[gfarm-announce:02433] Gfarm version 1.4 release

[Yusuke Tanimura <yusuke.tanimura@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear all,

A new stable release of Gfarm 1.4 is available for download, from
the opening day of SC'06 in Tampa, FL, November 13-17.
 
		http://datafarm.apgrid.org/

The version 1.4 is improved in stability, performance and usability
from the previous release version 1.3.1.  The new version resolves
several problems in use of gfarm_agent and internal scheduling 
problems of the gfarm library.  All documents including install
manuals, FAQ, and known problems description reflect users'
comments which we received in the past.  Because usage of the
version 1.4 is same as the version 1.3, we recommend you to update
your Gfarm environment.  We also recommend people who use the
version 1.2.x to upgrade the latest version at this opportunity.

The software can be downloaded from http://datafarm.apgrid.org/
The bug tracking system is available at http://datafarm.apgrid.org/bugzilla/

With the release of the version 1.4, the Gfarm developer team will
be responsible only for bugfix updates of the version 1.x.  New
functions will be developed in the version 2.x.


Copyright (c) 2003-2006 National Institute of Advanced Industrial
Science and Technology (AIST).  All Rights Reserved.

Release note for Gfarm 1.4
==========================

[2006.11.13]

Updated Features

  * gfrm(1)

  - support parallel removal of files to speed up operations if gfrm
    is compiled in OpenMP C compiler.

  - add -j <#thread>, -D <domain>, -H <hostfile>, -N <#replica>, -n,
    -q, -v options.  -j option is only available if gfrm is compiled
    in OpenMP C compiler.

  * gfwhere(1) - add -r and -R options for recursive listing.

  * config-gfarm - support CentOS.

  * gfsplck(1)

  - add a functionality to release text-busy status.  A file which
    was being opened by crashed application programs holds
    text-busy status. (Bugzilla-ja #60)

  * gfimport_text(1) - add -N <#host> option.

  * gfarm_agent(1)

  - surpress too much and unimportant log output to improve
    performance.

  - add -L <log_level> option to specify a syslog level.

  * gfarm.conf(5)

  - add "level log_level" directive.

  - add "record_atime disable" directive.

  * gfmd(8) and gfsd(8) - add -L <log_level> option.

  * libgfarm

  - improve a scheduling algorithm:
      o when a gfsd stops during reading a file, retry another file
        replica automatically.
      o when a connection error to gfsd is observed, remove the host
        entry from a scheduling cache.
      o when opening a file with the O_TRUNK flag, schedule a
        filesystem node regardless of the original location.

  - do not ignore SIGPIPE for applications that do not check return
    value in write(2).  (Bugzilla-ja #68)

  - add more check against integer overflow.

  * Documentation

  - improve all documents: add more detailed and more exact
    explanation.

  * Bug fix

  - gfls(1) - fix a bug that a longer pathname than the screen
              width causes an error.

  - gfreg(1) - fix a bug in recursive mode that a directory name
               cannot be changed.

  - config-gfarm(1)
      o resolve a problem that postmaster fails to start up in
        some cases.

  - gfmd(8) - add description about -d option in usage display.
              (Bugzilla-ja #62)

  - gfsd(8) - fix a bug that errno is not preserved by SIGCHLD
              handler.

  - libgfarm
     o fix a bug such that gfs_client_terminate() does not remove
       connection entries from a connection cache.  This may cause
       core dump in some calling sequences.
     o fix a bug that a file cannot be deleted if it has no
       fragment information.
     o fix a serious bug in scheduling which may cause libgfarm to
       hang up.  (Bugzilla-ja #66)

  - fix a package dependency problem in gfarm.spec.


-----------------------------------------------------
Yusuke Tanimura <yusuke.tanimura@xxxxxxxxxx>
Grid Technology Research Center, National Institute of AIST
1-1-1 Umezono, Tsukuba Central 2
Tsukuba City 305-8568, Japan
TEL: +81-29-862-6703  / FAX: +81-29-862-6601