Jonathan Corbet
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
It has happened at last: after many iterations, that x86 shadow-stack patch series has been accepted into the mainline for 6.6:
https://lwn.net/ml/linux-kernel/CAHk-=wipDVFEfSJxbnUSDqENs5i8RzSsgJOFdb69pH=b7BOFiQ@mail.gmail.com/
For those who haven't been following this saga, see https://lwn.net/Articles/926649/
https://lwn.net/ml/linux-kernel/CAHk-=wipDVFEfSJxbnUSDqENs5i8RzSsgJOFdb69pH=b7BOFiQ@mail.gmail.com/
For those who haven't been following this saga, see https://lwn.net/Articles/926649/
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
On the radar: tossing out the Debian /usr merge and start over.
I've been watching this for a week or so...Debian developer Ian Jackson has declared that the project's current approach to its interminable /usr-merge effort was mistaken from the beginning:
https://lwn.net/ml/debian-ctte/25823.5706.112593.999861@chiark.greenend.org.uk/
He proposes backing the whole thing out (on the entire installed Debian user base) and trying again with a symlink-farm approach.
Need I say that he has not found an immediate consensus on this?
I've been watching this for a week or so...Debian developer Ian Jackson has declared that the project's current approach to its interminable /usr-merge effort was mistaken from the beginning:
https://lwn.net/ml/debian-ctte/25823.5706.112593.999861@chiark.greenend.org.uk/
He proposes backing the whole thing out (on the entire installed Debian user base) and trying again with a symlink-farm approach.
Need I say that he has not found an immediate consensus on this?
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
On the radar: moving the GNU C Library to Linux Foundation hosting.
The whole issue of moving the GNU toolchain projects out of Sourceware and into an LF project was covered here a year ago:
https://lwn.net/Articles/908638/
Since then it has been mostly quiet. Now, though, there seems to be a move afoot to actually make the move for glibc. It is hard to say for sure, since (as seems to be typical), the discussion is being held entirely behind closed doors, though it has now been pushed onto the glibc-alpha list:
https://lwn.net/ml/libc-alpha/orsf805tyf.fsf@lxoliva.fsfla.org/
I do not think that having the LF handle this infrastructure is necessarily a bad idea; the people there are (seriously) good and it has been hugely beneficial to the kernel project. But the handling of the idea remains horrible; it looks like a hostile takeover and could do real damage to the community.
The whole issue of moving the GNU toolchain projects out of Sourceware and into an LF project was covered here a year ago:
https://lwn.net/Articles/908638/
Since then it has been mostly quiet. Now, though, there seems to be a move afoot to actually make the move for glibc. It is hard to say for sure, since (as seems to be typical), the discussion is being held entirely behind closed doors, though it has now been pushed onto the glibc-alpha list:
https://lwn.net/ml/libc-alpha/orsf805tyf.fsf@lxoliva.fsfla.org/
I do not think that having the LF handle this infrastructure is necessarily a bad idea; the people there are (seriously) good and it has been hugely beneficial to the kernel project. But the handling of the idea remains horrible; it looks like a hostile takeover and could do real damage to the community.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
On the radar: user namespaces as a way to bypass negative permissions:
https://lwn.net/ml/linux-fsdevel/20230829205833.14873-1-richard@nod.at/
Not that this is new; I wrote about it a couple of years ago:
https://lwn.net/Articles/855943/
https://lwn.net/ml/linux-fsdevel/20230829205833.14873-1-richard@nod.at/
Not that this is new; I wrote about it a couple of years ago:
https://lwn.net/Articles/855943/
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
On the radar: PostgreSQL 16
The first release candidate is about to come out:
https://lwn.net/ml/pgsql-hackers/09b26b72-8ce6-83bf-8449-6a89621ddfa6@postgresql.org/
general release expected in mid-September.
The first release candidate is about to come out:
https://lwn.net/ml/pgsql-hackers/09b26b72-8ce6-83bf-8449-6a89621ddfa6@postgresql.org/
general release expected in mid-September.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
On the radar: shrinking the Emacs C core
Another one of those "I'm Eric Raymond and I'm here to help you" moments:
https://lwn.net/ml/emacs-devel/20230809094655.793FC18A4654@snark.thyrsus.com/
He showed up on the Emacs list wanting to thrash up much of the core editor code for some secret project that he didn't want to tell anybody about... the reaction was about as might have been expected. It did, though, kick off an extensive discussion on how much of the editor should be implemented in Lisp and whether moving C code to Lisp makes sense.
Another one of those "I'm Eric Raymond and I'm here to help you" moments:
https://lwn.net/ml/emacs-devel/20230809094655.793FC18A4654@snark.thyrsus.com/
He showed up on the Emacs list wanting to thrash up much of the core editor code for some secret project that he didn't want to tell anybody about... the reaction was about as might have been expected. It did, though, kick off an extensive discussion on how much of the editor should be implemented in Lisp and whether moving C code to Lisp makes sense.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
On the radar: GCC security policy
I want to try a little experiment here. As I spend my day screwing around on the net, I come across a lot of conversations that may or may not eventually make good LWN articles. I'll toss one of those out here occasionally and see if people find it useful. Appearance here does not mean that I will (or will not) write something about it later, only that it has caught my attention.
The first topic is a few weeks old but still possibly interesting: the GCC folks are working to hammer out a security policy, which comes down to laying out what does — or does not — constitute a GCC security bug:
https://lwn.net/ml/gcc-patches/CAGWvny=z1yotE-6geJL1j80qSeZU67h-ZENPowM=BSNm0nHOVA@mail.gmail.com/
Strangely enough, it turns out that if you feed untrusted source to the compiler and the result bites you, they don't think it's a compiler bug.
