fix rpm dependencies

readthedocs build does not include these.

.appveyor.yml

@@ -82,8 +82,9 @@ matrix:
 #---------------------------------#
 
 install:
+  - cmd: set PATH=C:\Python38-x64;%PATH%
   - cmd: git submodule update --init --recursive
-  - cmd: pip install git+https://github.com/mdavidsaver/ci-core-dumper#egg=ci-core-dumper
+  - cmd: python -m pip install git+https://github.com/mdavidsaver/ci-core-dumper#egg=ci-core-dumper
   - cmd: python .ci/cue.py prepare
 
 build_script:
@@ -121,10 +122,4 @@ on_failure:
 #---------------------------------#
 
 notifications:
-
-  - provider: Email
-    to:
-      - core-talk@aps.anl.gov
-    on_build_success: false
-
   - provider: GitHubPullRequest

.appveyor/epics-base-7.yml

@@ -89,8 +89,9 @@ matrix:
 #---------------------------------#
 
 install:
+  - cmd: set PATH=C:\Python38-x64;%PATH%
   - cmd: git submodule update --init --recursive
-  - cmd: pip install git+https://github.com/mdavidsaver/ci-core-dumper#egg=ci-core-dumper
+  - cmd: python -m pip install git+https://github.com/mdavidsaver/ci-core-dumper#egg=ci-core-dumper
   - cmd: python .ci/cue.py prepare
 
 build_script:
@@ -128,10 +129,4 @@ on_failure:
 #---------------------------------#
 
 notifications:
-
-  - provider: Email
-    to:
-      - core-talk@aps.anl.gov
-    on_build_success: false
-
   - provider: GitHubPullRequest

.editorconfig

@@ -6,3 +6,7 @@ root = true
 # as some compilers complain about files not ending in newline
 [*]
 insert_final_newline = true
+
+# Part of readline test that needs file without final newline
+[modules/libcom/test/multiline-input.txt]
+insert_final_newline = false

.github/workflows/ci-scripts-build.yml

@@ -45,15 +45,14 @@ jobs:
       CI_CROSS_TARGETS: ${{ matrix.cross }}
       EXTRA: ${{ matrix.extra }}
       TEST: ${{ matrix.test }}
-      CHOCO: llvm
     strategy:
-      fail-fast: true
+      fail-fast: false
       matrix:
         # Job names also name artifacts, character limitations apply
         include:
-          - os: ubuntu-24.04
+          - name: "Ub-24 gcc c++20 Werror"
+            os: ubuntu-24.04
             cmp: gcc
-            name: "Ub-24 gcc-13 c++20 Werror"
             # Turn all warnings into errors,
             # except for those we could not fix (yet).
             # Remove respective -Wno-error=... flag once it is fixed.
@@ -74,133 +73,141 @@ jobs:
                                   -U_FORTIFY_SOURCE -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=3'
                     CMD_LDFLAGS=-Wl,-z,relro"
 
-          - os: ubuntu-22.04
-            cmp: gcc
-            configuration: default
-            cross: "windows-x64-mingw"
-            name: "Ub-22 gcc + MinGW"
-
-          - os: ubuntu-22.04
-            cmp: gcc
-            configuration: static
-            cross: "windows-x64-mingw"
-            name: "Ub-22 gcc + MinGW, static"
-
-          - os: ubuntu-22.04
+          - name: "Ub-22 gcc C++11, static"
+            os: ubuntu-22.04
             cmp: gcc
             configuration: static
             extra: "CMD_CXXFLAGS=-std=c++11"
-            name: "Ub-22 gcc C++11, static"
 
-          - os: ubuntu-22.04
+          - name: "Ub-22 gcc u-char"
+            os: ubuntu-22.04
             cmp: gcc
             configuration: static
             extra: "CMD_CFLAGS=-funsigned-char CMD_CXXFLAGS=-funsigned-char"
-            name: "Ub-22 gcc unsigned char"
 
-          - os: ubuntu-22.04
+          - name: "Ub-22 clang"
+            os: ubuntu-22.04
             cmp: clang
             configuration: default
-            name: "Ub-22 clang"
 
-          - os: ubuntu-22.04
+          - name: "Ub-22 clang C++11"
+            os: ubuntu-22.04
             cmp: clang
             configuration: default
             extra: "CMD_CXXFLAGS=-std=c++11"
-            name: "Ub-22 clang C++11"
 
-          - os: ubuntu-22.04
+          - name: "MacOS clang"
+            os: macos-latest
+            cmp: clang
+            configuration: default
+
+          # Cross builds
+
+          - name: "Ub gcc + linux-aarch64"
+            os: ubuntu-latest
+            cmp: gcc
+            configuration: default
+            cross: "linux-aarch64"
+
+          - name: "Ub gcc + linux-arm gnueabi"
+            os: ubuntu-latest
+            cmp: gcc
+            configuration: default
+            cross: "linux-arm@arm-linux-gnueabi"
+
+          - name: "Ub gcc + linux-arm gnueabihf"
+            os: ubuntu-latest
+            cmp: gcc
+            configuration: default
+            cross: "linux-arm@arm-linux-gnueabihf"
+
+          - name: "Ub-22 gcc + MinGW"
+            os: ubuntu-22.04
+            cmp: gcc
+            configuration: default
+            cross: "windows-x64-mingw"
+
+          - name: "Ub-22 gcc + MinGW, static"
+            os: ubuntu-22.04
+            cmp: gcc
+            configuration: static
+            cross: "windows-x64-mingw"
+
+          - name: "Ub-22 gcc + RT-4.9 pc386"
+            os: ubuntu-22.04
+            cmp: gcc
+            configuration: default
+            cross: "RTEMS-pc386-qemu@4.9"
+
+          - name: "Ub-22 gcc + RT-4.10 pc386"
+            os: ubuntu-22.04
+            cmp: gcc
+            configuration: default
+            cross: "RTEMS-pc386-qemu@4.10"
+            test: NO
+
+          - name: "Ub-22 gcc + RT-5.1 pc686"
+            os: ubuntu-22.04
             cmp: gcc
             configuration: default
             cross: "RTEMS-pc686-qemu@5"
-            name: "Ub-22 gcc + RT-5.1 pc686"
 
-          - os: ubuntu-22.04
+          - name: "Ub-22 gcc + RT-5.1 beatnik"
+            os: ubuntu-22.04
             cmp: gcc
             configuration: default
             cross: "RTEMS-beatnik@5"
             test: NO
-            name: "Ub-22 gcc + RT-5.1 beatnik"
 
-          - os: ubuntu-22.04
+          - name: "Ub-22 gcc + RT-5.1 xilinx_zynq_a9_qemu"
+            os: ubuntu-22.04
             cmp: gcc
             configuration: default
             cross: "RTEMS-xilinx_zynq_a9_qemu@5"
             test: NO
-            name: "Ub-22 gcc + RT-5.1 xilinx_zynq_a9_qemu"
 
-          - os: ubuntu-22.04
+          - name: "Ub-22 gcc + RT-5.1 uC5282"
+            os: ubuntu-22.04
             cmp: gcc
             configuration: default
             cross: "RTEMS-uC5282@5"
             test: NO
-            name: "Ub-22 gcc + RT-5.1 uC5282"
 
-          - os: ubuntu-22.04
-            cmp: gcc
-            configuration: default
-            name: "Ub-22 gcc + RT-4.10"
-            cross: "RTEMS-pc386-qemu@4.10"
-            test: NO
+          # Windows builds
 
-          - os: ubuntu-22.04
-            cmp: gcc
-            configuration: default
-            name: "Ub-22 gcc + RT-4.9"
-            cross: "RTEMS-pc386-qemu@4.9"
-
-          - os: macos-latest
-            cmp: clang
-            configuration: default
-            name: "MacOS clang"
-
-          - os: windows-2019
-            cmp: vs2019
+          - name: "Win-22 MSC-22"
+            os: windows-2022
+            cmp: vs2022
             configuration: debug
-            name: "Win2019 MSC-19"
-            extra: "CMD_CXXFLAGS=-analysis"
+            extra: "CMD_CXXFLAGS=-analyze"
 
-          - os: windows-2019
-            cmp: vs2019
+          - name: "Win-22 MSC-22, static"
+            os: windows-2022
+            cmp: vs2022
             configuration: static-debug
-            name: "Win2019 MSC-19, static"
-            extra: "CMD_CXXFLAGS=-analysis"
+            extra: "CMD_CXXFLAGS=-analyze"
 
-          - os: windows-2019
-            cmp: vs2019
+          - name: "Win-22 MSC-22, debug"
+            os: windows-2022
+            cmp: vs2022
             configuration: debug
-            name: "Win2019 MSC-19, debug"
 
-          - os: windows-2022
+          - name: "Win-22 MSC-22 c++14, debug"
+            os: windows-2022
+            cmp: vs2022
+            configuration: debug
+            extra: "CMD_CXXFLAGS='-analyze -Zc:__cplusplus -std:c++14'"
+
+          - name: "Win-22 MSC-22 c++17, debug"
+            os: windows-2022
+            cmp: vs2022
+            configuration: debug
+            extra: "CMD_CXXFLAGS='-analyze -Zc:__cplusplus -std:c++17'"
+
+          - name: "Win-22 mingw"
+            os: windows-2022
             cmp: gcc
             configuration: default
-            name: "Win2022 mingw"
-
-          - os: windows-2019
-            cmp: clang+vs2019
-            configuration: default
-            name: "Win2019 clang-cl"
-            choco: ["llvm"]
-
-          # Cross builds
-
-          - os: ubuntu-latest
-            cmp: gcc
-            configuration: default
-            name: "Cross linux-aarch64"
-            cross: linux-aarch64
-
-          - os: ubuntu-latest
-            cmp: gcc
-            configuration: default
-            name: "Cross linux-arm gnueabi"
-            cross: linux-arm@arm-linux-gnueabi
-
-          - os: ubuntu-latest
-            cmp: gcc
-            configuration: default
-            name: "Cross linux-arm gnueabihf"
-            cross: linux-arm@arm-linux-gnueabihf
 
     steps:
     - uses: actions/checkout@v4
@@ -329,7 +336,7 @@ jobs:
         yum -y install \
           curl make gcc curl-devel expat-devel gettext-devel openssl-devel zlib-devel perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker \
           python3 gdb make perl gcc-c++ glibc-devel readline-devel ncurses-devel perl-devel perl-Test-Simple \
-          libevent-devel sudo re2c
+          libevent-devel sudo re2c perl-version
         [ -e /usr/bin/python ] || ln -sf /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/python
 
         # fake out cue.py

.gitignore

@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+# Before adding patterns here, please read the gitignore
+# documentation at https://git-scm.com/docs/gitignore
 /cfg/
 /bin/
 /lib/
@@ -11,14 +13,13 @@
 /modules/RELEASE.*.local
 /modules/Makefile.local
 O.*/
-/QtC-*
-/.qtc_*
-/.vscode/
-*.orig
 *.log
-.*.swp
-.DS_Store
 .iocsh_history
+
+# Common files generated by other tools
+.DS_Store
+
+# Files created by rpmbuild
 RPMS
 SRPMS
 BUILDROOT

.gitmodules

@@ -1,32 +1,31 @@
 [submodule "modules/pvData"]
     path = modules/pvData
-#    url = https://github.com/epics-base/pvDataCPP
-    url = git@git.psi.ch:epics_base/pvData.git
+    url = https://gitea.psi.ch/epics/pvData
     branch = master
 [submodule "modules/pvAccess"]
     path = modules/pvAccess
-    url = https://github.com/epics-base/pvAccessCPP
+    url = https://gitea.psi.ch/epics/pvAccess
     branch = master
 [submodule "modules/normativeTypes"]
     path = modules/normativeTypes
-    url = https://github.com/epics-base/normativeTypesCPP
+    url = https://gitea.psi.ch/epics/normativeTypes
     branch = master
 [submodule "modules/pvaClient"]
     path = modules/pvaClient
-    url = https://github.com/epics-base/pvaClientCPP
+    url = https://gitea.psi.ch/epics/pvaClient
     branch = master
 [submodule "modules/pvDatabase"]
     path = modules/pvDatabase
-    url = https://github.com/epics-base/pvDatabaseCPP
+    url = https://gitea.psi.ch/epics/pvDatabase
     branch = master
 [submodule "modules/pva2pva"]
     path = modules/pva2pva
-    url = https://github.com/epics-base/pva2pva
+    url = https://gitea.psi.ch/epics/pva2pva
     branch = master
 [submodule ".ci"]
     path = .ci
-    url = https://github.com/epics-base/ci-scripts
+    url = https://gitea.psi.ch/epics/ci-scripts
     branch = master
 [submodule "modules/pcas"]
     path = modules/pcas
-    url = https://github.com/epics-modules/pcas
+    url = https://gitea.psi.ch/epics/pcas

README

@@ -13,15 +13,7 @@ this distribution.
 
 ---------------------------------------------------------
 
-Installation and release information can be found in the
-various files in the documentation subdirectory.
-
-Additional information about EPICS including mailing list
-archives and subscription instructions, documentation and
-training materials, additional components, links to other
-websites etc. is available on the EPICS home page at
-	https://epics.anl.gov/
+For more information, see the README.md file.
 
 $Format:%cD$
 $Format:%H$
-https://code.launchpad.net/epics-base

README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+
+# EPICS Base
+
+EPICS (Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System) is a set of software
+tools and applications which provide a software infrastructure for use in
+building distributed control systems to operate devices such as Particle
+Accelerators, Large Experiments and major Telescopes. EPICS Base is the central
+core of the control system toolkit. More details can be found at the
+[About page of the official website](https://epics-controls.org/about-epics/)
+
+## Links
+
+- [Official Website](https://epics-controls.org/)
+- [Original Website](https://epics.anl.gov/)
+- [Repository](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base)
+
+### Documentation
+
+- [Documentation](https://docs.epics-controls.org/en/latest/)
+- [Documentation Repository](https://github.com/epics-docs/epics-docs)
+
+### Community Communication
+
+- [Tech-Talk Mailing List](https://epics.anl.gov/tech-talk/)
+- [Matrix Rooms](https://matrix.to/#/#epics:epics-controls.org)
+- [News](https://epics-controls.org/news-and-events/)
+
+## Quick Install
+
+Download a release from the
+[Downloads page](https://epics-controls.org/resources-and-support/base/downloads)
+and unpack it. Inside the unpacked folder run:
+
+```bash
+make
+```
+
+For more information on how to install on your system see the
+[Installation page](https://docs.epics-controls.org/en/latest/getting-started/installation.html)
+of the documentation.
+
+### Quick run a softIOC
+
+After building, you can run an example soft-IOC (Input/Output Controller)
+which runs a Channel Access server.
+
+```bash
+./bin/*/softIoc -x first
+```
+
+Run the `dbl` command to list the records it provides:
+
+```bash
+epics> dbl
+first:BaseVersion
+first:exit
+epics> 
+```
+
+## License
+
+EPICS Base is distributed subject to a Software License
+Agreement found in the file [LICENSE](./LICENSE) that is included with
+this distribution.

configure/CONFIG.gnuCommon

@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ LOADABLE_SHRLIB_LDFLAGS = -shared -fPIC -Wl,-h$@
 
 GNU_LDLIBS_YES = -lgcc
 
-# Use compiler flags to generate header dependancies files
+# Use compiler flags to generate header dependencies files
 HDEPENDS_METHOD = COMP
 HDEPENDS_COMPFLAGS = -MM -MF $@
 

configure/CONFIG.msvcCommon

@@ -17,14 +17,14 @@ ARCMD = $(MSVC_PREFIX)lib$(MSVC_SUFFIX) -nologo -verbose -out:$@ $(LIB_OPT_LDFLA
 CC = cl
 
 # OS vendor c preprocessor
-CPP = $(CC) -nologo -C -E
+CPP = $(CC) -C -E
 
 # Configure OS vendor C++ compiler
 #
 # -EHsc - generate code for exceptions
 # -GR - generate code for run time type identification
 #
-CCC = $(CC) -EHsc -GR
+CCC = $(CC) -EHsc -GR -Zc:__cplusplus
 
