DATE: January 12, 1987 TO: ATHENA STAFF FROM: Linda Merims SUBJECT: January Releases This is what I know about the January releases. I wouldn't call these release notes; there's nothing rigorous about them and they don't touch system details. It is the union of what Win Treese listed, what I gleaned from talking to him last week, and what else I've heard. I don't know who is testing each piece. 1. THESE SYSTEMS ARE BEING CHANGED Timesharing (VAX 750) Present Status: development has finished the release and given it to operations; operations has installed it on staff machines. The BIG BUG is that the wrong /usr/athena got distributed so most of the fixes described below aren't working properly on the current staff test. Win says they will fix it this week. Release by Operations for Staff Test: week of Jan 5-9 Release to User Machines: undecided, needs to be negotiated among Development, User Services, and Operations VAX Workstation Local System 3.0 Present Status: the system has been built, but it is too big to be loaded onto the hard disk with the system in place. Doug Allen is supposed to be fixing this; it is hoped by Thur, Jan 8. He is then supposed to come around and load it onto people's machines from floppies. /site is not supposed to be affected. Release by Development to Operations: ???? Release by Operations for Staff Test: ???? Release by Operations to Public Clusters: ???? Release by Operations to Development Clusters: ???? Release by Operations to Living Group Clusters: ???? VAX Workstation RVD System 3.0 Present Status: ???? Release by Development to Operations: ???? Release by Operations for Staff Test: ???? Release by Operations to Public Servers: ???? Release by Operations to Living Group Servers: ???? RT Workstation Local System 3.0 Present Status: Win's group is still trying to build the system. They have a version that includes X support for the APA-16 that has gone to Henry, but major things (like toehold, in/out--things that make a public workstation public) are still missing. When they're done, they'll give it to Alix's group and Paul Boutin will have to come around and put it on peoples' machines. Release by Development to Operations: February 15 ? Release by Operations for Staff Test: ???? Release by Operations to Public Clusters (including 9, 16, W20): May 15? RT Workstation RVD System Present Status: as above for Local System Release by Development to Operations: February 15? Release by Operations for Staff Test: ???? Release by Operations to Public Cluster Servers: ???? 2. CONTENTS OF RELEASE 2.A. Timesharing The main issue with the timesharing release is: In January, 1986, Athena released a BETA test version of Berkeley 4.3 that we'd gotten from Berkeley as our standard timesharing system. Between then and now, the real Berkeley 4.3 came out. We are now releasing: the same old beta Berkeley 4.3 kernel, with Athena's modifications; plus the real 4.3 user software, plus Athena's additional user software. This 4.3 system was built from sources; it is a completely new system. It is not one of the "little incremental" releases we make monthly that only involve copying a few files. Things to be on the look-out for include new bugs from the Berkeley code, and, particularly, Athena modifications to the system that "fall out" because we forgot to add them to the new Berkeley code. (Win Treese has a document outlining major Athena modifications to the Berkeley system.) Question: What are the major differences between the 4.3 beta usr system we were running and this final 4.3 system. I don't know. I think we may have newer versions of some of the compilers (particularly Pascal), but I don't know. Win says these are the changes to the timesharing SYSTEM SOFTWARE: "1. Kernel is 4.3 beta (with 3.0 RVD client driver) 2. Sendmail is 4.3 beta 3. User system is 4.3BSD 4. RFS server is standard " For user software changes, see below. 2.B. Workstation We were supposed to convert to an Ultrix 1.2 kernel, but didn't because Jeff Schiller is not ready with network code changes. The kernel is still Ultrix 1.1 with a few modifications. Ultrix 1.1 is basically a 4.2 kernel. Something in the binary file format changed between 4.2 and 4.3, so you need different, older 4.2 versions of programs that care about internal format (liked adb or dbx) on workstations while the newer 4.3 versions can go on timesharing systems. Win says these are the changes to the workstation software: "1. RFS kernel is standard. A user may start RFS using /usr/unsupported/start_rfs. It may also be started at boot time by setting the RFS variable in /etc/rc.local to true. (Note: currently the kerberos part of RFS fails. This will be fixed soon.) 2. Kernel is Ultrix 1.1, with window size support and new 3.0 RVD client driver. [Win also said that programs that are window size sensitive have to be recoded to query the kernel for the current size. He says more has been recoded.] 3. Macsyma is not currently available on the user RVD. (Win will fix this.) 4. All kernel dependent utilities should work. [ref 4.2 ultrix 1.1 vs 4.3 above] 5. dbx is the Ultrix 1.1 version. 6. The hashed password files are no longer used. 7. /usr/unsupported/sipb is now an RVD. 8. passwd, chfn, chhome, chsh do not work on the workstation; they print a message to this effect. To change local passwords, use /bin/passwd.local. 9. The number of file descriptors per process has been increased, so one can have many windows. 10. The username "nobody" has been added to the default passwd file to allow finger to work. 11. Workstation games are not under gamescontrol. 