Gentoo Weekly Newsletter - Volume 2, Issue 46

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Gentoo Weekly Newsletter
http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/current.xml
This is the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for the week of November 17th, 2003.
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==============
1. Gentoo News
==============
  
Summary
-------
  
 * packages.gentoo.org now live 
 * Porting "sandbox" to BSD libc 
    
packages.gentoo.org now live
----------------------------
  
We're proud to announce that packages.gentoo.org[1] is now up, replacing 
the old online package database with a new one featuring many 
improvements: 

 1. http://packages.gentoo.org
 
 * a searchable interface 
 * a chronology of new packages 
 * more information about each package, including the most recent 
changelog entries 
 * an easy way to tell which packages are masked on various architectures 
    
Porting "sandbox" to BSD libc
-----------------------------
  
The Gentoo-BSD subproject is seeking an individual who would be interested 
in porting Portage's sandbox code so that it works on the *BSDs as well as 
on linux. In principle this task should be fairly straightforward, as one 
just needs to replace the linux-specific system calls with their *BSD 
equivalents--anybody who has ever had a course using W. Richard Stevens' 
classic "Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment" text (or a more 
modern equivalent) would be more than qualified. Moreover, a successful 
port would also use GNU autotools to identify the requisite system calls 
using the normal "configure" script. Anybody interested should e-mail his 
or her intent and qualifications to Grant Goodyear[2]. 

 2. [email protected]
    
=================================
2. Featured Developer of the Week
=================================
  
Luke-Jr
 
This week's featured developer is somewhat more mysterious than most, 
having declined to provide either a photograph or an IRS-compatible name. 
We even have to guess at a pronoun, but the fact that Luke-Jr[3] is a 
Computer Science student at Tunxis Community College[4] indicates that it 
is likely he is a resident of Connecticut in the U.S. In Gentoo's virtual 
community, Luke-Jr works to bring "Gentoo to every computer user" by 
working on tools like a newbie-friendly graphical installer. He may also 
end up taking over KPortage[5], unless some other willing soul appears. He 
is currently working on developing BitTorrent[6] based tools for 
distributing things like LiveCDs and stages. 

 3. [email protected]
 4. http://tunxis.commnet.edu/
 5. http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/kportage/
 6. http://bitconjurer.org/BitTorrent/
 
Luke-Jr has been using Linux since Red Hat 5.2 and later switched to a 
packageless manual compile system. He moved to Gentoo over a year ago when 
he began to feel the pain of keeping his system up-to-date. After spending 
some considerable time at the Gentoo booth at LinuxWorld Expo in January 
of 2003, he began to consider forking Gentoo to create a more 
newbie-friendly version. Upon discovering that the existing Gentoo 
developers had no objection to adding those tools to the existing distro, 
he began working as a Gentoo developer. 
 
Luke-Jr has a fair bit of experience in Open Source development. He was a 
primary developer on the Open Direct Connect[7] file sharing program as 
well as working on the Kye[8] puzzle game (which he plans to port to QT), 
MOO extensions and Tasogare[9], a multiplayer online RPG engine. He was 
particularly pleased with $phone, a MOO extension that allowed users to 
call virtual phone numbers on other MOOs, and the accomplishment of 
rewriting the Kye engine. Nevertheless, he considers Gentoo his "primary 
job", describing it as "the best operating system that currently exists". 

 7. http://sourceforge.net/projects/odc/
 8. http://sourceforge.net/projects/kye/
 9. http://sourceforge.net/projects/tasogare/
 
Luke-Jr is a KDE[10] user, largely because of the window manager, 
Konqueror, Kontact, Konsole and the Kicker (although he would consider 
dropping the last if someone would port the OSX taskbar). His favorite 
applications include Qt Designer[11], Mozilla Composer[12] and Psi[13]. 

 10. http://www.kde.org
 11. http://www.trolltech.com/products/qt/designer.html
 12. http://www.mozilla.org/
 13. http://psi.affinix.com
 
Luke-Jr's favorite quote comes is one of Richard Stallman's comments on 
proprietary software: "It was useless for a community." In that vein, he 
made a plea for people to shift away from obsolete or closed IM protocols 
toward the open and standardized Jabber/XMPP. He also points out that he 
has made the  hex time [14] display from his  screenshot[15] available 
with emerge khexclock. 

 14. http://www.intuitor.com/hex/hexclock.html
 15. http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/shots.xml
   
==================
3. Gentoo Security
==================
  
GLSAs
-----

Note: There were no new security announcements this week.
    
