1.2.0 is our second major DragonFly release and the first one which we have created a separate CVS branch for. DragonFly's policy is to only commit bug fixes to release branches.
This release represents a significant milestone in our efforts to improve the kernel infrastructure. DragonFly is still running under the Big Giant Lock, but this will probably be the last release where that is the case.
This will be last release that uses GCC 2.95.x as the default compiler. Both GCC 3.4.x and GCC 2.95.x are supported in this release through the use of the CCVER environment variable ('gcc2' or 'gcc34'). GCC 2.95.x is to be retired soon due to its lack of TLS support. The current development branch will soon start depending heavily on TLS support and __thread both within the kernel and in libc and other libraries. This release fully supports TLS segments for programs compiled with gcc-3.4.x.
It goes without saying that this release is far more stable then our 1.0A release. A huge number of bug fixes, performance improvements, and design changes have been made since the 1.0A release.
TCP SACK in, tested, and on by default. TCP Performance tuning (header prediction now works properly, ACK aggregation when operating at GiGE speeds, fewer pure window update packets). Major network protocol stack threading and other infrastructure work. ALTQ and PF (Packet Filter). TLS (Thread Local Storage) support. DCONS support (console over firewire). IPv6 improvements. Namecache infrastructure rewritten. Improved checkpointing support. NFSv3 greatly improved. Kernel callout_*() infrastructure revamped. A lot of USB fixes. VESA console and X support. A large number of general maintainance items, such as driver updates, bug fixes, and so forth. Upgraded installer includes an option to turn it into a standalone netboot server for mass installs, bug fixes, and other new features. The RELEASE is now branched in the cvs repository.