Bugzilla – Bug 783
In detailed list option (-ll), blank lines are replaced by a previous line when piped or redirected to a file
Last modified: 2017-04-26 13:36:30 MDT
Created attachment 491 [details] Copy and paste of "sudo -ll" directed to the terminal (PUTTY) "sudo -ll" works fine as long as it goes to a terminal. When output is directed to a variable, a file or a pipe, output is different: replacing most blank lines with a previous line. The bug appears on RHEL 5.11 (2.6.18-406.el5); the bug no longer exists on RHEL 7.3 (3.10.0-327.22.2.el7). I shall attach output copy of "sudo -ll" and "sudo -ll | cat". I guess this is a known bug that was fixed between RHEL 5.11 and RHEL 7.3, but I could not find it with your search engine. I hope there is a workaround or a patch: upgrading the entire O/S is going to take lots of time.
Created attachment 492 [details] Copy and paste of "sudo -ll | cat". Notice how blank lines are ofthen replaced by a previous non-blank line.
I'm quite certain this was fixed several years ago. You can find updated sudo packages for RHEL 5 at https://www.sudo.ws/download.html#binary It is probably easier to update the sudo package than to update the entire OS.
It works! My SysAdmin was brave enough to apply the new version of "sudo" on a production server before I had a chance to warn it. We were both impressed that it worked. I whish all RHEL programs could be supported this way. Regards, Marc.