From owner-p4-projects@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Oct 11 09:25:37 2009
Return-Path: This report covers FreeBSD related projects between April and
September 2009. During that time a lot of work has been done on
wide variety of projects, including the Google Summer of Code
- projects. The BSDCan and EuroBSDCon conferences were held in Ottawa,
- CA, and Cambridge, UK which were both very successful.
+ projects. The BSDCan conference was held in Ottawa, CA, in May.
+ The EuroBSDCon conference was held in Cambridge, UK, in September.
+ Both events were very successful.
A new major version of FreeBSD, 8.0 is to be released soon.
- If you are wondering what's new in this long awaited release, read
+ If you are wondering what's new in this long-awaited release, read
Ivan Voras' excellent summary. Please note that the next deadline for submissions covering
reports between October and December 2009 is January 15th,
- 2011.
libnetstat(3) provides a user-space library API to monitor +
The libnetstat(3) project provides a user-space library API to monitor networking functions with the following benefits:
The supported abstractions are as follows:
There is a sample application, called nettop(8), which provides a @@ -178,11 +173,11 @@
Pefs is a kernel level filesystem for transparently encrypting - files on top of other filesystems (like zfs or ufs). It adds no + files on top of other filesystems (like zfs or ufs). It adds no extra information into files (unlike others), doesn't require cipher block sized io operations, supports per directory/file keys and key chaining, uses unique per file tweak for encryption. - Supported algorithms: AES, Camellia, Salsa20. The code is ready for + Supported algorithms: AES, Camellia, Salsa20. The code is ready for testing.
@@ -223,12 +218,12 @@During the past year, the BSD# Team continued to track the Mono development and the lang/mono port have almost always been up-to-date (we however had to skip mono-2.2 because of some - regression issues in this release). Most of our patches have been + regression issues in this release). Most of our patches have been merged in the mono trunk upstream, and should be included in the upcoming mono-2.6 release.
In the meantime, a few more .NET related ports have been updated - or added to the FreeBSD ports tree. These ports include:
+ or added to the FreeBSD ports tree. These ports include:Some time ago I started writing a new driver for the FreeBSD - kernel called vt(4), which is basically a replacement for Syscons. - There is still a lot of work that needs to be done, but it is - probably useful to mention what it does (and what not).
+ kernel called vt(4), which is basically a replacement of syscons. + There is still a lot of work that needs to be done but it is + probably useful to mention what it does (and what does not).Right now there are just two graphics drivers for vt(4), namely a VGA driver for i386 and amd64 and a Microsoft Xbox graphics - driver (because it was so easy to write). I still have to figure + driver (because it was so easy to implement). I still have to figure out what I am going to do with VESA, because maybe it is better to just ignore VESA and figure out how hard it is to extend DRM to interact with vt(4).
@@ -331,35 +326,74 @@Libprocstat is an ongoing effort to develop a library that can - be used to retrieve the information about running processes and +
The libprocstat project is an ongoing effort to develop a library that can + be used to retrieve information about running processes and open files in the uniform and platform-independent way both from a running system or from core files. This will facilitate the - implementation of files/process monitoring applications like - lsof/fstat/fuser/etc. The libprocstat repository contents the - preliminary version of the library as well as fstat and fuser - utilities ported to use this library instead of retriving all - the required information by hand via kvm(3) interface, which - makes them ABI independent as the result.
+ implementation of file- or process-monitoring applications like + lsof(1), fstat(1), fuser, etc. The libprocstat repository contains a + preliminary version of the library. It also includes rewrites + of the fstat and the fuser + utilities ported to use this library instead of retrieving all + the required information via the kvm(3) interface; one of the + important advantages of the versions that use libprocstat is + that these utilities are ABI independent.I have been working recently on writing a new debugger, + primarily for the FreeBSD platform. For various reasons, I have + been writing it in a relatively obscure C-like language called + D.
+ +So far, I have a pretty useful (if a little raw at the edges) + command line debugger which supports ELF, Dwarf debugging + information and (currently) 32 bit FreeBSD and Linux. The + engine includes parsing and evaluation of arbitrary C expressions + along with the usual debugging tools such as breakpoints, source + code listing, single-step etc. All the code is new and BSD + licensed. Currently, the thing supports userland debugging of + i386 targets via ptrace and post-mortem core file debugging of + the same. I will be adding amd64 support real soon (TM) and + maybe support for GDB's remote debugging protocol later.
+ +The clang@FreeBSD team presents the status of clang/LLVM being - able to compile FreeBSD system. The situation as of today (early - October) is:
+ able to compile FreeBSD system. The current status is:All other platforms are untested.
