[3703] in linux-announce channel archive
Linux-Announce Digest #994
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Digestifier)
Thu Jul 12 09:23:36 2001
Message-ID: <20010712131307.18777.qmail@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu>
From: Digestifier <Linux-Announce-Request@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu>
To: Linux-Announce@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu
Reply-To: Linux-Announce@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu
Date: Thu, 12 Jul 01 09:13:04 EDT
Linux-Announce Digest #994, Volume #3 Thu, 12 Jul 01 09:13:04 EDT
Contents:
General Graphics/Input Interface (LibGGI/LibGII codefreeze) ("Brian S. Julin")
Advanced Bash Scripting Guide ("M. Leo Cooper")
"Advanced ("M. Leo Cooper")
Fcron 1.1.1 - a replacement for Vixie cron and anacron (Thibault Godouet)
ANNOUNCE: LoopSlack (kent robotti)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 07:41:58 CST
From: "Brian S. Julin" <bri@tull.umassp.edu>
Subject: General Graphics/Input Interface (LibGGI/LibGII codefreeze)
The General Graphics Interface (LibGGI) abstracts various graphics systems
such that programs coded to the LibGGI API will run interchangeably,
without recompilation. In addition, LibGGI is extendable allowing addition
of new API functions through a modular plugin-like system. Supported
backends include SVGALib, libVGL, DirectX, Linux fbdev, GLIDE, various
flavors of X11, various ASCII-art/text displays, interprocess/networked
client/server displays, and a suite of utility displays that allow you to
do such things as tile an application across multiple slave displays or
draw in memory while saving frames into files.
The General Input Interface is similar in architecture, but handles input
subsystems. In addition to supporting a plethora of input backends (linux
joystick/evdev/mouse/keyboard, vgl, DirectInput, X11 to name the favorites)
LibGII defines an architecture for filters which can transmute inputs in
very interesting ways.
Release notes for both packages follow. These releases are codefreeze
releases which will endure for about two weeks, while we collect and fix
bug reports from users kind enough to test the code, and from package
maintainers from various OS distributions as new packages are prepared.
Once we believe any surfaced issues are satisfied and have thoroughly
reviewed and updated the documentation, LibGGI 2.0final, a non-Beta
release, will be made.
>From then the GGI-project plans to move forward by finalizing designs for
more advanced graphics primitives to be supported by new extension
libraries, and proceeding to improve the level of support for high speed
accelerated graphics systems like KGI, DirectFB, and DRM. If this interests
you as a developer, then please feel welcome on our mailing list.
Subscription instructions, bug reporting system, and additional information
about the GGI-project are available at the URL: http://www.ggi-project.org
and downloads for the current release are available at:
URL: http://www.ggi-project.org/download.php
(We should also mention that our sister project, KGI, recently released a
new version of the Kernel Graphics Interface. For details, see
URL: http://kgi.sourceforge.net).
Enjoy,
The GGI Project
Release Notes:
LibGGI:
============================================================
New in 2.0beta4: 2001-07-10
* Misc bugfixes (see ChangeLog).
* Huge documentation updates.
* improved support for reporting physical screen sizes.
* LibGGIMISC has been split off from core source tree
* New API: ggiDetachInput(), ggiGetInput()
* Build system updated, many bugfixes
* fbdev-target
- Acceleration of Matrox G400 (matrox fb)
* directX-target
- Update
- Highly experimental target for Win ... Use at your own risk !
* ipc-target
- New target for interprocess communication (experimental)
* xf86dga target
- Update for newer xlibs/servers
============================================================
LibGII:
===============================================================
New in 0.8: 2001-07-10;
* Misc bugfixes (see ChangeLog).
* Huge Documentation updates.
* New API: giiSplitInputs()
* input-linux-evdev
- Bugfixes from Stephan
* input-directx
- Update
* input-vgl
- small build fix for FreeBSD
===============================================================
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------------------------------
Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 07:42:54 CST
From: "M. Leo Cooper" <thegrendel@theriver.com>
Subject: Advanced Bash Scripting Guide
Announcing the release of the "Advanced Bash Scripting" Guide,
a comprehensive book covering almost every aspect of writing and
understanding shell scripts. This massive e-book contains the equivalent
of 300+ print pages.
Previously a Linux Documentation Project HOWTO, version 0.4 has been
reclassified as a "Guide", a full-fledged book.