12. New version of in/out. " [This is the "Mark Levine version." It is supposed to be less verbose and to source .logins automatically.] 13. [Win says workstations are running the old mit newshell that was the default on timesharing under 4.2; while timesharing systems are running the Berkeley 4.3 csh. I don't know what the differences are.] 2.C. User Software on BOTH SYSTEMS X Version 10 Release 4 The biggest difference is a new xterm. It is available as nxterm. xterm still calls the old one. man xterm, however, shows the new page (this should be fixed). Other release notes were sent out as a message to the xpert list. Documentation is printing the R4 X manual. GNU Emacs There is a slightly updated version of GNU Emacs that Krawitz put out. This is NOT version 18. The only difference that I know of is that if you type just emacs without a filename, it will now ask for a filename when you exit instead of tossing it out. This won't work if you change major modes. (It's implemented as a new local variable. This local variable is set in a default global emacs start-up file.) CCA Emacs Has been removed from the system (actually, it hasn't, part of the wrong /usr/athena being distributed problem). It should be replaced with a message that tells you it is gone. Scribe Version 5 There is a new version of Scribe that supports boxing text and tables, and new Postscript fonts. Saying @device(imprint10) won't work anymore, you must say @device(imagen300) or @device(imagen480). Old Imagen documents will not look the same. For staff this shouldn't matter because the Imagen has died anyway. New documentation, including a new pocket guide, is available at IS. We've put this and the release notes in the manual racks. Except for the Imagen, this is upward compatible with V4. A more detailed description of changes was in the last Athena Newsletter. Online Consultant The stock answers are now part of the system in /usr/athena/lib/olc. Olc now works from a workstation. GKS and CChart The GKS and CChart libraries, missing since last fall on timesharing systems, have been restored to /usr/athena/lib. The GKS and CChart header files are in the directory /usr/include/gks. There are now gks(3) and cchart(3) man pages that tell you how to link to them. Manuals are not yet available at IS, nor in the cluster racks. ProChart The bug that prevented anyone from using Prochart has been fixed. Prochart should now work from both xterms and vt125-type terminals. [Actually, Roman says the staff test timesharing release Prochart has instead reverted to a May 1986 version that doesn't even support X. This is part of the wrong /usr/athena problem to be fixed this week.] print9700 is now a full-fledged command in /usr/athena; you don't have to type /usr/unsupported/sipb/print_9700 to send stuff to the 9700. [This also got left out in the /usr/athena mix-up.] The script is the same, you are prompted for parameters. If you say just lpr -P 9700, the printer codes won't be set up right. lw-sipb is a known printer. You can send stuff to SIPB's laserwriter just by saying lpr -P lw-sipb. People ought to read the SIPB laser writer document first, since their laserwriter is only for what you can't do anywhere else, like Postscript and math symbols. RFS Timesharing systems run an RFS server kernel, and no client code. Workstations have an RFS kernel now. You have to activate it by typing /usr/unsupported/start_rfs. Kerberos The kerberos versions of rcp, rsh, and rlogin are now the defaults in /usr/athena. This means that, if kerberos is up and you are a kerberos user, you can do remote operations without all the trust "Permission denied" garbage. If Kerberos is down or it knows you not, then trust will (.rhost, all that) will come into play. This may lead to the confusing "sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't" or "Gee, it works for me, what's wrong with you?" confusion. MH 6.5 A new version of MH has been installed. It has a different, non forward compatible replcomp format and requires LF at the end of the .mh_profile file. I've got some hardcopy release notes. We can't print the new manual because it's in Tex. We do have a 6.2 manual in the new Berkeley manuals. RVD 3.0 We've upgraded to 3.0 RVD. RVD user programs have moved to /bin/athena, with symbolic links from /etc/athena for now. /bin/athena is going to be added to the default search path on the workstations. Two new RVD commands have been added: rvdhosts -- prints a list of RVD servers from /etc/rvdtab vdabort -- flushes an entry from the kernel RVD table Man pages for RVD have not been upgraded. Notes Win says "Minor bug fixes to notes." I don't know what was fixed. In the actual timesharing release, notes is broken. tcsh tcsh is installed in /bin. Kermit kermit has moved to /usr/new from /usr/unsupported. A symbolic link will remain in /usr/unsupported for a while. .login/.cshrc Win wants to put in new default .login and .cshrc files, particularly those that first call an Athena .login. This, however, is still in last minute negotiation. See the proposed changes circulated at the Workstation Plan review meetings. talk Win says, "The 'talk' protocol has changed to be byte-order independent. To talk to machines that have not been updated, use 'otalk'." 2.D RT Workstation Henry Mensch is updating the "This is what they plan 3.0 Release Notes" he published last fall. He has the APA 16 version of the system. He does have the completely new December 1986 documentation put out by Palo Alto.