Announce: Flatpak 0.9.1

[Alexander Larsson]

Available here:

https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/releases/tag/0.9.1

$ sha256sum flatpak-0.9.1.tar.xz 
4387b67f1b787fa6a9e56f3cd36faace25ce0b28ba2644b14adf582d437ad5bf  flatpak-0.9.1.tar.xz

Major changes in 0.9.1
======================

This release mostly has changes to flatpak-builder and the build
machinery. All flatpaks built with this version can run
on flatpak 0.8.x, but there has been additions and minor
changes in flatpak-builder that may require minor changes
to existing builder manifests, see below.

The flatpak-builder build cache now uses an ostree feature called
rofiles-fuse. This allows the build to work directly against
hardlinked checkouts of the cache, because rofiles-fuse disallows
writes to the hardlinked files (but allows replacing them). This makes
cache commits and checkouts much faster. However, it also means that
installation cannot do in-place modification of files in the
installation directory. There is a new per-module property called
"ensure-writable" that takes a list of patterns and ensures all files
matching them are writable (by manually breaking the hardlinks). This
may need to be added to some manifests to keep them building in the new
version.

The cflags and cxxflags module properties now work by appending,
rather that replacing, when there are multiple values specified. For
instance, the per-arch or per-module cflags will be appended to the
base cflags. This may cause old json files do duplicate cflags in
some cases. Normally compiler flags are repeatable without problems
though, so it is unlikely to cause problems.

Here are a short summary of the rest of the flatpak-builder changes:

 * The build cache was changed so that it is not invalidated if
   the installed version of the SDK changed. This means that the app
   will not rebuilt if you updated the SDK. This is generally the right
   thing to do, as SDKs are meant to be compatible.  If you want
   to avoid this (for instance when building against an unstable sdk)
   you can use the --rebuild-on-sdk-change argument.
 * The build cache is now per-arch, so building on one arch doesn't
   invalidate the cache for another arch.
 * New buildsystem "cmake-ninja" which works like "cmake", but builds
   using ninja, rather than make.
 * New buildsystem "simple" which doesn't use configure or make, it
   just runs a set of shell commands specified in the "build-commands"
   property. Note: build-commands is also available to other 
   buildsystems and are run between make and make install.
 * flatpak-builder now has build-runtime and build-extension
   properties that makes it easier to build runtimes and extensions.
 * FLATPAK_DEST is set in the build environment to the installation
   destination (i.e. typically /app). It is particularly useful when
   building an extension where the destination is more complex.
 * flatpak-builder now supports --from-git=URL which pulls the
   json manifest and related files directly from a git repo.
 * modules have a new no-make-install property which skips
   the make install step.
 * Modules and sources have only-arches and skip-arches properties,
   which lets you enable/disable them based on the build architecture.
 * build-options has a new property ldflags, which is similar
   to cflags and cxxflags.
 * flatpak build (and thus flatpak-builder --run) now supports
    dbus proxies when needed.
 * All git repos are cloned with fsckObjects=true, which means
   we verify that the repos are valid.
 * New flatpak-builder argument --build-shell=MODULE extracts and
   prepares the sources for a specified module and then starts
   a build sandbox inside it.

There are also some other changes:

 * build-export: Now supports --timestamp=ISO-8601-TIMESTAMP, which
   allows you to create reproducible commits.
 * The OCI support has been updated to the latest version of the
   OCI image specification format.
 * There is a new flatpak-bisect script that can be used to bisect
   flatpak applications, looking for regressions.
 * flatpak list got a revamp. It now shows more information, and
   shows both apps and runtimes by default.
 * flatpak remote-list was renamed flatpak remotes in order
   to minimize confusion with flatpak remote-ls. The old name
   is deprecated but still works.

-- 
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Alexander Larsson                                            Red Hat, Inc 
       alexl at redhat.com            alexander.larsson at gmail.com 
He's a globe-trotting dishevelled vampire hunter from the Mississippi 
delta. She's a cynical bisexual fairy princess prone to fits of savage, 
blood-crazed rage. They fight crime!