Hello!
This is my weekly ChangeLog, from 6 March 2017 to 12 March 2017.
You can see it in a better format by going here:
http://log.smallworks.eu/web/search?from=6/3/2017&to=12/3/2017
ChangeLog
=========
10 March 2017:
--------------
* === libgit2(ssh) and linux
An update on the libgit2 (and consequently iceberg) problem on linux: SSH
will not work on ITIMER VM (which
is the zeroconf default, at least for now).
Here the reason:
ITIMER sends an signal to the VM thread using +pthread_kill(tickerThread,
TICKER_SIGNAL)+ and that aborts
system calls, which are used by +libssh2+, producing a 'wait for packet' to
fail answering a timeout (
even if that timeout does not happens for real).
Here is an interesting comment from +sqUnixITimerTickerHeartbeat.c+ :
----
/* While we use SA_RESTART to ensure system calls are restarted, this is
* not universally effective. In particular, connect calls can abort if
* a system call is made in the signal handler, i.e. the pthread_kill in
* prodHighPriorityThread. So we avoid this if possible by not prodding
* the high-priority thread unless there are high-priority tickees as
* indicated by numAsyncTickees > 0.
*/
----
... and sadly, as +OSSubprocess+, +libssh2+ calls falls under the category
of "not universally effective"
(they are connect calls... once disconnected, you cannot connect again 'as
is').
So, the only workaround possible (at least for now), is to use the threaded
version of VM... I improved the
error message it throws when this fails, now looks like this:
----
This VM uses a thread heartbeat who requires a special configuration to
work.
You need to allow it to run higher priority threads (real time), to allow
clock to work properly
You need to add a conf file to /etc/security/limits.d, executing this:
sudo cat >/etc/security/limits.d/%s.conf <<END\n", VMNAME);
* hard rtprio 2
* soft rtprio 2
END
You need to log out and log back in for the limits to take effect.
For more information read
https://github.com/OpenSmalltalk/opensmalltalk-vm/releases/tag/r3732#linux
----
which at least shows what's happens and how you can easily fix it.
Now, I think this is a *sad solution*. Needing to touch system
configuration in order to run a VM
does not feels "professional". I would like to have some time to find a fix.
9 March 2017:
-------------
* I spent last two days again fighting with linux dependencies, because what
I thought was fixed (the
loading of +libgit2.so+), actually was not working in all conditions.
Now, I think I finally arrived to a working solution (that involved add an
+rpath+ to Pharo, not
to dependent libraries).
There is a new +vmLatest60+, let's see how it works...
6 March 2017:
-------------
* I spent time fixing libgit2 (and dependents) compilation, both for linux
and windows.
As a result, now windows is working again (there was problems after version
0.26)... but linux, who seemed
working last friday, is now again not working properly :(
cheers!
Esteban
