1.HTML "Plan 9 — Third Edition Release Notes 2.TL 3Plan 9 From Bell Labs 4.br 5Third Release Notes 6.br 7June 7, 2000 8.LP 9.sp -.4i 10.nf 11.ce 1000 12Copyright © 2000 Lucent Technologies Inc. 13All Rights Reserved 14.sp .2i 15.fi 16.LP 17The third release of the Plan 9 operating system from Bell Labs 18is something of a snapshot of the current system. 19This differs from the previous, 1995 release, 20which was a more coordinated, well-defined release of an already-out-of-date 21system. 22Also, the previous releases were distributed on fixed media, while this release 23is being done over the web. 24The other major difference is that the third release is licensed under 25an open source agreement, which we hope will encourage people 26to experiment with it. 27.LP 28Beyond that, there are innumerable little changes throughout the code. 29Although superficially it is the same environment, there is hardly an aspect 30of the system that has not been redesigned, rewritten, or replaced. 31The following is an incomplete list of changes. 32.de Xx 33.LP 34\(bu 35.. 36.Xx 37The list of architectures has changed; more compilers are included 38and the list of kernels has changed. 39There is solid support for Intel x86 multiprocessors. 40Also, although the sources are available for 41other architectures, the binaries and libraries are built only for the 42Intel x86 architectures. 43Kernel source is available for x86, Mips, DEC Alpha, and Power PC architectures. 44Compilers also exist for AMD 29000, Motorola MC68000 and MC68020, 45Intel i960, and SPARC. 46(Unlike the the last release, no SPARC kernel exists for the current system.) 47The compilers and related tools 48have been made easier to port to Unix and Windows. 49.Xx 50The kernel now has a file cache to improve I/O performance. 51Other kernel changes include the replacement of the streams interface 52with a simpler, faster, but less flexible I/O queue structure. 53The x86 kernels support PCI and PCMCIA devices. 54.Xx 55Network management has been simplified and generalized. 56DNS supports a resolver mode and the DNS server is now solid. 57DHCP is supported both at the client and server ends. 58The system can handle multiple IP stacks, which are also 59no longer Ethernet-specific. 60.Xx 61The organization of disks in the kernel has been unified, providing 62a consistent interface to all disks and controllers: SCSI or ATAPI, 63magnetic or CD-ROM. 64.Xx 65File offsets, such as in the 66.CW seek 67system call, are now 64-bit values. 68The 1995 release defined the type 69.CW Length 70for the x86 as 71.P1 72typedef union 73{ 74 char clength[8]; 75 vlong vlength; 76 struct 77 { 78 long hlength; 79 long length; 80 }; 81} Length; 82.P2 83which is the wrong byte order. 84Now, for all architectures, 85.CW Length 86is well handled by a 87.CW vlong 88.CW long "" ( 89.CW long ) 90type, although for compatibility it's still held in a union: 91.P1 92typedef union 93{ 94 vlong length; 95} Length; 96.P2 97.Xx 98The kernel now maintains a file name associated with each open file or 99directory, which can be cheaply recovered by the 100.CW fd2path 101system call. 102Plan 9 now does a much better job with 103.CW .. 104(dot-dot). 105On a related note, a description of a process's name space may be 106read with the 107.CW ns 108file in 109.CW /proc , 110or by the 111.CW ns 112command. 113.Xx 114The security model is the same, although 115the key format has changed. 116If you have an old key file, use 117.CW auth/convkeys2 118(see 119.I auth (8)) 120to update it. 121There are new libraries for mulitprecision arithmetic and security. 122.Xx 123The graphics model is very different. 124It is based on the Porter-Duff compositing algebra rather than 125.CW bitblt , 126and the system supports everything from bitmaps to true-color displays. 127Some of the graphics drivers exploit hardware acceleration. 128.Xx 129Coupled to the graphics changes, the image and font file formats have 130changed. 131They can represent a wider range of pixel formats and compress the data. 132Also the white/black sense of value is reversed (zero is now black; pixels 133represent light, not ink). 134Most of the tools can handle the old format, but they all write the new format only. 135.Xx 136The user interface now incorporates plumbing, a language-driven 137way for applications to communicate. See 138.I plumb (6) 139for information. 140.Xx 141Building on plumbing and a program that presents the mail box as a file 142system, Plan 9 now has convenient support for MIME mail messages. 143.Xx 144.CW 8½ 145has been replaced by 146.CW rio , 147which has a similar appearance but a different architecture. 148Although still a file server, it is much more efficient: the kernel driver 149multiplexes graphics output so 150.CW rio 151is not in the display path. 152.CW Rio 153handles input and window control only. 154.Xx 155PC booting is more sophisticated. PCs can now boot Plan 9 directly from 156the disk without running DOS. 157.Xx 158Alef is gone. 159It was deemed too difficult to maintain two sets of compilers and libraries 160for all architectures. 161Alef programs were translated into C, with the help of a new thread library 162that preserves much of Alef's functionality, but none of its syntax. 163.Xx 164Mothra is gone. There is no web browser included in this release, 165but something may well appear before long. 166.Xx 167The 168.CW fb 169(frame buffer) suite is gone. Most of its tools are 170supplanted by new ones, such as 171.CW page , 172.CW jpg , 173and 174.CW togif . 175.Xx 176Also gone from this release are the games and support for 177international input 178.CW ktrans "" ( 179etc.). 180Both may return. 181.Xx 182New things include an implementation of 183.CW ssh , 184an IMAP4 server, 185and some spam-filtering software (see 186.I scanmail (8)). 187.LP 188There's lots more. 189If you have problems, mail 190.CW 9trouble@plan9.bell-labs.com . 191Please don't mail us individually. 192.LP 193Good Luck! 194