=head1 NAME

nbdkit-release-notes-1.6 - release notes for nbdkit 1.6

=head1 DESCRIPTION

These are the release notes for nbdkit stable release 1.6.
This describes the major changes since 1.4.

nbdkit 1.6.0 was released on 28th August 2018.

=head2 New features

=over 4

=item *

You can now write plugins in the Lua scripting language, see
L<nbdkit-lua-plugin(3)>.

=item *

nbdkit and common plugins are now "63 bit clean": the maximum disk
size supported is 2⁶³-1 bytes, and the core server and plugins now
have additional tests to check this works, even on 32 bit machines.

=item *

Multiple improvements to the L<nbdkit-file-plugin(1)> to make zeroing
and trimming perform better, work correctly with block devices, and
work on older Linux kernels [Nir Soffer, Eric Blake].

=item *

New L<nbdkit-pattern-plugin(1)> generates a simple, fixed test pattern
for testing nbdkit filters and NBD clients.

=item *

New L<nbdkit-truncate-filter(1)> can: truncate or extend the size of
plugins, or round up or down the size to next multiple of a power of
2.  Useful for NBD clients like qemu which can only handle NBD sizes
which are a multiple of 512 bytes.

=item *

New L<nbdkit-error-filter(1)> which can be used to inject errors into
the protocol for testing how clients can handle and recover from
errors.

=item *

New L<nbdkit-data-plugin(1)> allows you to specify (small) disk images
directly on the command line.

=item *

Enhanced error reporting in the Python plugin so full tracebacks
from errors are now displayed instead of being lost as before.

=item *

C<NBD_OPT_GO> now supported, so we can return errors when negotiating
the export name.

=item *

Support for logging error messages to syslog.

=item *

nbdkit can now be compiled with Clang (as well as GCC).

=item *

nbdkit can now be compiled on FreeBSD.

=item *

L<nbdkit-vddk-plugin(1)> is compiled unconditionally.  You no longer
need to install the proprietary VDDK to compile it.

=item *

Debug messages now include the name of the filter when invoked from
a filter context.

=item *

Debug flags (I<-D> option) provides lightweight debugging for plugin
authors.

=back

=head2 Acknowledgements

Thanks to all who contributed, especially Nir Soffer and Eric Blake.

=head1 SEE ALSO

L<nbdkit(1)>,
L<https://www.redhat.com/archives/libguestfs/2018-August/msg00279.html>.

=head1 AUTHORS

Eric Blake

Richard W.M. Jones

=head1 COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2018 Red Hat Inc.
