Gentoo Weekly Newsletter - Volume 3, Issue 23

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Gentoo Weekly Newsletter
http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/current.xml
This is the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for the week of May 31st, 2004.
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==============
1. Gentoo News
==============
  
Introducing app-admin/wasabi, a log-monitoring tool
---------------------------------------------------
  
We're very pleased to announce the public release of Wasabi[1], a log 
file-monitoring tool that infrastructure dev Andrea Barisani[2] wrote to 
replace oak. Wasabi watches a log file for lines matching a user-defined 
regular expressions and reports on the matches, sending an email as soon 
as an associated line is found, or reporting periodically. The source is 
available here[3], and an unstable ebuild has been committed into the 
portage tree. Documentation is available here[4]. Feedback, bug reports, 
and feature requests should be sent to bugs.gentoo.org[5]. 

 1. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/infrastructure/wasabi
 2. lcars@gentoo.org
 3. http://dev.gentoo.org/~lcars/wasabi/
 4. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/infrastructure/wasabi/
 5. http://bugs.gentoo.org/
    
Some GLEP news
--------------
  
This week saw the submisison of one GLEP as well as a major revision to 
another. First, GLEP editor Grant Goodyear[6] submitted GLEP 28[7], which 
proposes to mark Draft GLEPs that have been inactive for more than 60 days 
and Accepted GLEPs that have been inactive for over six monhts as 
inactive. This is intended to keep inactive GLEPs from lingering in a 
limbo state and help the GLEP editors keep track of how each GLEP is 
doing. 

 6. g2boojum@gentoo.org
 7. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glep/glep-0028.html
 
Grant also reworked GLEP 22[8] this week. This GLEP concerns changes to 
the keyword designed to facilitate the mixing and matching of hardware 
architectures, userland toolsets, C libraries, and kernels. The original 
idea, brought up by Daniel Robbins[9], was to have compound keywords like 
gnu/x86 and macos/ppc. This, however, didn't cover the full range of 
possibilities, and in further discussion the developers decided to embrace 
the combinatorial explosion instead of avoiding it. Thus, GLEP 22 proposes 
a system where keywords would have 4 parts, corresponding to the possible 
architecture, userland, libc, and kernel choices, resulting in something 
like five hundred possible keywords. 

 8. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glep/glep-0028.html
 9. drobbins@gentoo.org
    
==================
2. Gentoo Security
==================
  
tla: Multiple vulnerabilities in included libneon
-------------------------------------------------
  
tla includes a vulnerable version of the neon library. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[10] 

 10. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200405-25.xml
    
Ethereal: Multiple security problems
------------------------------------
  
Multiple vulnerabilities including one buffer overflow exist in Ethereal, 
which may allow an attacker to run arbitrary code or crash the program. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[11] 

 11. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200406-01.xml
    
tripwire: Format string vulnerability
-------------------------------------
  
A vulnerability allowing arbitrary code execution under certain 
circumstances has been found. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[12] 

 12. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200406-02.xml
    
sitecopy: Multiple vulnerabilities in included libneon
------------------------------------------------------
  
sitecopy includes a vulnerable version of the neon library. 
 
For more information, please see the GLSA Announcement[13] 

 13. http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200406-03.xml
    
=================================
3. Featured Developer of the Week
=================================
   
Jason Stubbs
 
Figure 3.1: Jason Stubbs, with wife Sanae
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gwn/20040607_jstubbs.jpg
 
Our featured developer for this week is Jason Stubbs[14] (jstubbs), one of 
the members of the portage[15] developers group. He is currently 
completing work on an API (Application Programming Interface) for portage, 
to provide an abstract interface for client applications to make use of 
portage functionality. He will also be helping with the modification of 
existing tools to use the new API and the modularization and abstraction 
of portage's back-end as we move toward the portage-ng[16] functionality. 
He describes this work as amongst the accomplishments he is most proud of, 
and took the opportunity to thank Jason Mobarak[17] (aether) for 
recruiting him to work on it. 

 14. jstubbs@gentoo.org
 15. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/portage/index.xml
 16. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/portage/portage-ng/systemspec.xml
 17. aether@gentoo.org
 
Jason works on an Athlon 1800 XP laptop (512 MB, 30 GB, GeForce4), and 
works solely in KDE[18], using KDE applications supplemented by 
mplayer[19] and ogle[20]. He typically works at home, multitasking his 
brain with the television or stereo, but sometimes works on the train ride 
to work. His primary development environment is KDevelop, save for quick 
text edits in nano[21]. 

