release_notes.sdml

<FRONT_MATTER>

<TITLE_PAGE>
<TITLE>(NETLIB Release Notes)
<ABSTRACT>(<REFERENCE>(RELMONTH))
<P>This file contains the release notes for the NETLIB TCP/IP interface
library.  It describes any last-minute features, restrictions, changes, or
additions made to NETLIB.
<ENDABSTRACT>
<REVISION_INFO>(This is a revised manual.)
<REVISION_INFO>(Operating System and Version:\VAX/VMS V5.5 or later;
    	    	OpenVMS Alpha V6.2 or later)
<REVISION_INFO>(Software Version:\<REFERENCE>(VER))
<ENDTITLE_PAGE>(Endless Software Solutions<LINE>Perth, Western Australia)

<COPYRIGHT_PAGE>
<PRINT_DATE>(<REFERENCE>(PRTDATE))
<p><emphasis>(DISCLAIMER:\bold)   The author, the author's employer,
    and MadGoat Software make no representations or warranties with
    respect to the  contents hereof and specifically disclaim any
    implied warranties of merchantability or fitness  for any particular purpose.
<P>AXP, DEC, ULTRIX, VAX, VMS, and OpenVMS are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation.
<P>UNIX is a trademark of Unix System Laboratories, Inc.
<P>MultiNet and TCPware are registered trademarks of Process Software Corporation.
<P>PathWay is a registered trademark of Attachmate, Inc.
<COPYRIGHT_DATE>(<REFERENCE>(COPYYEAR)\MadGoat Software.  All Rights Reserved.)
<ENDCOPYRIGHT_PAGE>
<CONTENTS_FILE>
<ENDFRONT_MATTER>

<chapter>(Update History)
<P>This chapter describes the NETLIB update history.
<head1>(Updates in <REFERENCE>(ver))
<P><REFERENCE>(VER) is a maintenance release that includes the following
fixes:
<LIST>(UNNUMBERED)
<LE>The fix to NETLIB_STRTOADDR provided in V2.3C introduced another
problem, which has been corrected.
<LE>The retry count for DNS queries was not being initialized on a
per-nameserver basis.
<ENDLIST>

<head1>(Updates in V2.3C)
<P>V2.3C was a maintenance release that included the following
fixes:
<LIST>(UNNUMBERED)
<LE>NETLIB_STRTOADDR would successfully
translate strings containing a dotted-decimal address followed by extra characters;
these are now rejected.
<LE>A new logical name, NETLIB_DNS_QUERY_TIMEOUT, is now supported
for specifying the length of time NETLIB will wait for a DNS query to
time out.  This is to work around timeout problems that can occur when
a system's designated DNS servers are not local and respond too slowly
for the default timeout.  The logical name may be defined in the process,
job, group, or system logical name table, and should have a translation string
that is a valid VMS delta time (e.g., <quote>(0 00:00:15)).  In addition the
default DNS query timeout has been raised to 10 seconds from its original
5 seconds in previous versions.
<ENDLIST>

<head1>(Updates in V2.3B)
<P>V2.3B fixed the returned-length argument to NETLIB_READLINE so that
it returns the actual number of characters copied to the returned string, rather than
the length of the line read from the TCP connection (which could be greater than
the number of bytes copied if the descriptor for the string is fixed-length).

<head1>(Updates in V2.3A)
<P>V2.3A changed the installation procedure for NETLIB,
installing executable images, rather than linking the images at
installation time.
<P>In addition, V2.3A contained changes to the DNS_QUERY
and DNS_MXLOOK routines to improve their handling of DNS error
reply codes.

<head1>(Updates in V2.2G)
<P>V2.2G is a maintenance release that includes
the following fixes:
<LIST>(UNNUMBERED)
<LE>Added more armor-plating in routines that could be executed
at both AST and non-AST level and touch shared data structures.
<LE>Updated NETLIB_SRI.C to prevent conflicts with new VMS IO$_XXX
definitions.
<LE>Fixed the Bookreader library definition so that the appropriate
text shows up in its display.
<ENDLIST>

