Preparing for NuttX-7.6 Release

1 files changed, 375 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/nuttx/ReleaseNotes b/nuttx/ReleaseNotes
index dc63e2450..d21b1f597 100644
--- a/nuttx/ReleaseNotes
+++ b/nuttx/ReleaseNotes
@@ -7360,3 +7360,378 @@ Bugfixes.  Only the most critical bugfixes are listed here (see the ChangeLog fo
       - Null Example:  Need to include config.h it order know if this is or
         is not a kernel build.  This problem still exists in several other
         file that may need to define main().
+
+NuttX-7.6
+---------
+
+The 106th release of NuttX, Version 7.6, was made on November 26, 2014,
+and is available for download from the SourceForge website.  Note
+that release consists of two tarballs:  nuttx-7.5.tar.gz and
+apps-7.5.tar.gz.  Both may be needed (see the top-level nuttx/README.txt
+file for build information).
+
+Additional new features and extended functionality:
+
+    * Core OS:
+
+      - Moved name semaphore and message queue support out of the OS and
+        into the VFS.  These improves the architecture by unifying the
+        management of named resources, removes redundant resource management
+        logic, and makes named semaphores and message queues  visible in the
+        file system.  By default, these are visible at /var/lock and
+        /var/mqueue.
+      - Add SIGPOLL for use as part of the AIO implementation.
+      - Remove CONFIG_MAX_TASK_ARGS configuration.  There is now no
+        predetermined limit on the number of arguments that may be passed
+        to a new task on start-up.
+
+    * Work queues
+
+      - Add support for priority inheritance on the low priority worker
+        queue.  That is, if a higher priority thread has scheduled work, the
+        priority of the low priority worker thread(s) will be boost to the
+        priority of the queuing thread.  At work is performed at at least
+        thread priority of the scheduling thread.  If there are multiple
+        worker threads, then all threads get reprioritized.  Currently
+        only implemented for AIO.
+      - Add support for multiple low-priority work queue threads.  This
+        allows individual worker threads to block indefinitely for I/O as
+        necessary without halting the entire work queue.
+
+    * VFS/General Drivers:
+
+      - Implement create() (as a macro).
+      - Add pread() and pwrite().   Also added pread() and pwrite()
+        system calls.
+      - AIO: Add aio_read(), aio_write(), aio_return(), aio_error(),
+        aio_suspend(), aio_canel(), lio_listio(), and aio_fsync().  This
+        logic minimizes the creation of new threads by using the new
+        features also added to the low priority work queue with this
+        release.  It uses the new low priority worker thread interface
+        to adjust the priority of the worker thread according to the 
+        priority of the AIO client thread
+      - Implement standard syslogmask() to control logging (also removing
+        the non-standard syslog_enable()).
+
+    * File Systems/Block Drivers/MTD:
+
+      - Extend MTD support to the M25P16. From Sébastien Lorquet.
+
+    * Drivers:
+
+      - BCH (Block-to-Charchter): Add support for seeking in BCH.  From
+        Sébastien Lorquet.
+
+    * Graphics Support/Graphics-Related Drivers:
+
+      - Add support for a generic ILI9341 LCD driver.  From Marco Krahl.
+      - Add ANSI/VT100 foreground and background color commands.
+      - Add driver for ST7565 LCD that works with NHD-C12864KGZ display.  From Pierre-noel Bouteville.
+
+    * Networking:
+
+      - Verify that multiple networks can be supported.
+      - Add support for the case where there are multiple networks:  One
+        being Ethernet and the other not (SLIP, PPP, ...).  The primary
+        difference from the standpoint of the stack is that (1) ARP may or
+        may not be necessary, (2) the size of the link layer header will
+        vary, and (3) different MTUs and TCP receive windows may be used
+        with each link.  Suggested by Brennan Ashton.
+      - Extensions to UDP and TCP connection structures for the case of
+        multiple networks.  In this case, assigned port numbers only have to
+        be unique with respect to the IP address.  So, for example, you
+        could have multiple port 80's, one on each network.
+
+    * Host Simulation:
+
+      - Removed the old, strange up_stdio.c and implemented a simulated UART
+        driver to provide the console input.  The new logic starts a
+        separate, Linux domain pthread to read the console input in raw mode
+        and provides the incoming data to NuttX via standard NuttX domain
+        IPCs.
