打Release包报错:Type BuildConfig is defined multiple times

ERROR:D:\AndroidProjects\my-project\android\baselib\build\.transforms\93c66b756e0e533a55c72ad11a151942\transformed\classes\classes.dex: D8: Type com
.xxx.baselib.BuildConfig is defined multiple times: D:\AndroidProjects\my-project\android\baselib\build\.transforms\93c66b756e0e533a55c72ad11a15
1942\transformed\classes\classes.dex, D:\AndroidProjects\my-project\android\app\build\intermediates\external_libs_dex\release\mergeExtDexRelease\cla
sses2.dex
com.android.builder.dexing.DexArchiveMergerException: Error while merging dex archives:
Learn how to resolve the issue at https://developer.android.com/studio/build/dependencies#duplicate_classes.
Type com.iflytek.baselib.BuildConfig is defined multiple times: D:\AndroidProjects\my-project\android\baselib\build\.transforms\93c66b756e0e533a55c7
2ad11a151942\transformed\classes\classes.dex, D:\AndroidProjects\my-project\android\app\build\intermediates\external_libs_dex\release\mergeExtDexRel
ease\classes2.dex
        at com.android.builder.dexing.D8DexArchiveMerger.getExceptionToRethrow(D8DexArchiveMerger.java:151)
        at com.android.builder.dexing.D8DexArchiveMerger.mergeDexArchives(D8DexArchiveMerger.java:138)
        at com.android.build.gradle.internal.tasks.DexMergingWorkAction.merge(DexMergingTask.kt:863)
        at com.android.build.gradle.internal.tasks.DexMergingWorkAction.run(DexMergingTask.kt:809)
        at com.android.build.gradle.internal.profile.ProfileAwareWorkAction.execute(ProfileAwareWorkAction.kt:74)
        at org.gradle.workers.internal.DefaultWorkerServer.execute(DefaultWorkerServer.java:63)
        at org.gradle.workers.internal.NoIsolationWorkerFactory$1$1.create(NoIsolationWorkerFactory.java:66)
        at org.gradle.workers.internal.NoIsolationWorkerFactory$1$1.create(NoIsolationWorkerFactory.java:62)
        at org.gradle.internal.classloader.ClassLoaderUtils.executeInClassloader(ClassLoaderUtils.java:97)
        at org.gradle.workers.internal.NoIsolationWorkerFactory$1.lambda$execute$0(NoIsolationWorkerFactory.java:62)
        at org.gradle.workers.internal.AbstractWorker$1.call(AbstractWorker.java:44)
        at org.gradle.workers.internal.AbstractWorker$1.call(AbstractWorker.java:41)
        at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationRunner$CallableBuildOperationWorker.execute(DefaultBuildOperationRunner.java:200)
        at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationRunner$CallableBuildOperationWorker.execute(DefaultBuildOperationRunner.java:195)
        at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationRunner$3.execute(DefaultBuildOperationRunner.java:75)
        at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationRunner$3.execute(DefaultBuildOperationRunner.java:68)
        at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationRunner.execute(DefaultBuildOperationRunner.java:153)
        at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationRunner.execute(DefaultBuildOperationRunner.java:68)
        at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationRunner.call(DefaultBuildOperationRunner.java:62)
        at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.lambda$call$2(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:79)
        at org.gradle.internal.operations.UnmanagedBuildOperationWrapper.callWithUnmanagedSupport(UnmanagedBuildOperationWrapper.java:54)
        at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.call(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:79)
        at org.gradle.workers.internal.AbstractWorker.executeWrappedInBuildOperation(AbstractWorker.java:41)
        at org.gradle.workers.internal.NoIsolationWorkerFactory$1.execute(NoIsolationWorkerFactory.java:59)
        at org.gradle.workers.internal.DefaultWorkerExecutor.lambda$submitWork$2(DefaultWorkerExecutor.java:206)
        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:264)
        at org.gradle.internal.work.DefaultConditionalExecutionQueue$ExecutionRunner.runExecution(DefaultConditionalExecutionQueue.java:214)
        at org.gradle.internal.work.DefaultConditionalExecutionQueue$ExecutionRunner.runBatch(DefaultConditionalExecutionQueue.java:164)
        at org.gradle.internal.work.DefaultConditionalExecutionQueue$ExecutionRunner.run(DefaultConditionalExecutionQueue.java:131)
        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:515)
        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:264)
        at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.ExecutorPolicy$CatchAndRecordFailures.onExecute(ExecutorPolicy.java:64)
        at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.ManagedExecutorImpl$1.run(ManagedExecutorImpl.java:48)
        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1128)
        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:628)
        at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.ThreadFactoryImpl$ManagedThreadRunnable.run(ThreadFactoryImpl.java:61)
        at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:834)

大意就是两个.dex文件都有这个com.xxx.baselib.BuildConfig文件,冲突了。无论怎么clean,rebuild,invalidate Cache,重启电脑也都不行。最终在这里找到答案。

1.大部分说的一种情况是不同的module使用了相同的包名,我全局搜索了包名,确定每个module的包名都是唯一的。

2.不同的module存在对同一个module的引用,然后app模块引用了这些module,冲突了。采用以下方式排除共同引用的公共库依赖。

dependencies {
    ...
    implementation(project(':react-native-jitsi-meet')) {
        ...
        exclude group: 'com.facebook.react',module:'react-native-linear-gradient' // <<<---- this line was added
    }
}

方法2对我起作用了,打包成功。

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Version 1.7 ----------- - ADD: Delphi/CBuilder 10.2 Tokyo now supported. - ADD: Delphi/CBuilder 10.1 Berlin now supported. - ADD: Delphi/CBuilder 10 Seattle now supported. - ADD: Delphi/CBuilder XE8 now supported. - ADD: Delphi/CBuilder XE7 now supported. - ADD: Delphi/CBuilder XE6 now supported. - ADD: Delphi/CBuilder XE5 now supported. - ADD: Delphi/CBuilder XE4 now supported. - ADD: Delphi/CBuilder XE3 now supported. - ADD: Delphi/CBuilder XE2 now supported. - ADD: Delphi/CBuilder XE now supported. - ADD: Delphi/CBuilder 2010 now supported. - ADD: Delphi/CBuilder 2009 now supported. - ADD: New demo project FlexCADImport. - FIX: The height of the TFlexRegularPolygon object incorrectly changes with its rotation. - FIX: Added division by zero protect in method TFlexControl.MovePathSegment. - FIX: The background beyond docuemnt wasn't filled when TFlexPanel.DocClipping=True. - FIX: In "Windows ClearType" font rendering mode (OS Windows mode) the "garbage" pixels can appear from the right and from the bottom sides of the painted rectangle of the TFlexText object. - FIX: The result rectangle incorrectly calculated in the TFlexText.GetRefreshRect method. - FIX: Added FPaintCache.rcPaint cleanup in the TFlexPanel.WMPaint method. Now it is possible to define is the drawing take place via WMPaint or via the PaintTo direct call (if rcPaint contain non-empty rectangle then WMPaint in progress). - FIX: The TFlexPanel.FPaintCache field moved in the protected class section. Added rcPaint field in FPaintCache that represents drawing rectangle. - ADD: In the text prcise mode (TFlexText.Precise=True) takes into account the rotation angle (TFlexText.Angle). - FIX: Removed FG_NEWTEXTROTATE directive (the TFlexText Precise mode should be used instead). - FIX: The TFlexRegularPolygon object clones incorrectly drawed in case when TFlexRegularPolygon have alternative brush (gradient, texture). - ADD: Add TFlexPanel.InvalidateControl virtual method which calls from TFle
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An Informal Introduction to Python 3.1. Using Python as a Calculator 3.1.1. Numbers 3.1.2. Strings 3.1.3. Lists 3.2. First Steps Towards Programming 4. More Control Flow Tools 4.1. if Statements 4.2. for Statements 4.3. The range() Function 4.4. break and continue Statements, and else Clauses on Loops 4.5. pass Statements 4.6. Defining Functions 4.7. More on Defining Functions 4.7.1. Default Argument Values 4.7.2. Keyword Arguments 4.7.3. Arbitrary Argument Lists 4.7.4. Unpacking Argument Lists 4.7.5. Lambda Expressions 4.7.6. Documentation Strings 4.7.7. Function Annotations 4.8. Intermezzo: Coding Style 5. Data Structures 5.1. More on Lists 5.1.1. Using Lists as Stacks 5.1.2. Using Lists as Queues 5.1.3. List Comprehensions 5.1.4. Nested List Comprehensions 5.2. The del statement 5.3. Tuples and Sequences 5.4. Sets 5.5. Dictionaries 5.6. Looping Techniques 5.7. More on Conditions 5.8. Comparing Sequences and Other Types 6. Modules 6.1. More on Modules 6.1.1. Executing modules as scripts 6.1.2. The Module Search Path 6.1.3. “Compiled” Python files 6.2. Standard Modules 6.3. The dir() Function 6.4. Packages 6.4.1. Importing * From a Package 6.4.2. Intra-package References 6.4.3. Packages in Multiple Directories 7. Input and Output 7.1. Fancier Output Formatting 7.1.1. Old string formatting 7.2. Reading and Writing Files 7.2.1. Methods of File Objects 7.2.2. Saving structured data with json 8. Errors and Exceptions 8.1. Syntax Errors 8.2. Exceptions 8.3. Handling Exceptions 8.4. Raising Exceptions 8.5. User-defined Exceptions 8.6. Defining Clean-up Actions 8.7. Predefined Clean-up Actions 9. Classes 9.1. A Word About Names and Objects 9.2. Python Scopes and Namespaces 9.2.1. Scopes and Namespaces Example 9.3. A First Look at Classes 9.3.1. Class Definition Syntax 9.3.2. Class Objects 9.3.3. Instance Objects 9.3.4. Method Objects 9.3.5. Class and Instance Variables 9.4. Random Remarks 9.5. Inheritance 9.5.1. Multiple Inheritance 9.6. Private Variables 9.7. Odds and Ends 9.8. Iterators 9.9. Generators 9.10. Generator Expressions 10. Brief Tour of the Standard Library 10.1. Operating System Interface 10.2. File Wildcards 10.3. Command Line Arguments 10.4. Error Output Redirection and Program Termination 10.5. String Pattern Matching 10.6. Mathematics 10.7. Internet Access 10.8. Dates and Times 10.9. Data Compression 10.10. Performance Measurement 10.11. Quality Control 10.12. Batteries Included 11. Brief Tour of the Standard Library — Part II 11.1. Output Formatting 11.2. Templating 11.3. Working with Binary Data Record Layouts 11.4. Multi-threading 11.5. Logging 11.6. Weak References 11.7. Tools for Working with Lists 11.8. Decimal Floating Point Arithmetic 12. Virtual Environments and Packages 12.1. Introduction 12.2. Creating Virtual Environments 12.3. Managing Packages with pip 13. What Now? 14. Interactive Input Editing and History Substitution 14.1. Tab Completion and History Editing 14.2. Alternatives to the Interactive Interpreter 15. Floating Point Arithmetic: Issues and Limitations 15.1. Representation Error 16. Appendix 16.1. Interactive Mode 16.1.1. Error Handling 16.1.2. Executable Python Scripts 16.1.3. The Interactive Startup File 16.1.4. The Customization Modules Python Setup and Usage 1. Command line and environment 1.1. Command line 1.1.1. Interface options 1.1.2. Generic options 1.1.3. Miscellaneous options 1.1.4. Options you shouldn’t use 1.2. Environment variables 1.2.1. Debug-mode variables 2. Using Python on Unix platforms 2.1. Getting and installing the latest version of Python 2.1.1. On Linux 2.1.2. On FreeBSD and OpenBSD 2.1.3. On OpenSolaris 2.2. Building Python 2.3. Python-related paths and files 2.4. Miscellaneous 2.5. Editors and IDEs 3. Using Python on Windows 3.1. Installing Python 3.1.1. Supported Versions 3.1.2. Installation Steps 3.1.3. Removing the MAX_PATH Limitation 3.1.4. Installing Without UI 3.1.5. Installing Without Downloading 3.1.6. Modifying an install 3.1.7. Other Platforms 3.2. Alternative bundles 3.3. Configuring Python 3.3.1. Excursus: Setting environment variables 3.3.2. Finding the Python executable 3.4. Python Launcher for Windows 3.4.1. Getting started 3.4.1.1. From the command-line 3.4.1.2. Virtual environments 3.4.1.3. From a script 3.4.1.4. From file associations 3.4.2. Shebang Lines 3.4.3. Arguments in shebang lines 3.4.4. Customization 3.4.4.1. Customization via INI files 3.4.4.2. Customizing default Python versions 3.4.5. Diagnostics 3.5. Finding modules 3.6. Additional modules 3.6.1. PyWin32 3.6.2. cx_Freeze 3.6.3. WConio 3.7. Compiling Python on Windows 3.8. Embedded Distribution 3.8.1. Python Application 3.8.2. Embedding Python 3.9. Other resources 4. Using Python on a Macintosh 4.1. Getting and Installing MacPython 4.1.1. How to run a Python script 4.1.2. Running scripts with a GUI 4.1.3. Configuration 4.2. The IDE 4.3. Installing Additional Python Packages 4.4. GUI Programming on the Mac 4.5. Distributing Python Applications on the Mac 4.6. Other Resources The Python Language Reference 1. Introduction 1.1. Alternate Implementations 1.2. Notation 2. Lexical analysis 2.1. Line structure 2.1.1. Logical lines 2.1.2. Physical lines 2.1.3. Comments 2.1.4. Encoding declarations 2.1.5. Explicit line joining 2.1.6. Implicit line joining 2.1.7. Blank lines 2.1.8. Indentation 2.1.9. Whitespace between tokens 2.2. Other tokens 2.3. Identifiers and keywords 2.3.1. Keywords 2.3.2. Reserved classes of identifiers 2.4. Literals 2.4.1. String and Bytes literals 2.4.2. String literal concatenation 2.4.3. Formatted string literals 2.4.4. Numeric literals 2.4.5. Integer literals 2.4.6. Floating point literals 2.4.7. Imaginary literals 2.5. Operators 2.6. Delimiters 3. Data model 3.1. Objects, values and types 3.2. The standard type hierarchy 3.3. Special method names 3.3.1. Basic customization 3.3.2. Customizing attribute access 3.3.2.1. Customizing module attribute access 3.3.2.2. Implementing Descriptors 3.3.2.3. Invoking Descriptors 3.3.2.4. __slots__ 3.3.2.4.1. Notes on using __slots__ 3.3.3. Customizing class creation 3.3.3.1. Metaclasses 3.3.3.2. Determining the appropriate metaclass 3.3.3.3. Preparing the class namespace 3.3.3.4. Executing the class body 3.3.3.5. Creating the class object 3.3.3.6. Metaclass example 3.3.4. Customizing instance and subclass checks 3.3.5. Emulating callable objects 3.3.6. Emulating container types 3.3.7. Emulating numeric types 3.3.8. With Statement Context Managers 3.3.9. Special method lookup 3.4. Coroutines 3.4.1. Awaitable Objects 3.4.2. Coroutine Objects 3.4.3. Asynchronous Iterators 3.4.4. Asynchronous Context Managers 4. Execution model 4.1. Structure of a program 4.2. Naming and binding 4.2.1. Binding of names 4.2.2. Resolution of names 4.2.3. Builtins and restricted execution 4.2.4. Interaction with dynamic features 4.3. Exceptions 5. The import system 5.1. importlib 5.2. Packages 5.2.1. Regular packages 5.2.2. Namespace packages 5.3. Searching 5.3.1. The module cache 5.3.2. Finders and loaders 5.3.3. Import hooks 5.3.4. The meta path 5.4. Loading 5.4.1. Loaders 5.4.2. Submodules 5.4.3. Module spec 5.4.4. Import-related module attributes 5.4.5. module.__path__ 5.4.6. Module reprs 5.5. The Path Based Finder 5.5.1. Path entry finders 5.5.2. Path entry finder protocol 5.6. Replacing the standard import system 5.7. Special considerations for __main__ 5.7.1. __main__.__spec__ 5.8. Open issues 5.9. References 6. Expressions 6.1. Arithmetic conversions 6.2. Atoms 6.2.1. Identifiers (Names) 6.2.2. Literals 6.2.3. Parenthesized forms 6.2.4. Displays for lists, sets and dictionaries 6.2.5. List displays 6.2.6. Set displays 6.2.7. Dictionary displays 6.2.8. Generator expressions 6.2.9. Yield expressions 6.2.9.1. Generator-iterator methods 6.2.9.2. Examples 6.2.9.3. Asynchronous generator functions 6.2.9.4. Asynchronous generator-iterator methods 6.3. Primaries 6.3.1. Attribute references 6.3.2. Subscriptions 6.3.3. Slicings 6.3.4. Calls 6.4. Await expression 6.5. The power operator 6.6. Unary arithmetic and bitwise operations 6.7. Binary arithmetic operations 6.8. Shifting operations 6.9. Binary bitwise operations 6.10. Comparisons 6.10.1. Value comparisons 6.10.2. Membership test operations 6.10.3. Identity comparisons 6.11. Boolean operations 6.12. Conditional expressions 6.13. Lambdas 6.14. Expression lists 6.15. Evaluation order 6.16. Operator precedence 7. Simple statements 7.1. Expression statements 7.2. Assignment statements 7.2.1. Augmented assignment statements 7.2.2. Annotated assignment statements 7.3. The assert statement 7.4. The pass statement 7.5. The del statement 7.6. The return statement 7.7. The yield statement 7.8. The raise statement 7.9. The break statement 7.10. The continue statement 7.11. The import statement 7.11.1. Future statements 7.12. The global statement 7.13. The nonlocal statement 8. Compound statements 8.1. The if statement 8.2. The while statement 8.3. The for statement 8.4. The try statement 8.5. The with statement 8.6. Function definitions 8.7. Class definitions 8.8. Coroutines 8.8.1. Coroutine function definition 8.8.2. The async for statement 8.8.3. The async with statement 9. Top-level components 9.1. Complete Python programs 9.2. File input 9.3. Interactive input 9.4. Expression input 10. Full Grammar specification The Python Standard Library 1. Introduction 2. Built-in Functions 3. Built-in Constants 3.1. Constants added by the site module 4. Built-in Types 4.1. Truth Value Testing 4.2. Boolean Operations — and, or, not 4.3. Comparisons 4.4. Numeric Types — int, float, complex 4.4.1. Bitwise Operations on Integer Types 4.4.2. Additional Methods on Integer Types 4.4.3. Additional Methods on Float 4.4.4. Hashing of numeric types 4.5. Iterator Types 4.5.1. Generator Types 4.6. Sequence Types — list, tuple, range 4.6.1. Common Sequence Operations 4.6.2. Immutable Sequence Types 4.6.3. Mutable Sequence Types 4.6.4. Lists 4.6.5. Tuples 4.6.6. Ranges 4.7. Text Sequence Type — str 4.7.1. String Methods 4.7.2. printf-style String Formatting 4.8. Binary Sequence Types — bytes, bytearray, memoryview 4.8.1. Bytes Objects 4.8.2. Bytearray Objects 4.8.3. Bytes and Bytearray Operations 4.8.4. printf-style Bytes Formatting 4.8.5. Memory Views 4.9. Set Types — set, frozenset 4.10. Mapping Types — dict 4.10.1. Dictionary view objects 4.11. Context Manager Types 4.12. Other Built-in Types 4.12.1. Modules 4.12.2. Classes and Class Instances 4.12.3. Functions 4.12.4. Methods 4.12.5. Code Objects 4.12.6. Type Objects 4.12.7. The Null Object 4.12.8. The Ellipsis Object 4.12.9. The NotImplemented Object 4.12.10. Boolean Values 4.12.11. Internal Objects 4.13. Special Attributes 5. Built-in Exceptions 5.1. Base classes 5.2. Concrete exceptions 5.2.1. OS exceptions 5.3. Warnings 5.4. Exception hierarchy 6. Text Processing Services 6.1. string — Common string operations 6.1.1. String constants 6.1.2. Custom String Formatting 6.1.3. Format String Syntax 6.1.3.1. Format Specification Mini-Language 6.1.3.2. Format examples 6.1.4. Template strings 6.1.5. Helper functions 6.2. re — Regular expression operations 6.2.1. Regular Expression Syntax 6.2.2. Module Contents 6.2.3. Regular Expression Objects 6.2.4. Match Objects 6.2.5. Regular Expression Examples 6.2.5.1. Checking for a Pair 6.2.5.2. Simulating scanf() 6.2.5.3. search() vs. match() 6.2.5.4. Making a Phonebook 6.2.5.5. Text Munging 6.2.5.6. Finding all Adverbs 6.2.5.7. Finding all Adverbs and their Positions 6.2.5.8. Raw String Notation 6.2.5.9. Writing a Tokenizer 6.3. difflib — Helpers for computing deltas 6.3.1. SequenceMatcher Objects 6.3.2. SequenceMatcher Examples 6.3.3. Differ Objects 6.3.4. Differ Example 6.3.5. A command-line interface to difflib 6.4. textwrap — Text wrapping and filling 6.5. unicodedata — Unicode Database 6.6. stringprep — Internet String Preparation 6.7. readline — GNU readline interface 6.7.1. Init file 6.7.2. Line buffer 6.7.3. History file 6.7.4. History list 6.7.5. Startup hooks 6.7.6. Completion 6.7.7. Example 6.8. rlcompleter — Completion function for GNU readline 6.8.1. Completer Objects 7. Binary Data Services 7.1. struct — Interpret bytes as packed binary data 7.1.1. Functions and Exceptions 7.1.2. Format Strings 7.1.2.1. Byte Order, Size, and Alignment 7.1.2.2. Format Characters 7.1.2.3. Examples 7.1.3. Classes 7.2. codecs — Codec registry and base classes 7.2.1. Codec Base Classes 7.2.1.1. Error Handlers 7.2.1.2. Stateless Encoding and Decoding 7.2.1.3. Incremental Encoding and Decoding 7.2.1.3.1. IncrementalEncoder Objects 7.2.1.3.2. IncrementalDecoder Objects 7.2.1.4. Stream Encoding and Decoding 7.2.1.4.1. StreamWriter Objects 7.2.1.4.2. StreamReader Objects 7.2.1.4.3. StreamReaderWriter Objects 7.2.1.4.4. StreamRecoder Objects 7.2.2. Encodings and Unicode 7.2.3. Standard Encodings 7.2.4. Python Specific Encodings 7.2.4.1. Text Encodings 7.2.4.2. Binary Transforms 7.2.4.3. Text Transforms 7.2.5. encodings.idna — Internationalized Domain Names in Applications 7.2.6. encodings.mbcs — Windows ANSI codepage 7.2.7. encodings.utf_8_sig — UTF-8 codec with BOM signature 8. Data Types 8.1. datetime — Basic date and time types 8.1.1. Available Types 8.1.2. timedelta Objects 8.1.3. date Objects 8.1.4. datetime Objects 8.1.5. time Objects 8.1.6. tzinfo Objects 8.1.7. timezone Objects 8.1.8. strftime() and strptime() Behavior 8.2. calendar — General calendar-related functions 8.3. collections — Container datatypes 8.3.1. ChainMap objects 8.3.1.1. ChainMap Examples and Recipes 8.3.2. Counter objects 8.3.3. deque objects 8.3.3.1. deque Recipes 8.3.4. defaultdict objects 8.3.4.1. defaultdict Examples 8.3.5. namedtuple() Factory Function for Tuples with Named Fields 8.3.6. OrderedDict objects 8.3.6.1. OrderedDict Examples and Recipes 8.3.7. UserDict objects 8.3.8. UserList objects 8.3.9. UserString objects 8.4. collections.abc — Abstract Base Classes for Containers 8.4.1. Collections Abstract Base Classes 8.5. heapq — Heap queue algorithm 8.5.1. Basic Examples 8.5.2. Priority Queue Implementation Notes 8.5.3. Theory 8.6. bisect — Array bisection algorithm 8.6.1. Searching Sorted Lists 8.6.2. Other Examples 8.7. array — Efficient arrays of numeric values 8.8. weakref — Weak references 8.8.1. Weak Reference Objects 8.8.2. Example 8.8.3. Finalizer Objects 8.8.4. Comparing finalizers with __del__() methods 8.9. types — Dynamic type creation and names for built-in types 8.9.1. Dynamic Type Creation 8.9.2. Standard Interpreter Types 8.9.3. Additional Utility Classes and Functions 8.9.4. Coroutine Utility Functions 8.10. copy — Shallow and deep copy operations 8.11. pprint — Data pretty printer 8.11.1. PrettyPrinter Objects 8.11.2. Example 8.12. reprlib — Alternate repr() implementation 8.12.1. Repr Objects 8.12.2. Subclassing Repr Objects 8.13. enum — Support for enumerations 8.13.1. Module Contents 8.13.2. Creating an Enum 8.13.3. Programmatic access to enumeration members and their attributes 8.13.4. Duplicating enum members and values 8.13.5. Ensuring unique enumeration values 8.13.6. Using automatic values 8.13.7. Iteration 8.13.8. Comparisons 8.13.9. Allowed members and attributes of enumerations 8.13.10. Restricted subclassing of enumerations 8.13.11. Pickling 8.13.12. Functional API 8.13.13. Derived Enumerations 8.13.13.1. IntEnum 8.13.13.2. IntFlag 8.13.13.3. Flag 8.13.13.4. Others 8.13.14. Interesting examples 8.13.14.1. Omitting values 8.13.14.1.1. Using auto 8.13.14.1.2. Using object 8.13.14.1.3. Using a descriptive string 8.13.14.1.4. Using a custom __new__() 8.13.14.2. OrderedEnum 8.13.14.3. DuplicateFreeEnum 8.13.14.4. Planet 8.13.15. How are Enums different? 8.13.15.1. Enum Classes 8.13.15.2. Enum Members (aka instances) 8.13.15.3. Finer Points 8.13.15.3.1. Supported __dunder__ names 8.13.15.3.2. Supported _sunder_ names 8.13.15.3.3. Enum member type 8.13.15.3.4. Boolean value of Enum classes and members 8.13.15.3.5. Enum classes with methods 8.13.15.3.6. Combining members of Flag 9. Numeric and Mathematical Modules 9.1. numbers — Numeric abstract base classes 9.1.1. The numeric tower 9.1.2. Notes for type implementors 9.1.2.1. Adding More Numeric ABCs 9.1.2.2. Implementing the arithmetic operations 9.2. math — Mathematical functions 9.2.1. Number-theoretic and representation functions 9.2.2. Power and logarithmic functions 9.2.3. Trigonometric functions 9.2.4. Angular conversion 9.2.5. Hyperbolic functions 9.2.6. Special functions 9.2.7. Constants 9.3. cmath — Mathematical functions for complex numbers 9.3.1. Conversions to and from polar coordinates 9.3.2. Power and logarithmic functions 9.3.3. Trigonometric functions 9.3.4. Hyperbolic functions 9.3.5. Classification functions 9.3.6. Constants 9.4. decimal — Decimal fixed point and floating point arithmetic 9.4.1. Quick-start Tutorial 9.4.2. Decimal objects 9.4.2.1. Logical operands 9.4.3. Context objects 9.4.4. Constants 9.4.5. Rounding modes 9.4.6. Signals 9.4.7. Floating Point Notes 9.4.7.1. Mitigating round-off error with increased precision 9.4.7.2. Special values 9.4.8. Working with threads 9.4.9. Recipes 9.4.10. Decimal FAQ 9.5. fractions — Rational numbers 9.6. random — Generate pseudo-random numbers 9.6.1. Bookkeeping functions 9.6.2. Functions for integers 9.6.3. Functions for sequences 9.6.4. Real-valued distributions 9.6.5. Alternative Generator 9.6.6. Notes on Reproducibility 9.6.7. Examples and Recipes 9.7. statistics — Mathematical statistics functions 9.7.1. Averages and measures of central location 9.7.2. Measures of spread 9.7.3. Function details 9.7.4. Exceptions 10. Functional Programming Modules 10.1. itertools — Functions creating iterators for efficient looping 10.1.1. Itertool functions 10.1.2. Itertools Recipes 10.2. functools — Higher-order functions and operations on callable objects 10.2.1. partial Objects 10.3. operator — Standard operators as functions 10.3.1. Mapping Operators to Functions 10.3.2. Inplace Operators 11. File and Directory Access 11.1. pathlib — Object-oriented filesystem paths 11.1.1. Basic use 11.1.2. Pure paths 11.1.2.1. General properties 11.1.2.2. Operators 11.1.2.3. Accessing individual parts 11.1.2.4. Methods and properties 11.1.3. Concrete paths 11.1.3.1. Methods 11.2. os.path — Common pathname manipulations 11.3. fileinput — Iterate over lines from multiple input streams 11.4. stat — Interpreting stat() results 11.5. filecmp — File and Directory Comparisons 11.5.1. The dircmp class 11.6. tempfile — Generate temporary files and directories 11.6.1. Examples 11.6.2. Deprecated functions and variables 11.7. glob — Unix style pathname pattern expansion 11.8. fnmatch — Unix filename pattern matching 11.9. linecache — Random access to text lines 11.10. shutil — High-level file operations 11.10.1. Directory and files operations 11.10.1.1. copytree example 11.10.1.2. rmtree example 11.10.2. Archiving operations 11.10.2.1. Archiving example 11.10.3. Querying the size of the output terminal 11.11. macpath — Mac OS 9 path manipulation functions 12. Data Persistence 12.1. pickle — Python object serialization 12.1.1. Relationship to other Python modules 12.1.1.1. Comparison with marshal 12.1.1.2. Comparison with json 12.1.2. Data stream format 12.1.3. Module Interface 12.1.4. What can be pickled and unpickled? 12.1.5. Pickling Class Instances 12.1.5.1. Persistence of External Objects 12.1.5.2. Dispatch Tables 12.1.5.3. Handling Stateful Objects 12.1.6. Restricting Globals 12.1.7. Performance 12.1.8. Examples 12.2. copyreg — Register pickle support functions 12.2.1. Example 12.3. shelve — Python object persistence 12.3.1. Restrictions 12.3.2. Example 12.4. marshal — Internal Python object serialization 12.5. dbm — Interfaces to Unix “databases” 12.5.1. dbm.gnu — GNU’s reinterpretation of dbm 12.5.2. dbm.ndbm — Interface based on ndbm 12.5.3. dbm.dumb — Portable DBM implementation 12.6. sqlite3 — DB-API 2.0 interface for SQLite databases 12.6.1. Module functions and constants 12.6.2. Connection Objects 12.6.3. Cursor Objects 12.6.4. Row Objects 12.6.5. Exceptions 12.6.6. SQLite and Python types 12.6.6.1. Introduction 12.6.6.2. Using adapters to store additional Python types in SQLite databases 12.6.6.2.1. Letting your object adapt itself 12.6.6.2.2. Registering an adapter callable 12.6.6.3. Converting SQLite values to custom Python types 12.6.6.4. Default adapters and converters 12.6.7. Controlling Transactions 12.6.8. Using sqlite3 efficiently 12.6.8.1. Using shortcut methods 12.6.8.2. Accessing columns by name instead of by index 12.6.8.3. Using the connection as a context manager 12.6.9. Common issues 12.6.9.1. Multithreading 13. Data Compression and Archiving 13.1. zlib — Compression compatible with gzip 13.2. gzip — Support for gzip files 13.2.1. Examples of usage 13.3. bz2 — Support for bzip2 compression 13.3.1. (De)compression of files 13.3.2. Incremental (de)compression 13.3.3. One-shot (de)compression 13.4. lzma — Compression using the LZMA algorithm 13.4.1. Reading and writing compressed files 13.4.2. Compressing and decompressing data in memory 13.4.3. Miscellaneous 13.4.4. Specifying custom filter chains 13.4.5. Examples 13.5. zipfile — Work with ZIP archives 13.5.1. ZipFile Objects 13.5.2. PyZipFile Objects 13.5.3. ZipInfo Objects 13.5.4. Command-Line Interface 13.5.4.1. Command-line options 13.6. tarfile — Read and write tar archive files 13.6.1. TarFile Objects 13.6.2. TarInfo Objects 13.6.3. Command-Line Interface 13.6.3.1. Command-line options 13.6.4. Examples 13.6.5. Supported tar formats 13.6.6. Unicode issues 14. File Formats 14.1. csv — CSV File Reading and Writing 14.1.1. Module Contents 14.1.2. Dialects and Formatting Parameters 14.1.3. Reader Objects 14.1.4. Writer Objects 14.1.5. Examples 14.2. configparser — Configuration file parser 14.2.1. Quick Start 14.2.2. Supported Datatypes 14.2.3. Fallback Values 14.2.4. Supported INI File Structure 14.2.5. Interpolation of values 14.2.6. Mapping Protocol Access 14.2.7. Customizing Parser Behaviour 14.2.8. Legacy API Examples 14.2.9. ConfigParser Objects 14.2.10. RawConfigParser Objects 14.2.11. Exceptions 14.3. netrc — netrc file processing 14.3.1. netrc Objects 14.4. xdrlib — Encode and decode XDR data 14.4.1. Packer Objects 14.4.2. Unpacker Objects 14.4.3. Exceptions 14.5. plistlib — Generate and parse Mac OS X .plist files 14.5.1. Examples 15. Cryptographic Services 15.1. hashlib — Secure hashes and message digests 15.1.1. Hash algorithms 15.1.2. SHAKE variable length digests 15.1.3. Key derivation 15.1.4. BLAKE2 15.1.4.1. Creating hash objects 15.1.4.2. Constants 15.1.4.3. Examples 15.1.4.3.1. Simple hashing 15.1.4.3.2. Using different digest sizes 15.1.4.3.3. Keyed hashing 15.1.4.3.4. Randomized hashing 15.1.4.3.5. Personalization 15.1.4.3.6. Tree mode 15.1.4.4. Credits 15.2. hmac — Keyed-Hashing for Message Authentication 15.3. secrets — Generate secure random numbers for managing secrets 15.3.1. Random numbers 15.3.2. Generating tokens 15.3.2.1. How many bytes should tokens use? 15.3.3. Other functions 15.3.4. Recipes and best practices 16. Generic Operating System Services 16.1. os — Miscellaneous operating system interfaces 16.1.1. File Names, Command Line Arguments, and Environment Variables 16.1.2. Process Parameters 16.1.3. File Object Creation 16.1.4. File Descriptor Operations 16.1.4.1. Querying the size of a terminal 16.1.4.2. Inheritance of File Descriptors 16.1.5. Files and Directories 16.1.5.1. Linux extended attributes 16.1.6. Process Management 16.1.7. Interface to the scheduler 16.1.8. Miscellaneous System Information 16.1.9. Random numbers 16.2. io — Core tools for working with streams 16.2.1. Overview 16.2.1.1. Text I/O 16.2.1.2. Binary I/O 16.2.1.3. Raw I/O 16.2.2. High-level Module Interface 16.2.2.1. In-memory streams 16.2.3. Class hierarchy 16.2.3.1. I/O Base Classes 16.2.3.2. Raw File I/O 16.2.3.3. Buffered Streams 16.2.3.4. Text I/O 16.2.4. Performance 16.2.4.1. Binary I/O 16.2.4.2. Text I/O 16.2.4.3. Multi-threading 16.2.4.4. Reentrancy 16.3. timeTime access and conversions 16.3.1. Functions 16.3.2. Clock ID Constants 16.3.3. Timezone Constants 16.4. argparse — Parser for command-line options, arguments and sub-commands 16.4.1. Example 16.4.1.1. Creating a parser 16.4.1.2. Adding arguments 16.4.1.3. Parsing arguments 16.4.2. ArgumentParser objects 16.4.2.1. prog 16.4.2.2. usage 16.4.2.3. description 16.4.2.4. epilog 16.4.2.5. parents 16.4.2.6. formatter_class 16.4.2.7. prefix_chars 16.4.2.8. fromfile_prefix_chars 16.4.2.9. argument_default 16.4.2.10. allow_abbrev 16.4.2.11. conflict_handler 16.4.2.12. add_help 16.4.3. The add_argument() method 16.4.3.1. name or flags 16.4.3.2. action 16.4.3.3. nargs 16.4.3.4. const 16.4.3.5. default 16.4.3.6. type 16.4.3.7. choices 16.4.3.8. required 16.4.3.9. help 16.4.3.10. metavar 16.4.3.11. dest 16.4.3.12. Action classes 16.4.4. The parse_args() method 16.4.4.1. Option value syntax 16.4.4.2. Invalid arguments 16.4.4.3. Arguments containing - 16.4.4.4. Argument abbreviations (prefix matching) 16.4.4.5. Beyond sys.argv 16.4.4.6. The Namespace object 16.4.5. Other utilities 16.4.5.1. Sub-commands 16.4.5.2. FileType objects 16.4.5.3. Argument groups 16.4.5.4. Mutual exclusion 16.4.5.5. Parser defaults 16.4.5.6. Printing help 16.4.5.7. Partial parsing 16.4.5.8. Customizing file parsing 16.4.5.9. Exiting methods 16.4.6. Upgrading optparse code 16.5. getopt — C-style parser for command line options 16.6. logging — Logging facility for Python 16.6.1. Logger Objects 16.6.2. Logging Levels 16.6.3. Handler Objects 16.6.4. Formatter Objects 16.6.5. Filter Objects 16.6.6. LogRecord Objects 16.6.7. LogRecord attributes 16.6.8. LoggerAdapter Objects 16.6.9. Thread Safety 16.6.10. Module-Level Functions 16.6.11. Module-Level Attributes 16.6.12. Integration with the warnings module 16.7. logging.config — Logging configuration 16.7.1. Configuration functions 16.7.2. Configuration dictionary schema 16.7.2.1. Dictionary Schema Details 16.7.2.2. Incremental Configuration 16.7.2.3. Object connections 16.7.2.4. User-defined objects 16.7.2.5. Access to external objects 16.7.2.6. Access to internal objects 16.7.2.7. Import resolution and custom importers 16.7.3. Configuration file format 16.8. logging.handlers — Logging handlers 16.8.1. StreamHandler 16.8.2. FileHandler 16.8.3. NullHandler 16.8.4. WatchedFileHandler 16.8.5. BaseRotatingHandler 16.8.6. RotatingFileHandler 16.8.7. TimedRotatingFileHandler 16.8.8. SocketHandler 16.8.9. DatagramHandler 16.8.10. SysLogHandler 16.8.11. NTEventLogHandler 16.8.12. SMTPHandler 16.8.13. MemoryHandler 16.8.14. HTTPHandler 16.8.15. QueueHandler 16.8.16. QueueListener 16.9. getpass — Portable password input 16.10. curses — Terminal handling for character-cell displays 16.10.1. Functions 16.10.2. Window Objects 16.10.3. Constants 16.11. curses.textpad — Text input widget for curses programs 16.11.1. Textbox objects 16.12. curses.ascii — Utilities for ASCII characters 16.13. curses.panel — A panel stack extension for curses 16.13.1. Functions 16.13.2. Panel Objects 16.14. platform — Access to underlying platform’s identifying data 16.14.1. Cross Platform 16.14.2. Java Platform 16.14.3. Windows Platform 16.14.3.1. Win95/98 specific 16.14.4. Mac OS Platform 16.14.5. Unix Platforms 16.15. errno — Standard errno system symbols 16.16. ctypes — A foreign function library for Python 16.16.1. ctypes tutorial 16.16.1.1. Loading dynamic link libraries 16.16.1.2. Accessing functions from loaded dlls 16.16.1.3. Calling functions 16.16.1.4. Fundamental data types 16.16.1.5. Calling functions, continued 16.16.1.6. Calling functions with your own custom data types 16.16.1.7. Specifying the required argument types (function prototypes) 16.16.1.8. Return types 16.16.1.9. Passing pointers (or: passing parameters by reference) 16.16.1.10. Structures and unions 16.16.1.11. Structure/union alignment and byte order 16.16.1.12. Bit fields in structures and unions 16.16.1.13. Arrays 16.16.1.14. Pointers 16.16.1.15. Type conversions 16.16.1.16. Incomplete Types 16.16.1.17. Callback functions 16.16.1.18. Accessing values exported from dlls 16.16.1.19. Surprises 16.16.1.20. Variable-sized data types 16.16.2. ctypes reference 16.16.2.1. Finding shared libraries 16.16.2.2. Loading shared libraries 16.16.2.3. Foreign functions 16.16.2.4. Function prototypes 16.16.2.5. Utility functions 16.16.2.6. Data types 16.16.2.7. Fundamental data types 16.16.2.8. Structured data types 16.16.2.9. Arrays and pointers 17. Concurrent Execution 17.1. threading — Thread-based parallelism 17.1.1. Thread-Local Data 17.1.2. Thread Objects 17.1.3. Lock Objects 17.1.4. RLock Objects 17.1.5. Condition Objects 17.1.6. Semaphore Objects 17.1.6.1. Semaphore Example 17.1.7. Event Objects 17.1.8. Timer Objects 17.1.9. Barrier Objects 17.1.10. Using locks, conditions, and semaphores in the with statement 17.2. multiprocessing — Process-based parallelism 17.2.1. Introduction 17.2.1.1. The Process class 17.2.1.2. Contexts and start methods 17.2.1.3. Exchanging objects between processes 17.2.1.4. Synchronization between processes 17.2.1.5. Sharing state between processes 17.2.1.6. Using a pool of workers 17.2.2. Reference 17.2.2.1. Process and exceptions 17.2.2.2. Pipes and Queues 17.2.2.3. Miscellaneous 17.2.2.4. Connection Objects 17.2.2.5. Synchronization primitives 17.2.2.6. Shared ctypes Objects 17.2.2.6.1. The multiprocessing.sharedctypes module 17.2.2.7. Managers 17.2.2.7.1. Customized managers 17.2.2.7.2. Using a remote manager 17.2.2.8. Proxy Objects 17.2.2.8.1. Cleanup 17.2.2.9. Process Pools 17.2.2.10. Listeners and Clients 17.2.2.10.1. Address Formats 17.2.2.11. Authentication keys 17.2.2.12. Logging 17.2.2.13. The multiprocessing.dummy module 17.2.3. Programming guidelines 17.2.3.1. All start methods 17.2.3.2. The spawn and forkserver start methods 17.2.4. Examples 17.3. The concurrent package 17.4. concurrent.futures — Launching parallel tasks 17.4.1. Executor Objects 17.4.2. ThreadPoolExecutor 17.4.2.1. ThreadPoolExecutor Example 17.4.3. ProcessPoolExecutor 17.4.3.1. ProcessPoolExecutor Example 17.4.4. Future Objects 17.4.5. Module Functions 17.4.6. Exception classes 17.5. subprocess — Subprocess management 17.5.1. Using the subprocess Module 17.5.1.1. Frequently Used Arguments 17.5.1.2. Popen Constructor 17.5.1.3. Exceptions 17.5.2. Security Considerations 17.5.3. Popen Objects 17.5.4. Windows Popen Helpers 17.5.4.1. Constants 17.5.5. Older high-level API 17.5.6. Replacing Older Functions with the subprocess Module 17.5.6.1. Replacing /bin/sh shell backquote 17.5.6.2. Replacing shell pipeline 17.5.6.3. Replacing os.system() 17.5.6.4. Replacing the os.spawn family 17.5.6.5. Replacing os.popen(), os.popen2(), os.popen3() 17.5.6.6. Replacing functions from the popen2 module 17.5.7. Legacy Shell Invocation Functions 17.5.8. Notes 17.5.8.1. Converting an argument sequence to a string on Windows 17.6. sched — Event scheduler 17.6.1. Scheduler Objects 17.7. queue — A synchronized queue class 17.7.1. Queue Objects 17.8. dummy_threading — Drop-in replacement for the threading module 17.9. _thread — Low-level threading API 17.10. _dummy_thread — Drop-in replacement for the _thread module 18. Interprocess Communication and Networking 18.1. socket — Low-level networking interface 18.1.1. Socket families 18.1.2. Module contents 18.1.2.1. Exceptions 18.1.2.2. Constants 18.1.2.3. Functions 18.1.2.3.1. Creating sockets 18.1.2.3.2. Other functions 18.1.3. Socket Objects 18.1.4. Notes on socket timeouts 18.1.4.1. Timeouts and the connect method 18.1.4.2. Timeouts and the accept method 18.1.5. Example 18.2. ssl — TLS/SSL wrapper for socket objects 18.2.1. Functions, Constants, and Exceptions 18.2.1.1. Socket creation 18.2.1.2. Context creation 18.2.1.3. Random generation 18.2.1.4. Certificate handling 18.2.1.5. Constants 18.2.2. SSL Sockets 18.2.3. SSL Contexts 18.2.4. Certificates 18.2.4.1. Certificate chains 18.2.4.2. CA certificates 18.2.4.3. Combined key and certificate 18.2.4.4. Self-signed certificates 18.2.5. Examples 18.2.5.1. Testing for SSL support 18.2.5.2. Client-side operation 18.2.5.3. Server-side operation 18.2.6. Notes on non-blocking sockets 18.2.7. Memory BIO Support 18.2.8. SSL session 18.2.9. Security considerations 18.2.9.1. Best defaults 18.2.9.2. Manual settings 18.2.9.2.1. Verifying certificates 18.2.9.2.2. Protocol versions 18.2.9.2.3. Cipher selection 18.2.9.3. Multi-processing 18.2.10. LibreSSL support 18.3. select — Waiting for I/O completion 18.3.1. /dev/poll Polling Objects 18.3.2. Edge and Level Trigger Polling (epoll) Objects 18.3.3. Polling Objects 18.3.4. Kqueue Objects 18.3.5. Kevent Objects 18.4. selectors — High-level I/O multiplexing 18.4.1. Introduction 18.4.2. Classes 18.4.3. Examples 18.5. asyncio — Asynchronous I/O, event loop, coroutines and tasks 18.5.1. Base Event Loop 18.5.1.1. Run an event loop 18.5.1.2. Calls 18.5.1.3. Delayed calls 18.5.1.4. Futures 18.5.1.5. Tasks 18.5.1.6. Creating connections 18.5.1.7. Creating listening connections 18.5.1.8. Watch file descriptors 18.5.1.9. Low-level socket operations 18.5.1.10. Resolve host name 18.5.1.11. Connect pipes 18.5.1.12. UNIX signals 18.5.1.13. Executor 18.5.1.14. Error Handling API 18.5.1.15. Debug mode 18.5.1.16. Server 18.5.1.17. Handle 18.5.1.18. Event loop examples 18.5.1.18.1. Hello World with call_soon() 18.5.1.18.2. Display the current date with call_later() 18.5.1.18.3. Watch a file descriptor for read events 18.5.1.18.4. Set signal handlers for SIGINT and SIGTERM 18.5.2. Event loops 18.5.2.1. Event loop functions 18.5.2.2. Available event loops 18.5.2.3. Platform support 18.5.2.3.1. Windows 18.5.2.3.2. Mac OS X 18.5.2.4. Event loop policies and the default policy 18.5.2.5. Event loop policy interface 18.5.2.6. Access to the global loop policy 18.5.2.7. Customizing the event loop policy 18.5.3. Tasks and coroutines 18.5.3.1. Coroutines 18.5.3.1.1. Example: Hello World coroutine 18.5.3.1.2. Example: Coroutine displaying the current date 18.5.3.1.3. Example: Chain coroutines 18.5.3.2. InvalidStateError 18.5.3.3. TimeoutError 18.5.3.4. Future 18.5.3.4.1. Example: Future with run_until_complete() 18.5.3.4.2. Example: Future with run_forever() 18.5.3.5. Task 18.5.3.5.1. Example: Parallel execution of tasks 18.5.3.6. Task functions 18.5.4. Transports and protocols (callback based API) 18.5.4.1. Transports 18.5.4.1.1. BaseTransport 18.5.4.1.2. ReadTransport 18.5.4.1.3. WriteTransport 18.5.4.1.4. DatagramTransport 18.5.4.1.5. BaseSubprocessTransport 18.5.4.2. Protocols 18.5.4.2.1. Protocol classes 18.5.4.2.2. Connection callbacks 18.5.4.2.3. Streaming protocols 18.5.4.2.4. Datagram protocols 18.5.4.2.5. Flow control callbacks 18.5.4.2.6. Coroutines and protocols 18.5.4.3. Protocol examples 18.5.4.3.1. TCP echo client protocol 18.5.4.3.2. TCP echo server protocol 18.5.4.3.3. UDP echo client protocol 18.5.4.3.4. UDP echo server protocol 18.5.4.3.5. Register an open socket to wait for data using a protocol 18.5.5. Streams (coroutine based API) 18.5.5.1. Stream functions 18.5.5.2. StreamReader 18.5.5.3. StreamWriter 18.5.5.4. StreamReaderProtocol 18.5.5.5. IncompleteReadError 18.5.5.6. LimitOverrunError 18.5.5.7. Stream examples 18.5.5.7.1. TCP echo client using streams 18.5.5.7.2. TCP echo server using streams 18.5.5.7.3. Get HTTP headers 18.5.5.7.4. Register an open socket to wait for data using streams 18.5.6. Subprocess 18.5.6.1. Windows event loop 18.5.6.2. Create a subprocess: high-level API using Process 18.5.6.3. Create a subprocess: low-level API using subprocess.Popen 18.5.6.4. Constants 18.5.6.5. Process 18.5.6.6. Subprocess and threads 18.5.6.7. Subprocess examples 18.5.6.7.1. Subprocess using transport and protocol 18.5.6.7.2. Subprocess using streams 18.5.7. Synchronization primitives 18.5.7.1. Locks 18.5.7.1.1. Lock 18.5.7.1.2. Event 18.5.7.1.3. Condition 18.5.7.2. Semaphores 18.5.7.2.1. Semaphore 18.5.7.2.2. BoundedSemaphore 18.5.8. Queues 18.5.8.1. Queue 18.5.8.2. PriorityQueue 18.5.8.3. LifoQueue 18.5.8.3.1. Exceptions 18.5.9. Develop with asyncio 18.5.9.1. Debug mode of asyncio 18.5.9.2. Cancellation 18.5.9.3. Concurrency and multithreading 18.5.9.4. Handle blocking functions correctly 18.5.9.5. Logging 18.5.9.6. Detect coroutine objects never scheduled 18.5.9.7. Detect exceptions never consumed 18.5.9.8. Chain coroutines correctly 18.5.9.9. Pending task destroyed 18.5.9.10. Close transports and event loops 18.6. asyncore — Asynchronous socket handler 18.6.1. asyncore Example basic HTTP client 18.6.2. asyncore Example basic echo server 18.7. asynchat — Asynchronous socket command/response handler 18.7.1. asynchat Example 18.8. signal — Set handlers for asynchronous events 18.8.1. General rules 18.8.1.1. Execution of Python signal handlers 18.8.1.2. Signals and threads 18.8.2. Module contents 18.8.3. Example 18.9. mmap — Memory-mapped file support 19. Internet Data Handling 19.1. email — An email and MIME handling package 19.1.1. email.message: Representing an email message 19.1.2. email.parser: Parsing email messages 19.1.2.1. FeedParser API 19.1.2.2. Parser API 19.1.2.3. Additional notes 19.1.3. email.generator: Generating MIME documents 19.1.4. email.policy: Policy Objects 19.1.5. email.errors: Exception and Defect classes 19.1.6. email.headerregistry: Custom Header Objects 19.1.7. email.contentmanager: Managing MIME Content 19.1.7.1. Content Manager Instances 19.1.8. email: Examples 19.1.9. email.message.Message: Representing an email message using the compat32 API 19.1.10. email.mime: Creating email and MIME objects from scratch 19.1.11. email.header: Internationalized headers 19.1.12. email.charset: Representing character sets 19.1.13. email.encoders: Encoders 19.1.14. email.utils: Miscellaneous utilities 19.1.15. email.iterators: Iterators 19.2. json — JSON encoder and decoder 19.2.1. Basic Usage 19.2.2. Encoders and Decoders 19.2.3. Exceptions 19.2.4. Standard Compliance and Interoperability 19.2.4.1. Character Encodings 19.2.4.2. Infinite and NaN Number Values 19.2.4.3. Repeated Names Within an Object 19.2.4.4. Top-level Non-Object, Non-Array Values 19.2.4.5. Implementation Limitations 19.2.5. Command Line Interface 19.2.5.1. Command line options 19.3. mailcap — Mailcap file handling 19.4. mailbox — Manipulate mailboxes in various formats 19.4.1. Mailbox objects 19.4.1.1. Maildir 19.4.1.2. mbox 19.4.1.3. MH 19.4.1.4. Babyl 19.4.1.5. MMDF 19.4.2. Message objects 19.4.2.1. MaildirMessage 19.4.2.2. mboxMessage 19.4.2.3. MHMessage 19.4.2.4. BabylMessage 19.4.2.5. MMDFMessage 19.4.3. Exceptions 19.4.4. Examples 19.5. mimetypes — Map filenames to MIME types 19.5.1. MimeTypes Objects 19.6. base64 — Base16, Base32, Base64, Base85 Data Encodings 19.7. binhex — Encode and decode binhex4 files 19.7.1. Notes 19.8. binascii — Convert between binary and ASCII 19.9. quopri — Encode and decode MIME quoted-printable data 19.10. uu — Encode and decode uuencode files 20. Structured Markup Processing Tools 20.1. html — HyperText Markup Language support 20.2. html.parser — Simple HTML and XHTML parser 20.2.1. Example HTML Parser Application 20.2.2. HTMLParser Methods 20.2.3. Examples 20.3. html.entities — Definitions of HTML general entities 20.4. XML Processing Modules 20.4.1. XML vulnerabilities 20.4.2. The defusedxml and defusedexpat Packages 20.5. xml.etree.ElementTree — The ElementTree XML API 20.5.1. Tutorial 20.5.1.1. XML tree and elements 20.5.1.2. Parsing XML 20.5.1.3. Pull API for non-blocking parsing 20.5.1.4. Finding interesting elements 20.5.1.5. Modifying an XML File 20.5.1.6. Building XML documents 20.5.1.7. Parsing XML with Namespaces 20.5.1.8. Additional resources 20.5.2. XPath support 20.5.2.1. Example 20.5.2.2. Supported XPath syntax 20.5.3. Reference 20.5.3.1. Functions 20.5.3.2. Element Objects 20.5.3.3. ElementTree Objects 20.5.3.4. QName Objects 20.5.3.5. TreeBuilder Objects 20.5.3.6. XMLParser Objects 20.5.3.7. XMLPullParser Objects 20.5.3.8. Exceptions 20.6. xml.dom — The Document Object Model API 20.6.1. Module Contents 20.6.2. Objects in the DOM 20.6.2.1. DOMImplementation Objects 20.6.2.2. Node Objects 20.6.2.3. NodeList Objects 20.6.2.4. DocumentType Objects 20.6.2.5. Document Objects 20.6.2.6. Element Objects 20.6.2.7. Attr Objects 20.6.2.8. NamedNodeMap Objects 20.6.2.9. Comment Objects 20.6.2.10. Text and CDATASection Objects 20.6.2.11. ProcessingInstruction Objects 20.6.2.12. Exceptions 20.6.3. Conformance 20.6.3.1. Type Mapping 20.6.3.2. Accessor Methods 20.7. xml.dom.minidom — Minimal DOM implementation 20.7.1. DOM Objects 20.7.2. DOM Example 20.7.3. minidom and the DOM standard 20.8. xml.dom.pulldom — Support for building partial DOM trees 20.8.1. DOMEventStream Objects 20.9. xml.sax — Support for SAX2 parsers 20.9.1. SAXException Objects 20.10. xml.sax.handler — Base classes for SAX handlers 20.10.1. ContentHandler Objects 20.10.2. DTDHandler Objects 20.10.3. EntityResolver Objects 20.10.4. ErrorHandler Objects 20.11. xml.sax.saxutils — SAX Utilities 20.12. xml.sax.xmlreader — Interface for XML parsers 20.12.1. XMLReader Objects 20.12.2. IncrementalParser Objects 20.12.3. Locator Objects 20.12.4. InputSource Objects 20.12.5. The Attributes Interface 20.12.6. The AttributesNS Interface 20.13. xml.parsers.expat — Fast XML parsing using Expat 20.13.1. XMLParser Objects 20.13.2. ExpatError Exceptions 20.13.3. Example 20.13.4. Content Model Descriptions 20.13.5. Expat error constants 21. Internet Protocols and Support 21.1. webbrowser — Convenient Web-browser controller 21.1.1. Browser Controller Objects 21.2. cgi — Common Gateway Interface support 21.2.1. Introduction 21.2.2. Using the cgi module 21.2.3. Higher Level Interface 21.2.4. Functions 21.2.5. Caring about security 21.2.6. Installing your CGI script on a Unix system 21.2.7. Testing your CGI script 21.2.8. Debugging CGI scripts 21.2.9. Common problems and solutions 21.3. cgitb — Traceback manager for CGI scripts 21.4. wsgiref — WSGI Utilities and Reference Implementation 21.4.1. wsgiref.util – WSGI environment utilities 21.4.2. wsgiref.headers – WSGI response header tools 21.4.3. wsgiref.simple_server – a simple WSGI HTTP server 21.4.4. wsgiref.validate — WSGI conformance checker 21.4.5. wsgiref.handlers – server/gateway base classes 21.4.6. Examples 21.5. urllib — URL handling modules 21.6. urllib.request — Extensible library for opening URLs 21.6.1. Request Objects 21.6.2. OpenerDirector Objects 21.6.3. BaseHandler Objects 21.6.4. HTTPRedirectHandler Objects 21.6.5. HTTPCookieProcessor Objects 21.6.6. ProxyHandler Objects 21.6.7. HTTPPasswordMgr Objects 21.6.8. HTTPPasswordMgrWithPriorAuth Objects 21.6.9. AbstractBasicAuthHandler Objects 21.6.10. HTTPBasicAuthHandler Objects 21.6.11. ProxyBasicAuthHandler Objects 21.6.12. AbstractDigestAuthHandler Objects 21.6.13. HTTPDigestAuthHandler Objects 21.6.14. ProxyDigestAuthHandler Objects 21.6.15. HTTPHandler Objects 21.6.16. HTTPSHandler Objects 21.6.17. FileHandler Objects 21.6.18. DataHandler Objects 21.6.19. FTPHandler Objects 21.6.20. CacheFTPHandler Objects 21.6.21. UnknownHandler Objects 21.6.22. HTTPErrorProcessor Objects 21.6.23. Examples 21.6.24. Legacy interface 21.6.25. urllib.request Restrictions 21.7. urllib.response — Response classes used by urllib 21.8. urllib.parse — Parse URLs into components 21.8.1. URL Parsing 21.8.2. Parsing ASCII Encoded Bytes 21.8.3. Structured Parse Results 21.8.4. URL Quoting 21.9. urllib.error — Exception classes raised by urllib.request 21.10. urllib.robotparser — Parser for robots.txt 21.11. http — HTTP modules 21.11.1. HTTP status codes 21.12. http.client — HTTP protocol client 21.12.1. HTTPConnection Objects 21.12.2. HTTPResponse Objects 21.12.3. Examples 21.12.4. HTTPMessage Objects 21.13. ftplib — FTP protocol client 21.13.1. FTP Objects 21.13.2. FTP_TLS Objects 21.14. poplib — POP3 protocol client 21.14.1. POP3 Objects 21.14.2. POP3 Example 21.15. imaplib — IMAP4 protocol client 21.15.1. IMAP4 Objects 21.15.2. IMAP4 Example 21.16. nntplib — NNTP protocol client 21.16.1. NNTP Objects 21.16.1.1. Attributes 21.16.1.2. Methods 21.16.2. Utility functions 21.17. smtplib — SMTP protocol client 21.17.1. SMTP Objects 21.17.2. SMTP Example 21.18. smtpd — SMTP Server 21.18.1. SMTPServer Objects 21.18.2. DebuggingServer Objects 21.18.3. PureProxy Objects 21.18.4. MailmanProxy Objects 21.18.5. SMTPChannel Objects 21.19. telnetlib — Telnet client 21.19.1. Telnet Objects 21.19.2. Telnet Example 21.20. uuid — UUID objects according to RFC 4122 21.20.1. Example 21.21. socketserver — A framework for network servers 21.21.1. Server Creation Notes 21.21.2. Server Objects 21.21.3. Request Handler Objects 21.21.4. Examples 21.21.4.1. socketserver.TCPServer Example 21.21.4.2. socketserver.UDPServer Example 21.21.4.3. Asynchronous Mixins 21.22. http.server — HTTP servers 21.23. http.cookies — HTTP state management 21.23.1. Cookie Objects 21.23.2. Morsel Objects 21.23.3. Example 21.24. http.cookiejar — Cookie handling for HTTP clients 21.24.1. CookieJar and FileCookieJar Objects 21.24.2. FileCookieJar subclasses and co-operation with web browsers 21.24.3. CookiePolicy Objects 21.24.4. DefaultCookiePolicy Objects 21.24.5. Cookie Objec
PassMark BurnInTest V5.3 Copyright (C) 1999-2008 PassMark Software All Rights Reserved http://www.passmark.com Overview ======== Passmark's BurnInTest is a software tool that allows all the major sub-systems of a computer to be simultaneously tested for reliability and stability. Status ====== This is a shareware program. This means that you need to buy it if you would like to continue using it after the evaluation period. Installation ============ 1) Uninstall any previous version of BurnInTest 2) Double click (or Open) the downloaded ".exe" file 3) Follow the prompts UnInstallation ============== Use the Windows control panel, Add / Remove Programs Requirements ============ - Operating System: Windows 2000, XP, 2003 server, Vista (*) - RAM: 32 Meg - Disk space: 6 Meg of free hard disk space (plus an additional 10Meg to run the Disk test) - DirectX 9.0c or above software for 3D graphics and video tests (plus working DirectX drivers for your video card) - SSE compatible CPU for SSE tests - A printer to run the printer test, set-up as the default printer in Windows. - A CD ROM + 1 Music CD or Data CD to run the CD test. - A CD-RW to run the CD burn test. - A network connection and the TCP/IP networking software installed for the Network Tests Pro version only: - A serial port loop back plug for the serial port test. - A parallel port loop back plug for the parallel port test. - A USB port loop back plug for the USB port test. - A USB 2.0 port loop back plug for the USB 2.0 port test. - PassMark ModemTest V1.3 1010 (or higher) for Plugin Modem testing. - PassMark KeyboardTest V2.2 1011 (or higher) for Plugin Keyboard testing. - PassMark Firewire Plugin V1.0 1000 (or higher) and a 揔anguru FireFlash?drive for Plugin Firewire testing. (*) Windows 2000 does not support the CD-RW burn test. The advanced RAM test is only available under Windows 2000 and Windows XP professional (the other RAM tests are supported under the other OS's). Users must have administrator privileges. Windows 98 and Windows ME ========================= Windows 98 and ME are not supported in BurnInTest version 5.3 and above. Use a version of BurnInTest prior to 5.2 for compatibility with W98 and ME. Windows 95 and Windows NT ========================= Windows 95 and NT are not supported in BurnInTest version 4.0 and above. Use a version of BurnInTest prior to 3.1 for compatibility with W95 and NT. Version History =============== Here is a summary of all changes that have been made in each version of BurnInTest. Release 5.3 build 1035 revision 4 WIN32 release 10 November 2008 - Lenovo China specific build. Lenovo system detection changes. Release 5.3 build 1035 revision 3 WIN32 release 7 November 2008 - Lenovo China specific build. Lenovo system detection changes. Release 5.3 build 1035 revision 2 WIN32 release 6 November 2008 - Lenovo China specific build. Lenovo logo and Lenovo system detection changes. Release 5.3 build 1035 WIN32 release 5 November 2008 - Lenovo China specific build. Changes include: Lenovo logo added, Lenovo system support only, 32-bit BurnInTest restricted to 32-bit Windows and BurnInTest run as administrator. Release 5.3 build 1034 WIN32 release 3 October 2008 - Correction to setting the CD burn test drive in preferences. - Changed the mechanism to check for the required DirectX Direct3D as the previous method did not work on some system (some W2003 servers). - Enhanced the mechanism to report memory hardware errors in the Memory torture test. Release 5.3 build 1033 WIN32 release 1 October 2008 - Changes to correct a BurnInTest crash problem on some systems. When the disk and standard RAM tests are run for many hours, BurnInTest may have disappeared with no error message. Release 5.3 build 1030 WIN32 release 25 September 2008 - Changes to investigate a BurnInTest crash problem on XP SP3. Release 5.3 build 1028 WIN32 release 11 September 2008 - Two 2D Video memory test crash bug workarounds implemented. Crashes in (i) DirectX DirectShow and (ii) ATI atiumdag.dll library. - A hang on startup has been corrected. A 2 minute timeout has been added to the collection of system information. - Video playback, Hard disk and CD/DVD test 'no operations' error reporting changed. - When BurnInTest crashes, it will not generate a "minidump" file. Minidumps will need to be sent to Microsoft as per the normal process. However, a log entry will be added to the normal BurnInTest log. - Changes to trace logging to reduce activity when trace logging is not turned on. - Note: We have seen a report of the Video Playback failing (crash) due to a faulty video codec, ffdshow.ax. If you are using this we suggest you try a different Video file and codec. Release 5.3 build 1027 revision 0003 WIN32 release 19 August 2008 - Changed the 2D test to wait for the Video Playback test in order to allow memory allocation for the Video playback test. - Changed the Memory test to wait for the Video Playback test and 3D test to allow memory allocation for these tests. - Minor changes to the No operation error watchdog timer for the CD and Hard disk tests. - Minor correction to the Butterfly seek test. - Video playback trace logging increased. Release 5.3 build 1027 revision 0002 WIN32 release 19 August 2008 - Video playback trace logging increased. Release 5.3 build 1027 WIN32 release 31 July 2008 - Corrected a bug where BurnInTest would fail to start if Activity trace level 2 logging (debug level logging) was turned on and the Logging Summarize option was also selected. - Minor change to the serial port test where, if "Disable RTS/CTS and DSR/DTR test phase" was selected the DTR and RTS lines would be explicitly disabled to prevent any toggling of these lines. Previously these where enabled, but not explicitly toggled. Release 5.3 build 1026 WIN32 release 17 July 2008 - Updated Level 2 and Level 3 CPU cache information for newer Intel CPU's. - Updated the detection of Hyperthreading and the number of logical CPUs for a new Intel CPU. Release 5.3 build 1025 WIN32 release 11 July 2008 - Corrected a Disk test bug where on rare occasions a verification error is incorrectly displayed. This is during the random seeking phase of the "Random data with random seeking" test mode and only occurs with some specific test settings. Release 5.3 build 1024 WIN32 release 10 July 2008 - Workaround for the rare crash bug in Vista in atklumdisp.dll at address 0x730676ae. - Added trace debug information for BurnInTest startup and the 3D test. Release 5.3 build 1022 WIN32 release 12 June 2008 - Corrected a bug where the 2D video memory test in BurnInTest v5.3.1020 and v5.3.1021 would report a "Not enough video memory available for test" error if the test was run a couple of times (without closing BurnInTest). Release 5.3 build 1021 WIN32 release 5 June 2008 - 32-bit BurnInTest PRO 5.3.1020 would not start on Windows 2000. This has been corrected. Release 5.3 build 1020 WIN32 release 29 May 2008 - BurnInTest could have crashed on accessing bad video memory hardware in the 2D test. This problem is now just reported as an error (and BurnInTest) continues. - When BurnInTest crashes, it should now generate a "minidump" file to help debug which system component caused the failure (32-bit Pro version only). - Other minor changes. Release 5.3 build 1019 WIN32 release 16 May 2008 - Corrected rare crash bugs in the 2D and Video tests. - Added a hot Key, F4, to set the auto run flag and run the tests (i.e. set "-r" and then run the tests). - Other minor changes. Release 5.3 build 1018 WIN32 release 16 April 2008 - Added an operation watchdog timer for all tests. In rare cases, a single test can stop in the operating system - i.e. there is a problem in the operating system/ device driver that prevents control being returned to the BurnInTest for that test. This was added for specialized serial port hardware that could lockup after several hours of testing. Release 5.3 build 1017 WIN32 release 3 April 2008 - Corrected the Advanced Network test to run on non-English Operating Systems. Release 5.3 build 1016 WIN32 release 17 March 2008 - Added additional USB 2.0 Loopback plug test initialization to ensure plugs are in a 'clean' state when starting the USB tests. This was added due to reported USB data verification errors after scripted USB testing across multiple reboots. Release 5.3 build 1015 WIN32 release 27 February 2008 - Increased error reporting detail for the standard RAM test, when the -v command line option is used. Release 5.3 build 1014 WIN32 release 30 January 2008 - Corrected a problem where the loopback sound test could run out of memory if run for several days. Release 5.3 build 1013 WIN32 release 31 December 2007 - Improved the reporting of COM port errors such that in the rare case a COM port locks up in the Operating System, the error is still reported. - Corrected a bug, where in rare cases, the result summary could be duplicated in a log file. - Updated license management, in an attempt to remove a rare crash on startup. Release 5.3 build 1012.0002 WIN32 release 31 October 2007 - New build of Rebooter (64-bit Windows correction). - Clarifications in the help file. Release 5.3 build 1012 WIN32 release 17 October 2007 - Changed the Standard Network Test, "Test all available NICs" such that the number of Network Addresses specified in Preferences->Network will be the number of NICs tested. This will error faulty NICs that are not detected by the BurnInTest auto NIC detection mechanism. - Minor change to the 2D memory test when run with the 3D test (multiple large windows) and the RAM test. Aimed at correcting sympton: Access Violation 0x00404CF9. - Corrections to the mapping of paths with ".\". Release 5.3 build 1011 rev 2 WIN32 release 17 September 2007 - Modified the Multi-Process torture test to better describe a new error message introduced in V5.3.1010. Release 5.3 build 1011 - Public release WIN32 release 11 September 2007 - Corrected a bug where "Limited Evaluation Version" could be displayed even after BUrnInTest is licensed (problem introduced in 32-bit BITPRO V5.3.1010). - Changed the Sound test to allow any of the tests (Wave, Midi or MP3) to be excluded from testing by blanking the filename. - The Command line parameter "-j" (cycle disk test patterns after each test file) could fail during the Random data test due to the mechanism used in BurnInTest. The Random data test is now excluded from the test when (and only when) the "-j" command line parameter is specified. - In rare circumstances, the 2D test number of operations could potentially overflow and become negative. This has been corrected. - In rare circumstances, BurnInTest could hang if there was a system problem in rebooting the system (ie. it failed to shutdown) using PassMark Rebooter. This has been corrected. Release 5.3 build 1010 - Public release WIN32 release 28 August 2007 WIN64 release 28 August 2007 - As BurnInTest exercises system components, it is possible for faulty hardware or device drivers to cause software exceptions. These are normally seen as Windows reporting an "Access Violation". Changes have been made to handle these errors for the memory tests (for faulty RAM) and direct device driver access (for some device driver errors), as well as overarching more generic handling of these types of errors. - Corrected a software failure bug on startup (particularly Vista) where a DirectX function was causing software failures in "dsetup.dll". - Updated the "Activity Event" generated with the periodic results summary report to be numbered (from 1 upwards) such that when "Logging->Summarize", these events are not summarized. - Corrected a bug where the HTML log name could include a duplicate of the filename prefix. - Updated to the Common Errors section of help. Release 5.3 build 1009 - Public release WIN32 release 16 August 2007 - Corrected a 'zip' version cleanup problem. Release 5.3 build 1008 - Komputer Swiat Expert magazine version WIN32 STD release 14 August 2007 Release 5.3 build 1007 - Public release WIN32 release 7 August 2007 - Corrected a disk test startup problem for some large RAID systems when SMART testing is selected. - Added additional logging for the disk test when an error occurs. - Changed the 3D test when run with the 2D EMC test to be 'behind' the EMC scrolling H's test. Allowed the test to be easily exited when running the 3D test in Fullscreen mode. - Minor corrections to the Advanced Network test. - Changed the log file reference of "Network Name" to "Computer Name". WIN64 specific: - MMX and 3DNow! are obsolete for native 64-bit applications. BurnInTest has been changed to show "NA" (Not applicable) in the test window for these tests. Release 5.3 build 1006 - Limited release WIN32 release 17 July 2007 - Standard Network Test changes: - Increased the number of destination IP addresses from 4 to 6. - Added an option (default) "Test all available NICs", which will force traffic down every system NIC with a basic algorithm of NIC1 to IP Address 1, NIC2 to IP Address 2 etc. - Advanced Network test changes: - Simplified the test. - Removed the UDP and FTP options. The Standard Network test can be used as a UDP test. - Removed the Advanced Network test specific logging, and included all relevant logging in the standard BurnInTest logging mechanism. - Replaced the complicated dynamic balancing of any system NIC to any Endpoint NIC with a simpler static allocation on test startup. - Changed the error detection mechanism to detect errors much more quickly. - Re-worked the errors reported. - Changed the CPU throttling mechanism to reduce the CPU load. - Updated endpoint.exe. - Removed checkend.exe (now obsolete). - Changed the logging rollover to work with the output of interim results (e.g. per 1 minute). Previously rollover only occurred on error events written to the log. This also corrected an issue where interim results summary logging could be written to the physical disk with some delay (based on Windows disk caching). - Corrected the "Unknown" reporting of some operating systems. - Added the skipping of the Butterfly seek disk test when run on Vista and insufficient privileges. A notification of this is logged. - Intel Quad core L2 cache size reporting has been added. - Added new SMART threshold descriptions. - Added new disk test options, accessed via command line parameters: /ka: keep disk test files in all cases (c.f. /k keep disk test files on error). /j: cycle patterns between test files. Note: Random seeking will be skipped in this case. This option has been added to allow multiple test patterns to be used across very large disks. - Added an option to make some test settings unavailable to the user. An example configuration file available on request. Release 5.3 build 1005 0001 (STD only) - Public release WIN32 release 29 June 2007 - Corrected a bug introduced in v5.3.1005.0000 STD (only) where the disk test would use up more and more system resources, thus causing test failures. Release 5.3 build 1005 rev 0003 (PRO only) - Limited public release WIN32 release 21 June 2007 - Correction to the behavior of a static RAM test pattern (rather than the default Cyclic pattern). Release 5.3 build 1005 rev 0002 (PRO only) - Limited public release WIN32 release 15 June 2007 - The "Select all CD/DVD drives" preferences option has been made user configurable, rather than using pre-defined test settings. Release 5.3 build 1005 rev 0001 (PRO only) - Limited public release WIN32 release 13 June 2007 - Bug correction for the CD auto selection feature. Release 5.3 build 1005 - Public release WIN32 release 18 May 2007 WIN64 release 18 May 2007 - In a number of cases, such as when specifying the post test application, uppercase application names were not accepted. This has been corrected. - The default font height in the 2D scrolling H's test should have been Arial 9. This has been changed. - The BurnInTest Video playback test incompatibility with Nero 6 and Nero 7 has been resolved. - The BurnInTest disk test throughput for dual core systems has been improved. Release 5.3 build 1004 rev2 - Limited release WIN32 release 8 May 2007 - Changed the Standard Network Test to better report packet error ratios. In addition, a new warning has been added to indicate that errors have been detected but not enough packets have been attempted to be sent to determine accurately whether the configured error ratio has been exceeded. - Corrected a bug where the "append to existing" logging option did not work across scripted reboots, and a new log file was created instead of appending to the existing log file. - If the 3D test was running, then BurnInTest blocked a forced close of BurnInTest, this blocking has been removed. - Changed the PASS and FAIL windows so they can now also be closed by selecting the Windows Close "X" button. Release 5.3 build 1004 - Public release WIN32 release 10 April 2007 WIN64 release 10 April 2007 - Corrected a problem introduced in BurnInTest v5.2 where BurnInTest could run out of memory (the main symptom) when tests where run for long periods (> 12hours). WIN64 specific: - Corrected a bug where the number of cores reported on a Quad core system was incorrectly reported as CPU packages. Release 5.3 build 1003 - Limited release WIN32 release 3 April 2007 - A new 2D GUI (Graphical User Interface) test has been added to the standard 2D graphics test. - Resolved an issue where BurnInTest would fail to start on Vista systems with DEP enabled for all programs. - On some systems, the Disk test could pause momentarily even when a duty cycle of 100% was specified. This pause has been removed. - When running the CD test under BartPE (Pre-install environment) 4 additional specific files are skipped as they are unavailable for testing. - Minor bug corrections. Release 5.3 build 1002 rev 0001 - Limited release WIN32 release 16 March 2007 - Changes to the new 3D test: - Added a Full screen non-windowed test for the primary monitor, where the resolution can be selected from those supported by the Graphics card. - Added the user option of changes the vertical sync in the full screen non-windowed test to be either the Maximum rate of the graphics card, or to be the rate of the monitor (this may prevent some flicker). - Added a more complex water texture using DirectX Vertex Shader 2.0 and Pixel Shader 2.0 effects (if supported by the graphics card). This applies to 3D test windows that are 800x600 or larger. - Changed some error messages from window displays (that require user intervention) to standard error reporting. Added new 3D error messages and more detail in the error reporting. - Changed the definition of an operation to be a successfully displayed frame. - Changed the definition of a cycle to be 2000 frames. - Changed 2D video memory test to wait until the 3D test starts (as per V5.2 and earlier). - A new version of rebooter has been included. - If BurnInTest is started with the -p command line parameter (to use the bit.exe directory for files such as the configuration file), then BurnInTest will start rebooter with the -p option. This can be useful when running BurnInTest and Rebooter from a USB drive. Release 5.3 build 1002 - Limited release WIN32 release 19 March 2007 - Corrected a bug introduced in V5.2 where selecting accumulated logging could lead to rebooter failing to launch. Release 5.3 build 1001 - Limited release WIN32 release 16 March 2007 - The 3D test has been improved. The 3D ball test has been replaced with a more complex 3D terrain test. This will more thoroughly exercise modern graphics cards. Further, the 3D test has been changed to support multi- monitor testing (up to 4 monitors). Accordingly, a new preferences section has been added for the 3D test. The multi-monitor test options are only available in BurnInTest Professional. Release 5.3 build 1001 - Limited release WIN32 release 16 March 2007 - The 3D test has been improved. The 3D ball test has been replaced with a more complex 3D terrain test. This will more thoroughly exercise modern graphics cards. Further, the 3D test has been changed to support multi- monitor testing (up to 4 monitors). Accordingly, a new preferences section has been added for the 3D test. The multi-monitor test options are only available in BurnInTest Professional. - BurnInTest uses DirectX 9.0c. This version of BurnInTest uses a more recent version of the Microsoft DirectX Direct3D component, October 2006. BurnInTest has been modified to detect and install this component (file) if it does not exist. - A command line parameter -X has been added to skip the DirectX version checking on BurnInTest start-up. - With the recent introduction of multi-monitor support for the Video Playback test, it is now more likely that the system will run out of memory when running multiple video tests simultaneously, particularly when more memory intensive codecs are used. A specific Insufficient resources to complete test message has been added in this case, rather than the previous more generic unrecoverable error message. The video test have been changed to attempt recovery from this and the more generic unrecoverable error, by closing the current video and opening the next. The logging detail has been increased. - Note: The BurnIntest sample video pack has been altered with the DivX Compressed Video file being removed due to the DivX codec failing with this Video file when used with multiple simultaneous Video playbacks. Access Violation: 0x69756e65. See: http://www.passmark.com/download/bit_download.htm - The video description is now collected for a larger range of Vista systems. - Windows 98 and ME are no longer supported. Please see www.passmark.com for a link to an older version of BurnInTest that will support W98/ME. Release 5.3 build 1000 rev2 - Limited release WIN32 release 9 March 2007 - A command line parameter -P has been added to allow the BurnInTest directory to be used rather than the User's personal directory. This may be useful when running BurnInTest from a USB drive for example. - When running the CD test under BartPE (Pre-install environment) 4 additional specific files are skipped as they are unavailable for testing. - A change has been made to support Hmonitor temperature monitoring on Vista. - A number of undocumented command line parameters have been documented: -B: BurnInTest will generate additional Serial port test information when activity trace level 2 logging is set. -E [data]: Specifies the test data to use in the serial port test. -M: Automatically display the Machine ID Window when BurnInTest is started. -U: Force BurnInTest to set logging on at startup. Release 5.3 build 1000 - Limited release WIN32 release 8 March 2007 - Changed the 2D and Video playback tests to support multi-monitor testing. - When running the CD test under BartPE (Pre-install environment) 4 specific files are skipped as they are unavailable for testing. Release 5.2 build 1006 - Limited release WIN32 release 1 March 2007 - Corrected a bug where BurnInTest would fail to start on certain Vista systems. - Corrected a bug where some files where the full path was not specified would be incorrectly referenced in the Program Files directory, rather than the user personal directory. Release 5.2 build 1005 - Public release WIN32 release 21 February 2007 WIN64 release 21 February 2007 - Updated the Graphics card description for Windows Vista systems. - Updated the Advanced Network test to indicate that elevated administrator privileges are required when running on Vista. - Moved files from the Program files directory for the Advanced Network Test (BurnInTest, EndPoint and CheckEnd). Specifically, the User Application directory is now used for the temporary test FTP files and the User Personal directory is now used for the log and configuration files. - Updated the cleanup process for when running the "zip" version of BurnInTest Professional from a CD or flash drive. - Updated the help link from the Windows Start, All Programs, BurnInTest menu for the browser based help. - Corrected a bug where Disk preferences displayed in the Preferences window would be incorrect when the system had no Floppy drive. - Corrected a bug where the Advanced Network test might not have been displayed until after entering the Duty Cycle selection (ie. just chaning from the standard network test to the advanced test). - Corrected a USB bug in Beta 5.2.1003 where the test would not run if there where there insufficient USB loopback plugs attached to the system. - Included a new version of PassMark Rebooter that supports Windows Vista. Release 5.2 build 1004 - Public Pre-release WIN32 release 13 February 2007 - Updated the reported Operating system for the various Vista product editions. - Disk test settings can be configured for "Automatically Select all Hard Disks", rather than using defaults. - When running the CD test under BartPE (Pre-install environment) 4 specific files are skipped as they are unavailable for testing. - Corrected a bug where temperature information could be duplicated in the HTML report. - Corrected a bug certain 'save report' warning messages could be truncated. - Help file updated. Release 5.2 build 1003 - BETA RELEASE ONLY WIN32 release 23 January 2007 - Changed the USB preferences and test to more completely check for the PassMark USB Loopback plugs and ignore any device that is not a PassMark USB Loopback plug (due to reported incorrect detection with another hardware device). - Increased Trace level debugging for Intel temperature monitoring. - Corrected a bug with the disk test introduced in 5.2.1001 Release 5.2 build 1002 - BETA RELEASE ONLY WIN32 release 22 January 2007 - Increased the number of disks that can be tested from 20 to 26. - Updated BurnInTest to reflect that Temperature monitoring with Intel Desktop utilities is supported. Intel Desktop utilities essentially is a replacement for Intel Active Monitor for newer Intel motherboards. - Increased Trace level debugging for Intel temperature monitoring. Release 5.2 build 1001 - BETA RELEASE ONLY WIN32 release 19 January 2007 - Windows Vista support. - The Block size used in the disk test is now configurable per disk. The default block size has been increased from 16KB to 32KB. - An option has been added to automatically detect all of the CD and DVD drives for the CD test (as per the disk test). This may be useful when testing across many systems with different optical drive configurations. - Increased Trace level debugging for Intel temperature monitoring. - Bugs corrected: - Disk preferences - in rare cases invalid default values could be set for a disk, an invalid value error would occur and the values would need to be manually corrected. Release 5.2 build 1000 - limited release WIN32 release 8 January 2007 - Windows Vista support. - Reduced the need for elevated administrator privileges: - Changed