 # Override CONFIG.gnuCommon settings for cross builds.
 GNU = NO

configure/CONFIG_ADDONS

@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
 #    These rules apply to these Makefile-variables:
 #    USR_CFLAGS    C flags
 #    USR_CXXFLAGS  C++ flags
-#    USR_CPPFLAGS  c preprocesser flags
+#    USR_CPPFLAGS  c preprocessor flags
 #    SRCS          source files for building libraries and prods
 #    USR_SRCS      source files for building libraries and prods
 #    PROD_SRCS     source files for building prods

configure/CONFIG_BASE_VERSION

@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ EPICS_VERSION = 7
 EPICS_REVISION = 0
 
 # EPICS_MODIFICATION must be a number >=0 and <256
-EPICS_MODIFICATION = 9
+EPICS_MODIFICATION = 10
 
 # EPICS_PATCH_LEVEL must be a number (win32 resource file requirement)
 # Not included in the official EPICS version number if zero

configure/CONFIG_CA_VERSION

@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 # Version number for the Channel Access API and shared library
 
 EPICS_CA_MAJOR_VERSION = 4
-EPICS_CA_MINOR_VERSION = 14
-EPICS_CA_MAINTENANCE_VERSION = 6
+EPICS_CA_MINOR_VERSION = 15
+EPICS_CA_MAINTENANCE_VERSION = 1
 
 # Development flag, set to zero for release versions
 

configure/CONFIG_COMMON

@@ -147,7 +147,7 @@ CMPLR_SRC_DIRS += . $(foreach dir, .. $(SRC_DIRS), \
 ALL_SRC_DIRS = $(CMPLR_SRC_DIRS) $(OS_SRC_DIRS) $(GENERIC_SRC_DIRS)
 
 #--------------------------------------------------
-# Directory for OS independant build created files
+# Directory for OS independent build created files
 COMMON_DIR = ../O.Common
 
 # compile line include directories

configure/CONFIG_DATABASE_VERSION

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # Version number for the database APIs and shared library
 
 EPICS_DATABASE_MAJOR_VERSION = 3
-EPICS_DATABASE_MINOR_VERSION = 24
+EPICS_DATABASE_MINOR_VERSION = 25
 EPICS_DATABASE_MAINTENANCE_VERSION = 1
 
 # Development flag, set to zero for release versions

configure/CONFIG_ENV

@@ -53,3 +53,5 @@ EPICS_IOC_IGNORE_SERVERS=""
 # EPICS_IOC_LOG_PORT Log server port number etc.
 EPICS_IOC_LOG_PORT=7004
 
+# Posix priority scheduling
+EPICS_ALLOW_POSIX_THREAD_PRIORITY_SCHEDULING=YES

configure/CONFIG_LIBCOM_VERSION

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # Version number for the libcom APIs and shared library
 
 EPICS_LIBCOM_MAJOR_VERSION = 3
-EPICS_LIBCOM_MINOR_VERSION = 24
+EPICS_LIBCOM_MINOR_VERSION = 25
 EPICS_LIBCOM_MAINTENANCE_VERSION = 1
 
 # Development flag, set to zero for release versions

configure/CONFIG_SITE_ENV

@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ EPICS_TS_NTP_INET=
 #	Number of lines of command history to keep.
 # IOCSH_HISTEDIT_DISABLE
 # 	Prevents use of readline or equivalent if defined.
-IOCSH_PS1="epics> "
+IOCSH_PS1=ANSI_GREEN("epics> ")
 IOCSH_HISTSIZE=50
 IOCSH_HISTEDIT_DISABLE=
 

configure/RULES.Db

@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ DBD += $(foreach type, $(CROSS_TARGET_OS_TYPES), $(DBD_$(type)))
 # DBD_solaris += abcSolaris.dbd
 #
 # ---------------------------------------------------
-# DBD concatination files
+# DBD concatenation files
 
 COMMON_DBDCATS += $(addprefix $(COMMON_DIR)/,$(DBDCAT))
 DBDCAT_SOURCES += $(foreach file, $($*_DBD), $(DBDCAT_SOURCE) )
@@ -194,7 +194,7 @@ ifneq (,$(strip $(DBDDEPENDS_FILES)))
 endif
 
 #---------------------------------------------------------------
-# build dependancies, clean rule
+# build dependencies, clean rule
 
 inc: $(COMMON_INC) $(INSTALL_INC) $(COMMON_DBDS) $(COMMON_DBDCATS) \
 	$(INSTALL_DBDS) $(INSTALL_DBD_INSTALLS) $(COMMON_DOCS)

configure/RULES_ARCHS

@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ ifneq ($(RELEASE_CFG_DIR_RULES),)
   include $(RELEASE_CFG_DIR_RULES)
 endif
 
-# Create EPICS_HOST_ARCH dependancies for GNU make -j option.
+# Create EPICS_HOST_ARCH dependencies for GNU make -j option.
 # Needed in dirs where EPICS_HOST_ARCH build creates a tool used in 
 # cross arch builds
 

configure/RULES_BUILD

@@ -214,7 +214,7 @@ $(sort $(DIRECTORY_TARGETS)):
 	$(MKDIR) $@
 
 # Install LIB_INSTALLS libraries before linking executables
-$(TESTPRODNAME) $(PRODNAME): | $(INSTALL_LIB_INSTALLS)
+$(TESTPRODNAME) $(PRODNAME): | $(INSTALL_LIB_INSTALLS) $(TESTSHRLIBNAME)
 
 # Install built libraries too, unless Makefile says to wait
 ifneq ($(DELAY_INSTALL_LIBS),YES)
@@ -582,11 +582,11 @@ $(INSTALL_DOC)/%: $(COMMON_DIR)/%
 
 $(INSTALL_DOC)/%: %
 	$(ECHO) "Installing doc $@"
-	@$(INSTALL) -d -m $(INSTALL_PERMISSIONS) $< $(INSTALL_DOC)
+	@$(INSTALL) -d -m $(INSTALL_PERMISSIONS) $< $(@D)
 
 $(INSTALL_DOC)/%: ../%
 	$(ECHO) "Installing doc $@"
-	@$(INSTALL) -d -m $(INSTALL_PERMISSIONS) $< $(INSTALL_DOC)
+	@$(INSTALL) -d -m $(INSTALL_PERMISSIONS) $< $(@D)
 
 $(INSTALL_HTML)/$(HTMLS_DIR)/%: $(COMMON_DIR)/%
 	$(ECHO) "Installing generated html $@"

configure/RULES_DIRS

@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ $(foreach dir, $(DIRS), $(dir)$(DIVIDER)install): \
 rebuild: $(foreach dir, $(DIRS), $(dir)$(DIVIDER)install)
 endif
 
-# Create directory dependancies lines for GNU make -j option
+# Create directory dependencies lines for GNU make -j option
 # Only works with GNU make 3.81 or later (uses eval function)
 define DEP_template1
 $(1): $$($(1)_DEPEND_DIRS)

configure/RULES_MODULES

@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ RELEASE.host: $(RELEASE_LOCAL)
 
 $(RELEASE_LOCAL): Makefile $(CONFIG)/CONFIG_SITE \
     $(wildcard $(CONFIG)/CONFIG_SITE.local)
-	$(ECHO) Creating $@ with
+	$(ECHO) "Creating $@ with"
 	$(ECHO) "    $(PARENT_MODULE) = $(INSTALL_ABSOLUTE)"
 	@echo $(PARENT_MODULE) = $(INSTALL_ABSOLUTE)> $@
 

configure/Sample.Makefile

@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ INC         = file.h
 #	Platform specific files can also be put in
 #	separate os/OS_CLASS directories!
 #
-#	For almost every file the seach order is:
+#	For almost every file the search order is:
 #	./os/OS_CLASS
 #	./os/generic
 #	.
@@ -136,11 +136,11 @@ PROD_SRCS = ppp.c qqq.c
 a_file_SRCS = aa.c bb.c
 
 #
-#	EPICS libs needed to link PROD, TESTPROD and sharable library
+#	EPICS libs needed to link PROD, TESTPROD and shareable library
 #
 #	note that DLL_LIBS (the libraries needed to link a shareable
 #	library) is created by default from the PROD/SYS libraries specified 
-#	below minus the name of the sharable library (LIBRARY)
+#	below minus the name of the shareable library (LIBRARY)
 #	
 #
 # ----------  libraries for a specific product pppp
@@ -169,7 +169,7 @@ USR_LIBS_DEFAULT = foolib
 USR_LIBS_WIN32   = -nil-
 foolib_DIR = $(FOO_LIB)
 
-#	system libs needed to link PROD, TESTPROD and sharable library
+#	system libs needed to link PROD, TESTPROD and shareable library
 #
 # ---------- system libraries for all products
 # for all systems:

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.RHEL7-x86_64

@@ -1,8 +0,0 @@
-# Include definitions common to linux pentium targets
-include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.Common.linux-x86_64
-
-BUILD_CLASS = HOST
-
-TOOLSET_LOCATION = /opt/rh
-TOOLSET = devtoolset-12
-STD_CXXFLAGS = -std=c++20

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.RHEL7-x86_64-clang

@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.Common.linux-clang
-
-BUILD_CLASS = HOST

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.RHEL8-x86_64

@@ -4,8 +4,9 @@ include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.Common.linux-x86_64
 BUILD_CLASS = HOST
 
 TOOLSET_LOCATION = /opt/rh
-TOOLSET = gcc-toolset-12
+TOOLSET = gcc-toolset-15
 STD_CXXFLAGS = -std=c++20
+STD_CFLAGS = -std=c17
 
 # Fix bug in gcc-toolset-11 calling the old assembler
 ifneq ($(filter %-11,$(TOOLSET)),)

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.RHEL9-x86_64

@@ -4,8 +4,9 @@ include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.Common.linux-x86_64
 BUILD_CLASS = HOST
 
 TOOLSET_LOCATION = /opt/rh
-TOOLSET = gcc-toolset-12
+TOOLSET = gcc-toolset-15
 STD_CXXFLAGS = -std=c++20
+STD_CFLAGS = -std=c17
 
 # Fix bug in gcc-toolset-11 calling the old assembler
 ifneq ($(filter %-11,$(TOOLSET)),)

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.RTEMS

@@ -165,7 +165,8 @@ MOD_SYS_LDFLAGS += $(CPU_CFLAGS) -Wl,-r -nostdlib
 GESYS_LIBS += -lgcc
 GESYS_LIBS += -lc -lm -lrtemscpu -lrtemsbsp -lrtems++
 GESYS_LIBS += -lcexp -ltecla_r -lspencer_regexp -lpmelf -lpmbfd
-GESYS_LIBS += -lnfs -ltelnetd -lrtems-gdb-stub
+GESYS_LIBS += -lnfs -ltelnetd -lrtems-gdb-stub -lbsd -ltftpfs -lz
+GESYS_LIBS += -lnetworking
 
 # While not part of the Generic Image it provides symbols which
 # would conflict.

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.RTEMS-beagleboneblack

@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ RTEMS_BSP = beagleboneblack
 RTEMS_TARGET_CPU = arm
 GNU_TARGET = arm-rtems
 
-OP_SYS_LDLIBS += -Wl,--gc-sections
+OP_SYS_LDFLAGS += -Wl,--gc-sections
 ARCH_DEP_LDFLAGS = -L$(RTEMS_BASE)/$(GNU_TARGET)$(RTEMS_VERSION)/beagleboneblack/lib/
 
 include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.Common.RTEMS

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.RTEMS-pc686

@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@ define MUNCH_CMD
 	$(RTEMS_TOOLS)/bin/$(OBJCOPY_FOR_TARGET) -O binary -R .comment -S $< $@ 
 endef
 
-OP_SYS_LDLIBS += -Wl,--gc-sections
 ARCH_DEP_LDFLAGS = -L$(RTEMS_BASE)/$(GNU_TARGET)$(RTEMS_VERSION)/pc686/lib/
 
 include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.Common.RTEMS
@@ -28,7 +27,7 @@ include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.Common.RTEMS
 #
 # Put text segment where it will work with etherboot
 #
-OP_SYS_LDFLAGS += -Wl,-Ttext,0x100000
+OP_SYS_LDFLAGS += -Wl,-Ttext,0x100000 -Wl,--gc-sections
 
 
 # This check must appear after the above include

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.RTEMS-qoriq_e500

@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ ARCH_DEP_CFLAGS += -DRTEMS_HAS_ALTIVEC
 #ARCH_DEP_CFLAGS += -I$(RTEMS_BASE)/powerpc-rtems5/qoriq_e500/lib/include
 
 #OP_SYS_LDLIBS += -lbspExt #does not use posix stuff ... want to ignore
-OP_SYS_LDLIBS += -Wl,--gc-sections
+OP_SYS_LDFLAGS += -Wl,--gc-sections
 #ARCH_DEP_LDFLAGS = -mcpu=8540 -meabi -msdata=sysv -mstrict-align -mspe -mabi=spe -mfloat-gprs=double 
 ARCH_DEP_LDFLAGS = -L$(RTEMS_BASE)/$(GNU_TARGET)$(RTEMS_VERSION)/$(RTEMS_BSP)/lib
 

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.RTEMS-xilinx_zynq_a9_qemu

@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ GNU_TARGET = arm-rtems
 #use dhcp/bootp
 ARCH_DEP_CFLAGS += -DMY_DO_BOOTP=NULL
 
-OP_SYS_LDLIBS += -Wl,--gc-sections
+OP_SYS_LDFLAGS += -Wl,--gc-sections
 ARCH_DEP_LDFLAGS = -L$(RTEMS_BASE)/$(GNU_TARGET)$(RTEMS_VERSION)/xilinx_zynq_a9_qemu/lib/
 
 

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.RTEMS-xilinx_zynq_microzed

@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+#
+# CONFIG.Common.RTEMS-xilinx_zynq_microzed
+# Author: Chris Johns <chris@contemporary.software>
+#
+# All RTEMS targets use the same Makefile fragment
+#
+#EXE = .elf
+RTEMS_BSP = xilinx_zynq_microzed
+RTEMS_TARGET_CPU = arm
+GNU_TARGET = arm-rtems
+
+OP_SYS_LDLIBS += -Wl,--gc-sections
+ARCH_DEP_LDFLAGS = -L$(RTEMS_BASE)/$(GNU_TARGET)$(RTEMS_VERSION)/xilinx_zynq_microzed/lib/
+
+
+include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.Common.RTEMS

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.RTEMS-xilinx_zynq_zedboard

@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ RTEMS_BSP = xilinx_zynq_zedboard
 RTEMS_TARGET_CPU = arm
 GNU_TARGET = arm-rtems
 
-OP_SYS_LDLIBS += -Wl,--gc-sections
+OP_SYS_LDFLAGS += -Wl,--gc-sections
 ARCH_DEP_LDFLAGS = -L$(RTEMS_BASE)/$(GNU_TARGET)$(RTEMS_VERSION)/xilinx_zynq_zedboard/lib/
 
 

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.T2-ppc604

@@ -1,8 +0,0 @@
-include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.Common.vxWorks-ppc604_long
-VXWORKS_VERSION = 5.5.1
-WIND_BASE = /opt/VxWorks/Tornado2.2.1
-
-#there is a problem with our ccppc and optimization
-# -O0 works, -O and -O1 and higher are buggy
-OPT_CFLAGS_YES = -O0
-OPT_CXXFLAGS_YES = -O0

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.V62-ppc604

@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.Common.vxWorks-ppc604_long
-VXWORKS_VERSION = 6.2

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.V63-ppc603

@@ -1,5 +0,0 @@
-include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.Common.vxWorks-ppc603_long
-VXWORKS_VERSION = 6.3
-
-# Buggy "uninitialized variable" warning produces many false positives
-ARCH_DEP_CXXFLAGS += -Wno-uninitialized

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.V63-ppc604

@@ -1,5 +0,0 @@
-include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.Common.vxWorks-ppc604_long
-VXWORKS_VERSION = 6.3
-
-# Buggy "uninitialized variable" warning produces many false positives
-ARCH_DEP_CXXFLAGS += -Wno-uninitialized

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.V64-ppc604

@@ -1,5 +0,0 @@
-include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.Common.vxWorks-ppc604_long
-VXWORKS_VERSION = 6.4
-
-# Buggy "uninitialized variable" warning produces many false positives
-ARCH_DEP_CXXFLAGS += -Wno-uninitialized

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.V66-ppc603

@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.Common.vxWorks-ppc603_long
-VXWORKS_VERSION = 6.6

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.V66-ppc604

@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.Common.vxWorks-ppc604_long
-VXWORKS_VERSION = 6.6

