NEWS for 'parallel' Package
parallel 4.0.2
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** Octave commandline options --no-init-file and --no-site-file, if
given, are now passed on to the Octave sessions used by parcellfun
and pararrayfun.
** Build fixes for Octave-8.3.
** Some clarification of parcellfun/pararrayfun limitations in the
package documentation accessed by octave_doc.
parallel 4.0.1
--------------
** The current search path is now set in the Octave sessions used by
parcellfun and pararrayfun.
** In starting parallel Octave sessions by parcellfun, pararrayfun,
or the remote server, the executable
'octave-cli-<current_version>' is prefered over 'octave-cli'.
** Fixed bug that produced an error for not enough output arguments.
** Fixed handling of execution errors by parcellfun and pararrayfun.
** Build fix for mac os.
** The documentation now mentions the limitation that command-line
functions can't be used by parcellfun or pararrayfun.
parallel 4.0.0
--------------
** New systems both for local and cluster-based parallel execution:
Octave sessions directly generated by 'fork()' are not used
anymore for parallel execution. Instead, freshly started Octave
sessions are used. This fixes problems with threads of Octave and
of libraries used by Octave. For parcellfun/pararrayfun, it
introduces some limitations, in particular with anonymous
functions in Octave versions < 5.1.
** The package should now run on Windows, too, though this is less
tested than running on GNU/Linux.
** The server for cluster-based execution is not installed on Windows
or macOS (the client and the system for local parallel execution
are).
** Compatible with Octave 5.2 and current (2020-04-11) development
version of Octave.
** Removed deprecated function scloseall().
parallel 3.1.3
--------------
** Fixed building with newer gnutls versions.
** Fixed building with Octave 4.0.
** Change formal dependency on Octave to versions >= 4.0.
parallel 3.1.2
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** Build fixes and tests. Builds with Octave 4.4.
parallel 3.1.1
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** Some build fixes. Builds with Octave 4.2.
** Links to core Octave documentation work now in html version of
package documentation.
parallel 3.1.0
--------------
** Added general package documentation, accessible with function
'parallel_doc'.
** Introduced dependency on package 'struct'.
** Fixed handling of argument and output dimensions in netcellfun and
netarrayfun.
** In connecting a cluster, package version and connection protocol
are checked. Will work only with packages from this version
upwards.
** Variables are transferred more efficiently.
** Build fixes for new Octave versions.
** If cluster functions are to be disabled at configure time, this
has to be done always explicitely now.
parallel 3.0.4
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** Building of cluster functions disabled by default for platforms on
which they currently can't be built or used. This enables building
of at least the functions for local parallel computation on these
platforms.
** Fix issue in package building if gnutls headers are not present.
** Make compatible with Octaves new exception-based error
handling. Compatibility with old error handling up to Octave-4.0
is retained.
** Fix bug for usage with 64bit indexing.
parallel 3.0.3
--------------
** Fix bug in package building if SRP is not provided by gnutls.
** Documentation spelling and typo fixes.
parallel 3.0.2
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** Functions 'send()' and 'recv()' have been renamed to 'psend()' and
'precv()', respectively, since previous names are used by the
sockets package.
parallel 3.0.1
--------------
** Fix some issues in package building, e.g. in building if libgnutls
is not present. Note that a libgnutls library (including its
"development package" on some systems) which supports the SRP
protocol is needed to build the 'parallel' package with TLS-based
connections enabled.
parallel 3.0.0
--------------
** 'parcellfun' and 'pararrayfun' accept an option "CumFunc" for
cumulative results.
** Fix handling of option "UniformOutput" with option "Vectorized" in
'pararrayfun'.
** Function 'connect()' has been renamed to 'pconnect()' since the
previous name is used by the control package.
** New functions 'netcellfun' and 'netarrayfun' for remote parallel
execution.
** New convenience function 'rfeval' for single remote function
execution.
** New function 'install_vars' to distribute named variables over the
parallel cluster.
** Better documentation of cluster functions. Start with the function
documentation of 'pconnect()' and 'pserver()', and go on with the
documentation of the functions referenced therein. The
README.parallel file has been removed.
** The value returned by pconnect and the variable 'sockets' held by
pserver, holding the network connections, are now opaque. Indexing
the connections in this value should work as with the matrix used
before.
** Connections can be based on TLS-SRP, which is now the default. New
function parallel_generate_srp_data generates authorization data.
** Parallel cluster commands hanging in system calls (e.g. trying to
read data that was not sent) can be interrupted with Ctrl-C
(invalidating the network connections in most cases, so that
information within server memory will be lost).
** New functions 'network_get_info' and 'network_set'.
** Within a particular parallel network, servers are supposed to be
unique now. But a server can be a part of several parallel
networks, and successful connection attempts of such overlapping
networks should now be possible even if initiated from different
client machines or client processes at the same time.
** Removed deprecated bw_... group of functions.
parallel 2.2.1
--------------
** The bw_... group of functions has been deprecated and will be
removed in the future.
** Made compatible with Octave 4.0.
** Made parcellfun/pararrayfun a bit more stable.
parallel 2.2.0
--------------
** Included functions parcellfun and pararrayfun from package general.
parallel 2.1.1
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** Bugfix for installation on Windows.
parallel 2.1.0, summary of user-visible changes:
------------------------------------------------
** Connections with equal hostnames are now allowed.
** Fix: avoids zombie processes in server if connection is closed.