GNU Planet!

https://www.cnet.com/news/googles-smart-home-ecosystem-is-a-complete-mess/

Bison 3.4.2 is a bug fix release of the 3.4 series.  It fixes a number of
hard-to-find bugs, mostly discovered by fuzzing.

In Bison 3.4 a particular focus was put on improving the diagnostics, which
are now colored by default, and accurate with multibyte input.  Their format
was also changed, and is now similar to GCC 9's diagnostics.

Users of the default backend (yacc.c) can use the new %define variable
api.header.include to avoid duplicating the content of the generated header
in the generated parser.  There are two new examples installed, including a
reentrant calculator which supports recursive calls to the parser and
Flex-generated scanner.

See below for more details.

==================================================================

Bison is a general-purpose parser generator that converts an annotated
context-free grammar into a deterministic LR or generalized LR (GLR) parser
employing LALR(1) parser tables.  Bison can also generate IELR(1) or
canonical LR(1) parser tables.  Once you are proficient with Bison, you can
use it to develop a wide range of language parsers, from those used in
simple desk calculators to complex programming languages.

Bison is upward compatible with Yacc: all properly-written Yacc grammars
work with Bison with no change.  Anyone familiar with Yacc should be able to
use Bison with little trouble.  You need to be fluent in C, C++ or Java
programming in order to use Bison.

Here is the GNU Bison home page:
   https://gnu.org/software/bison/

==================================================================

Here are the compressed sources:
  https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bison/bison-3.4.2.tar.gz   (4.1MB)
  https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bison/bison-3.4.2.tar.xz   (3.1MB)

Here are the GPG detached signatures[*]:
  https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bison/bison-3.4.2.tar.gz.sig
  https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bison/bison-3.4.2.tar.xz.sig

Use a mirror for higher download bandwidth:
  https://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html

[*] Use a .sig file to verify that the corresponding file (without the
.sig suffix) is intact.  First, be sure to download both the .sig file
and the corresponding tarball.  Then, run a command like this:

  gpg --verify bison-3.4.2.tar.gz.sig

If that command fails because you don't have the required public key,
then run this command to import it:

  gpg --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys 0DDCAA3278D5264E

and rerun the 'gpg --verify' command.

This release was bootstrapped with the following tools:
  Autoconf 2.69
  Automake 1.16.1
  Flex 2.6.4
  Gettext 0.19.8.1
  Gnulib v0.1-2844-g03add7eb9

==================================================================

NEWS

* Noteworthy changes in release 3.4.2 (2019-09-08) [stable]

** Bug fixes

  In some cases, when warnings are disabled, bison could emit tons of white
  spaces as diagnostics.

  When running out of memory, bison could crash (found by fuzzing).

  When defining twice the EOF token, bison would crash.

  New warnings from recent compilers have been addressed in the generated
  parsers (yacc.c, glr.c, glr.cc).

  When lone carriage-return characters appeared in the input file,
  diagnostics could hang forever.

* Noteworthy changes in release 3.4.1 (2019-05-22) [stable]

** Bug fixes

  Portability fixes.

* Noteworthy changes in release 3.4 (2019-05-19) [stable]

** Deprecated features

  The %pure-parser directive is deprecated in favor of '%define api.pure'
  since Bison 2.3b (2008-05-27), but no warning was issued; there is one
  now.  Note that since Bison 2.7 you are strongly encouraged to use
  '%define api.pure full' instead of '%define api.pure'.

** New features

*** Colored diagnostics

  As an experimental feature, diagnostics are now colored, controlled by the
  new options --color and --style.

  To use them, install the libtextstyle library before configuring Bison.
  It is available from

    https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/gettext/

  for instance

    https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/gettext/libtextstyle-0.8.tar.gz

  The option --color supports the following arguments:
    - always, yes: Enable colors.
    - never, no: Disable colors.
    - auto, tty (default): Enable colors if the output device is a tty.

  To customize the styles, create a CSS file similar to

    /* bison-bw.css */
    .warning   { }
    .error     { font-weight: 800; text-decoration: underline; }
    .note      { }

  then invoke bison with --style=bison-bw.css, or set the BISON_STYLE
  environment variable to "bison-bw.css".

*** Disabling output

  When given -fsyntax-only, the diagnostics are reported, but no output is
  generated.

  The name of this option is somewhat misleading as bison does more than
  just checking the syntax: every stage is run (including checking for
  conflicts for instance), except the generation of the output files.

*** Include the generated header (yacc.c)

  Before, when --defines is used, bison generated a header, and pasted an
  exact copy of it into the generated parser implementation file.  If the
  header name is not "y.tab.h", it is now #included instead of being
  duplicated.

  To use an '#include' even if the header name is "y.tab.h" (which is what
  happens with --yacc, or when using the Autotools' ylwrap), define
  api.header.include to the exact argument to pass to #include.  For
  instance:

    %define api.header.include {"parse.h"}

  or

    %define api.header.include {<parser/parse.h>}

*** api.location.type is now supported in C (yacc.c, glr.c)

  The %define variable api.location.type defines the name of the type to use
  for locations.  When defined, Bison no longer defines YYLTYPE.

  This can be used in programs with several parsers to factor their
  definition of locations: let one of them generate them, and the others
  just use them.

** Changes

*** Graphviz output

  In conformance with the recommendations of the Graphviz team, if %require
  "3.4" (or better) is specified, the option --graph generates a *.gv file
  by default, instead of *.dot.