the location of the disk test files from the root directory of the test volume to a BurnInTest data files subdirectory (e.g from "C:\" to "C:\BurnInTest test files\") - Moved many of the files from the Program Files directory to the User directory for Windows 2000, XP and Vista. When running BurnInTest on Windows 98, ME or from a key.dat file (e.g. from a USB drive with a licensed key.dat) BurnInTest will store these files in the BurnInTest program directory. Specifically, the following files have been moved from the Program Files directory to the User Personal directory, e.g. Vista - "C:\Users\\Documents\PassMark\BurnInTest\" XP - "My Documents\PassMark\BurnInTest\" Files: Configuration file, Configuration load/save default directory, Save log file and image default directory, parallel port override "ioports.dat" directory, default command line script directory, log file directory, video file directory, Plugin directory, machine id file directory, Run as script default directory, CD burn image, Advanced network FTP temp files. - Replaced the Help system with Browser based help. - Changed the Disk test block size from 16KB to 256KB. It is planned to make this user configurable in the next build. Release 5.1 build 1014 WIN32 release 2 November 2006 WIN64 release 2 November 2006 - Corrected a bug when running on Vista, where the Standard network test would report a checksum error when the transmitted data was correct. - Corrected a bug where BurnInTest would not stop the tests based on the number of test cycles for the Plugin test or the Advanced Network test. - Made the "Could not set USB2Test mode" USB error message more specific by adding an error for insufficient system resources. - Changed the preferences Window to fit on an 800x600 resolution screen. - Corrected a minor bug in Activity level 2 trace logging with the 'hide duplicate' preference setting. - Corrected a minor memory leak if the 2D test failed to initialize (such as due to a DirectX problem). - The Parallel port test may now be used on Windows Vista. Specifically, the PassMark device driver used for the parallel port test could not be loaded on 64-bit Windows Vista as it was not digitally signed. It is now digitally signed. Release 5.1 build 1013 revision 0002 WIN32 release 19 September 2006 WIN64 release 19 September 2006 - Corrected an Access Violation problem reported by a customer on a particular MB. Release 5.1 build 1013 WIN32 release 7 September 2006 WIN64 release 7 September 2006 - The "Notes" section has been added to the Customer results certificate. - Some additional configuration range validation has been added. Release 5.1 build 1012 WIN32 release 15 August 2006 - Corrected a false report of a "Unable to get disk volume extent information" for the disk butterfly seek test. - Advanced Network test changes for errors: "Corrupt header - packet discarded" and "Advanced Network test timed out" - Advanced Network test Endpoint changes for problems on non-English Operating Systems and systems with the Windows "Network Interface" performance statistics disabled. - SMART parameters on a Samsung Hard Disk caused BurnInTest to fail when running the disk test with SMART thresholds enabled. This has been corrected. - The 2D scrolling H's test could display corrupt characters on the second and subsequent test run. This has been corrected. - A problem with the Integer maths test where the results could display a negative number of operations has been resolved. - Minor improvements to the help file. - HTML help file added for Windows Vista and Longhorn Server. - Minor improvements to the Error Classification file (error descriptions). - Some CD Trace level 1 logging has been moved to trace level 2. - Trace level 1 logging has been added to the test closing software. - New build of Endpoint.exe (1.0 1010). Release 5.1 build 1011 WIN32 release 6 July 2006 - New Advanced Network test error reporting added in the previous build V5.1 1010 has been removed. - A broader range of USB 2.0 Loopback plugs can now be used with BurnInTest. Release 5.1 build 1010 WIN32 release 4 July 2006 - Corrected the HTML report description of the L2/L3 CPU cache when the L3 cache size could not be determined. Advanced network changes: - Endpoints ran at 100% CPU load as they contained no throttling. This impacted their ability to effectively handle multiple threads handling TCP/UDP messaging. Throttling has been added to the EndPoint side to reduce CPU load. This does not greatly impact Network load. - Throttling on the BurnInTest side contained a sleep that was not insignificant. This could have impacted the BurnInTest data test thread to to handle incoming TCP and particularly UDP messages. This sleep has been reduced and other throttling parameters changed to suit. (ie. smaller sleeps more often). - EndPoint systems with x NICs (where x > 1), reported themselves as an Endpoint with x NICs, x times. Effectively registering with BurnInTest as x * x EndPoint NICS. This impacted the effectiveness of the load distribution to EndPoint NICs. An Endpoint system now only registers the once with BurnInTest. - The BurnInTest side did not report data verification Checksum errors for full duplex testing. This error determination has been corrected and reporting added. - The Test statistics sent from the Endpoint to BurnInTest could fail if the statistics block is split across 2 lower level TCP send packets. This could lead to problems like incorrect reporting of Endpoint determined checksum errors, Endpoint load and load balancing. Further it would lead to an Endpoint testthread being put into an endless TCP send loop. This would eventually bring the Endpoint system to its knees as more and more of these test threads go into this state. This has been corrected. - The Data Received reported by BurnInTest was double counted. This has been corrected. Release 5.1 build 1009 WIN32 release 23 June 2006 - Plugin test error classifications were incorrect in the log file detailed description. - Corrections to the advanced network test (BurnInTest and EndPoint). Release 5.1 build 1008 - limited release WIN32 release 20 June 2006 - Advanced network changes corrections. Most notably, a bug where part of the payload data could be lost if the payload block (eg. 1000 bytes) was split across 2 (or more) lower level TCP packets. - Added version reporting for Endpoints. Release 5.1 build 1007 - limited release WIN32 release 16 June 2006 Advanced network changes: - Corrected a BurnInTest access Violation introduced in V5.1 1006. - The Endpoint now reports its version and build to BurnInTest and BurnInTest reports this in the log file if it is an earlier version than expected. This is to help avoid the situation where old Endpoints are run on the Network, that may not be compatible with the version of BurnInTest being run by the user. - Removed a timeout report in a specific instance where a timeout is not an error. - Changed the Endpoint rebalancing and polling to occur less often after the test has been running 3 minutes. This is to help allowing the handling of polling from a larger number of multiple copies of BurnInTest on the Network. - Added a connection retries on failure for the Endpoint. - Corrected a memory leak in the Endpoint. - Increased the number of sockets supported. - Corrected some Advanced Network error classifications. Release 5.1 build 1006 - limited release WIN32 release 14 June 2006 - Improvements to the Advanced Network test (both BurnInTest V5.1 1006 and EndPoint V1.0 1004) to remove corrupted false packet corruption errors. Improved the timeout recovery mechanism. Added some validation to the Windows Network performance data used for NIC utilization. - Changes to the collection of Disk drive information on startup to try to resolve a startup issue on Systems with a large number of physical drives and 'unusual' WMI namings. Release 5.1 build 1005 WIN32 release 2 June 2006 - Corrected a bug in the Advanced network test where the test would not recover from timeout errors. The test appears to be running, but the results are 0 and the number of connected End Points are 0. Also improved the retry on timeout mechanism. - Removed some duplication in error reporting in the Advanced Network test. - Changed the Advanced Network display of Utilization to ensure a maximum of 100% displayed. - Corrected an Advanced Network test bug where the number of Errors reported in the test window would not take into account the corrupt packet threshold, and an error would be added for each occurrence of the corrupt packet (rather than when the user set threshold was reached). Release 5.1 build 1004b WIN32 release 25 May 2006 (not publicly released) - Corrected the default Advanced network corrupt packet threshold value. - Updated the data entry fields in the CD preferences when a different CD drive is selected. - The Advanced Network specific log files should be concatenated for a script run. This was only occurring for the first NIC under test. The concatenation will now occur for each NIC under test, when run from a script. - Corrected a bug where a log file name specified with no directory path could be incorrect. - Corrected a bug where the customer "Test Certificate" report incorrectly translated the "%" character from a customer specific HTML template. eg would be translated to . - The "Advanced Network test error" (215) has been removed and replaced with other existing error messages 214, 219, 220, 221 or 222. - Added the Customer name and Technician name to the text and HTMl reports. Previously, this information was only included in the "Test Certificate" report. - We have added a commandline option to specify the Serial port test data as a constant value. To specify specific data for the Serial port test you should specify e.g. "bit.exe /E 23" from the command line where 23 is in decimal and will be used for all test data (instead of random data). The vales should be between 0 and 255. Release 5.1 build 1004 WIN32 release 19 April 2006 (not publicly released) - Added the COM port speed of 921600 Kbits/s for RS 422/RS485 testing. - Changed the CD test to ensure that the entire test CD data is not cached on systems with a large amount of RAM. - Added a -M command line option to display the Machine ID window automatically when BurninTest starts. - Changed the 2D EMC scrolling H's test to work on multiple monitors were the resolution on each is different. - Changed log files such the syntax "..\" could be used for files in the directory up a level. - Minor correction to the advanced network test. Release 5.1 build 1003 WIN32 release 18 April 2006 WIN64 release 18 April 2006 - Changed the Advanced network test to allow a corrupt packet threshold value up to 1 million. - Bundled a new version of rebooter. Release 5.1 build 1002 WIN32 release 11 April 2006 WIN64 release 11 April 2006 - Corrections to the translation of V4.0 to V5 configuration files. Note: Configuration files in V5.x builds prior to V5.1 1002 could become corrupted if a V4.0 configuration file is loaded. - Corrected a bug where the main Window size and location were not restored on restarting BurnInTest. - Changes to the SMART attribute logging to support a greater range of Disk drive device drivers. Added additional Activity Level 2 trace logging. - Added an option to use CTS (Clear To Send) flow control in the loop back stage of the COM port test. - Corrected a bug where the CPU L3 cache could be reported as -1. - Help file updates. Release 5.1 build 1001 WIN32 release 30/March/2006 - Digitally signed the BurnInTest application to allow it to run under Windows Server "Longhorn". Note, previously only the installation package was digitally signed. - Updated the reported Operating system descriptions, including: - Windows Vista - Windows Server "Longhorn" - Corrected a bug where the Advanced network information was not displayed on the main window when it was run from a script. - The Advanced Network Corrupt threshold packet has been changed to produce an error every time the error is received after the threshold is reached. - Corrected the reporting of "Network, Packet discarded due to corrupt header" as a Network test error. - Corrected a bug where a new log file was not created if (only) the log prefix changed during the running of a script file. - Split the "Network, Advanced Network test error" error into 6 errors: "Network, Advanced Network test error" "Advanced Network Socket error" "Advanced Network Send error" "Advanced Network Send error - no data sent" "Advanced Network Receive error" "Advanced Network Receive error - no data received" Added either activity trace 1 or trace 2 logging for each of the errors, with additional information where available. - Added additional Serial port activity trace 2 logging. Including the logging of all transmit buffer data when the /B command line is used. Release 5.1 build 1000 WIN32 release 27/March/2006 (not a public release) Added the following features: - Create the log file directory specified in the Logging Options if it does not exist. - Condense the Advanced Network Test log files to one log file per IP address per script run, when run from a script. - Added an option to summarize duplicate errors in the log file. - Color coded errors based on severity in the Detailed event log Window and the HTML log file. - Added an option to only create a log file when BurnIn actually runs a test as opposed to every time BurnIn is executed. - Added a warning if a test thread completes with 0 cycles and 0 operations. - In the results summary html file, inserted more spacing between the 揘otes? and 揇etailed Event Log? - Changed the Activity Trace file format to be the same as the log file, ie. text or HTML, rather than always text. - The 2D 揝crolling H抯?test will now display across multiple screens/displays ?i.e. all active displays. - A threshold has been added for the 揷orrupt header ?packet discarded?event in the advanced network options so that a 揊ail?is not produced when that is the only thing that produces errors. - Added looping capability in scripting. LOOP n { ? } where n is the number of times to repeat the commands in the brackets. - Corrected a bug where PASS could be displayed if the Advanced Network test was the only test running, but it failed. Release 5.0 build 1001 WIN32 release 9/March/2006 - Corrected a bug where Network directory paths were not accepted, eg. for the log file name and post test application file name. - The CPU maths test has been improved to better load up all CPU's. Previously BurnInTest started a maths test thread per physical CPU package. BurnInTest has been changed to start a maths test thread per CPU (= num. physical CPU packages x num. CPU cores x num. logical CPUs). - The CPU preferences have been changed to allow the CPU maths test to be locked to any CPU (ie. select a CPU from a list of CPU's where the number of CPU's = num. physical CPU packages x num. CPU cores x num. logical CPUs). - The Parallel and Serial port error message have been modified in the case where a test plug may not have been connected to indicate that the user should check this. - Corrected a bug where a licenced version could display the message "[limited evaluation version]" Release 5.0 build 1000 WIN32 release 24/February/2006 WIN64 release 24/February/2006 NEW TESTS & IMPROVEMENTS TO EXISTING TESTS BurnInTest Standard and Professional versions. - Added a customer style results certificate. This will save the log file in HTML format but from the perspective of a end customer. This report style can be tailored by the user (through changing an HTML template). - An MP3 playback test has been added to the Sound test. - A color printer test has been added. - A new post test option to allow the results to be printed automatically at the end of a test has been added. - Added new Post-test action options of: - Optionally allow the user to "run an external program & exit" after BIT has been manually stopped. Modify the $RESULT variable to "PASS (manual abort)" or "FAIL (manual abort)" for this case. - Allow the results window to be displayed for all post test options (except Reboot). - Added new Pre-test actions to allow an external application to be run and have BIT wait for the application to exit. On continuing, BIT will run the subscript file (of scripting commands) if it has been created. - Changed the manual Stop buttons, to abort the running of a script (rather than just the current test). BurnInTest Professional specific. - Added a "Plugin" test that allows users to develop their own BurnInTest test modules for specialized hardware. Three external plugins may be specified at once. - A Modem test has been added to BurnInTest as a Plugin. PassMark's ModemTest Version V1.3 (latest build) is required. - A KeyBoard Test has been added to BurnInTest as a Plugin. PassMark's KeyboardTest Version V2.2 (latest build) is required. - A Firewire Test has been added to BurnInTest as a Plugin. PassMark's free Firewire plugin is required and a "Kanguru FireFlash" drive is required. - A new advanced network test has been added. BurnInTest Professional only. - The Memory test now allows the user to specify the type of test pattern to be used. - Testing with the USB 2.0 Loopback plug has been improved. When used with USB 2.0 Loopback device driver V2.0.1002, error details will now be reported for: CRC error reported by USB Host controller BIT STUFF error reported by USB Host controller DATA TOGGLE MISMATCH error reported by USB Host controller STALL PID error reported by USB Host controller DEVICE NOT RESPONDING error reported by USB Host controller PID CHECK FAILURE error reported by USB Host controller UNEXPECTED PID error reported by USB Host controller DATA OVERRUN error reported by USB Host controller DATA UNDERRUN error reported by USB Host controller BUFFER OVERRUN error reported by USB Host controller BUFFER UNDERRUN error reported by USB Host controller NOT ACCESSED error reported by USB Host controller FIFO error reported by USB Host controller TRANSACTION (XACT) ERROR reported by USB Host controller BABBLE DETECTED error reported by USB Host controller DATA BUFFER ERROR reported by USB Host controller In the case of these errors, BurnInTest will re-attempt the operation. The user can set the Error reporting to be skipped for the initial recovery attempt. IMPROVEMENTS TO TESTING FACILITIES - Added a disk autoconfig, such that when tests are started, the disk drives and settings will be defaults to all disks (exc. CD/DVD). This may be useful when testing multiple systems with different hard disk drive letters. - Store the position of the Main window on exiting BurnInTest. On starting BurnInTest, position the main window as saved; on starting tests, position the test windows as saved. - Allow a "drag & drop" of the Configuration file directly on the BurnInTest program icon. - Allow testing 99.5% to 100% of disk, instead of 94%, for disks that do not contain the Windows directory and do not contain a swap file. - Added the ability to log interim results, which may be useful for unstable systems. - AMD and Intel Dual core reporting added. - New L2 CPU cache sizes added to reports. - CPU support for SSE3, DEP and PAE added to reports. - Shortcut of "F1" for contextual help added to all Windows. - Improve the flexibility in specifying the EXECUTEWAIT scripting command for sleeper. - Updated logging header information with the hard and optical drive model. - The 2D and 3D tests have been updated to use DirectX 9.0c. - User interface updated. - The HTML report format has been improved. - The BurnInTest configuration file extension has been renamed from .cfg to use .bitcfg, to ensure the configuration file is associated with BurnInTest. - An error message indicating that accumulated log files are not supported when run from CD or DVD has been added. - To allow smaller test files with very large disks, the minimum disk test file size has been reduced from 0.1% to 0.01% of the disk space. - Log events were previously shown as "INFORMATION" if they were low level errors, or simply additional information (not errors). "INFORMATION" now refers to a low level error, and "LOG NOTE" now refers to additional information (that is not in the error count). - Improved the specific detail of the Serial Port errors detected. BurnInTest now reports framing errors, buffer overrun errors, input buffer overflow errors, parity errors and Transmit buffer full errors as specific error messages (rather than a broader error description). - Added the /k command line so the user can specify not to delete HDD test files if an error occurs. - Increased Activity trace level 1 error logging for Serial port testing. - Increased Activity trace level 1 error logging for Hyper threading detection. - Bundled a new version of the Rebooter program. - Improved the Serial port error logging (displaying baud rate) and increased Activity trace level 1 error logging (displaying erroneous data). - Modified the Window sizes to help improve navigation on smaller displays (i.e. 640x480). - The CPU load for the Standard and Torture RAM tests has been made more linear with the duty cycle setting. Note: This means that compared to the previous build of BurnInTest, less RAM test operations will be run per second (when the duty cycle is less than 100). - Additional debug code and very minor changes in the Loopback sound test. - The Post test option of "Run external application and exit" has been modified such that if no external file is specified, this Post test option will just exit BurnInTest. - Allowed the full range of PassMark USB1 loopback plugs to be used with BurnInTest Professional. - Added additional Activity Trace level 2 logging. - The delay inserted between packets in the USB2 test, when the duty cycle is less than 50, has been changed from at least 1ms to at least 1ms to 50ms (for a Duty Cycle of 49 down to 0). - The subscript commands to configure BurnInTest from an external application (i.e. specified in the bit-script-input.txt file and run by specifying either a pre-test or EXECUTEWAIT application) has been changed to allow "LOAD" commands (in addition to "SET" scripting commands). - Renamed the "Error" log to "Event" log. - Changed the order of the items in an Event log line, such that the Severity is the first item. - The EXECUTEWAIT script command has been modified such that the external application may provide an input script file (of SET... commands) to be run after the EXECUTEWAIT application closes. This allows external applications to define test environment parameters (such as the serial number and machine type). - Added scripting commands: SETSERIAL "1234-shdfgdhs-GHGHG" SETMACHINETYPE "HP XPS800" SETNOTES "Test notes defined by the external application." SETLOG "\Program Files\Plugin\plugin_log" SETPLUGIN "\Program Files\Plugin\plugin.exe" - Added POST TEST application parameter substitution to allow values to be passed to an external application at the end of a test. These are: $RESULT - "PASS" or "FAIL" will be substituted. $SERIAL - The serial number will be substituted. $MACHINETYPE - The machine type will be substituted. $NOTES - The notes will be substituted. - Added extra logging for memory allocation errors in the disk test - Added "log bad sector increase" and "bad sector threshold" options to disk test. This resulted in a change to the configuration file format and required additional code to automatically convert from old formats. - Modified the user interface in the preferences window for the disk test and the CD test - Improved the handling of USB 2.0 loopback plugs recovery from sleep states. BUG CORRECTIONS - Corrected a bug where the System and Application events logged in the BurnInTest Trace logs were wrong if the event log had reached its maximum size. - Checks that the Sound test files (WAV and MIDI) exist have been added. - The continuous auto updating of the USB image (USB Loopback plug vs. USB 2.0 Loopback plug) on the main window has been removed. This is now updated on BIT startup, selecting Refresh in USB preferences or on starting a test. If there is a serious USB problem, this (together with the USB 2.0 Loopback device driver, V2.0.1002) will avoid the possibility of BurnInTest locking up. - Corrected a bug with the Butterfly seek mode of the Disk test. This was found to occur with FAT32 disks where the Cylinder size was relatively small and the Sector size relatively large. - Reset Defaults on the Configuration Page now resets the Auto Stop Value. - Reset Defaults on the Configuration Page now resets the color indicators. - The CD test has been modified to skip invalid files either with "?"'s , to avoid reporting errors that are due to the CD test media filenames. - The Network test results window scroll bar has been corrected. - The Memory torture test could fail on some systems with a small amount of RAM and relatively high memory fragmentation. This has been corrected. - Scripting correction for .cmd files. - Corrected a bug that caused problems when running the disk test with SMART monitoring turned on. This problem only occurs on a small number of HDD's. - Corrected memory leaks - On occasion, the measured waveform from the loopback sound test may have been slightly altered on starting or stopping all tests, possibly enough to trigger an error. This has been resolved. - If an error occurred in the final second of a test, the error may have been logged but not included in the big PASS/FAIL results window. This has been corrected. - After running a script file that loaded a configuration file, that had a full path specified, the Save and Load configuration menu options no longer worked. This has been corrected. - Previously, the Version of BurnInTest was only written in the First log file after starting BurnInTest. This log line is now written in all log files. - For USB2 tests that have read or write failures, the Windows error codes are now included in the level 2 Activity trace log. - Command line parameters may now be passed to a PreTest application. - Log files may now use a single static filename. This may be useful when the log file is to be parsed by an external program. - Corrected a bug where the Plugin test would stop prematurely. - Corrected the specification of the Scripting EXECUTEWAIT filename. - Changed Script processing such that a script is aborted if a scripting error is encountered and Stop on error is selected. - Added an indication on the main window that a script is currently running ("Script currently running"). - Corrected the serial port test to identify non-existing plugs when the Disable RTS/CTS and DSR/DTR testing has been selected. - Corrected the display of strange results (666666) reported by a user, related to copy protection. - Fixed a memory leak bug in the MBM interface which caused memory allocation errors. - Added BIT version number to the ASCII log file. - Fixed a bug with the 3D Test that was causing it to stop before the autostop timer period - Changed an error in the tape drive test to a warning if tape drive doesn't support setting drive parameters. History of earlier releases: Please see http://passmark.com/products/bit_history.htm Documentation ============= All the documentation is included in the help file. It can be accessed from the help menu. There is also a PDF format Users guide available for download from the PassMark web site. Support ======= For technical support, questions, suggestions, please check the help file for our email address or visit our web page at http://www.passmark.com Ordering / Registration ======================= All the details are in the help file documentation or you can visit our sales information page http://www.passmark.com/sales Compatibility issues with the Network & Parallel Port Tests =========================================================== If you are running Windows 2000 or XP, you need to have administrator privileges to run this test. Enjoy.. The PassMark Development team