New Security Bug Reports
------------------------
  
The following new security bugs were posted this week: 
 
 * sys-libs/glibc[16] 
 16. http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33383
    
=========================
4. Heard in the Community
=========================
  
gentoo-user
-----------
  
Moving /usr/portage 
 
Eventually, everyone seems to run low on disk space. One Gentoo list 
member was curious if it was possible to move /usr/portage to some place 
else to free some up. The short answer is "yes"; the question resulted in 
a cool thread with many useful `mount' tricks. Read  on [17] here. 

 17. 
http://news.gmane.org/onethread.php?group=gmane.linux.gentoo.user&root=%3C2
00311141624.35482.nbensa%40gmx.net%3E
    
gentoo-dev
----------
  
Gentoo Documentation.
 
Now, like so many other things about gentoo, the Gentoo Documentation 
Project (GDP) has a home page[18]. Have a look here[19] for the details 
about the project.. 

 18. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/gdp
 19. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/13776
 
Losing Ebuilds (a.k.a. the joys of openssl-0.9.7!)
 
Have a look at this[20] problem around old computers doing security 
updates, and running into trouble when the older ebuilds for a certain 
package have been deleted from the tree as older versions.

 20. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/13691
    
=======================
5. Gentoo International
=======================
  
Gentoo International is on hiatus this week.
   
================
6. Portage Watch
================
  
Portage Watch is on hiatus this week.
   
===========
7. Bugzilla
===========
  
Summary
-------
  
 * Statistics 
 * Closed Bug Ranking 
 * New Bug Rankings 
    
Statistics
----------
  
The Gentoo community uses Bugzilla (bugs.gentoo.org[21]) to record and 
track bugs, notifications, suggestions and other interactions with the 
development team. Between 08 November 2003 and 14 November 2003, activity 
on the site has resulted in: 

 21. http://bugs.gentoo.org
 
 * 0 new bugs during this period 
 * 261 bugs closed or resolved during this period 
 * 7 previously closed bugs were reopened this period 
 
Of the 4149 currently open bugs: 104 are labeled 'blocker', 191 are 
labeled 'critical', and 323 are labeled 'major'. 
    
Closed Bug Rankings
-------------------
  
The developers and teams who have closed the most bugs during this period 
are: 
 
 * Portage Team[22], with 18 closed bugs[23]  
 * Gentoo KDE Team[24], with 16 closed bugs[25]  
 * Gentoo Games[26], with 15 closed bugs[27]  
 * AMD64 Porting Team[28], with 12 closed bugs[29]  
 22. [email protected]
 23. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2003-11-08&chfieldto=2003-11-14&resolution=FIX
ED&[email protected]
 24. [email protected]
 25. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2003-11-08&chfieldto=2003-11-14&resolution=FIX
ED&[email protected]
 26. [email protected]
 27. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2003-11-08&chfieldto=2003-11-14&resolution=FIX
ED&[email protected]
 28. [email protected]
 29. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&ch
field=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2003-11-08&chfieldto=2003-11-14&resolution=FIX
ED&[email protected]
    
New Bug Rankings
----------------
  
The developers and teams who have been assigned the most new bugs during 
this period are: 
 
 * Media-GFX Herd[30], with 19 new bugs[31]  
 * Desktop Miscellaneous Team[32], with 16 new bugs[33]  
 * Gentoo KDE Team[34], with 13 new bugs[35]  
 * Martin Schlemmer[36], with 12 new bugs[37]  
 * Gentoo Sound Team[38], with 11 new bugs[39]  
 30. [email protected]
 31. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2003-11-08&chfieldto=2003-11
-14&[email protected]
 32. [email protected]
 33. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2003-11-08&chfieldto=2003-11
-14&[email protected]
 34. [email protected]
 35. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2003-11-08&chfieldto=2003-11
-14&[email protected]
 36. [email protected]
 37. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2003-11-08&chfieldto=2003-11
-14&[email protected]
 38. [email protected]
 39. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_s
tatus=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2003-11-08&chfieldto=2003-11
-14&[email protected]
    
==================
8. Tips and Tricks
==================
  
Using the file command
 
This week's tip demonstrates the use of the file command. This command has 
been in UNIX since at least 1973 but is often overlooked. However, it's an 
extremely useful command for classifying files. 
 
