today's leftovers

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Sep 18, 2022

• Stable Linux Distros Aren't Interently Stable - Invidious

  When we're using the word stable in the context of software especially Linux distros we need to be clear about what we're referring to, do we mean stable execution or a stable environment

• Tourism in India for Debconf 23

  I had shared a while back that I would write a bit about tourism as Debconf or Annual Debian Conference will happen in India next year around this time. I was supposed to write it in the FAQ but couldn’t find a place or a corner where I could write it. There are actually two things that people need to be aware of. The one thing that people need to be very aware of is food poisoning or Delhi Belly. This is a far too common sight that I have witnessed especially with westerners when they come to visit India. I am somewhat shocked that it hasn’t been shared in the FAQ but then perhaps we cannot cover all the bases therein. I did find this interesting article and would recommend the suggestions given in it wholeheartedly. I would suggest people coming to India to buy and have purifying water tablets with them if they decide to stay back and explore India.

  Now the problem with tourism is, that one can have as much tourism as one wants. One of the unique ways I found some westerners having the time of their life is buying an Indian Rickshaw or Tuk-Tuk and traveling with it. A few years ago, when I was more adventourous-spirited I was able to meet a few of them. There is also the Race with Rickshaws that happens in Rajasthan and you get to see about 10 odd cities in and around Rajasthan state and get to see the vibrancy in the North. If somebody really wants to explore India, then I would suggest getting down to Goa, specifically, South Goa, meeting with the hippie crowd, and getting one of the hippie guidebooks to India. Most people forget that the Hippies came to India in the 1960s and many of them just never left. Tap water in Pune is ok, have seen and experienced the same in Himachal, Garwhal, and Uttarakhand, although it has been a few years since I have been to those places. North-East is a place I have yet to venture into.

• GCC's new fortification level: The gains and costs

  This article describes a new level of fortification supported in GCC. This new level detects more buffer overflows and bugs which mitigates security issues in applications at run time.

  C programs routinely suffer from memory management problems. For several years, a _FORTIFY_SOURCE preprocessor macro inserted error detection to address these problems at compile time and run time. To add an extra level of security, _FORTIFY_SOURCE=3 has been in the GNU C Library (glibc) since version 2.34. I described its mechanisms in my previous blog post, Broadening compiler checks for buffer overflows in _FORTIFY_SOURCE. There has been compiler support for this builtin in Clang for some time. Compiler support has also been available for GCC since the release of version 12 in May 2022. The new mitigation should be available in GNU/Linux distributions with packaged GCC 12.

  The following sections discuss two principal gains from this enhanced level of security mitigation and the resulting impact on applications.

• Workshop on open source software begins at Punjabi University

  Experts from different parts of the country, including Manoj Kumar Diwakar from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, Prof Suresh Kumar Sharma from Panjab University, Chandigarh, Tanveer Kajla from NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, and Prof Kapil Hari Paranjape, an eminent mathematician from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Mohali, will address the participants during the technical sessions.