+      - Add support for 64-bit longjmp/setjmp in simulator platform.  This
+        will permit operation of the simulation natively on a 64-bit
+        platform.
+
+    * ARMv7-M:
+
+      - Add ARMv7-M CMSIS ITM header file and library.  From Pierre-noel
+        Bouteville.
+      - Add ARMv7-M CMSIS DWT and TPI header files. From Pierre-noel
+        Bouteville.
+      - Add ARMv7.M support to use ITM for SYSLOG debug output. Includes
+        logic from Pierre-noel Bouteville.
+
+    * Atmel SAM3/4 Drivers:
+
+      - Add support for SAM3/4 basic serial TERMIOS and flow control.
+        There are issues with IFLOW control: PDC or DMAC support is
+        required.
+
+    * Atmel SAM3/4 Boards:
+
+      - SAM4E-EK: Add support for PHY interrupt.
+
+    * Atmel SAMA5D Boards:
+
+      - SAMA5D3-Xplained:  Add a configuration that provides a simple test
+        for the EMAC and GMAC on the SAMA5D3 working together.
+      - SAMA5D4-EK:  Add a configuration that provides a simple test for th
+        EMAC0 and EMAC1 on the SAMA5D4 working together.
+
+    * Freescale KL:
+
+      - Add an I2C header file for the Freescale KL family.  From Alan
+        Carvalho de Assis.
+
+    * NXP LPC32xx.
+
+      - Add support for tickless operation using the NXP LPC43xx.  From
+        Brandon Warhurst.
+
+    * SiLabs EFM32:
+
+      - Add a basic port for the SiLabs EFM32 family.  Includes many files
+        contributed by Pierre-noel Bouteville .
+
+    * SiLabs EFM32 Boards:
+
+      - Add board support for the EFM32 Gecko Starter Kit.
+      - Add board support for the Olimex EFM32G8809128 STK.  NOTE: I am
+        unable to test this configuration due to tool-related issues.
+      - Add board support for the SiLbas EFM32GG Giant Gecko Starter kit.
+
+    * STMicro STM32:
+
+      - Add support for the STM32 F411RE from Serg Podtynnyi.
+      - Add support for the STM32F103RG.  From Murilo Ponte.
+
+    * STMicro STM32 Drivers:
+
+      - STM32 F4:  Add logic that implement true high speed support for the
+        STM32 OTGHS peripheral and concurrent support for both LS and HS
+        OTG.  New OTGHS drivers provided for both device and host. From
+        Brennan Ashton.
+
+    * STMicro STM32 Boards:
+
+      - STM32 Nucleo-F411RE: Extend this board configuration to also support
+        the Nucleo-F411RE.  From Serg Podtynnyi.
+      - Add support for the STM32F429i Discovery's LCD (SPI based).  From
+        Marco Krahl.
+      - configs/stm32f100rc_generic:  Removed this generic board configuration.
+        I have decided to stop support of generic board configurations.  Generic
+        board configurations do not provide support for any specific hardware
+        but can be useful only if there are not other examples for the setup
+        for a particular architecture. Not the case here.
+
+    * C Library:
+
+      - Add a mostly bogus wchar.h header file.  This file is mostly bogus
+        because none of the wide character operations are currently
+        supported in the Nuttx C library.  The file does provide the wchar_t
+        types needed by some software, however.
+      - Add isatty() function. From  Alan Carvalho de Assis.
+      - Add mktemp(), mkstemp(), tmpnam() and tempnam().
+
+    * Configuration/Build System:
+
+      - Add a PRELINK macro to Config.mk.  From Kriegleder.
+      - compiler.h:  Defines inline functions as not instrumented - this is
+        relevant for anyone using instrumentation.  From Lorenz Meier.
+
+    * Applications:
+
+      - apps/interpreter/bas:  Added in the Michael Haardt's BAS 2.4 adapted
+        for use by NuttX by Alan Carvalho de Assis.   Includes support for
+        VT100 terminals and color commands.
+      - Examples:  Added bastest/ which holds a special version of Michael
+        Haardt's BAS 2.4 test files adapted for use by NuttX on a ROMFS file
+        system.
+      - Examples:  Add a simple UDP relay bridge for testing configurations
+        with multiple networks.  Includes a host-side test driver for
+        testing the bridge.
