[ANN]TAO 2.1.8 released

[Johnny Willemsen]

Hi all,

Once again, thanks to the efforts of many developers, testers, and
users, we are pleased to announce the micro and bug fix only release
of ACE 6.1.8, TAO 2.1.8, CIAO 1.1.8, and DAnCE 1.1.8, which is available
from the usual download location at:

http://download.dre.vanderbilt.edu/

under the heading "Latest Micro Release Kit".

The doxygen documentation for this release is also available. In
addition to the packages combined of sources and generate makefiles,
this release provides source-only packages for developers who use MPC to
generate their own makefiles.

We encourage you to download the new release, use it with your
applications, and let us know if you encounter any problems. Please use the:

$ACE_ROOT/PROBLEM-REPORT-FORM
$MPC_ROOT/PROBLEM-REPORT-FORM
$TAO_ROOT/PROBLEM-REPORT-FORM
$CIAO_ROOT/PROBLEM-REPORT-FORM
$DANCE_ROOT/PROBLEM-REPORT-FORM

so that we have the proper version/platform/compiler/options you're
using to report problems. We also request that you take a look at:

$TAO_ROOT/docs/releasenotes/

for the status of various ongoing projects at the DOC group of
Vanderbilt to move ACE+TAO+CIAO+DAnCE forward. Overviews of our recent
progress and upcoming plans are available at:

$ACE_ROOT/NEWS
$TAO_ROOT/NEWS
$CIAO_ROOT/NEWS
$DANCE_ROOT/NEWS

The overall success rates for the test results gathered from all our
daily builds is 97% for the ACE tests and 96% for the TAO, CIAO,
and DAnCE tests.

Please see:

http://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/scoreboard/

for a summary of these tests. As always, we appreciate your help in
resolving any remaining problems. Please see:

ACE_ROOT/docs/ACE-bug-process.html

for an overview of our bug fixing policies. Moreover, please see:

http://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/support.html

for information commercial support services available from various
companies.

The following is a list of key changes since the last major release.
Please refer to the corresponding ChangeLog files, NEWS files, or
Bugzilla entries for more details on the problem and the nature of fixes
applied.

==============
Changes to ACE
==============

. Small bug fixes

==============
Changes to TAO
==============

. Fault Tolerant Implementation Repository [#4091] - The Implementation
Repository Locator now supports a dual-redundant fault tolerant
configuration which provides replication and seamless failover between
the primary and backup locator servers.

. Implementation Repository interoperable with JacORB servers [#4101] -
The Implementation Repository can now be used to manage JacORB
3.3 or later application servers.

. Fault Tolerant Naming Service [#4092 & #4095] - A new Fault Tolerant
Naming Service (tao_ft_naming), provides dual-redundant fault tolerant
servers which utilize replication and seamless failover between the
primary and backup server. The Fault Tolerant Naming Service can be
used to provide load balancing capabilities (only the round-robin load
balancing strategy is currently supported) through the use object
groups. This feature is supported by a separate utility for managing
the object groups (tao_nsgroup) as well as a programatic interface
via IDL.

. Configurable Persistence Mechanism [#4092] - Extracted persistence
mechanism used for storable naming context into Storable_* classes so
that it can be reused. Simplified use of storable read/write so that
it behaves more like C++ streams to read/write binary and CDR data.
Added support for creating a backup mechanism to accomodate
potentially corrupted files. Providing configurable hooks so
applications can decide if files are obsolete and need to be written
to the persistence store.

. ORB Dynamic Thread Pool [#4093] - Added a new ORB thread pool strategy
to dynamically adjust the number of threads which the ORB uses to
service received calls based on several configuration parameters.
These parameters include initial threads, minimum pool threads,
maximum pool threads, request queue depth, thread stack size, and
thread idle time.

. POA Dynamic Thread Pool [#4094] - A new Dynamic Thread Pool and
Queuing strategy was created for POA usage. It leverages the
existing Custom Servant Dispatching framework for invocation and
activation. The strategy also dynamically adjusts the number of
threads using configuration parameters similar to the ORB Dynamic
Thread Pool. The Dynamic Thread Pool POA Strategy supports
applications in associating a single thread pool with either
1) a single POA in a dedicated configuration, or 2) multiple
POAs in a shared configuration. The strategy controls a request
queue used to accept calls directed to an associated servant and
a pool of threads that wait to service calls coming in on a
particular queue.

. Multiple Invocation Retry [#4096] - Extended TAO to support multiple
retry in the presence of COMM_FAILURE, TRANSIENT, OBJECT_NOT_EXIST,
and INV_OBJREF exceptions. In addition, retries can occur if it has
been detected that a connection has closed while waiting for a reply
(currently not available under FreeBSD, OpenVMS, AIX, and Solaris).
This feature can be used to support fault tolerant services
(specifically the Fault Tolerant Naming and Implementation Repository
services described earlier). The invocation retry support allows
configuration on how many times to try to connect to each server and
the delay between tries.

. Added MIOP configuration options -ORBSendThrottling and
-ORBEagerDequeueing, along with #define overrides for their default
settings. See the descriptions in the MIOP section of
doc/Options.html for their use.

===============
Changes to CIAO
===============

. Added type_name attribute to DDS4CCM TopicBase connector

. Fixed a few code generation bugs

================
Changes to DAnCE
================

. None

=====================
Bugzilla Issues Fixed
=====================

0 MPC bugzilla issue fixed:

0 ACE bugzilla issues fixed:

5 TAO bugzilla issues fixed:
4080 MIOP servants are still serialized when running in a thread pool
4082 Any extraction to equivalent type
4086 IDL compiler do not generate "set_attributes" if rw attributes in
indirect supports interface
4090 Problem generating ostream operator for enums
4099 TAO_Service_Type_Repository list_types leaks memory

3 CIAO bugzilla issues fixed:
4086 IDL compiler do not generate "set_attributes" if rw attributes in
indirect supports interface
4087 tao_idl3_to_idl2 handle mirror port improperly
4089 DDS_Base_Connector_T.cpp seems to have a program flow error

0 DAnCE bugzilla issues fixed: