
Release Notes JGroups 2.6.3
===========================

Version: $Id: ReleaseNotes-2.6.3.txt,v 1.1.2.6 2008/06/30 06:00:37 belaban Exp $
Author: Bela Ban

JGroups 2.6.3 is still API-backwards compatible with previous versions (down to 2.2.7).
It is also binary backwards compatible with 2.6, 2.6.1 and 2.6.2.

Below is a summary (with links to the detailed description) of the major new features between 2.6.2 and 2.6.3.


Shared transport fixes
----------------------
[http://jira.jboss.com/jira/browse/JGRP-737]

Critical bug in the shared transport which caused channels sharing a transport to stop working as soon as
one shared channel was closed. Fixed by introducing reference counting.


Better thread naming for threads in a shared transport
------------------------------------------------------
[http://jira.jboss.com/jira/browse/JGRP-728]


Timer thread pool moved to transport protocol
---------------------------------------------
Related to above. The timer thread pool was moved from the ProtocolStack to the transport protocol. Now *all* thread
pools are located in the transport.

Thread factories, which control the creation of all threads in the JGroups system, are now also located in the
transport. They can be replaced entirely, or - as an alternative - a listener can be registered to be called
whenever a thread is created or released back into a thread pool.

Section 5.5.5 (http://www.jgroups.org/javagroupsnew/docs/manual/html/user-advanced.html#d0e2809) in the manual
discusses the steps to be taken to replace thread pools and / or thread factories. 


Eager ACKs for UNICAST
----------------------
[http://jira.jboss.com/jira/browse/JGRP-713]

Optimization for heavy unicast traffic; reduces retransmissions


Manual
------
The manual is online at http://www.jgroups.org/javagroupsnew/docs/manual/html/index.html





Bug fixes
---------


FD: messages other than from the pinged neighbor cause the missing heartbeat count to get reset
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[http://jira.jboss.com/jira/browse/JGRP-746]
This is a regression in 2.6.

FLUSH: flush spans merges
[http://jira.jboss.com/jira/browse/JGRP-700]

Merging of digests incorrect
----------------------------
[http://jira.jboss.com/jira/browse/JGRP-699]

Blockings with large state transfers
------------------------------------
[http://jira.jboss.com/jira/browse/JGRP-774]

Concurrent startups of many channels with FLUSH
-----------------------------------------------
[http://jira.jboss.com/jira/browse/JGRP-770]



The complete list of features and bug fixes can be found at http://jira.jboss.com/jira/browse/JGRP.


Bela Ban, Kreuzlingen, Switzerland
Vladimir Blagojevic, Toronto, Canada
Richard Achmatowicz, Montreal, Canada

July 2008