-A lot has happened over the spring/summer - amd64 got proper - mcmodel=kernel support, compiler-rt was introduced (paving the way - for libgcc replacement), we ran two experimental ports build to see - how clang does there, C++ support is able to parse devd.cc without - warnings, we got kernel working with -O2, we promoted FreeBSD to be - officially supported plaform in LLVM, many parts of FreeBSD sources - that we could not compile before we can compile now etc.
+A lot has happened over the spring/summer: amd64 got proper + mcmodel=kernel support, compiler-rt has been introduced (paving the way + for libgcc replacement), we have run two experimental port builds to see + how clang does there. The C++ support is able to parse devd.cc without + warnings. We have got the kernel working with -O2. FreeBSD has been promoted + to be an officially supported plaform in LLVM. As a result of all this + work, many parts of FreeBSD that did not compile before now build + without problems.
We have ported libdispatch, Apple's Grand Central Dispatch event + and concurrency framework to FreeBSD:
+ +Jordan Hubbard has also prepared a blocks-aware clang compiler + package for FreeBSD. When compiled with clang, libdispatch + provides blocks-based, as well as function-based callbacks.
+ +The port was presented at the FreeBSD Developer Summit in + Cambridge, UK in September, and slides are online on the devsummit + wiki page. A FreeBSD port is now available in the Ports Collection. + After FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE has shipped, the new kqueue primitives will be + MFC'd so that libdispatch works out of the box on FreeBSD 8.1-RELEASE.
+ + +VirtualBox has been committed to the Ports tree and synced - with the latest trunk version from SUN. A lot of known - problems are already fixed and some new features have been +
VirtualBox has been committed to the Ports tree and synchronized + with the latest trunk version from Sun. Several known + problems are already fixed and some new features have been added:
- +We would like to say thanks to all helpers/reporters and of course - to the VirtualBox developers.
+ +We would like to say thanks to all the people who helped us by + reporting bugs and submitting fixes. We also thank the VirtualBox + developers for their help with the ongoing effort to port + VirtualBox on FreeBSD.
The current translations (Handbook and some articles) are kept
- up to date with the English versions. Some parts of the website
+ up to date with the English versions. Some parts of the website
have been
In May 2009, Benedict Reuschling received his commit bit to the www/de and doc/de_DE.ISO8859-1 trees under the mentorship of Johann - Kois. Since then, he has been working primarily on the Handbook, updating - existing chapters and translating new ones. Most notably, the - filesystems and DTrace chapters have been recently translated. Bugs found + Kois. Since then, he has been working primarily on the Handbook, updating + existing chapters and translating new ones. Most notably, the + filesystems and DTrace chapters have been recently translated. Bugs found in the original documents along the way were reported back so that the other translation teams could incorporate them, as well.
Christoph Sold has put his time in translating the wiki pages of - the BSD Certification Group into the German language. This is a - great help for German people, who want to take the exam and like to read - the information about it in their native language. Daniel Seuffert - has sent valuable corrections and bugfixes. Thanks to both for + the BSD Certification Group into the German language. This is very + helpful for all German people who want to take the exam and like to read + the information about it in their native language. Daniel Seuffert + has sent valuable corrections and bugfixes. Thanks to both of them for their time and efforts!
-The website is translated and updated constantly. Missing parts +
The website is translated and updated constantly. Missing parts will be translated as time permits.
We appreciate any help from volunteers in proofreading - documents, translating new ones and keeping them up to date. Even - small error reports are of great help for us. You can find + documents, translating new ones and keeping them up to date. Even + small error reports are of great help for us. You can find contact information at the above URL.
@@ -627,14 +738,14 @@We were a sponsor for EuroBSDCon 2009, and provided travel - grants to 8 FreeBSD developers and users. We sponsored Kyiv BSD - 2009, in Kiev Ukraine. We were also a sponsor of BSDCan, and - sponsored 7 developers. We funded three new projects, New Console + grants to 8 FreeBSD developers and users. We sponsored Kyiv BSD + 2009, in Kiev Ukraine. We were also a sponsor of BSDCan, and + sponsored 7 developers. We funded three new projects, New Console Driver by Ed Schouten, AVR32 Support by Arnar Mar Sig, and Wireless Mesh Support by Rui Paulo, which has completed. We continued funding a project that is making improvements to the - FreeBSD TCP Stack by Lawrence Stewart. The project that made + FreeBSD TCP Stack by Lawrence Stewart. The project that made removing disk devices with mounted filesystems on them safe, by - Edward Napierala, completed.
