Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of hargrove_at_hpcrd_dot_lbl_dot_gov designates 128.3.41.14 as permitted sender) client-ip=128.3.41.14;
Message-ID: <46BCD42A.3050207@hpcrd.lbl.gov>
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 14:10:02 -0700
From: "Paul H. Hargrove" <hargrove_at_hpcrd_dot_lbl_dot_gov>
Reply-To: checkpoint_at_lbl_dot_gov, PHHargrove_at_lbl_dot_gov
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.12 (Windows/20070509)
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: checkpoint_at_lbl_dot_gov
CC: blcr-arm_at_hpcrdm_dot_lbl_dot_gov
Subject: Announcing the release of BLCR 0.6.0_beta5
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit


I am pleased to announce the release of the fifth Beta version of BLCR
0.6.0, now available at
  http://mantis.lbl.gov/blcr-dist/blcr-0.6.0_b5.tar.gz  for a source tarball
or
  http://mantis.lbl.gov/blcr-dist/blcr-0.6.0_b5-1.src.rpm for a source RPM

The respective MD5 checksums are
5af6cfd0a7f5ead62b02d8b9d0b1a6f6  blcr-dist/blcr-0.6.0_b5.tar.gz
c8933d5df1487bbbae3d48723ada59f3  blcr-dist/blcr-0.6.0_b5-1.src.rpm

This beta includes all the features expected in the 0.6.0 release.  If
no show-stopper bugs are reported, the full 0.6.0 is expected in about
10 days.

There have been many changes in BLCR relative to the 0.5.6 release.
These are summarized in the NEWS file, a portion of which is reproduced
below.

Relative to the fourth beta, this release has
- more changes to the RPM specfile (thanks to Neal Becker for continued 
patience in testing these)
- more updates to documentation
- support for "install-strip" make target

You are receiving this message because you are subscribed to the
checkpoint_at_lbl_dot_gov mailing list, OR you have recently sent e-mail to
that list (or to me personally) that indicates an interest in BLCR, OR
you have reported a bug believed to be fixed in this release.  In the
near future you can expect announcements of the final 0.6.0 release of
BLCR, and of any additional betas that precede it.  Those of you not
subscribed to the mailing list can let me know if you want to be
excluded from those upcoming announcements.

-Paul

NEWS excerpt:

July, 2007 - DEPRECATED support for LinuxThreads and for Linux 2.4.X kernels
- Starting with the 0.6.0 release, new bug reports that one cannot reproduce
   under NPTL + Linux 2.6.x will receive little or none of our attention.
   However, we will try to distribute user-contributed fixes for such bugs.
   Note that the 0.6.0 release *does* pass the BLCR test-suite under
   LinuxThreads and/or 2.4.x kernels on the developers' x86 systems.
   However, we have seen test failures on PPC64 when running LinuxThreads
   with a 2.6.12 kernel (Gentoo distro).
- Beginning with the next "full" release (0.7.0) we will begin to remove
   code in BLCR that exists only to support LinuxThreads and/or Linux 2.4.x.
- We have not yet decided the fate of support for those 2.4.x kernels which
   include Red Hat's backport of NPTL support (RHL9.0, RHEL, RHAS, etc.).
- If anybody cares enough about 2.4.x and/or LinuxThreads to volunteer to
   take over testing and maintenance of BLCR on such platforms, let us know.


0.6.0_b5
--------
August 10, 2007
Functionality and expanded-support release.
- This release includes experimental support for PPC64 platforms
    + PPC64 supports both 32- and 64-bit applications.
    + No support for 32-bit kernels.
      Contact us if you would like to help w/ a PPC32 port.
    + No support for 2.4.x kernels
    + Tested with NPTL and kernels 2.6.12 (Gentoo) and 2.6.18 (FC6)
    + There are known problems with BLCR with LinuxThreads
- This release includes experimental support for ARM platforms.
    + Tested only for 2.6.12 and newer kernels
    + Has a known failure in "bug2003" in the test suite.
      (test simulates a buggy/misbehaved process)
    + Thanks to Anton V. Uzunov <anton.uzunov_at_dsto_dot_defence_dot_gov.au>
      of the Australian Government Department of Defence, Defence
      Science and Technology Organisation for contributing this port.
    + ARM-specific questions should be directed to blcr-arm_at_hpcrd_dot_lbl_dot_gov
- This release includes experimental support for cross-compilation.
    + See config/cross_helper.c for information on cross-compilation.
    + This has been tested only in the context of the ARM port
    + Thanks to Anton V. Uzonov for motivating and testing this work
- This release includes a new API for issuing a checkpoint request.
    + Allows a program to request a checkpoint without the need to invoke
      system("cr_checkpoint ...").
    + See comments in include/libcr.h for information on the following:
      cr_initialize_checkpoint_args_t()
      cr_request_checkpoint()
      cr_poll_checkpoint()
- This release adds a mechanism (CR_CHECKPOINT_OMIT) for processes to
   exclude themselves from a checkpoint (useful for batch-system helper or
   shepherd processes).
- This release makes cr_checkpoint and cr_restart utilities checkpointable
- This release adds full support for mmap()-based shared memory
    + Repairs the loss of sharing that existed in 0.5.x releases
    + Supports hugetlbfs
- Default scope of cr_checkpoint is now --tree, rather than --pid.
- Now checkpoint/restart unlinked open files.
- Revised handling of certain file-descriptors at restart:
   + No longer override "normal" files with correspondingly-numbered fds
     from cr_restart as that consistently breaks shell "here documents".
   + Restore pipes endpoints that lie outside the checkpoint scope by
     attaching them to stdin or stdout of cr_restart, rather than to its
     correspondingly-numbered fds.
   + Opens of a process's controlling tty are attached to "/dev/tty" at
     restart, even if they were open by their "exact" name at checkpoint
     time (e.g.  "/dev/pts/0").
- Experimental support for relocatable kernels on x86 and x86-64
- Expanded test-suite
- Option to install the testsuite (--enable-testsuite)
- Support for "install-strip" make target
- Tested against many scripting and programming language environments:
   + shells:  ash, bash, (t)csh, (pd)ksh and zsh
   + scripting-type languages: perl, python, tcl/expect, ruby and guile
   + java runtime environments: Sun, IBM and GNU
   + misc. language runtimes: php, rep, clisp, emacslisp and gst
   + Run "make bonus-tests" to run these tests on your own machine, but be
     warned that the tests themselves are fragile (contain races) and may
     experience random failures.  However, please do report any tests that
     fail consistently.
- Many minor bug fixes and code cleanups


-- 
Paul H. Hargrove                          PHHargrove_at_lbl_dot_gov
Future Technologies Group
HPC Research Department                   Tel: +1-510-495-2352
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory     Fax: +1-510-486-6900