Version 0.6.2 available

[Gavin Andresen]

Bitcoin version 0.6.2 is now available for download at:
  http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/bitcoin-0.6.2/

This is a bug-fix and code-cleanup release, with no major new features.

Please report bugs using the github issue tracker at:
  https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues

NOTABLE CHANGES
===============

Much faster shutdowns. However, the blkindex.dat file is no longer
portable to different data directories by default. If you need a
portable blkindex.dat file then run with the new -detachdb=1 option
or the "Detach databases at shutdown" GUI preference.

Fixed https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/1065, a bug that
could cause long-running nodes to crash.

Mac and Windows binaries are compiled against OpenSSL 1.0.1b (Linux
binaries are dynamically linked to the version of OpenSSL on the system).


CHANGE SUMMARY
==============

Use 'git shortlog --no-merges v0.6.0..' for a summary of this release.

Source codebase changes:
- Many source code cleanups and warnings fixes.  Close to building with -Wall
- Locking overhaul, and several minor locking fixes
- Several source code portability fixes, e.g. FreeBSD

JSON-RPC interface changes:
- addmultisigaddress enabled for mainnet (previously only enabled for testnet)

Network protocol changes:
- protocol version 60001
- added nonce value to "ping" message (BIP 31)
- added new "pong" message (BIP 31)

Backend storage changes:
- Less redundant database flushing, especially during initial block download
- Shutdown improvements (see above)

Qt user interface:
- minor URI handling improvements
- progressbar improvements
- error handling improvements (show message box rather than console exception,
  etc.)
- by popular request, make 4th bar of connection icon green



Thanks to everybody who contributed to this release:

Chris Moore
Dwayne C. Litzenberger
Gavin Andresen
Jeff Garzik
Luke Dashjr
Matt Corallo
Philip Kaufmann
Pieter Wuille
R E Broadley
Timothy Redaelli
Wladimir J. van der Laan
cardpuncher
freewil
graingert
sje397

[jgarzik]

Kudos to Gavin and the other developers and testers for this release.

[twobitcoins]

Is the crash bug that was fixed likely to be the cause of std::bad_alloc exceptions that I've been receiving on Windows occasionally?  (I'm running a custom build with some code modifications so I wasn't sure if the exceptions were my fault or something wrong in the system.)

[toffoo]

Hi guys,

I just upgraded to the new v0.6.2 Mac release directly from v0.6.0.  I'm on the latest version of OSX 10.7.3 and I've never really had any kind of major trouble running any of the recent releases.

I noticed with this new version, after running normally for a few minutes, it pegs one CPU at 100% and basically keeps it there until the program is closed.  I noticed this happening consistently, after multiple open/closes and reboots.  It happens every time.  It starts up running fine (seems to open and close speedier now too) but after a few minutes of running normally at 0-5% CPU utilization, it spikes to 100% and stays there until I close it.  Apart from that, it seems to be running perfectly normal, has not crashed, and I've seen no other major issues.

Is there something this version should be doing that would require that kind of processor power for so long, or is this a bug that can hopefully be quashed?  (or is this the start of stealth CPU mining?    )

I watched the debug.log the last few times to see if I could find anything interesting that would correlate with the spike in CPU usage, but no.


Also, one new little visual glitch I noticed since the last version: when you app switch to Bitcoin-Qt using either the task switcher or the Dock icon, the program doesn't jump to the foreground as it should (and used to).


Please me know if there's anything further I can tell you that would help diagnose these, and thanks for the help.

[ironwolf]

I have the same configuration as toffoo, and am also experiencing the same issue: Bitcoin-QT 0.6.2 keeps 1 CPU stuck at 100% utilization for no reason.

[Pieter Wuille]

There is indeed a problem with the OSX version, resulting in 100% usage. We're working on a fix.

[Raoul Duke]

May I ask why wasn't the new language pt_PT included in the release? It's 100% complete for 2 weeks already.
Also there should be some quality control on the translations. pt_Br, for instance, says in transifex to be 77% translated when in reality more than 50% of the text is still in english. It shows as translated because the strings aren't empty, but they are only a copy of the english source.

Also, there is a small bug in Ubuntu. No menus and no sys tray icon. Ubuntu 12.04 using Unity
I should add that it's not really a small bug as now I have no other way to close my client besides terminating it on the console by it's process ID. Had the minimize to tray on close selected

[Gavin Andresen]

May I ask why wasn't the new language pt_PT included in the release?

