News - 2023/12/31 - FLL 0.6.8 Release
Author: Kevin Day
Description: News post on 2023/12/31.
Keywords: Kevin Day, Kevux, FLL, Featureless, Linux, Library, Distribution, Open-Source, News, 2023

# 2023 / 12 / 31 - FLL 0.6.8 Release

The Featureless Linux Library stable version `0.6.8` is released.

This release is for the start of a new year.

My plans going forward are to attempt to date releases using UTC and I date this release as `Sun 31 Dec 2023 08:52 PM UTC`.

There are not many changes and there are no code-based bug fixes. Only a single bug fix exists and it is in a specification.

This contains mostly specification updates, clarifications, and fixes.

The Payload and Simple Packet specifications have "type" added as a recommended Object in the header section for the Payload. The size of units is rewritten to make more sense in the Payload and Simple Packet specifications. The Payload specification now allows for the "payload" section to be optional.

The most notable code change is the explicit casting of `uint32_t` when doing bit-wise operations for left and right shifting. The goal here is to increase the integrity of the design and not allow any opportunity for the compiler or architecture to use a different size.

The following are changes since the `0.6.7` stable release.

Exploit Fixes:

- None.

Security Fixes:

- None.

Features:

- None.

Bug Fixes:

- FLL: Fix incorrect wording regarding negative times and add some clarification regarding defaults (in specification).

Refactors:

- None.

Regressions:

- None.

Updates:

- FLL: Specifications for Payload and Simple Packet.
- FLL: The FSS-000E (Payload) specification should allow for the "payload" Section to be optional.
- FLL: Explicitly cast UTF-8 conversion to/from to a `uint32_t`.
- Control: Use `size_t` and perform explicit casts in Control program.

Check out the project on the FLL release page.

The project is built like a tool chest. Individuals who are unfamiliar with the project should have an easier time trying out the pre-packaged monolithic sources. These programs, by default, are designed to build against a library built using the monolithic source tree.

The stand alone sources for the several programs can be found pre-packaged at Sourceforge.

Kevin Day