+      - Netutils: Add implementation of timeouts for the netutils webclient.
+        From Brennan Ashton
+      - NSH: Add support for a custom NSH ROMFS startup image header file
+        location.  From Martin Lederhilger.
+      - OS test:  Add a simple test of named semaphores.
+      - OS test:  Add AIO test case in OS test.
+
+Efforts In Progress.  The following are features that are partially
+implemented but present in this release.  They are not likely to be
+completed soon.
+
+    * Processes.  Much of the work in this release is focused on the
+      realization of Unix-style user processes in NuttX.  There is more to
+      be done, however.  The full roadmap and status is available at:
+      http://www.nuttx.org/doku.php?id=wiki:nxinternal:memconfigs#the_roadmap_toward_processes
+
+    * XMega:  There are some fragments in place for an XMega port.  That
+      port has not really started, however.
+
+    * Galileo:  Similarly, there are fragments in place for an Intel Galileo
+      port.  The port not been started in earnest either.
+
+Bugfixes.  Only the most critical bugfixes are listed here (see the
+ChangeLog for the complete list of bugfixes and for additional, more
+detailed bugfix information):
+
+I ran cppcheck against the entire code base and correct many latent bugs
+including things as serious as memory leaks,  two locations where interrupts
+were be disabled but never re-enabled, and errors in the Tickless mode of
+operation.  My thanks to the developers of cppcheck!  I am impressed!
+
+    * Core OS:
+
+      - vfork():  Now that arguments are kept on the stack, the way that
+        arguments are passed from parent to child in vfork() must change.
+        This bug has always been present, but was not visible with the
+        old strdup() way of passing arguments.
+      - vfork() problem: If we get to vfork() via system call, then we 
+        eed to clone some system call information so that the return form
+        the cloned system call works correctly.
+      - Fixes to tickless operation code, especially in alarm mode.  From
+        Brandon Warhurst.
+      - Fix an important bug in the watchdog timer creation logic.
+      - Calling mq_timedreceived() with immediate timeout was getting stuck
+        and not timing out. Immediate timeout is achieved by setting absolute
+        timeout value to past time, for example abstime={ .tv_sec=0,
+        .tv_nsec=0 }. However absolute time was converted to relative time
+        using unsigned integer arithmetic and resulted large ticks count by
+        clock_abstime2ticks, instead of expected negative ticks value.
+        Change corrects clock_abstime2ticks() to return negative ticks, if
+        absolute time is in the past.  From Jussi Kivilinna.
+
+    * Memory Management:
+
+      - Fix a place in the memory manager where it explicitly assumed that
+        the size of a pointer is 4 bytes.  That assumption was OK if the
+        actual size is smaller but made the heap unstable when used with
+        the x86_64 host simulation.
+      - Granule Allocator:  If the INTR granule allocator mode is enabled,
+        there is no semaphore to destroy.  From Lorenz Meier.
+
+    * Networking:
+
+      - Network routing:  I don't think that the net_route() function has
+        ever worked correctly.  The source IP was updated in the match
+        struct instead of the route IP.  From Brennan Ashton.
+      - Move and rename IP header flag definitions.  The problem fixed here
+        is that there IP header flag definitions were not available when TCP
+        was disabled.  The IP flags are used in ICMP and IGMP.
+      - Network routing:  Refuse to perform routing table lookups for the
+        Broadcast IP address.  From Brennan Ashton.
+      - Network routing:  Add logic to netdev_findbyaddr() to return the
+        correct network device for the case where a broadcast
+        address is used.  This change caused trivial ripples through other
+        files because additional parameters are required for
+        netdev_findbyaddr() when CONFIG_NET_MULTINIC.
+
+    * File Systems/Block Drivers/MTD:
+
+      - NXFFS Dump: Fix problems with redefinitions of fdbg macro.  With the
+        fix to the syslog prototype, a LOG priority must now be the first
+        parameter.  Fixed by replacing all occurrences of fdbg with
+        syslog(LOG_DEBUG, and eliminating the macro redefinitions.  Noted
+        by Sebastien Lorquet.
+      - poll() was not waking up from signals (for example mq_notify()
+        events).  From Jussi Kivilinna.
+      - poll():  Add proper handling for sem_timedwait errnos.  From Jussi
+        Kivilinna.
+      - include/nuttx/fs/fs.h: Fix typo in conditional compilation.  From
+        Alan Carvalho de Assis.
