Release Notes#

The currently released version is ‘2.9.0’.

Changes in version ‘2.9.0’#

  • Better check for objc runtime on Windows.

  • Split linker flags to better support partial linking: ‘ALL_LDFLAGS’ is now a combination of ‘FINAL_LDFLAGS’ and ‘ALL_LDFLAGS’.

  • Better support for newer gcc versions.

  • Add support for storyboard files.

  • Increase autoconf version to 2.65 and make autoconf handle Objective-C++ and OBJCXX variables directly.

  • Fix bug that prevented ARC from getting used.

  • Link subproject object files directly instead of first merging them into ‘subproject.o’.

  • Support building on Windows with Clang MSVC target.

  • Improve mingw64 support: for instance, adopt the triplet used by the mingw-w64 project rather than using the one returned by autoconf. Fixes building Gorm.

Changes in version ‘2.8.0’#

  • Better library combo and ABI detection: gnustep-make will now attempt to detect the optimal library combo and ABI supported by the installed compiler and Objective-C runtime library. Explicit selection of the runtime ABI is now possible using the ‘–with-runtime-abi’ configure option.

  • Full support for the gnustep-2.0 Objective-C ABI.

  • Support for creating a Git tag and creating a tarball from a git tag using the ‘git-tag’ and ‘git-dist’ targets.

  • Support for creating a Mercurial tag and creating a tarball from a hg tag using the ‘hg-tag’ and ‘hg-dist’ targets.

  • Dropped legacy Rhapsody and FreeBSD-out support.

Changes in version ‘2.7.0’#

Garbage collection support removed

ARC enabled by default if the ng runtime is used

Multi-architecture directory layout adjusted to be more Debian compatible

Framework support fixes

Various other minor bugfixes

Changes in version ‘2.6.8’#

Configure option ‘-with-library-combo=ng-gnu-gnu’ to use the ‘Next Generation’ setup of the latest ObjectiveC-2 runtime and compiler features rather than traditional runtime. Requires the new runtime and a recent clang compiler.

With the ‘ng’ runtime in use, you can define GS_WITH_ARC=1 at the start of a makefile, or in your environment, or in the command line arguments to have objC code built using ARC.

Command line option ‘documentation=no’ to suppress builds of documentation.

Integration of testsuite for regression/unit testing of libraries using the ‘check’ target. In your makefile define libraryname_TEST_DIR = TestsSubdirectory

Various minor bugfixes, documentation spelling corrections etc.

The ‘-enable-strict-v2-mode’ option is now, after eight years, turned on by default (in anticipation of finally removing backward compatibility with version one). WARNING; Packagers please ensure that you update any old gnustep-make version one makefiles.

Garbage collection support to be removed at the next release.

Changes in version ‘2.6.7’#

Improved package building support

Improved environment variable support

Improved Java support

Various minor bugfixes, documentation spelling corrections etc.

Changes in version ‘2.6.6’#

Debian packaging support

Minor bugfixes.

Changes in version ‘2.6.5’#

Bugfix for non-fragile ABI test

Bugfix order if include diorectories for system includes

Bugfix equality test for prorocol testing

Added minimal test support for .c and .cc files.

Changes in version ‘2.6.4’#

Test framework extended equality tests.

Android build target

Changes in version ‘2.6.3’#

Minor bugfix release.

Changes in version ‘2.6.2’#

Added standalone filesystem layout for putting everything in one directory for easy deployment of relocatable. Other bug fixes.

Changes in version ‘2.6.1’#

Bug fix release. Most notably to fix a problem compiling GNUstep with clang.

Changes in version ‘2.6.0’#

  • The default filesystem layout is now the ‘fhs’ layout

  • The default location of the configuration file changed when not installing system-wide

  • Removed the -with-system-root, -with-local-root and -with-network-root options

  • Removed obsolete variables (deprecated 4 years ago).

  • A new test framework is included in the pacakge

  • objc.make deprecated. Use tool.make instead

  • -enable-absolute-install-paths is now the default on Darwin

Changes in version ‘2.4.0’#

  • Add -enable-objc-nonfragile-abi flag

  • New serial-subdirectories.make and parallel-subdirectories.make.

  • Support for parallel building of subdirectories.

  • Support for parallel building of different instances.

  • Support source files in subdirectories without using a subproject.

  • Support header files in sub-subdirectories.

  • Batch-compile Java files (much faster).

  • Changed default compilation flags to -O2 -g.

  • Fixes for building documentation.

  • Renamed info files to prevent conflicts.

  • Updated cygwin support.

Changes in version ‘2.2.0’#

  • New -with-objc-lib-flag for specifying libobjc.

