FOLLOWING-DEVELOPMENT(7)

NAME
following-development - instructions for following development

DESCRIPTION
This document is a list of changes that affect the ability to build and run the latest Sortix source code, when doing native development(7) or cross-development(7). The list is in reverse chronological order. The system has policies that handle incompatible changes gracefully.

If you are updating to new source code, be sure you are reading the new version of this document, rather than an old copy installed on the system or on an online manual page viewer. To view the new version from the command line:

        cd /src  # system source code location
        man share/man/man7/following-development.7

The sysmerge(8) and sysupgrade(8) programs automatically handle compatibility issues when upgrading an existing system to a new build. This is done using upgrade hooks built into the programs that are run if the installation does not have the appropriate files in /share/sysinstall/hooks. They can handle incompatible ABI changes and automatically fix configuration files and other issues.

When building the system from source code, you must have the latest build tools installed as detailed in development(7) and cross-development(7). After upgrading to newer source code, you must first install the new build tools before building. If this is needed, there will be a notice in this document. Build tools will likely complain about missing options or invalid parameters if they are not up to date. Automatic build scripts should use the install-build-tools target provided by the root makefile.

Changes to the source code may rely on the newest build tools, but the build tools must retain the ability to build all the way back to the latest stable release. The build tools of release N+1 must be able to build release N. The build tools must be portable to the latest stable release and the supported cross-development(7) systems. If a build tool needs an incompatible change, there must be added a way to opt into the new behavior, and the build system must use that option and not use the old behavior any more. This forward compatibility will allow the removal of the old behavior after the next release. Temporary compatibility must be mentioned with a condition for when it can be removed and it must have instructions for what needs to be done. Use a comment in the format "TODO: After releasing Sortix x.y, foo." to allow the maintainer to easily grep(1) for it after a release.

CHANGES

  Implement file descriptor passing
The SCM_RIGHTS control message have been implemented, allowing file descriptors to be passed over AF_UNIX sockets. This is a minor compatible ABI change.

  Implement threading primitives that truly sleep
The futex(2) system system call for efficient thread waiting has been added. The exit_thread(2) system call has gained a EXIT_THREAD_FUTEX_WAKE flag for waking a single waiter on a futex. This is a minor compatible ABI change.

  Fix system upgrade leaking files
sysupgrade(8) and sysmerge(8) will now delete files that no longer exist in the new system and ports. However, files may already have leaked if a 1.0 installation was upgraded to a development build prior to this change. An upgrade hook will delete any well known leaked files.

Note: You must use the --wait option to do a two-stage upgrade if doing a sysmerge(8) upgrade from an installation prior to this change to a version after this change. This requirement is because the old sysmerge(8) will leak files and the upgrade hook only deal with well known files as of this change, and doesn't handle future changes.

  Fix /tix/manifest permissions in installations
The /tix/manifest directory was accidentally installed by sysinstall(8) as mode 6603 instead of 7555. This problem is fixed with an upgrade hook.

  Add socket(2)
The /dev/net virtual filesystem for socket creation has been removed in favor of adding an actual socket(2) system call. This is a major incompatible ABI change. Only Unix sockets were exposed this way. In the base system, sf(1) is the only program with Unix socket capabilities. Ports using Unix sockets must be updated. Otherwise the system is compatible except accessing Unix sockets fails with ENOENT.

  Add split packages and cross-bootstrapping support to tix-build(8)
tix-build(8) has gained a number of features that will soon be required in order to build certain ports. In particular, it now supports the pkg.use-bootstrap, pkg.source-package, and pkg.alias-of variables; bugs in the pkg.subdir variable have been fixed; and a --source-directory option has been added. tix-build(8) must be upgraded before building ports using any of those features.

        cd /src/tix &&
        make clean &&
        make install

If not developing natively, set PREFIX to the desired location.

If the new program isn't used, ports may fail to build due to local software not being the exact same version (pkg.use-bootstrap), clean or post-install in the wrong subdirectory (pkg.subdir), the --source-directory option not being recognized or failing to locate the source code (pkg.source-package), stopping because pkg.build-system isn't set (pkg.alias-of), or other mysterious circumstances.

  Add German keyboard layout
The kblayout-compiler(1) build tool has gained support for modifier combinations used by the German keyboard layout, and the new German keyboard layout relies on this. kblayout-compiler(1) must be upgraded before building the system.

        cd /src/kblayout-compiler &&
        make clean &&
        make install

If not developing natively, set PREFIX to the desired location.

If the new program isn't used, the build will still complete successfully but an incorrect German keyboard layout will be installed.

  Seed kernel entropy with randomness from the previous boot
Entropy from the previous boot is now stored in /boot/random.seed. The bootloader is supposed to load this file as a multiboot module with the command line option --random-seed. The kernel will issue a security warning if it was booted without a random seed, unless the kernel command line contains --no-random-seed. The GRUB port has been updated with an improved /etc/grub.d/10_sortix script that will automatically emit the appropriate GRUB commands.

Users using the included GRUB will need to update to the latest GRUB port and then run update-initrd(8) to regenerate /etc/grub/grub.cfg. All of this will be handled automatically if upgrading with sysupgrade(8) and the new build contains the new GRUB, or if upgrading with sysmerge(8) and the source system root contains the new GRUB.

Users not using the included GRUB, but still using GRUB from another installation, will need to reconfigure that bootloader installation. In the boot commands of this system, add after the initrd load:

        module /boot/random.seed --random-seed

If the GRUB port is installed, but not used, then if that port is updated with sysupgrade(8) or sysmerge(8) or manually, the /etc/grub.d/10_sortix script can be invoked, which will generate a /etc/grub.d/10_sortix.cache fragment that can be spliced into the configuration of another GRUB installation.

Users not using GRUB will need to configure their bootloader to load /boot/random.seed appropriately.

sysmerge(8) and sysupgrade(8) will automatically create /boot/random.seed if it doesn't exist. If using neither to upgrade, manually create that file owned by user root and group root with mode 600 containing 256 bytes of entropy.

  Modernize carray(1) and fix missing allocation checks
The carray(1) build tool has gained the -EGHot options and the build system now relies on this. carray(1) must be upgraded before building the system.

        cd /src/carray &&
        make clean &&
        make install

If not developing natively, set PREFIX to the desired location.

  Remove compatibility with Sortix 0.9
Sortix 1.0 has been released. The build tools are no longer capable of building anything prior to the Sortix 1.0 release.

SEE ALSO
cross-development(7), development(7), sysmerge(8), sysupgrade(8)