darcs 2.3.0 is released!

We are pleased to announce the release of Darcs 2.3.0. This is the second of our time-based (biannual) releases and we hope to have many more. Here are some of the key changes from the last release:

1. Better performance - we believe the darcs whatsnew command is now much faster for hashed repositories. If you notice these improvements, you may be pleased to know that Petr's Summer of Code project aims to extend these improvements to the rest of Darcs. In the meantime, you may also notice improvements in darcs record and darcs changes; reduced memory consumption in darcs check and repair; and also support for hardlinks on NTFS, which allows for faster repeated retrievals on Windows.
   
   
2. Easier installation - Darcs now uses the Cabal build method by default which greatly simplifies installation. Combined with the upcoming Haskell Platform, building Darcs from source is now painless, even under Windows. Future versions of Darcs will use Cabal only.


3. Improved repository integrity - The new "darcs gzcrcs" feature detects and repairs files with a broken CRC in your darcs repository and caches. To the best of our knowledge, these files were only produced by Darcs 2.0.2 - 2.1.2, and only within "old fashioned" (non-hashed) repositories, and only the CRCs are affected. In any case, we highly recommend upgrading to Darcs 2.3.0 so that you can repair any such files. See issue844 for more details.

Darcs 2.3.0 requires GHC 6.8 or higher, and we recommend using GHC 6.10 for best results. See the official release announcement for more details about this, as well as a more complete list of bug fixes and new features.

darcs weekly news #35

News and discussions

1. Since the last DWN, Petr Rockai released 3 betas, the last one being focussed on fixing bugs under Windows :

• http://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/darcs-users/2009-July/020371.html
• http://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/darcs-users/2009-July/020409.html
• http://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/darcs-users/2009-July/020435.html

2. Petr also issued two posts (7 and 8) about his Summer of Code work on fast darcs:

• http://web.mornfall.net/blog/soc_progress_7.html
• http://web.mornfall.net/blog/soc_progress_8.html

3. Ashley Moran gave a presentation of darcs at the North West Ruby User Group, and put his slides online:

• http://aviewfromafar.net/2009/7/17/nwrug-darcs-presentation
• http://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/darcs-users/2009-July/020499.html

4. Ashley also started a (quite long) discussion about the different command names between darcs and the other DVCSs:

• http://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/darcs-users/2009-July/020428.html

5. Finally, Petr Rockai proposed a patch to gets rid of autoconf support in darcs, leaving cabal as the only build system:

• http://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/darcs-users/2009-July/020508.html

Issues resolved in the last week (0)

Patches applied in the last week (63)

See text entry for details.

darcs weekly news #34

News and discussions

1. Petr Rockai announced availability of Darcs 2.3 beta 1, via regular download and cabal install:

• http://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/darcs-users/2009-June/020275.html

2. Petr Rockai's fast darcs Summer of Code progess reports 5 and 6:

• http://web.mornfall.net/blog/soc_progress_5.html
• http://web.mornfall.net/blog/soc_progress_6.html

Issues resolved in the last week (0)

Patches applied in the last week (17)

See text entry for details.