  • Automatically uses -lobjc_gc with configured with garbage collection

  • Parallel building supported using e.g. make -j 2

  • Use install -p if available.

  • make uninstall works better now.

Changes in version ‘2.0.8’#

Minor bug fix to deal with installing in different domains

Changes in version ‘2.0.7’#

  • New configuration file to set default installation

  • gnustep-make now uses the -no-print-directory flag when invoking make

  • Files make have same name but different extensions (.c and .m)

  • Change in path checking algorithm in GNUstep.sh and GNUstep.csh

  • Test applications linked against gnustep-gui by default

Changes in version ‘2.0.6’#

  • Fixed some spurious rebuilds of plists, and framework headers.

  • Added the -enable-absolute-install-paths option for Darwin systems.

  • Install GNUstep.conf in /etc/GNUstep/GNUstep.conf on all systems.

Changes in version ‘2.0.5’#

  • Update C++ and ObjC++ support so that g++ and proper flags are automatically used.

  • Added a new filesystem layout for Apple Mac OS X and use this by default on this system.

  • NEEDS_GUI variable added to determine linking behavior against gui library.

  • New option -enable-strict-v2-mode to test for obsolete variables.

  • ~/GNUstep/GNUstep.sh is no longer sourced.

Changes in version ‘2.0.4’#

Fixed a bug finding relative paths on Windows (during configuration).

Changes in version ‘2.0.3’#

New man pages for tools. Better uninstallation of files Add Windows installer makefile for Applications.

Changes in version ‘2.0.2’#

Update license to GPLv3.

Changes in version ‘2.0.1’#

Bug fixes in filesystem layout and framework installation.

Changes in version ‘2.0.0’#

The Makefile package has had a major makover which befits a major version update. The most user-visible change of this is customized filesystem support. GNUstep can now be configured and installed using any of many typical filesystem layouts, including FHS, Mac, and the traditional GNUstep layout.

Due to this change a number of variable names have been changed or deprecated. If you are a developer maintaining makefiles, you should check your makefiles for these variables. Most notibly, variables such as ‘GNUSTEP_SYSTEM_ROOT’ no longer make any sense, as various directories that were previously in a traditional GNUstep system root directory exist accross multiple directories in disparate places in other filesystem layouts.

If you are a user or developer that is just installing GNUstep, read the ‘GNUstep-HOWTO’ and ‘INSTALL’ documents to find out new information about configuring and installing make.

If you are a developer, read the files ‘filesystem’ and ‘make’ for information on new and changed variables. Read the ‘RELEASENOTES’ file for specific changes in this release and updates you will need to make with this version of make.

Various changes include (See ‘RELEASENOTES’ for more information):

  • New configure option ‘–with-layout’ to choose different filesystem layouts.

  • All applications use the ‘.app’ extension even when compiled with debugging or profiling.

  • Precompiled header support added using xxx_OBJC_PRECOMPILED_HEADERS.

  • gnustep-config is a program which prints out information on the GNUstep filesystem and variables (Similar to programs like pkg-config).

  • Better inline messages/help, including printing the version of gnustep-make that is being used

  • Applications can be started now just using their name (by installing a wrapper in the tools directory).

  • Versioning of Microsoft Windows DLLs implemented.

  • Use of ‘GNUSTEP_SYSTEM_ROOT’ and similar variables deprecated.

  • Implement use of GNU standard ‘DESTDIR’ variable.

  • Object files are now placed in the ‘obj’ directory.

  • Static and profile libraries have the same name as normal libraries.

  • Support for Admin Tools and Admin Apps directories

  • RPM support rewritten

  • Microsoft Windows support updated and extended

  • Easy consistent way to link non-installed frameworks by using -Lpath_to_framework/xxx.framework/$GNUSTEP_TARGET_LDIR

  • Versioning of library resources

  • Fixed rebuilding .plist and .palette files

Changes in version ‘1.13.0’#

Debug libraries now have the same name as normal libraries (i.e. no “_d” suffix). This reduces the possiblity of multiple libraries being loaded into the same executable.

Added dragonfly OS to make targets.

Spaces and backslashes are no longer allowed in paths used by the make package (e.g. with Windows OS). The libraries can still use native paths.

Changes in version ‘1.12.0’#

Minor fixes.

Changes in version ‘1.11.2’#

The ‘GNUstep.conf’ file is now viewed as the essential determination of the install location for GNUstep libraries, tools and other files. During configuration, this file is read, if it exists, to determine this information. This can still be overriden with environment and command line options, however. See the filesystem documentation in the GNUstep Make Documentation directory for more information.