+ Edward Napierala, is now complete.We recognized the following FreeBSD developers at EuroBSDCon - 2009: Poul-Henning Kamp, Bjoern Zeeb, and Simon Nielsen. These + 2009: Poul-Henning Kamp, Bjoern Zeeb, and Simon Nielsen. These developers received limited edition FreeBSD Foundation vests.
Follow us on Twitter now!
+ href="https://twitter.com/freebsdfndation">Twitter now! + +We continue to classify PRs as they arrive, adding 'tags' to + the subject lines corresponding to the kernel subsystem + involved, or man page references for userland PRs. These tags, + in turn, produce lists of PRs sorted both by tag and by + manpage.
+ +The list of PRs recommended for committer evaluation by the + Bugbusting Team continues to receive new additions. This list + contains PRs, mostly with patches, that the Bugbusting Team + feel are probably ready to be committed as-is, or are probably + trivially resolved in the hands of a committer with knowledge + of the particular subsystem. All committers are invited to take + a look at this list whenever they have a spare 5 minutes and + wish to close a PR.
+ +A full list of all the automatically generated reports is also + available at one of the cited URLs. Any recommendations for + reports which not currently exist but which would be + beneficial are welcomed.
+ +Gavin Atkinson gave a presentation on "The PR Collection + Status" at the EuroBSDCon 2009 DevSummit, and discussed with + other participants several other ideas to make the PR database + more useful and usable. Several good ideas came from this, and + will hopefully lead to more useful tools in the near future. + Discussions also took place on how it may be possible to + automatically classify non-ports PRs with a view towards + notifying interested parties, although investigations into this + have not yet begun.
+ +Mark Linimon also continues attempting to define the general + problem and investigating possible new workflow models, and + presented work on this at BSDCan 2009.
+ +Since the last status report, the number of open bugs has + increased to around the 5900 mark, partially because of an + increased focus on getting more information into the existing + PRs, in an attempt to make sure all the information required is + now available. As a result, although the number of open PRs has + increased, they are hopefully of better quality.
+ +As always, more help is appreciated, and committers and + non-committers alike are always invited to join us on + #freebsd-bugbusters on EFnet and help close stale PRs or commit + patches from valid PRs.
+ + +The ports count has soared to over 20,700. The PR count had + been driven below 800 by some extraordinary effort, but once + again is back to its usual count of around 900.
+ +We are currently building packages for amd64-6, amd64-7, + amd64-8, i386-6, i386-7, i386-8, sparc64-7, and sparc64-8. + There have been preliminary runs of i386-9; however, to be able + to continue builds on -9, we will either need to find places to + host a number of new machines, or drop package building for -6. + The mailing list discussion of the latter proved quite + controversial.
+ +We have added some new i386 machines to help speed up the + builds, but this only makes up for the disk failures on some + of our older, slower, i386 nodes.
+ +We also appreciate the loan of more package build machines from + several committers, including pgollucci@, gahr@, erwin@, Boris + Kochergin, and Craig Butler.
+ +The portmgr@ team has also welcomed new members Ion-Mihai Tetcu + (itetcu@) and Martin Wilke (miwi@). We also thank departing + member Kirill Ponomarew (krion@) for his long service.
+ +Ion-Mihai has spent much time working on a system that does + automatic Quality Assurance on new commits, called QATty. + This has helped us to fix many problems, especially those + involving custom LOCALBASE settings, and documentation inclusion + options.
+ +Between pav and miwi, over 2 dozen experimental ports runs have + been completed and committed.
+ +We have added 5 new committers since the last report, and 2 + older ones have rejoined.
+ +Since the spring, the FreeBSD KDE team has been busy upgrading - KDE from 4.2.0 up through to 4.3.1. As part of the ongoing + KDE from 4.2.0 up through to 4.3.1. As part of the ongoing maintenance of KDE, the team also updated Qt4 from 4.4.3 through to 4.5.2
We added two new committers/maintainers to the team, Kris Moore - (kmoore@) and Dima Panov (fluffy@). We also granted enhanced area51 + (kmoore@) and Dima Panov (fluffy@). We also granted enhanced area51 access to contributors Alberto Villa and Raphael Kubo da Costa. Alberto has been our key contributor updating and testing Qt - 4.6.0-tp1. Raphael is a KDE developer, who has become our Gitorious + 4.6.0-tp1. Raphael is a KDE developer, who has become our Gitorious liaison, he has been responsible for getting FreeBSD Qt patches merged in upstream.
Markus Brüffer (markus@) spent a lot of time patching widgets - and system plugins so they would work under FreeBSD. We would like + and system plugins so they would work under FreeBSD. We would like to thank him for all his effort!