>From the Introduction to the book:
"This document is both a tutorial and a reference on shell
scripting with Bash. It assumes no previous knowledge of
scripting or programming, but progresses rapidly toward an
intermediate/advanced level of instruction. The exercises and
heavily-commented examples invite active reader participation."
Partial table of contents:
Exit and Exit Status
Special characters used in shell scripts
Introduction to Variables and Parameters
Parameter Substitution
Quoting
Tests
Operations and Related Topics
Variables Revisited
Loops and Branches
Internal Commands and Builtins
External Filters, Programs and Commands
System and Administrative Commands
Command Substitution
Arithmetic Expansion
I/O Redirection
Here Documents
Regular Expressions
Subshells
Restricted Shells
Process Substitution
Functions
Aliases
List Constructs
Arrays
/dev and /proc
Of Zeros and Nulls
Debugging
Options
Gotchas
Scripting With Style
Bibliography
====================
Appendices:
Contributed Scripts
A Sed and Awk Micro-Primer
Exit Codes With Special Meanings
A Detailed Introduction to I/O and I/O Redirection
Localization
A Sample .bashrc File
Converting DOS Batch Files to Shell Scripts
The book contains nearly 200 heavily-commented example scripts and a
number of tables.
This LDP Guide is released under the standard LDP license and terms, which
essentially means it is free and freely distributable.
Primary site:
At the Linux Documentation Project
http://linuxdoc.org/LDP/abs/html/index.html for browsing on-line
http://linuxdoc.org/LDP/abs/abs-guide.html.tar.gz to download the HTML tarball
http://linuxdoc.org/LDP/abs/abs-guide.pdf to download the pdf rendering
Secondary site:
Sunsite
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/linux-doc-project/abs/guide/
Download the book in various formats, as above.
Tertiary site:
The author's site:
http://personal.riverusers.com/~thegrendel/abs-HOWTO-0.4.tar.gz [452 k]
SGML source and rendered HTML, all in one tarball
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------------------------------
Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 07:44:47 CST
From: "M. Leo Cooper" <thegrendel@theriver.com>
Subject: "Advanced
Announcing the release of the "Advanced Bash Scripting" Guide,
a comprehensive book covering almost every aspect of writing and
understanding shell scripts. This massive e-book contains the equivalent
of 300+ print pages.
Previously a Linux Documentation Project HOWTO, version 0.4 has been
reclassified as a "Guide", a full-fledged book.
>From the Introduction to the book:
"This document is both a tutorial and a reference on shell
scripting with Bash. It assumes no previous knowledge of
scripting or programming, but progresses rapidly toward an
intermediate/advanced level of instruction. The exercises and
heavily-commented examples invite active reader participation."
Partial table of contents:
Exit and Exit Status
Special characters used in shell scripts
Introduction to Variables and Parameters
Parameter Substitution
Quoting
Tests
Operations and Related Topics
Variables Revisited
Loops and Branches
Internal Commands and Builtins
External Filters, Programs and Commands
System and Administrative Commands
Command Substitution
Arithmetic Expansion
I/O Redirection
Here Documents
Regular Expressions
Subshells
Restricted Shells
Process Substitution
Functions
Aliases
List Constructs
Arrays
/dev and /proc
Of Zeros and Nulls
Debugging
Options
Gotchas
Scripting With Style
Bibliography
====================
Appendices:
Contributed Scripts
A Sed and Awk Micro-Primer
Exit Codes With Special Meanings
A Detailed Introduction to I/O and I/O Redirection
Localization
A Sample .bashrc File
Converting DOS Batch Files to Shell Scripts
The book contains nearly 200 heavily-commented example scripts and a
number of tables.
This LDP Guide is released under the standard LDP license and terms, which
essentially means it is free and freely distributable.
Primary site:
At the Linux Documentation Project
http://linuxdoc.org/LDP/abs/html/index.html for browsing on-line
http://linuxdoc.org/LDP/abs/abs-guide.html.tar.gz to download the HTML tarball
http://linuxdoc.org/LDP/abs/abs-guide.pdf to download the pdf rendering
Secondary site:
Sunsite
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/linux-doc-project/abs/guide/
Download the book in various formats, as above.
Tertiary site:
The author's site:
http://personal.riverusers.com/~thegrendel/abs-HOWTO-0.4.tar.gz [452 k]
SGML source and rendered HTML, all in one tarball
##########################################################################
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##########################################################################
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 07:45:43 CST
From: Thibault Godouet <fcron@free.fr>
Subject: Fcron 1.1.1 - a replacement for Vixie cron and anacron
What is new in this release (1.1.1) ?
