GoboLog

We are pleased to announce the release of Scripts 2.9.11 and Compile 1.12.4. These releases do not contain many major functional changes, with the focus mostly on bug fixes and similar improvements leading up to 015 (of which more below).

In Scripts, several programs will now offer suggested corrections to program names and versions that aren’t found, using the new Corrections script. The tools will now interact better with Manager when interactivity is required, so trunk Manager should now be usable. A new Manager release may be forthcoming soon.

xz-format archives are now supported, and there is better output from archive extraction when the required extraction program is not found. Package blacklisting now works more reliably and safe linking should now be faster, as unneeded files are skipped over.

Compile has minor bugfixes and improvements but no major changes. It will also offer the corrections for mistyped recipe names, and suggest the correct action when `Compile Scripts` is called. Noticeable bugfixes are that it will obey –no-web for SCM recipes and check for existing recipes when running NewVersion. There are two changes affecting recipe API:

• $basedir is now available in hooks as well.
• There is a new python_major recipe variable which specifies the major (2.x, 3.x) version of Python to be used in recipe_type=python. It should be left unset for Python 2.x recipes and set to 3 for Python 3.x recipes. This affects which executable setup.py is run with.

As the master mirror appears to have gone down for the count, the packages are available from gobolinux.org:

• http://gobolinux.org/packages/official/Scripts–2.9.11–i686.tar.bz2
• http://gobolinux.org/packages/official/Compile–1.12.4–i686.tar.bz2

These can be installed using `InstallPackage http://gobolinux.org/packages/official/Scripts–2.9.11–i686.tar.bz2`. They likely will not be picked up with only `InstallPackage Scripts` because of the missing master mirror.

As the mirror has gone, you should remove gobo.calica.com from your GetAvailable.conf and Compile.conf to avoid errors fetching the package and recipe lists. When/if the mirror comes back up it can be replaced there. kundor.org is working, and there is a copy on gobolinux.org as well if needed.

As always, please report any bugs you encounter in these new releases, either on bugs.gobolinux.org or on the mailing lists if you’re unsure or need help. Thanks to all the contributors of code, bug reports, and feedback over this release cycle.

Now, on the subject of 015: it has been decided that it will use the /System/Index layout as discussed previously. The widespread adoption of broken-by-design CMake has forced our hand a little here, and delayed the release longer than I would have preferred. It will also break up the hodgepodge in /Files and /System/Variable in favour of /System/Variable and a new /Data directory. Most of the work for these changes is complete, and you can see the planned tools in the 015 branch in SVN. There’s still some work to go, and package selection and combining for the ISO is yet to come.

Outside commitments have stalled the process at the moment. We hope to get it back on track later this year. We have a provisional set of proposed packages for the release, but no progress is being made on that end at the moment. A new pretaste ISO will wait until after those real-world commitments wind down a bit as well, although somebody else is welcome to have a crack at putting one together – the packages and tools are there.

Since there is an enforced delay in the process, I intend to take advantage of it to get /System/Aliens into shape for the 015 release. It isn’t guaranteed to make it in – the release will not delay on it if it isn’t ready – but given the form it has now it shouldn’t have too many difficulties. Once the infrastructure is in place I encourage interested people to get in touch with me about building the interfaces for third-party systems they want to have.

Filed under:
Development, GoboLinux, aliens, compile, scripts by Michael