mikas blog

Debian buster is there, and similar to what we had with #newinwheezy, #newinjessie and #newinstretch it’s time for #newinbuster!

Update on 2019-07-26 22:55 UTC: Cyril Brulebois pointed out, that findmnt (find a filesystem) was available in Debian/stretch already as part of the mount package, updated the blog post accordingly

One package that isn’t new but its tools are used by many of us is util-linux, providing many essential system utilities. We have util-linux v2.29.2-1+deb9u1 in Debian/stretch and util-linux v2.33.1-0.1 in Debian/buster. There are many new options available and we also have a few new tools available.

Tools that have been taken over from / moved to other packages

• cfdisk + fdisk + sfdisk (tools to display or manipulate a disk partition table) were moved from util-linux to fdisk
• findmnt (find a filesystem) is no longer shipped via the mount binary package (of util-linux source package) but part of the util-linux binary package itself nowadays
• setpriv (run a program with different Linux privilege settings) is no longer shipped as separate binary package of util-linux but part of the util-linux binary package itself nowadays
• su (change user ID or become superuser) was moved from login package (kudos to Andreas Henriksson for this!)

Deprecated / removed tools

Tools that are no longer shipped with util-linux as of Debian/buster:

• line binary (copies one line (up to a newline) from standard input to standard output), the head binary is its suggested replacement
• pg binary (browse pagewise through text files), it’s marked deprecated in POSIX since 1997
• tailf binary (follow the growth of a log file), it was deprecated in 2017 and `tail -f` from coreutils works fine
• tunelp binary (set various parameters for the lp device), parallel port printers are suspected to be extinct by now

New tools

blkzone (run zone command on a device):

Usage:
 blkzone <command> [options] <device>

Run zone command on the given block device.

Commands:
 report       Report zone information about the given device
 reset        Reset a range of zones.

Options:
 -o, --offset <sector>  start sector of zone to act (in 512-byte sectors)
 -l, --length <sectors> maximum sectors to act (in 512-byte sectors)
 -c, --count <number>   maximum number of zones
 -v, --verbose          display more details

 -h, --help             display this help
 -V, --version          display version

For more details see blkzone(8).

chmem (configure memory, set a particular size or range of memory online or offline):

Usage:
 chmem [options] [SIZE|RANGE|BLOCKRANGE]

Set a particular size or range of memory online or offline.

Options:
 -e, --enable       enable memory
 -d, --disable      disable memory
 -b, --blocks       use memory blocks
 -z, --zone <name>  select memory zone (see below)
 -v, --verbose      verbose output
 -h, --help         display this help
 -V, --version      display version

Supported zones:
 DMA
 DMA32
 Normal
 Highmem
 Movable
 Device

For more details see chmem(8).

choom (display and adjust OOM-killer score):

Usage:
 choom [options] -p pid
 choom [options] -n number -p pid
 choom [options] -n number command [args...]]

Display and adjust OOM-killer score.

Options:
 -n, --adjust <num>     specify the adjust score value
 -p, --pid <num>        process ID

 -h, --help             display this help
 -V, --version          display version

For more details see choom(1).

fincore (count pages of file contents in core):

Usage:
 fincore [options] file...

Options:
 -J, --json            use JSON output format
 -b, --bytes           print sizes in bytes rather than in human readable format
 -n, --noheadings      don't print headings
 -o, --output <list>   output columns
 -r, --raw             use raw output format

 -h, --help            display this help
 -V, --version         display version

Available output columns:
       PAGES  file data resident in memory in pages
        SIZE  size of the file
        FILE  file name
         RES  file data resident in memory in bytes

For more details see fincore(1).

lsmem (list the ranges of available memory with their online status):

Usage:
 lsmem [options]

List the ranges of available memory with their online status.

Options:
 -J, --json           use JSON output format
 -P, --pairs          use key="value" output format
 -a, --all            list each individual memory block
 -b, --bytes          print SIZE in bytes rather than in human readable format
 -n, --noheadings     don't print headings
 -o, --output <list>  output columns
     --output-all     output all columns
 -r, --raw            use raw output format
 -S, --split <list>   split ranges by specified columns
 -s, --sysroot <dir>  use the specified directory as system root
     --summary[=when] print summary information (never,always or only)

 -h, --help           display this help
 -V, --version        display version

Available output columns:
      RANGE  start and end address of the memory range
       SIZE  size of the memory range
      STATE  online status of the memory range
  REMOVABLE  memory is removable
      BLOCK  memory block number or blocks range
       NODE  numa node of memory
      ZONES  valid zones for the memory range

For more details see lsmem(1).