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.V67-ppc604

@@ -1,8 +0,0 @@
-include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.Common.vxWorks-ppc604_long
-VXWORKS_VERSION = 6.7
-
-# needed when including memPartLib.h, e.g. through moduleLib.h or loadLib.h
-ARCH_DEP_CFLAGS += -D_VSB_CONFIG_FILE='<../lib/h/config/vsbConfig.h>'
-
-# compiler tries to access license server (even though no license isneeded)
-export LM_LICENSE_FILE=37000@lic-windriver.psi.ch

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.V69-ppc32

@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.Common.vxWorks-ppc32
-VXWORKS_VERSION = 6.9
-#export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$(LD_LIBRARY_PATH:%=%:)$(WIND_BASE)/lmapi-5.0/$(WIND_HOST_TYPE)/lib

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.eldk42-ppc4xxFP

@@ -11,13 +11,6 @@ ELDK=/opt/eldk-4.2
 GNU_TARGET=ppc_4xxFP
 GNU_DIR=$(ELDK)/usr
 
-# This cross tool chain is installed in a somehow weired way
-# Without the following lines it does not work on RHEL7
-# but it worked on SL6
-ARCH_DEP_CXXFLAGS += -I $(ELDK)/$(GNU_TARGET)/usr/include/c++/4.2.2
-ARCH_DEP_CXXFLAGS += -I $(ELDK)/$(GNU_TARGET)/usr/include/c++/4.2.2/powerpc-linux
-ARCH_DEP_CXXFLAGS += -I $(ELDK)/$(GNU_TARGET)/usr/include/c++/4.2.2/backward
-
 ARCH_DEP_LDFLAGS += -Wl,-rpath-link,$(ELDK)/$(GNU_TARGET)/lib
 ARCH_DEP_LDFLAGS += -Wl,-rpath-link,$(ELDK)/$(GNU_TARGET)/usr/lib
 

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.fslqoriq20-e6500_64

@@ -1,17 +0,0 @@
-# IOxOS IFC1211 with Freescale QorIQ 2.0 toolchain
-
-# Include definitions common to all Linux targets
-include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.Common.linuxCommon
-
-ARCH_CLASS = ppc
-
-SDK = fslsdk
-SDK_DIR = /opt/fsl-qoriq/2.0
-SDK_HOST_ARCH = $(GNU_HOST_ARCH_64)-$(SDK)-$(GNU_HOST_OS)
-SDK_TARGET = ppc64e6500-fsl-linux
-GNU_TARGET = powerpc64-fsl-linux
-SYSROOT = $(SDK_DIR)/sysroots/$(SDK_TARGET)
-GNU_DIR = $(SDK_DIR)/sysroots/$(SDK_HOST_ARCH)/usr
-GNU_BIN = $(GNU_DIR)/bin/$(GNU_TARGET)
-
-ARCH_DEP_CFLAGS = -mcpu=e6500 -m64 -mhard-float

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.iosCommon

@@ -91,11 +91,6 @@ vpath %.m $(USR_VPATH) $(ALL_SRC_DIRS)
 %.o: %.m
 	$(COMPILE.c) -c $<
 
-#--------------------------------------------------
-# Header dependency file generation
-#
-HDEPENDS_METHOD = MKMF
-
 #--------------------------------------------------
 # Allow site overrides
 -include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG_SITE.Common.iosCommon

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.mvl40-xscale_be

@@ -11,6 +11,9 @@ GNU_DIR=/opt/moxa/xscale_be/armv5teb-montavista-linuxeabi
 
 ARCH_DEP_CFLAGS += -funwind-tables
 
+# suppress strict alias warnings
+CODE_CPPFLAGS += -fno-strict-aliasing
+
 # have no C++11
 STD_CXXFLAGS =
 

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.nilrt7-armv7a

@@ -9,10 +9,10 @@ ARCH_CLASS = arm
 GNU_TARGET = arm-linux-gnu
 
 SYSROOT = /opt/LabVIEW-RT-19.5.1/arm/sysroots/armv7a-vfp-neon-nilrt-linux-gnueabi
-GNU_BIN = /opt/RHEL7/bin
+GNU_DIR = /opt/RHEL7
 
 # Needed on RHEL9:
-export LD_LIBRARY_PATH := $(LD_LIBRARY_PATH:%=%:)/usr/$$LIB:/opt/RHEL7/$$LIB
+export LD_LIBRARY_PATH := $(LD_LIBRARY_PATH:%=%:)/usr/$$LIB:$(GNU_DIR)/$$LIB
 
 ARCH_DEP_CPPFLAGS += -march=armv7-a -mthumb-interwork -mfloat-abi=softfp -mfpu=neon
 ARCH_DEP_CXXFLAGS += -I=/usr/include/c++/4.7.2/arm-nilrt-linux-gnueabi

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.vxWorksCommon

@@ -145,12 +145,6 @@ CODE_CXXFLAGS = $(CODE_CXXFLAGS_$(VXWORKS_MAJOR_VERSION))
 SHRLIB_CFLAGS =
 SHRLIB_LDFLAGS =
 
-#--------------------------------------------------
-# Don't use gcc 2.x for dependency generation
-
-HDEPENDS_METHOD_2 = MKMF
-HDEPENDS_METHOD = $(firstword $(HDEPENDS_METHOD_$(VX_GNU_MAJOR_VERSION)) COMP)
-
 #--------------------------------------------------
 # osithead use default stack, YES or NO override
 OSITHREAD_USE_DEFAULT_STACK = NO

configure/os/CONFIG.Common.yocto21-aarch64

@@ -1,15 +0,0 @@
-# XILINX Zynq with Yocto 2.1 / Petalinux toolchain
-
-# Include definitions common to all Linux targets
-include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.Common.linuxCommon
-
-ARCH_CLASS = arm64
-
-SDK = petalinux
-SDK_DIR = /opt/petalinux-gfa/2018.1
-SDK_HOST_ARCH = $(GNU_HOST_ARCH_64)-$(SDK)-$(GNU_HOST_OS)
-SDK_TARGET = aarch64-xilinx-linux
-GNU_TARGET = $(SDK_TARGET)
-SYSROOT = $(SDK_DIR)/sysroots/$(SDK_TARGET)
-GNU_DIR = $(SDK_DIR)/sysroots/$(SDK_HOST_ARCH)/usr
-GNU_BIN = $(GNU_DIR)/bin/$(GNU_TARGET)

configure/os/CONFIG.RHEL7-x86_64.Common

@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-#CONFIG.$(EPICS_HOST_ARCH).Common is required by build system
-#Include definitions common to linux hosts
-include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.linux-x86_64.Common

configure/os/CONFIG.RHEL7-x86_64.RHEL7-x86_64

@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-# Include common linux definitions
-include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.linux-x86.linux-x86

configure/os/CONFIG.RHEL7-x86_64.windows-x64

@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-# MSVC_VERSION 2019 in wine 4 for on RHEL7 would require winetricks
-MSVC_VERSION = 2017
-include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.Linux.windows-x64

configure/os/CONFIG.RHEL8-x86_64.RHEL7-x86_64

@@ -1,28 +0,0 @@
-# Include common linux definitions
-include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.linux-x86.linux-x86
-
-# "Cross compile" for RHEL7-x86_64
-# Expects RHEL7 RPMs c++ and readline-devel installed
-# in $(SYSROOT)
-# This can be installed on RHEL7 with:
-#    yum install --installroot=$(SYSROOT) <packages>
-# (Assuming $(SYSROOT) is on a shared network volume.)
-# Optionally use a newer TOOLSET (installed on $(SYSROOT)).
-
-SYSROOT = /opt/RHEL7
-
-# "Cross" TOOLSET progs need to find their libraries
-export LD_LIBRARY_PATH := $(LD_LIBRARY_PATH:%=%:)$(TOOLSET_DIR:%=$(SYSROOT)%/usr/$$LIB)
-
-# The linker has problems to find indirectly referenced libraries
-ARCH_DEP_LDFLAGS+=-Wl,-rpath-link,$(INSTALL_LIB)
-
-# These programs have library problems when using them
-# from SYSROOT but without TOOLSET.
-# But provinding LD_LIBRARY PATH crashes other progams.
-# Our host versions work just fine.
-AR = ar -rc
-RANLIB = ranlib
-
-# Allow to run cross-tests which expect different lib versions
-export LD_PRELOAD=$(SYSROOT)/lib64/libreadline.so

configure/os/CONFIG.RHEL8-x86_64.win32-x86-mingw

@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-include  $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.linux-x86_64.win32-x86-mingw

configure/os/CONFIG.RHEL9-x86_64.Common

@@ -1,9 +1,3 @@
 #CONFIG.$(EPICS_HOST_ARCH).Common is required by build system
 #Include definitions common to linux hosts
 include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.linux-x86_64.Common
-
-# Windows 32 bit cross builds using mingw
-# (broken on RHEL8)
-
-CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += win32-x86-mingw
-CROSS_COMPILER_RUNTEST_ARHCS += win32-x86-mingw

configure/os/CONFIG.RHEL9-x86_64.RHEL7-x86_64

@@ -1,21 +0,0 @@
-# Include common linux definitions
-include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.linux-x86.linux-x86
-
-# "Cross compile" for RHEL7-x86_64
-# Expects RHEL7 RPMs c++ and readline-devel installed
-# in $(SYSROOT)
-# This can be installed on RHEL7 with:
-#    yum install --installroot=$(SYSROOT) <packages>
-# (Assuming $(SYSROOT) is on a shared network volume.)
-# Optionally use a newer TOOLSET (installed on $(SYSROOT)).
-
-SYSROOT = /opt/RHEL7
-
-# "Cross" TOOLSET progs need to find their libraries
-export LD_LIBRARY_PATH := $(LD_LIBRARY_PATH:%=%:)$(TOOLSET_DIR:%=$(SYSROOT)%/usr/$$LIB:)/usr/$$LIB:$(SYSROOT)/usr/$$LIB
-
-# The linker has problems to find indirectly referenced libraries
-PROD_LDLIBS += $(LDLIBS)
-
-# Allow to run cross-tests which expect different lib versions
-export LD_PRELOAD=$(SYSROOT)/lib64/libreadline.so

configure/os/CONFIG.RHEL9-x86_64.win32-x86-mingw

@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-include  $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.linux-x86_64.win32-x86-mingw

configure/os/CONFIG.darwinCommon.darwinCommon

@@ -82,11 +82,6 @@ vpath %.m $(USR_VPATH) $(ALL_SRC_DIRS)
 %.o: %.m
 	$(COMPILE.c) -c $<
 
-#
-# Header dependency file generation
-#
-HDEPENDS_METHOD = MKMF
-
 #--------------------------------------------------
 # Allow site overrides
 -include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG_SITE.darwinCommon.darwinCommon

configure/os/CONFIG_SITE.Common.linuxCommon

@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ COMMANDLINE_LIBRARY = READLINE
 
 USR_CXXFLAGS += $(STD_CXXFLAGS)
 STD_CXXFLAGS = -std=c++11
+USR_CFLAGS += $(STD_CFLAGS)
 
 TOOLSET_DIR      = $(TOOLSET:%=$(TOOLSET_LOCATION)/%/root)
 GNU_DIR = $(SYSROOT)$(TOOLSET_DIR)

configure/os/CONFIG_SITE.RHEL7-x86_64.Common

@@ -1,5 +0,0 @@
-include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG_SITE.linux-x86_64.Common
-
-# Improved error checking with clang
-CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += RHEL7-x86_64-clang
-CROSS_COMPILER_RUNTEST_ARCHS += RHEL7-x86_64-clang

configure/os/CONFIG_SITE.RHEL8-x86_64.Common

@@ -3,7 +3,3 @@ include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG_SITE.linux-x86_64.Common
 # Improved error checking with clang
 CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += RHEL8-x86_64-clang
 CROSS_COMPILER_RUNTEST_ARCHS += RHEL8-x86_64-clang
-
-# Build for old RHEL7 64 bit
-#CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += RHEL7-x86_64
-#CROSS_COMPILER_RUNTEST_ARCHS += RHEL7-x86_64

configure/os/CONFIG_SITE.RHEL8-x86_64.win32-x86-mingw

@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-include  $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG_SITE.linux-x86_64.win32-x86-mingw

configure/os/CONFIG_SITE.RHEL9-x86_64.Common

@@ -7,7 +7,3 @@ CROSS_COMPILER_RUNTEST_ARCHS += RHEL9-x86_64-clang
 # Build for old RHEL8 64 bit
 CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += RHEL8-x86_64
 CROSS_COMPILER_RUNTEST_ARCHS += RHEL8-x86_64
-
-# Build for even older RHEL7 64 bit
-#CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += RHEL7-x86_64
-#CROSS_COMPILER_RUNTEST_ARCHS += RHEL7-x86_64

configure/os/CONFIG_SITE.RHEL9-x86_64.win32-x86-mingw

@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-include  $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG_SITE.linux-x86_64.win32-x86-mingw

configure/os/CONFIG_SITE.darwinCommon.darwinCommon

@@ -6,24 +6,17 @@
 # These settings are designed for users of Homebrew.
 # Users of other third-party package managers are welcome to
 # provide patches appropriate for their manager.
-ifneq (,$(wildcard /opt/homebrew))
-  # Default location on aarch64
-  HOMEBREW_DIR = /opt/homebrew
-else ifneq (,$(wildcard /usr/local/Homebrew))
-  # Default location on x86_64
-  HOMEBREW_DIR = /usr/local
-else ifneq (,$(wildcard /opt/local/include/readline))
-  # MacPorts
-  READLINE_DIR = /opt/local
-endif
+HOMEBREW_DIR := $(shell brew --prefix 2>/dev/null)
+INCLUDES += $(HOMEBREW_DIR:%=-I%/include)
+LDFLAGS += $(HOMEBREW_DIR:%=-L%/lib)
 
 # Look for Homebrew's readline
 ifneq (,$(wildcard $(HOMEBREW_DIR)/opt/readline))
-  READLINE_DIR = $(HOMEBREW_DIR)/opt/readline
+  INCLUDES_READLINE += -I$(HOMEBREW_DIR)/opt/readline/include
+  LDFLAGS_READLINE += -L$(HOMEBREW_DIR)/opt/readline/lib
 endif
 
-# Use GNU readline if it's avaiilable
-ifneq (,$(wildcard $(READLINE_DIR)/include/readline/readline.h))
-  INCLUDES_READLINE = -I$(READLINE_DIR)/include
-  LDFLAGS_READLINE = -L$(READLINE_DIR)/lib
-endif
+# Look for MacPorts
+MACPORT_DIR := $(patsubst %/bin/port,%,$(shell which port))
+INCLUDES += $(MACPORT_DIR:%=-I%/include)
+LDFLAGS += $(MACPORT_DIR:%=-L%/lib)

configure/os/CONFIG_SITE.linux-x86.Common

@@ -12,13 +12,7 @@ GNU_HOST_ARCH=i686
 GNU_HOST_OS=linux
 
 # vxWorks for MVxxxx boards
-#CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += T2-ppc604
-#CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += V67-ppc604
 CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += V69-ppc604
-#CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += V69-ppc32
-
-# NI compact RIO
-#CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += V63-ppc603
 
 # MOXA montavista linux (No PVA because of missing boost support)
 CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += mvl40-xscale_be
@@ -36,14 +30,6 @@ CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += eldk52-e500v2
 CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += eldk42-ppc4xxFP
 CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += eldk53-ppc4xxFP
 
-# Test other vxWorks versions
-#CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += V66-ppc603
-#CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += V66-ppc604
-#CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += V63-ppc604
-#CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += V64-ppc604
-# (No PVA because of old compiler)
-#CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += V62-ppc604
-
 # RTEMS (Can only have 1 RTEMS major version in 1 EPICS installation
 # because they overwrite their header files.)
 #CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += RTEMS49-pc386

configure/os/CONFIG_SITE.linux-x86.linux-x86

@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 # Site specific definitions for linux-x86 host - linux-x86 target builds
 #-------------------------------------------------------
 
-# Uncomment the followings lines to build with CLANG instead of GCC.
+# Uncomment the following lines to build with CLANG instead of GCC.
 #
 #GNU         = NO
 #CMPLR_CLASS = clang

configure/os/CONFIG_SITE.linux-x86.win32-x86-mingw

@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 #GNU_DIR = /usr/local
 
 # Different distribution cross-build packages use different prefixes:
-# Ubuntu, RHEL7:
+# Ubuntu, RHEL:
 CMPLR_PREFIX = i686-w64-mingw32-
 # RHEL6:
 #CMPLR_PREFIX = i686-pc-mingw32-

configure/os/CONFIG_SITE.linux-x86_64.Common

@@ -19,11 +19,7 @@ CROSS_COMPILER_RUNTEST_ARCHS += windows-x64
 CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += windows-x64-mingw
 CROSS_COMPILER_RUNTEST_ARCHS += windows-x64-mingw
 
-# IOxOS IFC1211
-#CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += fslqoriq20-e6500_64
-
 # Zynq
-#CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += yocto21-aarch64
 CROSS_COMPILER_TARGET_ARCHS += yocto40-aarch64
 
 # Debian

configure/os/CONFIG_SITE.linux-x86_64.linux-x86_64

@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 # Site specific definitions for linux-x86_64 host - linux-x86_64 target builds
 #-------------------------------------------------------
 
-# Uncomment the followings lines to build with CLANG instead of GCC.
+# Uncomment the following lines to build with CLANG instead of GCC.
 #
 #GNU         = NO
 #CMPLR_CLASS = clang

documentation/Doxyfile@

@@ -1105,7 +1105,7 @@ HTML_STYLESHEET        =
 # cascading style sheets that are included after the standard style sheets
 # created by doxygen. Using this option one can overrule certain style aspects.
 # This is preferred over using HTML_STYLESHEET since it does not replace the
-# standard style sheet and is therefor more robust against future updates.
+# standard style sheet and is therefore more robust against future updates.
 # Doxygen will copy the style sheet files to the output directory.
 # Note: The order of the extra stylesheet files is of importance (e.g. the last
 # stylesheet in the list overrules the setting of the previous ones in the
@@ -1648,8 +1648,8 @@ EXTRA_PACKAGES         =
 # Note: Only use a user-defined header if you know what you are doing! The
 # following commands have a special meaning inside the header: $title,
 # $datetime, $date, $doxygenversion, $projectname, $projectnumber,
-# $projectbrief, $projectlogo. Doxygen will replace $title with the empy string,
-# for the replacement values of the other commands the user is refered to
+# $projectbrief, $projectlogo. Doxygen will replace $title with the empty string,
+# for the replacement values of the other commands the user is referred to
 # HTML_HEADER.
 # This tag requires that the tag GENERATE_LATEX is set to YES.
 
