I've just released version 0.0.19 of mgmt!

> 361 files changed, 10451 insertions(+), 3919 deletions(-)

This is a very important (and huge) release and has some important
fixes that landed since 0.0.18, including:

* A huge re-write of the elastic etcd clustering code base
* A significant improvement in the type unification algorithm
* An important import/class scoping bug was discovered and fixed
* New mcl functions and resource improvements

And much more...

What comes next is just polish, new features and small bug fixes!

DOWNLOAD

Prebuilt binaries are available here:
https://github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/releases/tag/0.0.19

NEWS

* A giant etcd re-write was completed and merged. The elastic
clustering algorithm is not perfect, however it should suffice for most
use cases, and it's always possible to point mgmt at an external etcd
cluster if you don't understand the limitations of the automatic
clustering algorithm. The important part is that the core code is much
cleaner now, so hopefully races and bugs of ignorance are gone now. :)

* I found an unfortunate bug in the type unification algorithm that
severely impacted performance for some types of code bases. This is now
fixed, and I hope we should not experience problems again! Special
thanks to Sam for talking me through the problem and understanding the
space better! Woo \o/

* An important import/class scoping bug was fixed. Thanks to Nicolas
for the bug report. We also added tests for this too!

* Nicolas also added our first os detection function. os.is_debian and
os.is_redhat are now in core. Get your favourite os added today!

* The polymorphic len function can also check str length.

* The exec resource got a big cleanup. It also learned the interrupt
trait so that long running commands can be forcefully killed if need
be.

* A fancy new test infra for testing functions over time was added.
Anytime we want to check our individual FRP functions are working as
expected, this is an easy way to add a test. This way, if we ever find
a bug, we can drop in a test with the fix. This actually helped find a
very subtle bug in readfile that nobody had experienced yet!

* File res with state => exists but no content now performs as
expected.

* Improved send/recv, since it was neglected a bit. Hopefully it ends
up being a useful primitive.

* Added a new synchronization primitive that I'm called
SubscribedSignal. I found it very useful for building some of my code,
and I hope you'll find it useful too. I'd offer it upstream to the sync
package if Google didn't force their crappy CLA nonsense on everyone
who wanted to send a patch. :/ Death by 1000 paper cuts, I guess.

* Added a match function in the new regexp core package. Try it out and
add some more functions!

* Wouter has been testing mgmt and filling all sorts of useful bug
reports. We fixed at least one related to a report, and more are
planned for the next release. Wouter also sent in one cleanup patch to
remove some dead code. Welcome to the project!

* We're looking for help writing Amazon, Google, DigitalOcean, etc
resources if anyone is interested, reach out to us. Particularly if
there is support from those organizations as well.

* Many other bug fixes, changes, etc...

* See the git log for more NEWS, and for anything notable I left out!

BUGS

* There are a few known issues, in particular with some over eager
checking done in the Validate portion of two resources, that should
actually be runtime checks in CheckApply. As a result, if you intend to
change some state during the graph execution, the resource won't see
it. These should be very easy to fix if someone is interested in
writing the patch!

TALKS

* James will be presenting at this year's OSDC in Berlin. There will be
a workshop: https://osdc.de/events/mgmt-config-workshop/
and a talk:
https://osdc.de/events/mgmt-config-the-future-of-your-autonomous-datacentre/
Sign up soon if you want to guarantee a spot, as they're limited!

MISC

We're still looking for new contributors, and there are easy, medium
and hard issues available! You're also welcome to suggest your own!
Please join us in #mgmtconfig on Freenode IRC, or ping this list if
you'd like help getting started! For details please see:

https://github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/blob/master/docs/faq.md#how-do-i-con
tribute-to-the-project-if-i-dont-know-golang

Many tagged #mgmtlove issues exist:
https://github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%
3Amgmtlove

MENTORING

We offer mentoring for new golang/mgmt hackers who want to get
involved. This is fun and friendly! You get to improve your skills,
and we get some patches in return. Ping me off-list for details.

THANKS

Thanks (alphabetically) to everyone who contributed to the latest
release:
Adam Sigal, Felix Frank, James Shubin, Jonathan Gold, Michael Schubert,
Mitch Fossen, Nicolas Charles, Wouter Dullaert
We had 8 unique committers since 0.0.18, and have had 63 overall.
run 'git log 0.0.18..0.0.19' to see what has changed since 0.0.18

Happy hacking,
James
@purpleidea