Changelog for Different Versions ?

[Patrick]

Hi Everyone

I was just having some fun with the old 3.1 version. It's much smaller,
the install size is about 260MB instead of about 880MB.

I looked in the current snapshot and there are lots of changelogs but I
don't see one for the main project itself. Is there one? Or is there
some other way to see specifically how it's changed over the years?

-Pat

[viktor muntzing]

There is a good summary of changes for each version at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MINIX_3 ( The bar on the right if you
are looking on a desktop )

/ Viktor

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[stux...@gmail.com]

Hi Patrick,

The history bar that Viktor linked to is sourced from the minix 3 wiki:

• https://wiki.minix3.org/doku.php?id=releases:previous (source)

Unfortunately that page isn't up to date past v3.2.1 (this can be easily fixed).  The Wikipedia history bar also mixes the 3.3 and 3.4 branches together, so it's not entirely accurate.  I'm not sure where these release notes are stored, i'll have to look for them when I have more time.

Also, if you want to compare the actual code across versions, it's found in the releases page on github:

• https://github.com/Stichting-MINIX-Research-Foundation/minix/releases
  

Notice that this page only has up to release 3.3.0 since 3.4.0 is still being tracked by the master branch and hasn't been posted as a stable release to the public.

I hope this helps!

-stux

[Patrick]

Hi Stux :)

Thanks very much. I have 3.1.0 and 3.4R6 downloaded. I can't find the right change logs inside them. The link you sent is helpful but I also feel guilty to use it. I don't want to tax the servers by downloading all versions to search for this.

I think I am going to experiment with the old 3.1 version and fool around with 3.4R6 too. I should be fine. The wikipedia link helped a lot, even if it's not perfect.
Thanks again-Pat

[stux...@gmail.com]

Hi Pat,

You're welcome! I tried to search for change logs in the source and I didn't see them either.  I've asked about it in IRC. 

Also, don't feel guilty about downloading from github especially now that Microsoft is footing the bill! ;)  I download from github all the time and if you're worried about bandwidth, using "git clone" is very efficient and will get you the entire commit history using minimal bandwidth.

In the meantime, here's some of the big changes that I'm reminded of from the UPDATING document:

• There was an ABI break between 3.2 and 3.3 that more closely aligned minix to netbsd's ABI.
• LiveUpdate was pushed to master although it's not enabled by default (see document on how to enable).  With it we get ASLR for free!
• Revamp the network stack, which includes the following (see commits):
• Created a new network abstraction library, I think it's called libnet
  
• Replace old inet network stack with LwIP stack using the new network library (this includes ipv6 support!)
  
• Imported several network utilities from netBSD (such as dhcp, ping, etc.) and retired the old minix utilities
  
• Imported NetBSD's service infrastructure. This was a requirement for the new stack and utilities. As a side effect, the minix "service" utility for managing servers was renamed "minix-service"
• Fixed the ARM out of memory issue that was blocking the 3.4.0 release.  However, since we're lacking available manpower, there hasn't been an opportunity to officially launch the new release.
  
• Attached to the issue is pull request 195 which migrated ARM's build to clang and would be really nice to push to master if its issues are fixed.
• (On a personal note: I would also like to see the RPi port tree from the 2017 GSOC merged into master sooner rather than later to avoid bit rot.)
  

That should cover the major changes between 3.2 and 3.4 that I can remember.

-stux