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[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]]

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A quarter of the Hurd, Q3/Q4 of 2012: *pthreads*, *installation CDs*,
*hardware* and *porting*.
[[!if test="included()" then="""[[!toggle id=full_news
text="Details."]][[!toggleable id=full_news text="[[!paste id=full_news]]"]]"""
else="
[[!paste id=full_news]]"]]

[[!cut id="full_news" text="""

In November 2012, we finished the [libthreads (cthreads) to libpthread (POSIX
Threads)
conversion](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2012-11/msg00088.html).
Converting the Hurd libraries to the [[pthread interfaces|libpthread]] allows
linking them together with other libraries that use this standard threading
interface themselves.  This project
[once](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2002-10/msg00162.html) was
begun by Vicente Hernando Ara, and later continued by Barry deFreese, Thomas
DiModica, Thomas Schwinge, Samuel Thibault, Pino Toscano, and now brought to
completion by Richard Braun, who could not be scared by having to resolve the
last remaining tricky issues before the transition could be completed.

Cyril Roelandt shared a [patch
series](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2012-12/msg00018.html) to
fix double mutex unlocking with pthreads.  We will likely see more fixes like
these, given that the whole threading interface changed, which will expose
previously invisible bugs.

Thomas Schwinge together with Richard Braun and Samuel Thibault [debugged and
fixed](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2012-12/msg00044.html) a
deadlock related to signal delivery, resulting from a regression due to earlier
changes.

Also Samuel Thibault
[provided](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2012-12/msg00052.html)
new [installation
CDs](http://people.debian.org/~sthibault/hurd-i386/installer/cdimage/current)
and a new [qemu image](http://people.debian.org/~sthibault/hurd-i386/).
Additionally to using pthreads, these now offer keyboard layout configuration.

Pino Toscano [implemented
syncfs](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2012-11/msg00046.html) which
ensures that all data in the filesystem gets written to disk, as well as
[statfs](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2012-12/msg00005.html),
which adds additional statistics to procfs.

Thomas Schwinge and Samuel Thibault improved the hardware compatibility of the
Hurd by fixing [some
errors](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2012-11/msg00077.html) which
caused a miscalculation of the size of medium sized disks reporting 15 heads
instead of 16 and adding [network-card
detection](http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd/2012/07/msg00011.html)
network-card detection on busses other than 0 and 2.

And several people ported and fixed packages, further increasing the number of
debian packages which work on the Hurd: *Svante Signell* ported
[mlocate-0.25](http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd/2012/07/msg00015.html),
[gnat-gps](http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd/2012/07/msg00011.html),
[libpst](http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd/2012/08/msg00039.html),
[libetpan](http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd/2012/08/msg00046.html),
[spl](http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd/2012/09/msg00004.html),
[dovecot](http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd/2012/09/msg00007.html),
[xplc](http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd/2012/08/msg00054.html) and
[parrot](http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd/2012/08/msg00056.html),
[x86info](http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd/2012/09/msg00008.html),
[atlas](http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd/2012/09/msg00009.html),
[rrdtool](http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd/2012/09/msg00011.html) and
[gdb](http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd/2012/09/msg00018.html).  Also he
fixed [yodl](http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd/2012/08/msg00030.html), fixed
[ntpdate](http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd/2012/12/msg00002.html) to work
again and
[improved](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2012-11/msg00062.html)
the error handling in pflocal.  *Pino Toscano* added patches for
[procfs](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2012-09/msg00004.html),
[ptrace](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2012-10/msg00035.html),
[fsync on
stdout](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2012-10/msg00046.html),
[muntrace](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2012-11/msg00033.html),
[ulimit](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2012-11/msg00034.html),
[glibc](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2012-11/msg00029.html) which
among others improve POSIX conformance, making it easier to write programs
which work on the Hurd and GNU/Linux.  And he made the test pass for [FIFO
sockets](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2012-09/msg00053.html) with
mknod and
[added](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2012-09/msg00005.html) a
size parameter to tmpfs for easier usage in scripts and a [version suffix
option](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2012-10/msg00009.html) for
gnumach configure.  *Cyril Roelandt* fixed a
[ps](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2012-12/msg00012.html) bug, a
documentation typo [in
ps](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2012-10/msg00032.html) and a
missing linker flag [in
procfs](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2012-10/msg00025.html).
*Matthew Leach*
[fixed](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2012-11/msg00037.html) a
compilation error with older GCC versions due to duplicate type definition.
*Ole Streicher* fixed a bug in the Makefile of ftools-fv which was
[exposed](http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd/2012/10/msg00059.html) by testing
on Hurd.  And *Samuel Thibault*
[removed](http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd/2012/12/msg00005.html) the
out-of-date floppy-warnings in the debian installer.

So if you want to test if your favorite packages work on the Hurd and
contribute towards making the full GNU system usable for a wider range
of people, please [[get in contact|contact_us]] -- and maybe already
grab the [[source code|source_repositories]].

---

The **GNU Hurd** is the GNU project's replacement for the Unix kernel.  It is a
collection of servers that run on the Mach microkernel to implement file
systems, network protocols, file access control, and other features that are
implemented by the Unix kernel or similar kernels (such as Linux).  [[More
detailed|hurd/documentation]].

**GNU Mach** is the microkernel upon which a GNU Hurd system is based.  It
provides an Inter Process Communication (IPC) mechanism that the Hurd uses to
define interfaces for implementing in a distributed multi-server fashion the
services a traditional operating system kernel provides.  [[More
detailed|microkernel/mach/gnumach]].

<!--see [[contributing/web_pages/news/writing_the_qoth]] for additional information on writing the QotH.-->

"""]]