Return-Path: jeffrey Return-Path: Received: from rtl.cygnus.com by cygnus.com (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA08100; Thu, 25 Feb 93 12:09:17 PST Date: Thu, 25 Feb 93 12:09:17 PST From: jeffrey (Jeffrey Osier) Message-Id: <9302252009.AA08100@cygnus.com> Received: by rtl.cygnus.com (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA14311; Thu, 25 Feb 93 12:09:16 PST To: engnews-distrib Subject: Inside Cygnus Engineering - February 1993 Reply-To: engnews@cygnus.com Organization: Cygnus Support, Mountain View, CA; +1 415 903 1409 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vol 2 No 2 INSIDE CYGNUS ENGINEERING February 1993 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inside Cygnus Engineering (ICE) is published monthly for customers of Cygnus Support. Our objective is to provide a relevant but informal summary of news and ongoing activities. Please send all comments, suggestions, and subscription requests to engnews@cygnus.com. PRODUCTS AND RELEASES --------------------- 1. Gdb 4.8 We have made a new gdb release, gdb 4.8, to the net. Gdb 4.8 will be included in the Q1 progressive release at the end of March (see section below). The 4.8 release includes support for the HP9000 800 and 700 series, for code compiled with gcc version 2.3.2 or later and a special version of gas, PA-gas available from the University of Utah (at jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z). Improved documentation and examples for remote debugging for the Fujitsu SPARClite processor have been added. We have improved template symbol decoding (demangling) and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style decoding. Gdb now decodes each symbol once and caches the result. The small increase in memory usage results in an order of magnitude speedup in symbol lookups. Other internal improvements include changes to allow debugging of multiple languages in the future and a common internal structure for symbol information. Gdb now also supports the --with-xxx run time options. We eliminated a copyright problem on some VxWorks header files that was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7 release. The header files were excluded from gdb 4.7, and have been replaced in gdb 4.8. You should again be able to build a VxWorks gdb. The gdb manual no longer requires M4 macros. A new texinfo.tex is required, and is provided in this release. You should upgrade to TeX version 3.141 or better to avoid a bug that causes TeX 3.0 and some of the versions between 3.0 and 3.141 to hang. 2. Q1 Progressive release We have migrated the code for the next progressive release, Q1, from our development environment into release engineering. This release will be available for the following platforms at the end of March. \ HOST | DEC IBM SGI HP HP TARGET \ | Sol2 Sun3 Sun4 stn RS6k IRIS SCO 300 700 DOS ---------------+---------------------------------------------------- Native | X X X X X X X 68k a.out | X X X X X X X 68k VxWorks | X X X X X X X 68k coff | X X X 960 Nindy | X 960 VxWorks | X X X i386 a.out | X X 29k MINIMON | X X SPARC VxWorks | X SPARClite a.out| X Unlike the last release which was a stabilization release, Q1 is a new migration from development. As such it includes many new features, most notably those of the gdb 4.7 and 4.8 releases and the Reno 1 release for g++. Gcc has also been updated to gcc 2.3.3 in this release. This is the first progressive release where DejaGnu is used as the main test process. We expect to fully integrate DejaGnu into the GNU standard "make check" option so that future progressive releases can include the test suites for the individual programs. NEW AND ONGOING DEVELOPMENTS ---------------------------- 1. PRMS Net release We are preparing a beta release of version 3.0 of our customer problem report tracking system (PRMS). This will be available to the net in early March for Solaris, Sun3, Sun4, DECstation, IBM R/S6000, SGI Iris, and HP9000/700 systems. PRMS is designed to be a small, open system to allow for customization and extensibility rather than to be a comprehensive turnkey application. It uses electronic mail extensively for automatic acknowledgement and notification as problem reports are received and dealt with. Based on the Unix file system, it provides fundamental reporting and data export capabilities. In fact, PRMS is generalized enough to serve as an all-purpose action request routing and tracking system. We have used previous versions of PRMS internally at Cygnus for 2 years for tracking customer bugs and support requests. As with our other releases to the net, the PRMS release will have online documentation and standard configuration and build tools. We are still working out the details of making it a fully supported Cygnus product. 2. gcc Snapshots In addition to supporting our customers, we believe it is important for us to contribute directly to the GNU effort. In the last month, we have taken over responsibility for building the weekly snapshots used by the serious gcc developers. Weekly snapshots are an important part of version tracking for the developers as they are scattered across many development and testing sites. SUPPORT ACTIVITIES ------------------- In addition to new developments, a significant part of our engineering resources is devoted to answering questions, fixing problems in the GNU software, and providing a range of support services to our customers. 1. Getting software updates As part of the Q1 release, we will once again be sending out update request cards to our "Group" ("Core") and "Single" customers. These should be in the mail by mid-March, so please contact us if you don't hear from us by the end of March. Keeping our list of customer contacts and addresses up to date helps us to stay in touch and deliver quality service to you. 2. Software maintenance status The following table shows the maintenance statistics for the last five weeks. We continue to need your help: please let us know when you agree that a problem has been fixed so that we can move it from a "feedback" state to a "closed" state. # # # # # # Date Open Analzd Fdback Closed Suspnd Total ------------------------------------------------------------ 01/18/93 360 96 418 953 105 1,932 02/22/93 356 129 472 1,050 111 2,118 ------------------------------------------------------------ Change -4 +33 +54 +97 +6 +186 3. See you at the show Cygnus will have a booth at the following shows this spring. If you are going there, please drop by and say hello. Feb 23 - 25 Software Developer's Conference, Santa Clara, CA Mar 10 - 12 InterOp, Washington, DC (hospitality suite only) Apr 6 - 9 Embedded Systems Conference, Atlanta, GA Apr 14 - 16 Embedded Computer Conference, San Jose, CA May 11 - 13 Sun World, San Francisco, CA OTHER ITEMS ----------- 1. Customer Forum We value your suggestions, and would like to ask for your response to the following questions (to engnews@cygnus.com). We will publish summaries of answers of general interest in the following issue. 1. We are considering enlarging the Cygnus Network Security offering. In addition to Kerberos, do you use "cops"? What other security software do you use or would you like to see? 2. Would you be interested in obtaining support for Tcl and/or "expect" for general use at your site? We intend to support these tools to the extent that DejaGnu is built on them, but are wondering if there is a broader set of needs that we could also address. If you are interested, would you also want Tk support? --------------------------------------------------------------------- Cygnus Support 1937 Landings Drive One Kendall Square Mountain View, CA 94043 Cambridge, MA 02139 +1 415 903 1400 voice +1 617 494 1040 voice +1 415 903 0122 fax +1 617 494 1325 fax ---------------------------------------------------------------------