*** Diagnostics overhaul

  Column numbers were wrong with multibyte characters, which would also
  result in skewed diagnostics with carets.  Beside, because we were
  indenting the quoted source with a single space, lines with tab characters
  were incorrectly underlined.

  To address these issues, and to be clearer, Bison now issues diagnostics
  as GCC9 does.  For instance it used to display (there's a tab before the
  opening brace):

    foo.y:3.37-38: error: $2 of ‘expr’ has no declared type
     expr: expr '+' "number"        { $$ = $1 + $2; }
                                         ^~
  It now reports

    foo.y:3.37-38: error: $2 of ‘expr’ has no declared type
        3 | expr: expr '+' "number" { $$ = $1 + $2; }
          |                                     ^~

  Other constructs now also have better locations, resulting in more precise
  diagnostics.

*** Fix-it hints for %empty

  Running Bison with -Wempty-rules and --update will remove incorrect %empty
  annotations, and add the missing ones.

*** Generated reports

  The format of the reports (parse.output) was improved for readability.

*** Better support for --no-line.

  When --no-line is used, the generated files are now cleaner: no lines are
  generated instead of empty lines.  Together with using api.header.include,
  that should help people saving the generated files into version control
  systems get smaller diffs.

** Documentation

  A new example in C shows an simple infix calculator with a hand-written
  scanner (examples/c/calc).

  A new example in C shows a reentrant parser (capable of recursive calls)
  built with Flex and Bison (examples/c/reccalc).

  There is a new section about the history of Yaccs and Bison.

** Bug fixes

  A few obscure bugs were fixed, including the second oldest (known) bug in
  Bison: it was there when Bison was entered in the RCS version control
  system, in December 1987.  See the NEWS of Bison 3.3 for the previous
  oldest bug.

BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Thursday, September 12th, 2019 -- A global community of students, teachers, and activists are taking part in the Defective by Design campaign's 13th annual International Day Against DRM. Though from different backgrounds, countries, and perspectives, participants in the campaign share the common cause of opposing Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), a widespread technology that places heavy restrictions on how people access digital media.

On Saturday, October 12th, there will be two events held in Boston: a protest outside of the Pearson Education offices at 501 Boylston Street, followed by an evening "hackathon," or collaboration session, on unrestricted and truly shareable educational materials at the offices of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) at 51 Franklin Street.

Typically, DRM is used to restrict a user's access to music, films, and software. It is embedded in both physical and digital media, such as the "copy protection" on a Blu-ray disc or the mechanism that prevents recording (or even taking screenshots) from services like Netflix. Increasingly, however, it has been extending into the realm of education. Pearson Education and similar publishers' move to a "digital-first" method of textbook distribution is an example of this. This new method of educational publishing forces students away from the reliability of a paper book, moving them instead to a temporarily "rented" text that can only be accessed under strictly specific conditions and for a limited amount of time. In many cases systems like these also require a constant Internet connection for authentication purposes, to make sure the reader is authorized to access their book, and additionally collects telemetric data based on their reading habits.

"DRM is about more than just 'bad' file formats or streaming services. It is more than just an inconvenience. DRM is a concerted attack on free society," said Greg Farough, campaigns manager at the FSF. "It isn't just that DRM is an ineffective method of protecting copyright, or that it undermines historic preservation of digital media. It is fundamentally unethical and anti-education. The International Day Against DRM is one way we can empower people to take a strong stance against DRM, and educate others on its importance. I'm very glad that this year we will be able to voice our dissent against DRM, as well as demonstrate that it is possible to envision a world without it."

Now in its 13th year, Defective by Design has a long history of campaigning for a user's rights to control their media and the devices they use to interact with it. Likewise, being the anti-DRM campaign of the FSF, it is inspired by the spirit and community of the global movement for user freedom. This year, Defective by Design is not only encouraging people to protest against Pearson, but is also sponsoring local and remote "hackathons" on collaboratively edited and shareable textbooks like those produced by FLOSSManuals and Wikibooks.

The campaign is encouraging people to participate in a variety of online and in-person actions, coordinated through the Web site dedicated to the anti-DRM cause at DefectivebyDesign.org. To be part of Defective by Design's year-round anti-DRM campaigns, supporters can join the low-volume Action Alerts email list. Those interested in more active participation in the fight against DRM are invited to join the FSF's LibrePlanet wiki to document the new developments and threats DRM poses to user freedom worldwide.

Along with blockchain technologies, artificial intelligence, and algorithms, DRM has been a hot issue this year, and has been reported on widely in the press:

• Reacting to Microsoft's announcement that they would be closing down their ebook store (and with it, the forcible deletion of many of its users ebook libraries), Wired wrote a popular article on the "ebook apocalypse" users of the service faced.

• The MIT Press issued a landmark study on the use of DRM in streaming media services, analyzing both the technical and ethical implications of the popularity of Spotify and its ability to leverage DRM-restricted media to gather data and even psychologically manipulate its users. During their work on Spotify Teardown: Inside the Black Box of Streaming Music, the authors received a cease and desist notice from the company.

• Writing for Locus Magazine, author and technologist Cory Doctorow wrote on the "broken promise" of DRM, calling the shift from a user's "owning" a piece of digital media to "licensing" it a return to feudalism.

• An article addressing the shutdown of the digital video service UltraViolet appeared in Forbes, highlighting it as a Hollywood failure to control the flow of digital media.

