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NovaStar Core / Release Notes / Version 5.x

Release notes include links to program documentation. [Issue numbers in brackets] for TriLynx repositories are noted for more recent versions. New release notes also have links to program documentation.

Changes in Version 5.4.0.2

  • change nsapacheloganalyze renamed to nswebloganalyze
  • change Tomcat option added to nswebloganalyze
  • change Add error messages to nsrecdata when customspec arguments given incorrectly
  • bug Fix nsrecdata customspec to properly alarm

Changes in Version 5.4.0.1

Maintenance release with additional Debian Bullseye updates.

  • new Added nsapacheloganalyze to analyze Apache log files and present usage statistics in a more legible format.
  • bug Fix novastar5_sqlinstall to properly handle --delete, --force, and --make commands.
  • change Add the Data Model documentation to explain NovaStar data objects and relationships.
  • change Update makedeb installer program to create a /usr/ns/tmp folder during installation, for use by nssystemcommand.
  • change Update datadisp:
    • Print ? for questioned data if flag set.
    • Remove crash if no rating table provided for rating assigns.
    • Print NULL for units if none provided in database rather than error out.
    • -remoteid command line argument no longer shows rated values.
  • change [443] Improve the recdatalogrefile program:
    • Add the --debug parameter.
    • Add the --dryrun parameter.
    • Add the --lines parameter.
    • Add the --logfilelimit parameter.
    • Add the --match parameter.
  • change Update nsdbrepair installer script to display output of novastar5_sqlinstall unless the --quiet option has been supplied.
  • change Update nsdbrestore:
    • Run nsdbrepair after restoring the database.
    • Add --norepair option to not run nsdbrepair after restoring the database.
  • change Update nssystemcommand to log to a file when the --debug option is set.
  • new [442] Add the nsrecdata-log-buffer-refile program to refile buffered nsrecdata data. Previously the program was used as a custom script on some systems.

Changes in Version 5.4.0.0

Feature release to finalize support for Debian Bullseye.

Changes in Version 5.3.2.0

Feature release to improve data polling and import programs.

  • change [378] Update polling programs:
    • Fix the nspollusgswaterdata to properly handle USGS web service response with multiple same data types, and improve error handling..
    • Begin phasing in design that will allow poll programs to run as data import programs.

Changes in Version 5.3.1.3

Maintenance release to fix issue with nsrecdata custom specification binary encoding.

Changes in Version 5.3.1.2

Maintenance release to improve the nsrecdata custom specification.

  • bug [380] Update the nsrecdata program:
    • The NovaStar Custom Specification format now accepts ValueCount column to define an integer count of data columns. This allows binary message length to be determined from the number of configuration columns and data columns. Column* properties can still be used to provide defaults for data column information.

Changes in Version 5.3.1.1

Maintenance release to fix bug in nsrecdata custom specification.

  • bug [377] Fix the nsrecdata program:
  • bug [375] Improve memory management in library code:
    • Better handle when zero bytes are requested for string concatenation.
    • Processing data report flags now uses memmove to address possible issue with strcpy.

Changes in Version 5.3.1.0

Feature release to enable binary custom specification format for nsrecdata, add nscore and nssecurity programs.

  • bug [369] Fix bug introduced in version 5.3.0.0 that caused some programs including reportgen to convert the starting date/time in a period at time 00:00:00 to hour 24 of the previous day, which impacted the output.
  • new [360] Add the nscore program as the top-level script to use in troubleshooting for the core system.
  • new [355] Add the nssecurity program to perform security checks.
  • new [251] Add the install-nscore.bash program to check the software installation after running the installer.
  • change Update the novastar5install program:
    • The www-data and tomcat users have been removed from sudo users
    • The nscore program is called at the end.
  • change Update the nsdbcheck program:
    • [364] Add the --keeptmp parameter to keep temporary files after exiting the program.
    • Disable the -drop parameter in favor of --drop.
    • Disable the -fix parameter in favor of --fix.
    • Disable the -reindex parameter in favor of --reindex.
    • Disable the -startyear parameter in favor of --startyear.
    • Disable the -table parameter in favor of --table.
    • Disable the -yearEnd parameter in favor of --yearEnd.
  • change Update the nsrecdata program:

Changes in Version 5.3.0.2

Maintenance release to add subsecond logging to nsrecdata.