A project model for the FreeBSD Project Niklas Saers Copyright © 2002-2005 Niklas Saers [ Split HTML / Single HTML ] Table of Contents Foreword 1 Overview 2 Definitions 2.1. Activity 2.2. Process 2.3. Hat 2.4. Outcome 2.5. FreeBSD 3 Organisational structure 4 Methodology model 4.1. Development model 4.2. Release branches 4.3. Model summary 5 Hats 5.1. General Hats 5.1.1. Contributor 5.1.2. Committer 5.1.3. Core Team 5.1.4. Maintainership 5.2. Official Hats 5.2.1. Documentation project manager 5.2.2. CVSup Mirror Site Coordinator 5.2.3. Internationalisation 5.2.4. Postmaster 5.2.5. Quality Assurance 5.2.6. Release Coordination 5.2.7. Public Relations & Corporate Liaison 5.2.8. Security Officer 5.2.9. Source Repository Manager 5.2.10. Election Manager 5.2.11. Web site Management 5.2.12. Ports Manager 5.2.13. Standards 5.2.14. Core Secretary 5.2.15. GNATS Administrator 5.2.16. Bugmeister 5.2.17. Donations Liaison Officer 5.2.18. Admin 5.3. Process dependent hats 5.3.1. Report originator 5.3.2. Bugbuster 5.3.3. Mentor 5.3.4. Vendor 5.3.5. Reviewers 5.3.6. CVSup Mirror Site Admin 6 Processes 6.1. Adding new and removing old committers 6.2. Adding/Removing an official CVSup Mirror 6.3. Committing code 6.4. Core election 6.5. Development of new features 6.6. Maintenance 6.7. Problem reporting 6.8. Reacting to misbehaviour 6.9. Release engineering 7 Tools 7.1. Concurrent Versions System (CVS) 7.2. CVSup 7.3. GNATS 7.4. Mailman 7.5. Perforce 7.6. Pretty Good Privacy 7.7. Secure Shell 8 Sub-projects 8.1. The Ports Subproject 8.2. The FreeBSD Documentation Project References List of Figures 3-1. The FreeBSD Project's structure 3-2. The FreeBSD Project's structure with committers in categories 4-1. Jørgenssen's model for change integration 4-2. The FreeBSD release tree 4-3. The overall development model 5-1. Overview of official hats 6-1. Process summary: adding a new committer 6-2. Process summary: removing a committer 6-3. Process summary: adding a CVSup mirror 6-4. Process summary: A committer commits code 6-5. Process summary: A contributor commits code 6-6. Process summary: Core elections 6-7. Jørgenssen's model for change integration 6-8. Process summary: problem reporting 6-9. Process summary: release engineering 8-1. Number of ports added between 1996 and 2005 Foreword Up until now, the FreeBSD project has released a number of described techniques to do different parts of work. However, a project model summarising how the project is structured is needed because of the increasing amount of project members. [1] This paper will provide such a project model and is donated to the FreeBSD Documentation project where it can evolve together with the project so that it can at any point in time reflect the way the project works. It is based on [Saers, 2003]. I would like to thank the following people for taking the time to explain things that were unclear to me and for proofreading the document. Andrey A. Chernov <[email protected]> Bruce A. Mah <[email protected]> Dag-Erling Smørgrav <[email protected]> Giorgos Keramidas<[email protected]> Ingvil Hovig <[email protected]> Jesper Holck<[email protected]> John Baldwin <[email protected]> John Polstra <[email protected]> Kirk McKusick <[email protected]> Mark Linimon <[email protected]> Marleen Devos Niels Jørgenssen<[email protected]> Nik Clayton <[email protected]> Poul-Henning Kamp <[email protected]> Simon L. Nielsen <[email protected]> Chapter 1 Overview A project model is a means to reduce the communications overhead in a project. As shown by [Brooks, 1995], increasing the number of project participants increases the communication in the project exponentionally. FreeBSD has during the past few year increased both its mass of active users and committers, and the communication in the project has risen accordingly. This project model will serve to reduce this overhead by providing an up-to-date description of the project. During the Core elections in 2002, Mark Murray stated “I am opposed to a long rule-book, as that satisfies lawyer-tendencies, and is counter to the technocentricity that the project so badly needs.” [FreeBSD, 2002B]. This project model is not meant to be a tool to justify creating impositions for developers, but as a tool to facilitate coordination. It is meant as a description of the project, with an overview of how the different processes are executed. It is an introduction to how the FreeBSD project works. The FreeBSD project model will be described as of July 1st, 2004. It is based on the Niels Jørgensen's paper [Jørgensen, 2001], FreeBSD's official documents, discussions on FreeBSD mailing lists and interviews with developers. After providing definitions of terms used, this document will outline the organisational structure (including role descriptions and communication lines), discuss the methodology model and after presenting the tools used for process control, it will present the defined processes. Finally it will outline major sub-projects of the FreeBSD project. [FreeBSD, 2002A, Section 1.2 and 1.3] give the vision and the architectural guidelines for the project. The vision is “To produce the best UNIX-like operating system package possible, with due respect to the original software tools ideology as well as usability, performance and stability.” The architectural guidelines help determine whether a problem that someone wants to be solved is within the scope of the project Chapter 2 Definitions 2.1. Activity An “activity” is an element of work performed during the course of a project [PMI, 2000]. It has an output and leads towards an outcome. Such an output can either be an input to another activity or a part of the process' delivery. 2.2. Process A “process” is a series of activities that lead towards a particular outcome. A process can consist of one or more sub-processes. An example of a process is software design. 2.3. Hat A “hat” is synonymous with role. A hat has certain responsibilities in a process and for the process outcome. The hat executes activities. It is well defined what issues the hat should be contacted about by the project members and people outside the project. 2.4. Outcome An “outcome” is the final output of the process. This is synonymous with deliverable, that is defined as “any measurable, tangible, verifiable outcome, result or item that must be produced to complete a project or part of a project. Often used more narrowly in reference to an external deliverable, which is a deliverable that is subject to approval by the project sponsor or customer” by [PMI, 2000]. Examples of outcomes are a piece of software, a decision made or a report written. 2.5. FreeBSD When saying “FreeBSD” we will mean the BSD derivative UNIX-like operating system FreeBSD, whereas when saying “the FreeBSD Project” we will mean the project organisation. Chapter 3 Organisational structure While no-one takes ownership of FreeBSD, the FreeBSD organisation is divided into core, committers and contributors and is part of the FreeBSD community that lives around it. Figure 3-1. The FreeBSD Project's structure Number of committers has been determined by going through CVS logs from January 1st, 2004 to December 31st, 2004 and contributors by going through the list of contributions and problem reports. The main resource in the FreeBSD community is its developers: the committers and contributors. It is with their contributions that the project can move forward. Regular developers are referred to as contributors. As by January 1st, 2003, there are an estimated 5500 contributors on the project. Committers are developers with the privilege of being able to commit changes. These are usually the most active developers who are willing to spend their time not only integrating their own code but integrating code submitted by the developers who do not have this privilege. They are also the developers who elect the core team, and they have access to closed discussions. The project can be grouped into four distinct separate parts, and most developers will focus their involvement in one part of FreeBSD. The four parts are kernel development, userland development, ports and documentation. When referring to the base system, both kernel and userland is meant. This split changes our triangle to look like this: Figure 3-2. The FreeBSD Project's structure with committers in categories Number of committers per area has been determined by going through CVS logs from January 1st, 2004 to December 31st, 2004. Note that many committers work in multiple areas, making the total number higher than the real number of committers. The total number of committers at that time was 269. Committers fall into three groups: committers who are only concerned with one area of the project (for instance file systems), committers who are involved only with one sub-project and committers who commit to different parts of the code, including sub-projects. Because some committers work on different parts, the total number in the committers section of the triangle is higher than in the above triangle. The kernel is the main building block of FreeBSD. While the userland applications are protected against faults in other userland applications, the entire system is vulnerable to errors in the kernel. This, combined with the vast amount of dependencies in the kernel and that it is not easy to see all the consequences of a kernel change, demands developers with a relative full understanding of the kernel. Multiple development efforts in the kernel also requires a closer coordination than userland applications do. The core utilities, known as userland, provide the interface that identifies FreeBSD, both user interface, shared libraries and external interfaces to connecting clients. Currently, 162 people are involved in userland development and maintenance, many being maintainers for their own part of the code. Maintainership will be discussed in the Maintainership section. Documentation is handled by The FreeBSD Documentation Project and includes all documents surrounding the FreeBSD project, including the web pages. There were during 2004 101 people making commits to the FreeBSD Documentation Project. Ports is the collection of meta-data that is needed to make software packages build correctly on FreeBSD. An example of a port is the port for the web-browser Mozilla. It contains information about where to fetch the source, what patches to apply and how, and how the package should be installed on the system. This allows automated tools to fetch, build and install the package. As of this writing, there are more than 12600 ports available. [2] , ranging from web servers to games, programming languages and most of the application types that are in use on modern computers. Ports will be discussed further in the section The Ports Subproject. Chapter 4 Methodology model 4.1. Development model There is no defined model for how people write code in FreeBSD. However, Niels Jørgenssen has suggested a model of how written code is integrated into the project. Figure 4-1. Jørgenssen's model for change integration The “development release” is the FreeBSD-CURRENT ("-CURRENT") branch and the “production release” is the FreeBSD-STABLE branch ("-STABLE") [Jørgensen, 2001]. This is a model for one change, and shows that after coding, developers seek community review and try integrating it with their own systems. After integrating the change into the development release, called FreeBSD-CURRENT, it is tested by many users and developers in the FreeBSD community. After it has gone through enough testing, it is merged into the production release, called FreeBSD-STABLE. Unless each stage is finished successfully, the developer needs to go back and make modifications in the code and restart the process. To integrate a change with either -CURRENT or -STABLE is called making a commit. Jørgensen found that most FreeBSD developers work individually, meaning that this model is used in parallel by many developers on the different ongoing development efforts. A developer can also be working on multiple changes, so that while he is waiting for review or people to test one or more of his changes, he may be writing another change. As each commit represents an increment, this is a massively incremental model. The commits are in fact so frequent that during one year [3] , 85427 commits were made, making a daily average of 233 commits. Within the “code” bracket in Jørgensen's figure, each programmer has his own working style and follows his own development models. The bracket could very well have been called “development” as it includes requirements gathering and analysis, system and detailed design, implementation and verification. However, the only output from these stages is the source code or system documentation. From a stepwise model's perspective (such as the waterfall model), the other brackets can be seen as further verification and system integration. This system integration is also important to see if a change is accepted by the community. Up until the code is committed, the developer is free to choose how much to communicate about it to the rest of the project. In order for -CURRENT to work as a buffer (so that bright ideas that had some undiscovered drawbacks can be backed out) the minimum time a commit should be in -CURRENT before merging it to -STABLE is 3 days. Such a merge is referred to as an MFC (Merge From Current). It is important to notice the word “change”. Most commits do not contain radical new features, but are maintenance updates. The only exceptions from this model are security fixes and changes to features that are deprecated in the -CURRENT branch. In these cases, changes can be committed directly to the -STABLE branch. In addition to many people working on the project, there are many related projects to the FreeBSD Project. These are either projects developing brand new features, sub-projects or projects whose outcome is incorporated into FreeBSD [4]. These projects fit into the FreeBSD Project just like regular development efforts: they produce code that is integrated with the FreeBSD Project. However, some of them (like Ports and Documentation) have the privilege of being applicable to both branches or commit directly to both -CURRENT and -STABLE. There is no standards to how design should be done, nor is design collected in a centralised repository. The main design is that of 4.4BSD. [5] As design is a part of the “Code” bracket in Jørgenssen's model, it is up to every developer or sub-project how this should be done. Even if the design should be stored in a central repository, the output from the design stages would be of limited use as the differences of methodologies would make them poorly if at all interoperable. For the overall design of the project, the project relies on the sub-projects to negotiate fit interfaces between each other rather than to dictate interfacing. 4.2. Release branches The releases of FreeBSD is best illustrated by a tree with many branches where each major branch represents a major version. Minor versions are represented by branches of the major branches. In the following release tree, arrows that follow one-another in a particular direction represent a branch. Boxes with full lines and diamonds represent official releases. Boxes with dotted lines represent the development branch at that time. Security branches are represented by ovals. Diamonds differ from boxes in that they represent a fork, meaning a place where a branch splits into two branches where one of the branches becomes a sub-branch. For example, at 4.0-RELEASE the 4.0-CURRENT branch split into 4-STABLE and 5.0-CURRENT. At 4.5-RELEASE, the branch forked off a security branch called RELENG_4_5. Figure 4-2. The FreeBSD release tree The latest -CURRENT version is always referred to as -CURRENT, while the latest -STABLE release is always referred to as -STABLE. In this figure, -STABLE refers to 4-STABLE while -CURRENT refers to 5.0-CURRENT following 5.0-RELEASE. [FreeBSD, 2002E] A “major release” is always made from the -CURRENT branch. However, the -CURRENT branch does not need to fork at that point in time, but can focus on stabilising. An example of this is that following 3.0-RELEASE, 3.1-RELEASE was also a continuation of the -CURRENT-branch, and -CURRENT did not become a true development branch until this version was released and the 3-STABLE branch was forked. When -CURRENT returns to becoming a development branch, it can only be followed by a major release. 5-STABLE is predicted to be forked off 5.0-CURRENT at around 5.3-RELEASE. It is not until 5-STABLE is forked that the development branch will be branded 6.0-CURRENT. A “minor release” is made from the -CURRENT branch following a major release, or from the -STABLE branch. Following and including, 4.3-RELEASE[6], when a minor release has been made, it becomes a “security branch”. This is meant for organisations that do not want to follow the -STABLE branch and the potential new/changed features it offers, but instead require an absolutely stable environment, only updating to implement security updates. [7] Each update to a security branch is called a “patchlevel”. For every security enhancement that is done, the patchlevel number is increased, making it easy for people tracking the branch to see what security enhancements they have implemented. In cases where there have been especially serious security flaws, an entire new release can be made from a security branch. An example of this is 4.6.2-RELEASE. 4.3. Model summary To summarise, the development model of FreeBSD can be seen as the following tree: Figure 4-3. The overall development model The tree of the FreeBSD development with ongoing development efforts and continuous integration. The tree symbolises the release versions with major versions spawning new main branches and minor versions being versions of the main branch. The top branch is the -CURRENT branch where all new development is integrated, and the -STABLE branch is the branch directly below it. Clouds of development efforts hang over the project where developers use the development models they see fit. The product of their work is then integrated into -CURRENT where it undergoes parallel debugging and is finally merged from -CURRENT into -STABLE. Security fixes are merged from -STABLE to the security branches. Chapter 5 Hats Many committers have a special area of responsibility. These roles are called hats [Losh, 2002]. These hats can be either project roles, such as public relations officer, or maintainer for a certain area of the code. Because this is a project where people give voluntarily of their spare time, people with assigned hats are not always available. They must therefore appoint a deputy that can perform the hat's role in his or her absence. The other option is to have the role held by a group. Many of these hats are not formalised. Formalised hats have a charter stating the exact purpose of the hat along with its privileges and responsibilities. The writing of such charters is a new part of the project, and has thus yet to be completed for all hats. These hat descriptions are not such a formalisation, rather a summary of the role with links to the charter where available and contact addresses, 5.1. General Hats 5.1.1. Contributor A Contributor contributes to the FreeBSD project either as a developer, as an author, by sending problem reports, or in other ways contributing to the progress of the project. A contributor has no special privileges in the FreeBSD project. [FreeBSD, 2002F] 5.1.2. Committer A person who has the required privileges to add his code or documentation to the repository. A committer has made a commit within the past 12 months. [FreeBSD, 2000A] An active committer is a committer who has made an average of one commit per month during that time. It is worth noting that there are no technical barriers to prevent someone, once having gained commit privileges to the main- or a sub-project, to make commits in parts of that project's source the committer did not specifically get permission to modify. However, when wanting to make modifications to parts a committer has not been involved in before, he/she should read the logs to see what has happened in this area before, and also read the MAINTAINER file to see if the maintainer of this part has any special requests on how changes in the code should be made 5.1.3. Core Team The core team is elected by the committers from the pool of committers and serves as the board of directors of the FreeBSD project. It promotes active contributors to committers, assigns people to well-defined hats, and is the final arbiter of decisions involving which way the project should be heading. As by July 1st, 2004, core consisted of 9 members. Elections are held every two years. 5.1.4. Maintainership Maintainership means that that person is responsible for what is allowed to go into that area of the code and has the final say should disagreements over the code occur. This involves involves proactive work aimed at stimulating contributions and reactive work in reviewing commits. With the FreeBSD source comes the MAINTAINERS file that contains a one-line summary of how each maintainer would like contributions to be made. Having this notice and contact information enables developers to focus on the development effort rather than being stuck in a slow correspondence should the maintainer be unavailable for some time. If the maintainer is unavailable for an unreasonably long period of time, and other people do a significant amount of work, maintainership may be switched without the maintainer's approval. This is based on the stance that maintainership should be demonstrated, not declared. Maintainership of a particular piece of code is a hat that is not held as a group. 5.2. Official Hats The official hats in the FreeBSD Project are hats that are more or less formalised and mainly administrative roles. They have the authority and responsibility for their area. The following illustration shows the responsibility lines. After this follows a description of each hat, including who it is held by. Figure 5-1. Overview of official hats All boxes consist of groups of committers, except for the dotted boxes where the holders are not necessarily committers. The flattened circles are sub-projects and consist of both committers and non-committers of the main project. 5.2.1. Documentation project manager The FreeBSD Documentation Project architect is responsible for defining and following up documentation goals for the committers in the Documentation project. Hat held by: The DocEng team <[email protected]>. The DocEng Charter. 5.2.2. CVSup Mirror Site Coordinator The CVSup Mirror Site Coordinator coordinates all the CVSup Mirror Site Admins to ensure that they are distributing current versions of the software, that they have the capacity to update themselves when major updates are in progress, and making it easy for the general public to find their closest CVSup mirror. Hat currently held by: John Polstra <[email protected]>. 5.2.3. Internationalisation The Internationalisation hat is responsible for coordinating the localisation efforts of the FreeBSD kernel and userland utilities. The translation effort are coordinated by The FreeBSD Documentation Project. The Internationalisation hat should suggest and promote standards and guidelines for writing and maintaining the software in a fashion that makes it easier to translate. Hat currently available. 5.2.4. Postmaster The Postmaster is responsible for mail being correctly delivered to the committers' email address. He is also responsible for ensuring that the mailing lists work and should take measures against possible disruptions of mail such as having troll-, spam- and virus-filters. Hat currently held by: David Wolfskill <[email protected]>. 5.2.5. Quality Assurance The responsibilities of this role are to manage the quality assurance measures. Hat currently held by: Robert Watson <[email protected]>. 5.2.6. Release Coordination The responsibilities of the Release Engineering Team are Setting, publishing and following a release schedule for official releases Documenting and formalising release engineering procedures Creation and maintenance of code branches Coordinating with the Ports and Documentation teams to have an updated set of packages and documentation released with the new releases Coordinating with the Security team so that pending releases are not affected by recently disclosed vulnerabilities. Further information about the development process is available in the release engineering section. Hat held by: the Release Engineering team <[email protected]>, currently headed by Murray Stokely <[email protected]>. The Release Engineering Charter. 