coreutils affected by "Bad file descriptor" error with new glibc on older kernel

One fix for this would be to upgrade to coreutils 8.3 (or later). The release notes for 8.3 include this entry:
  cp -p, install -p, mv, and touch -c could trigger a spurious error
  message when using new glibc coupled with an old kernel.
  [bug introduced in coreutils-6.12].

For a more target fix, it may be possible just to apply the upstream gnulib patch to the existing Lucid coreutils package:
  http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/gnulib.git/commit/?id=41c44a66101c6c14b4e7f151247d517579760ba9

Here's a link to the bug-coreutils thread on the topic:
  http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2010-01/msg00042.html

and the (overlapping) thread on the bug-gnulib list:
  http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnulib/2010-01/msg00044.html

(For what it's worth, I found two LP bugs which report this same gnulib bug as it applies to the "tar" command: bug #503109 and bug #539814 ; they also list a few different situation that have caused people to want to run Lucid-release packages using older kernel versions...)

I was just trying another test upgrade on the same virtual machine (from karmic to lucid).

This time, the coreutils/gnulib bug actually caused the upgrade process to abort, after dpkg printed these line:
==========
Setting up slapd (2.4.21-0ubuntu3) ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/ldap/schema/ldapns.schema ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.slapd ...
  Backing up /etc/ldap/slapd.d/ in /var/backups/slapd-2.4.18-0ubuntu1... cp: preserving times for `/var/backups/slapd-2.4.18-0ubuntu1/slapd.d/cn=config/cn=schema': Bad file descriptor
cp: preserving times for `/var/backups/slapd-2.4.18-0ubuntu1/slapd.d/cn=config': Bad file descriptor
cp: preserving times for `/var/backups/slapd-2.4.18-0ubuntu1/slapd.d': Bad file descriptor
dpkg: error processing slapd (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
===============

(Note that the three paths mentioned in the error messages all refer to directories.)

I was able to get slapd to install/configure successfully by extracting the /bin/tar binary out of the Debian Squeeze coreutils 8.4 package, installing it into /bin on my test system, and then running "dpkg --configure --pending"...

(Sorry, obviously it was /bin/cp that I extracted out of the coreutils package, not /bin/tar....)

fixed in maverick, uploaded for lucid-proposed, waiting for approval

Accepted coreutils into lucid-proposed, the package will build now and be available in a few hours. Please test and give feedback here. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you in advance!

I have _not_ tested on an old kernel but using 2.6.35 from Maverick on Lucid does not have any visible regressions.

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS
Release: 10.04

$ uname -a
Linux simon-laptop 2.6.35-22-generic #33~lucid1-Ubuntu SMP Sat Sep 18 12:23:52 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux

SRU verification for Lucid:
I have reproduced the problem with coreutils 7.4-2ubuntu2 in lucid and have verified that the version of coreutils 7.4-2ubuntu3 in -proposed fixes the issue. I've found no regression when using this package on lucid.

Marking as verification-done

This bug was fixed in the package coreutils - 7.4-2ubuntu3

---------------
coreutils (7.4-2ubuntu3) lucid-proposed; urgency=low

  * Fix "Bad file descriptor" message from cp & touch (ensure that futimens
    is only called with a valid file descriptor). LP: #552816.
 -- Matthias Klose <email address hidden> Mon, 20 Sep 2010 18:57:13 +0200