The campaign is inviting other organizations to participate, by contacting info@defectivebydesign.org to have their names added to a list of supporters, and to discuss possible actions. In 2018, organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Creative Commons, iFixIt, and the Document Foundation were partners.

Defective by Design is the Free Software Foundation's campaign against Digital Restrictions Management (DRM). DRM is the practice of imposing technological restrictions that control what users can do with digital media, creating a product that is defective by design. DRM requires the use of proprietary software, and is a major threat to computer user freedom. It often spies on users as well. The campaign, based at https://defectivebydesign.org, organizes anti-DRM activists for in-person and online actions, and challenges powerful media and technology interests promoting DRM. Supporters can donate to the campaign at https://crm.fsf.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=40.

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org and gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at https://donate.fsf.org. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.

Greg Farough
Campaigns Manager
Free Software Foundation
(617) 542-5942
campaigns@fsf.org

Hello World! My name is Craig Topham, and I’m the latest to have the honor of being a copyright and licensing associate for the Free Software Foundation (FSF). I started work in November, and the delay in assembling my introductory blog post is a testament to how busy I have been. Although my post feels late, it gives me a chance to share my experience here at the FSF, along with sharing a little bit more about myself.

From 2005 to 2017, I worked as a PC/Network Technician for the City of Eugene, Oregon. The role had the inherent reward of allowing me to be a part of something much larger than myself. I was helping local government function. From the mayor and city council all the way to the summer staff that worked the front desk at the recreation department's swimming pools, I was one of many making it all work. It was even a part of my job to support some free software the city used! Sadly, a vast majority of the software that we used was proprietary, but despite the painful duty of supporting nonfree software, the overall experience felt pretty great. As I close that chapter of my life with all the wonderful memories and marks made, I am beset with a wild sense of relief. Like finding a rock in my shoe after twelve years, the alleviation is palatable: I never have to labor to master proprietary software again!

For unknown reasons (which I contemplate often), I did not learn about the free software movement until 2004, despite a lifetime of using computers. Like so many before me, my initial education on the movement came via Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman. What so instantaneously drew me to free software was the simplicity of the four freedoms: run, edit, share, contribute. These freedoms, coupled with the ethical nature of the movement, made it a natural fit for me. It did not take me long to realize that this is what I needed to soothe my “How can I make the world a better place?” angst. Inevitably, I became an FSF associate member on October 28, 2007 because it was (and still is) the easiest way to help out. If you are reading this and you are not a member, I encourage you to change that and help make the world a better place.

Although the four freedoms appear simple, defending them in this complicated world is a different story. The GNU General Public License (GPL) was created as a tool that anyone can use to defend those freedoms. As with any license, questions arise as to best practices and various topics like compatibility with other terms. In order to help others make better use of free software, my team (and our fantastic volunteers) answer licensing questions sent to licensing@fsf.org. There, we are useful to programmers and others seeking to ensure that free software remains free for future generations.

In my role here at the FSF as a copyright and licensing associate, the program I have been most excited about is evaluating products for the “Respects Your Freedom” (RYF) certification program. Enjoyably, this task brings the highest degree of technical calisthenics for my work at the FSF. The RYF certification program encourages the creation and sale of products designed to do as much as possible to empower you, the user, and will provide reassurance that you have the complete control that you deserve over your device. Keep an eye on this program! More than ever, people are becoming wise to the idea that their freedom, privacy, and rights are something that requires active defense, and having the right hardware is the first step.

Among many other job duties, the most engrossing is that of GPL compliance for works on which the FSF holds copyright. Although backed by the force of law, a compliance case should be viewed as a kind of teachable moment, because with every compliance case comes an opportunity to make the free software movement stronger. This strength comes from the addition of another compliant distributor of free software as we continue to labor towards (and ultimately secure) a world that respects the GPL and computer user freedom.

As I mentioned earlier, I find it rewarding to be a part of something larger than myself, and this role puts me on the front lines of an important movement which spans the whole globe. The free software movement is invaluable because humanity is faced with a critical binary choice that will determine the quality of our collective future: when it comes to computers, we either control these machines or we don't. It is that simple, especially since we now live in a world that is inseparably intertwined with this technology. If we don’t control these machines, the challenges of keeping personal privacy, retaining freedom of speech, and having transparency in governments will be nearly impossible to overcome. Free software does not guarantee success to these challenges, but free software is understandably a prerequisite. If the free software movement fails, our prospects would be very dim, and a nightmarish dystopia awaits. Fortunately, from a widely held point of view, the movement has been very successful, but there is obviously still far more work to be done. I am here to do that work.

I'm very grateful to be here, and will strive to be the activist that the FSF and free software users everywhere need and deserve. We will see how it goes; however, I believe that with a talented FSF staff and so many dedicated supporters and volunteers behind us, our bright future is an inevitability.

If you ever want to meet, feel free to stop by our office. We love visitors! If you can’t stop by, you can find a licensing and compliance team member every Friday hosting the Free Software Directory Meeting in the #fsf IRC Channel on freenode.net, from 1200-1500 Eastern Time, or you can reach me at craigt@fsf.org.

Here’s what else you can do to get involved and help make the world a better place:

• Become an associate member of the Free Software Foundation.
• Support the Free Software Foundation with a donation.
• Find a place to help out by becoming a volunteer.

