Work Begins on Cucumber Linux 1.1

Work Begins on Cucumber Linux 1.1

A few days ago, the cucumber-1.0 tree was forked into the cucumber-1.1 tree, and now work has officially begun on Cucumber Linux 1.1. This release will be a minor release, meaning the following:

1. We will attempt to maintain ABI compatibility between 1.0 and 1.1 as much as possible.
2. We will not upgrade a package to a newer version unless it is absolutely necessary in order to continue getting upstream support.
3. We will make upgrading from 1.0 to 1.1 as easy and unintrusive as possible.

For more information on the Cucumber Linux release policy, see http://www.cucumberlinux.com/support_policy.php.

Packages Being Upgraded in Cucumber Linux 1.1

This being the case, we are anticipating that only two packages will need to be upgraded:

1. Perl will be upgraded from Perl 5.22 to Perl 5.26 (Support for Perl 5.22 will be ending in June 2018).
2. PHP will upgraded from PHP 5.6 to PHP 7.2 (Support for PHP 5.6 will be ending on 2018-12-31).
3. Bind-client will be upgraded from 9.10 to 9.11 (support for Bind 9.10 will be ending in October 2018).

The Perl developers do a good job of maintaining backward compatibility, so the Perl upgrade should not be a major issue. Bind-client provides only the dig, nslookup and host, so this should also be a nonissue. The only change that has the potential to be problematic is the PHP upgrade. Several features of the language that were present (albeit deprecated) in PHP 5 have been removed in PHP 7. This has the potential to cause several PHP applications that worked with PHP 5 to not work with PHP 7. In order to address this, we will do the following:

1. PHP 7.2 will replace PHP 5.6 as the default version of PHP in Cucumber Linux 1.1.
2. We will continue to maintain PHP 5.6 packages for Cucumber Linux 1.1 through 2018-12-31 (the PHP 5.6 EOL) for users who cannot immediately upgrade to PHP 7.2.

New Packages in Cucumber Linux 1.1

We will also be adding several new packages in Cucumber Linux 1.1. Keeping in line with our release policy, we will be placing all of the new packages in 'extra' package groups, with one exception: gptfdisk. This package really should have been included in Cucumber Linux 1.0 and missing it was kind of an oversight. Without it there is no program for manipulating GPT partitioned disks in the base system (fdisk can maniuplate MSDOS partitioned disks only).

Here's a full list of the packages we will be adding:

1. Gptfdisk
2. Pale Moon (web browser)
3. VSFTPD (FTP server)
4. OpenSMTPD (mail transfer agent, A.K.A. an SMTP server)
5. libasr (dependency for OpenSMTPD)
6. libevent (dependency for OpenSMTPD)
7. Dovecot (mail delivery agent, A.K.A. a POP3/IMAP server)
8. Bind Server (DNS server)
9. i3 (window manager)

Cucumber Linux 1.1 Lifecycle and Estimated Time of Arrival

These aforementioned changes will enable us to give Cucumber Linux 1.1 full support through December 31, 2019 (Support for OpenSSL 1.0.2, which is used in Cucumber Linux 1.x, will be ending then). This will almost certainly be the final release in the Cucumber 1.x series, so it will also receive several months of selective support after the end of full support. At this time, we're not quite sure how many months of selective support we will be providing, however it will be more than the ususal 3 to 4 months.

We don't have a release date for Cucumber Linux 1.1 yet, however it will most likely be ready in December 2017 or January 2018. We are upgrading to PHP 7.2 in Cucumber Linux 1.1, which will not be released until November 30, 2017. We will then need a few weeks to ensure that our PHP 7.2 package is stable. All of the other package versions we are upgrading to have already been released, so PHP is the only bottleneck.

As you may be starting to pick up, PHP is going to be a major pain in the ass to deal with this release, while everything else should be pretty smooth. This is not the PHP developers' fault though, unfortunately it's just the way things worked out this time.

Upgrading to the Cucumber Linux 1.1 Alpha

Warning: Cucumber Linux 1.1 is currently an alpha product, meaning it will be unstable and is therefore not suitable for use in a production environment at this time. Upgrade from Cucumber Linux 1.0 to 1.1 if and only if you want to be on the front line of the development of Cucumber Linux.

Currently, there is no ISO file or installer for Cucumber Linux 1.1 Alpha; the only way to get it is to upgrade an existing Cucumber Linux 1.0 installation to 1.1. If you do not feel comfortable doing this, then you probably should not be running the Cucumber Linux 1.1 Alpha. Once Cucumber Linux 1.1 is ready for a Beta release, we will be releasing Cucumber Linux 1.1 Beta ISOs. To upgrade an existing system, follow these instructions on an installation of Cucumber Linux 1.0:

1. Ensure your Cucumber Linux 1.0 installation is up to date by running pickle --update && pickle and installing all available updates.
2. Edit your /etc/pickle.conf, commenting out the present MIRROR= line and uncommenting the MIRROR=http://mirror.cucumberlinux.com/cucumber/cucumber-current/cucumber-${DISTRIB_ARCH}/ line.
3. Run pickle --hard-update && pickle and install all of the available packages.

Your system will now be running the Cucumber Linux 1.1 Alpha. Make sure you keep your alpha system up to date by running pickle --update && pickle frequently. Additionally, please make sure your installation is completely up to date before reporting any bugs.

Following the Development of Cucumber Linux 1.1

We will be posting about most major development changes here on our development blog. If you'd like to know more details though, here are some other places you can follow:

1. The Cucumber Linux 1.1 Changelog at http://mirror.cucumberlinux.com/cucumber/cucumber-1.1/CHANGELOG.
2. The development section of the Cucumber Linux Wiki at https://z5t1.com/cucumber/wiki/devdocs:start.

Additionally if you want to get involved in the development process, here are some ways you can help:

1. Take a look at the To Do List at https://z5t1.com/cucumber/wiki/devdocs:todo. The items we need help with are listed as 'HELP WANTED', however; we are perfectly happy to have help with any of the tasks listed there. If you would like to help with one of them, please email me at Z5T1@Z5T1.com so we know you'd like to help and are working on it.
2. Look at the list of packages to build/upgrade at https://z5t1.com/cucumber/wiki/devdocs:packages_to_add and help out with building/upgrading one of the packages listed as 'NOT STARTED' or fixing one of the packages listed as 'NEEDS FIXING'.
3. If these methods aren't for you or you don't see anything that interests you but would still like to help, send an email to me at Z5T1@Z5T1.com and let me know what sort of development insterests you.

Happy Hacking,

Scott