Linux STREAMS (LiS) -- unstable release introduction. 2007-03-15
$Id$
Copyright (c) 2001-2007 OpenSS7 Corporation.
Copyright (c) 1997-2000 Brian Bidulock
See the end for copying conditions (for this file).
Linux STREAMS (LiS)
===================
Package LiS-2.18.5 Released 2007-03-15.
This is unstable release software.
The following is an extract from the Installation and Reference Manual:
5.5 Bugs
========
5.5.1 Defect Notices
--------------------
"Linux STREAMS (LiS)" has many and critical known defects. This is an
"unstable" release. Some defects could be harmful. Validation testing
has been performed by the `OpenSS7 Project' on this software and it has
revealed itself to be unstable and irreparable. The software might not
even configure or compile. The `OpenSS7 Project' recommends that you
do not use this software. Use at your own risk. Remember that there
is NO WARRANTY.(1)
"Linux STREAMS (LiS)", both releases from `OpenSS7' and `GCOM', contain
many known bugs. These are unstable releases. Although there are no
bugs known directly to be harmful, the `OpenSS7 Project' has tested the
release and found defects that cause the kernel to lock or crash. Use
at your own risk. Remember that there is NO WARRANTY(2) and that the
package is no longer actively maintained.
This software is unstable software. As such, it will lock or crash
your kernel. Installation of the software will irreparably mangle your
header files or Linux distribution in such a way as to make it
unusable. Crashes will lock your system and rebooting the system will
not repair the problem. You will loose all the data on your system.
Because this software has tested unstable in a number of test cases,
simply running the validation test cases can cause locks or crashes.
Because this software will lock or crash your kernel, the resulting
unstable system can destroy computer hardware or You will void the
warranty on any system on which you run this software. YOU HAVE BEEN
WARNED.
---------- Footnotes ----------
(1) See section NO WARRANTY under `GNU General Public License', in the
manual.
(2) See section NO WARRANTY under `GNU General Public License', in the
manual.
5.5.2 Known Defects
-------------------
With the exception of packages not originally created by the `OpenSS7
Project', the `OpenSS7 Project' software does not ship with known bugs
in any release stage except "pre-alpha". "Linux STREAMS (LiS)" had
many known bugs at the time of release.
"Linux STREAMS (LiS)" has many known bugs. Under some architectures,
the test cases in the conformance test suite cause the kernel to lock
or crash. "Linux STREAMS (LiS)" contains many races and defects and is
unsuitable for production environments. This section provides a
summary of some (but not all) known defects.
1. A substantial group of test cases in the "POSIX" conformance test
suite fail. This is largely due to non-fatal defects in LiS.
2. A number of test cases fail under any architecture and result in a
kernel lock. In particular if a significant number of modules are
pushed onto a Stream using I_PUSH, the kernel will lock when the
Stream is closed. The number of modules pushed to cause a crash
depends on the speed of the machine upon which the test case is
run. The test case in the test suite pushes 64 modules and has
always resulted in a kernel lock regardless of the machine speed
upon which it was tested. Pushing 20 modules results in a kernel
lock on some of the `OpenSS7 Project' 2.57GHz test machines.
As a result, any test case that pushes a number of modules, and
the performance tests (that push modules for measurement) will
cause the kernel to lock.
3. A large number of test cases fail when running under an SMP
kernel, regardless of the number of processors on the test system.
These test cases cause the kernel to lock. The kernel locks are
apparently due to locking defects in the implementation. None of
these implementation defects have been repaired.
4. The original `LiS-2.18.0' release from `GCOM' has a large number
of defects that were repaired in the `OpenSS7' `LiS-2.18.1'
release.
5. The original `LiS-2.18.0' release has defects in the description
of data types and handling under 64-bit architectures. 32-bit
compatibility for 64-bit architectures is all but non-existent in
the LiS-2.18.0 release. Because of binary compatibility issues,
many of these defects persist in the `OpenSS7' `LiS-2.18.1' and
`LiS-2.18.2' releases. LiS is largely unusable in a 64-bit and
almost completely unusable in a mixed architecture.
The work-around for these defects is to not use LiS at all: use the
`OpenSS7 Linux Fast-STREAMS' release instead. The `OpenSS7 Linux
Fast-STREAMS', being a completely independent implementation, does not
suffer from this extensive set of LiS defects.
5.5.3 Defect History
--------------------
This section contains historical bugs that were encountered during
development and their resolutions. This list serves two purposes:
1. It captures bugs encountered between releases during development
that could possibly reoccur (and the Moon is made of blue cheese).
It therefore provides a place for users to look if they encounter
a problem.
2. It provides a low overhead bug list between releases for
developers to use as a `TODO' list.
Bugs
.....
LiS contains way too many bugs to be useful. This list only represents
those bugs that were discovered in the development of `Linux
Fast-STREAMS' that were easy enough to fix in LiS.
Do not use LiS. Use `Linux Fast-STREAMS' instead.
`001. 2006-09-24T20:02:00+0000'
Discovered asynchronous thread cancellation inconsistencies in
libLiS libpLiS by inspection during documentation. isastream(2),
fattach(2) were not performing proper asynchronous thread
cancellation suppression so that these function contained a
cancellation point when the should not.
_*fixed*_ in `LiS-2.18.4.rc3'
5.4.6 Unstable Releases
-----------------------
"Unstable" releases are releases that have received extensive testing
within the project and validated on a a wide range of distributions and
architectures; however, is has tested unstable and found to be
suffering from critical problems and issues that cannot be resolved.
Maintenance of the package has proved impossible. "Unstable" release
packages ship with known defects (and loud warnings). Suitability of
software in this category for production use is at the discretion of the
user of the software. "The OpenSS7 Project" recommends that the
problems and issues be closely examined before this software is used
even in a non-production environment. Each failing test scenario
should be completely avoided by the application. `OpenSS7' beta
software is more stable that software in this category.
-----
=========================================================================
Copyright (c) 2001-2007 OpenSS7 Corporation
Copyright (c) 1997-2000 Brian Bidulock
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=========================================================================
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=========================================================================
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