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diff --git a/www/news.html b/www/news.html index 5497fdf4..c87223b8 100755..100644 --- a/www/news.html +++ b/www/news.html @@ -8,6 +8,263 @@ a development environment. See the links on the left for details.</p> <h2>News</h2> +<a name="11-05-2020" /><a href="#11-05-2020"><hr><h2><b>May 11, 2020</b></h2></a> +<blockquote> +<p>Ford: Ah. A +<a href=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSsR419HBpQ>towel</a>. +Keep this and guard it with your life.</p> +<p>Arthur: Huh?</p> +<p>Ford: Listen, it's a tough universe. There's all sorts of people and things +trying to do you, kill you, rip you off, everything. If you're going to +survive out there, you've really got to know where your +<a href=towel.jpg>towel</a> is.</p> +<p>- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>Despite everything <a href=downloads/toybox-0.8.3.tar.gz>Toybox 0.8.3</a> +(<a href=https://github.com/landley/toybox/releases/tag/0.8.3>git commit</a>) +is finally out, with new commands <b>rtcwake</b> from Elliott Hughes and +<b>blkdiscard</b> from Patrick Oppenlander. +The big news is "<b>make root</b>" now boots to a shell prompt, +with toysh making it all the way through toyroot's init script. +(Some people were looking forward to <b>patch --fuzz</b> support too.)</p> + +<p><u>Toyroot</u>: <b>make root</b> now does what it says on the tin, it +builds a bootable toybox-based Linux system using two source +packages (toybox and linux). The trivial version is "make root && sudo chroot +root/host/fs /init". Here's +a <a href=http://lists.landley.net/pipermail/toybox-landley.net/2020-April/011667.html>post with instructions</a> if you want to know how to build the +cross compilers for testing the various architectures. The self-contained +<a href=https://github.com/landley/toybox/blob/0.8.3/scripts/mkroot.sh>script +that builds a simple bootable Linux system</a> is 250 lines long, and +should be easy to read if you want to know how it works.</p> + +<p>It also has basic module support, meaning arguments that aren't X=Y variable +assignments are the names of scripts to run to build more +packages at the end of the build. I checked in an <a href=https://github.com/landley/toybox/blob/master/scripts/root/dropbear>example package</a>, +and there's generic "download and extract source tarballs" +<a href=https://github.com/landley/toybox/blob/master/scripts/root/plumbing>plumbing</a> available to such modules. +(The Makefile doesn't know how to pass module names through to the script, +so instead of "make root" you have to +call the script directly, ala "scripts/mkroot.sh CROSS=sh4 LINUX=~/linux dropbear".)</p> + +<p>The resulting root filesystem now uses /root as the home +dir for UID 0, and creates /dev/fd and /dev/shm in devtmpfs. The build works +around a kernel +build bug where "make distclean" doesn't work in a "cp -sfR" symlink +directory. (The bug meant if you pointed LINUX= at unclean source, it was +unhappy, so now it distcleans the source directory before copying it. This +modifies said source directory, which is not ideal, but as usual the kernel guys +<a href=http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/2002.2/00083.html>ignored +the bug report</a>, so a workaround was required.) +The CROSS=all build announces each target in the title bar, puts +its logs into root/log, and has better trap handling to stop with one +ctrl-c. +Since last release it uses a more concise config format for the various kernel +arch targets (which shrank the script by about 50%), and merged +the old (now removed) scripts/cross.sh into the main script so +"make CROSS=armv7l LINUX=~/linux" is +literally just a call to "scripts/mkroot.sh CROSS=armv7l LINUX=~/linux" now.</p> + +<p>As for <b>scripts/mcm-buildall.sh</b> building cross compilers, +of COURSE gcc 8.3 requires a different configuration to build the same +toolchain as previous versions, it's gcc. It now builds a proper +nommu libc for sh2eb without a broken fork() call in it that can never +be used but prevents compile-time probes from detecting nommu, +and checks that the cross compiler completed before trying to build +the native compiler.</p> + +<p>This was all tested with a recent +<a href=https://github.com/richfelker/musl-cross-make/commit/5086175f2902>version</a> +of musl-cross-make with the top level Makefile +edited to use BINUTILS_VER = 2.32 because the newer one +<a href=https://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-sh/msg56844.html>breaks the kernel +build</a> +and LINUX_VER = 4.19.90 because the default musl-cross-make config uses an +out-of-tree headers package for some reason (those who forget history are +<a href=https://lkml.org/lkml/2006/4/28/194>doomed to repeat it</a>) which +breaks m68k and s390x. I won't post binaries of the resulting toolchains +because they're GPLv3, but <a href=https://musl.cc/>thalheim might</a>. +(I've also <a href=http://lists.landley.net/pipermail/toybox-landley.net/2020-May/011673.html>test built</a> +with the Android NDK, but bionic's startup code currently segfaults before +calling main() if it can't open /dev/null, and the kernel guys +<a href=https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/9/13/651>ignored my patches</a> to +make CONFIG_DEVTMPFS_MOUNT work in initramfs.)