@@ -1992,6 +1992,9 @@ PREDEFINED             = __cplusplus \
                          LIBCA_API \
                          DBRECSTD_API \
                          EPICS_ALWAYS_INLINE \
+                         EPICS_NORETURN \
+                         EPICS_PRINTF_FMT(x)=x \
+                         EPICS_PRINTF_STYLE(a,b)= \
                          epicsShareExtern \
                          epicsShareClass \
                          epicsShareFunc \

documentation/Makefile

@@ -11,124 +11,7 @@ EXPAND_ME += RTD_SRC
 
 DOXYGEN ?= doxygen
 
-libcom_HEADERS += adjustment
-libcom_HEADERS += alarm
-libcom_HEADERS += alarmString
-libcom_HEADERS += asTrapWrite
-libcom_HEADERS += bucketLib
-libcom_HEADERS += cantProceed
-libcom_HEADERS += compilerDependencies
-libcom_HEADERS += cvtFast
-libcom_HEADERS += dbmf
-libcom_HEADERS += devLibVME
-libcom_HEADERS += devLibVMEImpl
-libcom_HEADERS += ellLib
-libcom_HEADERS += envDefs
-libcom_HEADERS += epicsAlgorithm
-libcom_HEADERS += epicsAssert
-libcom_HEADERS += epicsAtomic
-libcom_HEADERS += epicsEvent
-libcom_HEADERS += epicsExit
-libcom_HEADERS += epicsExport
-libcom_HEADERS += epicsGeneralTime
-libcom_HEADERS += epicsGuard
-libcom_HEADERS += epicsMessageQueue
-libcom_HEADERS += epicsMutex
-libcom_HEADERS += epicsReadline
-libcom_HEADERS += epicsRingBytes
-libcom_HEADERS += epicsRingPointer
-libcom_HEADERS += epicsSignal
-libcom_HEADERS += epicsSpin
-libcom_HEADERS += epicsStackTrace
-libcom_HEADERS += epicsStdio
-libcom_HEADERS += epicsStdlib
-libcom_HEADERS += epicsString
-libcom_HEADERS += epicsTempFile
-libcom_HEADERS += epicsThread
-libcom_HEADERS += epicsTime
-libcom_HEADERS += epicsTypes
-libcom_HEADERS += epicsUnitTest
-libcom_HEADERS += errlog
-libcom_HEADERS += freeList
-libcom_HEADERS += iocsh
-libcom_HEADERS += ipAddrToAsciiAsynchronous
-libcom_HEADERS += logClient
-libcom_HEADERS += macLib
-libcom_HEADERS += osiPoolStatus
-libcom_HEADERS += osiProcess
-libcom_HEADERS += osiSock
-libcom_HEADERS += postfix
-libcom_HEADERS += shareLib
-libcom_HEADERS += testMain
-libcom_HEADERS += yajl_alloc
-libcom_HEADERS += yajl_common
-libcom_HEADERS += yajl_gen
-libcom_HEADERS += yajl_parse
-
-database_HEADERS += chfPlugin
-database_HEADERS += dbChannel
-database_HEADERS += dbCommon
-database_HEADERS += dbDefs
-database_HEADERS += dbExtractArray
-database_HEADERS += dbLink
-database_HEADERS += dbServer
-database_HEADERS += dbState
-database_HEADERS += dbStaticLib
-database_HEADERS += dbUnitTest
-database_HEADERS += devLib
-database_HEADERS += devSup
-database_HEADERS += drvSup
-database_HEADERS += initHooks
-
-record_HEADERS += aaiRecord
-record_HEADERS += aaoRecord
-record_HEADERS += aiRecord
-record_HEADERS += aoRecord
-record_HEADERS += aSubRecord
-record_HEADERS += biRecord
-record_HEADERS += boRecord
-record_HEADERS += calcRecord
-record_HEADERS += calcoutRecord
-record_HEADERS += compressRecord
-record_HEADERS += dfanoutRecord
-record_HEADERS += eventRecord
-record_HEADERS += fanoutRecord
-record_HEADERS += histogramRecord
-record_HEADERS += int64inRecord
-record_HEADERS += int64outRecord
-record_HEADERS += longinRecord
-record_HEADERS += longoutRecord
-record_HEADERS += lsiRecord
-record_HEADERS += lsoRecord
-record_HEADERS += mbbiRecord
-record_HEADERS += mbbiDirectRecord
-record_HEADERS += mbboRecord
-record_HEADERS += mbboDirectRecord
-record_HEADERS += permissiveRecord
-record_HEADERS += printfRecord
-record_HEADERS += selRecord
-record_HEADERS += seqRecord
-record_HEADERS += stateRecord
-record_HEADERS += stringinRecord
-record_HEADERS += stringoutRecord
-record_HEADERS += subRecord
-record_HEADERS += subArrayRecord
-record_HEADERS += waveformRecord
-
-menu_HEADERS += menuAlarmSevr
-menu_HEADERS += menuAlarmStat
-menu_HEADERS += menuConvert
-menu_HEADERS += menuFtype
-menu_HEADERS += menuIvoa
-menu_HEADERS += menuOmsl
-menu_HEADERS += menuPini
-menu_HEADERS += menuPost
-menu_HEADERS += menuPriority
-menu_HEADERS += menuScan
-menu_HEADERS += menuSimm
-menu_HEADERS += menuYesNo
-
-HEADER_TYPES = libcom database record menu
+include $(TOP)/documentation/Makefile.headers
 
 HEADER_MD_FILES = $(foreach t, $(HEADER_TYPES), \
     $(addsuffix _h.md, $($t_HEADERS)))
@@ -137,10 +20,81 @@ API_RST_FILES = $(addsuffix -api.rst, $(HEADER_TYPES))
 RTD_SRC = $(COMMON_DIR)/rtd-src
 
 DOCS += README.md
-DOCS += RELEASE_NOTES.md
+DOCS += ca-cli.md
+DOCS += ReleaseChecklist.md
+
+OLD_NOTES = $(wildcard ../RELEASE-*.md)
+DOCS += $(OLD_NOTES:../%=%)
+
+ifneq ($(EPICS_DEV_SNAPSHOT),)
+  # Between releases the release target is disabled
+  DOCS += RELEASE_NOTES.md
+  REASON = EPICS_DEV_SNAPSHOT not empty
+else
+  # Not a snapshot, user may be creating a new release
+  ifdef T_A
+    DOC = ../
+  endif
+  # Could we be in the middle of anything?
+  NOTES_FILE = RELEASE-$(EPICS_SHORT_VERSION).md
+  NOTES_PATH = $(DOC)$(NOTES_FILE)
+  NOTES_GIT := $(firstword $(shell git status --porcelain $(NOTES_PATH)))
+  ifeq ($(NOTES_GIT),A)
+    # New file was added to the Git index; allow unrelease
+  else ifeq ($(NOTES_GIT),AD)
+    # File was added to the Git index but deleted; allow unrelease
+  else ifeq ($(wildcard $(NOTES_PATH)),)
+    # No file yet, allow release
+  else
+    # File exists but isn't in Git
+    REASON := $(NOTES_FILE) exists but isn't in Git
+    NOTES_FILE =
+    NOTES_PATH =
+  endif
+endif
+
+NEW_DIR = ../new-notes
+NEW_NOTES = $(wildcard $(NEW_DIR)/*.md)
 
 include $(TOP)/configure/RULES
 
+ifndef T_A
+  release unrelease doxygen rtd sphinx: inc
+	$(MAKE) -C O.$(EPICS_HOST_ARCH) $@
+else
+
+MAKENOTES = ../make-notes.pl
+
+ifneq ($(NOTES_PATH),)
+  $(NOTES_PATH): $(NEW_NOTES) $(MAKENOTES)
+	@$(RM) $@
+	$(PERL) $(MAKENOTES) -o $@ -V $(EPICS_SHORT_VERSION) \
+	    -d $(abspath $(NEW_DIR))
+  release-git: $(NOTES_PATH)
+	$(if $(NEW_NOTES), \
+	    git rm -q $(NEW_NOTES))
+	git add $<
+  release: $(INSTALL_DOC)/RELEASE_NOTES.md $(INSTALL_DOC)/$(NOTES_FILE)
+
+  unrelease:
+	$(if $(wildcard $(NOTES_PATH)), \
+	    git restore --staged $(NOTES_PATH); \
+	    $(RM) $(NOTES_PATH))
+	git restore --staged $(NEW_DIR)
+	git restore $(NEW_DIR)
+
+  REL_DEP = release-git $(NOTES_PATH)
+else
+  REL_DEV = -D
+  release unrelease:
+	$(error "make $@" not available, $(REASON))
+endif
+
+$(COMMON_DIR)/RELEASE_NOTES.md: $(REL_DEP) $(NEW_NOTES) $(MAKENOTES)
+	@$(RM) $@
+	$(PERL) $(MAKENOTES) -o $@ -V $(EPICS_SHORT_VERSION) $(REL_DEV) \
+	    -d $(abspath $(NEW_DIR)) $(OLD_NOTES) $(NOTES_PATH)
+
 $(HEADER_MD_FILES): %_h.md: ../HEADER_h.md
 	$(EXPAND_TOOL) -t $(INSTALL_LOCATION) -DHEADER=$* $< $@
 
@@ -151,24 +105,23 @@ $(API_RST_FILES): %-api.rst: ../%-API.rst
 	@$(foreach h, $($*_HEADERS), \
 	    echo "   $h_h.rst" >> $@;)
 
-ifndef T_A
-doxygen rtd sphinx: inc
-	$(MAKE) -C O.$(EPICS_HOST_ARCH) $@
-else
-
 doxygen: Doxyfile
 	@$(MKDIR) $(RTD_SRC)
 	$(DOXYGEN)
+DOX = doxygen
 
-rtd: doxygen $(API_RST_FILES) $(HEADER_MD_FILES)
-	rsync -av $(INSTALL_DOC)/ $(RTD_SRC)/
+# Use "make sphinx DOX=" to skip running doxygen
+rtd: $(DOX) $(API_RST_FILES) $(HEADER_MD_FILES)
+	rsync -av --exclude=RELEASE-*.md $(INSTALL_DOC)/ $(RTD_SRC)/
 	rsync -av $(HEADER_MD_FILES) $(RTD_SRC)/
 	rsync -av $(API_RST_FILES) $(RTD_SRC)/
 	rsync -av ../index.rst ../conf.py $(RTD_SRC)/
+RTD = rtd
 
-sphinx: rtd
+# Use "make sphinx RTD=" to skip earlier steps
+sphinx: $(RTD)
 	cd $(COMMON_DIR); $(PYTHON) -m sphinx rtd-src readthedocs
 	rsync -av $(COMMON_DIR)/readthedocs $(INSTALL_HTML)/
 endif
 
-.PHONY: doxygen rtd sphinx
+.PHONY: release release-git unrelease doxygen rtd sphinx

documentation/Makefile.headers

@@ -0,0 +1,131 @@
+# Makefile.headers
+#
+# Lists of C/C++ header files to include in each
+# section of the documentation
+
+HEADER_TYPES = libcom ca database record menu
+
+libcom_HEADERS += adjustment
+libcom_HEADERS += alarm
+libcom_HEADERS += alarmString
+libcom_HEADERS += asTrapWrite
+libcom_HEADERS += bucketLib
+libcom_HEADERS += cantProceed
+libcom_HEADERS += compilerDependencies
+libcom_HEADERS += cvtFast
+libcom_HEADERS += dbmf
+libcom_HEADERS += devLibVME
+libcom_HEADERS += devLibVMEImpl
+libcom_HEADERS += ellLib
+libcom_HEADERS += envDefs
+libcom_HEADERS += epicsAlgorithm
+libcom_HEADERS += epicsAssert
+libcom_HEADERS += epicsAtomic
+libcom_HEADERS += epicsEvent
+libcom_HEADERS += epicsExit
+libcom_HEADERS += epicsExport
+libcom_HEADERS += epicsGeneralTime
+libcom_HEADERS += epicsGuard
+libcom_HEADERS += epicsMessageQueue
+libcom_HEADERS += epicsMutex
+libcom_HEADERS += epicsReadline
+libcom_HEADERS += epicsRingBytes
+libcom_HEADERS += epicsRingPointer
+libcom_HEADERS += epicsSignal
+libcom_HEADERS += epicsSpin
+libcom_HEADERS += epicsStackTrace
+libcom_HEADERS += epicsStdio
+libcom_HEADERS += epicsStdlib
+libcom_HEADERS += epicsString
+libcom_HEADERS += epicsTempFile
+libcom_HEADERS += epicsThread
+libcom_HEADERS += epicsTime
+libcom_HEADERS += epicsTypes
+libcom_HEADERS += epicsUnitTest
+libcom_HEADERS += errlog
+libcom_HEADERS += freeList
+libcom_HEADERS += iocsh
+libcom_HEADERS += ipAddrToAsciiAsynchronous
+libcom_HEADERS += logClient
+libcom_HEADERS += macLib
+libcom_HEADERS += osiPoolStatus
+libcom_HEADERS += osiProcess
+libcom_HEADERS += osiSock
+libcom_HEADERS += postfix
+libcom_HEADERS += shareLib
+libcom_HEADERS += testMain
+libcom_HEADERS += yajl_alloc
+libcom_HEADERS += yajl_common
+libcom_HEADERS += yajl_gen
+libcom_HEADERS += yajl_parse
+
+ca_HEADERS += cadef
+ca_HEADERS += caerr
+ca_HEADERS += caeventmask
+ca_HEADERS += db_access
+
+database_HEADERS += callback
+database_HEADERS += chfPlugin
+database_HEADERS += dbChannel
+database_HEADERS += dbCommon
+database_HEADERS += dbDefs
+database_HEADERS += dbEvent
+database_HEADERS += dbExtractArray
+database_HEADERS += dbLink
+database_HEADERS += dbServer
+database_HEADERS += dbState
+database_HEADERS += dbStaticLib
+database_HEADERS += dbUnitTest
+database_HEADERS += devLib
+database_HEADERS += devSup
+database_HEADERS += drvSup
+database_HEADERS += initHooks
+
+record_HEADERS += aaiRecord
+record_HEADERS += aaoRecord
+record_HEADERS += aiRecord
+record_HEADERS += aoRecord
+record_HEADERS += aSubRecord
+record_HEADERS += biRecord
+record_HEADERS += boRecord
+record_HEADERS += calcRecord
+record_HEADERS += calcoutRecord
+record_HEADERS += compressRecord
+record_HEADERS += dfanoutRecord
+record_HEADERS += eventRecord
+record_HEADERS += fanoutRecord
+record_HEADERS += histogramRecord
+record_HEADERS += int64inRecord
+record_HEADERS += int64outRecord
+record_HEADERS += longinRecord
+record_HEADERS += longoutRecord
+record_HEADERS += lsiRecord
+record_HEADERS += lsoRecord
+record_HEADERS += mbbiRecord
+record_HEADERS += mbbiDirectRecord
+record_HEADERS += mbboRecord
+record_HEADERS += mbboDirectRecord
+record_HEADERS += permissiveRecord
+record_HEADERS += printfRecord
+record_HEADERS += selRecord
+record_HEADERS += seqRecord
+record_HEADERS += stateRecord
+record_HEADERS += stringinRecord
+record_HEADERS += stringoutRecord
+record_HEADERS += subRecord
+record_HEADERS += subArrayRecord
+record_HEADERS += waveformRecord
+
+menu_HEADERS += menuAlarmSevr
+menu_HEADERS += menuAlarmStat
+menu_HEADERS += menuConvert
+menu_HEADERS += menuFtype
+menu_HEADERS += menuIvoa
+menu_HEADERS += menuOmsl
+menu_HEADERS += menuPini
+menu_HEADERS += menuPost
+menu_HEADERS += menuPriority
+menu_HEADERS += menuScan
+menu_HEADERS += menuSimm
+menu_HEADERS += menuYesNo
+

documentation/README.md

@@ -232,14 +232,16 @@ required path and other environment variables.
 * **`EPICS_HOST_ARCH`**
 
