
             Release Notes for Apcupsd 3.14.x

Apcupsd 3.14.x is the latest STABLE release, containing many bug fixes and
new features over the previous 3.12.x stable series. Users of all previous
versions are encouraged to upgrade.

IF YOU USE THE OLD STYLE MASTER/SLAVE NETWORKING MODE, BE SURE TO READ THE
3.14.0 RELEASE NOTES BELOW.


3.14.8 -- 16 January 2010            (Maintenance Release)

NEW FEATURES

  * Mac OS X version of apctray (apcagent) for monitoring apcupsd instances.
    Same feature set as apctray on Windows (monitor multiple instances,
    get detailed status and events logs). Popup notifications delivered via 
    Growl, if available.

  * Major update to win32 version of apctray. Includes many visual and 
    usability improvements to match OS X version.

  * apctest now supports battery calibration and self-test interval control
    on USB models. Many thanks to James Belleau <james@belleau.net> for
    contributing these features.

  * New SNMP driver that does not require libsnmp.so, thus eliminating
    issues with not finding the library during shutdown when /usr has
    been unmounted. The new driver is the default for 'UPSTYPE snmp'.
    The old driver is still available as "UPSTYPE netsnmp" if needed.

BUG FIXES

   * Add missing NOMINV, NOMOUTV, and NOMPOWER to net clients
   
   * Fix missing WALL in apccontrol (debian bug #546019)
     http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=546019

   * Change all time/date strings to simplified ISO format: 
     "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS +/-UTC"

   * Fix battery voltage readout on "Back-UPS 500 FW: 6.3.I USB FW: c1"

   * Remove obsolete image files from source tree

   * Fix issues with popup.exe running when it shouldn't and sometimes
     hanging and/or generating an "Interactive Services Dialog Detected"
     error.

   * Use /kill switch from the installer to shut down running instances
     of apcupsd and apctray. This will provide more reliable termination
     on Vista/Win7.
     
   * Update apctest to use 'Q' to exit any menu instead of a number that
     is always changing. Contributed by James Belleau <jpbelleau@gmail.com>

   * apctest: 	Fix compiler warnings. Contributed by 
     Andy O'Shaughnessy <andrewjoshaughnessy@gmail.com>


3.14.7 -- 31 July 2009               (Maintenance Release)

NEW FEATURES

  * Multimon CGI programs are included with the Windows binary package

BUG FIXES

  * Windows COM ports above COM9 now work without user needing to manually
    add \\.\ UNC prefix in apcupsd.conf

  * Fix configure script not noticing when C++ compiler is missing

  * Fix for battery date (BATTDAT) displaying invalid values on USB models

  * Fix version reporting in cgi and examples

  * Misc documentation fixes for typos, etc.


3.14.6 -- 16 May 2009                (Maintenance Release)

NEW FEATURES

  * Major updates to the User Manual. Rewritten battery maintenance section 
    courtesy of Trevor Roydhouse <trev@sentry.org>. Many other updates
    including the SmartUPS protocol and OS support sections. Furthermore,
    the manual is now formatted in reStructuredText
    (http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html) and as a result is very 
    easy to update. (The only down side is the multi-page HTML version is 
    no longer available; the HTML version is all on a single page.)

  * New manpages for apcupsd, apcupsd.conf, apctest, apcaccess, and 
    apccontrol. Many thanks to Trevor Roydhouse <trev@sentry.org> for the
    hard work!

  * Support for QNX. Tested on QNX 6.3.2. Contributed by Mikhail
    Gruzdev <michail.gruzdev@gmail.com>

  * Add support for turning the UPS off completely. This complements 
    existing hibernate (aka killpower) functionality. Turn-off is 
    implemented for apcsmart and USB drivers, subject to support for the 
    relevant commands in the UPS itself. Contributed by Keith Campbell 
    <campbell@econnectix.com>.

BUG FIXES

  * apcsmart: Deadlock fixes during comms failures. Contributed by Keith 
    Campbell <campbell@econnectix.com>

  * linux-usb: Fix out-of-bounds array access. Contributed by David Fries 
    <david@fries.net>

  * Fix build with gcc-4.4. Contributed by Michal Hlavinka <mhlavink@redhat.com>
  
  * apcsmart: Fix crash during process shutdown (SIGTERM). Contributed by 
    Andrey Sharandakov <ash.ashway@gmail.com>

  * Several other minor fixes and improvements. See ChangeLog for details.