5.2.7. Public Relations & Corporate Liaison The Public Relations & Corporate Liaison's responsibilities are: Making press statements when happenings that are important to the FreeBSD Project happen. Being the official contact person for corporations that are working close with the FreeBSD Project. Take steps to promote FreeBSD within both the Open Source community and the corporate world. Handle the “freebsd-advocacy” mailing list. This hat is currently not occupied. 5.2.8. Security Officer The Security Officer's main responsibility is to coordinate information exchange with others in the security community and in the FreeBSD project. The Security Officer is also responsible for taking action when security problems are reported and promoting proactive development behaviour when it comes to security. Because of the fear that information about vulnerabilities may leak out to people with malicious intent before a patch is available, only the Security Officer, consisting of an officer, a deputy and two Core team members, receive sensitive information about security issues. However, to create or implement a patch, the Security Officer has the Security Officer Team <[email protected]> to help do the work. Hat held by: the Security Officer <[email protected]>, currently headed by Colin Percival <[email protected]>. The Security Officer and The Security Officer Team's charter. 5.2.9. Source Repository Manager The Source Repository Manager is the only one who is allowed to directly modify the repository without using the CVS tool. It is his/her responsibility to ensure that technical problems that arise in the repository are resolved quickly. The source repository manager has the authority to back out commits if this is necessary to resolve a CVS technical problem. Hat held by: the Source Repository Manager <[email protected]>, currently headed by Peter Wemm <[email protected]>. 5.2.10. Election Manager The Election Manager is responsible for the Core election process. The manager is responsible for running and maintaining the election system, and is the final authority should minor unforseen events happen in the election process. Major unforseen events have to be discussed with the Core team Hat held only during elections. 5.2.11. Web site Management The Web site Management hat is responsible for coordinating the rollout of updated web pages on mirrors around the world, for the overall structure of the primary web site and the system it is running upon. The management needs to coordinate the content with The FreeBSD Documentation Project and acts as maintainer for the “www” tree. Hat held by: the FreeBSD Webmasters <[email protected]>. 5.2.12. Ports Manager The Ports Manager acts as a liaison between The Ports Subproject and the core project, and all requests from the project should go to the ports manager. Hat held by: the Ports Management Team <[email protected]>, 5.2.13. Standards The Standards hat is responsible for ensuring that FreeBSD complies with the standards it is committed to , keeping up to date on the development of these standards and notifying FreeBSD developers of important changes that allows them to take a proactive role and decrease the time between a standards update and FreeBSD's compliancy. Hat currently held by: Garrett Wollman <[email protected]>. 5.2.14. Core Secretary The Core Secretary's main responsibility is to write drafts to and publish the final Core Reports. The secretary also keeps the core agenda, thus ensuring that no balls are dropped unresolved. Hat currently held by: Joel Dahl <[email protected]>. 5.2.15. GNATS Administrator The GNATS Administrator is responsible for ensuring that the maintenance database is in working order, that the entries are correctly categorised and that there are no invalid entries. Hat currently held by: Ceri Davies <[email protected]> and Mark Linimon <[email protected]>. 5.2.16. Bugmeister The Bugmeister is the person in charge of the problem report group. Hat currently held by: Ceri Davies <[email protected]> and Mark Linimon <[email protected]>. 5.2.17. Donations Liaison Officer The task of the donations liason officer is to match the developers with needs with people or organisations willing to make a donation. The Donations Liason Charter is available here Hat held by: the Donations Liaison Office <[email protected]>, currently headed by Michael W. Lucas <[email protected]>. 5.2.18. Admin (Also called “FreeBSD Cluster Admin”) The admin team consists of the people responsible for administrating the computers that the project relies on for its distributed work and communication to be synchronised. It consists mainly of those people who have physical access to the servers. Hat held by: the Admin team <[email protected]>, currently headed by Mark Murray <[email protected]> 5.3. Process dependent hats 5.3.1. Report originator The person originally responsible for filing a Problem Report. 5.3.2. Bugbuster A person who will either find the right person to solve the problem, or close the PR if it is a duplicate or otherwise not an interesting one. 5.3.3. Mentor A mentor is a committer who takes it upon him/her to introduce a new committer to the project, both in terms of ensuring the new committers setup is valid, that the new committer knows the available tools required in his/her work and that the new committer knows what is expected of him/her in terms of behaviour. 5.3.4. Vendor The person(s) or organisation whom external code comes from and whom patches are sent to. 5.3.5. Reviewers People on the mailing list where the request for review is posted. 5.3.6. CVSup Mirror Site Admin A CVSup Mirror Site Admin has accesses to a server that he/she uses to mirror the CVS repository. The admin works with the CVSup Mirror Site Coordinator to ensure the site remains up-to-date and is following the general policy of official mirror sites. Chapter 6 Processes The following section will describe the defined project processes. Issues that are not handled by these processes happen on an ad-hoc basis based on what has been customary to do in similar cases. 6.1. Adding new and removing old committers The Core team has the responsibility of giving and removing commit privileges to contributors. This can only be done through a vote on the core mailing list. The ports and documentation sub-projects can give commit privileges to people working on these projects, but have to date not removed such privileges. Normally a contributor is recommended to core by a committer. For contributors or outsiders to contact core asking to be a committer is not well thought of and is usually rejected. If the area of particular interest for the developer potentially overlaps with other committers' area of maintainership, the opinion of those maintainers is sought. However, it is frequently this committer that recommends the developer. When a contributor is given committer status, he is assigned a mentor. The committer who recommended the new committer will, in the general case, take it upon himself to be the new committers mentor. When a contributor is given his commit bit, a PGP-signed email is sent from either Core Secretary, Ports Manager or [email protected] to both [email protected], the assigned mentor, the new committer and core confirming the approval of a new account. The mentor then gathers a password line, SSH 2 public key and PGP key from the new committer and sends them to Admin. When the new account is created, the mentor activates the commit bit and guides the new committer through the rest of the initial process. Figure 6-1. Process summary: adding a new committer When a contributor sends a piece of code, the receiving committer may choose to recommend that the contributor is given commit privileges. If he recommends this to core, they will vote on this recommendation. If they vote in favour, a mentor is assigned the new committer and the new committer has to email his details to the administrators for an account to be created. After this, the new committer is all set to make his first commit. By tradition, this is by adding his name to the committers list. Recall that a committer is considered to be someone who has committed code during the past 12 months. However, it is not until after 18 months of inactivity have passed that commit privileges are eligible to be revoked. [FreeBSD, 2002H] There are, however, no automatic procedures for doing this. For reactions concerning commit privileges not triggered by time, see section 1.5.8. Figure 6-2. Process summary: removing a committer When Core decides to clean up the committers list, they check who has not made a commit for the past 18 months. Committers who have not done so have their commit bits revoked. It is also possible for committers to request that their commit bit be retired if for some reason they are no longer going to be actively committing to the project. In this case, it can also be restored at a later time by core, should the committer ask. Roles in this process: Core team Contributor Committer Maintainership Mentor [FreeBSD, 2000A] [FreeBSD, 2002H] [FreeBSD, 2002I] 6.2. Adding/Removing an official CVSup Mirror A CVSup mirror is a replica of the official CVSup master that contains all the up-to-date source code for all the branches in the FreeBSD project, ports and documentation. Adding an official CVSup mirror starts with the potential CVSup Mirror Site Admin installing the “cvsup-mirror” package. Having done this and updated the source code with a mirror site, he now runs a fairly recent unofficial CVSup mirror. Deciding he has a stable environment, the processing power, the network capacity and the storage capacity to run an official mirror, he mails the CVSup Mirror Site Coordinator who decides whether the mirror should become an official mirror or not. In making this decision, the CVSup Mirror Site Coordinator has to determine whether that geographical area needs another mirror site, if the mirror administrator has the skills to run it reliably, if the network bandwidth is adequate and if the master server has the capacity to server another mirror. If CVSup Mirror Site Coordinator decides that the mirror should become an official mirror, he obtains an authentication key from the mirror admin that he installs so the mirror admin can update the mirror from the master server. Figure 6-3. Process summary: adding a CVSup mirror When a CVSup mirror administrator of an unofficial mirror offers to become an official mirror site, the CVSup coordinator decides if another mirror is needed and if there is sufficient capacity to accommodate it. If so, an authorisation key is requested and the mirror is given access to the main distribution site and added to the list of official mirrors. Tools used in this process: CVSup SSH 2 Hats involved in this process: CVSup Mirror Site Coordinator CVSup Mirror Site Admin 6.3. Committing code The committing of new or modified code is one of the most frequent processes in the FreeBSD project and will usually happen many times a day. Committing of code can only be done by a “committer”. Committers commit either code written by themselves, code submitted to them or code submitted through a problem report. When code is written by the developer that is non-trivial, he should seek a code review from the community. This is done by sending mail to the relevant list asking for review. Before submitting the code for review, he should ensure it compiles correctly with the entire tree and that all relevant tests run. This is called “pre-commit test”. When contributed code is received, it should be reviewed by the committer and tested the same way. When a change is committed to a part of the source that has been contributed from an outside Vendor, the maintainer should ensure that the patch is contributed back to the vendor. This is in line with the open source philosophy and makes it easier to stay in sync with outside projects as the patches do not have to be reapplied every time a new release is made. After the code has been available for review and no further changes are necessary, the code is committed into the development branch, -CURRENT. If the change applies for the -STABLE branch or the other branches as well, a “Merge From Current” ("MFC") countdown is set by the committer. After the number of days the committer chose when setting the MFC have passed, an email will automatically be sent to the committer reminding him to commit it to the -STABLE branch (and possibly security branches as well). Only security critical changes should be merged to security branches. Delaying the commit to -STABLE and other branches allows for “parallel debugging” where the committed code is tested on a wide range of configurations. This makes changes to -STABLE to contain fewer faults and thus giving the branch its name. Figure 6-4. Process summary: A committer commits code When a committer has written a piece of code and wants to commit it, he first needs to determine if it is trivial enough to go in without prior review or if it should first be reviewed by the developer community. If the code is trivial or has been reviewed and the committer is not the maintainer, he should consult the maintainer before proceeding. If the code is contributed by an outside vendor, the maintainer should create a patch that is sent back to the vendor. The code is then committed and the deployed by the users. Should they find problems with the code, this will be reported and the committer can go back to writing a patch. If a vendor is affected, he can choose to implement or ignore the patch. Figure 6-5. Process summary: A contributor commits code The difference when a contributor makes a code contribution is that he submits the code through the send-pr program. This report is picked up by the maintainer who reviews the code and commits it. Hats included in this process are: Committer Contributor Vendor Reviewer [FreeBSD, 2001] [Jørgensen, 2001] 6.4. Core election Core elections are held at least every two years. [8] Nine core members are elected. New elections are held if the number of core members drops below seven. New elections can also be held should at least 1/3 of the active committers demand this. When an election is to take place, core announces this at least 6 weeks in advance, and appoints an election manager to run the elections. Only committers can be elected into core. The candidates need to submit their candidacy at least one week before the election starts, but can refine their statements until the voting starts. They are presented in the candidates list. When writing their election statements, the candidates must answer a few standard questions submitted by the election manager. During elections, the rule that a committer must have committed during the 12 past months is followed strictly. Only these committers are eligible to vote. When voting, the committer may vote once in support of up to nine nominees. The voting is done over a period of four weeks with reminders being posted on “developers” mailing list that is available to all committers. The election results are released one week after the election ends, and the new core team takes office one week after the results have been posted. Should there be a voting tie, this will be resolved by the new, unambiguously elected core members. Votes and candidate statements are archived, but the archives are not publicly available. Figure 6-6. Process summary: Core elections Core announces the election and selects an election manager. He prepares the elections, and when ready, candidates can announce their candidacies through submitting their statements. The committers then vote. After the vote is over, the election results are announced and the new core team takes office. Hats in core elections are: Core team Committer Election Manager [FreeBSD, 2000A] [FreeBSD, 2002B] [FreeBSD, 2002G] 6.5. Development of new features Within the project there are sub-projects that are working on new features. These projects are generally done by one person [Jørgensen, 2001]. Every project is free to organise development as it sees fit. However, when the project is merged to the -CURRENT branch it must follow the project guidelines. When the code has been well tested in the -CURRENT branch and deemed stable enough and relevant to the -STABLE branch, it is merged to the -STABLE branch. The requirements of the project are given by developer wishes, requests from the community in terms of direct requests by mail, Problem Reports, commercial funding for the development of features, or contributions by the scientific community. The wishes that come within the responsibility of a developer are given to that developer who prioritises his time between the request and his wishes. A common way to do this is maintain a TODO-list maintained by the project. Items that do not come within someone's responsibility are collected on TODO-lists unless someone volunteers to take the responsibility. All requests, their distribution and follow-up are handled by the GNATS tool. Requirements analysis happens in two ways. The requests that come in are discussed on mailing lists, both within the main project and in the sub-project that the request belongs to or is spawned by the request. Furthermore, individual developers on the sub-project will evaluate the feasibility of the requests and determine the prioritisation between them. Other than archives of the discussions that have taken place, no outcome is created by this phase that is merged into the main project. As the requests are prioritised by the individual developers on the basis of doing what they find interesting, necessary or are funded to do, there is no overall strategy or priorisation of what requests to regard as requirements and following up their correct implementation. However, most developers have some shared vision of what issues are more important, and they can ask for guidelines from the release engineering team. The verification phase of the project is two-fold. Before committing code to the current-branch, developers request their code to be reviewed by their peers. This review is for the most part done by functional testing, but also code review is important. When the code is committed to the branch, a broader functional testing will happen, that may trigger further code review and debugging should the code not behave as expected. This second verification form may be regarded as structural verification. Although the sub-projects themselves may write formal tests such as unit tests, these are usually not collected by the main project and are usually removed before the code is committed to the current branch. [9] 6.6. Maintenance It is an advantage to the project to for each area of the source have at least one person that knows this area well. Some parts of the code have designated maintainers. Others have de-facto maintainers, and some parts of the system do not have maintainers. The maintainer is usually a person from the sub-project that wrote and integrated the code, or someone who has ported it from the platform it was written for. [10] The maintainer's job is to make sure the code is in sync with the project the code comes from if it is contributed code, and apply patches submitted by the community or write fixes to issues that are discovered. The main bulk of work that is put into the FreeBSD project is maintenance. [Jørgensen, 2001] has made a figure showing the life cycle of changes. Figure 6-7. Jørgenssen's model for change integration Here “development release” refers to the -CURRENT branch while “production release” refers to the -STABLE branch. The “pre-commit test” is the functional testing by peer developers when asked to do so or trying out the code to determine the status of the sub-project. “Parallel debugging” is the functional testing that can trigger more review, and debugging when the code is included in the -CURRENT branch. As of this writing, there were 269 committers in the project. When they commit a change to a branch, that constitutes a new release. It is very common for users in the community to track a particular branch. The immediate existence of a new release makes the changes widely available right away and allows for rapid feedback from the community. This also gives the community the response time they expect on issues that are of importance to them. This makes the community more engaged, and thus allows for more and better feedback that again spurs more maintenance and ultimately should create a better product. Before making changes to code in parts of the tree that has a history unknown to the committer, the committer is required to read the commit logs to see why certain features are implemented the way they are in order not to make mistakes that have previously either been thought through or resolved. 6.7. Problem reporting FreeBSD comes with a problem reporting tool called “send-pr” that is a part of the GNATS package. All users and developers are encouraged to use this tool for reporting problems in software they do not maintain. Problems include bug reports, feature requests, features that should be enhanced and notices of new versions of external software that is included in the project. Problem reports are sent to an email address where it is inserted into the GNATS maintenance database. A Bugbuster classifies the problem and sends it to the correct group or maintainer within the project. After someone has taken responsibility for the report, the report is being analysed. This analysis includes verifying the problem and thinking out a solution for the problem. Often feedback is required from the report originator or even from the FreeBSD community. Once a patch for the problem is made, the originator may be asked to try it out. Finally, the working patch is integrated into the project, and documented if applicable. It there goes through the regular maintenance cycle as described in section maintenance. These are the states a problem report can be in: open, analyzed, feedback, patched, suspended and closed. The suspended state is for when further progress is not possible due to the lack of information or for when the task would require so much work that nobody is working on it at the moment. Figure 6-8. Process summary: problem reporting A problem is reported by the report originator. It is then classified by a bugbuster and handed to the correct maintainer. He verifies the problem and discusses the problem with the originator until he has enough information to create a working patch. This patch is then committed and the problem report is closed. The roles included in this process are: Report originator Maintainership Bugbuster [FreeBSD, 2002C]. [FreeBSD, 2002D] 6.8. Reacting to misbehaviour [FreeBSD, 2001] has a number of rules that committers should follow. However, it happens that these rules are broken. The following rules exist in order to be able to react to misbehaviour. They specify what actions will result in how long a suspension the committer's commit privileges. Committing during code freezes without the approval of the Release Engineering team - 2 days Committing to a security branch without approval - 2 days Commit wars - 5 days to all participating parties Impolite or inappropriate behaviour - 5 days [Lehey, 2002] For the suspensions to be efficient, any single core member can implement a suspension before discussing it on the “core” mailing list. Repeat offenders can, with a 2/3 vote by core, receive harsher penalties, including permanent removal of commit privileges. (However, the latter is always viewed as a last resort, due to its inherent tendency to create controversy). All suspensions are posted to the “developers” mailing list, a list available to committers only. It is important that you cannot be suspended for making technical errors. All penalties come from breaking social etiquette. Hats involved in this process: Core team Committer 6.9. Release engineering The FreeBSD project has a Release Engineering team with a principal release engineer that is responsible for creating releases of FreeBSD that can be brought out to the user community via the net or sold in retail outlets. Since FreeBSD is available on multiple platforms and releases for the different architectures are made available at the same time, the team has one person in charge of each architecture. Also, there are roles in the team responsible for coordinating quality assurance efforts, building a package set and for having an updated set of documents. When referring to the release engineer, a representative for the release engineering team is meant. When a release is coming, the FreeBSD project changes shape somewhat. A release schedule is made containing feature- and code-freezes, release of interim releases and the final release. A feature-freeze means no new features are allowed to be committed to the branch without the release engineers' explicit consent. Code-freeze means no changes to the code (like bugs-fixes) are allowed to be committed without the release engineers explicit consent. This feature- and code-freeze is known as stabilising. During the release process, the release engineer has the full authority to revert to older versions of code and thus "back out" changes should he find that the changes are not suitable to be included in the release. There are three different kinds of releases: .0 releases are the first release of a major version. These are branched of the -CURRENT branch and have a significantly longer release engineering cycle due to the unstable nature of the -CURRENT branch .X releases are releases of the -STABLE branch. They are scheduled to come out every 4 months. .X.Y releases are security releases that follow the .X branch. These come out only when sufficient security fixes have been merged since the last release on that branch. New features are rarely included, and the security team is far more involved in these than in regular releases. For releases of the -STABLE-branch, the release process starts 45 days before the anticipated release date. During the first phase, the first 15 days, the developers merge what changes they have had in -CURRENT that they want to have in the release to the release branch. When this period is over, the code enters a 15 day code freeze in which only bug fixes, documentation updates, security-related fixes and minor device driver changes are allowed. These changes must be approved by the release engineer in advance. At the beginning of the last 15 day period a release candidate is created for widespread testing. Updates are less likely to be allowed during this period, except for important bug fixes and security updates. In this final period, all releases are considered release candidates. At the end of the release process, a release is created with the new version number, including binary distributions on web sites and the creation of a CD-ROM images. However, the release is not considered "really released" until a PGP-signed message stating exactly that, is sent to the mailing list freebsd-announce; anything labelled as a "release" before that may well be in-process and subject to change before the PGP-signed message is sent. [11]. The releases of the -CURRENT-branch (that is, all releases that end with “.0”) are very similar, but with twice as long timeframe. It starts 8 weeks prior to the release with announcement of the release time line. Two weeks into the release process, the feature freeze is initiated and performance tweaks should be kept to a minimum. Four weeks prior to the release, an official beta version is made available. Two weeks prior to release, the code is officially branched into a new version. This version is given release candidate status, and as with the release engineering of -STABLE, the code freeze of the release candidate is hardened. However, development on the main development branch can continue. Other than these differences, the release engineering processes are alike. .0 releases go into their own branch and are aimed mainly at early adopters. The branch then goes through a period of stabilisation, and it is not until the Release Engineering Team> decides the demands to stability have been satisfied that the branch becomes -STABLE and -CURRENT targets the next major version. While this for the majority has been with .1 versions, this is not a demand. Most releases are made when a given date that has been deemed a long enough time since the previous release comes. A target is set for having major releases every 18 months and minor releases every 4 months. The user community has made it very clear that security and stability cannot be sacrificed by self-imposed deadlines and target release dates. For slips of time not to become too long with regards to security and stability issues, extra discipline is required when committing changes to -STABLE. Figure 6-9. Process summary: release engineering These are the stages in the release engineering process. Multiple release candidates may be created until the release is deemed stable enough to be released. [FreeBSD, 2002E] Chapter 7 Tools The major support tools for supporting the development process are CVS, CVSup, Perforce, GNATS, Mailman and OpenSSH. Except for CVSup, these are externally developed tools. These tools are commonly used in the open source world. 