</p> + +<p>At the moment toyroot cheats and uses two commands out of pending: toysh +is about 80% of the way to being useful but still missing some +obvious features like function support, job and terminal control, command +history, $((math)), wildcard expansion... plus a lot of bash features like array +variables, so it isn't out of pending yet. And route needs to be redone to use the +netlink interface that can handle multiple routing tables. For the moment +scripts/mkroot.sh adds both of them to defconfig if you haven't already +got a .config when you run it. (If you build and can't boot, your .config +probably hasn't got CONFIG_SH switched on. Fix it in menuconfig, or +rm .config and try gain.)</p> + +<p><u>New toybox features</u>: +Elliott taught <b>patch</b> to understand [FILE [PATCH]] arguments, made +<b>cal</b> highlight the current day, added -T to <b>cp</b>/<b>mv</b>, +did a lot of work on <b>lsattr</b>/<b>chattr</b> (including adding -p +and "chattr ="), added tar --absolute-names, taught <b>id</b> to +support numeric lookup and handle unknown groups, made -G show all +groups, and removed context= from -Z. +Rob added <b>patch -F</b> (fuzz factor) support and <b>help -u</b> (usage only), +taught <b>echo -e</b> about bash extensions like \uXXXX unicode escapes, +<b>netcat -L</b> no longer automatically includes stderr (new -E +option does that), +<b>setsid</b> now uses -c (like the man page says) instead of -t, and added +-w (wait) and -d (detach from tty). +Andrew Ilijic added <b>ls -w</b>, removed trailing whitespace on output, +and added tests for -C and -x.</p> + +<p><u>Library</u>: +another fix to 32 bit option parsing of long long optflag values, +remove getdirname() and just use the libc function (which modifies +its argument, but we don't have to free a malloc), +dlist_terminate() can now be called repeatedly on the same list, +new relative_path() function finds path from one directory to another, +and readfd() works like readfile() but on an already open fd. +Use MPATH macros in mkpathat(). Elliott added macOS versions of +dev_minor()/dev_major()/makedev() to portability.c, +implemented posix_fallocate() for macOS, removed a +leftover uClibc workaround in fallocate that was breaking macOS, +and moved the table of ELF architectures from file to lib/lib.c (so +readelf can share). +Park Ju Hyung pointed out the fast path of fdlength() was commented out, +and we switched it to the 64 bit API while we were there (and then Elliott +added macOS support). +Joeky taught file to recognize 7z archives.</p> + +<p><u>Pending</u>: +The shell got a bunch of work: standalone "make sh" now includes the +multiplexer for builtin commands like "exit" and "cd". Added MAYFORK annotation +for commands that exist in the $PATH but can also be run within the shell +process (and sometimes have different behavior within the shell): +currently applied to help, echo, false, kill, printf, pwd, test, time, and +true.</p> + +<p>Elliott added new commands <b>getopt</b> and <b>readelf</b>. +Jarno Mäkipää taught wget how to follow http 301 and 302 redirects, +and did lots of work on vi. (Elliott also did work on vi.) +Gavin Howard fixed a comparison bug in bc. +Ethan Sommer fixed numerous small issues (including several build +warnings and FLAG() macro conversions).</p> + +<p><u>Bugfixes</u>: +<b>tar</b> extract now deletes files and symlinks where it's making a directory, +<b>find -L -type -l</b> now finds dangling symlinks, extra #ifdefs in +portability.h prevent old gcc versions from barfing on __has_include(), +xgetline() now returns NULL at EOF, tee with no arguments was +writing to stdout twice, setsid works on nommu (I.E. vfork) now, +<b>netcat -L</b> no longer accumulates zombie processes, +<b>sntp</b> now uses adjtimex instead of adjtime (to build on bionic). +xcreate_stdio() was checking WARN_ONLY in the wrong field (and tar was +passing it in the wrong field, so it worked there). +Several people wrestled with the <b>xargs</b> "argument too long" problem. +Alessio Balsini fixed memory leaks in loopback_setup() and "wayling" +added a missing continue to losetup. +Elliott fixed xargs -E, various things in modinfo, +added an error check to gzip when using zlib (which copies non-gzip data to +the output verbatim for some reason), +found an case where dirtree could use +uninitialized data and silenced "Invalid argument" warnings (triggered by +Android's selinux policies making stat() and readlink() fail), +fixed locale support in macOS (both in iconv +and in main.c), taught stat to show filesystem time on macOS, +fixed a 32 bit truncation in sntp, fixed a memory access one byte outside +of its array in patch.c, removed the cpio --trailer option, +and widened the pid display fields in ps to +6 digits. Rich Felker fixed find.c assuming +time_t is a long (y2038 issue on 32 bit). +Greg Kaiser fixed a thinko in get_block_device_size(). +Jarno Mäkipää fixed utf8 support in cut -C, and cp --parents. +David Legault complained that dir/.