3.14.5 -- 26 October 2008            (Maintenance Release)

BUG FIXES

  * docs: Document the /refresh switch for apctray.

  * apctest: Do not create pid file. There is little reason for it
    since apctest is a command-line tool, not a daemon. Plus nothing
    ever deletes the file so it interferes with apcupsd operation.

  * gapcmon: Network connect timeout fix.

  * Fix a few unsafe uses of sprintf and strcat.

  * Makefile: Fix cgi build on OpenBSD. libgd on OpenBSD requires X_LIBS 
    for libfreetype and libfontconfig.

  * gapcmon: Iconify fixes for KDE

  * Fix LOWBATT glitch handling bug that could cause us to act on a 
    LOWBATT signal immediately instead of waiting for the debounce time.

  * apctray: Improve multiple instance behavior for /add, /del, and
    /kill on modern platforms (Win2K and newer).

  * Support shutting down apcupsd instances running in other sessions
    (such as terminal services or remote desktop sessions).

  * Makefile: 'make install' fixes for first install on RedHat/SuSE.

  * docs: PCNET minimum password length is 15 chars, default username 
    is 'apc', no known way to change the username.

  * Makefile: Fix dependency build errors on Darwin and other platforms.
    ('echo -n' is not portable; use 'tr' to strip newline instead)

  * RPMs: Automatically restart apcupsd when upgrading


3.14.4 -- 18 May 2008                (Maintenance Release)

MAJOR CHANGES

  * Build system rewrite: All Makefiles have been rewritten from scratch.
    Improvements include reliable dependencies, support for parallel make,
    elimination of Makefile.in -> Makefile conversion, consistent use of
    DESTDIR during 'make install', and pretty-printed output during builds.
    
    NEW BUILD SYSTEM NOTES
      - GNU make is required. The configure script checks for this and tells
        you how to invokve it (on some platforms it is 'gmake' instead of 
        'make').
      - Output during build is pretty-printed by default. To see more details,
        use 'make VERBOSE=1' for output similar to the old build system. For
        even more verbosity, use 'make VERBOSE=2'.
      - Parallel builds work well. If you have a multiprocessor (or multicore)
        system, try 'make -j<number-of-processors>' for the fastest possible
        build.

  * Built-in version of libgd for multimon cgi has been removed. The version
    previously included in apcupsd was old and likely had security issues.
    It is safer to use libgd from the target system. Therefore, your system
    must provide libgd if you choose to build cgi now. Generally this is 
    easy to achieve by installing a vendor-supplied package.

  * Removal of NLS support: The NLS code was terribly bit-rotted with many
    non-internationalized messages and almost every translated message was
    incorrect. At this point the maintenance burden of keeping NLS support
    building was deemed too high considering the small benefit it was able 
    to provide.

  * Powerflute has been disabled. It has been broken for the last several 
    releases because it relied on an untrushworthy source of UPS status
    (rawupsstats) which was itself removed. Powerflute could be converted to
    use the standard NIS status mechanism and its source code remains in
    the tree in case someone has the desire to contribute this code.

NEW FEATURES

  * Add POLLTIME directive to control UPS polling interval. This directive
    specifies the number of seconds to delay between polling the UPS for
    status. Previously, NETTIME allowed this to be adjusted for network
    connections only (snmp, pcnet, nis-net). POLLTIME configures the delay
    for all connection types. NETTIME is accepted as a synonym for 
    compatibility with old config files.

BUG FIXES

  * gapcmon: Corrected the use of NOMPOWER and the calc of current usage
    amount. Thanks to James Scott Jr <skoona@verizon.net>.

  * Add a heuristic to fix up incorrect NOMINV or NOMOUTV. Some UPSes
    (RS 500) report decivolts instead of volts. Reported by Kirill S.
    Bychkov <yason@linklevel.net>.

  * Various build fixes on Solaris and OpenSolaris. Thanks to James Dean
    <jgmdean@gmail.com> for loaning me an ssh login on his OpenSolaris box.

