Release Notes for BitShares Core 201810

[TheTaconator]

Release Notes

The BitShares Core software has been updated to the 201810 Feature Release. The Core software is used by validation nodes which perform consensus of all transactions on the BitShares blockchain. This release includes new features, optimizations, and bug fixes but does not include any changes to the consensus protocol.

No action is required if you do not operate a validation node or the command line interface (CLI) wallet.

Numerous performance improvements have been made to the software that will benefit all operators of validation nodes including block producers, seed nodes, and API nodes, especially those using the Elasticsearch plugin.

Documentation for BitShares developers may be now be found at the new BitShares Developer Portal (https://dev.bitshares.works).

Who Should Upgrade?

No upgrade is required by any operator of a validation node. Yet many operators will benefit by upgrading.

All operators will benefit from performance improvements (915, 1327, 1359) and fixes (1024, 1203, 1286, 1325).

Operators of block producing nodes will benefit from performance improvements (1251), safety measures (1252), and fixes (1266, 1332, 1364).

Operators of API nodes including Elasticsearch APIs will benefit from improvements to data availability (1351, 1352) and performance (1049, 1271, 1356).

Users of the command line interface (CLI) wallet will also benefit from improvements (1195, 1248).

Upgrade Process

Precautions

Precaution 1

Operators of API nodes that service client software that expect to receive updates about all data on the blockchain by default (such as BitShares Reference Wallet before 180401), as opposed to narrowly subscribed data, should ensure that their API nodes are configured with the enable-subscribe-to-all set to true due to Pull Request 1049.

How to Upgrade from Source Code

Obtain the Source Code

The source code may be obtained by checking out the 2.0.181105 tag
Download the source at:

• 2.0.181105.zip
• 2.0.181105.tar.gz

Build the Binaries

The binaries may be built by using your pre-existing process, or by following the standard instructions that can be found in the wiki:

• Ubuntu
• OS X
• Windows
• Windows Development Environment

Deploy the Binaries

Your standard process for deploying the node software may be used. No additional requirements or precautions will be required to deploy the new release.

How to Upgrade with Docker

The latest Docker image may be found at BitShares Core Docker page and updated with

docker pull bitshares/bitshares-core

CLI Binaries for Windows and Mac

A binary of the command line interface (CLI) wallet for Windows is pre-built and available for download here BitShares-Core-2.0.181105-Windows-x64-cli-tools.zip.

For Mac please download BitShares-Core-2.0.181105-macOS-cli-tools.tar.gz.

Changes

The changes for BitShares Core for the 201810 Feature Release are summarized below.

Core Functionality

Description	Issue	Pull Request
Change call_order_update_operation to return order_id	1269	1352

Node Functionality

Description	Issue	Pull Request
Segmentation fault when running several witness nodes on the same machine	377	1286
Performance opt pt 1	1079	1359
Log console output during replay to file	985	1355, FC-76
Change replay percentage to total block size processed	1289	1335
Improve block generation performance	-	1251
Review and backport EOS patch about unsigned_int unpacking	993	1267
Check and port Steem PR 2692: missing FC typenames	1217	1248
witness_node uses two incompatible parsers for config.ini	149	1024,1325
db_block.cpp: removed unreachable code	-	1312
Cleanup budget_record_object?	1139	1213
Change object_id to more than 32 bit	1088	1267
More 32 bit to 64 bit changes	1206	1347, 1374
Remove definition of unused symbol_type	-	1235
Update application.cpp	-	1345
application.cpp: minor optimization	-	1327
Call order and bitAsset related code refactory	-	1306
Re-add enable-subscribe-notify-all option after GUI issue fixed	752	1049
When signing a block that updates the signing witness's signing key, use correct signing key	125	1203
remove unused variable _consecutive_production_enabled	-	1294
Check Steem issue 2658: Not producing block because node didn't wake up within 500ms of the slot time	1157	1266
remove verify_account_history_plugin_index()	-	915
inconsistent error message for update_asset_issuer	944	1255
Possible to generate a block that is too large	1136	1252
remove duplicated line in network code node.cpp	-	1231
Error while converting value to string	1392	1394,FC-83
Update Sahkan's seed nodes	-	1404

Node Plugins

Description	Issue	Pull Request
Terminate block production loop when shutting down witness plugin	1314	1332, 1364
add dascoin adaptor	-	1356,1396
[ES plugin] Wrong value of additional_data.fill_data.fill_order	1295	1351
refine es_objects plugin		1271

Command Line Interface (CLI)

