netatalk.io

Netatalk 2.2alpha4

The Netatalk development team is proud to announce version 2.2alpha4 of the Netatalk File Sharing suite. This is an unstable version, published for the sole purpose of receiving wider testing. Do not run this on production systems.

Netatalk is a freely-available Open Source AFP fileserver. It also provides a kernel level implementation of the AppleTalk Protocol Suite. A *NIX/*BSD system running Netatalk is capable of serving many Macintosh clients simultaneously as an AppleShare file server (AFP), AppleTalk router, *NIX/*BSD print server, and for accessing AppleTalk printers via Printer Access Protocol (PAP). Included are a number of minor printing and debugging utilities.

The suite contains:

• afpd - a file server that implements the Apple Filing Protocol, allowing clients running MacOS to access Unix file servers

• atalkd - an implementation of the AppleTalk protocol

• papd - a print server that enables Macintosh computers to access printers connected to Unix servers

• megatron - a tool to convert files in Macintosh specific formats like BinHex, AppleSingle, or MacBinary into files readable by Unix computers

• various supporting programs and utilities

Summary of hot stuff and ehancements since 2.1

• Support for fast AFP searches (CNID backend "dbd" only)

• POSIX draft 1e ACL support

• Complete Netatalk volume compatible `ad` file utility suite

• Dynamic filesystem cache

• Builtin Zeroconf registration of the AFP server and TimeMachine volumes

• Support for ACLs without a common Directory Service between server and client

Important

The enhancements for fast AFP searches are only implemented for the CNID backend "dbd" and require changes to the underlying CNID database, ie an additional index. This breaks drop-in compatibility between the CNID backends "cdb" and "dbd". Once "dbd" has upgraded a CNID database of a volume, "cdb" will reject to open it.

Netatalk is a Free/Open Source Software project and is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The full license text is available at:

Changes in 2.2alpha4

• NEW: Enhanced CNID "dbd" database for fast name search support. Important: this makes cnidscheme "cdb" incompatible with "dbd".

• NEW: afpd: support for fast catalog searches

• NEW: ad utility: ad find

• UPD: afpd: CNID database versioning check for "cdb" scheme

• UPD: cnid_dbd: CNID database versioning and upgrading. Additional CNID database index for fast name searches.

Changes in 2.2alpha3

• FIX: afpd: various fixes

• FIX: Any daemon did not run if atalkd doesn't exist (redhat/debian)

Changes in 2.2alpha2

• FIX: afpd: fix compilation error when ACL support is not available

• FIX: Ensure Appletalk manpages and config files are distributed

Changes in 2.2alpha1

• NEW: ad utility: ad cp

• NEW: ad utility: ad rm

• NEW: ad utility: ad mv

• NEW: afpd: dynamic directoy and CNID cache (new config option -dircachesize)

• NEW: afpd: POSIX 1e ACL support

• NEW: afpd: automagic Zeroconf registration with avahi, registering both the service _afpovertcp._tcp and TimeMachine volumes with _adisk._tcp.

• UPD: afpd: ACLs usable (though not visible on the client side) without common directory service, by mapping ACLs to UARight

• UPD: afpd: performance improvements for ACL access calculations

• UPD: AppleTalk ist disabled by default at configuration time. If needed use configure switch --enable-ddp.

• FIX: afpd: Solaris 10 compatibilty fix: don't use SO_SNDTIMEO/SO_RCVTIMEO, use non-blocking IO and select instead.

• FIX: cnid_dbd: Solaris 10 compatibilty fix: don't use SO_SNDTIMEO/SO_RCVTIMEO, use non-blocking IO and select instead.

• REM: afile/achfile/apple_cm/apple_mv/apple_rm: use ad

Changes in not yet released 2.1.5

• UPD: afpd: support newlines in -loginmesg with \n escaping syntax

• UPD: afpd: support for changed chmod semantics on ZFS with ACLs in onnv145+

• FIX: afpd: fix leaking ressource when moving objects on the server

Supported Platforms

As of Netatalk 2.2 the following operating systems are supported:

• FreeBSD

• Linux

• OpenBSD

• NetBSD

• [Open]Solaris

• Tru64 (TCP only)

Netatalk may compile and run on other operating systems as well, but it is not well-tested on those. We welcome patches and suggestions for enhancing the portability of Netatalk as well as success and failure stories. Please write to [email protected].

Availability

Netatalk tar-balls can be found at:

Netatalk is also available via anonymous git. See the SourceForge project site for anonymous git instructions.

Contact

For more information about Netatalk, see its web page at:

The project is hosted at SourceForge. The SourceForge project page is located at:

The Netatalk development team can be reached via the mailing list [email protected]. For subscription information and archives see Netatalk's SourceForge project page.

[email protected] is a mailing list for Netatalk system administrators. For subscription information and archives see the Netatalk web page.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all contributors to the Netatalk project for their commitment. Without the many suggestions, bug and problem reports, patches, and reviews this project wouldn't be where it is.

• The Netatalk Development Team, November 2010