<HEAD1>(Updates in V2.2F)
<P>V2.2F is a maintenance release which adds support
for Digital TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS V5.0 and includes the
following fixes:
<LIST>(UNNUMBERED)
<LE>NETLIB_DNS_EXPANDNAME has been fixed to properly expand the root
    domain.
<LE>NETLIB_DNS_MXLOOK has been changed to ignore MX records that
    point to the root domain.
<LE>The NETLIB_USER_INSTALL.COM procedure has been updated to include
    the correct linker option files when linking NETLIB images, so that
    the image identification and global section match information are
    correct.
<ENDLIST>
<HEAD1>(Updates in V2.2E)
<P><REFERENCE>(VER) is a maintenance release which fixes a
problem with the NETLIB_ADDRESS_TO_NAME call on TCPware systems.
<HEAD1>(Updates in V2.2D)
<P>NETLIB V2.2D was a maintenance release which fixes a problem
in the interpretation of DNS return codes in the NETLIB_DNS_MX_LOOKUP
routine.
<HEAD1>(Updates in V2.2C)
<P>NETLIB V2.2C was a maintenance release which included
a fix for an access violation that would occur in the
implementation of NETLIB_NAME_TO_ADDRESS for CMU TCP/IP.
<HEAD1>(Updates in V2.2B)
<LIST>(UNNUMBERED)
<LE>The TCP/IP package check has been refined to deal with
    the presence of an INET0 device in recent versions of
    Digital's TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS.
<LE>The installation procedure now performs a version check
and asks for confirmation before installing an upgrade or
downgrade to the currently installed version.
<LE>On systems running PathWay, NETLIB_GET_HOSTNAME will now
automatically attach the domain name (from the INET_DOMAIN_NAME
logical name) to the host name (from the gethostname() socket
library call) if it does not already contain a dot.
<ENDLIST>
<HEAD1>(Updates in V2.2A)
<P>NETLIB V2.2A included the following change:
<list>(unnumbered)
<le>NETLIB_ADDRESS_TO_NAME has been changed to work around
    a bug in TCPware's UCX $QIO interface.  The bug caused
    all address-to-name lookups to fail with an ENDOFFILE
    status.
<endlist>
<head1>(Updates in V2.2)
<P>The following changes were included in V2.2:
<list>(unnumbered)
<le>A new flag, NETLIB_M_FLUSH, has been added to the
NETLIB_READLINE routine, to provide a way of getting at any
data that may have been buffered by the NETLIB_READLINE
routine.  Use this flag when you want to use both NETLIB_READLINE
and NETLIB_READ on the same TCP input stream.  For more information,
see the description of NETLIB_READLINE in the documentation.
<le>A new routine, NETLIB_VERSION, has been added, to allow for
dynamic retrieval of the current version of NETLIB you have installed
on the system.
<le>The <quote>(relaxed) form of NETLIB_READLINE (using the
NETLIB_M_ALLOW_LF flag) has been further relaxed to better handle
lines terminated with bare linefeeds.
<ENDLIST>
<HEAD1>(Updates in V2.1B)
<p>The following change was included in V2.1B:
<list>(unnumbered)
<le>A bug in the processing of status codes was inadvertently
introduced in the V2.1A changes, affecting UCX systems only,
that would lead to incorrect status reports and potentially
to application failures.
<endlist>
<head1>(Updates in V2.1A)
<p>The following changes were included in V2.1A:
<list>(unnumbered)
<le>NETLIB's DNS resolver code would not properly initialize
on systems running PathWay.  This has been fixed.
<le>Some potential race conditions were eliminated.
<le>If NETLIB_CLOSE was called on a socket that had a pending
timed I/O, the completion I/O status was mistakenly reported
as SS$_TIMEOUT instead of SS$_CANCEL.  Only genuine timeouts
are now reported as SS$_TIMEOUT.
<endlist>
<head1>(Updates in V2.1)
<p>NETLIB V2.1 included the following changes from previous
releases:
<list>(unnumbered)
<le>The TCPware library now uses UCX emulation instead of
SRI emulation.  If you developed a server with NETLIB that
is started by TCPware's <quote>(master) server, you should
use NETCU to change the protocol type from STREAM or DGRAM
to BG_TCP or BG_UDP.
<le>The NETLIB_STARTUP.COM procedure has been enhanced to
automatically install all available NETLIB_*_SHR images, and
to automatically define NETLIB_SHR at startup time based on
which TCP/IP package is running.  The startup procedure now
also automatically adds the NETLIB documentation directory
to the DECwindows Bookreader search list logical name.
<le>There was a bug in the V2.0 DNS resolver code in the
creation of the list of domains used for searching the DNS,
causing it to pad expanded names with nulls.  This has been
fixed.
<endlist>

<chapter>(Known Bugs, Restrictions)
<P>
There are no known bugs in NETLIB.  Known restrictions are documented
in the programmer's guide.