 Some host builds of EPICS require that the environment variable
-`EPICS_HOST_ARCH` be defined. The perl script `EpicsHostArch.pl` in the
-`base/startup` directory prints the value which the build will use if
-the variable is not set before the build starts. Architecture names
-start with the operating system followed by a dash and the host CPU
-architecture, e.g. `linux-x86_64`. Some architecture names have another
-dash followed by another keyword, for example when building for Windows
-but using the MinGW compiler the name must be `windows-x64-mingw`. See
-`configure/CONFIG_SITE` for a list of supported host architecture names.
+`EPICS_HOST_ARCH` be defined. The shell script `EpicsHostArch` in the
+`base/startup` directory (which finds and calls the perl script
+`EpicsHostArch.pl` in the `base/src/tools` directory) prints the
+value which the build will use if the variable is not set before
+the build starts. Architecture names start with the operating system
+followed by a dash and the host CPU architecture, e.g. `linux-x86_64`.
+Some architecture names have another dash followed by another keyword,
+for example when building for Windows but using the MinGW compiler the
+name must be `windows-x64-mingw`. See `configure/CONFIG_SITE` for a
+list of supported host architecture names.
 
 * **`PATH`**
 As already mentioned, you must have the `perl` executable and you may

documentation/RELEASE-3.15.md

@@ -0,0 +1,890 @@
+# Changes incorporated from the 3.15 branch
+
+## Changes from the 3.15 branch since 3.15.9
+
+### Support for Apple M1/M2 (arm64) Processors
+
+Thanks to Jeong Han Lee this release comes with build support for Apple's new
+M1/M2 CPUs running macOS, using the target name `darwin-aarch64`.
+
+### Set thread names on Windows
+
+On MS Windows, epicsThread names are made available to the OS and debugger
+using `SetThreadDescription()` if available as well as using the older
+exception mechanism.
+
+### Fix timers on MS Windows for non-EPICS threads
+
+The waitable timer changes in 3.15.9 broke calls to `epicsThreadSleep()` and
+similar routines that used timers (including `ca_pend_event()`) when made from
+threads that were not started using the epicsThread APIs.
+[This problem](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/pull/200)
+[has now been fixed](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/pull/201).
+
+## Changes made between 3.15.8 and 3.15.9
+
+### Use waitable timers on Microsoft Windows
+
+The `epicsEventWaitWithTimeout()` and `epicsThreadSleep()` functions have
+been changed to use waitable timers. On Windows 10 version 1803 or higher
+they will use high resolution timers for more consistent timing.
+
+See [this Google Groups thread](https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/scheduler-dev/c/0GlSPYreJeY)
+for a comparison of the performance of different timers.
+
+### Build target for documentation
+
+The build target `inc` now works again after a very long hiatus. It now
+generates and installs just the dbd, header and html files, without compiling
+any C/C++ code. This can be used to speed up CI jobs that only generate
+documentation.
+
+### Bug fixes
+
+- The error status returned by a record support's `special()` method is now propagated out of the `dbPut()` routine again (broken since 3.15.0).
+- [gh: #80](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/issues/80), VS-2015 and
+later have working strtod()
+- [lp: #1776141](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1776141), Catch
+buffer overflow from long link strings
+- [lp: #1899697](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1899697), Records
+in wrong PHAS order
+
+### Change to the `junitfiles` self-test build target
+
+The names of the generated junit xml test output files have been changed
+from `<testname>.xml` to `<testname>-results.xml`, to allow better
+distinction from other xml files. (I.e., for easy wildcard matching.)
+
+### Fixes and code cleanups
+
+Issues reported by various static code checkers.
+
+## Changes made between 3.15.7 and 3.15.8
+
+### Bug fixes
+
+The following launchpad bugs have fixes included in this release:
+
+- [lp: 1812084](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1812084), Build
+  failure on RTEMS 4.10.2
+- [lp: 1829770](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1829770), event
+  record device support broken with constant INP
+- [lp: 1829919](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1829919), IOC
+  segfaults when calling dbLoadRecords after iocInit
+- [lp: 1838792](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1838792), epicsCalc
+  bit-wise operators on aarch64
+- [lp: 1841608](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1841608), logClient
+  falsely sends error logs on all connections
+- [lp: 1853168](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1853168), undefined
+  reference to `clock_gettime()`
+- [lp: 1862328](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1862328), Race
+  condition on IOC start leaves rsrv unresponsive
+- [lp: 1868486](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1868486),
+  epicsMessageQueue lost messages
+
+### Improvements to the self-test build targets
+
+This release contains changes that make it possible to integrate another test
+running and reporting system (such as Google's gtest) into the EPICS build
+system. The built-in test-runner and reporting system will continue to be used
+by the test programs inside Base however.
+
+These GNUmake `tapfiles` and `test-results` build targets now collect a list of
+the directories that experienced test failures and display those at the end of
+running and/or reporting all of the tests. The GNUmake process will also only
+exit with an error status after running and/or reporting all of the test
+results; previously the `-k` flag to make was needed and even that didn't always
+work.
+
+Continuous Integration systems are recommended to run `make tapfiles` (or if
+they can read junittest output instead of TAP `make junitfiles`) followed by
+`make -s test-results` to display the results of the tests. If multiple CPUs are
+available the `-j` flag can be used to run tests in parallel, giving the maximum
+jobs that should be allowed so `make -j4 tapfiles` for a system with 4 CPUs say.
+Running many more jobs than you have CPUs is likely to be slower and is not
+recommended.
+
+### Calc Engine Fixes and Enhancements
+
+The code that implements bit operations for Calc expressions has been reworked
+to better handle some CPU architectures and compilers. As part of this work a
+new operator has been added: `>>>` performs a logical right-shift, inserting
+zero bits into the most significant bits (the operator `>>` is an arithmetic
+right-shift which copies the sign bit as it shifts the value rightwards).
+
+### IOC logClient Changes
+
+The IOC's error logging system has been updated significantly to fix a number
+of issues including:
+
+  - Only send errlog messages to iocLogClient listeners
+  - Try to minimize lost messages while the log server is down:
+    + Detect disconnects sooner
+    + Don't discard the buffer on disconnect
+    + Flush the buffer immediately after a server reconnects
+
+### epicsThread: Main thread defaults to allow blocking I/O
+
+VxWorks IOCs (and potentially RTEMS IOCs running GeSys) have had problems with
+garbled error messages from dbStaticLib routines for some time &mdash; messages
+printed before `iocInit` were being queued through the errlog thread instead of
+being output immediately. This has been fixed by initializing the main thread
+with its `OkToBlock` flag set instead of cleared. IOCs running on other
+operating systems that use iocsh to execute the startup script previously had
+that set anyway in iocsh so were not affected, but this change might cause other
+programs that don't use iocsh to change their behavior slightly if they use
+`errlogPrintf()`, `epicsPrintf()` or `errPrintf()`.
+
+### catools: Handle data type changes in camonitor
+
+The camonitor program didn't properly cope if subscribed to a channel whose data
+type changed when its IOC was rebooted without restarting the camonitor program.
+This has now been fixed.
+
+### More Record Reference Documentation
+
+The remaining record types have had their reference pages moved from the Wiki,
+and some new reference pages have been written to cover the analog array and
+long string input and output record types plus the printf record type, none of
+which were previously documented. The wiki reference pages covering the fields
+common to all, input, and output record types have also been added, thanks to
+Rolf Keitel. The POD conversion scripts have also been improved and they now
+properly support linking to subsections in a different document, although the
+POD changes to add the cross-links that appeared in the original wiki pages
+still needs to be done in most cases.
+
+### Fix build issues with newer MinGW versions
+
+The `clock_gettime()` routine is no longer used under MinGW since newer versions
+don't provide it any more.
+
+### Fix race for port in RSRV when multiple IOCs start simultaneously
+
+If multiple IOCs were started at the same time, by systemd say, they could race
+to obtain the Channel Access TCP port number 5064. This issue has been fixed.
+
+-----
+
+## Changes made between 3.15.6 and 3.15.7
+
+### GNU Readline detection on Linux
+
+Most Linux architectures should now configure themselves automatically to use
+the GNU Readline library if its main header file can be found in the expected
+place, and not try to use Readline if the header file isn't present. For older
+Linux architectures where libncurses or libcurses must also be linked with, the
+manual configuration of the `COMMANDLINE_LIBRARY` variable in the appropriate
+`configure/os/CONFIG_SITE.Common.<arch>` file will still be necessary.
+
+### Replace `EPICS_TIMEZONE` with `EPICS_TZ`
+
+The `EPICS_TIMEZONE` environment parameter provided time-zone information for
+the IOC's locale in the old ANSI format expected by VxWorks for its `TIMEZONE`
+environment variable, and can also used by RTEMS to set its `TZ` environment
+variable. However the `TIMEZONE` value has to be updated every year since it
+contains the exact dates of the daylight-savings time changes. The Posix TZ
+format that RTEMS uses contains rules that for calculating those dates, thus its
+value would only need updating if the rules (or the locale) are changed.
+
+This release contains changes that replace the `EPICS_TIMEZONE` environment
+parameter with one called `EPICS_TZ` and a routine for VxWorks that calculates
+the `TIMEZONE` environment variable from the current `TZ` value. This routine
+will be run once at start-up, when the EPICS clock has synchronized to its NTP
+server. The calculations it contains were worked out and donated to EPICS by
+Larry Hoff in 2009; it is unfortunate that it has taken 10 years for them to be
+integrated into Base.
+
+The default value for the `EPICS_TZ` environment parameter is set in the Base
+`configure/CONFIG_SITE_ENV` file, which contains example settings for most EPICS
+sites that use VxWorks, and a link to a page describing the Posix TZ format for
+any locations that I missed.
+
+If a VxWorks IOC runs continuously without being rebooted from December 31st to
+the start of daylight savings time the following year, its `TIMEZONE` value will
+be wrong as it was calculated for the previous year. This only affects times
+that are converted to a string on the IOC however and is easily fixed; just run
+the command `tz2timezone()` on the VxWorks shell and the calculation will be
+redone for the current year. IOCs that get rebooted at least once before the
+start of summer time will not need this to be done.
+
+### Added new decimation channel filter
+
+A new server-side filter has been added to the IOC for reducing the number
+and frequency of monitor updates from a channel by a client-specified factor.
+The filter's behaviour is quite simplistic, it passes the first monitor event it
+sees to the client and then drops the next N-1 events before passing another
+event. For example to sample a 60Hz channel at 1Hz, a 10Hz channel every 6
+seconds, or a 1Hz channel once every minute:
+
+```
+    Hal$ camonitor 'test:channel.{"dec":{"n":60}}'
+    ...
+```
+
+More information is included in the filters documentation, which can be found
+in the `html/filters.html` document that is generated during the build.
+
+### Imported Record Reference Documentation from Wiki
+
+The remaining record types that had 3.14 reference documentation in the EPICS
+Wiki have had that documentation converted and imported into their DBD files.
+The preferred form for future updates to the record type descriptions is now an
+emailed patch file, a Pull Request through GitHub, or a Merge Request through
+Launchpad. Note that in some cases the behavior of a record type in a 7.0.x
+release may differ from that of the same record type in a 3.15 release, although
+this would be unusual, so it may be important to indicate the branch that your
+changes apply to.
+
+**NOTE:** *These documentation changes have modified the order of the fields in
+some record definitions. As a result this release is not compatible with record
+or device support binaries that were compiled against earlier releases.*
+
+### `make test-results` for Windows
+
+The make target `test-results` should now work properly on Windows. Some Perl
+installations used versions of `prove.bat` that would only display the results of
+up to 3 tests or didn't return an error status in the event of tests failing. The
+build system now calls its own perl script to summarize the results instead of
+passing a list of TAP filenames to `prove`.
+
+### Add option to avoid CALLBACK conflict
+
+If a macro `EPICS_NO_CALLBACK` is defined, then callback.h will no longer
+(re)define CALLBACK. The name `CALLBACK` is used by the WIN32 API, and
+redefinition in callback.h cause errors if some windows headers are later
+included.
+
+Code which defines `EPICS_NO_CALLBACK`, but still wishes to use callbacks,
+should use the alternate name `epicsCallback` introduced in 3.15.6, 3.16.2, and
+7.0.2. It is also possible, though not encouraged, to use `struct callbackPvt`
+which has been present since the callback API was introduced.
+
+### Cleaning up with Multiple CA contexts in a Process
+
+Bruno Martins reported a problem with the CA client library at shutdown in a
+process that uses multiple CA client contexts. The first context that triggers
+the CA client exit handler prevents any others from being able to clean up
+because it resets the ID of an internal epicsThreadPrivate variable which is
+shared by all clients. This action has been removed from the client library,
+which makes cleanup of clients like this possible.
+
+### Perl CA bindings fixed for macOS Mojave
+
+Apple removed some Perl header files from macOS Mojave that were available
+in their SDK, requiring a change to the include paths used when compiling the
+CA bindings. The new version should build on new and older macOS versions, and
+these changes may also help other targets that have an incomplete installation
+of Perl (the build will continue after printing a warning that the Perl CA
+bindings could not be built).
+
+### Routine `epicsTempName()` removed from libCom
+
+This routine was a simple wrapper around the C89 function `tmpnam()`
+which is now seen as unsafe and causes warning messages to be generated by
+most modern compilers. The two internal uses of this function have been
+modified to call `epicsTempFile()` instead. We were unable to find any
+published code that used this function, so it was removed immediately instead
+of being deprecated.
+
+### DBD Parsing of Record Types
+
+The Perl DBD file parser has been made slightly more liberal; the order in
+which DBD files must be parsed is now more flexible, so that a record type
+definition can now be parsed after a device support that referred to that
+record type. A warning message will be displayed when the device support is
+seen, but the subsequent loading of the record type will be accepted without
+triggering an error. See
+[Launchpad bug 1801145](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1801145).
+
+### menuScan and several record types documented with POD
+
+The EPICS Wiki pages describing a number of standard record types has been
+converted into the Perl POD documentation format and added to the DBD files,
+so at build-time an HTML version of these documents is generated and installed
+into the htmls directory. Thanks to Tony Pietryla.
+
+### CA client tools learned `-V` option
+
+This displays the version numbers of EPICS Base and the CA protocol.
+
+-----
+
+## Changes made between 3.15.5 and 3.15.6
+
+### Unsetting environment variables
+
+The new command `epicsEnvUnset varname` can be used to
+unset an environment variable.
+
+### Warning indicators in msi (and macLib) output
+
+The libCom macro expansion library has been modified so that when the
+`SUPPRESS_WARNINGS` flag is set it will no longer include any `,undefined`
+or `,recursive` indicators in its output when undefined or recursive
+macros are encountered. These indicators were harmless when the output was fed
+into an IOC along with a definition for the macro, but when the `msi`
+tool was used to generate other kinds of files they caused problems. If the
+`msi -V` flag is used the markers will still be present in the output
+whenever the appropriate condition is seen.
+
+### Improvements to msi
+
+In addition to fixing its response to discovering parsing errors in its
+substitution input file (reported as Launchpad
+[bug 1503661](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1503661))
+so it now deletes the incomplete output file, the msi program has been cleaned
+up a little bit internally.
+
+### All array records now post monitors on their array-length fields
+
+The waveform record has been posting monitors on its NORD field since Base
+3.15.0.1; we finally got around to doing the equivalent in all the other
+built-in record types, which even required modifying device support in some
+cases. This fixes
+[Launchpad bug 1730727](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1730727).
+
+### HOWTO: Converting Wiki Record Reference to POD
+
+Some documentation has been added to the `dbdToHtml.pl` script
+explaining how Perl POD (Plain Old Documentation) markup can be added to
+`.dbd` files to generate HTML documentation for the record types. To see
+these instructions, run `perl bin/<host>/dbdToHtml.pl -H`
+or `perldoc bin/<host>/dbdToHtml.pl`.
+
+### Fix problem with numeric soft events
+
+Changing from numeric to named soft events introduced an incompatibility
+when a numeric event 1-255 is converted from a DOUBLE, e.g. from a calc record.
+The `post_event()` API is not marked deprecated any more.
+
+Also `scanpel` has been modified to accept a glob pattern for
+event name filtering and to show events with no connected records as well.
+
+### Add `osiSockOptMcastLoop_t` and osiSockTest
+
+Added a new OS-independent typedef for multicast socket options, and a test
+file to check their correct operation.
+
+### Support for `CONFIG_SITE.local` in Base
+
+This feature is mostly meant for use by developers; configuration
+settings that would normally appear in `base/configure/CONFIG_SITE` can now
+be put in a locally created `base/configure/CONFIG_SITE.local` file instead
+of having go modify or replace the original. A new `.gitignore` pattern
+tells git to ignore all `configure/*.local` files.
+
+### Fix broken `EPICS_IOC_LOG_FILE_LIMIT=0` setting
+
+The Application Developers' Guide says this is allowed and disables the
+limit on the log-file, but it hasn't actually worked for some time (if ever).
+Note that the iocLogServer will be removed from newer Base release sometime
+soon as its functionality can be implemented by other dedicated log servers
+such as logstash or syslog-ng.
+
+Fixes [lp:1786858](https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1786858)
+and part of [lp:1786966](https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1786966).
+
+### Cleanup of startup directory
+
+The files in the startup directory have not been maintained in recent years
+and have grown crufty (technical term). This release includes the following
+updates to these files:
+
+  - The Perl `EpicsHostArch.pl` script has been rewritten, and support
+    for a few previously missing host architectures has been added to it.
+  - The `EpicsHostArch.pl` script has also been moved into the standard
+    `src/tools` directory, from where it will be installed into
+    `lib/perl`. In this new location it is no longer executable, so it must
+    be run by the `perl` executable.
+  - The build system has been adjusted to look for `EpicsHostArch.pl` in
+    both places if the `EPICS_HOST_ARCH` environment variable has not been
+    set at build-time.
+  - Sites that used the original Perl script to set `EPICS_HOST_ARCH` as part of
+    their standard environment will need to adjust their scripts when they
+    upgrade to this release.
+  - The `EpicsHostArch` shell script has been replaced with a wrapper
+    routine that calls the Perl `EpicsHostArch.pl` script. Sites that rely on
+    this script to set `EPICS_HOST_ARCH` should consider switching to the
+    Perl script instead.
+  - The `Site.cshrc` and `Site.profile` files have been renamed to
+    `unix.csh` and `unix.sh`, respectively.
+  - The existing `win32.bat` file has been cleaned up and a new
+    `windows.bat` file added for 64-bit targets. The contents of these files
+    should be seen as examples, don't uncomment or install parts for software
+    that you don't explicitly know that you need.
+
+### Recent Apple XCode Build Issues
+
+The latest version of XCode will not compile calls to `system()` or
+`clock_settime()` for iOS targets. There were several places in Base
+where these were being compiled, although there were probably never called. The
+code has now been modified to permit iOS builds to complete again.
+
+### Prevent illegal alarm severities
+
+A check has been added to `recGblResetAlarms()` that prevents records
+from getting an alarm severity higher than `INVALID_ALARM`. It is still possible
+for a field like HSV to get set to a value that is not a legal alarm severity,
+but the core IOC code should never copy such a value into a record's SEVR or
+ACKS fields. With this fix the record's alarm severity will be limited to
+`INVALID_ALARM`.
+
+### Fixes for Launchpad bugs
+
+The following launchpad bugs have fixes included:
+
+  - [lp: 1786320](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1786320), dbCa