+
+    * Graphics/Graphic-Related Drivers:
+
+      - Remove warnings when CONFIG_NXTK_BORDERWIDTH is set to zero.  From
+        Pierre-Noel Bouteville.
+
+    * Common Drivers:
+
+      - Make standard syslog and vsyslog POSIX compliant (also modify
+        non-standard syslog functions for compatibility).
+      - R/W buffering: Fix typo that can cause compilation error.
+
+    * Atmel SAM3/4:
+
+      - SAM4S: Add missing SPI0 clock configuration macro for the SAM4S.  From spasbyspas.
+
+    * Atmel SAM3/4 Drivers:
+
+      - SAM4E-EK: Fix an error in a USART1 pin number.
+
+    * Atmel SAMA5D3/4 Drivers:
+
+      - SAMA5DF4: Fix several typos that will prevented EMAC1 from
+        initializing properly.
+
+    * NXP LPC43xx:
+
+      - Fixes to allow compile of lpc43_gpioint.c.  From Brandon Warhurst.
+
+    * STMicro STM32:
+
+      - Add missing ADC pinmap definitions for the STM32 F103R from Martin
+        Lederhilger.
+
+    * STMicro STM32 Drivers:
+
+      - STM32 EXTI: Correct STM32 RTC EXTI bit definition.  From Lazlo.
+      - STM32 IWDG, WWDG, DBGMCU: Fix watchdog stop bit usage.  From Lazlo.
+      - STM32 OTGFS: Correct a typo in the STM32 OTGFS register bit definitions.
+
+    * ARM:
+
+      - ARM up_internal.h: Add protection from C++ name mangling in the
+        ARM up_internal.h.  From Lorenz Meier.
+
+    * MicroChip PIC32MX
+
+      - PIC32MX7: DEVCFG0 bit 2 must be set.  Writing bit 2 as zero can
+        brick the CPU on some versions.  From Cris Kvist.
+
+    * C Library:
+
+      - The implementation of access() as vararg macro has the issue that
+        any function call with the same name (even in a C++ class) will
+        match with it and result in a compile error.  Replaced with a small
+        function. This resolves the compile issue, and shouldn’t have
+        negative side effects for users of the function. From Lorenz Meier.
+      - The definition of strncpy() is that empty space should be zero-
+        filled, the change adds the zero filling (See the POSIX spec here:
+        http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/7908799/xsh/strncpy.html). From
+        Lorenz Meier.
+      - limits.h:  Remove the definition of INT_FAST32_MIN which is already
+        defined in stdint.h (the correct location).  From Lorenz Meier.
+
+    * Applications:
+
+      - apps/: Correct everything under apps to use the corrected syslog
+        interfaces.  Remove any non-portable uses of syslog.
+      - NSH: Fix ls -l output for regular files.
+      - NSH: Fix reversed in/out file closing in DD command when an error
+        occurs.  From Ken Pettit.
+      - NSH:  Add logic to restart the console wait if an error occurs
+        while reading from the console.  In USB console startup, the logi
+        must be able to open the USB serial and receive 3 newlines.
+        However, it the USB driver is disconnected or otherwise fails before
+        the 3 newlines are received, the receive loop becomes a killer,
+        infinite loop, CPU hog.  Noted by spasbyspas.
+      - Netutils: Fix memcpy of host address in netlib_gethostaddr().  From
+        Brennan Ashton.
+      - Netutils:  If you make a DNS request before the DNS address it would
+        cause an assertion. The state of the IP setting is not something the
+        application should be aware of, it should only be concerned with
+        whether or not the name was resolved.  From Brennan Ashton.
+      - Netutils: Fix md5 hashing when digest[$i] islower that 16. From
+        Sergey.
+      - Stack Monitor: Fix compile problems introduced when the syslog()
+        prototype changed; Also update Makefile for kernel build From
+        Radoslaw Adamczyk.
+      - Examples: Update NxTerm makefile for kernel-build issues. From
+        Radoslaw Adamczyk.
+      - Examples: Fixes to keypadtest from Pierre-Noel Bouteville.
+      - Examples: These examples all set the IP address of eth1 but the
+        netmask and gateway of eth0 if DHCP is enabled:  discover, tcpecho,
+        webserver, xmlrpc. That can't be right.