Log Message:
Update to 0.26:

Sat Apr  8 19:33:35 PDT 2006

        0.26 release.  Major enhancements and internal rewrites.
        Please read these notes carefully, as significant changes are
        described.  In particular, you _cannot_ upgrade to 0.26
        without some attention to the migration, especially if you are
        working on a project with other people.  See UPGRADE for
        details of this procedure.

        The changes are large enough that there were 3 pre-releases of
        this code; the changes that occurred in each can be seen
        below.  However, for the convenience of those following
        releases, all changes since 0.25 will be summarized in these
        release notes.  There is no need to read the pre-release notes
        individually.

        Major changes since 0.25:

        - The most user-visible change is that the default name of the
          monotone binary has changed to 'mtn'.  So, for example, you
          would now run 'mtn checkout', 'mtn diff', 'mtn commit',
          etc., instead of 'monotone checkout', 'monotone diff',
          'monotone commit'.
          - Similarly, the name of the workspace bookkeeping directory
            has changed from "MT" to "_MTN".  As workspaces will
            generally be recreated when migrating to this release,
            this should not cause any problems.
          - Similarly, built-in attrs like 'execute' have had 'mtn:'
            prepended to their names.  For example, executable files
            should now have the attr 'mtn:execute' set to 'true' on
            them.  The migration code will automatically add this
            prefix; no user intervention is needed.
          - Similarly, the name of the ignore file has changed from
            '.mt-ignore' to '.mtn-ignore'.  The migration code will
            automatically rename this file; no user intervention is
            needed.
          - Similarly, the recommended suffix for monotone db files is
            now '.mtn'.
          These changes are all purely cosmetic, and have no affect on
          functionality.

        - The most developer-visible change is that the data
          structure for representing trees has been completely
          replaced, and all related code rewritten.  The new data
          structure is called a 'roster'.  You don't really need to
          know this name; unless you are hacking on monotone or using
          various debug operations, you will never see a roster.
          It's mostly useful to know that when someone says something
          about 'roster-enabled monotone' or the like, they're
          referring to this body of new code.

          This change has a number of consequences:
          - The textual format for revisions and manifests changed.
            There is no conceptual change, they still contain the same
            information and work the same way.  The formats were
            merely cleaned up to correct various problems experience
            showed us, and allow various enhancements now and in the
            future.  However, this change means that a flag-day
            migration is required.  See UPGRADE for details.
          - Directories are now first-class objects.  You can add an
            empty directory, must drop a directory if you want it to
            go away, etc.
          - Attrs are now first-class objects.  '.mt-attrs' no longer
            exists; attrs are now described directly in the manifest,
            and changes to them appear directly in revisions.  The
            migration code will automatically convert existing
            .mt-attrs files to the new first-class attrs.  If you have
            custom attrs, those may require special handling -- if
            this is the case, then the upgrader will tell you.
          - The merge code has been rewritten completely.  The
            interface is currently the same (though this rewrite makes
            it easier to improve the interface going forward); if you
            have found merging in monotone to be easy in the past,
            then you will not notice anything different.  If you have
            run into problems, then the new merger should make your
            life substantially simpler.  It has full support for
            renames (of both directories and files), intelligent
            merging of attrs, improved handling of file content
            merges.  Is the first known merger implementation based on
            a provably correct algorithm (the "multi-*-merge"
            algorithm), has exhaustive automated tests, and generally
            should give accurate, conservative merges.
          - The new code is generally faster, though not yet as
            fast as it could be.

        Netsync changes:

        - The default netsync port has changed 5253 to 4691.  4691 is
          our official IANA-assigned port.  Please adjust firewalls
          appropriately.

        - Netsync code has also been largely reworked; new code should
          provide better opportunities for

        - The protocol is incompatible with earlier versions of
          monotone.  This should not be a surprise, since the data it
          carries is also incompatible (see above)...

        New features:

        - New option --brief to 'annotate', gives somewhat more
          friendly output.

        - Several enhancements to log:
          - New option --next, to display descendent revisions
            (rather than ancestor revisions).
          - When 'log -r' is given an ambiguous selector, it now just
            logs all matching revisions, instead of requiring the
            selector be disambiguated.
          - New option --no-files.

        - New command 'show_conflicts', performs a dry run merge.

        - New command 'ls changed'.

        - 'rename' (and its alias 'mv') now accept a broader range of
          syntax:
            mtn rename foo some_dir
              -> renames foo to some_dir/foo
            mtn rename foo bar baz some_dir
              -> moves foo, bar, and baz to some_dir/foo,
              some_dir/bar, and some_dir/baz

        - New hook 'validate_commit_message', which may be used to
          verify that all commit messages meet arbitrary user-defined
          rules.

        - New option --log, to log monotone's output to a file.

        - New option 'drop --recursive', to remove a directory and its
          contents in one swoop.

