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libc 2.1 for hurd



GNU libc development has made a stable release branch for version 2.1.x
and the main development branch is now progressing towards glibc-2.2.

If you are following the libc CVS repository on sourceware.cygnus.com,
use the branch tag `glibc-2-1-branch' to get the stable 2.1 branch.
The trunk of the repository is now the 2.2 development.

For the near to medium-term future, Debian/Hurd will use the stable 2.1
version.  That's what we'll make the Debian packages from, and that's what
I am now building and debugging at home.  

Unless you want to be actively engaged in Hurd libc development for 2.2
(i.e. unless you are Mark Kettenis ;-), you should use the 2.1 branch.
Mark and I will make sure that any Hurd fixes get propagated into both
branches.  

If there are people interested in tracking the 2.2 development version and
testing it on the Hurd to make sure we are keeping it up to date, that
would be useful.  But that is the bloodiest part of the bleeding
edge, and you should be prepared to be injured.  The experienced Hurd
hackers have limited time to devote to investigating bugs, and in for the
time being anything that shows up only with libc-2.2 and not libc-2.1 will
be a lower priority than keeping things stable in the stable version.  If
you want to mess with libc-2.2, expect to do the debugging yourself (and
we'd love for you to do it!); if you are not prepared to do that, then
there is probably a better way for you to contribute to the Hurd than
worrying about libc.  For the foreseeable future, I don't think we want
anyone compiling Debian packages against libc-2.2 for upload (build them to
test it, but don't build them to upload).

Depending on how long 2.2 development continues before release, and how
long future Hurd-specific work takes, libc-2.2 may eventually contain major
Hurd changes like a pthreads implementation and/or structural
rearrangements of the Hurd core.  It's hard to tell yet how major a shift
libc-2.2 will turn out to be, and how long it will be before that all comes
to pass.  (Those things might not happen until libc-2.3 or something.)


Enjoy,
Roland


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