Please join us for a presentation this Thursday in Somerville! Free Software Foundation (FSF) campaigns manager Greg Farough and copyright and licensing associate Craig Topham will be giving a presentation entitled "Freedom Embedded: Why privacy, security, and user rights depend on software freedom" at 18:30 at:

The event is free to members of Artisan's Asylum, with a $10 suggested donation from the public at the door.

there is a subtlety to note with the packaging of bleachbit-2.2.2 - if you have ever previously run bleachbit with su privilidges, you will be unable to upgrade to bleachbit-2.2.2 - you must run this command first:

# rm -rf /usr/share/bleachbit

Defective by Design is calling on you to stand up against Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) on the International Day Against DRM (IDAD) on October 12th, 2019. This year we will be focusing specifically on everyone's right to read, particularly by urging publishers to free students and educators from the unnecessary and cumbersome restrictions that make their access to necessary course materials far more difficult.

For thirteen years, we have used IDAD to mobilize actions that stand up for the freedom of users everywhere. This year, we'll be continuing the fight by bringing in a round of in-person actions, guest bloggers, organizing tips, and a few surprises that you won't want to miss. Follow along with us at the Defective by Design Web site, join the DRM Elimination Crew mailing list, and read about our past actions, such as last year's IDAD, and our protest of the W3C's decision to embed DRM into the core framework of the Internet.

• The easiest way to participate is to join us in going a Day Without DRM, and resolve to spend an entire day (or longer!) without Netflix, Hulu, and other restricted services to show your support of the movement. Document your experiences on social media using the tags "#idad" or "#dbd," and let us know at info@defectivebydesign.org if you have a special story you'd like us to share.

• Even more effective is to join up with others to make your voice louder. We'll be providing activists around the world with support on how they can stage their own local in-person event, as well as how to join us online while we help improve the free and ethical alternatives to educational materials restricted by DRM.

• In Boston, we'll be leading the way with our own demonstration on October 12th, 2019 at Pearson Education's corporate offices, followed by an evening hackathon on collaborative, freely licensed educational materials.

• Follow us on GNU social or Twitter (with caveats) to stay posted on all the events we have planned, in addition to more news items on how you can resist DRM.

• If you're IRC-inclined, join us in the #dbd channel on the Freenode network for real-time chat and collaboration on DRM-related actions.

• Join and take part in discussions on the DRM Elimination Crew mailing list, where we'll be sending all of the information about this year's campaign.

• Are you an organization or project interested in supporting IDAD? We're looking for vendors of DRM-free media, organizations that support the building of a DRM-free world, and those who believe in the mission of DbD to participate by offering sales, writing blog posts, organizing events, and sharing information with your members about IDAD. Please contact us at info@defectivebydesign.org for more information.

Defective by Design is calling on you to stand up against Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) on the International Day Against DRM (IDAD) on October 12th, 2019. This year we will be focusing specifically on everyone's right to read, particularly by urging publishers to free students and educators from the unnecessary and cumbersome restrictions that make their access to necessary course materials far more difficult.

For years, products incorporating Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) have been a plague upon the Web, and have gradually infiltrated nearly every aspect of digital society. New developments have reminded all of us that DRM is now more of a threat than ever. Many people were impacted by Microsoft's Orwellian "ebook apocalypse," in which thousands of books were forcibly deleted from ebook readers and smartphones. Recently we have seen DRM extend its sinister influence into education, especially in the form of "digital-first" textbooks that put onerous restrictions on students that forbid them from accessing the course materials they have bought, and the education that they deserve. The "Netflix of textbooks" model practiced by the major textbook publisher Pearson is a Trojan horse for education: requiring a constant Internet connection for "authentication" purposes, severely limiting the number of pages a student can read at one time, and secretly collecting telemetric data on their reading habits.

It is universally agreed that each person has a right to be educated -- so why are major publishers like Pearson placing digital handcuffs on students that make learning more difficult? This year, we will be asking both corporations and everyday people alike to demonstrate their commitment to education. For publishers like Pearson, that means the immediate removal of DRM from any and all of their educational materials. We will also be showing you how easy it is to make contributions to ethical, freely licensed, and DRM-free textbooks by sponsoring both Boston-area and remote hackathons.

DRM poses a serious threat to our collective cultural heritage, and has wide-reaching implications for historical preservation. It also severely limits what can be viewed "legitimately" by those in other nations by putting an arbitrary location-based block on many different kinds of media. In a world where companies like Pearson and Amazon have the ability to make unauthorized books "disappear" from all of their users' devices, it's not hard to imagine how this power could be used for even greater injustices. Will the next ebook apocalypse happen simply because a given book is too critical of its publisher, or the country it's discussing? If works are made exclusive to a digitally restricted platform, who knows what important works will be lost the next time this happens?

For thirteen years, we have used IDAD to mobilize actions that stand up for the freedom of users everywhere. This year, we'll be continuing the fight by bringing in a round of in-person actions, guest bloggers, organizing tips, and a few surprises that you won't want to miss. Follow along with us at the Defective by Design Web site, join the DRM Elimination Crew mailing list, and read about our past actions, such as last year's IDAD, and our protest of the W3C's decision to embed DRM into the core framework of the Internet.

If you're new to the movement and looking for ways to avoid DRM, or just want to learn more, take a look at our Guide to DRM-Free Living. This year, we've updated it with lists of retailers to avoid and ones to support, in addition to giving general tips on how to tell whether a book, video, or piece of music is DRM-encumbered.

As we become ever more reliant on digital methods of accessing our shared cultural history, the question of who controls that access and how they control it becomes a crucial one. In standing up against DRM, you are not only standing up for the rights of students and other readers now, but for those in years to come. Our successes in past years could not have happened without your help. Every voice raised in protest of DRM weakens the hold it has on all of us. Together, we are confident that we can end it once and for all.