 18. http://www.kde.org/
 19. http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design7/news.html
 20. http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/groups/dvd/downloads.shtml
 21. http://www.nano-editor.org/
 
Jason has been a programmer for most of his life - beginning with BASIC as 
a pre-teen and progressing through C, Pascal, and C++ before learning 6502 
assembly language and Java as a teenager. He studied Engineering at the 
Swinburne University of Technology[22] in Melbourne before leaving to 
pursue a career in programming. Jason's first experience with Linux was 
when he began experimenting with Slackware in 1994. He furthered his 
understanding by building a test server for experimentation and test 
server using Red Hat in 1997. In early 2003, he discovered Gentoo on 
distrowatch[23] and was intrigued by the "simple but powerful" ideals of 
the distro. He has been using it ever since and expects to introduce it at 
his work with a server upgrade in the near future. 

 22. http://www.swin.edu.au/
 23. http://www.distrowatch.com/
 
Jason is originally from Melbourne, Australia. He met his wife while 
studying Japanese in Sydney and moved to Japan to marry her. He now lives 
in Yokohama (just outside Tokyo), where he works as a Linux server 
administrator and developer. He finds himself coding in anything from C++ 
through C, ruby and php as he works on a variety of web-based applications 
and server utilities. He is a passionate musician, playing both guitar and 
trumpet. He is a Pink Floyd fan, but claims to an omnivorous taste: 
"anything except Country - even Opera!". His other great interest is 
studying science, especially mathematics and physics. He can often be 
found quoting Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn from Star Wars Epsisode I: "Your 
perspective determines your reality." 
    
=========================
4. Heard in the Community
=========================
  
Web Forums
----------
  
Free Macromedia Flash Player for Linux - Or Is It? 
 
The brandnew Flash player version 7 for Linux put out by Macromedia ten 
days ago has been greeted with more than just mild interest. Although the 
lack of a Shockwave client for Linux is frequently deplored within the 
same sentence, people honour the move to make at least Flash available on 
their preferred platform. However, the details of the license agreement 
are peculiar enough to raise a number of eyebrows, especially about the 
redistribution clauses that appear to need some revision before Linux 
distributions can be sure to stay within legal boundaries if they ship 
Flash 7 to their users: 
 
 * Macromedia Flash 7 for Linux released[24] 
 24. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=178473

Love Sources Now Featuring ReiserFS 4 
 
Gentoo Forums continue to be a place for shadow development outside the 
official Gentoo devhood. Last week the (in)famous patch-as-you-can Linux 
kernel project "Love Sources" has come up with its latest installment of a 
heavily ment and bent package somewhat loosely based on Andrew Morton's 
mm-sources, together with support for the latest filesystem craze, 
ReiserFS 4. Your mileage may vary dramatically: 
 
 * 2.6.7_rc2-love2 aka "The dead shall raise"-reiser4[25] 
 25. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=181300
    
gentoo-user
-----------
  
Putting /etc on a separate partition 
 
Usually /etc and the root (/) directories coexist on the same physical 
drive patition. Is it possible to split[26] them? 

 26. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.user/83328
 
Viruses on Linux 
 
The subject itself was marked "off-topic" by its author, but turned into 
one of the larger thread's we've seen on gentoo-user. Read it here[27]. 

 27. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.user/82912
    
gentoo-dev
----------
  
Developers being sought 
 
When Seemant Kulleen[28] posted to -dev looking for people interested in 
maintaining the firebird database and BIND ebuilds, several other 
developers followed suit, asking for help with X, dialup, Java, and 
webapps. This might be a good chance for those of you who are interested 
in becoming developers. See the thread[29] for details. 

 28. seemant@gentoo.org
 29. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/18586
    
=======================
5. Gentoo International
=======================
   
Germany: LinuxTag 23-26 June in Karlsruhe 
 
The Gentoo booth at Europe's largest Linux and Open Source fair, the 
LinuxTag in Karlsruhe[30] (close to the French border), is set to become 
even more exciting than last year's event. Fifteen Gentoo developers from 
all over Germany, clad in Gentoo shirts reminiscent of football teams are 
sharing their time to man the booth that will feature almost every Gentoo 
platform imaginable, ranging from various Macs and Intel-based laptops via 
a veritable SGI Indy, right down to iPaqs and an Xbox. A webcam will 
deliver live views from the booth to the community at large, and those who 
do make it all the way to Karlsruhe will become the first Gentooists to 
become members of the German not-for-profit association Gentoo e.V., for 
an annual membership fee of 20 Euros (10 for students). Application forms 
and lots of give-aways and Gentoo merchandise will be available at the 
stand. For details, refer to the Gentoo e.V. website[31] and a 
coordination thread in the Forums[32].

