We re coming closer to the
Debian/stretch stable release and similar to what we had with
#newinwheezy and
#newinjessie it s time for #newinstretch!
Hideki Yamane already started the game by blogging about
GitHub s Icon font, fonts-octicons and Arturo Borrero Gonzalez wrote a nice article about
nftables in Debian/stretch.
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 v2.25.2 in Debian/jessie and in Debian/stretch there will be util-linux >=v2.29.2. There are many new options available and we also have a few new tools available.
Tools that have been taken over from other packages
- last: used to be shipped via sysvinit-utils in Debian/jessie
- lastb: used to be shipped via sysvinit-utils in Debian/jessie
- mesg: used to be shipped via sysvinit-utils in Debian/jessie
- mountpoint: used to be shipped via initscripts in Debian/jessie
- sulogin: used to be shipped via sysvinit-utils in Debian/jessie
New tools
- lsipc: show information on IPC facilities, e.g.:
root@ff2713f55b36:/# lsipc
RESOURCE DESCRIPTION LIMIT USED USE%
MSGMNI Number of message queues 32000 0 0.00%
MSGMAX Max size of message (bytes) 8192 - -
MSGMNB Default max size of queue (bytes) 16384 - -
SHMMNI Shared memory segments 4096 0 0.00%
SHMALL Shared memory pages 18446744073692774399 0 0.00%
SHMMAX Max size of shared memory segment (bytes) 18446744073692774399 - -
SHMMIN Min size of shared memory segment (bytes) 1 - -
SEMMNI Number of semaphore identifiers 32000 0 0.00%
SEMMNS Total number of semaphores 1024000000 0 0.00%
SEMMSL Max semaphores per semaphore set. 32000 - -
SEMOPM Max number of operations per semop(2) 500 - -
SEMVMX Semaphore max value 32767 - -
lslogins: display information about known users in the system, e.g.:
root@ff2713f55b36:/# lslogins
UID USER PROC PWD-LOCK PWD-DENY LAST-LOGIN GECOS
0 root 2 0 1 root
1 daemon 0 0 1 daemon
2 bin 0 0 1 bin
3 sys 0 0 1 sys
4 sync 0 0 1 sync
5 games 0 0 1 games
6 man 0 0 1 man
7 lp 0 0 1 lp
8 mail 0 0 1 mail
9 news 0 0 1 news
10 uucp 0 0 1 uucp
13 proxy 0 0 1 proxy
33 www-data 0 0 1 www-data
34 backup 0 0 1 backup
38 list 0 0 1 Mailing List Manager
39 irc 0 0 1 ircd
41 gnats 0 0 1 Gnats Bug-Reporting System (admin)
100 _apt 0 0 1
65534 nobody 0 0 1 nobody
lsns: list system namespaces, e.g.:
root@ff2713f55b36:/# lsns
NS TYPE NPROCS PID USER COMMAND
4026531835 cgroup 2 1 root bash
4026531837 user 2 1 root bash
4026532473 mnt 2 1 root bash
4026532474 uts 2 1 root bash
4026532475 ipc 2 1 root bash
4026532476 pid 2 1 root bash
4026532478 net 2 1 root bash
setpriv: run a program with different privilege settings
zramctl: tool to quickly set up zram device parameters, to reset zram devices, and to query the status of used zram devices
New features/options
addpart (show or change the real-time scheduling attributes of a process):
--reload reload prompts on running agetty instances
blkdiscard (discard the content of sectors on a device):
-p, --step <num> size of the discard iterations within the offset
-z, --zeroout zero-fill rather than discard
chrt (show or change the real-time scheduling attributes of a process):
-d, --deadline set policy to SCHED_DEADLINE
-T, --sched-runtime <ns> runtime parameter for DEADLINE
-P, --sched-period <ns> period parameter for DEADLINE
-D, --sched-deadline <ns> deadline parameter for DEADLINE
fdformat (do a low-level formatting of a floppy disk):
-f, --from <N> start at the track N (default 0)
-t, --to <N> stop at the track N
-r, --repair <N> try to repair tracks failed during the verification (max N retries)
fdisk (display or manipulate a disk partition table):
-B, --protect-boot don't erase bootbits when creating a new label
-o, --output <list> output columns
--bytes print SIZE in bytes rather than in human readable format
-w, --wipe <mode> wipe signatures (auto, always or never)
-W, --wipe-partitions <mode> wipe signatures from new partitions (auto, always or never)
New available columns (for -o):
gpt: Device Start End Sectors Size Type Type-UUID Attrs Name UUID
dos: Device Start End Sectors Cylinders Size Type Id Attrs Boot End-C/H/S Start-C/H/S
bsd: Slice Start End Sectors Cylinders Size Type Bsize Cpg Fsize
sgi: Device Start End Sectors Cylinders Size Type Id Attrs
sun: Device Start End Sectors Cylinders Size Type Id Flags
findmnt (find a (mounted) filesystem):
-J, --json use JSON output format
-M, --mountpoint <dir> the mountpoint directory
-x, --verify verify mount table content (default is fstab)
--verbose print more details
flock (manage file locks from shell scripts):
-F, --no-fork execute command without forking
--verbose increase verbosity
getty (open a terminal and set its mode):
--reload reload prompts on running agetty instances
hwclock (query or set the hardware clock):
--get read hardware clock and print drift corrected result
--update-drift update drift factor in /etc/adjtime (requires --set or --systohc)
ldattach (attach a line discipline to a serial line):
-c, --intro-command <string> intro sent before ldattach
-p, --pause <seconds> pause between intro and ldattach
logger (enter messages into the system log):
-e, --skip-empty do not log empty lines when processing files
--no-act do everything except the write the log
--octet-count use rfc6587 octet counting
-S, --size <size> maximum size for a single message
--rfc3164 use the obsolete BSD syslog protocol
--rfc5424[=<snip>] use the syslog protocol (the default for remote);
<snip> can be notime, or notq, and/or nohost
--sd-id <id> rfc5424 structured data ID
--sd-param <data> rfc5424 structured data name=value
--msgid <msgid> set rfc5424 message id field
--socket-errors[=<on off auto>] print connection errors when using Unix sockets
losetup (set up and control loop devices):
-L, --nooverlap avoid possible conflict between devices
--direct-io[=<on off>] open backing file with O_DIRECT
-J, --json use JSON --list output format
New available --list column:
DIO access backing file with direct-io
lsblk (list information about block devices):
-J, --json use JSON output format
New available columns (for --output):
HOTPLUG removable or hotplug device (usb, pcmcia, ...)