==============================
- security fix : sym link attack against fcrontab.
Any user allowed to use fcrontab used to be able to remove any fcrontab,
and potentially to truncate any file to zero-length (under certain
conditions, anyway).
- fcron and fcrontab now have a configuration file : fcron.conf.
It contains the default paths (spool dir, etc) and programs to use
(editor, shell, etc).
Thanks to that file, several fcron process can run simultaneously if they
have a different config (different spool dir and pid file).
- added fcron's option "-m" to control the number of serial jobs which can
be executed simultaneously.
- added fcron's option "-n" to create a new spool dir.
- command line syntax of fcrontab has changed : you can know use "user"
(after
the file name if any) instead of "-u user".
It should make fcrontab a little more intuitive.
- It is now possible to put a user name between the time/date fields and
the shell command of a fcrontab line (for Vixie cron format
compatibility) :
it is equivalent to runas(user).
- support of Solaris (and SysV).
- early support of OpenBSD.
- the installation scripts now use nsswitch.conf to detect if a user or
a group
exists on the system. That way, naming services (NYS, ldap, etc) are
supported.
- the man page and doc is now installed by default in
$prefix/share/{man|doc}
(instead of the previous $prefix/{man|doc}) ($prefix is generally "/usr").
- bug corrected : fcron used not to add a serial_sev line to serial/lavg
queue
if this line was running, saying "already in serial queue".
- bug corrected : a "all" in fcron.allow with no fcron.deny file was not
considered as an allow rule.
What is fcron ?
==============
Fcron is a scheduler. It aims at replacing Vixie Cron, so it implements most
of its functionalities.
But contrary to Vixie Cron, fcron does not need your system to be up 7 days
a week, 24 hours a day : it also works well with systems which are
not running neither all the time nor regularly (contrary to anacrontab).
In other words, fcron does both the job of Vixie Cron and anacron, but does
even more and better :)) ...
To do so, fcron allows you to use the standard mode in which you tell
it to execute one command at a given date and hour and to make it run
a command according to its time of execution, which is normally the same as
system up time. For example :
Run the task 'save /home/ directory'
every 3h15 of system up time.
and, of course, in order to make it really useful, the time remaining until
next execution is saved each time the system is stopped.
You can also say :
run that command once between 2am and 5am
which will be done if the system is running at any time in this interval.
Fcron also includes a useful system of options, which can be applied
either to
every lines following the declaration or to a single line. Some of
the supported options permit to:
- run jobs one by one,
- set the max system load average value under which the job should be run,
- set a nice value for a job,
- run jobs at fcron's startup if they should have been run
during system down time,
- mail user to tell him a job has not run and why,
- a better management of the mailing of outputs ...
What is planed for next releases ?
===========================
I'd like to :
- add PAM support.
- allow users to have several fcrontabs.
(I wonder if it is really necessary : what do you think
about it ? Please mail me answers at fcron@free.fr
<mailto:fcron@free.fr> )
- allow users to control their running jobs (renice, stop,
continue ...)
(propositions and help are welcome)
How you can help me
==================
I especially need help for testing every fcron functionalities.
If you'd like to help me, please contact me at :
fcron@free.fr <mailto:fcron@free.fr>
Where can I get it ?
=================
You can either go to the project home page at :
http://fcron.free.fr
or get it from metalab at
ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/daemons/cron/fcron-1.1.1.src.tar.gz
<ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/daemons/cron/fcron-1.0.2.src.tar.gz%C2%A0>
(136kB)
(I've sent the file but it may take some time before it is available on
metalab)
I hope you will enjoy it,
Thibault.
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------------------------------
Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 07:46:47 CST
From: kent robotti <robotti@metconnect.com>
Subject: ANNOUNCE: LoopSlack
I'd like to post this to linux announce.
Thanks.
=======================================================================
There's no linux packages or distribution at the site below, you
need to have or get a slackware linux distribution on cdrom.
Any version should work, the current stable version of
slackware is 8.0.
What you'll find here is the means to install a slackware
linux distribution, from cdrom or hard drive (see installing
linux below).
The rootdisk "loopslak.bin" below, is based on the rootdisk
"color.gz" from slackware 8.0.
The rootdisk now has ext3, xfs, jfs, and reiserfs (kernel 2.2
and 2.4) filesystem support.
The rootdisk also has umsdos and loop linux support, you can
create a linux system with a ext2, ext3, xfs, jfs, or reiserfs
filesystem on a dos/win9x partition, and boot it from there.
