[CentOS] Strange alterations to vim and related packages on KVM host

[James B. Byrne]

On Wed, July 4, 2012 11:51, John Doe wrote:
> From: fred smith <fredex at fcshome.stoneham.ma.us>
>
>> On Wed, Jul 04, 2012 at 07:53:09AM -0700, John Doe wrote:
>>>
>>>  Did you rpm verify?
>>>  # rpm -qV vim-enhanced

Yes

>>>  # rpm -qV gdb

Yes

>>>  Did you diff the text files?

The files other than those in /usr/bin I know the cause of their
alteration.  It is caused by my ssh accesses.

>>>  Did you "binary diff" the binaries?

No

>>>  How many bytes difference? constant number?
>>
>> prelink???

It seems so:

[root at vhost01 ~]# yum install gdb
. . .
[root at vhost01 ~]# ll /usr/bin/gdb
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 4453160 Dec  7  2011 /usr/bin/gdb
[root at vhost01 ~]# mv /usr/bin/gdb /usr/bin/gdb.cln
[root at vhost01 ~]# cp -p /usr/bin/gdb.cln /usr/bin/gdb
[root at vhost01 ~]# ll /usr/bin/gdb*
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 4453160 Dec  7  2011 /usr/bin/gdb
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root    1061 Dec  7  2011 /usr/bin/gdb-add-index
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 4453160 Dec  7  2011 /usr/bin/gdb.cln
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root       3 Jul  4 14:16 /usr/bin/gdbtui -> gdb
[root at vhost01 ~]# prelink -v /usr/bin/gdb
Prelinking /usr/bin/gdb
[root at vhost01 ~]# ll /usr/bin/gdb*
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 4468992 Dec  7  2011 /usr/bin/gdb
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root    1061 Dec  7  2011 /usr/bin/gdb-add-index
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 4453160 Dec  7  2011 /usr/bin/gdb.cln
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root       3 Jul  4 14:16 /usr/bin/gdbtui -> gdb

Which accounts for the size changes as far as I can see.  I infer that
the linked sizes likely changed as a result of system library updates
associated with the recent kernel update.

Thank you for the help.

>
> I do not think prelink would alter text configuration files like
> .Xauthority or .bash_history

Those files I expected to change and I am aware of the the cause.  It
is only the files in /usr/bin that concern me.



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