Ganymede 0.99.4 released

[Jonathan Abbey]

Ganymede 0.99.4 is now available for download at

 http://www.arlut.utexas.edu/gash2/

or

 ftp://ftp.arlut.utexas.edu/pub/ganymede/

Mirrors: (may take a short while to update)

 ftp://ftp.netlag.com/ganymede/ (USA)
 ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/ganymede/ (Australia/NZ only)
 ftp://ftp.kddlabs.co.jp/pub/ganymede/ (KDD R&D Labs, Saitama, Japan)

Ganymede is a GPL'ed network directory management system written in
Java, providing support for team management of NIS, DNS, etc.

--

The big news for this release includes a reworking of the install
scripts to make it easier to install the server and the web client
resources, a significant rewriting of the admin console to improve
security and simplify installation, and an improved installation
guide.

Generally more polished, closer to production quality.  The next
things to do involve more operational documentation and better
packaging of the schemas, including lots of support scripting for
the gasharl schema.

Just over the horizon is a new DNS/XML system for flexibly and
comprehensively managing DNS with Ganymede.

As always, feedback is eagerly solicited.. if I don't hear from
anyone, I just have to guess as to whether it's working for people,
which isn't the most efficient method.

-------------------- Changes from 0.99.3 to 0.99.4 -------------------

RELEASE DATE: July 8, 1999

1. [SERVER] Optimizations to permissions system

The simplifications to GanymedeSession.getPerm(object,field) that
I did for 0.99.3 was in fact doing too much work, and the logic
didn't flow clearly.

GanymedeSession.getPerm(object, field) is now correct, efficient, and
easy to read.

2. [SERVER] Added new versions of anonymousLinkOK/UnlinkOK() to DBEditObject

It was previously impossible to grant anonymous linking privileges to
a field only when the other side of the link was being created in a
particular object type/field.  This posed a problem in the
circumstance where you want to allow a specific field in a given
object type to be linked to another object type's backlinks field
without having general editing permissions for the other object.

I added a couple of new versions of these methods that take additional
parameters identifying the originating object and field, so that
customizers can take the other side of the proposed link into
consideration before granting anonymous linking permissions.

See the DBEditObject.anonymousLinkOK()/anonymousUnlinkOK() javadocs
for details.  Hopefully I'll get around to writing a full-scale
technical manual for Ganymede that will go into when/where you would
use these methods.

Modified InvidDBField.bind() and InvidDBField.unbind() to call the
new versions.

3. [CLIENT] Improved StringSelector used in String and Invid fields

The StringSelector GUI component used in the client to allow editing
of String and/or Invid vector fields has been fixed so that it does
not include the text box for entering custom entries unless the
StringSelector is editable.

Fixed some minor GUI problems with the StringSelector resizing itself
to a minimum size after adding a new entry to an empty
no-choices-provided string selector, made the 'remove' button disable
itself after removing something.

4. [SCHEMA] Improved email list behavior in gasharl schema

An email list owner can now add any user, list, or redirect to his
list without having general editing privileges for that user, list,
or redirect.

This takes advantage of change #2, above.

5. [INSTALL] Various improvements to the install process

Modified installServer so that the custom loading instructions it
writes out at the end is sent to a README.custom file in the installed
server's directory rather than to screen.  No sense spewing a couple
of screen's worth of customized install instructions if the user has
to do cut and paste to save it to a file for reading.

Added an installWeb script to install the web files into a designated
directory, separate from the normal UNIX client install.  This has the
advantage that you can install the web resourcs for Ganymede without
having to have Swing installed locally (which installClient checked
for.)

Added a handy index.html file for the Ganymede web resources, got rid
of the old activator and hotjava directories, added a nice set of web
frames to allow the installer to bring up their browser and directly
visit the directory where they installed the web resources.

6. [WEB FILES] Updated plugin client files for 1.2

The plugin client files were re-generated from the 1.2 htmlconvertor
utility, and now include proper links to the latest version of
Sun's java plug-in for Solaris and Windows.

7. [SCHEMA] Fixed BSD schema master.passwd parser, Linux passwd parser

The old Linux and BSD passwd file parsers would break if they
encountered a user record with a blank password field.

Modified GanymedeServer.login() and GanymedeServer.admin() to make
sure the server won't throw a null pointer exception if the database
contains a user or admin persona with no password during the login
process.

If a Ganymede user record has no password set, that user will not be
able to login to the Ganymede server.  Unlike UNIX, Ganymede never
lets anyone log in without a password.

8. [ADMIN CONSOLE, SERVER] Reworked admin console, server's admin API

Fixed the admin console so that it will properly log itself out when
it is closed through the window system.

In prior versions, the admin console wanted to know the name of the
supergash account on the server, so that it could preemptively refuse
to perform certain operations.. this really makes no sense at all, and
was never needed for security.  The admin console now goes ahead and
attempts such operations, and depends on the server properly refusing
the operations.

The install scripts no longer prompt for the supergash account name
when installing the UNIX and web clients.

Also in previous versions, the server wasn't actually honoring the
console permissions checkboxes in the admin persona objects.. any
admin persona could log into the server via the admin console, but no
one other than supergash could do any control operations.  The admin
persona console permissions checkboxes now properly control the
server's response to admin console operations.

Admins other than supergash and monitor will need to log into the
server via the admin console using their full persona name.. i.e.,
'broccol:GASH Admin'.

9. [DOCUMENTATION] Revised, improved the install guide, added FAQ

Significantly revised and enhanced the install guide, corrected some
mistakes, included information on the use of installWeb.

The text INSTALL file is now a lynx-generated version of the HTML
file.. it was too much work and too error-prone trying to maintain
both independently.

Added a text FAQ file.  Will convert this into a nice web version at
some point.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jonathan Abbey 				              jonabbey at arlut.utexas.edu
Applied Research Laboratories                 The University of Texas at Austin
Ganymede, a free NIS/DNS management system    http://www.arlut.utexas.edu/gash2