• The easiest way to participate is to join us in going a Day Without DRM, and resolve to spend an entire day (or longer!) without Netflix, Hulu, and other restricted services to show your support of the movement. Document your experiences on social media using the tags "#idad" or "#dbd," and let us know at info@defectivebydesign.org if you have a special story you'd like us to share.

• Even more effective is to join up with others to make your voice louder. We'll be providing activists around the world with support here on how they can stage their own local in-person event, as well as how to join us online while we help improve the free and ethical alternatives to educational materials restricted by DRM.

• In Boston, we'll be leading the way with our own demonstration on October 12th, 2019 at Pearson Education's corporate offices, followed by an evening hackathon on collaborative, freely licensed educational materials.

• Follow us on GNU social or Twitter (with caveats) to stay posted on all the events we have planned, in addition to more news items on how you can resist DRM.

• If you're IRC-inclined, join us in the #dbd channel on the Freenode network for real-time chat and collaboration on DRM-related actions.

• Join and take part in discussions on the DRM Elimination Crew mailing list, where we'll be sending all of the information about this year's campaign.

• Are you an organization or project interested in supporting IDAD? We're looking for vendors of DRM-free media, organizations that support the building of a DRM-free world, and those who believe in the mission of DbD to participate by offering sales, writing blog posts, organizing events, and sharing information with your members about IDAD. Please contact us at info@defectivebydesign.org for more information.

The CLE seminar is a regular program from the FSF, where a select a group of experts and experienced instructors in the free software community provide a comprehensive overview of current affairs in GPL Enforcement and Legal Ethics. We invite legal professionals, law students, free software developers, and anyone interested in licensing and compliance topics to join. While registration is open to the public, this seminar is a special opportunity for legal professionals and law students who can potentially earn continuing legal education (CLE) credits for participating (approval pending). The program will be available shortly on the event page.

Register now for early registration prices. Regular pricing starts on September 16th. FSF Associate members, as always, get discounted entry. Registration for this event closes on Friday October 4th, 2019 COB.

Attendees of the full day seminar will learn about copyleft and other important concepts in the GNU family of licenses, best practices in the free software licensing enforcement process, ethical considerations important to any lawyer working with clients involved in free software, and other current topics in free software licensing.

We are also opening up the event for potential sponsorships; offering a unique opportunity to align with the FSF and the professional ethics considerations in free software. Sponsors will receive complimentary passes to this event, as well as additional benefits. For more information, you can contact our program manager at zoe@fsf.org.

The sessions will be led by experts and respected leaders in the free software community, including:

• Bradley Kuhn, president of the Software Freedom Conservancy and a member of the Board of Directors of the FSF;

• Justin C. Colannino, JD, Open Source & Standards Attorney at Microsoft;

• Marc Jones, JD, in house and compliance engineer at CivicActions; and

• Donald R. Robertson, III, JD, licensing and compliance manager of the Free Software Foundation.

FSF executive director John Sullivan will also be giving introductory and closing remarks.

A detailed agenda, as well as curriculum materials, will soon be posted on the event page. If you have any questions, or if you would like to sponsor this event, please contact licensing@fsf.org.

Thanks in advance for helping us spread the word, and we hope to see you at the event.

Register now!

Event page

What: The FSF Licensing and Compliance Lab will work with experienced lawyers and professionals to provide a full day continuing legal education (CLE) seminar on GPL Enforcement and Legal Ethics for legal professionals, law students, free software developers, and anyone interested in licensing issues.

Where: Raleigh Convention Center, room 205, 300 S. Salisbury St, Raleigh, NC 27601

When: Wednesday, October 16, 9:30am - 5:00pm (doors open at 9:00am)

Contact: For questions, email the FSF's program manager at zoe@fsf.org

Registration: Register here. Early registration is available until September 16th. Registration for this event closes on Friday October 4th, 2019.

The Free Software Foundation's (FSF) Seminar on GPL Enforcement and Legal Ethics will be held on Wednesday, October 16th at Raleigh Convention Center, Raleigh, NC. Attendees of the full day seminar will learn about copyleft and other important concepts in the GNU family of licenses, best practices in the free software licensing enforcement process, ethical considerations important to any lawyer working with clients involved in free software, and other current topics in free software licensing. We invite legal professionals, law students, free software developers, and anyone interested in licensing and compliance topics to join. While registration is open to the public, this seminar is a special opportunity for legal professionals and law students who can potentially earn continuing legal education (CLE) credits for participating (approval pending).

The program will be available here shortly. Sign-ups and details on financial aid options available to all lawyers can be found on the seminar registration page.

The sessions will be led by experts and respected leaders in the free software community, including:

• Bradley Kuhn, president of the Software Freedom Conservancy and a member of the Board of Directors of the FSF;

• Justin C. Colannino, JD, Open Source & Standards Attorney at Microsoft;

• Marc Jones, JD, in house and compliance engineer at CivicActions; and

• Donald R. Robertson, III, JD, licensing and compliance manager of the Free Software Foundation.

FSF executive director John Sullivan will also be giving introductory and closing remarks.

We are in the process of applying to the North Carolina Association for MCLE course approval on our course materials. When we are approved, attendees will be able to claim CLE credits in North Carolina, or any other state that accepts North Carolina-approved CLE credits.