The file command is provided by the package sys-apps/file, so if you don't 
already have it installed, you'll need to type emerge file. Chances are 
you've already got it on your system though. To use file simply type file 
filename and you'll see information about the filename you passed in. 
Simple right? 
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Code Listing 8.1:                                                       |
| Using file                                                              |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|                                                                         |
|% file css current.xml tips-20031117.xml tips-20031117.html screenlog.0  |
|css:                directory                                            |
|current.xml:        symbolic link to `tips-20031117.xml'                 |
|tips-20031117.xml:  ASCII English text                                   |
|tips-20031117.html: UTF-8 Unicode HTML document text with very long lines|
|screenlog.0:        ASCII English text, with CRLF, CR line terminators,  |
|with escape sequences, with overstriking                                 |
|                                                                         |
|//You can also use file to look at shell scripts                           |
|% file bin/fix bin/update_dat.sh                                         |
|bin/fix:           a /usr/bin/perl -w script text executable             |
|bin/update_dat.sh: a /bin/sh script text executable                      |
|                                                                         |
|//Or you can check binary files                                            |
|% file /bin/cp                                                           |
|/bin/cp: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), for   |
|GNU/Linux 2.4.1, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), stripped         |
|                                                                         |
|//As the last example, you can use it on 'core' files                      |
|% file core                                                              |
|core: ELF 32-bit LSB core file Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), SVR4-style,|
|SVR4-style, from 'a.out'                                                 |
|                                                                         |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
This should get you started but there are many other uses of file, see the 
man page (man 1 file) for more information. 
   
==========================
9. Moves, Adds and Changes
==========================
  
Moves
-----
  
The following developers recently left the Gentoo team: 
 * none this week 
 
    
Adds
----
  
The following developers recently joined the Gentoo Linux team:
 
 * Andrea Luzzardi (scox) - sandbox and kernel 
    
Changes
-------
  
The following developers recently changed roles within the Gentoo Linux 
project.
 
 * none this week 
    
=====================
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=====================
  
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 40. [email protected]
   
================
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================
  
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 41. [email protected]
   
================================
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================================
  
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===================
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Jean-Christophe Choisy <[email protected]> - French Translation
Thomas Raschbacher <[email protected]> - German Translation
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Matthias F. Brandstetter <[email protected]> - German Translation
Lukas Domagala <[email protected]> - German Translation
Tobias Scherbaum <[email protected]> - German Translation
Daniel Gerholdt <[email protected]> - German Translation
Marc Herren <[email protected]> - German Translation
Tobias Matzat <[email protected]> - German Translation
Marco Mascherpa <[email protected]> - Italian Translation
Claudio Merloni <[email protected]> - Italian Translation
Christian Apolloni <[email protected]> - Italian Translation
Stefano Lucidi <[email protected]> - Italian Translation
Yoshiaki Hagihara <[email protected]> - Japanese Translation
Katsuyuki Konno <[email protected]> - Japanese Translation
Yuji Carlos Kosugi <[email protected]> - Japanese Translation
Yasunori Fukudome <[email protected]> - Japanese Translation
Takashi Ota <[email protected]> - Japanese Translation
Radoslaw Janeczko <[email protected]> - Polish Translation
Lukasz Strzygowski <[email protected]> - Polish Translation
Michal Drobek <[email protected]> - Polish Translation
Adam Lyjak <[email protected]> - Polish Translation
Krzysztof Klimonda <[email protected]> - Polish Translation
Atila "Jedi" Bohlke Vasconcelos <[email protected]> - Portuguese 
(Brazil) Translation
Eduardo Belloti <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Brazil) Translation
Jo達o Rafael Moraes Nicola <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Brazil) 
Translation
Marcelo Gon巽alves de Azambuja <[email protected]> - Portuguese 
(Brazil) Translation
Otavio Rodolfo Piske <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Brazil) 
Translation
Pablo N. Hess -- NatuNobilis <[email protected]> - Portuguese 
(Brazil) Translation
Pedro de Medeiros <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Brazil) Translation
Ventura Barbeiro <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Brazil) 
Translation
Bruno Ferreira <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Portugal) 
Translation
Gustavo Felisberto <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Portugal) 
Translation
Jos辿 Costa <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Portugal) Translation
Luis Medina <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Portugal) Translation
Ricardo Loureiro <[email protected]> - Portuguese (Portugal) Translation
Sergey Galkin <[email protected]> - Russian Translator
Sergey Kuleshov <[email protected]> - Russian Translator
Alex Spirin <[email protected]> - Russian Translator
Dmitry Suzdalev <[email protected]> - Russian Translator
Anton Vorovatov <[email protected]> - Russian Translator
Denis Zaletov <[email protected]> - Russian Translator
Lanark <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Fernando J. Pereda <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Lluis Peinado Cifuentes <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Zephryn Xirdal T <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Guillermo Juarez <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Jes炭s Garc鱈a Crespo <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Carlos Castillo <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Julio Castillo <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Sergio G坦mez <[email protected]> - Spanish Translation
Aycan Irican <[email protected]> - Turkish Translation
Bugra Cakir <[email protected]> - Turkish Translation
Cagil Seker <[email protected]> - Turkish Translation
Emre Kazdagli <[email protected]> - Turkish Translation
Evrim Ulu <[email protected]> - Turkish Translation
Gursel Kaynak <[email protected]> - Turkish Translation

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