+    subscribes twice to ENUM
+  - [lp: 541221](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/541221),
+    `assert (pca->pgetNative)` failed in ../dbCa.c
+  - [lp: 1747091](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1747091),
+    epicsTimeGetEvent() / generalTime bug
+  - [lp: 1743076](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1743076), Segfault
+    in `ca_attach_context()` during exits
+  - [lp: 1751380](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1751380), Deadlock
+    in `ca_clear_subscription()`
+  - [lp: 1597809](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1597809), Setting
+    NAME field in DB file may break IOC
+  - [lp: 1770292](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1770292),
+    `get_alarm_double()` inconsistent across record types
+  - [lp: 1771298](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1771298),
+    Conversion of NaN to integer relies on undefined behavior
+
+### Updated VxWorks Timezone settings
+
+Removed the settings for 2017; fixed the hour of the change for MET.
+
+### Fixed camonitor server side relative timestamps bug
+
+Initialize the first time-stamp from the first monitor, not the client-side
+current time in this configuration.
+
+### Build changes for MSVC
+
+Windows builds using Visual Studio 2015 and later now use the `-FS`
+compiler option to allow parallel builds to work properly.
+
+We now give the `-FC` option to tell the compiler to print absolute
+paths for source files in diagnostic messages.
+
+### Extend maximum Posix epicsEventWaitWithTimeout() delay
+
+The Posix implementation of epicsEventWaitWithTimeout() was limiting the
+timeout delay to at most 60 minutes (3600.0 seconds). This has been changed to
+10 years; significantly longer maximum delays cause problems on systems where
+`time_t` is still a signed 32-bit integer so cannot represent absolute
+time-stamps after 2038-01-19. Our assumption is that such 32-bit systems will
+have been retired before the year 2028, but some additional tests have been
+added to the epicsTimeTest program to detect and fail if this assumption is
+violated.
+
+### New test-related make targets
+
+This release adds several new make targets intended for use by developers
+and Continuous Integration systems which simplify the task of running the
+built-in self-test programs and viewing the results. Since these targets are
+intended for limited use they can have requirements for the build host which
+go beyond the standard minimum set needed to build and run Base.
+
+#### `test-results` - Summarize test results
+
+The new make target `test-results` will run the self-tests if
+necessary to generate a TAP file for each test, then summarizes the TAP output
+files in each test directory in turn, displaying the details of any failures.
+This step uses the program `prove` which comes with Perl, but also needs
+`cat` to be provided in the default search path so will not work on most
+Windows systems.
+
+#### `junitfiles` - Convert test results to JUnit XML Format
+
+The new make target `junitfiles` will run the self-tests if necessary
+and then convert the TAP output files into the more commonly-supported JUnit
+XML format. The program that performs this conversion needs the Perl module
+`XML::Generator` to have been installed.
+
+#### `clean-tests` - Delete test result files
+
+The new make target `clean-tests` removes any test result files from
+previous test runs. It cleans both TAP and JUnit XML files.
+
+### Fix DNS related crash on exit
+
+The attempt to fix DNS related delays for short lived CLI programs (eg. caget)
+in [lp:1527636](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1527636) introduced a
+bug which cased these short lived clients to crash on exit. This bug should now
+be fixed.
+
+### Server bind issue on Windows
+
+When a National Instruments network variables CA server is already running on
+a Windows system and an IOC or PCAS server is started, the IOC's attempt to
+bind a TCP socket to the CA server port number fails, but Windows returns a
+different error status value than the IOC is expecting in that circumstance
+(because the National Instruments code requests exclusive use of that port,
+unlike the EPICS code) so the IOC fails to start properly. The relevant EPICS
+bind() checks have now been updated so the IOC will request that a dynamic port
+number be allocated for this TCP socket instead when this happens.
+
+### Checking Periodic Scan Rates
+
+Code has been added to the IOC startup to better protect it against bad
+periodic scan rates, including against locales where `.` is not
+accepted as a decimal separator character. If the scan period in a menuScan
+choice string cannot be parsed, the associated periodic scan thread will no
+longer be started by the IOC and a warning message will be displayed at iocInit
+time. The `scanppl` command will also flag the faulty menuScan value.
+
+-----
+
+## Changes made between 3.15.4 and 3.15.5
+
+### dbStatic Library Speedup and Cleanup
+
+Loading of database files has been optimized to avoid over-proportionally
+long loading times for large databases. As a part of this, the alphabetical
+ordering of records instances (within a record type) has been dropped. In the
+unexpected case that applications were relying on the alphabetic order, setting
+`dbRecordsAbcSorted = 1` before loading the databases will retain the
+old behavior.
+
+The routine `dbRenameRecord()` has been removed, as it was intended
+to be used by database configuration tools linked against a host side version
+of the dbStatic library that is not being built anymore.
+
+### Launchpad Bug-fixes
+
+In addition to the more detailed change descriptions below, the following
+Launchpad bugs have also been fixed in this release:
+
+  - [lp:1440186](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1440186) Crash due
+    to a too small buffer being provided in `dbContextReadNotifyCache()`
+  - [lp:1479316](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1479316) Some data
+    races found using Helgrind
+  - [lp:1495833](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1495833) biRecord
+    prompt groups are nonsensical
+  - [lp:1606848](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1606848) WSAIoctl
+    `SIO_GET_INTERFACE_LIST` failed in Windows
+
+### Whole-Program Optimization for MS Visual Studio Targets
+
+When using the Microsoft compilers a new build system variable is provided that
+controls whether whole program optimization is used or not. For static builds
+using Visual Studio 2010 this optimization must be disabled. This is controlled
+in the files `configure/os/CONFIG_SITE.Common.windows-x64-static` and
+`configure/os/CONFIG_SITE.Common.win32-x86-static` by setting the variable
+`OPT_WHOLE_PROGRAM=NO` to override the default value `YES` that would otherwise
+be used.
+
+Note that enabling this optimization slows down the build process. It is not
+possible to selectively disable this optimization, when building a particular
+module say; Microsoft's linker will restart itself automatically with the
+`-LTCG` flag set and display a warning if it is asked to link any object
+files that were compiled with the `-GL` flag.
+
+### Add dynamic (variable length) array support to PCAS
+
+Dynamic array sizing support was added to the IOC server (RSRV) in the
+Base-3.14.12 release, but has not until now been supported in the Portable
+Channel Access Server (PCAS). Channel Access server applications using the
+PCAS may not need to be modified at all; if they already push monitors with
+different gdd array lengths, those variable sizes will be forwarded to any CA
+clients who have requested variable length updates. The example CAS server
+application has been modified to demonstrate this feature.
+
+In implementing the above, the gdd method `gdd::put(const gdd *)` now
+copies the full-sized array from the source gdd if the destination gdd is of
+type array, has no allocated memory and a boundary size of 0.
+
+### Additional epicsTime conversion
+
+The EPICS timestamp library (epicsTime) inside libCom's OSI layer has
+been extended by routines that convert from `struct tm` to the EPICS
+internal `epicsTime` type, assuming UTC - i.e. without going through
+the timezone mechanism. This solves issues with converting from the structured
+type to the EPICS timestamp at driver level from multiple threads at a high
+repetition rate, where the timezone mechanism was blocking on file access.
+
+### MinGW Cross-builds from Linux
+
+The build configuration files that allow cross-building of the 32-bit
+win32-x86-mingw cross-target have been adjusted to default to building shared
+libraries (DLLs) as this is now supported by recent MinGW compilers. The 64-bit
+windows-x64-mingw cross-target was already being built that way by default. The
+configuration options to tell the minGW cross-compiler to link programs with
+static versions of the compiler support libraries have now been moved into the
+`CONFIG_SITE.linux-x86.<target>` files.
+
+### General Time updates
+
+The `iocInit` code now performs a sanity check of the current time
+returned by the generalTime subsystem and will print a warning if the wall-clock
+time returned has not been initialized yet. This is just a warning message; when
+a time provider does synchronize the IOC will subsequently pick up and use the
+correct time. This check code also primes the registered event system provider
+if there is one so the `epicsTimeGetEventInt()` routine will work on IOCs
+that ask for event time within an interrupt service routine.
+
+The osiClockTime provider's synchronization thread (which is only used on
+some embedded targets) will now poll the other time providers at 1Hz until the
+first time it manages to get a successful timestamp, after which it will poll
+for updates every 60 seconds as before.
+
+The routine `generalTimeGetExceptPriority()` was designed for use by
+backup (lower priority) time providers like the osiClockTime provider which do
+not have their own absolute time reference and rely on other providers for an
+absolute time source. This routine no longer implements the ratchet mechanism
+that prevented the time it returned from going backwards. If the backup clock's
+tick-timer runs fast the synchronization of the backup time provider would never
+allow it to be corrected backwards when the ratchet was in place. The regular
+`epicsTimeGetCurrent()` API still uses the ratchet mechanism, so this
+change will not cause the IOC to see time going backwards.
+
+### Microsoft Visual Studio builds
+
+The build configuration files for builds using the Microsoft compilers have been
+updated, although there should be no noticeable difference at most sites. One
+extra compiler warning is now being suppressed for C++ code, `C4344: behavior
+change: use of explicit template arguments results in ...` which is gratuitous
+and was appearing frequently in builds of the EPICS V4 modules.
+
+Cross-builds of the windows-x64 target from a win32-x86 host have been
+removed as they don't actually work within the context of a single `make`
+run. Significant changes to the build configuration files would be necessary for
+these kinds of cross-builds to work properly, which could be done if someone
+needs them (email Andrew Johnson before working on this, and see
+[this stack-overflow answer](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5807647/how-do-you-compile-32-bit-and-64-bit-applications-at-the-same-time-in-visual-stu) for a starting point).
+
+### Bazaar keywords such as 'Revision-Id' removed
+
+In preparation for moving to git in place of the Bazaar revision control
+system we have removed all the keywords from the Base source code.
+
+### Linux systemd service file for CA Repeater
+
+Building this version of Base on a Linux system creates a systemd service
+file suitable for starting the Channel Access Repeater under systemd. The file
+will be installed into the target bin directory, from where it can be copied
+into the appropriate systemd location and modified as necessary. Installation
+instructions are included as comments in the file.
+
+-----
+
+## Changes made between 3.15.3 and 3.15.4
+
+### New string input device support "getenv"
+
+A new "getenv" device support for both the stringin and lsi (long string
+input) record types can be used to read the value of an environment variable
+from the IOC at runtime. See base/db/softIocExit.db for sample usage.
+
+### Build rules and `DELAY_INSTALL_LIBS`
+
+A new order-only prerequisite build rule has been added to ensure that
+library files (and DLL stubs on Windows) get installed before linking any
+executables, which resolves parallel build problems on high-powered CPUs. There
+are some (rare) cases though where a Makefile has to build an executable and run
+it to be able to compile code for a library built by the same Makefile. With
+this new build rule GNUmake will complain about a circular dependency and the
+build will probably fail in those cases. To avoid this problem the failing
+Makefile should set `DELAY_INSTALL_LIBS = YES` before including the
+`$(TOP)/configure/RULES` file, disabling the new build rule.
+
+### IOC environment variables and build parameters
+
+The IOC now sets a number of environment variables at startup that provide the
+version of EPICS Base it was built against (`EPICS_VERSION_...`) and its build
+architecture (ARCH). In some cases this allows a single iocBoot/ioc directory to
+be used to run the same IOC on several different architectures without any
+changes.
+
+There are also 3 new environment parameters (`EPICS_BUILD_...`) available that
+C/C++ code can use to find out the target architecture, OS class and compiler
+class it was built with. These may be useful when writing interfaces to other
+languages.
+
+### New implementation of `promptgroup`/`gui_group` field property
+
+The mechanism behind the `promptgroup()` field property inside a record type
+definition has been changed. Instead of using a fixed set of choices,
+the static database access library now collects the used gui group names
+while parsing DBD information. Group names should start with a two-digit number
+plus space-dash-space to allow proper sorting of groups.
+
+The include file `guigroup.h` that defined the fixed set of choices
+has been deprecated. Instead, use the conversion functions between index number
+and group string that have been added to dbStaticLib.
+
+When a DBD file containing record-type descriptions is expanded, any
+old-style `GUI_xxx` group names will be replaced by a new-style
+string for use by the IOC. This permits an older record type to be used with
+the 3.15.4 release, although eventually record types should be converted by
+hand with better group names used.
+
+### CA server configuration changes
+
+RSRV now honors `EPICS_CAS_INTF_ADDR_LIST` and binds only to the provided list
+of network interfaces. Name searches (UDP and TCP) on other network interfaces
+are ignored. For example on a computer with interfaces 10.5.1.1/24, 10.5.2.1/24,
+and 10.5.3.1/24, setting `EPICS_CAS_INTF_ADDR_LIST='10.5.1.1 10.5.2.1'` will
+accept traffic on the .1.1 and .2.1, but ignore from .3.1
+
+RSRV now honors `EPICS_CAS_IGNORE_ADDR_LIST` and ignores UDP messages received
+from addresses in this list.
+
+Previously, CA servers (RSRV and PCAS) would build the beacon address list using
+`EPICS_CA_ADDR_LIST` if `EPICS_CAS_BEACON_ADDR_LIST` was no set. This is no
+longer done. Sites depending on this should set both environment variables to
+the same value.
+
+### IPv4 multicast for name search and beacons
+
+libca, RSRV, and PCAS may now use IPv4 multicasting for UDP traffic (name search
+and beacons). This is disabled by default. To enable multicast address(s) must
+be listed in `EPICS_CA_ADDR_LIST` for clients and `EPICS_CAS_INTF_ADDR_LIST` for
+servers (IOCs should set both). For example:
+
+    EPICS_CAS_INTF_ADDR_LIST='224.0.2.9' EPICS_CA_ADDR_LIST=224.0.2.9
+
+Please note that no IPv4 multicast address is officially assigned for Channel
+Access by IANA. The example 224.0.2.9 is taken from the AD-HOC Block I range.
+
+### Moved `mlockall()` into its own epicsThread routine
+
+Since EPICS Base 3.15.0.2 on Posix OSs the initialization of the epicsThread
+subsystem has called `mlockall()` when the OS supports it and thread
+priority scheduling is enabled. Doing so has caused problems in third-party
+applications that call the CA client library, so the functionality has been
+moved to a separate routine `epicsThreadRealtimeLock()` which will be
+called by the IOC at iocInit (unless disabled by setting the global variable
+`dbThreadRealtimeLock` to zero).
+
+### Added dbQuietMacroWarnings control
+
+When loading database files, macros get expanded even on comment lines. If a
+comment contains an undefined macro, the load still continues but an error
+message gets printed. For this release the error message has been changed to a
+warning, but even this warning can be made less verbose by setting this new
+variable to a non-zero value before loading the file, like this:
+
+```
+    var dbQuietMacroWarnings 1      iocsh
+    dbQuietMacroWarnings=1          VxWorks
+```
+
+This was [Launchpad bug
+541119](https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/541119).
+
+-----
+
+## Changes from the 3.14 branch between 3.15.3 and 3.15.4
+
+### NTP Time Provider adjusts to OS tick rate changes
+
+Dirk Zimoch provided code that allows the NTP Time provider (used on VxWorks
+and RTEMS only) to adapt to changes in the OS clock tick rate after the provider
+has been initialized. Note that changing the tick rate after iocInit() is not
+advisable, and that other software might still misbehave if initialized before
+an OS tick rate change. This change was back-ported from the 3.15 branch.
+
+### Making IOC `ca_get` operations atomic
+
+When a CA client gets data from an IOC record using a compound data type such
+as `DBR_TIME_DOUBLE` the value field is fetched from the database in a
+separate call than the other metadata, without keeping the record locked. This
+allows some other thread such as a periodic scan thread a chance to interrupt
+the get operation and process the record in between. CA monitors have always
+been atomic as long as the value data isn't a string or an array, but this race
+condition in the CA get path has now been fixed so the record will stay locked
+between the two fetch operations.
+
+This fixes
+[Launchpad bug 1581212](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1581212),
+thanks to Till Strauman and Dehong Zhang.
+
+### New `CONFIG_SITE` variable for running self-tests
+
+The 'make runtests' and 'make tapfiles' build targets normally only run the
+self-tests for the main `EPICS_HOST_ARCH` architecture. If the host is
+able to execute self-test programs for other target architectures that are being
+built by the host, such as when building a `-debug` version of the host
+architecture for example, the names of those other architectures can be added to
+the new `CROSS_COMPILER_RUNTEST_ARCHS` variable in either the
+`configure/CONFIG_SITE` file or in an appropriate
+`configure/os/CONFIG_SITE.<host>.Common` file to have the test
+programs for those targets be run as well.
+
+### Additional RELEASE file checks
+
+An additional check has been added at build-time for the contents of the
+`configure/RELEASE` file(s), which will mostly only affect users of the Debian
+EPICS packages published by NSLS-2. Support modules may share an install path,
+but all such modules must be listed adjacent to each other in any `RELEASE`
+files that point to them. For example the following will fail the new checks:
+
+```
+    AUTOSAVE = /usr/lib/epics
+    ASYN = /home/mdavidsaver/asyn
+    EPICS_BASE = /usr/lib/epics
+```
+
+giving the compile-time error
+
+```
+    This application's RELEASE file(s) define
+        EPICS_BASE = /usr/lib/epics
+    after but not adjacent to
+        AUTOSAVE = /usr/lib/epics
+    Module definitions that share paths must be grouped together.
+    Either remove a definition, or move it to a line immediately
+    above or below the other(s).
+    Any non-module definitions belong in configure/CONFIG_SITE.
+```
+
+In many cases such as the one above the order of the `AUTOSAVE` and
+`ASYN` lines can be swapped to let the checks pass, but if the
+`AUTOSAVE` module depended on `ASYN` and hence had to appear
+before it in the list this error indicates that `AUTOSAVE` should also be
+built in its own private area; a shared copy would likely be incompatible with
+the version of `ASYN` built in the home directory.
+
+### String field buffer overflows
+
+Two buffer overflow bugs that can crash the IOC have been fixed, caused by
+initializing a string field with a value larger than the field size
+([Launchpad bug 1563191](https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1563191)).
+
+### Fixed stack corruption bug in epicsThread C++ API
+
+The C++ interface to the epicsThread API could corrupt the stack on thread
+exit in some rare circumstances, usually at program exit. This bug has been
+fixed ([Launchpad bug 1558206](https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1558206)).
+
+### RTEMS NTP Support Issue
+
+On RTEMS the NTP Time Provider could in some circumstances get out of sync
+with the server because the `osdNTPGet()` code wasn't clearing its input socket
+before sending out a new request. This
+([Launchpad bug 1549908](https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1549908))
+has now been fixed.
+
+### CALC engine bitwise operator fixes
+
+The bitwise operators in the CALC engine have been modified to work properly
+with values that have bit 31 (0x80000000) set. This modification involved
+back-porting some earlier changes from the 3.15 branch, and fixes
+[Launchpad bug 1514520](https://code.launchpad.net/bugs/1514520).
+
+### Fix `ipAddrToAsciiAsync()`: Don't try to join the daemon thread
+
+On process exit, don't try to stop the worker thread that makes DNS lookups
+asynchronous. Previously this would wait for any lookups still in progress,
+delaying the exit unnecessarily. This was most obvious with catools (eg.
+cainfo).
+[lp:1527636](https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1527636)
+
+### Fix `epicsTime_localtime()` on Windows
+
+Simpler versions of the `epicsTime_gmtime()` and `epicsTime_localtime()`
+routines have been included in the Windows implementations, and a new test
+program added. The original versions do not report DST status properly. Fixes
+[Launchpad bug 1528284](https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1528284).