 30. http://www.linuxtag.de
 31. http://www.gentoo-ev.org
 32. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=126538
    
===========
6. Bugzilla
===========
  
Summary
-------
  
 * Statistics 
 * Closed Bug Ranking 
 * New Bug Rankings 
    
Statistics
----------
  
The Gentoo community uses Bugzilla (bugs.gentoo.org[33]) to record and 
track bugs, notifications, suggestions and other interactions with the 
development team. Between 28 May 2004 and 03 June 2004, activity on the 
site has resulted in: 

 33. http://bugs.gentoo.org
 
 * 614 new bugs during this period 
 * 333 bugs closed or resolved during this period 
 * 16 previously closed bugs were reopened this period 
 
Of the 6363 currently open bugs: 135 are labeled 'blocker', 201 are 
labeled 'critical', and 522 are labeled 'major'. 
    
Closed Bug Rankings
-------------------
  
The developers and teams who have closed the most bugs during this period 
are: 
 
 * PPC Porters[34], with 35 closed bugs[35]  
 * Gentoo Games[36], with 21 closed bugs[37]  
 * AMD64 Porting Team[38], with 18 closed bugs[39]  
 * Gentoo Linux Gnome Desktop Team[40], with 14 closed bugs[41]  
 * Gentoo X-windows Packagers[42], with 12 closed bugs[43]  
 34. ppc@gentoo.org
 35. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&
chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2004-05-28&chfieldto=2004-06-03&
resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=ppc@gentoo.org
 36. games@gentoo.org
 37. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&
chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2004-05-28&chfieldto=2004-06-03&
resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=games@gentoo.org
 38. amd64@gentoo.org
 39. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&
chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2004-05-28&chfieldto=2004-06-03&
resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=amd64@gentoo.org
 40. gnome@gentoo.org
 41. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&
chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2004-05-28&chfieldto=2004-06-03&
resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=gnome@gentoo.org
 42. xfree@gentoo.org
 43. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=CLOSED&
chfield=bug_status&chfieldfrom=2004-05-28&chfieldto=2004-06-03&
resolution=FIXED&assigned_to=xfree@gentoo.org
    
New Bug Rankings
----------------
  
The developers and teams who have been assigned the most new bugs during 
this period are: 
 
 * media-video Herd[44], with 20 new bugs[45]  
 * Gentoo's SAMBA Team[46], with 17 new bugs[47]  
 * AMD64 Porting Team[48], with 17 new bugs[49]  
 * Gentoo's Team for Core System Packages[50], with 16 new bugs[51]  
 * Gentoo Sound Team[52], with 14 new bugs[53]  
 44. media-video@gentoo.org
 45. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&
bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2004-05-28&
chfieldto=2004-06-03&assigned_to=media-video@gentoo.org
 46. samba@gentoo.org
 47. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&
bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2004-05-28&
chfieldto=2004-06-03&assigned_to=samba@gentoo.org
 48. amd64@gentoo.org
 49. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&
bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2004-05-28&
chfieldto=2004-06-03&assigned_to=amd64@gentoo.org
 50. base-system@gentoo.org
 51. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&
bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2004-05-28&
chfieldto=2004-06-03&assigned_to=base-system@gentoo.org
 52. sound@gentoo.org
 53. 
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&
bug_status=REOPENED&chfield=assigned_to&chfieldfrom=2004-05-28&
chfieldto=2004-06-03&assigned_to=sound@gentoo.org
    
==================
7. Tips and Tricks
==================
   
Aliasing ACCEPT_KEYWORDS
 
This week's tip was submitted by developer Caleb Tennis[54]

 54. caleb@gentoo.org
 
I saw a user post this in a bug comment, and thought it was a good idea. 
In your .bashrc file, add the line:
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Code Listing 7.1:                                                       |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|alias akmrg='ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86" emerge'                              |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
This will allow you to emerge unstable ebuilds by typing akmrg foo instead 
of the more cumbersome ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86" emerge foo.
 
However, if you always want to have certain keywords in place when 
emerging particular ebuilds, the recommended way is to edit 
/etc/portage/package.keywords. For example, to have net-misc/totd emerged 
with the ~x86 keyword, add the following:
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Code Listing 7.2:                                                       |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|net-misc/totd ~x86                                                       |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
This also makes using the --upgrade-only option of emerge unnecessary.
    
