[click] Click-1.2.3 released!

[Eddie Kohler]

We are pleased to announce the release of the Click modular router, version
1.2.3.

This version has more support for a FreeBSD kernel module; a set of
elements for trace analysis and manipulation; various Grid improvements;
and many bug fixes, including device handling bugs that could bring down
Linux kernel Click. Thanks to all our contributors!

We will continue to release Click on a three-month schedule, but our
anonymous CVS repository is always available.

The relevant section of NEWS follows. Please write click at pdos.lcs.mit.edu
with any comments or questions.

Eddie


Version 1.2.3   4.Dec.2001

* Drivers

** Linux kernel module: Rename Click kernel threads to "kclick".

** User-level driver: Add `-e' option.

** Various Linux 2.4 improvements.

** FreeBSD driver is coming along nicely. You should compile this version
   of the driver against an *unmodified* FreeBSD kernel (RELENG_4 branch,
   version 440002 or later). Thanks to Luigi Rizzo, some of the
   improvements in the Click kernel patch have been checked in to the
   latest FreeBSD source! Bug fixes: can handle chained mbufs, etc.

** Better support for cross-compiling tools, via the `--enable-tools'
   configuration switch.

** Linux kernel module: Bug fixes, from Mazu, for dynamic installation and
   removal of devices, and for receiving large packets.

* Elements

** Added a collection of analysis-related elements; give
   `--enable-analysis' to ./configure. Elements include FromIPSummaryDump
   and ToIPSummaryDump (read and write ASCII summary files; see
   http://www.aciri.org/kohler/ipsumdump/), FromNetFlowSummaryDump (read
   ASCII NetFlow summary files), AnonymizeIPAddr (anonymize IP addresses
   while preserving prefixes), MergeByTimestamp (merge multiple time-sorted
   packet streams into a single time-sorted stream), TimeFilter (select
   packets by timestamp), and TimeRange (monitors packet timestamps).

** New elements: StripToNetworkHeader, ProgressBar (prints an ultra-cool
   progress bar to standard error), etc.

** CheckIPHeader and friends set the destination IP address annotation from
   the IP header's destination address.

** IPClassifier/IPFilter supports more >/>=/</<= comparisons, and gives
   better error messages on comparisons it does not support.

** RED handles long quiescent periods better. As a result, Queue and
   friends could remove their annoying _empty_jiffies member. Also, RED
   uses the Gentle variant recommended by the RED gods.

** Added AdaptiveRED element, by Jitendra Padhye <padhye at aciri.org>.

** FromDump can read from gzipped or bzipped tcpdump files.

** Deprecate RandomLossage and ProbSplitter elements in favor of new
   RandomSample element.

** Deprecate PeekHandlers in favor of PokeHandlers, whose syntax has been
   extended. The new PokeHandlers is incompatible with old PokeHandlers
   configuration strings.

** Bug fixes in ARPQuerier, FromDevice, ToDevice, FromDump,
   ICMPPingResponder, ControlSocket, DriverManager, IPRewriter and friends,
   Grid elements, Classifier.

** Added functionality to FromDevice, FromDump, Shaper, BandwidthShaper,
   PokeHandlers, DriverManager, Grid elements, Counter.

* Configuration parsing

** Configuration arguments that represent time can take suffixes like "h"
   for hours and "m" for minutes, as well as "s" for seconds, "ms" for
   milliseconds, and so forth.

** Bug fixes in cp_real unparsing.

** Add cp_double() and cpDouble, available only at user level.

** Fix static binding errors in configuration language. Also, configuration
   language supports `${VAR-DEFAULT}' variable reference syntax, which uses
   the text `DEFAULT' if `$VAR' is not set.

* General

** General configuration cleanup: Split config.h into multiple files to
   reduce needless recompilation; regularize symbols.

** Task improvements should make everything a bit more robust. For example,
   Task::unschedule() always unschedules the task right away; it grabs a
   lock.

* Grid

** New startup scripts for generating Grid configurations.

** New elements implement Grid-level route tracing and statistics:
   GridProbeSender, GridProbeHandler, and GridProbeReplyReceiver.

** Extended logging code in old Grid elements.

* Acknowledgements

** Thanks to the usual suspects (AUTHORS), and to Geir <kp13 at gmx.co.uk>,
   Luigi Rizzo <rizzo at aciri.org>, and Atanu Ghosh <atanu at aciri.org>.