[$] Multi-host testing with the pytest-mh framework
The https://pytest-mh.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
project is a plugin that provides a multi-host test framework for the
popular https://pypi.org/project/pytest/
unit-testing framework and test runner. Work on pytest-mh
started in 2023 to solve a multitude of issues that
cropped up for developers and testers when testing the https://sssd.io
project, which is a client for
enterprise identity management. I was not happy with the state of
testing of the SSSD project and wanted to create something that would
increase test readability, remove duplication, eliminate errors, and
provide multi-host testing capabilities, while having the flexibility
to build a new API around it. Finally, I also wanted something that
can be used by anyone to test their projects as well.
Mesa 25.0.0 released
25.0.0 of the Mesa graphics library has been released. "The flashiest addition is probably the support for Vulkan 1.4 by Anv (Intel),
Asahi (Apple), Lavapipe (software), NVK (NVIDIA), PanVK (Mali), RADV (AMD),
and Turnip (Qualcomm).
Users can expect the usual flurry of improvements across all drivers and
components."
Security updates for Monday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (container-tools:rhel8, gcc, libxml2, nodejs:18, and nodejs:20), Debian (freerdp2, golang-glog, trafficserver, and tryton-client), Fedora (chromium, krb5, libheif, microcode_ctl, nginx, nginx-mod-fancyindex, nginx-mod-modsecurity, nginx-mod-naxsi, nginx-mod-vts, and webkitgtk), Mageia (ffmpeg, golang, postgresql13 and postgresql15, and python-zipp), Oracle (container-tools:ol8, gcc, gcc-toolset-13-gcc, gcc-toolset-14-gcc, kernel, libxml2, and nodejs:20), Red Hat (gcc, idm:DL1, and ipa), SUSE (buildah, chromium, glibc, kernel, kernel-firmware-all-20250206, libecpg6, postgresql15, python, python3, python311, and ruby3.4-rubygem-rack), and Ubuntu (intel-microcode).
Security updates for Wednesday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (firefox, kernel, kernel-rt, tbb, and thunderbird), Debian (bind9, cacti, pam-pkcs11, and ruby2.7), Fedora (bind, bind-dyndb-ldap, chromium, crun, and java-21-openjdk), Mageia (calibre, nginx, python-ansible-core, python-jinja2, python-pip, python-setuptools, python-twisted, and python-waitress), Red Hat (doxygen, firefox, gcc, gcc-toolset-13-gcc, gcc-toolset-14-gcc, tbb, and thunderbird), SUSE (go1.24, govulncheck-vulndb, java-1_8_0-openj9, kernel, openssl-3, ovmf, python3-numpy, python311, python36, qemu, and skopeo), and Ubuntu (bluez and openssl).
[$] Rewriting essential Linux packages in Rust
Most Linux systems depend on a suite of core utilities that the https://www.gnu.org/
started development on
decades ago and are, of course, written in C. At https://fosdem.org/2025/
, Sylvestre Ledru
made the case in his
main stage talk that modern systems require safer, more
maintainable tools. Over the past few years, Ledru has led the charge
of rewriting the GNU
Core Utilities (coreutils) in Rust, as the MIT-licensed https://github.com/uutils/
project. The goal is to
offer what he said are more secure, and more performant drop-in
replacements for the tools Linux users depend on. At FOSDEM, Ledru
announced that the uutils project is setting its sights even
higher.
Kernel prepatch 6.14-rc2
The https://lwn.net/Articles/1008692/
is out for
testing.
It's Sunday afternoon, and I'm releasing the usual regularly
scheduled release candidate while the rest of the US is getting
ready for the biggest day in TV commercials interrupted by some
kind of lawn bowling tournament.
[$] Improved load-time checking for BPF kfuncs
The https://lwn.net/Articles/982077/
is charged with the
challenging task of ensuring that a BPF program is safe for the kernel to
run before that program is loaded. Among many other concerns, the verifier
must ensure that any kfuncs (kernel functions that have been exported to
BPF programs) are called with the correct parameters and from the right
context. The "context" part of that enforcement is showing its age in ways
that are hurting performance; Juntong Deng has been working on
infrastructure to provide finer-grained control over when a kfunc can be
called.
Security updates for Friday
Security updates have been issued by Debian (openjdk-17), Fedora (firefox, FlightGear, java-1.8.0-openjdk, java-11-openjdk, java-latest-openjdk, and SimGear), Mageia (gstreamer), Red Hat (firefox, kernel, kernel-rt, libsoup, and python-jinja2), SUSE (bind, curl, dcmtk, etcd, firefox, google-osconfig-agent, krb5, openssl-1_1, podman, python311-cbor2, thunderbird, wget, and xrdp), and Ubuntu (glibc).
OpenInfra board calls for input on joining Linux Foundation
Jonathan Bryce has https://lists.openinfra.org/archives/list/foundation@lists.openinfra.org/thread/3B7OWPRXB4KD2DVX7SYYSHYYRNCKVV46/
two open community meetings to hear
input on the topic of the OpenInfra
Foundation migrating to the Linux Foundation. Bryce
wrote that the OpenInfra board has carefully evaluated its options,
and sees joining the Linux Foundation as the best way forward.