documentation/RELEASE-3.16.md

@@ -0,0 +1,756 @@
+# Changes incorporated from the 3.16 branch
+
+## Changes made between 3.16.1 and 3.16.2
+
+### Launchpad Bugs
+
+The list of tracked bugs fixed in this release can be found on the
+[Launchpad Milestone page for EPICS Base 3.16.2](https://launchpad.net/epics-base/+milestone/3.16.2).
+
+### Status reporting for the callback and scanOnce task queues
+
+Two new iocsh commands and some associated underlying APIs have been added to
+show the state of the queues that feed the three callback tasks and the
+scanOnce task, including a high-water mark which can optionally be reset. The
+new iocsh commands are `callbackQueueShow` and `scanOnceQueueShow`; both take
+an optional integer argument which must be non-zero to reset the high-water
+mark.
+
+### Support for event codes greater than or equal to `NUM_TIME_EVENTS`
+
+Event numbers greater than or equal to `NUM_TIME_EVENTS` are now allowed if
+supported by the registered event time provider, which must provide its own
+advancing timestamp validation for such events.
+
+Time events numbered 0 through `(NUM_TIME_EVENTS-1)` are still validated by code
+in epicsGeneralTime.c that checks for advancing timestamps and enforces that
+restriction.
+
+### Type-safe Device and Driver Support Tables
+
+Type-safe versions of the device and driver support structures `dset` and
+`drvet` have been added to the devSup.h and drvSup.h headers respectively. The
+original structure definitions have not been changed so existing support
+modules will still build normally, but older modules can be modified and new
+code written to be compatible with both.
+
+The old structure definitions will be replaced by the new ones if the macros
+`USE_TYPED_DSET` and/or `USE_TYPED_DRVET` are defined when the appropriate
+header is included. The best place to define these is in the Makefile, as with
+the `USE_TYPED_RSET` macro that was introduced in Base-3.16.1 and described
+below. See the comments in devSup.h for a brief usage example, or look at
+[this commit](https://github.com/epics-modules/ipac/commit/a7e0ff4089b9aa39108bc8569e95ba7fcf07cee9)
+to the ipac module to see a module conversion.
+
+A helper function `DBLINK* dbGetDevLink(dbCommon *prec)` has also been added
+to devSup.h which fetches a pointer to the INP or OUT field of the record.
+
+### RTEMS build configuration update, running tests under QEMU
+
+This release includes the ability to run the EPICS unit tests built for a
+special version of the RTEMS-pc386 target architecture on systems that have an
+appropriate QEMU emulator installed (`qemu-system-i386`). It is also now
+possible to create sub-architectures of RTEMS targets, whereas previously the
+EPICS target architecture name had to be `RTEMS-$(RTEMS_BSP)`.
+
+The new target `RTEMS-pc386-qemu` builds binaries that can be run in the
+`qemu-system-i386` PC System emulator. This target is a derivative of the
+original `RTEMS-pc386` target but with additional software to build an in-
+memory file-system, and some minor modifications to allow the unit tests to
+work properly under QEMU. When this target is enabled, building any of the
+make targets that cause the built-in self-tests to be run (such as `make
+runtests`) will also run the tests for RTEMS using QEMU.
+
+To allow the new 3-component RTEMS target name, the EPICS build system for
+RTEMS was modified to allow a `configure/os/CONFIG.Common.<arch>` file to set
+the `RTEMS_BSP` variable to inform the build what RTEMS BSP to use. Previously
+this was inferred from the value of the `T_A` make variable, but that prevents
+having multiple EPICS targets that build against the same BSP. All the
+included RTEMS target configuration files have been updated; build
+configuration files for out-of-tree RTEMS targets will continue to work as the
+original rules are used to set `RTEMS_BSP` if it hasn't been set when needed.
+
+### Link type enhancements
+
+This release adds three new link types: "state", "debug" and "trace". The
+"state" link type gets and puts boolean values from/to the dbState library
+that was added in the 3.15.1 release. The "debug" link type sets the
+`jlink::debug` flag in its child link, while the "trace" link type also causes
+the arguments and return values for all calls to the child link's jlif and
+lset routines to be printed on stdout. The debug flag can no longer be set
+using an info tag. The addition of the "trace" link type has allowed over 200
+lines of conditional diagnostic printf() calls to be removed from the other
+link types.
+
+The "calc" link type can now be used for output links as well as input links.
+This allows modification of the output value and even combining it with values
+from other input links. See the separate JSON Link types document for details.
+
+A new `start_child()` method was added to the end of the jlif interface table.
+
+The `lset` methods have now been properly documented in the dbLink.h header
+file using Doxygen annotations, although we do not run Doxygen on the source
+tree yet to generate API documentation.
+
+Link types that utilize child links must now indicate whether the child will
+be used for input, output or forward linking by the return value from its
+`parse_start_map()` method. The `jlif_key_result` enum now contains 3 values
+`jlif_key_child_inlink`, `jlif_key_child_outlink` and `jlif_key_child_fwdlink`
+instead of the single `jlif_key_child_link` that was previously used for this.
+
+### GNUmake targets for debugging
+
+Some additional build rules have been added to help debug configuration
+problems with the build system. Run `make show-makefiles` to get a sorted list
+of all the files that the build system includes when building in the current
+directory.
+
+A new pattern rule for `PRINT.%` can be used to show the value of any GNUmake
+variable for the current build directory (make sure you are in the right
+directory though, many variables are only set when inside the `O.<arch>` build
+directory). For example `make PRINT.T_A` will display the build target
+architecture name from inside a `O.<arch>` directory but the variable will be
+empty from an application top or src directory. `make PRINT.EPICS_BASE` will
+show the path to Base from any EPICS application directory though.
+
+### Propagate PUTF across Asynchronous record processing
+
+The IOC contains a mechanism involving the PUTF and RPRO fields of each record
+to ensure that if a record is busy when it receives a put to one of its
+fields, the record will be processed again to ensure that the new field value
+has been correctly acted on. Until now that mechanism only worked if the put
+was to the asynchronous record itself, so puts that were chained from some
+other record via a DB link did not cause reprocessing.
+
+In this release the mechanism has been extended to propagate the PUTF state
+across DB links until all downstream records have been reprocessed. Some
+additional information about the record state can be shown by setting the TPRO
+field of an upstream record, and even more trace data is displayed if the
+debugging variable `dbAccessDebugPUTF` is set in addition to TPRO.
+
+### Finding info fields
+
+A new iocsh command `dbli` lists the info fields defined in the database, and
+can take a glob pattern to limit output to specific info names. The newly
+added dbStaticLib function `dbNextMatchingInfo()` iterates through the info
+fields defined in the current record, and is used to implement the new
+command.
+
+### Output from `dbpr` command enhanced
+
+The "DataBase Print Record" command `dbpr` now generates slightly better
+output, with more field types having their own display methods. This release
+also includes additional protection against buffer overflows while printing
+long links in `dbpr`, and corrects the output of long strings from the `dbgf`
+command.
+
+### Record types mbbiDirect and mbboDirect upgraded to 32 bit
+
+The VAL fields and related fields of these records are now `DBF_LONG`. (Not
+`DBF_ULONG` in order to prevent Channel Access from promoting them to
+`DBF_DOUBLE`.) Additional bit fields `B10`...`B1F` have been added.
+
+Device support that accesses `VAL` or the bit fields directly (most don't) and
+aims for compatibility with old and new versions of these records should use
+at least 32 bit integer types to avoid bit loss. The number of bit fields can
+be calculated using `8 * sizeof(prec->val)` which is correct in both versions.
+
+### Restore use of ledlib for VxWorks command editing
+
+The epicsReadline refactoring work described below unfortunately disabled the
+VxWorks implementation of the osdReadline.c API that uses ledlib for command
+editing and history. This functionality has now been restored, see Launchpad
+[bug #1741578](https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1741578).
+
+### Constant link types
+
+Constant links can now hold 64-bit integer values, either as scalars or
+    arrays. Only base 10 is supported by the JSON parser though, the JSON standard
+doesn't allow for hexadecimal numbers.
+
+### Upgraded the YAJL JSON Library
+
+The third-party YAJL library that has been included in libCom for several
+years has been upgraded to version 2.1.0 and several bugs fixed. This has an
+updated API, requiring any code that uses it to parse its own JSON files to be
+modified to match. The changes are mainly that it uses `size_t` instead
+`unsigned int` for string lengths, but it also uses `long long` instead of
+`long` for JSON integer values, which was the main motivation for the upgrade.
+
+The self-tests that YAJL comes with have been imported and are now run as an
+EPICS Unit Test program, and the JSON syntax accepted by the parser was
+extended to permit trailing commas in both arrays and maps. The difference
+between the old and new YAJL APIs can be detected at compile time by looking
+for the macro `EPICS_YAJL_VERSION` which is defined in the `yajl_common.h`
+header file along with a brief description of the API changes.
+
+### Timestamp support for the calc link type
+
+A new optional parameter can be given when specifying a calc JSON link. The
+`time` parameter is a string containing a single letter `A..L` that selects
+one of the input links to be used for the timestamp of calculation if
+requested. The timestamp will be fetched atomically with the value from the
+chosen input link (providing that input link type supports the readLocked()
+method).
+
+### Silence errors from puts to constant link types
+
+A soft channel output record with the OUT link unset uses the CONSTANT link
+type. The new link type code was causing some soft channel device supports to
+return an error status from the write method of that link type, which would
+cause a `ca_put()` operation to such a record to generate an exception. This has
+been silenced by giving the constant link types a dummy putValue method. A new
+test program has been added to prevent regressions of this behaviour.
+
+### RSRV expanding large buffer causes crash
+
+In the 3.16.1 release a crash can occur in the IOC's RSRV server when a large
+array is made even larger; the previous array buffer was not being released
+correctly. See Launchpad
+[bug #1706703](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1706703).
+
+-----
+
+## Changes made between 3.16.0.1 and 3.16.1
+
+### IOC Database Support for 64-bit integers
+
+The IOC now supports the 64-bit integer field types `DBF_INT64` and
+`DBF_UINT64`, and there are new record types `int64in` and `int64out` derived
+from the `longin` and `longout` types respectively that use the `DBF_INT64`
+data type for their VAL and related fields. The usual range of Soft Channel
+device support are included for these new record types.
+
+All internal IOC APIs such as dbAccess can handle the new field types and
+their associated request values `DBR_INT64` and `DBR_UINT64`, which are
+implemented using the `epicsInt64` and `epicsUInt64` typedef's from the
+`epicsTypes.h` header.
+
+The waveform record type has been updated to support these new field types.
+**All waveform device support layers must be updated to recognize the new type
+enumeration values**, which had to be inserted before the `FLOAT` value in the
+enum `dbfType` and in `menuFtype`. C or C++ code can detect at compile-time
+whether this version of base provides 64-bit support by checking for the
+presence of the `DBR_INT64` macro as follows (Note that `DBF_INT64` is an
+enum tag and not a preprocessor macro):
+
+```
+    #ifdef DBR_INT64
+        /* Code where Base has INT64 support */
+    #else
+        /* Code for older versions */
+    #endif
+```
+
+If the code uses the old `db_access.h` types (probably because it's calling
+Channel Access APIs) then it will have to test against the EPICS version
+number instead, like this:
+
+```
+    #include <epicsVersion.h>
+
+    #ifndef VERSION_INT
+    #  define VERSION_INT(V,R,M,P) ( ((V)<<24) | ((R)<<16) | ((M)<<8) | (P))
+    #endif
+    #ifndef EPICS_VERSION_INT
+    #  define EPICS_VERSION_INT VERSION_INT(EPICS_VERSION, EPICS_REVISION, EPICS_MODIFICATION, EPICS_PATCH_LEVEL)
+    #endif
+
+    #if EPICS_VERSION_INT >= VERSION_INT(3,16,1,0)
+        /* Code where Base has INT64 support */
+    #else
+        /* Code for older versions */
+    #endif
+```
+
+Channel Access does not (and probably never will) directly support 64-bit
+integer types, so the new field types are presented to the CA server as
+`DBF_DOUBLE` values. This means that field values larger than 2^52
+(0x10\_0000\_0000\_0000 = 4503599627370496) cannot be transported over Channel
+Access without their least significant bits being truncated. The EPICS V4
+pvAccess network protocol _can_ transport 64-bit data types however, and a
+future release of the pvaSrv module will connect this ability to the fields of
+the IOC.
+
+Additional 64-bit support will be provided in later release. For instance the