I want to try a little experiment here. As I spend my day screwing around on the net, I come across a lot of conversations that may or may not eventually make good LWN articles. I'll toss one of those out here occasionally and see if people find it useful. Appearance here does not mean that I will (or will not) write something about it later, only that it has caught my attention.
The first topic is a few weeks old but still possibly interesting: the GCC folks are working to hammer out a security policy, which comes down to laying out what does — or does not — constitute a GCC security bug:
https://lwn.net/ml/gcc-patches/CAGWvny=z1yotE-6geJL1j80qSeZU67h-ZENPowM=BSNm0nHOVA@mail.gmail.com/
Strangely enough, it turns out that if you feed untrusted source to the compiler and the result bites you, they don't think it's a compiler bug.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
I skipped out on everything last week and wandered in the southwest for a bit. Definitely recommended for reducing one's stress level.
Canyon de Chelly remains one of my favorite places in the world.
Now I have to catch up...how's the 6.5 release going, anyway? :)
Canyon de Chelly remains one of my favorite places in the world.
Now I have to catch up...how's the 6.5 release going, anyway? :)
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
At the end of 2021, the Marshall fire swept through a highly populated part of Boulder County, destroying over 1,000 homes over the course of a few hours in an area where nobody had really thought #wildfires were a big risk.
Since then, the county has been putting out regular newsletters on the recovery process. A recent one (https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/COBOULDER/bulletins/368ffb5) includes the news that FEMA put together, for the first time, a "mitigation assessment team" to study how neighborhoods can be made more resistant to wildfire disasters. Everything from subdivision planning to how to make one's house less likely to burn. A lot of good information there.
This isn't fun stuff to think about but, as recent events have made clear yet again, we don't have a lot of choice in this matter. There's going to be more fires, and they are going to happen in surprising places. I hope this information finds its way into thought processes and building codes quickly.
I always knew I didn't like junipers...
Since then, the county has been putting out regular newsletters on the recovery process. A recent one (https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/COBOULDER/bulletins/368ffb5) includes the news that FEMA put together, for the first time, a "mitigation assessment team" to study how neighborhoods can be made more resistant to wildfire disasters. Everything from subdivision planning to how to make one's house less likely to burn. A lot of good information there.
This isn't fun stuff to think about but, as recent events have made clear yet again, we don't have a lot of choice in this matter. There's going to be more fires, and they are going to happen in surprising places. I hope this information finds its way into thought processes and building codes quickly.
I always knew I didn't like junipers...
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
Today, it seems, is my lucky day ... I got data breach notifications from two separate companies, each of which holds some subset of my healthcare data. The good news is that they are generously offering me a year of credit monitoring, I'm sure that will fix everything right up.
How is it that these people can still write "we take your data security seriously" with a straight face?
How is it that these people can still write "we take your data security seriously" with a straight face?
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
I'm sorry but it's a beautiful morning and the approximately 12,423 emails sitting in my linux-kernel folder are just going to have to wait.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
"Web environment integrity" — because Chrome isn't dominant enough yet?
https://github.com/RupertBenWiser/Web-Environment-Integrity/blob/main/explainer.md
https://github.com/RupertBenWiser/Web-Environment-Integrity/blob/main/explainer.md
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
A recent exchange on the lists reminds me of a rule of thumb I've had occasion to apply more than once: never attribute to malice that which can be explained by the person involved being a non-native speaker of $LANGUAGE_IN_USE.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
There is a certain sort of cognitive dissonance that comes with waiting in a long line of idling cars for an emissions test. It makes me appreciate, yet again, that the other car is an #EV (a Bolt, mind you, not one of those elonthings). Our determination to never acquire another internal-combustion vehicle, already strong, has been reinforced.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
A celebration of Independence Day that makes me truly proud of my Wyoming roots... https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/07/03/pure-patriotism-unleashed-reporter-plays-star-spangled-banner-on-chainsaw/
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
Concerts at Red Rocks can often be surprising, but this isn't the sort of surprise attendees are generally after... https://www.denverpost.com/2023/06/21/red-rocks-convert-fans-hail-injured/
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
Daniel Ellsberg died today. Goodbye to a courageous defender of much that is good.
Here's a couple of pictures I took of him at a protest at the Nevada nuclear test site sometime in the mid 1980's.
Here's a couple of pictures I took of him at a protest at the Nevada nuclear test site sometime in the mid 1980's.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
It has been some time since I played with OsmAnd; I'm surprised by how good it has gotten in the meantime. The user interface is still a bit annoying at times, but functionally it mostly outdoes the proprietary competition at this point.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
Things are going so great in ElonLand that Twitter managed to get evicted from its Boulder office...
https://www.dailycamera.com/2023/06/14/boulder-twitter-eviction-unpaid-rent/
https://www.dailycamera.com/2023/06/14/boulder-twitter-eviction-unpaid-rent/
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
Local Boulder news, perhaps, but for those of us who watched over 1,000 homes burn down, in just a few hours, from our front steps, a determination of the cause (or causes, as it turns out) is a pretty big deal.
Nobody, it seems, is being charged for having started this disaster, a decision that seems correct based on the evidence as described. I can only imagine that the lawsuits are going to keep an army of lawyers employed for a long time, though.
https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/COBOULDER/bulletins/35f05e9
Nobody, it seems, is being charged for having started this disaster, a decision that seems correct based on the evidence as described. I can only imagine that the lawsuits are going to keep an army of lawyers employed for a long time, though.
https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/COBOULDER/bulletins/35f05e9
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