NGPT 1.9.1 Released, Patch Available for NGPT 1.2.2

NGPT - Next Generation POSIX Threading

Version 1.9.1 Notes:
===================

NGPT Release 1.9.1 is an "unstable" release of the NGPT 2.0 development
tree.  This release is fully suitable as a replacement for LinuxThreads by
either a single user or group or and entire distribution.  The NGPT team
plans to do releases almost weekly of this 1.9.x tree until the release of
NGPT 2.0.

In this release, we've concentrated on two areas: we fixed a major security
hole and we've stabilized the code.  This code is relatively early and
could cause some problems although, we haven't seen anything major to worry
about.  The security problem arose from the fact that NGPT was using a
filesystem based shared memory file.  This could have led to DoS and
"spoofing" attacks on a system with NGPT installed.  We solved this problem
by using the POSIX shared memory operations shm_open() and shm_unlink().
This removes the need for a filesystem based file that would increase the
security risk to a system.

The binary RPMs supplied with this release are based on and built for use
with a 2.4.19pre8 or better kernel that has the new "officially" sanctioned
support for NGPT.  In addition it is necessary for you to apply the new
patch-futex-2.4.19-pre8 patch, included in this release.  This patch is
based on new functionality already provided in the 2.5 kernel that will
eventually be backported to the 2.4 kernel and support.  NGPT takes
advantage of the functionality provided by this patch to efficiently handle
mutexes, both shared and non-shared.  This patch is **ABSOLUTELY
REQUIRED**.  NGPT will not
function without it.  The installation instructions have changed a bit as
well and you should check the INSTALL file for the updated instructions.

You can build the library from source by downloading the source tarball or
source rpm and consulting the INSTALL file.

This release is accompanied by another kernel patch that implements POSIX
credential handling for threading.  This is an early release of the patch
and is being distributed so that we can get feedback prior to submitting
the patch for inclusion in the Linux kernel.  Please report any problems
via the NGPT developer mailing list.

If you are running with a 2.5.x experimental kernel, it's best that run
with 2.5.17 or higher since it will already have the required changes for
NGPT.  You will also have to rebuild NGPT from either the source tarball or
rpm.

As an UNSTABLE RELEASE, this release is not suitable for use in a
production environment, however, it should be noted that we have done
fairly extensive testing and you should find this release relatively free
of problems.  If you encounter any problems with this release please post
them to the NGPT website and the development team will address them.

"STABLE" Patch for 1.2.2 Now Available

A patch for Release 1.2.2 was posted to the site. This patch corrects a
number of problems reported by users of NGPT 1.2.2.

You can find the patch on the NGPT website. This patch is designed to be
applied against a "plain vanilla" NGPT 1.2.2 source tree.

The URL for the NGPT website is
http://oss.software.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/pthreads