@@ -746,6 +1038,40 @@Around 70 FreeBSD developers and guests attended the FreeBSD + developer summit prior to EuroBSDCon 2009 in Cambridge, UK. + Hosted at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory, the + workshop-style event consisted of prepared presentations, as well + as group hacking and discussion sessions. Talks covered topics + including 802.11 mesh networking, virtual network stacks and + kernels, a new BSD-licensed debugger, benchmarking, bugbusting, + NetFPGA, a port of Apple's GCD (Grand Central Dispatch) to + FreeBSD, security policy work, cryptographic signatures, + FreeBSD.org system administration, time geeks, a new console + driver, and the FreeBSD subversion migration. Slides for many + talks are now available on the wiki page. A good time was had by + all, including a punting outing on the River Cam!
+ +EuroBSDcon 2009 happened in Cambridge, with over 160 users, - developers, friends and others. Slides, papers and audio are now up - on the website for those who could not make it to Cambridge. Next + developers, friends and others. Slides, papers and audio are now up + on the website for those who could not make it to Cambridge. Next year's event in 2010 will take place in Karlsruhe from 8 to 10 October - 2010. If you are interested in what you missed in 2009, or to join - the mailing list so you do not miss out next year, visit - - http://2009.eurosbsdcon.org. + 2010. If you are interested in what you missed in 2009, or to join + the mailing list so you do not miss out next year, visit + http://2009.eurosbsdcon.org.
@@ -822,31 +1147,31 @@Since their public launch in November 2008, the FreeBSD Forums (the most recent addition to the user community and support - channels for the FreeBSD Operating System), have witnessed a + channels for the FreeBSD Operating System) have witnessed a healthy and steady growth.
The user population is now at over 8,000 registered users, who have participated in over 6,000 topics, containing over 40,000 - posts in total. The sign-up rate hovers between 50-100 each week. + posts in total. The sign-up rate hovers between 50-100 each week. The total number of visitors (including 'guests') is hard to gauge but is likely to be a substantial multiple of the registered userbase.
New topics and posts are actively 'pushed out' to search - engines. This in turn makes the Forums show up in search results + engines. This in turn makes the Forums show up in search results more and more often, making it a valuable and very accessible source of information for the FreeBSD community.
-One of the contributing factors to the Forum's success is its +
One of the contributing factors to the Forums' success is their 'BSD-style' approach when it comes to administration and - moderation. The Forums have a strong and unified identity, they are + moderation. The Forums have a strong and unified identity, they are neatly divided into sub-forums (like 'Networking', 'Installing & Upgrading', etc.), very actively moderated, spam-free, and with a core group of very active and helpful members, dispensing many combined decades' worth of knowledge to starting, intermediate and professional users of FreeBSD.
-We expect the Forums te be, and to remain, a central hub in +
We expect the Forums to be, and to remain, a central hub in FreeBSD's community and support efforts.
Problem: Over the years the FreeBSD locale database (share/colldef, share/monetdef, share/msgdef, share/numericdef, share/timedef) has accumulated a total of 165 definitions (language - - country-code - character-set triplets). The contents of the files - is for Western European languages often low-ASCII but for Eastern - European and Asian languages partly or fully high-ASCII. Without + - country-code - character-set triplets). The contents of the files + for Western European languages are often low-ASCII but for Eastern + European and Asian languages partly or fully high-ASCII. Without knowing how to display or interpret the character-sets, it is difficult to make sure by the general audience that the local - languages (language - country-code) definitions is displayed - properly in various character-sets. Suggested approach: With the - combination of the data in the Unicode project (which goal is to + language (language - country-code) definitions are displayed + properly in various character-sets.
+ +Suggested approach: With the + combination of the data in the Unicode project (whose goal is to define all the possible written characters and symbols on this - planet) and the Common Locale Data Repository (which goal is to + planet) and the Common Locale Data Repository (whose goal is to document all the different data and definitions needed for the locale database), we can easily keep track of the data, without the need of being able to display the data in the required - charactersets or understand them fully when updates are submitted - by third parties. Current status: Conversion of share/monetdef, + character sets or understand them fully when updates are submitted + by third parties.
+ +Current status: Conversion of share/monetdef, share/msgdef, share/numericdef, share/timedef to the new design is - completed. The Makefile infrastructure is converted. Regression - checks are done. Most of the tools are in place, waiting on the + completed. The Makefile infrastructure is converted. Regression + checks are done. Most of the tools are in place, waiting on the import of bsdiconv to the base system.
@@ -912,9 +1241,9 @@