• Event Schedule
• Speaker Bios
• Session Materials

Registration is now open for the full day seminar.
The FSF provides all session materials, as well as coffee, breakfast, and lunch.
Early registration pricing is available until September 16th.
Register now!

The event will take place in room 205 on mezzanine level of the Raleigh Convention Center, located adjacent to the Red Hat Amphitheater and is located at 500 South Salisbury Street, Raleigh, NC 27601. The R-LINE, Downtown Raleigh’s free circulating bus, has a stop at the main entrance of the Raleigh Convention Center.

The closest public parking decks to the Raleigh Convention Center are located at

• Lenoir Street between Salisbury Street and Fayetteville Street
• Lenoir Street between Salisbury and McDowell Street
• South Street between Salisbury and McDowell Street
• Davie Street between McDowell and Dawson Street
• Cabarrus Street between McDowell and Dawson Street
• Salisbury Street between Cabarrus and Davie Street

Please note that the Raleigh Convention Center, nor the FSF, control the parking rates or maintenance of these garages. Listed parking decks are operated by McLaurin Parking. For concerns with a parking facility or more information, contact McLaurin Parking directly.

The full list of FSF board members can be found at https://www.fsf.org/about/staff-and-board.

A longtime free software activist and founder of FSF Latin America, Oliva brings decades of experience in the free software movement to the FSF board. In the community, he is held in especially high regard for being the chief developer of the GNU Linux-libre project, a version of the kernel Linux that removes all nonfree bits from the kernel's source code, enabling users around the world to run fully free versions of the GNU/Linux operating system, and is a program of vital importance in the cause for software freedom. For his deep commitment and tireless work in free software, Oliva was the recipient of the 2016 Advancement of Free Software award given annually by the FSF.

Aside from being a contributor to the GNU Project since 1993, Oliva is an accomplished public speaker and author on the importance of software freedom. He worked as a computer engineer at Red Hat from 2000 to 2019, making large contributions to crucial components of the GNU toolchain like GCC and the GNU C library. Most recently he has announced the founding of the 0G project, a vision for mobile phones that free users from the constant danger posed by bulk surveillance.

Upon his nomination to the board, Alexandre stated, "In 2017, I borrowed from Edward Snowden's 2016's LibrePlanet speech and qualified the FSF as the lighthouse of the free software movement, the reliable reference point that lights the path to software freedom. How exciting, and what a wonderful challenge it is to become part of a team that has to figure out what the path to be lighted is, and how to keep the lights shining through such dark times!"

Commenting on Oliva's nomination, FSF executive director John Sullivan said, "Alex's steadfast commitment to free software principles, along with his technical contributions aimed at helping others around the world live free lives, have inspired so many of us at the FSF and in the free software movement. This is great news for our members and supporters -- the FSF will benefit enormously from his increased involvement."

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at https://fsf.org and https://gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at https://donate.fsf.org. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.

More information about the FSF, as well as important information for journalists and publishers, is at https://www.fsf.org/press.

John Sullivan
Executive Director
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942
campaigns@fsf.org

Richard Stallman will be speaking about free software and your freedom. His speech will be nontechnical, admission is gratis, and the public is encouraged to attend.

Location: Seattle Public Library (Central Branch) - Main Auditorium, 1st Floor, 1000 Fourth Ave., Seattle, WA 98104

• aspell-0.60.7
• freeipmi-1.6.4
• gcc-9.2.0
• glibc-2.30
• gnuastro-0.10
• gsl-2.6
• help2man-1.47.11
• libffcall-2.2
• libmicrohttpd-0.9.66
• mit-scheme-10.1.10
• nano-4.4
• parallel-20190822
• pycdio-2.1.0
• stow-2.3.1
• unifont-12.1.03

For announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu mailing list: https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu.

To download: nearly all GNU software is available from https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/, or preferably one of its mirrors from https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html. You can use the URL https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/ to be automatically redirected to a (hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.

A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance: please see https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint if you'd like to help. The general page on how to help GNU is at https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html.

If you have a working or partly working program that you'd like to offer to the GNU project as a GNU package, see https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html.

As always, please feel free to write to us at maintainers@gnu.org with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.

The astyle package prior to version 3.1-2 was missing a soname link. This has been fixed in 3.1-2, so the upgrade will need to overwrite the untracked soname link created by ldconfig. If you get an error

astyle: /usr/lib/libastyle.so.3 exists in filesystem

when updating, use

pacman -Suy --overwrite usr/lib/libastyle.so.3

to perform the upgrade.

We are delighted to announce GNU Guile 2.9.4, the fourth beta release in preparation for the upcoming 3.0 stable series. See the release announcement for full details and a download link.

This release enables inlining of references to top-level definitions within a compilation unit, speeding up some programs by impressive amounts. It also improves compilation of floating-point routines like sin, implements the Ghuloum/Dybvig "Fixing Letrec (reloaded)" algorithm, and allows mixed definitions and expressions within lexical contours, as is the case at the top level. Try it out, it's good times!

GNU Guile 2.9.4 is a beta release, and as such offers no API or ABI stability guarantees. Users needing a stable Guile are advised to stay on the stable 2.2 series.

Experience reports with GNU Guile 2.9.4, good or bad, are very welcome; send them to guile-devel@gnu.org. If you know you found a bug, please do send a note to bug-guile@gnu.org. Happy hacking!

GNU Parallel 20190822 ('Jesper Svarre') [stable] has been released. It is available for download at: http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/parallel/

No new functionality was introduced so this is a good candidate for a stable release.

