0.5 release progress update

[Gavin Andresen]

Quick update on why there is no final 0.5 release out yet:

Short answer: because I'm really paranoid about bitcoin binary builds, and the switch to Qt means a change in the way the builds are done.

Long answer:

Linux builds should be all set; the 'gitian' trusted build process works nicely.

Windows builds are being difficult; we need a gcc expert to help debug the 'gitian' cross-compile (see https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/587 ).

Unless somebody steps forward and says "I'll support compiling bitcoin-qt/bitcoind with Visual Studio) I'm going to remove src/makefile.vc and make sure the readmes say that only the mingw toolchain is supported.

Mac builds were slightly broken for the 0.4 release (they don't run on OSX 10.5-- you need 10.6 or greater). I'm "recompiling the world" to hopefully fix that, and hope to have mac binaries available soon (let me know if you can help test, especially if you have a 32-bit Intel mac running 10.5).

On my wish list for builds (anybody want to volunteer?):

I think it'd be spiffy to have a .pro file to compile bitcoind; maintaining N different makefiles is annoying and error-prone.

[1714100506]

1714100506

[1714100506]

1714100506

[1714100506]

1714100506

[1714100506]

1714100506

[Coinabul]

Don't rush the release, all I can say.
Thanks for fixing the mac problem!

[evoorhees]

Don't rush the release, all I can say.

+1

Thanks for all the work Gavin

[2112]

(let me know if you can help test, especially if you have a 32-bit Intel mac running 10.5).

I just want to remind that everyone who has an Intel Mac can run 32-bit applications. If your system is 64-bit native then start the app with "arch -i386".

Code:

$ cat bo.c
#include <stdio.h>
union {
        char b[4];
        int w;
} t = { 0x11, 0x22, 0x33, 0x44 };
int main()
{
        return printf("%08x,%i\n",t.w,(int)sizeof(void*));
}
$ gcc -arch x86_64 -arch i386 -arch ppc -mmacosx-version-min=10.5 bo.c
$ ./a.out
44332211,8
$ arch -i386 ./a.out
44332211,4
$ arch -ppc ./a.out
11223344,4

I'm still using Leopard (non-Snow) Macbook, so I will test your builds if you post them somewhere for download. Thanks in advance.

[doobadoo]

Mac builds were slightly broken for the 0.4 release (they don't run on OSX 10.5-- you need 10.6 or greater). I'm "recompiling the world" to hopefully fix that, and hope to have mac binaries available soon (let me know if you can help test, especially if you have a 32-bit Intel mac running 10.5).

HAD 10.5 on my macbook, but i finally upgraded to snow leopard to keep up with the 0.4 release.  Don't worry so much about supporting leopard anymore, very few people using it on intel.  The only leopard users left are PPC, and you're not going to support that anyhow.

[Gavin Andresen]

Another quick update:

Wladimir figured out what was breaking the Win32 cross-compiled builds (one of the 'hardening' gcc flags is apparently busted for mingw32 cross-compiles), so Linux and Win32 binaries of a rc2 should be available soon.

Yet another hurdle was thrown in my way by Mother Nature Saturday night; we got over a foot of snow, and my house and home office still have no power. Mac builds won't be available until my main machine has power...

[jimbobway]

A 0.5 release with GUI changes should be huge news.  I will be sure to blog about this.  We (or you and developers) are half way to 1.0!  Can't wait.

[Red Emerald]

Thanks for the update.

What version of libdb is going to be used? The newest debian/ubuntu don't have libdb4.8++ and instead have 5.1

[Luke-Jr]

We (or you and developers) are half way to 1.0!  Can't wait.

Sounds like you need to learn how versions work. 0.5 is not a decimal number. It is a series of multiple integers. So it's "major 0, minor 5", not "one half".

In simpler terms, 0.5 is followed by 0.6 or 1.0; 0.9 is followed by 0.10 or1.0; 0.10 is a higher version than 0.2.