  * Fix hal policy file syntax. For some reason this blatantly	incorrect 
    file actually works on RHEL5 (hal-0.5.8). Thanks to Andrew Telford 
    <a.telford@ieee.org> for correcting it.

  * Fix gapcmon build on OpenBSD.

  * Fix BSD USB driver build.

  * Fix default NIS port on Debian. Debian is now using the standard NIS 
    port, 3551.  Contributed by imacat <imacat@mail.imacat.idv.tw>


3.14.3 -- 20 January 2008            (Maintenance Release)

NEW FEATURES

  * A HAL policy file is automatically installed on Linux systems to disable
    the hald-addon-hid-ups module which conflicts with apcupsd's control of
    USB UPSes. The file is automatically removed when apcupsd is uninstalled.

BUG FIXES

  * Add support for Nominal Power (aka Configured Active Power) reading.  
    Credit to Lars Randers <lars@nstec.dk> for most of the code.

  * Add units to NOMINV, NOMOUTV, and NOMBATTV stats.

  * Eliminate "warning: deprecated conversion from string constant to
    'char*'" warnings emitted from gcc-4.2.1 (earlier versions with
    -Wwrite-strings). Contributed by Steve Yarmie <tribhuvanji@gmail.com>.

  * Fix killpower and eeprom settings bug on USB models introduced when 
    INPUT reports were prioritized over FEATURE reports.

  * Fix bugs that could cause NIS-net driver to get stuck waiting for
    comms to be restored instead of shutting down.


3.14.2 -- 15 September 2007          (Maintenance Release)

NEW FEATURES

  * Tray icon support on Vista. Vista does not allow background services
    to interact with the user's desktop, so winapcupsd's built-in tray
    icon did not work.

  * Tray icon is now a standalone application "apctray" which is capable of
    monitoring multiple Apcupsd instances via Apcupsd's NIS. Any Apcupsd
    running NIS can be monitored. By default the icon monitors a single
    apcupsd at 127.0.0.1:3551. See command line options below for adding
    additional monitors.

  * Tray icon can be installed individually (disable other packages in the
    installer) for users who want to use the icon only.

  * Apctray command line options:

       apctray.exe
          - No parameters: Start any instances listed in registry. If no
          instances in reg, start a default instance monitoring the local
          machine (127.0.0.1:3551).

       apctray.exe /host foo /port 3551 /add
          - Add a monitor for the given host and port.

       apctray.exe /host foo /port 3551 /del
          - Remove the given monitor.

       apctray.exe /del
          - Remove all monitors.

       apctray.exe /install
          - Configure apctray to start automatically.

       apctray.exe /remove
          - Do not start automatically.

       apctray.exe /kill
          - Shut down apctray

BUG FIXES

  * The win32 portions of winapcupsd have been almost entirely rewritten. 
    The code is cleaner (mostly) and lots of unused baggage has been removed.

  * USB fix for BackUPS LCD series. This fix carries a risk of breaking other
    models, but test results are positive so far.
  
  * Fix linux-usb device detection bug when multiple hiddev nodes are
    present.  Fixes Fedora Bugzilla #245864:
    <https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=245864>
  
  * Fix SNMP port selection when using SNMP driver

  * Add workaround for broken BackUPS Pro model that returns certain
    reports encoded in ASCII. Based on a patch from David Fries
    <David@Fries.net>.

  * apcsmart: Wait 20 seconds before declaring COMMLOST. This is necessary
    when using a smart serial cable on an UPS with an SNMP monitoring card
    installed. The SNMP card appears to disrupt serial comms for several 
    seconds when interesting events are in progress.

  * Documentation updates: Fix up udev info for modern Linux distros.
    Update Windows section for apctray.

  * Don't leak unnecessary descriptors to child when execing apccontrol.

  * Fix bug with multi-threaded net_open() calls. net_open() was using
    a global buffer for the destination address. Yikes! Bug manifestied
    itself in apctray with multiple monitors occasionally (and
    timing-dependently) pointing to the wrong UPS.

  * Correct multimon.conf humidity monitoring.  Problem fixed by
    Patrick Frei.  Reference:
    https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=199834

  * Fix race between attach_ups() and detach_ups() which could result
    in the UPSINFO structure being freed prematurely. Thanks to James
    Abbott <j.abbott@imperial.ac.uk> for running many tests to help me
    find this bug.