GNU Parallel is 10 years old next year on 2020-04-22. You are here by invited to a reception on Friday 2020-04-17.

See https://www.gnu.org/software/parallel/10-years-anniversary.html

Quote of the month:

  It is, beyond absolutely any doubt whatsoever, the single most
  important tool I use in making me a productive bioinformatician.
    -- A-N-Other@reddit.com

New in this release:

• GNU Parallel will be presented at Driving IT 2019: https://ida.dk/arrangementer-og-kurser/konferencer/driving-it#beskrivelse

• Linux Productivity Tools https://www.usenix.org/conference/lisa19/presentation/maheshwari

• Improve your reconnaissance performance by using GNU Parallel https://mailchi.mp/3f46ceb46357/improve-your-reconnaissance-performance-by-using-gnu-parallel

• Paralel İşler / İşlemler / Programlar Bash’de Nasıl Çalıştırılır? https://kaleinfo.com/2019/07/29/paralel-isler-islemler-programlar-bashde-nasil-calistirilir-2/

• Use POLYBAR to change WALLPAPER with GNU Parallel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjYg-b_eiRU

• Finding the Balance Between Speed & Accuracy During an Internet-wide Port Scanning https://captmeelo.com/pentest/2019/07/29/port-scanning.html

• GNU Parallel Ryugu released https://linuxreviews.org/GNU_Parallel_Ryugu_released

• CO2017 - CW1 - Operating Systems & Networks - Shell scripting http://www.7daixie.com/2019071646302396.html

• Bug fixes and man page updates.

Get the book: GNU Parallel 2018 http://www.lulu.com/shop/ole-tange/gnu-parallel-2018/paperback/product-23558902.html

GNU Parallel - For people who live life in the parallel lane.

GNU Parallel is a shell tool for executing jobs in parallel using one or more computers. A job can be a single command or a small script that has to be run for each of the lines in the input. The typical input is a list of files, a list of hosts, a list of users, a list of URLs, or a list of tables. A job can also be a command that reads from a pipe. GNU Parallel can then split the input and pipe it into commands in parallel.

If you use xargs and tee today you will find GNU Parallel very easy to use as GNU Parallel is written to have the same options as xargs. If you write loops in shell, you will find GNU Parallel may be able to replace most of the loops and make them run faster by running several jobs in parallel. GNU Parallel can even replace nested loops.

GNU Parallel makes sure output from the commands is the same output as you would get had you run the commands sequentially. This makes it possible to use output from GNU Parallel as input for other programs.

For example you can run this to convert all jpeg files into png and gif files and have a progress bar:

  parallel --bar convert {1} {1.}.{2} ::: *.jpg ::: png gif

Or you can generate big, medium, and small thumbnails of all jpeg files in sub dirs:

  find . -name '*.jpg' |
    parallel convert -geometry {2} {1} {1//}/thumb{2}_{1/} :::: - ::: 50 100 200

You can find more about GNU Parallel at: http://www.gnu.org/s/parallel/

You can install GNU Parallel in just 10 seconds with:

    $ (wget -O - pi.dk/3 || lynx -source pi.dk/3 || curl pi.dk/3/ || \
       fetch -o - http://pi.dk/3 ) > install.sh
    $ sha1sum install.sh | grep 3374ec53bacb199b245af2dda86df6c9
    12345678 3374ec53 bacb199b 245af2dd a86df6c9
    $ md5sum install.sh | grep 029a9ac06e8b5bc6052eac57b2c3c9ca
    029a9ac0 6e8b5bc6 052eac57 b2c3c9ca
    $ sha512sum install.sh | grep f517006d9897747bed8a4694b1acba1b
    40f53af6 9e20dae5 713ba06c f517006d 9897747b ed8a4694 b1acba1b 1464beb4
    60055629 3f2356f3 3e9c4e3c 76e3f3af a9db4b32 bd33322b 975696fc e6b23cfb
    $ bash install.sh

Watch the intro video on http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL284C9FF2488BC6D1

Walk through the tutorial (man parallel_tutorial). Your command line will love you for it.

When using programs that use GNU Parallel to process data for publication please cite:

O. Tange (2018): GNU Parallel 2018, March 2018, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1146014.

If you like GNU Parallel:

• Give a demo at your local user group/team/colleagues
• Post the intro videos on Reddit/Diaspora*/forums/blogs/ Identi.ca/Google+/Twitter/Facebook/Linkedin/mailing lists
• Get the merchandise https://gnuparallel.threadless.com/designs/gnu-parallel
• Request or write a review for your favourite blog or magazine
• Request or build a package for your favourite distribution (if it is not already there)
• Invite me for your next conference

If you use programs that use GNU Parallel for research:

• Please cite GNU Parallel in you publications (use --citation)

If GNU Parallel saves you money:

• (Have your company) donate to FSF https://my.fsf.org/donate/

GNU sql aims to give a simple, unified interface for accessing databases through all the different databases' command line clients. So far the focus has been on giving a common way to specify login information (protocol, username, password, hostname, and port number), size (database and table size), and running queries.

The database is addressed using a DBURL. If commands are left out you will get that database's interactive shell.

When using GNU SQL for a publication please cite:

O. Tange (2011): GNU SQL - A Command Line Tool for Accessing Different Databases Using DBURLs, ;login: The USENIX Magazine, April 2011:29-32.