SUBSYSTEMS de-duplicated chain of subsystems
lscpu (display information about the CPU architecture):
-y, --physical print physical instead of logical IDs
New available column:
DRAWER logical drawer number
lslocks (list local system locks):
-J, --json use JSON output format
-i, --noinaccessible ignore locks without read permissions
nsenter (run a program with namespaces of other processes):
-C, --cgroup[=<file>] enter cgroup namespace
--preserve-credentials do not touch uids or gids
-Z, --follow-context set SELinux context according to --target PID
rtcwake (enter a system sleep state until a specified wakeup time):
--date <timestamp> date time of timestamp to wake
--list-modes list available modes
-r, --reorder <dev> fix partitions order (by start offset)
sfdisk (display or manipulate a disk partition table):
New Commands:
-J, --json <dev> dump partition table in JSON format
-F, --list-free [<dev> ...] list unpartitioned free areas of each device
-r, --reorder <dev> fix partitions order (by start offset)
--delete <dev> [<part> ...] delete all or specified partitions
--part-label <dev> <part> [<str>] print or change partition label
--part-type <dev> <part> [<type>] print or change partition type
--part-uuid <dev> <part> [<uuid>] print or change partition uuid
--part-attrs <dev> <part> [<str>] print or change partition attributes
New Options:
-a, --append append partitions to existing partition table
-b, --backup backup partition table sectors (see -O)
--bytes print SIZE in bytes rather than in human readable format
--move-data[=<typescript>] move partition data after relocation (requires -N)
--color[=<when>] colorize output (auto, always or never)
colors are enabled by default
-N, --partno <num> specify partition number
-n, --no-act do everything except write to device
--no-tell-kernel do not tell kernel about changes
-O, --backup-file <path> override default backup file name
-o, --output <list> output columns
-w, --wipe <mode> wipe signatures (auto, always or never)
-W, --wipe-partitions <mode> wipe signatures from new partitions (auto, always or never)
-X, --label <name> specify label type (dos, gpt, ...)
-Y, --label-nested <name> specify nested label type (dos, bsd)
Available columns (for -o):
gpt: Device Start End Sectors Size Type Type-UUID Attrs Name UUID
dos: Device Start End Sectors Cylinders Size Type Id Attrs Boot End-C/H/S Start-C/H/S
bsd: Slice Start End Sectors Cylinders Size Type Bsize Cpg Fsize
sgi: Device Start End Sectors Cylinders Size Type Id Attrs
sun: Device Start End Sectors Cylinders Size Type Id Flags
swapon (enable devices and files for paging and swapping):
-o, --options <list> comma-separated list of swap options
New available columns (for --show):
UUID swap uuid
LABEL swap label
unshare (run a program with some namespaces unshared from the parent):
-C, --cgroup[=<file>] unshare cgroup namespace
--propagation slave shared private unchanged modify mount propagation in mount namespace
-s, --setgroups allow deny control the setgroups syscall in user namespaces
Deprecated / removed options
sfdisk (display or manipulate a disk partition table):
-c, --id change or print partition Id
--change-id change Id
--print-id print Id
-C, --cylinders <number> set the number of cylinders to use
-H, --heads <number> set the number of heads to use
-S, --sectors <number> set the number of sectors to use
-G, --show-pt-geometry deprecated, alias to --show-geometry
-L, --Linux deprecated, only for backward compatibility
-u, --unit S deprecated, only sector unit is supported
This is a post I wrote in June 2022, but did not publish back then.
After first publishing it in December 2023, a perfectionist insecure
part of me unpublished it again. After receiving positive feedback, i
slightly amended and republish it now.
In this post, I talk about unpaid work in F/LOSS, taking on the example
of hackathons, and why, in my opinion, the expectation of volunteer work
is hurting diversity.
Disclaimer: I don t have all the answers, only some ideas and questions.
Debian Celebrates 30 years!
We celebrated our 
Well, that's all for today. I think so. You can never be sure.