You no longer need to source GNUstep.sh in order to compile GNUstep programs. All that is needed is the definition of GNUSTEP_MAKEFILES. You should also have the GNUstep system tools directory in your path.

All netbsd systems are assumed to use ELF libraries. Support for the old static libs version of netbsd was removed.

Serveral new options were added to configure to change the location of basic dir locations and basic configuration files. Also, the help was greatly improved. Note that -prefix=/usr/GNUstep/System no longer works. Please use -prefix=/usr/GNUstep or -with-system-root=/usr/GNUstep/System.

A few more fixes for cygwin are included as well as Windows resource rules.

Support for ObjC++ has been added. You should list the ObjC++ .mm files in the xxx_OBJCC_FILES variable, and put extra ObjC++ flags in xxx_OBJCCFLAGS or ADDITIONAL_OBJCCFLAGS.

Changes in version ‘1.11.1’#

Part of the previous change was reversed. Now libobjc is still linked with individual applications (as well as the base library), since some operating systems require this to resolve external symbols. However, there is no need to recompile all applications again.

Compilation of GNUstep on cygwin was revampled and fixed due to a lot of work by Tom MacSween.

Changes in version ‘1.11.0’#

NOTE: The libobjc library is now linked in with the base library and NOT with individual applications or tools (except on MingW). This requires that you do a complete rebuild of all libraries, tools and apps when switching to this new version.

  • New rules for building and using DLLs were implemented. Now gcc and other tricks are used to properly export symbols, so no .def file should be needed.

  • The GNUsteprc file in $GNUSTEP_SYSTEM_ROOT is deprecated. See the new GNUstep.conf file (which is not installed by default).

  • Psuedo-framwork support was implemented on MingW. This essentially involves copying the framework to several places so it can be used without links, which Windows does not really support. There’s no other clean way to do it.

  • Support for xxx_WINDRES_FILES on MinGW was implemented.

Changes in version ‘1.10.0’#

  • a GNUsteprc file is now automatically created and installed in $GNUSTEP_SYSTEM_ROOT, which sets the system-wide default for the user root directory (default=~/GNUstep, which can be overriden with the ‘–with-user-root’ argument to configure, or by modifying GNUsteprc after configuration.)

  • make_services is not run by GNUstep.sh anymore. You must run this manually now (see the gnustep-gui documentation).

  • Palettes use a plist instead of a strings format file now for the palette.table file.

  • You can use the ‘–enable-native-objc-exceptions’ argument to configure to enable use of built in objc exceptions with compilers that support it.

Changes in version ‘1.9.2’#

  • Application and Bundles use the latest convention on Apple.

  • Improve/Simplify dependency checking when making docs

Changes in version ‘1.9.1’#

  • Remove ‘–disable-import’ option

  • README.Darwin for darwin/MacOSX install

  • Framework version and naming clarified.

Changes in version ‘1.9.0’#

  • Support for building in a separate build dir.

  • Add ‘–enable-strip-makefiles’ option to configure

  • List of classes in a framework gets written to the plist file.

Changes in version ‘1.8.0’#

Read the NEWS file for a complete list of changes since the last stable release. The major difference from 1.6.0 is that the locations of certain directories have changed. Generally this will not cause a problem unless your GNUstep directory is shared by multiple machines running this and earlier (1.6.x) versions of the software.

Changes in version ‘1.7.4’#

Bug fixes.

Changes in version ‘1.7.3’#

  • Adds library combo to Headers directory if not flattened.

  • Add Markup file (Renaissance) support.

Changes in version ‘1.7.2’#

-enable-flattened (Flat directory structure) is on by default.

  • On WIN32 use HOMEPATH in preference to USERPROFILE

  • netbsd and openbsd compile fixes.

Changes in version ‘1.7.1’#

Bug fixes.

Changes in version ‘1.7.0’#

This version contains a major change in the location of certain directories and installed files as detailed in the ‘filesystem.texi’ document. When installing this version for the first time, all old directories and files in those directories will be moved to the new locations automatically. However, you should update all GNUstep versions on any machine you have them installed on in order to avoid any incompatibilities.

Other changes:

  • Support for preprocessed Info.plists.

Changes in version ‘1.6.0’#

Make now configures by default for only one system. To compile and run GNUstep for multiple platforms from the same directory, use the configure argument -enable-multi-platform.

  • Auto-build def file for DLLs

  • Work natively on MacOSX systems. Now use apple-apple-apple instead of nx-nx-nx on OSX systems.

  • More efficient checks for re-making a project.

Changes in version ‘1.5.1’#

  • Framework support rewritten, also supports multiple names.

  • API change: Replace frameowork’s xxx_TOOLS by xxx_COPY_INTO_DIR.

