Dear all,

(almost) as announced I spent tonight on creating the CVS branches from the upcoming MonetDB/* release.

"Almost", because I failed to start at 18:00 (sharp), but did only start at 19:22, a delay which I sincerely regret (see below).

*WARNING*: ========== I strongly dissuade all users and all developers that are not involved in debugging Pathfinder from checking out / upgrading to the latest version of Pathfinder (neither this new release branch nor the development trunk). Preliminary "sanity checks" indicate that the code is SEVERELY BROKEN, at least *most* of the 665 tests in runtime// and tests// do fail since tonight (I haven't checked the tests in benchmarks// and compilers//, yet).

See topic "Pathfinder" below.

*PLEA*: ======= I kindly ask all developers that did change Pathfinder code today (in particular later afternoon and evening) to check the test result emails and testweb tomorrow morning (or even run Mtest themselves) and fix the (new) BUGs A.S.A.P., i.e., by no later than tomorrow night.

General Details: ================

As usually, I first tagged the current development trunk versions as follows MonetDB, buildtools, template, TestTools (CWI internal): "MonetDB_4-14_root" sql: "SQL_2-14_root" pathfinder: "XQuery_0-14_root" monetweb (CWI internal): "MonetDB_4-14_old_root"

and then created the following release branches: MonetDB, buildtools, template, TestTools (CWI internal): "MonetDB_4-14" sql: "SQL_2-14" pathfinder: "XQuery_0-14" monetweb (CWI internal): "MonetDB_4-14_old"

Version numbers in both the release branches and the development trunks are increased accordingly. In MonetDB/conf/monet.m4, I set the configure defaults as follows MonetDB_4-14 release branch: dft_strict=no dft_assert=no dft_optimi=yes dft_warning=no dft_netcdf=no development trunk (unchanged): dft_strict=yes dft_assert=yes dft_optimi=no dft_warning=no dft_netcdf=auto

For ocnvenience of later reference, the code version after increasing the version numbers and setting the defaults are tagged as MonetDB, buildtools, template, TestTools (CWI internal): "MonetDB_4-14_" (release branch) "MonetDB_4-15_" (development trunk) sql: "SQL_2-14_" (release branch) "SQL_2-15_" (development trunk) pathfinder: "XQuery_0-14_" (release branch) "XQuery_0-15_" (development trunk)

As usually, as of now * all bug-fixes (and only these) must go to the new release branchs * all new features must go to the development trunks (and only there).

Propagation of bug-fixes from the release branchs to the development trunks will be handled by Sjoerd or me (only) on an irregular basis (and possible on request or need).

Pathfinder: ===========

Since I was appointed the "release master", I felt the responsibility to not only "mechanically" make the branches, but also to apply minimal "sanity checks" to ensure that what ever I provide you with is at least not "worse" than the it was before.

Having done that, I consider if my duty to inform you as neutrally as possible about the problems I found, and could not solve, yet --- I intend no blames or accuses at all!

Knowing that there were no critical changes on buildtools, MonetDB & sql during the day (and last nights testing as well I my tests during the day revealed no major problems with them), I focused my final "sanity checks" on pathfinder. Compilations worked fine, but running the tests in runtime// and tests// resulted in (almost) all of the 665 tests failing, while only 90 failed earlier this afternoon --- I haven't tested the remaining ~1000 tests in benchmarks// & compiler//, yet.

To me, this suggests that the current code base is SEVERELY BROKEN.

A quick analysis revealed that the following checkins trigger the problems: =================================================================== 2006/11/07 - boncz: compiler/mil/milprint_summer.c,1.298 compiler/semantics/xquery_fo.c,1.89 runtime/pathfinder.mx,1.268 runtime/pf_support.mx,1.172 runtime/serialize_dflt.mx,1.19 runtime/serialize_sax.mx,1.8 - remove some unnecessary void casts from serialize - implemented information functions (extended query locking infrastructure) =================================================================== 2006/11/07 - boncz: runtime/pathfinder.mx,1.269 - streamlined startup (pfstart() is no longer needed) NOTE: you must start pathfinder (i.e. 'module(pathfinder);') now in the Mserver always!!! doing this in MIL programs on each MapiClient session only (and not beforehand in the server) will produce errors on multiple/concurrent sessions

- added a checkpointing thread ===================================================================

I shortly considered undoing these checkins or at least keeping them out of the release branch, but mainly the additional work and severe SF problems kept me from doing so --- moreover, even as "release master", I don't want to be a "dictator".

For later reference, I wrapped the respective changes in CVS tags "information-functions_and_checkpointing-thread_before" and "information-functions_and_checkpointing-thread_after".

(Sjoerd knows how to use them, in case removing these changes from the release branch should be desired.)

Postponing the creation of the branches was no option for me, basically, because I didn't want to "compromise" the release --- we have merely more than a week left...

That's all from my side.

As announced on Monday (at CWI), due to other obligations (that go postponed due to my limited time management skills), I'll not be available for any MonetDB related work or questions etc. (at least) until next Tuesday. (In urgent cases TestTools and Mtest might be an exception.)

All my work so far has been documented (here and in the bug reports).

Success with the release!

Stefan

ps: Automatic testing: ================== As of now I'll again test both the "Stable" release banches and the "Current" development trunks. For the time being "Stable" will be tested with (overruling defaults) --enable-assert --enable-strict make check (i.e., Mtest -d10) while "Current" will be tested with (overruling defaults) --disable-assert --disable-strict Mtest -d0

I might consider swapping the settings, once we know whether pathfinder compiles with --disable-strict ...