7.1. Concurrent Versions System (CVS) Concurrent Versions System or simply “CVS” is a system to handle multiple versions of text files and tracking who committed what changes and why. A project lives within a “repository” and different versions are considered different “branches”. 7.2. CVSup CVSup is a software package for distributing and updating collections of files across a network. It consists of a client program, cvsup, and a server program, cvsupd. The package is tailored specifically for distributing CVS repositories, and by taking advantage of CVS' properties, it performs updates much faster than traditional systems. 7.3. GNATS GNATS is a maintenance database consisting of a set of tools to track bugs at a central site. It supports the bug tracking process for sending and handling bugs as well as querying and updating the database and editing bug reports. The project uses one of its many client interfaces, “send-pr”, to send “Problem Reports” by email to the projects central GNATS server. The committers have also web and command-line clients available. 7.4. Mailman Mailman is a program that automates the management of mailing lists. The FreeBSD Project uses it to run 16 general lists, 60 technical lists, 4 limited lists and 5 lists with CVS commit logs. It is also used for many mailing lists set up and used by other people and projects in the FreeBSD community. General lists are lists for the general public, technical lists are mainly for the development of specific areas of interest, and closed lists are for internal communication not intended for the general public. The majority of all the communication in the project goes through these 85 lists [FreeBSD, 2003A, Appendix C]. 7.5. Perforce Perforce is a commercial software configuration management system developed by Perforce Systems that is available on over 50 operating systems. It is a collection of clients built around the Perforce server that contains the central file repository and tracks the operations done upon it. The clients are both clients for accessing the repository and administration of its configuration. 7.6. Pretty Good Privacy Pretty Good Privacy, better known as PGP, is a cryptosystem using a public key architecture to allow people to digitally sign and/or encrypt information in order to ensure secure communication between two parties. A signature is used when sending information out many recipients, enabling them to verify that the information has not been tampered with before they received it. In the FreeBSD Project this is the primary means of ensuring that information has been written by the person who claims to have written it, and not altered in transit. 7.7. Secure Shell Secure Shell is a standard for securely logging into a remote system and for executing commands on the remote system. It allows other connections, called tunnels, to be established and protected between the two involved systems. This standard exists in two primary versions, and only version two is used for the FreeBSD Project. The most common implementation of the standard is OpenSSH that is a part of the project's main distribution. Since its source is updated more often than FreeBSD releases, the latest version is also available in the ports tree. Chapter 8 Sub-projects Sub-projects are formed to reduce the amount of communication needed to coordinate the group of developers. When a problem area is sufficiently isolated, most communication would be within the group focusing on the problem, requiring less communication with the groups they communicate with than were the group not isolated. 8.1. The Ports Subproject A “port” is a set of meta-data and patches that are needed to fetch, compile and install correctly an external piece of software on a FreeBSD system. The amount of ports have grown at a tremendous rate, as shown by the following figure. Figure 8-1. Number of ports added between 1996 and 2005 Figure 8-1 is taken from the FreeBSD web site. It shows the number of ports available to FreeBSD in the period 1995 to 2005. It looks like the curve has first grown exponentionally, and then since the middle of 2001 grown linerly. As the external software described by the port often is under continued development, the amount of work required to maintain the ports is already large, and increasing. This has led to the ports part of the FreeBSD project gaining a more empowered structure, and is more and more becoming a sub-project of the FreeBSD project. Ports has its own core team with the Ports Manager as its leader, and this team can appoint committers without FreeBSD Core's approval. Unlike in the FreeBSD Project, where a lot of maintenance frequently is rewarded with a commit bit, the ports sub-project contains many active maintainers that are not committers. Unlike the main project, the ports tree is not branched. Every release of FreeBSD follows the current ports collection and has thus available updated information on where to find programs and how to build them. This, however, means that a port that makes dependencies on the system may need to have variations depending on what version of FreeBSD it runs on. With an unbranched ports repository it is not possible to guarantee that any port will run on anything other than -CURRENT and -STABLE, in particular older, minor releases. There is neither the infrastructure nor volunteer time needed to guarantee this. For efficiency of communication, teams depending on Ports, such as the release engineering team, have their own ports liaisons. 8.2. The FreeBSD Documentation Project The FreeBSD Documentation project was started January 1995. From the initial group of a project leader, four team leaders and 16 members, they are now a total of 44 committers. The documentation mailing list has just under 300 members, indicating that there is quite a large community around it. The goal of the Documentation project is to provide good and useful documentation of the FreeBSD project, thus making it easier for new users to get familiar with the system and detailing advanced features for the users. The main tasks in the Documentation project are to work on current projects in the “FreeBSD Documentation Set”, and translate the documentation to other languages. Like the FreeBSD Project, documentation is split in the same branches. This is done so that there is always an updated version of the documentation for each version. Only documentation errors are corrected in the security branches. Like the ports sub-project, the Documentation project can appoint documentation committers without FreeBSD Core's approval. [FreeBSD, 2003B]. The Documentation project has a primer. This is used both to introduce new project members to the standard tools and syntaxes and acts as a reference when working on the project. References [Brooks, 1995] Frederick P. Brooks, 1975, 1995, 0201835959, Addison-Wesley Pub Co, The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition (2nd Edition). [Saers, 2003] Niklas Saers, 2003, A project model for the FreeBSD Project: Candidatus Scientiarum thesis. [Jørgensen, 2001] Niels Jørgensen, 2001, Putting it All in the Trunk: Incremental Software Development in the FreeBSD Open Source Project. [PMI, 2000] Project Management Institute, 1996, 2000, 1-880410-23-0, Project Management Institute, Pennsylvania, PMBOK Guide: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, 2000 Edition. [FreeBSD, 2000A] 2002, Core Bylaws. [FreeBSD, 2002A] 2002, FreeBSD Developer's Handbook. [FreeBSD, 2002B] 2002, Core team election 2002. [Losh, 2002] Warner Losh, 2002, Working with Hats. [FreeBSD, 2002C] Dag-Erling Smørgrav and Hiten Pandya, 2002, The FreeBSD Documentation Project, Problem Report Handling Guidelines. [FreeBSD, 2002D] Dag-Erling Smørgrav, 2002, The FreeBSD Documentation Project, Writing FreeBSD Problem Reports. [FreeBSD, 2001] 2001, The FreeBSD Documentation Project, Committers Guide. [FreeBSD, 2002E] Murray Stokely, 2002, The FreeBSD Documentation Project, FreeBSD Release Engineering. [FreeBSD, 2003A] The FreeBSD Documentation Project, FreeBSD Handbook. [FreeBSD, 2002F] 2002, The FreeBSD Documentation Project, Contributors to FreeBSD. [FreeBSD, 2002G] 2002, The FreeBSD Project, Core team elections 2002. [FreeBSD, 2002H] 2002, The FreeBSD Project, Commit Bit Expiration Policy: 2002/04/06 15:35:30. [FreeBSD, 2002I] 2002, The FreeBSD Project, New Account Creation Procedure: 2002/08/19 17:11:27. [FreeBSD, 2003B] 2002, The FreeBSD Documentation Project, FreeBSD DocEng Team Charter: 2003/03/16 12:17. [Lehey, 2002] Greg Lehey, 2002, Greg Lehey, Two years in the trenches: The evolution of a software project. Notes [1] This goes hand-in-hand with Brooks' law that “adding another person to a late project will make it later” since it will increase the communication needs Brooks, 1995. A project model is a tool to reduce the communication needs. [2] Statistics are generated by counting the number of entries in the file fetched by portsdb by April 1st, 2005. portsdb is a part of the port sysutils/portupgrade. [3] The period from January 1st, 2004 to December 31st, 2004 was examined to find this number. [4] For instance, the development of the Bluetooth stack started as a sub-project until it was deemed stable enough to be merged into the -CURRENT branch. Now it is a part of the core FreeBSD system. [5] According to Kirk McKusick, after 20 years of developing UNIX operating systems, the interfaces are for the most part figured out. There is therefore no need for much design. However, new applications of the system and new hardware leads to some implementations being more beneficial than those that used to be preferred. One example is the introduction of web browsing that made the normal TCP/IP connection a short burst of data rather than a steady stream over a longer period of time. [6] The first release this actually happened for was 4.5-RELEASE, but security branches were at the same time created for 4.3-RELEASE and 4.4-RELEASE. [7] There is a terminology overlap with respect to the word "stable", which leads to some confusion. The -STABLE branch is still a development branch, whose goal is to be useful for most people. If it is never acceptable for a system to get changes that are not announced at the time it is deployed, that system should run a security branch. [8] The first Core election was held September 2000 [9] More and more tests are however performed when building the system &
Release history (reverse chronological order) This release 1.3.7.1 Release date: December 11, 2006 Known bugs: none Fixes/features added from previous release: a) added support for multiple filters per process in VsDrvr.dll b) updated manual Previous release 1.3.5 Release date: October 11th, 2005 Known bugs: none Fixes/features added from previous release a) added VsSetWavelengthStep and VsGetWavelengthStep functions b) added VsSetWavelengthWavesConfirm() function c) fixed error-handling of VsSetWavelength() In earlier revisions, the error status light was cleared after a VsSetWavelength() call failed, so the user did not see the light turn red to alert that an error had occurred. This has been fixed in 1.35 so the error light remains lit, and an error code is returned. d) added range-check to VsDefinePalette() Previous revisions did not range-check the palette index number, and hard crashes could be produced if out-of-range values were supplied to this routine. Previous release 1.33b Release date: February 9, 2005 Known bugs: none Fixes/features changed from previous release: a) Fixed installer: programmers?guide (vsdrvr.pdf) installed when SDK is selected. Previous release 1.33a Release date: January 10th, 2005 Known bugs: i) SDK programmers?guide is not installed even if SDK is selected. Fixes/features added from previous release a) VsDrvr.dll fixed handling of COMx ports that do not support 460kb The autobaud sequence tries a variety of baud rates, some of which are not supported by RS-232 interfaces (but are supported on USB virtual COM ports). This was not handled properly, so if a call was made to VsOpen when no VariSpec was present, but a later call was made when a filter was present, the latter would fail. b) VsGui added check of which COMx ports are present on computer This program now filters its COMx list and only shows ports which actually exist; it used to show COM1 ?COM8 even if not all of these were present. c) VsGui added automatic filter detection on Configure dialog This checks all ports in turn, and reports the first detected filter. The search order is determined by the order in which the computer lists ports in the Registry. d) VsGui changed to recognize filters as present while initializing In prior revisions, VsGui would not report no filter found if a filter was present but still going through its power-up initialization. Now, a message box is posted to indicate that a filter was found, and the program checks whether initialization is complete, at 1 second intervals. When the filter is done initializing, the VsGui controls become active and report the filter information (serial number, wavelength range, etc). e) VsGui added filter status item to Configure dialog Adjacent the COMx combo box, there is now a text field that indicates filter status as 揘ot found? 揑nitializing? or 揜eady? This field is updated whenever the combo box selection is changed. Previous release 1.32 Release date: July 27th, 2004 Known bugs: COMx port described above as 1.33 fix item a) Fixes/features added from previous release a) VsGui added a sweep feature to enable cycling the filter The wavelength start, stop, and step are adjustable. Cycling can be done a fixed number of times or indefinitely. Previous release 1.30 Release date: June 23rd, 2004 Known bugs: none Fixes/features added from previous release a) New commands VsSetWaveplateAndWaves(), VsGetWaveplateAndWaves(), VsGetWaveplateLimits(), and VsGetWaveplateStages() were added for support of variable retarder models. b) New commands VsSetRetries() and VsSetLatencyMs() were added for control of serial port latency and automatic retry in case of error. c) New commands VsSetMode() and VsGetMode() were added for control of the VariSpec filter抯 triggering and sweep modes d) New command VsGetSettleMs() was added to learn optics settling time e) New commands VsIsDiagnostic() and VsIsEngagedInBeam() were added. These are reserved for CRI use and are not supported for use by end users. f) The command syntax and functionality of the VsSendCommand() function was changed - see description of this command for details g) The VsGui program was modified to add sweep function, and the associated files were added to the file manifest. The new functions are assigned higher ordinal numbers than the earlier commands, so the ordinal numbers assigned to routines in the earlier VsDrvr routines are preserved. This means one may use the new VsDrvr.dll file with applications that were developed and linked with the earlier release, without any need to recompile or relink the application. Of course, to use the new functions one must link the application code with the new .lib file containing these functions. Previous release: 1.20 Release date December 3rd, 2003 Known bugs: a) there is a conflict when one uses the implicit palette to set wavelengths, and also defines palette states explicitly using the VsDefinePalette() function. When the explicitly set palette state overwrites a palette state implicitly associated with a certain wavelength, that wavelength will not be accurately set when one issues the VsSetWavelength() command. This is fixed in release 1.30 Fixes/features added from previous release a) fixes bug with implicit palette in September 8 release b) incorporates implicit retry for command send/reply if error in transmission c) recognizes filters with serial numbers > 60000 (normally VariLC numbers) d) supports binary transfer of >127 bytes Previous release 1.11 Release date September 8, 2003 Known bugs a) implicit palette can fail to create palette entry, causing tuning error b) VsSendBinary() fails if 128 chars or more sent (signed char error) Fixes/features added from previous release a) included VsIsPresent() function omitted from function list of 1.10 release Previous release 1.10 Release date: August 28th, 2003 Known bugs: a) VsIsPresent function not included ?generates 搖nresolved external?at link-time Fixes/features added from previous release: b) added command VsEnableImplicitPalette() to code and documentation added command VsConnect() to code and documentation added command VsClose() to code and documentation added local variable to avoid unnecessary querying of diagnostic status documented that command VsConnect() will not be supported in future documented that command VsDisconnect() will not be supported in future documented that command VsIsConnected() will not be supported in future changed to Windows Installer from previous ZIP file added table summary of commands to this manual Previous release 1.00 Release date: November 5th, 2002 Known bugs: a) none Fixes/features added from previous release b) n/a ?initial releaseDescription This package provides a set of functions to control the VariSpec filter, which may be called from C or C++ programs. It incorporates all aspects of the filter communication, including low-level serial routines. With these routines, one can address the filter as a virtual object, with little need for detailed understanding of its behavior. This simplifies the programming task for those who want to integrate the VariSpec into larger software packages. File manifest All files are contained in a single installer file which includes the following: vsdrvr.h declaration file vsdrvr.lib library stub file vsdrvr.dll run-time library vsdrvr_r1p30.pdf (this file) release notes and programmer抯 guide {sample program using VsDrvr package} registryAccess.cpp registryAccess.h resource.h stdafx.h VsConfigDlg.cpp VsConfigfDlg.h VsGui.cpp VsGui.h VsGui.mak VsGui.rc VsGuiDlg.cpp VsGuiDlg.h VsSweep.cpp VsSweep.h Development cycle In order to use the DLL, one should take the following steps: a) Add #include 搗sdrvr.h?statements to all files that access the VariSpec software b) Add vsdrvr.lib to the list of modules searched by the linker c) Place a copy of vsdrvr.dll in either the folder that includes the executable code for the program being developed; or, preferably, in the windows system folder. Failures in step a) will lead to compiler errors; in step b) to linker errors; in step c) to a run-time error message that 揳 required .DLL file, vsdrvr.dll, was not found? VariSpec filter configuration The VariSpec filter communicates via ASCII commands sent over an RS-232 interface or USB. The RS232 can operate at 9600 or 19,200 baud, while the USB appears as a virtual COMx device. While it appears to be present at either 9600 baud or 115.2 kbaud , the actual data transmission occurs at 12 MBaud over the USB. Each command is terminated with an end-of-line terminator which can be either a carriage-return <c/r> or line feed <l/f>. For RS-232 models, the baud rate and terminator character are selected using DIP switches inside the VariSpec electronics module. Default settings are 9600 baud, and the <c/r> character (denoted 慭r?in the C language). For USB devices, the terminator is always <c/r>. For latest information, or to determine how to alter the settings from the factory defaults, consult the VariSpec manual. Timing and latency The VariSpec filter takes a finite time to process commands, which adds an additional delay to that imposed by simple communication delays. In general, the time to process a given command is short except for the following operations: ?filter initialization ?wavelength selection ?palette definition The first of these is quite lengthy (30 seconds or more) because it involves measurements and exercising of the liquid crystal optics. The latter two are much faster but still can take a significant amount of time (up to 300 ms) on the older RS-232 electronics due to the computations involved. On the newer, USB electronics, the latter two functions are completed in less than 5 ms. For this reason, the functions that handle these actions offer the option of waiting until the action is complete before returning (so-called synchronous operation); although they can be called in an asynchronous mode where the function returns as soon as all commands have been sent to the VariSpec, without waiting for them to run to completion. Another option is to use implicit palette tables. If this is enabled, by calling the VsEnableImplicitPalette() function, the driver will define the settings for a given wavelength once, then saves the results within the VariSpec for faster access next time that wavelength is used. Subsequent access times are essentially instantaneous, until either all of the 128 palette states are in use, or the palette is cleared via the VsClearPalette() command. The VsIsReady() function can be used to determine whether a filter is done processing all commands. Ideally, one should check VsIsReady() using a timer or the like to wait efficiently, so that the host PC is free to do other tasks while waiting for the VariSpec. The VariSpec always processes each command to completion before starting on the next command, and it has a 256 byte input buffer, so there is no problem issuing several commands at once; they will all be executed, and in the order given. This also indicates another way to coordinate one抯 program with the VariSpec filter: one can issue any of the VsGetxxx() functions, which query the filter. Since these do not return until the filter has responded, one may be sure that there are no pending commands when the VsGetxxx() function completes. The VsDrvr package provides for automatic re-try of commands up to 3 times, in the event that communications are garbled, and will wait up to 2 seconds for completion of serial commands. The number of retries can be set from 0 to 10, and the latency adjusted, if desired. However, there should be no need to do so. The hardware and software have been tested and observed to execute several million commands without a single communications error, so in practice the need for the retry protocol is very slight. Communication speed is not improved by reducing the latency, since commands proceed when all characters are received, and the latency time to time-out is only relevent when there is a communications lapse ?and as noted, these are very unlikely so the performance burden of retries should not be a practical consideration. Multiple Filters and Multiple Processes These routines only permit one VariSpec per process, and one process per VariSpec. So, these routines cannot control multiple filters at once from a single process; nor can several active processes seek to control the same filter at the same time. The VsDrvr package anticipates a future upgrade to enable control of multiple filters per process, so it makes use of an integer handle to identify which VariSpec is being controlled, even though (for now) only a single filter can be active. This handle is checked, and the correct handle must be used in all calls. Program flow and sequence Typical programs should use the following API calls (all applications, upon initiating link to the filter) ?call VsOpen() to establish communications link (required) ?call VsIsPresent() to confirm a filter is actually present ?call VsIsReady() in case filter is still doing power-up sequence <wait until no longer busy> ?call VsGetFilterIdentity() to learn wavelength limits and serial number if needed (if setting wavelengths via implicit palettes; recommended especially with older filters) ?call