[MaraDNS list] MaraDNS update

[Sam Trenholme]

==MaraDNS update==

I have finished up porting all of MaraDNS 2.0's SQA tests to work in
CentOS 6 (RHEL6/Oracle Linux 6/Scientific Linux 6). MaraDNS 2.0 is now
fully RHEL6 compatible.

There is a bug somewhere in CentOS 6 that causes Valgrind to report a
24-byte fixed-size leak when MaraDNS is compiled with '-O2'; since the
leak goes away when MaraDNS is compiled with '-g', it's an error with
the compiler and/or Valgrind.

I'm not going to waste time chasing ghosts that change with different
compiler flags.

I have added a couple of documents to the MaraDNS tarball:
TESTING.PROCEDURE, which describes how to compile and run MaraDNS so
it passes all SQA regressions in CentOS 6, as well as README.malloc,
which spells out how MaraDNS and Deadwood act on systems where
malloc() fails. If anyone wishes MaraDNS/Deadwood to handle malloc
differently, show me the money and we will talk. I would need a
five-figure sum (in US dollars or Euros) on the table to even consider
looking at the issue.

==OS Support==

The version of Linux that MaraDNS officially supports has been under a
lot of flux. Last year, CentOS was really slow with security updates
so I moved over to Scientific Linux. This year, CentOS has finally
caught up and Scientific continues to have issues with routine
security updates breaking things (I had an issue last year where a
security-only update broke wireless networking; just this week a
security-only update in Scientific Linux broke X on one of my virtual
machines). If CentOS ever lags with security updates again, I will try
out Oracle Linux.

The point being, the next MaraDNS release is supported on any
RHEL6-compatible clone of Linux. Right now, I develop it on CentOS 6,
but that can become Oracle Linux 6 or Scientific Linux 6 depending on
which RHEL clone is most up-to-date with security fixes.

I am no longer using Windows XP and will change the official version
of Windows supported to be Windows 7 when I make my Deadwood release
next month.

I have updated the operating systems MaraDNS supports in 2012; I will
not update them again until 2017 (both RHEL6 and Windows 7 will be
supported by their vendors until 2020).

==Current plans==

Now that both MaraDNS and Deadwood have been updated for CentOS 6, my
plan is to release a new Deadwood release in September, followed by a
new MaraDNS release in October.

I plan to work on MaraDNS/Deadwood again one day next month
(September), after the 20th, unless a critical security bug with a CVE
number is found.  This will be--barring a CVE report--my last posting
to the mailing list until then.