The loop linux system can't be larger than 2GB, you can enlarge
or reduce the size of the system after you create it.
You can only change the size of a ext2/3 or reiserfs filesystem.
# loop_resize "From the rootdisk!"
The rootdisk can also be used as a rescue system, it has been
updated and changed, but should work with any existing slackware
bootdisks.
The present slackware bootdisks don't have ext3, xfs, jfs, or
reiserfs support. If you want a bootdisk with support for any
of them, you would have to create it yourself.
NOTE: There are kernel 2.4.5 bootdisks with reiserfs support,
in the slackware bootdsks.144 directory below.
This is an example of how to write a slackware boot and root
disk to a 1.44mb formatted floppy, under dos and linux.
Create boot floppy!
C:\ rawrite2 bare.i a:
# dd if=bare.i of=/dev/fd0
Create root floppy!
C:\ rawrite2 loopslak.bin a:
# dd if=loopslak.bin of=/dev/fd0
You can get slackware bootdisks at the slackware site, or
on the slackware cdrom in the bootdsks.144 directory.
ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware/bootdsks.144
ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/slackware/bootdsks.144 "Mirror!"
Read README.TXT at the above site!
You can get kernels "bzImage" here, or on the slackware cdrom in
the kernels directory.
ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware/kernels
ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/slackware/kernels
Read README.NOW at the above site!
You can create a bootdisk with the kernel of your choice.
The kernel must have "ram disk and initrd support", all slackware
kernels have this.
The kernel should also have "loop device support" if you want to
create a loop linux system, all slackware kernels have this.
Get "makedisk.zip" and unzip it.
Under dos/win9x you would do it this way.
C:\ pkunzip -d makedisk.zip
Create floppy bootdisk!
C:\makedisk> makedisk kernel
Under linux you would do it this way.
# unzip makedisk.zip
makedisk# chmod 755 makedisk.sh
Create floppy bootdisk!
makedisk# makedisk.sh -fd -k kernel_image
You can also create a cd boot/root disk!
makedisk# makedisk.sh -cd -k kernel_image -r loopslak.bin
####################### Installing Linux! ##########################
Q. How do i install a slackware linux system?
A. Put the cd with the slackware distribution in the drive.
Use the boot and root floppies you created.
Put the boot floppy in the drive and restart your computer,
at the boot prompt press enter, you'll be told when to INSERT
the root floppy.
If you don't want to use floppies you can boot "loopslak.bin"
from your dos/win9x system, using loadlin.exe.
C:\ loadlin kernel initrd=loopslak.bin root=/dev/ram0 rw
ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware/kernels/LOADLIN.EXE
ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/slackware/kernels/LOADLIN.EXE
After you boot the rootdisk you should run setup.
# setup
If you want to create a umsdos or loop linux system on a
dos/win9x partition, choose "Umsdos_loop" from the menu.
If you want to create a linux system on it's own partition,
choose "Linux_native" from the menu.
Umsdos_loop Install linux on a dos/win partition
Linux_native Install linux on it's own partition
Chose LOOP_HELP or LINUX_HELP from the menu for help!.
When you run 'setup' you'll have the option of installing
the slackware linux system, from cdrom or a directory on
your dos/win9x system.
1 Install from a slackware CD-ROM
etc.
3 Install from a pre-mounted directory "Read below!"
If you have a directory on you're dos/win9x system with the
slackware packages (at least the a1 series), you could chose
option 3 above and answer /mnt/slakware below.
Which would mean that you have \slakware\a1 \slakware\d1
etc., on your dos/win9x system.
The 'A' series, for slackware 7.1 you need a1-a16, for
8.0 they have the whole 'A' series in a1 etc.
The 'A' series is the minimum to have a system you can
boot, anything else is up to you.
\slakware\a1\aaa_base.tgz
\slakware\a1\bash.tgz
\slakware\a1\diska1
\slakware\a1\maketag
\slakware\a1\maketag.ez
\slakware\a1\tagfile
\slakware\a1\tagfile.org
\slakware\a1\etc...
Which directory would you like to install from?
/mnt/slakware
#######################################################################
You can get loopslak.bin, makedisk.zip, and rawrite2.exe here.
http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robotti/looplinux
ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robotti/looplinux
loopslak.bin 1365kb
makedisk.zip 34kb
rawrite2.exe 16kb
The license for the above is GPL.
Kent Robotti <robotti@metconnect.com> (7-2-2001)
End!
=======================================================================
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