===========================
8. Moves, Adds, and Changes
===========================
  
Moves
-----
  
The following developers recently left the Gentoo team:
 
 * None this week 
    
Adds
----
  
The following developers recently joined the Gentoo Linux team:
 
 * Christian Andreetta (satya) - SAMBA 
 * Scott Haffield (hadfield) - Gentoo Script Repository 
 * Lukasz Strzygowski (lucass) - python 
 * Guillaume Destuynder (kang) - net-p2p, RSBAC 
    
Changes
-------
  
The following developers recently changed roles within the Gentoo Linux 
project:
 
 * None this week 
    
====================
9. Contribute to GWN
====================
   
Interested in contributing to the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter? Send us an 
email[55].

 55. gwn-feedback@gentoo.org
    
================
10. GWN Feedback
================
   
Please send us your feedback[56] and help make the GWN better.

 56. gwn-feedback@gentoo.org
    
================================
11. GWN Subscription Information
================================
   
To subscribe to the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter, send a blank email to 
gentoo-gwn-subscribe@gentoo.org.
 
To unsubscribe to the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter, send a blank email to 
gentoo-gwn-unsubscribe@gentoo.org from the email address you are 
subscribed under.
    
===================
12. Other Languages
===================
   
The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter is also available in the following languages:
 
 * Danish[57] 
 * Dutch[58] 
 * English[59] 
 * German[60] 
 * French[61] 
 * Japanese[62] 
 * Italian[63] 
 * Polish[64] 
 * Portuguese (Brazil)[65] 
 * Portuguese (Portugal)[66] 
 * Russian[67] 
 * Spanish[68] 
 * Turkish[69] 
 57. http://www.gentoo.org/news/da/gwn/gwn.xml
 58. http://www.gentoo.org/news/be/gwn/gwn.xml
 59. http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/gwn.xml
 60. http://www.gentoo.org/news/de/gwn/gwn.xml
 61. http://www.gentoo.org/news/fr/gwn/gwn.xml
 62. http://www.gentoo.org/news/ja/gwn/gwn.xml
 63. http://www.gentoo.org/news/it/gwn/gwn.xml
 64. http://www.gentoo.org/news/pl/gwn/gwn.xml
 65. http://www.gentoo.org/news/br/gwn/gwn.xml
 66. http://www.gentoo.org/news/pt/gwn/gwn.xml
 67. http://www.gentoo.org/news/ru/gwn/gwn.xml
 68. http://www.gentoo.org/news/es/gwn/gwn.xml
 69. http://www.gentoo.org/news/tr/gwn/gwn.xml

