Scalaris 0.8.0 released

[Nico Kruber]

We are happy to announce the new feature release of Scalaris, 0.8.0 (codename
"Picoides scalaris").
It includes a lot of improvements especially in the replica repair protocols.
Additionally, we now support two on-disk DB back-ends which are also now
configurable at runtime. Further (notable) changes are listed below.
Please note that the scalarisctl interface has slightly changed in this
release.

Additionally there are two changes in our project management:
1) the development has moved to github and is available at
https://github.com/scalaris-team/scalaris
2) We created a new more modern web site were e.g. the releases can be
downloaded and FAQs are answered:
http://scalaris.zib.de


As usually, packages for various linux distributions are available in the Open
Build Service.

The latest stable version is available in our main repository:
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/scalaris/

Git snapshots are available in this repository:
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/scalaris:/svn/

For more instructions on how to use the prebuild packages, see
http://scalaris.zib.de/faq.html#prebuild-packages


Scalaris' Java-API (in different versions) is also available in our maven
repository at: http://scalaris.zib.de/maven
For help setting up this repository, please refer to
http://scalaris.zib.de/faq.html#java-api


Scalaris 0.8.0 (codename "Picoides scalaris") - July 10, 2015
============================================================
(partly supported by the EU project IES Cities http://iescities.eu/
and the EIT ICT Labs project MCData)

Packaging:

- also install docs on Arch Linux
- fix lintian errors and warnings for Debian-based packages
- fix permissions on the log directory (owned by the 'scalaris' user)
and the config files (not owned by the 'scalaris' user anymore!)
- adapt packages for newer distributions

API:

- Java-API: integrate new OtpErlang library (1.5.12 from Erlang 17.4)
- Python-API: do not include a shebang with a pre-defined path to python
anymore
- Python-API: fix unclosed sockets in various tests
- Python-API: increase python{2,3} test speed
- Ruby-API: try to fallback to the normal json module if the gem is missing
- Ruby-API: considerably increase the ruby test speed
- remove the Publish/Subscribe API

Business Logic:

- rrepair: faster and more accurate bloom filter repair protocol
- rrepair: faster, more accurate and less bandwidth-consuming merkle tree
repair protocol
- rrepair: reduce memory footprint of merkle_tree
- rrepair: more accurate and less bandwidth-consuming trivial repair
protocol
- rrepair: add a new simple hash ('shash') algorithm
- rrepair: switch to (the more efficient) push-only resolve phase for
synchronisation
- rrepair: add replica repair algorithm evaluation scripts
- RM: faster cyclon cache integration, especially during node jumps
- comm_layer: envelops can be nested
- comm_layer: allow send options for comm:send_local/3 and msg_delay
(currently only ?quiet supported)

Infrastructure:

- FD: simplify the API, support envelopes and remove own cookie handling
- FD: extend the failure detector with generic notifications (not just
crashes) to subscribed nodes
- DB: add an (experimental) mnesia back-end
- DB: add an (experimental) hanoidb back-end
- DB: make the back-end configurable via the scalaris.cfg option
'db_backend'
- improve the speed of several utility functions
- scalarisctl: add '-l' parameter for specifying the logdir
- scalarisctl: do not use the '-s' parameter anymore, instead specify the
start type with the new '-t' parameter
- scalarisctl: allow starting several dht_nodes per vm with given keys via
the new parameter '-j'
- update yaws to version 1.99
- make "$HOME/.scalaris/log" the default log dir
- support for Erlang R14B04 up to 18.0.2 and current otp master
- add example scripts for running Scalaris on a SLURM cluster
- move sources to github: https://github.com/scalaris-team/scalaris
- new project homepage: http://scalaris.zib.de

Tests:

- reduce log spam in proto_sched tests and only print proto_sched results
when the tests fail
- extended and improved various test suites

Tools:

- proto_sched: support callbacks
- proto_sched: add support for user msg shepherds
- proto_sched: better error handling when sending messages to dead
(local) processes
- tester: add value creator and type checker for orddict:orddict()
- tester: full support for Erlang 18.0
- let 'make dialyzer' run over test as well and ignore some false-positives
for Erlang >= 18.0 using the '-dialyzer()' attribute

Bugs:

- slide: fix some race conditions with 'jump' operations
- JSON-API: fix test_and_set not working correctly inside req_list
- fix numerous more bugs

--
kru...@zib.de PGP key: 20F2724BDAEA9E59