NAME

       nbdkit-release-notes-1.30 - release notes for nbdkit 1.30

DESCRIPTION

       These are the release notes for nbdkit stable release 1.30.  This describes the major
       changes since 1.28.

       nbdkit 1.30.0 was released on 24 February 2022.

   Security
       There were no security issues found.  All past security issues and information about how
       to report new ones can be found in nbdkit-security(1).

   Plugins
       nbdkit-streaming-plugin has been removed.  It was deprecated in 1.26 and scheduled for
       removal in this release.  If you were using this plugin, use nbdcopy(1) instead.

       nbdkit-vddk-plugin(1) has several changes:

       •   This plugin can now create (as well as reading and writing) local VMDK files.  See the
           new "create=true" option and the various "create-*" options.

       •   Read and write is now implemented using the VDDK Async functions, which improves
           performance.  The full nbdkit parallel thread model is supported.

       •   VDDK ≥ 6.5 (released Nov 2016) is now the minimum required version.

       •   Stats collected when using -D vddk.stats=1 have been extended to include number of
           calls and bytes transferred.

       •   --dump-plugin output now includes the VDDK major version and information about each
           VDDK API that is implemented by the library.

       •   A new example scripts/vddk-open.sh is provided to help with automating connections to
           remote ESXi virtual machines.

       nbdkit-curl-plugin(1) adds support for choosing TLS/SSL versions and ciphers and TLS 1.3
       cipher versions (Przemyslaw Czarnowski).

       nbdkit-file-plugin(1) now implements "cache=none" for writes so that the Linux page cache
       is not destroyed when writing huge files.

       nbdkit-cc-plugin(1) now implements the ".cleanup" callback.  Also we document how to use
       this plugin to implement OCaml plugin scripts.

       nbdkit-info-plugin(1) --dump-plugin option now prints "info_address=yes" when the platform
       supports "mode=address".

   Filters
       New nbdkit-retry-request-filter(1), which is similar to nbdkit-retry-filter(1) but only
       retries a single failing request.

       New nbdkit-protect-filter(1) lets you add write-protection over regions of a plugin.

       New nbdkit-blocksize-policy-filter(1) lets you adjust or set the block size constraints
       and policy of underlying plugins.  See "API" below.

       nbdkit-cow-filter(1) now permits the COW block size to be set as small as 4096 bytes.

       Debug messages in nbdkit-error-filter(1) are now easier to read because they no longer all
       have an "error:" prefix (Eric Blake).

   Language bindings
       For plugins written in OCaml the minimum version of OCaml is now 4.03 (instead of 4.02.2
       previously).  Various source-level incompatible changes were made to OCaml plugins in this
       release.  Please consult the new documentation and example if writing plugins in OCaml.

       OCaml plugins now support "magic_config_key".

       Several fixes to the handling of integers in Python plugins (Nir Soffer).

       New Python example which simulates request errors (Nir Soffer).

   Server
       The server no longer requests the "AI_ADDRCONFIG" hint when opening a server socket.  This
       improves handling of IPv6.  In a related change, the -i (--ipaddr) option now works as
       intended, and new -4 and -6 options have been added to restrict the listening socket to
       IPv4 or IPv6 addresses (Laszlo Ersek).

   API
       There is a new ".block_size" callback for plugins and filters.  nbdkit uses this to export
       block size constraints to clients, specifically the minimum, preferred and maximum block
       size that clients should use.

       As well as regular C plugins, nbdkit-cc-plugin(3), nbdkit-eval-plugin(1),
       nbdkit-ocaml-plugin(3), nbdkit-python-plugin(3) and nbdkit-sh-plugin(3) support block size
       constraints.  nbdkit-nbd-plugin(1) reexports block size constraints from the proxied NBD
       server.  nbdkit-vddk-plugin(1) now advertises a minimum 512 byte block size.

       nbdkit-blocksize-filter(1), nbdkit-cache-filter(1), nbdkit-cow-filter(1) and
       nbdkit-swab-filter(1) adjust block size constraints from plugins (Eric Blake).

       nbdkit-blocksize-filter(1) can also use the block size hints from the plugin instead of
       needing manual adjustment on the command line.  nbdkit-log-filter(1) logs block size
       constraints (Eric Blake).

       nbdkit-blocksize-policy-filter(1) can be used to add block size constraints to plugins
       which don't support it, or adjust constraints, or set the error policy.

   Bug fixes
       nbdkit-memory-plugin(1) (and others), using "allocator=malloc,mlock=true" was broken.
       This was especially evident on non-Linux or on Linux with 64K pages (eg. POWER).  It
       should now work correctly.

   Tests
       "./configure --disable-libguestfs-tests" can now be used to disable tests which need
       libguestfs, without disabling nbdkit-guestfs-plugin(1).

       We now use mke2fs(8) instead of guestfish(1) to create the ext4 test image.  On armv7 this
       allows the test suite to run much more quickly.

       The time taken to run the test suite has been reduced significantly.

   Build
       Multiple fixes to the Windows (MinGW) build.  The test suite should now pass fully if you
       have the version of Wine with the unofficial "AF_UNIX" patch.

       The top level bash source directory has been renamed to bash-completion.  This prevents
       problems when setting $PATH to the source directory and trying to run bash.

   Internals
       The performance of the internal vector library has been improved greatly and overflow is
       now handled correctly (Nir Soffer, Laszlo Ersek and Eric Blake).

       New "nbdkit-string.h" header file which defines a common string type (based on vector).
       Existing places which defined a string based on vector have been updated to use it.

       "MIN" and "MAX" macros can be nested (thanks Eric Blake).

SEE ALSO

       nbdkit(1).

AUTHORS

       Authors of nbdkit 1.30:

       Alan Somers
       Eric Blake
       Hilko Bengen
       Laszlo Ersek
       Nir Soffer
       Przemyslaw Czarnowski
       Richard W.M. Jones

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2021-2022 Red Hat Inc.

LICENSE

       Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are
       permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

       •   Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of
           conditions and the following disclaimer.

       •   Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of
           conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials
           provided with the distribution.

       •   Neither the name of Red Hat nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse
           or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written
           permission.

       THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY RED HAT AND CONTRIBUTORS ''AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
       WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND
       FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL RED HAT OR CONTRIBUTORS
       BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
       DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS
       OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF
       LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR
       OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
       POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.