  • Unified link commands between libraries and frameworks (LIB_LINK_*).

  • New ‘make strings’ target for localization support.

  • Speed improvements.

  • Doesn’t try to build OSX bundle on GNUstep and vice versa.

  • API change: Tools/Subproj can have resources.

  • API change: TOOL_INSTALL_DIR.

Changes in version ‘1.5.0’#

  • Add NetBSD Elf support

Changes in version ‘1.4.0’#

  • Update Darwin/GNU gcc and Irix targets

Changes in version ‘1.3.4’#

This is a first prerelease version for 1.4.

  • Use gnugc-gnu-gnu library combo for garbage collecting version.

  • Add support for -library-combo in opentool

  • Change GNUSTEP_PATHPREFIX_LIST to GNUSTEP_PATHLIST

  • Add verbosity levels. Use make messages=yes for full messages.

Changes in version ‘1.3.3’#

  • Recognizes XXX_STANDARD_INSTALL=no to not do installation.

  • Updated instructions for MingW/MSYS installation.

Changes in version ‘1.3.2’#

  • Instructions for building on Windows with MSYS

  • Resolve library dependencies better on Windows

  • Fix frameworks in RPMs and DEBs

  • Continued reorganization.

Changes in version ‘1.3.0’#

The package has gone through an extensive reorganization to break up each sub-make into two separate components. This allows for much simplified code and lots of code sharing between components. As a side effect, it also increased the speed of the code by at least a factor of 2.

  • Force shared=yes for cygwin and mingw

  • Bundles copy resources from subprojects.

  • Better resource management. Resources handled accross all project types.

  • Simplified and fixed user root location between make and base libraries.

  • Changed Apps directory to Applications

  • Fixes for MacOSX, MingW

Changes in version ‘1.2.1’#

  • the source distribution code has been rewritten to be more general and extended. Packages built using gnustep-make now automatically have handy targets building tarballs from sources or from CVS imports.

  • implemented support for auto-dependencies, which means that any object file automatically depends on all the header files which were used to build it. Only works with newer compilers.

  • implemented INSTALL_AS_USER and INSTALL_AS_GROUP.

  • implemented a strip=yes option.

  • various bug fixes and minor improvements.

Changes in version ‘1.2.0’#

  • The core rules and internals of gnustep-make have been fundamentally redesigned and rewritten. notably, gnustep-make now works using only a single recursive sub-make invocation rather than two, which makes it consistently faster and simpler in all circumstances.

  • The clean rules have been heavily optimized - they no longer use recursive sub-make invocations at all and so they are really fast.

  • Many improvements to java support. Optimized management of nested classes

  • Better conformance to make conventions.

  • File specific compilation flags

  • Fixed darwin support

  • Support for C++ files.

  • Made use of library installation dir consistent with other installation.

  • Much improved Windows path support

Changes in version ‘1.0.1’#

  • Support for Java tools.

  • Build GUI backend as a bundle (default).

  • Remove backend part of LIBRARY_COMBO.

  • Fixes to run on FreeBSD, Solaris.

Changes in version ‘1.0.0’#

  • Optimizations that in many cases more than double the speed.

  • Added preliminary darwin support.

  • rpm packeing improvements.

  • Better checking for mingw and cygwin

Changes in version ‘0.9.2’#

  • HOWTO and faq files moved from core package to here

  • Configurable GNUSTEP_LOCAL_ROOT and GNUSTEP_NETWORK_ROOT

Changes in version ‘0.9.1’#

Make has been reoganized so that it only relies on libraries and other things that are necessary for the Makefile package itself. Any libraries wanting to add extra package information can do so by installing a make stub in the ‘Additional’ directory. This greatly simplifies compilation and packaging.

  • Javadoc support added.

  • debian directory added for dpkg

  • RPM support rewritten from scratch.

Changes in version ‘0.9.0’#

ffcall library is highly recommended for use with the GNUstep base library. You need to have installed it prior to configuring the Makefile package. See the INSTALL file.

  • Support for automatically generating RPM spec files.

  • Build suitable files for MacOS bundles

  • Add option for flattened directory structure.

  • LaText documentation support.

  • Added support for Frameworks

Noteworthy changes in version ‘0.6.6’#

========== The GNUstep system libraries are now installed in a separate system root directory (default /usr/GNUstep/System) rather than the GNUstep root directory (default /usr/GNUstep). You can revert to the old behavior using a configure option ‘–without-system-root’. We also recommend removing any previous GNUstep versions before installing the new one in order to avoid problems with the system finding the correct binary and/or library.

  • Support for Windows compilation (cygwin and mingw) and DLL creation and usage.

  • Java support rewritten and extended.

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