New features/options

agetty + getty (alternative Linux getty):

  --list-speeds          display supported baud rates

blkid (locate/print block device attributes) gained a bunch of long options:

Options:

  --cache-file          same as -c 
  --no-encoding         same as -d
  --garbage-collect     same as -g
  --output              same as -o
  --list-filesystems    same as -k
  --match-tag           same as -s
  --match-token         same as -t
  --list-one            same as -l
  --label               same as -L
  --uuid                same as -U

Low-level probing options:

  --probe               same as -p
  --info                same as -i
  --size                same as -S
  --offset              same as -O
  --usages              same as -u
  --match-types         same as -n

dmesg (print or control the kernel ring buffer):

  -p, --force-prefix          force timestamp output on each line of multi-line messages

fallocate (preallocate or deallocate space to a file):

  -i, --insert-range   insert a hole at range, shifting existing data
  -x, --posix          use posix_fallocate(3) instead of fallocate(2)

findmnt (find a filesystem):

  --output-all       output all available columns
  --pseudo           print only pseudo-filesystems
  --real             print only real filesystems
  --tree             enable tree format output is possible

fstrim (discard unused blocks on a mounted filesystem):

  -A, --fstab         trim all supported mounted filesystems from /etc/fstab
  -n, --dry-run       does everything, but trim

hwlock (read or set the hardware clock (RTC)):

  -l                 same as --localtime
  --delay <sec>      delay used when set new RTC time
  -v, --verbose      display more details

lsblk (list block devices):

Options:

  -z, --zoned          print zone model
  -T, --tree           use tree format output
  --sysroot >dir<  use specified directory as system root

Available output columns:

  PATH     path to the device node
  FSAVAIL  filesystem size available
  FSSIZE   filesystem size
  FSUSED   filesystem size used
  FSUSE%   filesystem use percentage
  PTUUID   partition table identifier (usually UUID)
  PTTYPE   partition table type
  ZONED    zone model

lscpu (display information about the CPU architecture):

  -J, --json              use JSON for default or extended format

lslocks (list local system locks):

Options:

  -b, --bytes            print SIZE in bytes rather than in human readable format
      --output-all       output all columns

Available output columns:

  TYPE  kind of lock

lslogins (display information about known users in the system):

Options:

      --output-all         output all columns

Available output columns:

  PWD-METHOD  password encryption method

lsns (list namespaces):

Options:

      --output-all       output all columns
  -W, --nowrap           don't use multi-line representation

Available output columns:

  NETNSID  namespace ID as used by network subsystem
     NSFS  nsfs mountpoint (usually used network subsystem)

nsenter (run program with namespaces of other processes):

  -a, --all              enter all namespaces

      --output-all     output all columns
  -S, --sector-size <num>  overwrite sector size
      --list-types     list supported partition types and exit

rename.ul (rename files):

  -n, --no-act        do not make any changes
  -o, --no-overwrite  don't overwrite existing files
  -i, --interactive   prompt before overwrite

runuser (run a command with substitute user and group ID):

  -w, --whitelist-environment <list>  don't reset specified variables
  -P, --pty                       create a new pseudo-terminal

setsid (run a program in a new session):

  -f, --fork     always fork

setterm (set terminal attributes):

  --resize                          reset terminal rows and columns

unshare (run program with some namespaces unshared from parent):

  --kill-child[=<signame>]  when dying, kill the forked child (implies --fork), defaults to SIGKILL

wipefs (wipe a signature from a device):

Options:

  -i, --noheadings    don't print headings
  -J, --json          use JSON output format
  -O, --output <list> COLUMNS to display (see below)

Available output columns:
     UUID  partition/filesystem UUID
    LABEL  filesystem LABEL
   LENGTH  magic string length
     TYPE  superblok type
   OFFSET  magic string offset
    USAGE  type description
   DEVICE  block device name

zramctl (set up and control zram devices):

  -a, --algorithm lzo|lz4|lz4hc|deflate|842   compression algorithm to use (new compression algorithms lz4hc, deflate + 842)
       --output-all          output all columns

Deprecated and removed options

hwlock (read or set the hardware clock (RTC)):

  --badyear        ignore RTC's year because the BIOS is broken
  -c, --compare    periodically compare the system clock with the CMOS clock
  --getepoch       print out the kernel's hardware clock epoch value
  --setepoch       set the kernel's hardware clock epoch value to the value given with --epoch

unshare (run program with some namespaces unshared from parent):

  -s     (use --setgroups instead)

This entry was posted by mika on Friday, July 26th, 2019 at 18:43 and is filed under Computer, Debian, English, Open Source. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.