        - The root dir may now be renamed.  This is a somewhat exotic
          feature, but has some interesting uses related to splitting
          up or joining together projects; see new commands
          'pivot_root', 'merge_into_dir'.

        Minor bug fixes:

        - 'serve' with no --bind argument should now work on systems
          where the C library has IPv6 support, but the kernel does
          not.

        - Stricter checking on the internal version of filenames to
          ensure that they are valid UTF-8.

        - If the database is in the workspace, then it is always
          ignored.

        - Monotone no longer errors out when using a French (fr)
          locale with a non-Unicode codeset.

        Other changes:

        - Packet commands ('rdata', 'fdata', etc.) have been moved to
          'automate'.

        - Database storage now uses sqlite's blob support; database
          files should be ~1/4 smaller as a result.

        - Monotone now uses sqlite 3.3; this means that older versions
          of the command line client (e.g., an 'sqlite3' command built
          against sqlite version 3.2) cannot be used to poke at a
          monotone 0.26 database.  Solution is to upgrade your sqlite3
          program.  Hopefully this is irrelevant to most users...

        - Translations updated, and 3 new translations added (de, it,
          sv).

        Reliability considerations:

        - This new codebase has received much less testing under real
          world conditions than the codebase used in 0.25, simply
          because it is newer.  It has been in active use for monotone
          development since 8 January 2006, and only a small number of
          bugs have been found; all bugs found so far have been very
          minor, and none stood any danger of corrupting data.
          Furthermore, we are much more confident in the theoretical
          underpinnings of the new approach than the old, and the test
          suite attempts to exhaustively exercise all new code paths.

          However, none of this is or can be a substitute for real
          world experience.  We advise caution in upgrading to this
          version of monotone, and suggest that (especially) those who
          upgrade aggressively should pay extra attention to the
          monotone mailing list before and after doing so.

Wed Mar 29 05:20:10 PST 2006

        0.26pre3 release.  This release may be considered a "release
        candidate", in that while we need to write some tests and make
        sure some bugs are fixed, all features are in and we hope that
        no further bug fixes will be needed either.  It is still a
        pre-release for testing.  Do not package it.  DO NOT USE THIS
        RELEASE UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE A DAREDEVIL.

        But, PLEASE PLEASE TEST this release.  There are some
        non-trivial changes since 0.26pre2, and this is your last
        chance!

        Major changes since 0.26pre2:

        - The name of the monotone binary has changed to 'mtn'.
          - Similarly, the name of the bookkeeping directory in
            workspaces has changed from 'MT' to '_MTN' (if you have an
            existing 0.26-line workspace, just rename the MT directory
            to _MTN).
          - Similarly, the name of the ignore file has changed from
            ".mt-ignore" to ".mtn-ignore".  'rosterify' will \ 
rename
            these automatically (if you have already rosterified, you
            get to rename them by hand).
          - Similarly, the recommended suffix for monotone db files is
            now ".mtn".

        - We now perform stricter checking to make sure that filenames
          are valid UTF-8.  It is in principle possible that this
          stricter checking will cause histories that used to work to
          break; if you have non-ascii filenames, it is strongly
          recommended to test with this release.

        - Root dir renaming is now supported.  See new commands
          'pivot_root', 'merge_into_dir'.
          - As a side-effect, it is now possible to run 'rosterify' on
            histories in which two independent lines of history were
            merged.

        - The security fix released in 0.25.2 has been forward-ported
          to this release; this prevents some security exposure to
          people running monotone as a client on case-insensitive file
          systems.

        Minor change since 0.26pre2:

        - Database now uses sqlite blobs for storage; should be ~1/4
          smaller.
        - New command: show_conflicts, does a dry-run merge.
        - New option 'drop --recursive', to remove a directory and all
          its contents in one swoop.
        - Changes to 'log':
          - New option --no-files
          - Including merges is again the default (i.e., it now acts
            like 0.25, and not like 0.26pre2).
          - When 'log -r' is given an ambiguous selector, it now just
            logs all matching revisions, instead of requiring the
            selector be disambiguated.
        - New option --log, to log monotone output to a file.
        - Netsync changes:
          - Was sending far too much data in some cases; now does not.
          - Several bugs that caused it to lock up fixed
          - Tweak to allow 'usher' proxy to transparently redirect
            based on client's protocol version, to ease migration
            between incompatible protocol versions.
        - Packet commands have been moved to 'automate'.
        - Fixed bugs in 'db kill_rev_locally', should no longer leave
          an inconsistent db behind.
        - Translation updates

        Other projects receiving notable work:

        - Monotone's "dumb server" support (repo distribution over
          HTTP/FTP/SFTP etc.) has been ported to 0.26, a first command
          line version written, etc.
        - The 'usher' netsync proxy used for hosting many databases on
          a single machine has received significant cleanups, and the
          'webhost' project to provide a simple interface to shared
          monotone hosting providers has received even more work.

