Major change is zeroconf support. Never bother with port assignments!
It is based on Apple's Bonjour, using multicast DNS services. The start ot documentation is here: http://www.owfs.org/index.php?page=bonjour_zerconf
The basic idea is that network OWFS programs announce themselves (owserver, owhttpd, owftpd) and are thus easier to find.
For the owhttpd web server, it is seen by any browser if the correct URL (including port) is put in the URL line. Browsers that are zeroconf enabled (Konqueror, Safari) will see it listed by name.
The name is OWFS server unless specified differently.
For owftpd FTP server, the same issues apply. Konqueror and KFTPGrabber both see owftpd listed (screenshots: http://www.owfs.org/index.php?page=ftp_browsing)
Even more interesting, owserver can be auto-discovered by ANY owfs program, including owfs, owhttpd, owftpd, owpython, owphp, owtcl, owperl,...)
Just use --autoserver in the command line or configuration file.
Actually, all the owservers will be discovered and used, even if they are available at startup. owserver could even use the autodiscovery to attach to other owservers, though rather inefficient and redundant networks could be the result. Infinite loops should not occur, however.
Even even more interesting, you no longer need to specify "ports". If owserver or owhttpd don't have a command line port assignment, the operating system will choose an unused one in the ephemeral port range. That was pointless before autodiscovery, but now makes sense.
For instance, the following series of commands:
owserver -u
owhttpd --autoserver
owfs --autoserver /mnt/1wire
owftpd --autoserver
Will work, giving all the programs access to the USB bus. You'll need a way of finding the web server's port, either with dns-sd or avahi-discover, or with a suitable web browser like konqueror.
If you don't want zeroconf compiled in, use "./configure --disable_zero"
If you dont want a program to announce itself, add the "--nozero" command line switch.
If you want to change the Announced (human readable name) use the "--announce 'Zeroconf name'" switch.
The technology. DNS Service Discovery is an extension of multicast DNS, using PTR records for network services. RFC 3927 and RFC 2608 are relavant. I found O"Reilly "Zero Configuration Networking" a very helpful book. So was wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeroconf
OWFS services are officially registered at http://www.dns-sd.org/ServiceTypes.html
Finally, license issues. The current (CVS) version of Bonjour has a BSD license and thus can be included with GPL programs. It will be released as mDNSResponder 107.6
The current Bonjour release, 107.5, works fine. It has an Apache license, so there seem to be arcane incompatibilities with GPL. Apple's published intention is to get Bonjour widely distributed, and thus the BSD license change.
Avahi (http://www.avahi.org) is a GPL implementation. Avahi has no problems discovering OWFS services, but wasn't used for the client library because it is heavier weight (requiring DBUS among other things) and awkwardly documented.
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