News

Another version of the Panel was tagged yesterday as 0.0.4. Of course, its source archive is available for download [1], and the pkgsrc package was updated as well [2].

[1] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3321/Panel-0.0.4.tar.gz
[2] http://pkgsrc.se/wip/deforaos-panel

The first releases of the libDesktop [1] and Mixer [2] projects made it to their respective project pages [3] a few hours ago. An attempt at packaging them has already hit pkgsrc's wip (work in progress) repository [4][5].
Both labelled as 0.0.1, the Mixer application will only be interesting on NetBSD-based platforms though (and probably Solaris too).

[1] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3314/libDesktop-0.0.1.tar.gz
[2] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3317/Mixer-0.0.1.tar.gz
[3] http://www.defora.org/os/project/list
[4] http://pkgsrc.se/wip/deforaos-libdesktop
[5] http://pkgsrc.se/wip/deforaos-mixer

Another release of the libc [1] just made it out: 0.0.4 [2]. Among the changes since the last release:

• fixed calloc()
• added strsignal()
• compilation fixes on FreeBSD
• fixes for signals on NetBSD, FreeBSD and Linux
• really implemented SHM on NetBSD
• fixes for Linux/amd64 when using shared libraries
• added support for Linux/amd64 in libsocket
• fixed return value for s{,n}printf() with NULL buffer

Some of these changes should help the RunningBear [3] project as well, which already included most of these fixes though.

[1] http://www.defora.org/os/project/display/14/libc
[2] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3309/libc-0.0.4.tar.gz
[3] http://runningbear.org/

It will be a while before it gets compiled by default, but nonetheless, a new desktop project was added recently as well: Mixer [1]. It probably supports NetBSD only so far (in fact maybe Solaris too). Anyway, as already described on my blog [2], it may prove useful to NetBSD users anyway.

[1] http://www.defora.org/os/project/display/3305/Mixer
[2] http://people.defora.org/~khorben/place/blog/75/A-graphical-mixer-for-NetBSD

There were no news about it yet, but a number of improvements were committed to the AppInterface code [1], so essential to the concept of DeforaOS itself (which still have to be documented). In any case, the VFS project was finally worth creating its own project page [2].
Among the improvements:

• dynamic AppInterface definitions (AppBroker [3] from libSystem)
• support for returning strings in parameters (libSystem)
• support for more VFS calls, including opendir(), readdir(), closedir(), dirfd() and access() (VFS)
• wrapping the regular libc calls through LD_PRELOAD for remote file access (libvfs.so [4] from VFS)
• binding locally or allowing remote connections with a command-line argument (VFS)

It is now mostly missing the addition of the stat() family of calls in order to be fully functional. This could be done with a hack first, passing the structure through a Buffer. There will then be lots of possibilities, including:

• mounting volumes in userland,
• on the fly encryption/decryption,
• accessing different remote hosts at the same time...

It is probably worth a release in the current state though; it can be safely expected.

[1] http://www.defora.org/os/project/browse/27?file=/src/appinterface.c,v
[2] http://www.defora.org/os/project/display/3304/VFS
[3] http://www.defora.org/os/project/browse/27?file=/tools/appbroker.c,v
[4] http://www.defora.org/os/project/browse/3304?file=/tools/libvfs.c,v

According to Ohloh [1], the project hit the 6000 commits bar earlier this week [2].
Other more or less meaningful facts found there:

• 70% C, 13% PHP, 8% Makefiles [3]
• 63000+ lines of C code, almost 90000 with blanks and comments
• worth $1,100,000 [4]

[1] http://www.ohloh.net/
[2] http://www.ohloh.net/p/DeforaOS/commits
[3] http://www.ohloh.net/p/DeforaOS/analyses/latest
[4] http://www.ohloh.net/p/DeforaOS

As just announced on my blog [1], the gputty project is moving to another platform, the famous Sourceforge [2]. It has its own project page [3] and sub-domain already [4]. Then it won't be available in the DeforaOS Project anymore, where it didn't really fit the naming conventions nor the long-term plans anyway.

[1] http://people.defora.org/~khorben/place/blog/67/gputty-on-Sourceforge
[2] http://sourceforge.net/
[3] http://sourceforge.net/projects/gputty/
[4] http://gputty.sourceforge.net/

One the desktop front this time, a new library is available in the project: called libDesktop [1] (surprisingly), it will contain all the redundant code from the different Gtk+ applications available. I was reluctant to adding it, because I wanted the desktop applications to be stand-alone.

However, maintaining the Gtk+ common code in the desktop simply became too difficult to maintain. When adding the newer desktop application, Todo [2], it was clear that I had to introduce the library at the same time. It will also improve the consistency between all applications.

The file browser [3] is already using it. It may also gain functions other than related to the UI, such as the Mime code, or a file selection widget based on the browser.

[1] http://www.defora.org/os/project/display/3298/libDesktop
[2] http://www.defora.org/os/project/display/3299/Todo
[3] http://www.defora.org/os/project/display/230/Browser

I realize I haven't released a tarball of the libc [1] in a long while. It seems to be in a decent state right now, and have therefore tagged it as 0.0.3 [2].

This will also ease the integration with RunningBear [3], which should then use this official release, and maintain a set of individual patches.

[1] http://www.defora.org/os/project/display/14/libc
[2] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3296/libc-0.0.3.tar.gz
[3] http://runningbear.org/

A new version of configure [1] has just made it to the project page [2]. Among the fixes:

• the LDFLAGS fields are always filtered for platform-specific particularities;
• no longer tries to build explicitly against libdl;
• the GPL version 3 license is truly applied.

[1] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3294/configure-0.0.7.tar.gz
[2] http://www.defora.org/os/project/display/16/configure