®
As of February 8, 2006, IRIX 6.5.29 is releasing with new IRIX 6.5 based systems shipping from SGI worldwide manufacturing centers.
The IRIX 6.5.29 release continues the focus on stability, reliability, security and compatibility required in the IRIX 6.5.xx release process.
The IRIX 6.5.29 release delivers several software enhancements, extensions and improvements requested by our customers. Approximately 52 customer reported incidents are also resolved in this release.
The general distribution process is through the online ordering system.
IRIX 6.5.29 images are available for download off Supportfolio™.
IRIX 6.5.29 Highlights
- New xfs_quota command
IRIX 6.5.29 includes a new xfs_quota command that allows you to manage the use of quotas on an XFS filesystem.
- New extsize option for xfs_io command
The xfs_io command includes an extsize option that allows you to display and/or modify the preferred extent size used when allocating space for the currently open file.
- rpc.mount no longer reports nohide entries
rpc.mount does not report exported entries marked as nohide if they correspond to the root of the mounted filesystem. To return to the behavior of earlier releases, use the -C option to rpc.mountd. The exportfs command will check whether the nohide option is used to export a directory that is not a root of a filesystem and issue a warning; the option will be ignored.
- Ability to store inode's parents in xfs filesystem added
The mkfs_xfs command includes a parent= option that allows you to specify that links to the inode's parents and associated directory entry names are stored. This feature is off by default. This option can be used to map inodes to paths without requiring the search of directories to find the inode.
- xfs_io command
In IRIX 6.5.29, the xfs_io command includes the parent option that prints out the parent inode numbers, inode generation numbers and basenames of all the hardlinks which point to the inode of the current file.
- New extended inline allocation policy version on XFS filesystems
A new version of extended attribute inline allocation policy uses a more efficient algorithm for managing the available inline inode space.
- filestreams mount option
IRIX 6.5.29 includes the new 'filestreams' mount option, which changes the behavior of the XFS allocator in order to optimize disk layout for workloads that issue a stream of file creations into a directory.
SGI Software Product Life Cycle Management
- IRIX support policy
In accordance with the SGI software product life cycle management strategy announced in November 2000, SGI will announce support mode changes for various software products on a quarterly basis. To view customer letters containing support mode changes announced since November 2000, as well as the latest IRIX Support Policy documents, visit the IRIX Support Policy Web page located at: http://support.sgi.com/irix/6.5
- Changes to Support Mode Status
The following workstations, graphics and scalable server systems have transitioned to retired support mode for the IRIX 6.5.23 release. IRIX 6.5.23 and beyond do not support installation on these systems.
- Challenge® S, Challenge® M, Challenge® DM, Challenge® L, Challenge® XL
- Indigo®, Indigo2™, Indigo2™ Extreme, Indigo2 Impact™, Indy®
- Power Challenge™, Power Indigo2™, Power Onyx™
- Onyx®
Contact your local sales representative to discuss options for replacement or upgrade products.
IRIX 6.5 Application Compatibility Mandate
For those providers asking about quarterly recertification of applications, please take a moment and become acquainted with the application compatibility protections offered by IRIX 6.5. This is a very powerful mandate that allows an application to be developed under IRIX 6.5.X and be run on any IRIX 6.5.Y, regardless of whether Y > X, Y == X, or Y < X.
The Mandate of Application Compatibility in SGI IRIX 6.5 is at URL:
http://techpubs.sgi.com/tpl.cgi/view/SGI_Developer/mandate_IRIX
Caveats to Read Before You Upgrade
Users are reminded to review the special "Caveats to Read Before You Upgrade" section of the online Welcome document. Visit the "Caveat and Release Note Updates" link at:
http://support.sgi.com/irix/6.5 for any late-breaking information.
Important note if you do live installs of the IRIX 6.5.xx releases
Installation
- Updated Inst program
New installation features were used starting with IRIX 6.5.21 that necessitate an updated version of the Inst program. If you plan to install using the miniroot, then you may do so by the usual method. However, if you plan to upgrade by 'live' install and are running IRIX 6.5.19 or earlier, you must first install patch 5086.
IRIX 6.5.xx Lookahead
IRIX 6.5.30 is in development and is planned to release mid-August, 2006.