VsEnableImplicitPalettes() ? (to set wavelengths, either directly or via implicit palettes) ?call VsSetWavelength() and VsGetWavelength() to select and retrieve tuning (if setting wavelengths by means of palettes, and managing palettes explicity) ?call VsDefinePaletteEntry() and VsClearPalette() to define palette entries ?call VsSetPalette() and VsGetPalette() to select and retrieve palette state (all applications, when done with the filter) ?call VsClose() to release the communications link (required) Sample program Source code for a sample program, VsGui, is provided, which illustrates how to control a VariSpec filter using the VsDrvr package. All filter control code lives in the VsGuiDlg.cpp module, specifically in the Connect(), RequestToSetWavelength(), and VsWriteTimerProc() functions. The latter two use a system timer to decouple the GUI from the actual filter control, for more responsive feedback to the user. Such an approach is unnecessary if palettes are used, which is preferable when one wishes the best real-time performance. See the VariSpec manual for further information. Auxiliary commands Certain commands are normally only used at the factory when filters are being built and configured, or in specialized configurations. These appear after the normal command set in the listing below. Obsolescent commands The VsConnect(), VsIsConnected(), and VsDisconnect() functions are obsolescent. They are supported in this release, but will not necessarily exist in releases after 1.3x. As they are obsolescent, they are not recommended for new code. These function calls are not documented further in this manual.Summary of commands Normal Commands VsClearError(vsHnd) VsClearPalette(vsHnd) VsClearPendingCommands(vsHnd) VsClose(vsHnd) VsDefinePalette(vsHnd, palEntry, wl) VsEnableImplicitPalette(vsHnd, isEnabled) VsGetError(vsHnd, *pErr) VsGetFilterIdentity(vsHnd, *pVer, *pSerno, *pminWl, *pmaxWl) VsGetMode(vsHnd, int *pMode) VsGetPalette(vsHnd, *ppalEntryNo) VsGetSettleMs(vsHnd, *psettleMs) VsGetTemperature(vsHnd, *pTemperature) VsGetWavelength(vsHnd, *pwl) VsGetWavelengthAndWaves(vsHnd, double *pWl, double *pwaves) VsGetWaveplateLimits(vsHnd, double *pminWaves, double *pmaxWaves) VsGetWaveplateStages(vsHnd, int *pnStages) VsIsPresent(vsHnd) VsIsReady(vsHnd) VsOpen(*pvsHnd, portName, *pErrorCode) VsSetLatencyMs(vsHnd, nLatencyMs) VsSetMode(vsHnd, mode) VsSetPalette(vsHnd, palEntry) VsSetRetries(vsHnd, nRetries) VsSetWavelength(vsHnd, wl, confirm) VsSetWavelengthAndWaves(vsHnd, wl, waveplateVector) Auxiliary commands VsGetAllDrive(vsHnd, *pStages, drive[]) VsGetNstages(vsHnd, *pStages) VsGetPendingReply(vsHnd, reply, nChars, *pQuit, firstMs, subsequentMs) VsGetReply(vsHnd, reply, nChars, waitMs) VsIsDiagnostic(vsHnd) VsIsEngagedInBeam(vsHnd) VsSendBinary(vsHnd, bin[], nChars, clearEcho) VsSendCommand(vsHnd, cmd, sendEolChar) VsSetStageDrive(vsHnd, stage, drive) VsThermistorCounts(vsHnd, *pCounts) Alphabetical list of function calls Syntax Throughout this manual, the following conventions are used: VSDRVR_API Int32 VsOpen( VS_HANDLE *vsHnd, LPCSTR port, Int32 *pErrorCode ) Bold text is used for function names Italics indicate variables whose names (or values) are supplied by the user in their code Name-mangling The declaration file vsdrvr.h includes statements that render the API names accurately in a C++ environment, i.e. free of the name-mangling decoration suffix that is normally added by C++ compilers. Thus the functions can be called freely from either C or C++ programs, using the names exactly as shown in this manual or in the VsDrvr.h file. Call and argument declarations The call protocol type, VSDRVR_API, is declared in vsdrvr.h, as are the types Int32 and VS_HANDLE. Errors All functions return an Int32 status value, which is TRUE if the routine completed successfully and FALSE if there was an error. If there is an error in the VsOpen() function, the error is returned in *pErrorCode. If there is an error in communicating with a filter after a successful VsOpen(), one should use the VsGetError() function to obtain the specific error code involved. This function returns VSD_ERR_NOERROR if there is no error pending. Main and auxiliary functions The next section provides a description of the main functions, in alphabetic order; followed by the auxiliary functions, also in alphabetical order. In normal use, one will probably have no need for the auxiliary functions, but this list is provided for completeness. VSDRVR_API Int32 VsClearError( VS_HANDLE vsHnd ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() Purpose: this function clears any pending error on the VariSpec. This resets the error LED on the filter, and sets the pending error to VS_ERR_NOERROR. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: noneVSDRVR_API Int32 VsClearPalette( VS_HANDLE vsHnd ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() Function: clears all elements of the current filter palette and renders the current palette element undefined. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: none VSDRVR_API Int32 VsClearPendingCommands( VS_HANDLE vsHnd ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() Function: clears all pending commands including any presently in-process Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: none VSDRVR_API Int32 VsClose( VS_HANDLE vsHnd ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen(). May also be NULL, in which case all VariSpec filters are disconnected. Function: Disconnects the filter. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: No other functions will work until VsOpen() is called to re-establish communications with the filter. VSDRVR_API Int32 VsDefinePalette( VS_HANDLE vsHnd, Int32 palEntry, double wl) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() palEntry palette entry to be defined, in the range [0, 127] wl wavelength associated with this palette entry Function: creates a palette entry for the entry and wavelength specified. This palette entry can then be accessed using VsSetPalette() and VsGetPalette() functions. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: palettes provide a fast way to define filter settings for wavelengths that are to be repeatedly accessed. The calculations are performed once, at the time the palette element is defined, and the results are saved in a palette table to tune to that wavelength without repeating the underlying calculations. And, one may cycle through the palette table, once defined, by means of TTL a trigger signal to the filter electronics. For more information about using palettes, consult the VariSpec user抯 manual. VSDRVR_API Int32 VsEnableImplicitPalette( VS_HANDLE vsHnd, BOOL imlEnabled) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() implEnabled selects whether to use implicit palette definition Function: enables or disables implicit palette generation when wavelengths are defined using the VsSetWavelength function. If enabled, a new palette entry is created whenever a new wavelength is accessed, and the VsSetWavelength function will use this palette entry whenever that wavelength is accessed again, until the palette is cleared. The result is improved tuning speed; however, it means that the palette contents are altered dynamically, which can be a problem if one relies upon the palette contents remaining fixed. Clearing the palette with VsClearPalette() will clear all implicit palette entries as well as explicitly defined palette entries. This is useful if one knows that wavelengths used previously will not be used again, or that a new set of wavelengths is about to be defined and one wishes to make sure there is sufficient room in the palette. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: By default, the implicit palette is enabled for VariSpec filters that have RS-232 interface, and is disabled for newer VariSpec filters that have the USB interface. This is because the newer filters perform the filter tuning calculations fast enough that no performance improvement is obtained by using the implicit palette to set wavelength. For more information about using palettes, consult the VariSpec user抯 manual. VSDRVR_API Int32 VsGetError( VS_HANDLE vsHnd, Int32 *pErr) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() pErr pointer to the int that will receive the most recent error code Purpose: this function clears any pending error on the VariSpec. This resets the error LED on the filter, and sets the pending error to VS_ERR_NOERROR. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: noneVSDRVR_API Int32 VsGetFilterIdentity( VS_HANDLE vsHnd, Int32 *pVer, Int32 *pSerno, double *pminWl, double *pmaxWl ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() pVer pointer to variable that receives the filter firmware version pSerno pointer to variable that receives the filter serial number pminWl pointer to variable that receives the filter抯 minimum wavelength pmaxWl pointer to variable that receives the filter抯 maximum wavelength Purpose: this function reads the filter抯 information using the VariSpec 慥?command, and puts it to the call variables. Any one of the pointers may be NULL, in which case that piece of information is not returned. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: none VSDRVR_API Int32 VsGetMode( VS_HANDLE vsHnd, Int32 *pMode ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() pMode pointer to variable that receives the filter mode Purpose: this function enables one to read the filter抯 present mode. The mode describes how the filter responds to hardware triggers, and is described in the filter manual. If the pointer *pMode is NULL, no information is returned. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: none VSDRVR_API Int32 VsGetPalette( VS_HANDLE vsHnd, Int32 *ppalEntry ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() ppalEntry pointer to int that receives the 0-based palette entry number. This pointer may not be NULL. Purpose: this function determines what palette entry is currently active and returns it to *ppalEntry. If the present palette entry is undefined, it sets *ppalEntry to ? and returns a successful status code. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: noneVSDRVR_API Int32 VsGetSettleMs( VS_HANDLE vsHnd, Int32 *pSettleMs ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() pSettleMs pointer to variable that receives the filter settling time Purpose: this function returns the filter抯 settling time, in milliseconds. This is useful for establishing overall system timing. The settling time is defined as beginning at the moment that the electronics have processed the request to change wavelength, as determined by VsIsReady() or equivalent. At that moment, the new set of drive signals are applied to the optics, and the optics will settle in *psettleMs milliseconds. The settling time is defined as a 95% settling time, meaning the filter has settled to 95% of its ultimate transmission value at the new wavelength being tuned to. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: none VSDRVR_API Int32 VsGetTemperature( VS_HANDLE vsHnd, double *pTemperature ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() pTemperature pointer to double that will receive the filter temperature, in C This pointer may not be NULL Purpose: this function determines the filter temperature using the VariSpec 慪?command, and puts the result to *pTemperature. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: noneVSDRVR_API Int32 VsGetWavelength( VS_HANDLE vsHnd, double *pwl ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() pwl pointer to double that will receive the filter wavelength, in nm This pointer may not be NULL Purpose: this function determines the current filter wavelength and returns it to *pwl. If the present wavelength is undefined, it sets *pwl to ? and returns a successful status code. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: none VSDRVR_API Int32 VsGetWavelengthAndWaves( VS_HANDLE vsHnd, double *pwl, double *pwaves ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() pwl pointer to double that will receive the filter wavelength, in nm. This pointer may not be NULL pwaves pointer to double array that will receive one or more waveplate settings. The actual number of settings may be determined by VsGetWaveplateStages(). Purpose: this function determines the current filter wavelength and returns it to *pwl. If the present wavelength is undefined, it sets *pwl to ? and returns a successful status code. If the present wavelength is defined, it also returns the waves of retardance at each of the polarization analysis waveplates in the optics, in the pwaves[] array. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: See the description of the VsGetWaveplateStages() command for more detail on what stages are considered waveplates. VSDRVR_API Int32 VsGetWaveplateLimits( VS_HANDLE vsHnd, double *pminWaves, double *pmaxWaves ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() pminWaves pointer to double array that will receive the minimum retardances possible at each of the waveplate stages in the filter optics. pmaxWaves pointer to double array that will receive the maximum retardances possible at each of the waveplate stages in the filter optics Purpose: this function determines the range of retardances that are possible at each waveplate stage, in waves, at the present wavelength setting. Note that the retardance range is itself a function of wavelength, so the results will vary as the wavelength is changed. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: See the description of the VsGetWaveplateStages command for more detail on what stages are considered waveplates. VSDRVR_API Int32 VsGetWaveplateStages( VS_HANDLE vsHnd, Int32 *pnwpStages ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() pnwpStages pointer to Int32 that will receive the number of waveplate stages in the filter optics. This pointer may not be NULL Purpose: this function determines how many polarization analysis stages are present in the optics and returns this number. Note that although all VariSpec filters operate by means of variable retarder element, optical stages that perform wavelength tuning rather than polarization analysis are not treated as waveplate stages. For example, most VariSpec filters do not include any polarization analysis stages and thus report no waveplates. VsGetWaveplateStages will return a value of 2 for conventional PolScope optics. In contrast, VsGetNstages() reports the total number of stages in a filter, including stages that perform polarization analysis and stages that perform wavelength tuning. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: none VSDRVR_API Int32 VsIsPresent( VS_HANDLE vsHnd ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() Function: determines whether a filter is actually present and responding. This is done using the status-check character ??as described in the VariSpec manual. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: none VSDRVR_API Int32 VsIsReady( VS_HANDLE vsHnd ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() Function: determines whether the filter is done processing all commands, and is ready to receive new commands. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: this is useful when sending commands such as VsSetWavelength(), VsInitialize(), VsExercise(), and VsDefinePaletteEntry() in asynchronous mode. These commands take a prolonged time, and running them synchronously ties up the processor waiting. Alternatively, one can create a loop that uses CreateWaitableTimer(), SetWaitableTimer(), and WaitForSingleObject() to call VsIsReady() at intervals, checking whether the filter is ready. This approach, though more work for the programmer, leaves most of the processor capacity free for other tasks such as GUI update and the like. VSDRVR_API Int32 VsOpen (VS_HANDLE *pvsHnd, LPCSTR port, Int32 *pErrorCode ) Arguments: pvsHnd pointer to handle. This pointer may not be NULL. port port name, such as 揅OM1? pErrorCode pointer to Int32 to receive an error code if VsOpen() fails Purpose: establishes a connection to the VariSpec using the port specified, and automatically determines the baud rate and end-of-line character for subsequent communications. It also retrieves the filter抯 serial number and wavelength range, to confirm that it is a VariSpec and not some other similar device. However, these are retrieved purely as an integrity check, and the values are not returned to the calling application. See VsGetFilterInfo() to access this information. If the device responds as a VariSpec does when it is not ready (i.e. still initializing), VsOpen() fails and returns the error code VSD_ERR_BUSY. However, one may not be sure that the device is a VariSpec until VsOpen() completes successfully The error codes returned by this function are listed in VsDrvr.h. When VsOpen() runs successfully, *pErrorCode is set to VSD_ERR_NOERROR. The handle associated with this filter is set by VsOpen() to a nonzero handle value if successful, or to NULL if no connection is established. The port may refer to COM1 through COM8. Return: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: Until this function is called, none of the other functions will work. VSDRVR_API Int32 VsSetLatency( VS_HANDLE vsHnd, Int32 latencyMs ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() latencyMs the serial port latency, in ms, in the range [1, 5000] Purpose: this function sets the latency time for USB or RS-232 commands to the value given by latencyMs. Commands that do not conclude in this time are considered to have timed-out. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: increasing the latency time does not increase the time for commands to complete, nor does it insert any delays in normal processing. It merely defines the window for maximum transmission time, beyond which time an error is reported. VSDRVR_API Int32 VsSetPalette( VS_HANDLE vsHnd, Int32 palEntry ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() palEntry the palette entry to be set, in the range [0, 127] Purpose: this function sets the filter to the palette entry specified by palEntry Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: palettes are a good way to control the filter in applications where it will be cycled repeatedly to various, fixed wavelength settings. Palettes calculate the filter settings once, and save the results for rapid access later, rather than calculating them each time, as occurs when one sets the wavelength directly with VsSetWavelength(). See the VariSpec manual for more information on palettes.VSDRVR_API Int32 VsSetRetries( VS_HANDLE vsHnd, Int32 nRetries ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() nRetries the number serial communications retries, in the range [0, 10] Purpose: The VsDrvr software automatically detects errors in communication and re-sends if an error is detected. This function sets the number of times to retry sending any single command, before reporting a communications failure. The default is 3, which should be adequate, and one should rarely need to change this, if ever. The primary purpose of this function is to enable setting the number of retries to zero, to force single-error events to cause detectable errors (as they would normally be fixed automatically via the retry mechanism) Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: noneVSDRVR_API Int32 VsSetWavelength( VS_HANDLE vsHnd, double wl, BOOL confirm ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() wl wavelength to tune to, in nm confirm logical flag, indicating whether to confirm actual wavelength value Purpose: this function sets the filter wavelength to the value in wl. If confirm is TRUE, it waits for the filter to complete the command, and then reads back the actual wavelength to confirm it was implemented successfully. Note that the only time there can be a disparity is when the wavelength requested by wl lies outside the legal range for that filter, or if the wavelength is specified to a finer resolution than the filter recognizes (normally, 0.01 nm). Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: noneVSDRVR_API Int32 VsGetAllDrive( VS_HANDLE vsHnd, Int32 *pStages, Int32 drive[] ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() pStages pointer to int that will receive the number of stages in the filter drive[] int array to receive the filter drive levels. Purpose: this function reports the number of filter stages in *pStages. If this argument is NULL, it is ignored. The function returns the actual drive level at each stage, in counts, in drive[] , which must not be NULL. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: The array drive[] must be large enough to receive all the drive levels ?if the exact number of stages is not known, call VsGetNstages() first, or allocate enough array elements (12) to accommodate the largest filter design.VSDRVR_API Int32 VsGetNstages( VS_HANDLE vsHnd, Int32 *pStages ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() pStages pointer to int that will receive the number of stages in the filter Purpose: this function determines the number of optical stages in the filter and returns it in *pStages, which may not be NULL. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: noneVSDRVR_API Int32 VsGetPendingReply( VS_HANDLE vsHnd, LPSTR reply, Int32 nChars, Int32 *pQuit, Int32 firstMs, Int32 subsequentMs ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() reply pointer to buffer that is to receive the reply nChars number of characters to receive pQuit pointer to flag to control this function ?see Notes below firstMs maximum time to wait, in ms, for first character of reply subsequentMs maximum time to wait, in ms, for each subsequent character Purpose: this function is used to exploit some of the less-common aspects of the filter, and it is likely that most programs will require its use. It receives a reply from the filter that may not arrive for a long time. The routine waits up to firstMs for the first character to arrive. Subsequent characters must arrive within subsequentMs of one another. Typically, this routine is called with a high value for firstMs and a lower value for subsequentMs. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: pQuit can be used to cancel this function while it is waiting for the reply, if that is desired, such as to respond to a user cancellation request. To use this feature, pQuit must be non-NULL and *pQuit must be FALSE at the time VsGetPendingReply() is called. VsGetPendingReply() checks this address periodically, and if it discovers that *pQuit is TRUE, it will cancel and return immediately.VSDRVR_API Int32 VsGetReply( VS_HANDLE vsHnd, LPSTR reply, Int32 nChars, Int32 waitMs ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() reply pointer to buffer that will receive the filter reply nChars the number of characters sought waitMs the maximum time, in ms, to wait for the reply Purpose: this function is used to exploit those filter commands that are not directly provided by other functions, and most programmers will not need to use it. If the reply is not received in the time indicated by waitMs, or if less than nChars are received, the function returns with an unsuccessful status code. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: noneVSDRVR_API Int32 VsIsDiagnostic( VS_HANDLE vsHnd ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() Function: determines whether the filter is in the diagnostic mode that is used at the factory for setup and calibration. This command is reserved for CRI use only. Returns: TRUE if diagnostic, FALSE otherwise. VSDRVR_API Int32 VsIsEngagedInBeam( VS_HANDLE vsHnd ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() Function: determines whether the filter is engaged in the beam, when configured into certain CRI systems. This function is reserved for CRI use only Returns: TRUE if engaged in the beam, FALSE otherwise VSDRVR_API Int32 VsSendBinary( VS_HANDLE vsHnd, char *bin, Int32 nChars, BOOL clearEcho ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() bin pointer a buffer that contains binary data to be sent to the filter nChars the number of binary characters to be sent clearEcho flag indicating whether to clear echo characters from the queue Purpose: this routine sends binary blocks of data to the filter. This is only necessary when programming calibration data to the filter, and it is not anticipated that this function will be necessary in any normal use. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: none VSDRVR_API Int32 VsSendCommand( VS_HANDLE vsHnd, LPCSTR cmd, BOOL sendEolChar) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() cmd pointer to the command to be sent to the filter sendEolChar flag indicating whether to append the end-of-line character or not Purpose: this function sends the command in cmd to the filter, and appends an end-of-line terminator (or not) based on sendEolChar. It automatically retrieves and discards the character echo of this command by the VariSpec. It does not automatically retrieve the reply, if any, from the VariSpec. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: The parameter sendEolChar should normally be true in all cases, unless one is sending individual character commands such as the ??or 慇?commands described in the VariSpec user抯 manual.VSDRVR_API Int32 VsSetStageDrive( VS_HANDLE vsHnd, Int32 stage, Int32 drive ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() stage stage number whose drive level is to be adjusted drive drive level, in counts, for that stage Purpose: this function provides a way to manually adjust the drive levels at each of the filter抯 optical stages. It is normally used only during manufacture, and is not a function that most software programs will have any reason to use. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: none VSDRVR_API Int32 VsThermistorCounts( VS_HANDLE vsHnd, Int32 *pCounts ) Arguments: vsHnd handle value returned by VsOpen() pCounts pointer to int that will receive the thermistor signal, in counts Purpose: this function provides a way to determine the signal level, in counts, at the thermistor. It is normally used only during manufacture, and is not a function that most software programs will have any reason to use. Returns: TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise Notes: none

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