  • bug [352] Update nsrecdata program:
    • Enable sub-second precision to some log messages, needed to better diagnose ALERT network issues.

Changes in Version 5.3.0.1

Maintenance release to fix nsrecdata issues.

  • bug [232] Update nsrecdata program:
    • Fix inaccurate check of ALERT2 ASCII payload length.
    • Enhance log file messages for warnings.

Changes in Version 5.3.0.0

Debian Stretch maintenance release and development release for Debian Buster and Bullseye. Many changes have been made to facilitate support and new development.

  • bug [232] Fix nsrecdata program to handle ALERT2 ASCII high data rate decode.
  • change [209] Update build process scripts:
    • Default startyear for new database is now the current year.
    • Update install-nscore-dev script to handle Debian Buster and Bullseye OS versions.
    • Setup Administrator development files for Buster to use in build.
    • Install AWS command line interface version 2.
    • Update build-nscore script to handle buster OS version:
      • Better handling of PostgreSQL server include file location (no need for symbolic links).
      • Dynamically get the Administrator tag for nscore version.
      • Add menu to print makefile help.
      • Fix SHEF program compilation to remove unneeded steps.
    • Update standard Debian build scripts to handle buster.
    • Update makedeb to use control file for each OS version.
    • Update makewar to handle Administrator repository tag dynamically using nscore-util.bash script.
    • Update main makefile to set variables to control PostgreSQL and operating system include files.
    • Update major component versions:
      • Apache 2
      • Java 11
      • PostgreSQL 11
      • Tomcat 9
      • PHP 7.3
    • Change PostgreSQL header file locations:
      • handle include file locations without symbolic links by detecting PostgreSQL version and handling in include files.
      • Update handling of boolean consistent with compiler default values.
    • Change program code in response to compiler warnings (code cleanup unless noted):
    • Other build system changes:
      • [245] Improvements to automated testing including use of TSTool software.
      • [239] Update setup-dev-user.bash script to recognize Debian Bullseye, Bookworm, and Trixie.
  • change [243] Update default landing page website to include NovaStar core documentation for command line programs, and add the TriLynx system dashboard website.
  • change Update command line parsing to be more robust and support automated testing:
  • change [268] Update nsnetcat program to use a log file with the port number
  • change Update nsrecdata program:

Changes in Version 5.2.1.1

Maintenance release to fix statreport issue.

  • bug Update statreport:
    • [242] Monthly rainfall report for multiple months was not handling different number of days in months

Changes in Version 5.2.1.0

Add initial Iridium/ALERT2 support.

  • change Update nsrecdata:
    • [210] Add support Iridium data feed with embedded ALERT2 binary packets, for use with Kore Wireless.

Changes in Version 5.2.0.1

Maintenance release.

  • bug Fix bug in statreport program:
    • [182] Fix debug messages that were always printing to stderr always to only print when running in debug mode.
  • change Update Administrator:
    • [37] Update PostgreSQL JDBC driver to version 42.2.10.
    • [34] Restore ALERT2 station controls.
    • [30] Fix ALERT2 two-way point sensor type edits.

Changes in Version 5.2.0.0

Jessie 64-bit and Stretch 64-bit release.

