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author | Sergey Poznyakoff <gray@gnu.org.ua> | 2011-11-05 11:01:37 +0200 |
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committer | Sergey Poznyakoff <gray@gnu.org.ua> | 2011-11-05 11:01:37 +0200 |
commit | 6d9c7d666f83da5d9f69d7e30b138d1a6e2e69da (patch) | |
tree | e040f58b6ae8d3c3a4eba14e9611bcd0809ca4da /NEWS | |
parent | 397d7942197ebc79d3bcb1dd92ab197e3f6aaf2d (diff) | |
download | mailutils-6d9c7d666f83da5d9f69d7e30b138d1a6e2e69da.tar.gz mailutils-6d9c7d666f83da5d9f69d7e30b138d1a6e2e69da.tar.bz2 |
Write NEWS article describing the recent changes.
Diffstat (limited to 'NEWS')
-rw-r--r-- | NEWS | 197 |
1 files changed, 192 insertions, 5 deletions
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -GNU mailutils NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2011-07-27 +GNU mailutils NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2011-11-05 Copyright (C) 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc. See the end of file for copying conditions. @@ -8,10 +8,197 @@ Please send mailutils bug reports to <bug-mailutils@gnu.org>. Version 2.99.93 (Git) -This version is highly experimental. It features a rewrite from -scratch of the stream subsystem and other vital parts of the -framework. No documentation is available so far, please use -`git log' and the sources! +This version is a major rewrite of GNU Mailutils. Quite a few parts +of the basic framework were rewritten from scratch, while some others +undergone a considerable revamping. The user documentation, at the +moment, is insufficient, and in some aspects even scarce. It is being +worked upon. However, most utilities self-document themselves. To +obtain a summary of available configuration statements for a given +program, run `program --config-help'. For additional documentation, +please refer to http://mailutils.org/wiki. If the piece of +documentation you are looking for is not available there, don't +hesitate to post your questions to <bug-mailutils@gnu.org>. + +Due to the global nature of these changes, the rewrite of some parts +of the package is not yet finished, while some others are considered +experimental. Not currently implemented are: + + - imap client + - nntp client + - Tokyocabinet support + +Experimental features are: + + - C++ bindings + - Python bindings + +The discussion below lists the changes in this release. It is divided +in three major sections, each addressing a particular audience. The +section entitles "Important changes" is of particular interest to +users. This is perhaps the most visible part of this release. The +section "Configuration changes" addresses package installers. It +discusses the changes in configure script and related things. +Finally, the section "Changes to the library" is of interest to +programmers which use or wish to use Mailutils in their projects. + +* Important changes + +** IPv6 support. + +The core library as well as client and server utilities support +AF_INET6 family of addresses. + +** Support for POP3S and IMAP4S in the respective servers. + +A single instance of pop3d is able to handle several subservers, +supporting both plain POP3 and encrypted POP3S simultaneously. The +same holds true for imap4d. + +** DBM support reimplemented from scratch. + +The most important result of this change is that Mailutils is now able +to handle databases of different formats (e.g. GDBM, Berkeley DB, +NDBM) simultaneously, without need to reconfigure it. The database +flavor to use is selected at runtime, using `database URL'. For +example, "gdbm:///etc/mail/aliases.db" refers to a GDBM database. + +See http://mailutils.org/wiki/libmu_dbm + +** New utility `mu' + +`Mu' is a multi-purpose tool which can be of use to users, programmers +and system administrators. It allows you to retrieve information +about Mailutils configuration, check ACLs and authentication tickets, +list, create or modify DBM files, construct filters of arbitrary +complexity and many more. + +See http://mailutils.org/wiki/mu + +** Configurable file safety checking + +Some files, such as SSL key files, need particular protection, while +others (e.g. users' forward files) don't require it. Mailutils +configuration allows for configuring what safety checks are required +for each group of files. Files not meeting the configured criteria +are not used to avoid compromising security. + +** Improved debugging and diagnostics + +See http://mailutils.org/wiki/debug_level. + +** Imap4d undergone a lot of changes to comply to existing RFCs + +** Pop3d and imap4d allow for mailbox-independent compulsory locking + +This feature is useful for those system administrators who don't wish +to permit simultaneous access to mailboxes, even when the nature of the +mailbox allows that (e.g. maildir). + +** Sieve: new extensions + +New extension action `pipe' invokes arbitrary external program and +pipes the message (or any part thereof) to it. + +See http://mailutils.org/wiki/Pipe + +A similar test uses the program exit code to decide what to do with +the message + +See http://mailutils.org/wiki/Pipe_test + +New extension test `list' compares values of mail headers from a +supplied list with a list of values. + +See http://mailutils.org/wiki/List_(Sieve_test) + +New extension test `timestamp' compares the value of a structured date +header field with the given date. + +See http://mailutils.org/wiki/Timestamp_(Sieve_test) + +** MH: improved compatibility with other implementations + +** mailutils-config is deprecated. + +Use `mu cflags' and `mu ldflags' instead. The mailutils-config is +rewritten as a wrapper over these commands. + +See http://mailutils.org/wiki/mu for more information. + +** movemail functionality considerably improved + +See http://mailutils.org/wiki/Fetching_Mail_with_Movemail + +* Configuration changes + +These are of particular interest to installers. + +** New configuration options to disable particular groups of utilities. + +The `--enable-build-servers' options controls whether servers (such as +imap4d, pop3d, comsat) will be built. Its counterpart, +`--enable-build-clients' controls whether client utilities will be +built. + +** DBM options + +It is normally not needed to specify --with-gdbm, --with-berkeley-db +or --with-ndbm explicitly. Configuration will automatically pick up +all available DBM libraries it can use. + +The Tokyocabinet support (--with-tokyocabinet) is temporarily not +available. + +** Imap and nntp clients are not yet implemented + +** Experimental features + +The C++ and Python bindings are considered experimental and unstable. + +* Changes to the library + +** Stream support is rewritten from scratch + +Stream support is a cornerstone on which the rest of Mailutils is +built. The new implementation was developed with three main +objectives in mind: reliability, speed and consistency. + +** URL support is rewritten from scratch + +New URL functions allow both for creating URLs from string +representations and for building them from parts. + +** Filter support is rewritten from scratch + +Apart from the implementation itself, lots of new filters are +provided. See http://mailutils.org/wiki/Category:Filters for a +list of those. + +A concept of `filter chains' was introduced, which allows for +creating new filters using existing ones as their components. + +See http://mailutils.org/wiki/Mu#filter, for a description. + +** POP client library is rewritten from scratch + +The new library provides two APIs: a traditional mailbox API which +hides the particularities of the POP protocol, and POP-specific API, +which allows for writing applications directly accessing POP features. + +** SMTP client library is rewritten from scratch + +The new library provides a detailed control over the SMTP +transaction. + +** Support for Maildir and MH formats considerably improved. + +** MIME support improved. + +** Debugging support considerably improved. + +See http://mailutils.org/wiki/debug_level. + +** Configuration file support (libmu_cfg) rewritten. Version 2.2 - 2010-09-08 |