Sat Feb 11 13:32:51 PST 2006

        0.26pre2 release.  Inching towards 0.26.  If you are using
        0.25 or earlier, then make sure to read the very important
        notes for 0.26pre1, below.  In particular, like 0.26pre1, this
        is a pre-release for testing.  Do not package it.  DO NOT USE
        THIS RELEASE UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE A DAREDEVIL.

        (Though, in fact, in a month of usage, only one bug has been
        found in the new history code, and it was both minor and
        harmless.  It has additionally been fixed.)

        Database changes:

        - SQLite 3.3.3 has been imported.  3.3 introduces a new database
          format that is not backwards compatible with earlier 3.x releases.
          New databases will be created using this new format.  Existing
          databases remain compatible, and are not converted automatically.
          Existing databases can be converted by performing a database
          vacuum ('monotone db execute vacuum').

        New features:

        - New hook validate_commit_message -- use to verify that all
          commit messages meet arbitrary user-defined rules.

        UI improvements:

        - rename (and mv) commands now accept a broader range of
          syntax:
            monotone rename foo some_dir
              -> renames foo to some_dir/foo
            monotone rename foo bar baz some_dir
              -> moves foo, bar, and baz to some_dir/foo,
                 some_dir/bar, and some_dir/baz
        - Print a warning if it looks like a user has made a quoting
          mistake on push/pull/sync/serve (windows cmd.exe has
          confusing rules here).
        - New command "ls changed".
        - New option "--next" to log, which displays descendents of
          the start revision.
        - Updating to an arbitrary revision now works again (as it did
          in 0.25 and earlier).  This allows one to, for instance,
          switch a working copy to another head, or back up to an
          earlier version, while preserving uncommitted changes.
        - New option --brief to annotate, gives somewhat more friendly
          output.
        - Fixed bug that made ticker output from netsync inaccurate.
        - In 'log', --no-merges is now the default, use --merges to
          override.
        - If the database is in the working copy, then it is always
          ignored.

        Bugs:

        - 'serve' with no --bind should now work on systems where the
          C library has IPv6 support, but the kernel does not.
        - Compile fixes for GCC 4.1 pre-releases.

        Other:
        - Better detection when users have not run "rosterify", and
          more helpful suggestions on what to do in this case.
        - Documentation, translation, error message,
          etc. improvements.
        - Updates to contrib/mtbrowse.sh, simple shell-based monotone
          interface.
        - Updates to many other contrib/ files, mostly to maintain
          compatibility with monotone changes.

Sun Jan  8 01:08:56 PST 2006

        0.26pre1 release.  Massive rewrites, released for shakedown.
        This release is also dedicated to Shweta Narayan.

        This release includes massive changes compared to 0.25.  The
        core versioning code has all been replaced with a completely
        different mechanism.  Data formats and the netsync protocol
        have changed in incompatible ways.

        Migration to 0.26pre1 or later is irreversible and requires a
        flag day for your project.  See UPGRADE for details.  Note
        that we DO NOT recommend upgrading at this time; see below.

        If you have been following the development list for the last
        few months, you may have heard about "rosters" -- this is the
        name for the new core data structure we use.  While the code
        is completely different, the user experience should not be
        very different.  You will never see a roster, unless you are
        debugging monotone itself; everything still revolves around
        revisions, manifests, and certs.

        While this new code has extensive tests, because of these
        incompatibilities, it has never been used for real work.  The
        purpose of this release is to make a version available for the
        monotone developers to begin using for day-to-day work, to
        shake out bugs.

        Let's say that again in caps: THIS CODE IS PROBABLY BUGGY, DO
        NOT USE IT IN PRODUCTION UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE A DAREDEVIL.

        However, testing of this version with real databases is a good
        idea, and we'd very much appreciate hearing about your
        experiences.

        Some of the many changes:
        - New textual format for revisions and manifests; they remain
          conceptually the same, but have been tweaked. Manifests
          now use the same "basic_io" format as everything else in
          monotone, and contain entries for directories, revisions
          record file adds slightly differently and record directory
          adds for the first time, etc.  Because of this format
          change, revision hashes are now different; converting
          rosters requires a full history rebuild and reissue of certs.
        - Directories are now first class.  To get rid of a directory
          you must remove it; to create a directory, you must add it.
          You can add an empty directory.
        - Attrs are now first class.  The .mt-attrs file is gone;
          attributes are now stored directly in the manifest.
        - New merge algorithm, based on "multi-*-merge", and more
          aggressive, less buggy merge ancestor selection code
        - Netsync's core has been largely rewritten.  Code is now much
          clearer and more reliable, and now includes the ability to
          resume interrupted partial transfers. The netsync protocol
          version number has been bumped, and netsync now runs on the
          IANA-assigned port 4691 by default.
        - 100% fewer change_set.cc related bugs.  100% more roster.cc
          related bugs.  But the idea of touching roster.cc does not
          terrify people.