Yuji Carlos Kosugi <carlos@gentoo.org> - Editor
AJ Armstrong <aja@clanarmstrong.com> - Contributor
Brian Downey <bdowney@briandowney.net> - Contributor
Kurt Lieber <klieber@gentoo.org> - Contributor
David Narayan <david@phrixus.net> - Contributor
Ulrich Plate <plate@gentoo.org> - Contributor
Sven Vermeulen <swift@gentoo.org> - Contributor
Simon Holm Thagersen <simon@lysbro.net> - Danish Translation
Jesper Brodersen <broeman@gentoo.org> - Danish Translation
Arne Mejlholm <aaby@gentoo.org> - Danish Translation
Hendrik Eeckhaut <Hendrik.Eeckhaut@UGent.be> - Dutch Translation
Jorn Eilander <sephiroth@quicknet.nl> - Dutch Translation
Bernard Kerckenaere <bernieke@bernieke.com> - Dutch Translation
Peter ter Borg <peter@daborg.nl> - Dutch Translation
Jochen Maes <linux@sejo.be> - Dutch Translation
[NAME REMOVED BY REQUEST] <rgoessen@home.nl> - Dutch Translation
Gerard van den Berg <gerard@steelo.net> - Dutch Translation
Matthieu Montaudouin <mat@frheaven.com> - French Translation
Xavier Neys <neysx@gentoo.org> - French Translation
Martin Prieto <riverdale@linuxmail.org> - French Translation
Antoine Raillon <cabec2@pegase.net> - French Translation
Sebastien Cevey <seb@cine7.net> - French Translation
Jean-Christophe Choisy <mabouya@petitefleure.org> - French Translation
Thomas Raschbacher <lordvan@gentoo.org> - German Translation
Steffen Lassahn <madeagle@gentoo.org> - German Translation
Matthias F. Brandstetter <haim@gentoo.org> - German Translation
Lukas Domagala <Cyrik@gentoo.org> - German Translation
Tobias Scherbaum <dertobi123@gentoo.org> - German Translation
Daniel Gerholdt <Sputnik1969@gentoo.org> - German Translation
Marc Herren <dj-submerge@gentoo.org> - German Translation
Tobias Matzat <SirSeoman@gentoo.org> - German Translation
Marco Mascherpa <mush@monrif.net> - Italian Translation
Claudio Merloni <paper@tiscali.it> - Italian Translation
Stefano Lucidi <stefano.lucidi@gentoo-italia.org> - Italian Translation
Katuyuki Konno <katuyuki@siva.ddo.jp> - Japanese Translation
Hiroyuki Takeda <hiro@extreme.jspeed.jp> - Japanese Translation
Masato Hatakeyama <hatake@mx2.ttcn.ne.jp> - Japanese Translation
Masayoshi Nakamura <masayang@masasushi.com> - Japanese Translation
Yasunori Fukudome <yasunori@mail.portland.co.uk> - Japanese Translation
Tomoyuki Sakurai <web-gentoo-doc-jp@trombik.mine.nu> - Japanese Translation
Lukasz Strzygowski <lucass@gentoo.pl> - Polish Translation
Karol Goralski <gooroo@gentoo.pl> - Polish Translation
Atila "Jedi" Bohlke Vasconcelos <bohlke@inf.ufrgs.br> - Portuguese 
(Brazil) Translation
Eduardo Belloti <dudu@datavibe.net> - Portuguese (Brazil) Translation
Jo??o Rafael Moraes Nicola <joaoraf@rudah.com.br> - Portuguese (Brazil) 
Translation
Marcelo Gon??alves de Azambuja <mgazambuja@terra.com.br> - Portuguese 
(Brazil) Translation
Otavio Rodolfo Piske <angusy@gentoobr.org> - Portuguese (Brazil) 
Translation
Pablo N. Hess -- NatuNobilis <natunobilis@gentoobr.org> - Portuguese 
(Brazil) Translation
Pedro de Medeiros <pzilla@yawl.com.br> - Portuguese (Brazil) Translation
Ventura Barbeiro <venturasbarbeiro@ig.com.br> - Portuguese (Brazil) 
Translation
Bruno Ferreira <blueroom@digitalmente.net> - Portuguese (Portugal) 
Translation
Gustavo Felisberto <humpback@felisberto.net> - Portuguese (Portugal) 
Translation
Jos?? Costa <jose_costa@netcabo.pt> - Portuguese (Portugal) Translation
Luis Medina <metalgodin@linuxmail.org> - Portuguese (Portugal) Translation
Ricardo Loureiro <rjlouro@rjlouro.org> - Portuguese (Portugal) Translation
Aleksandr Martyncev <amncorp@bk.ru> - Russian Translator
Sergey Galkin <gals_home@list.ru> - Russian Translator
Sergey Kuleshov <svyatogor@gentoo.org> - Russian Translator
Alex Spirin <asp13@mail.ru> - Russian Translator
Denis Zaletov <dzaletov@rambler.ru> - Russian Translator
Lanark <lanark@lanark.com.ar> - Spanish Translation
Fernando J. Pereda <ferdy@ferdyx.org> - Spanish Translation
Lluis Peinado Cifuentes <lpeinado@uoc.edu> - Spanish Translation
Zephryn Xirdal T <ZEPHRYNXIRDAL@telefonica.net> - Spanish Translation
Guillermo Juarez <katossi@usuarios.retecal.es> - Spanish Translation
Jes??s Garc??a Crespo <correo@sevein.com> - Spanish Translation
Carlos Castillo <carlos@castillobueno.com> - Spanish Translation
Julio Castillo <julio@castillobueno.com> - Spanish Translation
Sergio G??mez <s3r@fibertel.com.ar> - Spanish Translation
Aycan Irican <aycan@core.gen.tr> - Turkish Translation
Bugra Cakir <bugra@myrealbox.com> - Turkish Translation
Cagil Seker <cagils@biznet.com.tr> - Turkish Translation
Emre Kazdagli <emre@core.gen.tr> - Turkish Translation
Evrim Ulu <evrim@core.gen.tr> - Turkish Translation
Gursel Kaynak <gurcell@core.gen.tr> - Turkish Translation