  • bug Fix bugs in core system installer:
    • [174] tomcat8 configuration file updated to follow symlinks for local folder - fixed for tomcat8.
    • [172] /var/www/html/temp added to support Operator getting output from NovaStar.
    • [153] Fix tomcat umask issue that broke cron file edits on stretch.
    • [104] Properly handle insert/update of local_hostname into configuration table.
  • bug Fix tomcat script:
    • [171] Fix so on Debian Jessie only tomcat7 is searched for to manage, to avoid conflict with data web services, which uses Java 8
  • change Update core system installer:
    • [177] System and PostgreSQL time zone are now checked/set.
    • [176] apt package smbclient Samba client is now included to support data import/export.
    • [175] Include libgfortran3 package since installed by default only on Debian systems with desktop GUI.
    • [170] Now references URL to start Administrator, which will use default browser for user, also new CSS for Administrator.
    • [165] Now defaults PostgreSQL to maximum of 200 connections.
    • [163] Configuration table system_id is new to help TriLynx manage systems.
    • [155] Apache modules for reverse proxy are enabled.
    • [154] Add interactive documentation and improved general landing page.
    • [150] Add ftp package, previously included lftp but Debian Stretch needs ftp.
    • [140] net-tools package has been added for Debian Stretch and later, needed to install netstat.
    • [125] Remove obsolete libxp package for Debian Stretch.
  • change Update Administrator:
    • [23] Fix bug where SHEF report export has bad header line.
  • change Update nsdbbackup and nsdbrestore:
    • [145] Remove obsolete -i option since not supported on Debian Stretch and later.

Changes in Version 5.1.4.8

TriLynx cleanup and incorporate HydroLynx fixes. Begin cross-referencing with repository issue numbers.

  • bug [87] Fix bug in dbfiler caused by logging message trying to print null pointer.
  • bug [149] Fix nsdbrepfailover install script bug due to check of number of nodes.
  • bug [95] Fix nsdbupdatedatapartitiontrigger bug where padding zero in end date was causing error.
  • bug [88] Fix nstime bug where base year in time library will cause issues handling 2020+ dates.
  • bug [58] Fix rfo bug causing crashes.
  • change Update core system installer:
    • [127] Installer was not handling command line arguments.
    • [123] Require installer to run as root/sudo from start.
    • [113] Add tomcat8 to installer for stretch.
    • [108] Update logrotate configuration for Debian Jessie, Stretch, and Buster.
    • [114] Fixed bug in timestamp_to_seconds database function.
    • [99] Create /var/log/novastar5 log folder earlier to avoid warnings.
    • [97] Fix bug where Debian Jessie /etc/apt files where being copied incorrectly in installer.
    • [96] Add preliminary support for Debian Stretch and Buster.
    • [93] Change novastar database roles.
    • [91] Update tomcat install script to check for tomcat 8, 9, 10.
    • [10] Update tomcat7 server.xml configuration maxPostSize from 0 to -1.
  • change Update nsrecdata:
    • [90] Handle very large packages.
    • [89] Add ability to handle A2X status message.

Other changes submitted by Dave Leader (HydroLynx):

  • Update to opendjk-7-jdk for Java Virtual Machine.
  • GIF library:
    • gif_scrn.c: Fixed creation of temporary file name.
  • Administrator:
    • Changed list details from character list (ABCD...) to CSV list (1,2,3,4,...).
    • Fix Point Type List display type string.
    • Fix Report Data Display:
      • Use report designated sort instead of default for reportDataDisplay.do.
      • Fixed report title and panel display in export.
      • Added padColumns=true parameter to pad column values with spaces to make columns the same width for export pages.
      • Changed report point list limit from 5000 to 9000.
    • Map Data Display:
      • Added gtview shape display capability.
      • Added cvgtp script to insert GTview templet files into NovaStar5 database map tables.
      • Fixed display of bar text readout when null bar label.
  • nsalertxmt:
    • Use -W # command argument to wait milliseconds between reports for ALERT2 receiver/decoder transmit options 5052RD-OP2.
  • nscomputerating:
    • Fixed line 322 lprt++.
  • nspollhydro50386:
    • Added direct network connection to IP:port address in station connect path.
    • Fixed socket write so program can work without ns50386server.
    • Fixed network port assignment when serial port station follows network station.
  • nsrecdata:
    • Fixed decode of MMR water level when negative signed 3 byte data.
  • nstimesync50386:
    • Fixed retry logic to use connect attempt station parameter.
  • nstimesync50386all:
    • Log messages to file: /usr/ns/lib/50386timesync.log.
  • xmlrptexport, xmldataexport, getstatparms:
    • Point query by Id matches point ID and remote ID. If both returned, use point ID.