Description	Issue	Pull Request
CLI wallet: avoid directly overwriting wallet file on exit	1109	1195
cli_wallet crashes when doing import_key on Mac	1244	1248
get to_id from to_account instead of get_account_id()	-	1242
wallet compatibility issue	1307	1323

Build Process

Description	Issue	Pull Request
Integrating cURL into cmake	-	1329, 1336
cli_test doesn't compile on Windows due to using 'sys/socket.h'	1292	1305
clean old style codes	-	1250

Unit Tests

Description	Issue	Pull Request
Not able to perform testing [100,000 transactions per second]	1298	1337
Refactor cli_test	1192	1243
Test case failed on chain_test	1326	1346

Documentation

Description	Issue	Pull Request
API documentation	780	1174
Launch BitShares Developer Portal	1031	How-19, Dev-41
add new doc portals to readme	953	1358,1363
add readme to plugins	-	1319
LaTeX project for documentation like C++ ISO/IEC	1288	-
Probably wrong comment	1301	1349
Create plugin script	-	1302
add new doc portals to readme		1363
Add disk space requirements to readme	-	1376,1379
Update get_trade_history API docs and coding style	-	1397

Release Contributors

@abitmore
@botanegg
@cogutvalera
@cwyyprog
Damir from Dascoin
@HarukaMa
@jmjatlanta
@ihla
@liondani
@OpenLedgerDev
@oxarbitrage
@pmconrad
@RichardWeiYang
@ryanRfox
@tsugimoto
@zhuliting

[cogutvalera]

Well done ! Nice ! Thanks !

[pmconrad]

Thanks.
I think the 4 "Development Process" PR's need not be listed, they don't actually change anything content-related.

[abitmore]

Here is my own opinion about how to write a good release note. There are many articles over the Internet about same topic as well.

Release notes should be audience oriented. (Same thing applies to other documents)

Question:

• Who are the targeted audience of the release notes (who will read the release notes)?

Answer:

• node operators including exchanges, gateways, other businesses integrated BitShares, API node providers, witnesses, seed node providers, bot runners and etc.
• News transmitters / public relation dept.

Question:

• What do they care the most when reading the document?

Answer 1 (for node operators, ordered by priority):

• Do I have to upgrade to the new release?
  • does the release contain security fixes, am I affected?
  • does the release contain features or fixes that I badly needed (which may improve my business a lot)?
    Note: actually this is hard, because it means you need to know your product, know the businesses around, know what do they need / want.
• If I want to upgrade to the new release, what do I need to pay special attention?
  • will this release break anything (e.g. API changes)?
  • will this release requires more resource to run, if yes, what are the new requirements?
  • will this release reduce performance e.g. slower startup time, which may impact my business?
• If I want to upgrade to the new release, what do I need to do?
  • where are the binaries for download? where are the checksums?
  • what are the steps to upgrade?
  • how much time would I need to complete the upgrade? what additional resources would I need for upgrading?

Answer 2 (for news transmitters / public relation dept.)

• What are the big news / most attractive things in this release?
• Do I understand what's the release note is talking about? If I can't understand, what should I guess?

Question:

• What are the minor things that few people will have interest to read?

Answer (examples):

• code style changes
• removal of unused files / code or duplicate code
• fixes of comments in code
• fixes of typos
• fixes for test cases
• code refactory

So here comes some principles:

• The wording should make sense, and should be easily understood by targeted audiences.
• Need a good summary, emphases the "big things" in this release.
• Security fixes should be explicitly listed.
• API changes should be explicitly listed.
• Important things should be explicitly described.
• Important new features and fixes should be listed above minor changes.
• List contributors, generally, order by contribution.

And some tips:

• group related things together / combine them if it's better
• list similar things together

[cogutvalera]

something like this BitShares Core Release 2.0.180823

[jmjatlanta]

Wow, a lot of effort went into that. Thanks @TheTaconator for the work and @abitmore for the insightful opinion. If I were to combine those two things, I guess a brief paragraph to start would satisfy the public relations people, and the details would help the integrator/admin.

[abitmore]

Need to add related PRs in FC to the list which including following 2 pulls but not only them:

• Generalize flat_set serialization templates to allow different sorting and/or allocators bitshares-fc#81
• Initialize max_object_depth in appender config bitshares-fc#83

Need to add #1392 add #1394 to the list.

[abitmore]

#1049 may break some client applications and should be explicitly mentioned.

[oxarbitrage]

closed by new release https://github.com/bitshares/bitshares-core/releases/tag/2.0.181105