Dear MonetDB users and developers,

I just created the new release-candidate branches "MonetDB_4-3-18" and "SQL_2-0-18" for MonetDB and SQL, respectively.

The current versions are tagged as "MonetDB_4-3-18_rc02" and "SQL_2-0-18_rc02", respectively.

I also released the new release-candidates "MonetDB_4-3-18_rc02" and "SQL_2-0-18_rc02", which are available for download from SourceForge (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=56967).

All users are highly advised (actually "requested" ;-) to use the new release-candidate( branche)s as of now (see below for detail concerning download and CVS checkout/update).

Please do not hesitate to ask for support and report bugs or problems, preferably via the bug tracing system at SourceForge (http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=56967&atid=482468) or via email to monet@cwi.nl; however, please always state clearly, which version of MonetDB/SQL you are using (as the Mserver tells you at startup)!

Any support for the now obsolete "Monet_4-3-16" will stop as of now.

Contents: =========

- Announcement - Background - Change Logs - Downloads - CVS update - CVS checkins - Testing

Background ==========

Trying to stick to our roadmap (http://monetdb.cwi.nl/Development/Roadmap/index.html), we plan to release MonetDB-4.3.18 + SQL-2.0.18 before end of June. These releases are mainly considered to be snapshots, as "larger changes" are expected to happen during the summer.

As with MonetDB-4.3.16, we start with "release-candidates" to allow testing by a larger group of users before we finally make the actual releases within the next 1-2 weeks. Hence, starting the use the release-candidates as soon as possible will only be for your own benefit ;-) According to our TestWeb (http://monetdb.cwi.nl/Development/TestWeb/index.html), both MonetDB and SQL are doing quite well right now; hence, I don't expect any (major) problems.

Change Logs ===========

In MonetDB, changes since MonetDB-4.3.16 are mainly bug fixes, more robust memory management, and improved/extended documentation. In SQL, changes are more extensive.

For detail, please check out the changelogs in the Monetdb-changelogs mailing list on SF (http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/monetdb-changelogs).

Downloads =========

MonetDB-*-4.3.18-1_*.i686.rpm ----------------------------- These rpm's contain the binary distribution for Linux. The *RedHat* rpm's were built on a RedHat-9 system and the *SuSE* rpm's were built on a SuSE-8.1 system; however, both should work on other Linux distributions as well (unless there are incompatibilities with dynamically linked system libraries...). While the MonetDB-client-4.3.18-1_*.i686.rpm can be installed stand-alone, the MonetDB-server-4.3.18-1_*.i686.rpm requires the matching MonetDB-client-4.3.18-1_*.i686.rpm to be installed as well. To develop your own add-on modules, you additionally need to install the MonetDB-devel-4.3.18-1_*.i686.rpm.

MonetDB-SQL*-2.0.18-1_*.i686.rpm -------------------------------- These rpm's contain the binary distribution for Linux. The *.rpm were built on a RedHat-9 system; however, they should work on other Linux distributions as well (unless there are incompatibilities with dynamically linked system libraries...). To get a working MonetDB-SQL server, you need to install the MonetDB-SQL-server-2.0.18-1beta.RedHat.rpm (which requires that the MonetDB-server-4.3.18-1.*.rpm is already installed). MonetDB's "MapiClient" also serves as a textual SQL user interface: simply start it with "MapiClient --language=sql". The MonetDB-SQL-client-2.0.18-1beta.RedHat.rpm contains (preliminary) ODBC & JDBC support for MonetDB-SQL. The MonetDB-SQL-devel-2.0.18-1beta.athlon.rpm contains header files for further development.

MonetDB-4.3.18.tar.gz --------------------- This is a gzip'ed tar file containing the source code of MonetDB; read HowToStart or HowToStart-Win32.txt for build instructions.

MonetDB-SQL-2.0.18.tar.gz ------------------------- This is a gzip'ed tar file containing the source code of MonetDB/SQL; read HowToStart-SQL or HowToStart-SQL-Win32.txt for build instructions.

MonetDB-Installer-4.3.18_rc02.zip MonetDB-Setup-4.3.18_rc02.zip --------------------------------- These two zip files contain each a file Setup.exe which is the Windows installer. Extract the zip file somewhere, and start Setup.exe to install MonetDB. Both installers also contains the SQL frontend which is automatically installed. Once installed, you can find shortcuts to the SQL server and SQL client in the Start menu. The only difference between both installers is that "MonetDB-Installer-4.3.18_rc02.zip" is built with Visual Studio .NET, and hence requires the .NET runtime environment to be installed, too; while "MonetDB-Setup-4.3.18_rc02.zip" is built with Visual Studio 6 plus InstallShield, and hence works without any extra runtime environment.

CVS update ==========

If you are already using the release candidate branches "MonetDB_4-3-18" and "SQL_2-0-18" from CVS, simply run "cvs update -dP" to update your code to this new release candidate version.

If you are using any other CVS version, you can either run "cvs update -dP -rMonetDB_4-3-18_rc02" "cvs update -dP -rSQL_2-0-18_rc02" to get this very release candidate, or "cvs update -dP -rMonetDB_4-3-18" "cvs update -dP -rSQL_2-0-18" to get the most recent version in the release candidate branch. The difference is, that via the first option, you are "stuck" with this very release candidate, i.e., future "cvs update" (without "-r..." or "-A") will not change your checked-out version; via the second option, however, future "cvs update" will get you again the latest version in the release candidate branch.

CVS checkins ============

All bug fixes (and only these!) on MonetDB and/or SQL are bound to go to the new release-candidate branches ("MonetDB_4-3-18"/"SQL_2-0-18"), only. On a regular basis, I will then take care of propagating these bug-fixes back to the respective main branch

All new features are bound to go to the main branches (and only there!).

This release-candidate branch will become the new stable/release branch within the next 1-2 weeks.

Testing =======

The release-candidate branches will be tested every night.

All (no-SQL) add-on modules that are tested every night will be tested with the release-candidate branch of MonetDB, *only*, unless the very maintainer(s) of any add-on module request differently.

The main/development branches of MonetDB and SQL will also be tested every night.

As usually, any (constructive;-) comments and feedback are more than welcome!

Enjoy!

Stefan