracle Linux 10 release.

ksh Released at Version 1.0.10 (93u+m)

The KornShell (ksh) version 1.0.10 (93u+m) includes the following changes:
  • The alarm command is deprecated. Use the cron daemon instead for tasks that require running at fixed intervals.
  • Subject to system limitations, ksh shell can now process 32767 simultaneous background jobs.
  • A bug causing an incorrect default exit status for exit within a trap action is fixed.
  • A bug causing a race condition occurring on some systems when running an external command with a redirection from a command substitution is fixed.
  • Other bug fixes

Systemd Released at Version 257

The systemd package is released at version 257.

This version includes the following changes:

  • The use of cgroup v1 (including legacy and hybrid hierarchies) is now obsolete. systemd now only uses cgroup v2, regardless of the kernel command line setting systemd.legacy_systemd_cgroup_controller=yes.
  • System V service scripts is deprecated.

Note:

To ensure compatibility with upcoming systemd versions, update the software to use native systemd unit files instead of legacy System V scripts.

ReaR Released at Version 2.9

The ReaR utility is released at version 2.9

Automatic tmux Session Startup at Boot Time for Specific Users

You can now use automatic tmux session startup for specific users during system boot. This enhancement is beneficial for systems that have the KillUserProcesses=yes parameter enabled, which terminates user processes when they log out. In such cases, if users aren't configured to linger (for example, their processes aren't allowed to continue running after logout), a tmux session can be automatically started at boot time to preserve their work. This feature ensures that users can resume their work from where they left off, even after a system restart.

Changes to polkit-rules Directory Visibility and Permissions

In the previous version, polkit-123, files in the /usr/share/polkit-1/rules.d directory had a default file mode, rather than inheriting it from the parent directory. Also, files in the /etc/polkit-1/rules.d directory were owned by polkitd.

This enhancement introduces the following changes:

  • /usr/share/polkit-1/rules.d

    The default permission mask for files in this directory is changed from 700 (polkitd:root) to 755 (root:root), making them visible to all users.

    This change is justified because the files in this directory are endorsed by various packages and are accessible in the project's public repositories. The new file permission mask is also aligned with the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS).

  • /etc/polkit-1/rules.d

    Files in this directory represent custom rules created by the system administrator. The default permission mask for files in this directory is changed to 0750 (root:polkitd) for increased security.

    The polkit daemon is in the polkitd group, which has read access to the files. This prevents unauthorized access to the polkit daemon from changing the rules or granting more privileges. The files are only visible to the root user or members of the polkitd group.

Note:

Don't store custom .rules files in /usr/share/polkit-1/rules.d. Store or migrate custom rules to the /etc/polkit-1/rules.d directory for security reasons.