GNU niceload slows down a program when the computer load average (or other system activity) is above a certain limit. When the limit is reached the program will be suspended for some time. If the limit is a soft limit the program will be allowed to run for short amounts of time before being suspended again. If the limit is a hard limit the program will only be allowed to run when the system is below the limit.

https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/freeipmi/freeipmi-1.6.4.tar.gz

o In libfreeipmi, add additional workarounds for packets that are
  re-ordered during sensor bridging.
o In libfreeipmi, add additional sensor / event interpretations.
o In libfreeipmi, fix error return value on bridging requests.
o Add workaround in ipmi-sel for QuantaPlex T42D-2U motherboard,
  whichlists a SDR record that makes no sense.
o Add workaround for Dell Poweredge FC830, which have an error
  when reading the last SDR record on a motherboard.
o Support Supermicro X10 OEM dimm events.

Version 2.6 of the GNU Scientific Library (GSL) is now available. GSL provides a large collection of routines for numerical computing in C.

This release introduces major performance improvements to common linear algebra matrix factorizations, as well as numerous new features and bug fixes. The full NEWS file entry is appended below.

The file details for this release are:

ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gsl/gsl-2.6.tar.gz
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gsl/gsl-2.6.tar.gz.sig

The GSL project homepage is http://www.gnu.org/software/gsl/

GSL is free software distributed under the GNU General Public License.

Thanks to everyone who reported bugs and contributed improvements.

Patrick Alken

-------------------------------

• What is new in gsl-2.6:

• • add BLAS calls for the following functions:

     - gsl_vector_memcpy
     - gsl_vector_scale
     - gsl_matrix_memcpy
     - gsl_matrix_transpose_memcpy
     - gsl_matrix_tricpy
     - gsl_matrix_transpose_tricpy

• • deprecated functions gsl_linalg_complex_householder_hm and

   gsl_linalg_complex_householder_mh

• • add unit tests for gsl_linalg_symmtd and gsl_linalg_hermtd

• • multilarge TSQR algorithm has been converted to use the new Level 3 QR decomposition

• • nonlinear least squares Cholesky solver now uses the new Level 3 BLAS

   method; the old modified Cholesky solver is still available under
   gsl_multifit_nlinear_solver_mcholesky and gsl_multilarge_nlinear_solver_mcholesky

• • implemented Level 3 BLAS versions of several linear algebra routines:

     - Triangular matrix inversion
     - Cholesky decomposition and inversion (real and complex)
     - LU decomposition and inversion (real and complex)
     - QR decomposition (courtesy of Julien Langou)
     - Generalized symmetric/hermitian eigensystem reduction to standard form

• • removed deprecated function gsl_linalg_hessenberg()

• • renamed gsl_interp2d_eval_e_extrap() to gsl_interp2d_eval_extrap_e()

   to match documentation (reported by D. Lebrun-Grandie)

• • renamed some of the gsl_sf_hermite functions to be more consistent

   with rest of the library, and deprecated old function names

• • updated gsl_sf_hermite_func() to use a newer algorithm

   due to B. Bunck which is more stable for large x; also added
   gsl_sf_hermite_func_fast() which uses the faster Cauchy integral
   algorithm in the same paper by Bunck

• • add gsl_vector_axpby()

• • add un-pivoted LDLT decomposition and its banded

   variant (gsl_linalg_ldlt_* and gsl_linalg_ldlt_band_*)

• • add binary search tree module (gsl_bst); based on GNU libavl

• • remove -u flag to gsl-histogram

• • updated spmatrix module

   - added routines and data structures for all types (float,uint,char,...)
   - added gsl_spmatrix_scale_columns() and gsl_spmatrix_scale_rows()
   - added gsl_spmatrix_add_to_dense()
   - more efficient reallocation of COO/triplet matrices (no longer rebuilds binary tree)
   - enhanced test suite
   - added gsl_spmatrix_min_index()

• • add routines for banded Cholesky decomposition (gsl_linalg_cholesky_band_*)

• • documented gsl_linalg_LQ routines and added gsl_linalg_LQ_lssolve()

This workshop, presented by Sturm Software Engineering, will teach you how to code on a free software project, and guide you through the whole process.

On the Friday evening you'll meet the mentors and participants, go through some preliminaries and then head out for dinner with the group. Dinner not included.

You'll spend a full day on Saturday working with the mentors and participants, with the aim of making your first contribution. Lunch and snacks will be provided.

It's a lot to do in one day, so a mentor will be in touch with you a week before and again two weeks after the event to help you get set up and to overcome any hurdles.

This event is suitable for tertiary students, hobbyists and technology professionals. We won't be teaching programming as such, so basic coding experience is required. We'll aim to find you a project that suits your skills and experience.

Please provide your own laptop.

Places limited to 16 participants

Location: 136 Albert St, Ballarat, Central Highlands of Victoria 3350, Australia

See here for registration information.

Please fill out our contact form, so that we can contact you about future events in and around Ballarat.

11 August 2019 Unifont 12.1.03 is now available. Significant changes in this version include the replacement of the Jiskan glyphs in the Japanese version, unifont_jp, with Izumi public domain glyphs.  Also, modifications to Limbu, Buginese, Tai Tham, Adlam, and Mayan Numerals, plus a redrawn Indian Rupee Sign.  Full details are in the ChangeLog file.

Download this release at:

https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/unifont/unifont-12.1.03/

or if that fails,

https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/unifont/unifont-12.1.03/

or, as a last resort,

ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/unifont/unifont-12.1.03/