Because when I was a young child a Portuguese family lived across the street from me and their oldest child bullied me mercilessly, making fun of my haircut and my funny Australian accent.

(KIDDING!  JUST KIDDING!)

Somebody to do translation quality assurance is a great idea. Want to volunteer?

[Raoul Duke]

May I ask why wasn't the new language pt_PT included in the release?

Because when I was a young child a Portuguese family lived across the street from me and their oldest child bullied me mercilessly, making fun of my haircut and my funny Australian accent.

(KIDDING!  JUST KIDDING!)

Somebody to do translation quality assurance is a great idea. Want to volunteer?

I can only do it on languages I understand, and more eyes would be needed. Who controls the quality controlers, after all? I can have a look at the languages I don't understand and remove the english strings, if they exist, so at least the project in Transifex shows the correct percentage of what is done.

[GroundRod]

Thanks much Gavin and team for the new release, again am wondering if I can just shutdown my v0.6.0.7 beta release under windows, install the new exe and bring the client back online without any problems?

[toffoo]

There is indeed a problem with the OSX version, resulting in 100% usage. We're working on a fix.

Thanks for the quick feedback on this guys.

Is it possible to swap the binary back to v0.6.0 or v.0.6.1 without messing anything up until a fix comes out ... so I can continue running the client without my laptop scorching my crotch?

[David M]

Kudos to you all.

Worked flawlessly on Win 7 32bit.

[finway]

Working fine here.

[Gavin Andresen]

Pieter fixed the "100% usage on OSX bug" and I created and uploaded a fixed version 0.6.2.2 especially for the Mac.

RE: upgrading:  the best upgrade practice is to:

1) Backup your wallet someplace safe (if you're running an 0.6 release then use the Backup Wallet menu item).
2) Shutdown. Make sure Bitcoin isn't still in your system tray-- don't just close the window, shut it down.
3) Wait a minute or two (it can take older versions a minute or two to completely shut down)
4) Install and run the new version.

[rjk]

Pieter fixed the "100% usage on OSX bug" and I created and uploaded a fixed version 0.6.2.2 especially for the Mac.

RE: upgrading:  the best upgrade practice is to:

1) Backup your wallet someplace safe (if you're running an 0.6 release then use the Backup Wallet menu item).
2) Shutdown. Make sure Bitcoin isn't still in your system tray-- don't just close the window, shut it down.
3) Wait a minute or two (it can take older versions a minute or two to completely shut down)
4) Install and run the new version.

I know the new version is "faster" to shut down, but how much faster should I expect it to be? I haven't really timed it, but the old version seemed to take between 30 sec and 1 min to shut down completely.

[Pieter Wuille]

I know the new version is "faster" to shut down, but how much faster should I expect it to be? I haven't really timed it, but the old version seemed to take between 30 sec and 1 min to shut down completely.

It depends on what caused the slowdown. While not syncing the chain, with no caches to write at shutdown, I often get shutdowns close to a second or less now. During chain download, it can be significantly more.

[rjk]

I know the new version is "faster" to shut down, but how much faster should I expect it to be? I haven't really timed it, but the old version seemed to take between 30 sec and 1 min to shut down completely.

It depends on what caused the slowdown. While not syncing the chain, with no caches to write at shutdown, I often get shutdowns close to a second or less now. During chain download, it can be significantly more.

Just during normal operation. I always figured it was doing some kind of shutdown sync, but that didn't really make sense because of my fast SSD and stuff. But the new version does shut down within 0.5 seconds for me now.

[bonks]

Could someone explain the differences with a portable and non-portable blkindex.dat?

[Pieter Wuille]

Could someone explain the differences with a portable and non-portable blkindex.dat?

Portable means you can move/copy it to another data directory.

If changes have been made to a .dat file (except blk0001.dat, which isn't really a database), an "lsn_reset pass" is necessary before the file can be used in another data directory (or the same, if its logfiles are deleted). Versions prior to 0.6.1 would always perform this pass at shutdown - which could take up to a minute on some systems. Since 0.6.1, this process is made optional for addr.dat and blkindex.dat. Wallets are always made portable at shutdown.

[toffoo]

Pieter fixed the "100% usage on OSX bug" and I created and uploaded a fixed version 0.6.2.2 especially for the Mac.

Thanks guys, I can confirm the v0.6.2.2 Mac version fixed the CPU bug.  However, the "switch to foreground" issue I mentioned looks like it's still there for the next version to fix.