  * Remove dependency on libc++ (again). Must use gcc as linker when
    using libsupc++ since g++ automatically links against full libc++.


3.14.1 -- 04 May 2007           (Maintenance Release)

NEW FEATURES

  * MacOS X GUI installer

  * PCNET driver supports remote shutdown request from UPS web interface

BUG FIXES

  * (win32) Detect when balloon tips have been disabled via a group policy
      and fall back on the standard popup message box.

  * (win32) Fix typo: "%sbindir\%popup" -> "%sbindir%\popup" in apccontrol.bat
      Discovered by Stefan.Hegnauer@elektrobit.com.

  * (all) Fix potential NIS client lockup when server disappears. Many thanks
      to Jan Ceuleers <jan.ceuleers@computer.org> for reporting the problem
      and gathering data to track down the cause.

  * (apctest) Fix link error after configuring with --disable-apcsmart.

  * (doc) Document how to force ugen binding on NetBSD 4.x.
      Contributed by Curt Sampson <cjs@starling-software.com>.

  * (apctest) Fix crash when displaying EEPROM values more than once.
      Contributed by Ivaylo Haratcherev <I.J.Haratcherev@tudelft.nl>.

  * Increase self-test timeout to 40 seconds to accomodate the RS 800.
      Contributed by Lars Randers <lars@nstec.dk>.

  * (linux-usb) Rewrite device opening logic to be more reliable. See 
      ChangeLog for details.

  * (apcupsd) Do not attempt to cancel shutdowns.


3.14.0 -- 09 February 2007      (Feature Release)

NEW FEATURES

  * USB support for 3 new platforms:

  	- Windows (Win98SE, WinME, Win2000, Win2003 Server, WinXP)
  	- Mac OS X (Darwin)
  	- Solaris 10 (x86 and SPARC)

        Please see the Apcupsd manual for details on USB configuration for the
        new platforms.

  * Native Windows port
  
       The winapcupsd port has been completely rewritten to use native
       Win32 libraries (based on MinGW32). It no longer relies on a Cygwin
       translation layer, thus improving compatibility and performance.

  * PowerChute Network Shutdown driver
  
       Apcupsd now supports the PowerChute Network Shutdown protocol (PCNET)
       offered by the AP9617 family of smart slot modules. This protocol is
       much lighter-weight than SNMP and offers better security. Please see 
       the Apcupsd manual for details on PCNET configuration.

  * GAPCMON GUI monitoring tool
  
       Apcupsd is now packaged with the GAPCMON GUI monitoring application
       thanks to James Scott, Jr. This is a Gnome/GTK based application which
       integrates into most desktop panels (not just Gnome). It monitors one or
       more Apcupsd instances using Apcupsd's NIS networking server. The status
       of each UPS is shown with a icon similar to the Win32 tray icon in 
       winapcupsd. Enable building of gapcmon at compile time via 
       --enable-gapcmon or install the apcupsd-gapcmon RPM.

  * Unreliable MASTER/SLAVE networking mode is removed
  
       Yes, this is a feature. The old MASTER/SLAVE mode for shutting down
       multiple servers from one UPS has historically been unreliable and prone
       to loss of communications or lockups. Apcupsd has long had a replacement
       networking mode using the NIS server (NIS stands for Network Information
       Server, and has nothing to do with Sun's NIS/YP protocol). The NIS net
       mode is very reliable and has none of the lockup bugs that have plagued 
       MASTER/SLAVE mode.
       
       In 3.14.x, MASTER/SLAVE mode has been removed and the associated 
       configuration directives are now obsolete. Please see the Apcupsd manual
       for a very simple NIS networking configuration to replace MASTER/SLAVE.

   * New configuration directives to set paths at runtime

       Several new (optional) configuration directives have been added to 
       allow overriding compiled-in paths at runtime. The directives are:

          - SCRIPTDIR (sets location of apccontrol and event scripts)
          - PWRFAILDIR (sets location where powerfail file will be written)
          - NOLOGINDIR (set location where nologin file will be written)

       These directives can be used to rearrange the Apcupsd installation
       after compiling, or to run multiple Apcupsd instances on the
       same machine without compiling separate copies.

       See the Apcupsd manual for details on these new directives.
