[Dazuko-devel] Dazuko 2.0.0-pre1 posted

[John Ogness]

Hi,

I have just posted 2.0.0-pre1 of Dazuko. What is version 2.0 you ask? 
Well, the 1.3.x branch was starting to heavily deviate from 1.2.x. Not 
only were major new conceptual changes taking place, but API prototypes 
and structure names have changed. Although the API changes are quite 
minor (all of them will be caught with the compiler), it was enough to 
acknowledge this new version as a major change.

The abstraction layer (XP layer) is running very solid and the FreeBSD 
extension has been completed. It now also supports local filenames, SMP, 
and chroot. I have been experiencing a minor issue in FreeBSD because 
await() returns ERESTART from time to time. I am not sure how I am 
supposed to handle it (not documented). For the moment I treat it as 
EINTR, but I do notice some things do not work correctly in this situation.

Also new in this version is a read-only registration mode. This allows 
an application to receive incoming access events, but not be required to 
answer. The kernel posts events, but does not wait for an answer. This 
should improve performance for applications that are only interested in 
collecting information (specialized loggers).

Also new in this version is a new device protocol. Rather than using a 
pure binary protocol, Dazuko now uses a text-based key/value protocol. 
Unknown keys are simply ignored. This makes it possible to add new keys 
in the future without any worry of older versions complaining.

The new Dazuko Interface has a compatibility mode for older Dazuko 
kernel modules. If the new key/value registration does not work, the 
Interface switches to compatibility mode and tries the old 1.x method.

Likewise the 2.0.0 kernel module can still speak the old binary protocol 
of the 1.x series. This should make it much easier for people and 
organizations to migrate over to the 2.0.x branch.

Lastly, I am happy to say that a wonderful "configure" script is now 
included. Whether I am on my FreeBSD machine or my Debian machine, 
getting Dazuko running is as simple as:

./configure
make

But there is still a long ways to go. I have started getting a great 
deal of requests from many many organizations. Many of the changes I 
made for 2.0.0 were to add enough abstraction that I could easily 
implement all these requests in the future.

After the Virus Bulletin Conference (in 3 days!) I will begin work on 
cleaning up and testing the 2.0.0-pre1 version. I would like to get it 
officially released soon.

I know there have been a lot of changes lately and it has caused a bit 
of confusion for some contributors. However, soon we will be over this 
transition period and can focus on adding robustness, features, and 
begin massive expansion onto other platforms.

John Ogness

--
Dazuko Maintainer