Like the Linux Foundation, the OpenInfra Foundation is 501(c)(3)
nonprofit. According to the https://board.openinfra.org/strategic-consideration/faq
,
OpenInfra "is in great health, financially and otherwise" with
a growth in membership of about 15% in the last year. However, its
needs in 2025 are different than when it was founded as the OpenStack
Foundation in 2012.
While the opportunities ahead for open source to make a positive
impact on the world are greater than they have ever been, the
challenges are more significant as well, particularly with respect to
regulations, licensing and geopolitical tensions that threaten global
collaboration.
The meetings will be held on February 11 and February 13 as
Zoom calls. The OpenInfra board will schedule a vote after feedback
has been collected and draft governance documents have been
published.
LibreOffice 25.2 released
Version 25.2 of the LibreOffice productivity suite is out. Changes include
the ability to remove all personal information from any document, support
for ODF version 1.4, a number of accessibility improvements, and more;
see the
release notes for details.
OpenWrt 24.10.0 released
24.10.0 of the OpenWrt router-oriented distribution has been released.
Changes include an update to the 6.6 kernel, use of access control lists on
larger systems, multipath TCP support, better WiFi6 support, the
beginning of WiFi7 support, and more.
[$] The selfish contributor revisited
Open source is often described as a "gift economy"—an
ecosystem where contributors are motivated by a desire to make the
world a better place. That is, sometimes, true. However, James
Bottomley used his main
track slot at https://fosdem.org/2025/
,
on February 1, to make the case that it is better to bank on the
selfish motivations of individuals to drive community success than to
rely on their altruism.
Security updates for Thursday
Security updates have been issued by Debian (asterisk and chromium), Fedora (FlightGear, java-1.8.0-openjdk, java-11-openjdk, java-17-openjdk, java-latest-openjdk, and SimGear), Mageia (bind, chromium-browser-stable, python-django, and vim), Oracle (buildah, bzip2, firefox, keepalived, mariadb:10.11, and podman), Slackware (curl, mariadb, and mozilla), SUSE (cargo-audit-advisory-db-20250204 and python311-scikit-learn), and Ubuntu (ckeditor, krb5, and ruby2.7).
[$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for February 6, 2025
Inside this week's LWN.net Weekly Edition:
https://lwn.net/Articles/1007000/
: Finding concurrency bugs with sched_ext; Rust abstractions; 6.14 Merge window; Sealed system mappings; OpenSUSE board; Julia; Site tour.
https://lwn.net/Articles/1007002/
: Binutils 2.44; Firefox 135.0; Freedesktop GitLab; GNU C Library 2.41; GTK; Servo; Thunderbird updates; Sanctions; Quotes; ...
https://lwn.net/Articles/1007003/
: Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more.
Servo in 2024: stats, features and donations
Rust-based rendering
engine project has https://servo.org/blog/2025/01/31/servo-in-2024/
an article summarizing its progress in 2024, and plans for the
future:
Servo main dependencies (SpiderMonkey, Stylo and WebRender) have been
upgraded, the new layout engine has kept evolving adding support for
floats, tables, flexbox, fonts, etc. By the end of 2024 Servo passes 1,515,229 WPT subtests (79%). Many other new features have been under
active development: WebGPU, Shadow DOM, ReadableStream, WebXR, ... Servo
now supports two new platforms: Android and OpenHarmony. And we have
got the first experiments of applications using Servo as a web engine
(like https://servo.org/blog/2024/01/19/embedding-update/
,
https://github.com/DioxusLabs/blitz
,
https://github.com/mcclure/cuervo/tree/unstable_traversal_experiment
,
https://github.com/versotile-org/verso/
).
LWN site tour 2025
Over the past year or so, LWN has added a number of useful new
features for our subscribers to enhance the experience of reading and
commenting on our content. Those features are of little use, however,
to readers who do not know about them. It has been more than a decade
since we last provided a
tour of the site—it seems that another is in
order. Walk this way for a look at the LWN kernel source database (KSDB),
enhanced commenting features, EPUB downloads, and more.
[$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for August 15, 2024
The LWN.net Weekly Edition for August 15, 2024 is available.
Kernel prepatch 6.7-rc6
Linus has released https://lwn.net/Articles/955484/
for testing.
" Please do give this a test in between the last-minute xmas shopping or
whatever else is going on ..."
Saturday's stable kernel updates
The
https://lwn.net/Articles/945378/
,
https://lwn.net/Articles/945379/
,
https://lwn.net/Articles/945380/
,
https://lwn.net/Articles/945381/
,
https://lwn.net/Articles/945382/
,
https://lwn.net/Articles/945383/
, and
https://lwn.net/Articles/945384/
stable kernel updates have all been released; each contains another set of
important fixes.
[$] The European Cyber Resilience Act
The security of digital products has become a topic of regulation
in recent years. Currently, the European Union is moving forward
with another new law, which, if it comes into effect in a form
close to the current draft, will affect software developers worldwide.
This new proposal, called the "Cyber
Resilience Act" (CRA), brings mandatory security requirements on all
digital products, both software
and hardware, that are available in Europe. While it aims at a worthy goal, the
proposal is causing a stir among open-source communities.