* tells rm to delete dir/.. and we'd do it. +JakeSFR pointed out a bug in file's identification of broken symlinks. +William Haddon fixed cp to treat a directory with a trailing slash +teh same as one without. +Denys Nykula fixed rm -i not to prompt for an empty "" argument. +SebiderSushi reported that chmod g+s wasn't working. +The linux kernel doesn't let an O_PATH fd work with fgetxattr(), so +Elliott switched <b>ls</b> to use the path-based functions now (which is racy, +it means you can stat() one inode and get the xattrs for a different one, +but nobody in kernel land seems to use xattrs much so they're not fully +supported by the API, and who's crazy enough to use xattrs for security +anyway). Derick Pallas pointed out an xclearenv() bug. +Atatsulo (or possibly luolongjuna) did a lot of work on the <b>ping</b> +command: pointed out min/range/max were out of order, +that we shouldn't print a summary unless we received at least one +reply packet, and implemented ttl support.</p> + +<p><u>Build plumbing</u>: +The "make root CROSS=all" build announces each target in the title bar, puts +its logs into root/log, and has better trap handling to stop with one +ctrl-c.</p> + +<p>Fixed scripts/single.sh to work when PREFIX has no trailing slash, +make silentoldconfig no longer feeds "y" to kconfig (which puts menus in a +loop) and instead just feeds in newlines to accept whatever the default is. +The non-git version number I keep forgetting to update each release moved +from main.c to toys.h. +Fixed a couple different errors in mkflags.c (one of which caused ls --color +to set all the other flags).</p> + +<p>Elliott added more macos support and tests, and added +fallocate, cp, mktemp, and mv to the macOS defconfig.</p> + +<p><u>Cleanup</u>: +Rob did some cleanup on xargs, ls, md5sum, and sort, tidied up main.c a bit, +made cp, base64, dmesg, and free use FLAG macros, +and switched fallocate to new style global names. +Elliott Hughes switched rfkill from the old byte at a time get_line() +to libc getline(), made du use FLAG() macros, and mad chattr use +standard toybox argument parsing for -v and -p. +Several commands (help, cp) had sub-options removed from menuconfig. +Merged realpath into readlink.c, and use xabspath() instead of libc realpath().</p> + +<p><u>Documentation</u>: +New roadmap section about <a href=roadmap.html#packages>other packages</a> +that toybox can (eventually) replace.</p> + +<p>Update roadmap to note that posix-2008 moved to a different URL (content +at the old URL undergoes random changes), and link to the IETF RFCs. +design.html explains more of the history of environment sizes on links +and has a #bits anchor tag.</p> + +<p>Update the <a href=design.html#bits>LP64 section</a> of design.html to +fish the documents out of archive.org now that unix.org is gone, +and show the actual size table locally.</p> + +<p>Elliott improved the help of <b>date</b> and <b>chattr</b>, and +made the usage: lines in the posix directory more consistent.</p> + +<p>Shrank the sed help from 150 lines to 90-ish.</p> + +<p><u>Tests</u>: +New "txpect" performs interactive tests, running through a sequence of +writes to a command's stdin and reads from stdout and stderr, when failing it +reports the first non-matching step. (This for example lets sh.test check +the shell line continuation logic prompts with $PS1 and $PS2 appropriately +with various unfinished input lines, and that "echo hello; if" doesn't +output hello before prompting for the next line of input.) Added +VERBOSE=xpect to print out each read and write successfully performed by txpect.</p> + +<p>runtest.sh only creates an "input" file when the input argument isn't empty, +EVAL doesn't supply -- (you have to provide your own if you want that).</p> + +<p>Rob added basic <b>stat</b>, <b>patch</b>, and <b>tee</b> tests. +Jarno added a bunch of <b>vi</b> tests. +Elliott fixed tests for <b>ifconfig</b>, <b>lsattr</b>, <b>chattr</b>, +and <b>date</b>, added tests for find, id, xargs, and made +the id, iconv, env, file, printf and cat tests work on macOS (and skipped +the du tests there). Rob cleaned up chmod tests.</p> + +<p><u>Sheer pedantry</u>: +true and false now have usage: lines (which you have to "help false" to see +because they (intentionally!) don't support --help. +Renamed get_chunk()/dump_chunk() to read_chunk()/write_chunk() in tail.c +Elliott fixed some typos.</p> + <a name="18-10-2019" /><a href="#18-10-2019"><hr><h2><b>October 18, 2019</b></h2></a> <blockquote> <p>"In those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were real |