Date: Fri, 9 Jul 1999 00:59:39 -0500 (CDT) From: Jonathan Abbey <jonabbey@arlut.utexas.edu> To: ganymede-announce@arlut.utexas.edu Subject: [Ganymede Announce] Ganymede 0.99.4 released Ganymede 0.99.4 is now available for download at http://www.arlut.utexas.edu/gash2/ or ftp://ftp.arlut.utexas.edu/pub/ganymede/ Mirrors: (may take a short while to update) ftp://ftp.netlag.com/ganymede/ (USA) ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/ganymede/ (Australia/NZ only) ftp://ftp.kddlabs.co.jp/pub/ganymede/ (KDD R&D Labs, Saitama, Japan) Ganymede is a GPL'ed network directory management system written in Java, providing support for team management of NIS, DNS, etc. -- The big news for this release includes a reworking of the install scripts to make it easier to install the server and the web client resources, a significant rewriting of the admin console to improve security and simplify installation, and an improved installation guide. Generally more polished, closer to production quality. The next things to do involve more operational documentation and better packaging of the schemas, including lots of support scripting for the gasharl schema. Just over the horizon is a new DNS/XML system for flexibly and comprehensively managing DNS with Ganymede. As always, feedback is eagerly solicited.. if I don't hear from anyone, I just have to guess as to whether it's working for people, which isn't the most efficient method. -------------------- Changes from 0.99.3 to 0.99.4 ------------------- RELEASE DATE: July 8, 1999 1. [SERVER] Optimizations to permissions system The simplifications to GanymedeSession.getPerm(object,field) that I did for 0.99.3 was in fact doing too much work, and the logic didn't flow clearly. GanymedeSession.getPerm(object, field) is now correct, efficient, and easy to read. 2. [SERVER] Added new versions of anonymousLinkOK/UnlinkOK() to DBEditObject It was previously impossible to grant anonymous linking privileges to a field only when the other side of the link was being created in a particular object type/field. This posed a problem in the circumstance where you want to allow a specific field in a given object type to be linked to another object type's backlinks field without having general editing permissions for the other object. I added a couple of new versions of these methods that take additional parameters identifying the originating object and field, so that customizers can take the other side of the proposed link into consideration before granting anonymous linking permissions. See the DBEditObject.anonymousLinkOK()/anonymousUnlinkOK() javadocs for details. Hopefully I'll get around to writing a full-scale technical manual for Ganymede that will go into when/where you would use these methods. Modified InvidDBField.bind() and InvidDBField.unbind() to call the new versions. 3. [CLIENT] Improved StringSelector used in String and Invid fields The StringSelector GUI component used in the client to allow editing of String and/or Invid vector fields has been fixed so that it does not include the text box for entering custom entries unless the StringSelector is editable. Fixed some minor GUI problems with the StringSelector resizing itself to a minimum size after adding a new entry to an empty no-choices-provided string selector, made the 'remove' button disable itself after removing something. 4. [SCHEMA] Improved email list behavior in gasharl schema An email list owner can now add any user, list, or redirect to his list without having general editing privileges for that user, list, or redirect. This takes advantage of change #2, above. 5. [INSTALL] Various improvements to the install process Modified installServer so that the custom loading instructions it writes out at the end is sent to a README.custom file in the installed server's directory rather than to screen. No sense spewing a couple of screen's worth of customized install instructions if the user has to do cut and paste to save it to a file for reading. Added an installWeb script to install the web files into a designated directory, separate from the normal UNIX client install. This has the advantage that you can install the web resourcs for Ganymede without having to have Swing installed locally (which installClient checked for.) Added a handy index.html file for the Ganymede web resources, got rid of the old activator and hotjava directories, added a nice set of web frames to allow the installer to bring up their browser and directly visit the directory where they installed the web resources. 6. [WEB FILES] Updated plugin client files for 1.2 The plugin client files were re-generated from the 1.2 htmlconvertor utility, and now include proper links to the latest version of Sun's java plug-in for Solaris and Windows. 7. [SCHEMA] Fixed BSD schema master.passwd parser, Linux passwd parser The old Linux and BSD passwd file parsers would break if they encountered a user record with a blank password field. Modified GanymedeServer.login() and GanymedeServer.admin() to make sure the server won't throw a null pointer exception if the database contains a user or admin persona with no password during the login process. If a Ganymede user record has no password set, that user will not be able to login to the Ganymede server. Unlike UNIX, Ganymede never lets anyone log in without a password. 8. [ADMIN CONSOLE, SERVER] Reworked admin console, server's admin API Fixed the admin console so that it will properly log itself out when it is closed through the window system. In prior versions, the admin console wanted to know the name of the supergash account on the server, so that it could preemptively refuse to perform certain operations.. this really makes no sense at all, and was never needed for security. The admin console now goes ahead and attempts such operations, and depends on the server properly refusing the operations. The install scripts no longer prompt for the supergash account name when installing the UNIX and web clients. Also in previous versions, the server wasn't actually honoring the console permissions checkboxes in the admin persona objects.. any admin persona could log into the server via the admin console, but no one other than supergash could do any control operations. The admin persona console permissions checkboxes now properly control the server's response to admin console operations. Admins other than supergash and monitor will need to log into the server via the admin console using their full persona name.. i.e., 'broccol:GASH Admin'. 9. [DOCUMENTATION] Revised, improved the install guide, added FAQ Significantly revised and enhanced the install guide, corrected some mistakes, included information on the use of installWeb. The text INSTALL file is now a lynx-generated version of the HTML file.. it was too much work and too error-prone trying to maintain both independently. Added a text FAQ file. Will convert this into a nice web version at some point. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jonathan Abbey jonabbey@arlut.utexas.edu Applied Research Laboratories The University of Texas at Austin Ganymede, a free NIS/DNS management system http://www.arlut.utexas.edu/gash2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To make changes to your subscription to the ganymede announcement list, send mail to majordomo@arlut.utexas.edu. To unsubcribe, include the line unsubscribe ganymede-announce in the body of your mail message Visit the Ganymede web page at http://www.arlut.utexas.edu/gash2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------