source: tags/release-0.8beta1/NEWS @ 704

arm4 -- History of visible changes.

Copyright (C) 2005-2008, David Carter <dcarter@arm4.org>
See the end for copying conditions.

Please send arm4 bug reports to dcarter@arm4.org or use our
online system at arm4.org

Version 0.8 beta 1

NOTE: This is a beta release! See arm4.org for known issues with this
version.

This version introduced a number of new features and changes which modified
the shared memory region, which is why it was decided to skip over a proper
release for 0.7.

Key changes with 0.8:
* Support for multiple databases. Right now that's just Berkeley DB and
        Sqlite3, but the infrastructure's in place for adding more later.
* Support for sampling transactions instead of capturing all instances.
* Support for future development of Appdex reporting. This is still
        unimplemented, but at least the shared memory won't require
        an upgrade.
* More validation testing and validation fixes.
* Everything has moved from sbin to bin directories as even the daemon
        can be used in user space.
* Ability to import and export the database as an XML file.

More validation testing is anticipated before this moves to a full release. As
part of this release, binary distributions will be built for ease of installation.

Version 0.7 beta 1

NOTE: This is a beta release! See arm4.org for known issues with this
version.

Java has arrived! This version introduces a full implementation of the
Java languages bindings. See the standard for more details.

Also, the license has now changed from GPL/LGPL to the Eclipse Public
License v1.0. Information on this license can be found at
http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html

Version 0.6

This release improves the agent's stability, although that work is still
ongoing. It's definitely ready for the serious user, but probably more
the developer or tester than on a production system. A heavily stressed
system may still experience some agent crashes. That being said, it
is being used in production environments, but you've been warned.

For now, the requirement for xmlrpc-c has been removed, as the XMLRPC
reporting system is far from ready. This may be brought back in the
future as reporting options are explored further.

Tickets closed in this release:

29      Crashing clients can leave an open message queue
32      Add ability to disable RPC server
35      Daemon should not accept HUP signals while backing up, or before the db is initialized
37      A daemon should be able to detect an already running instance and exit
43      arm4.conf needs parameters to controll the Berkeley in memory transaction sizes
8       Add data aging
23      Parrameterize queue, shared memory, and db home paths
33      External programs may crash during DB backup
34      Utility programs should be able to specify an archive as a command line option
36      Add option to arm4_collect to show what the current collection state is
38      When shutting down a program, full message queues may prevent the -s command from getting through
40      Integrate arm4_collect into arm4_control
41      Builds on RH Enterprise WS 4 require _GNU_SOURCE defined
42      Move arm4_daemon's --remove and --clean functionality to arm4_control
47      error messages should use syslog facility
18      Daemon should be able to operate in user space with configurable parameters
46      running arm4_control wipe twice causes a segmentation fault

Known Issues

1. The agent isn't ready for OS X due to some limitations in its pthreads
implementation.
2. All authorized users are able to control the agent. This needs to be
restricted.
3. Archive operations can report problems opening files. This can be
ignored.
4. Under certain circumstances, a hung or aborted daemon can prevent an
instrumented application from continuing

Version 0.5

This release makes a more complete agent. Most subbuffer types are
now supported, including user buffers, diagnostic buffers, and
user defined metrics.

Performance has been improved using the Berkeley DB in-memory transaction
feature. This requires version 4.3 or later, so this is a change in the base
system requirements. The configuration program has been changed to reflect
this.

There are some new and expanded tests in the test directory. This is the
first step in a validation test suite that will be expanded as development
goes on.

A new debugging utility has been introduced. arm4_dump allows the developer
to view the contents of the repository database. This isn't meant to be a user
level tool.

Tickets closed in this release:

28      arm4_report fails to report transactions on Solaris
3       Add support for user-defined metrics
24      Aliases should be at the library level, not the daemon
22      Add ability to turn ARM collection on and off
25      Add support for user buffers in transactions
26      Add support for diagnostic details in transactions

Known Issues

In certain cases, program crashes involving programs linked with libarm4
may leave an open unnamed message queue. This will need to be removed
manually, or it will linger until the next reboot.


Version 0.4

The primary purpose of this release was to add an XMLRPC
reporting interface that could be used by web management tools,
but along the way many core deficiencies were uncovered and fixed.

The structure of the ARM library and daemon have changed with
all of the database accesses having moved from the library to
the daemon. This results in more IPC calls, but greatly improves
the stability of the agent.

The daemon now contains an XMLRPC interface that is being used to
develop a web management interface. This interface should not be
considered stable and is very likely to change as development continues.

Some of the options to the daemon have changed in name and/or function,
so please read the documentation before using.

Tickets closed in this release:

13      Berkeley DB permission errors cause database corruption
12      Add XMLRPC based reporting interface
15      API calls should accept empty ids
19      Need to exit gracefully when daemon is unable to create shared regions
21      The -r option to arm4_daemon doesn't remove the message queue
16      arm_register_application accepts blank names and names with trailing blanks
17      The -r option to arm4_daemon doesn't remove the databases as advertised

Known Issues

The agent doesn't currently support user defined metrics. This is
targeted for the next release.

In certain cases, program crashes involving programs linked with libarm4
may leave an open unnamed message queue. This will need to be removed
manually, or it will linger until the next reboot.

-------------------------------------------------------
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Copyright (C) 2005-2006, David Carter <dcarter@arm4.org>

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