+JSON parser for the new Link Support feature only handles integers up to 32
+bits wide, so constant array initializer values cannot hold larger values in
+this release.
+
+### Add `EPICS_CA_MCAST_TTL`
+
+A new environment parameter `EPICS_CA_MCAST_TTL` is used to set the Time To Live
+(TTL) value of any IP multi-cast CA search or beacon packets sent.
+
+### `EPICS_CA_MAX_ARRAY_BYTES` is optional
+
+A new environment parameter `EPICS_CA_AUTO_ARRAY_BYTES` is now used by libca and
+RSRV (CA clients and the IOC CA server). The default is equivalent to setting
+`EPICS_CA_AUTO_ARRAY_BYTES=YES` which removes the need to set
+`EPICS_CA_MAX_ARRAY_BYTES` and always attempts to allocate sufficiently large
+network buffers to transfer large arrays properly over the network. In this case
+the value of the `EPICS_CA_MAX_ARRAY_BYTES` parameter is ignored.
+
+Explicitly setting `EPICS_CA_AUTO_ARRAY_BYTES=NO` will continue to honor the
+buffer setting in `EPICS_CA_AUTO_ARRAY_BYTES` as in previous releases.
+
+The default setting for `EPICS_CA_AUTO_ARRAY_BYTES` can be changed by adding the
+line
+
+```makefile
+    EPICS_CA_AUTO_ARRAY_BYTES=NO
+```
+
+to the `configure/CONFIG_SITE_ENV` file before building Base. Sites that wish to
+override this only for specific IOC architectures can create new files for each
+architecture named `configure/os/CONFIG_SITE_ENV.<target-arch>` with the above
+setting in before building Base. The configuration can also be explicitly
+changed by setting the environment variable in the IOC's startup script,
+anywhere above the `iocInit` line.
+
+The PCAS server (used by the PV Gateway and other CA servers) now always behaves
+as if `EPICS_CA_AUTO_ARRAY_BYTES` is set to `YES` (it ignores the configuration
+parameter and environment variable).
+
+### Channel Access "modernization"
+
+Drop support for CA clients advertising protocol versions less than 4.
+
+This effects clients from Base older than 3.12.0-beta1. Newer clients will
+continue to be able to connect to older servers. Older clients will be ignored
+by newer servers.
+
+This allows removal of UDP echo and similar protocol features which are not
+compatible with secure protocol design practice.
+
+### Lookup-tables using the subArrray record
+
+The subArray record can now be used as a lookup-table from a constant array
+specified in its INP field. For example:
+
+```
+    record(subArray, "powers-of-2") {
+      field(FTVL, "LONG")
+      field(MALM, 12)
+      field(INP, [1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048])
+      field(INDX, 0)
+      field(NELM, 1)
+    }
+```
+
+The INDX field selects which power of 2 to set the VAL field to. In previous
+releases the INP field would have to have been pointed to a separate waveform
+record that was initialized with the array values somehow at initialization
+time.
+
+### Synchronized Timestamps with TSEL=-2
+
+Most Soft Channel input device support routines have supported fetching the
+timestamp through the INP link along with the input data. However before now
+there was no guarantee that the timestamp provided by a CA link came from the
+same update as the data, since the two were read from the CA input buffer at
+separate times without maintaining a lock on that buffer in between. This
+shortcoming could be fixed as a result of the new link support code, which
+allows code using a link to pass a subroutine to the link type which will be
+run with the link locked. The subroutine may make multiple requests for
+metadata from the link, but must not block.
+
+### Extensible Link Types
+
+A major new feature introduced with this release of EPICS Base is an
+Extensible Link Type mechanism, also known as Link Support or JSON Link Types.
+This addition permits new kinds of link I/O to be added to an IOC in a similar
+manner to the other extension points already supported (e.g. record, device
+and driver support).
+
+A new link type must implement two related APIs, one for parsing the JSON
+string which provides the link address and the other which implements the link
+operations that get called at run-time to perform I/O. The link type is built
+into the IOC by providing a new `link` entry in a DBD file.
+
+#### New Link Types Added
+
+This release contains two new JSON link types, `const` and `calc`:
+
+ * The `const` link type is almost equivalent to the old CONSTANT link type
+with the updates described below to accept arrays and strings, except that
+there is no need to wrap a scalar string constant inside array brackets since
+a constant string will never be confused with a PV name.
+
+ * The `calc` link type allows CALC expressions to be used to combine
+values from other JSON links to produce its value. Until additional JSON link
+types are created though, the `calc` link type has little practical utility as
+it can currently only fetch inputs from other `calc` links or from `const`
+links.
+
+```
+    field(INP, {calc:{expr:"A+B+1",
+                      args:[5,         # A
+                            {const:6}] # B
+                     }
+               }
+           )
+```
+
+The new link types are documented in a separate document that gets generated at build time and installed as `html/links.html`.
+
+#### Device Support Addressing using `JSON_LINK`
+
+The API to allow device support to use JSON addresses is currently
+incomplete; developers are advised not to try creating device support that
+specifies a `JSON_LINK` address type.
+
+#### Support Routine Modifications for Extensible Link Types
+
+For link fields in external record types and soft device support to be able
+to use the new link types properly, various changes are required to utilize
+the new Link Support API as defined in the dbLink.h header file and outlined
+below. The existing built-in Database and Channel Access link types have been
+altered to implement the link APIs, so will work properly after these
+conversions:
+
+ * Make all calls to `recGblInitConstantLink()` unconditional on the link
+type, i.e. change this code:
+
+```C
+        if (prec->siml.type == CONSTANT) {
+            recGblInitConstantLink(&prec->siml, DBF_USHORT, &prec->simm);
+        }
+```
+
+  into this:
+
+```C
+        recGblInitConstantLink(&prec->siml, DBF_USHORT, &prec->simm);
+```
+
+  Note that `recGblInitConstantLink()` still returns TRUE if the field was
+  successfully initialized from the link (implying the link is constant).
+  This change will work properly with all Base releases currently in use.
+
+ * Code that needs to identify a constant link should be modified to use
+the new routine `dbLinkIsConstant()` instead, which returns TRUE for constant
+or undefined links, FALSE for links whose `dbGetLink()` routine may return
+different values on different calls. For example this:
+
+```C
+        if (prec->dol.type != CONSTANT)
+```
+
+  should become this:
+
+```C
+        if (!dbLinkIsConstant(&prec->dol))
+```
+
+  When the converted software is also required to build against older versions
+  of Base, this macro definition may be useful:
+
+```C
+        #define dbLinkIsConstant(lnk) ((lnk)->type == CONSTANT)
+```
+
+ * Any code that calls dbCa routines directly, or that explicitly checks if
+a link has been resolved as a CA link using code such as
+
+```C
+        if (prec->inp.type == CA_LINK)
+```
+
+  will still compile and run, but will only work properly with the old CA link
+  type. To operate with the new extensible link types such code must be
+  modified to use the new generic routines defined in dbLink.h and should
+  never attempt to examine or modify data inside the link. After conversion
+  the above line would probably become:
+
+```C
+        if (dbLinkIsVolatile(&prec->inp))
+```
+
+  A volatile link is one like a Channel Access link which may disconnect and
+  reconnect without notice at runtime. Database links and constant links are
+  not volatile; unless their link address is changed they will always remain
+  in the same state they started in. For compatibility when building against
+  older versions of Base, this macro definition may be useful:
+
+```C
+        #define dbLinkIsVolatile(lnk) ((lnk)->type == CA_LINK)
+```
+
+ * The current connection state of a volatile link can be found using the
+routine `dbIsLinkConnected()` which will only return TRUE for a volatile link
+that is currently connected. Code using the older dbCa API returning this
+information used to look like this:
+
+```C
+        stat = dbCaIsLinkConnected(plink);
+```
+
+  which should become:
+
+```C
+        stat = dbIsLinkConnected(plink);
+```
+
+  Similar changes should be made for calls to the other dbCa routines.
+
+ * A full example can be found by looking at the changes to the calcout
+record type, which has been modified in this release to use the new dbLink
+generic API.
+
+### Constant Link Values
+
+Previously a constant link (i.e. a link that did not point to another PV,
+either locally or over Channel Access) was only able to provide a single
+numeric value to a record initialization; any string given in a link field
+that was not recognized as a number was treated as a PV name. In this release,
+constant links can be expressed using JSON array syntax and may provide array
+initialization of values containing integers, doubles or strings. An array
+containing a single string value can also be used to initialize scalar
+strings, so the stringin, stringout, lsi (long string input), lso (long string
+output), printf, waveform, subArray and aai (analog array input) record types
+and/or their soft device supports have been modified to support this.
+
+Some examples of constant array and string initialized records are:
+
+```
+    record(stringin, "const:string") {
+        field(INP, ["Not-a-PV-name"])
+    }
+    record(waveform, "const:longs") {
+        field(FTVL, LONG)
+        field(NELM, 10)
+        field(INP, [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10])
+    }
+    record(aai, "const:doubles") {
+        field(FTVL, DOUBLE)
+        field(NELM, 10)
+        field(INP, [0, 1, 1.6e-19, 2.718, 3.141593])
+    }
+    record(aSub, "select") {
+        field(FTA, STRING)
+        field(NOA, 4)
+        field(INPA, ["Zero", "One", "Two", "Three"])
+        field(FTB, SHORT)
+        field(NOB, 1)
+        field(FTVA, STRING)
+        field(NOVA, 1)
+        field(SNAM, "select_asub")
+    }
+```
+
+Reminder: Link initialization with constant values normally only occurs at
+record initialization time. The calcout and printf record types are the only
+exceptions in the Base record types to this rule, so it is generally not
+useful to change a const link value after iocInit.
+
+### Database Parsing of "Relaxed JSON" Values
+
+A database file can now provide a "relaxed JSON" value for a database field
+value or an info tag. Only a few field types can currently accept such values,
+but the capability is now available for use in other places in the future.
+When writing to a JSON-capable field at run-time however, only strictly
+compliant JSON may be used (the dbStaticLib parser rewrites relaxed JSON
+values into strict JSON before passing them to the datase for interpretation,
+where the strict rules must be followed).
+
+"Relaxed JSON" was developed to maximize compatibility with the previous
+database parser rules and reduce the number of double-quotes that would be
+needed for strict JSON syntax. The parser does accept strict JSON too though,
+which should be used when machine-generating database files. The differences
+are:
+
+  * Strings containing only the characters `a-z A-Z 0-9 _ - + .` do not have to
+be enclosed in double-quote characters.
+
+  * The above rule applies to map keys as well as to regular string values.
+
+  * The JSON keywords `null`, `true` and `false` (all lower-case) will be
+recognized as keywords, so they must be quoted to use any of these single words
+as a string.
+
+  * Comments may be used, introduced as usual by the `#` character and extending
+to the end of the line.
+
+A JSON field or info value is only enclosed in quotes when the value being
+provided is a single string, and even here the quotes can be omitted in some
+cases as described above. The following shows both correct and incorrect
+excerpts from a database file:
+
+```
+    record(ai, math:pi) {
+        field(INP, {const: 3.14159265358979})   # Correct
+        field(SIOL, "{const: 3.142857}")        # Wrong
+
+        info(autosave, {            # White-space and comments are allowed
+            fields:[DESC, SIMM],
+            pass0:[VAL]
+        })                          # Correct
+    }
+```
+
+Note that the record, field and info-tag names do *not* accept JSON values, so
+they follows the older bareword rules for quoting where the colon `:` and
+several additional characters are legal in a bareword string. Only the value
+(after the comma) is parsed as JSON. The autosave module has not been modified
+to accept JSON syntax, the above is only an example of how JSON might be used.
+
+### Echoless comments in iocsh
+
+The way comments are parsed by the iocsh interpreter has changed. The
+interpreter can be selectively disabled from echoing comments coming from a
+script by starting those lines with `#-` rather than just `#`.
+
+### Typed record support methods
+
+The table of record support functions (rset methods for short) no longer has
+entries of type `RECSUPFUN` (which says: any number and type of arguments).
+Instead, rset methods are now typed by default. The `RECSUPFUN` typedef has
+been deprecated and casts to it as well as using the untyped `struct rset`
+will create compilation warnings.
+
+Existing code (e.g. external record supports) will generate such warnings when
+compiled against this version of Base, but it will work without changes.
+
+For a conversion period, the new typed rset definitions are activated by
+defining `USE_TYPED_RSET`, preferably by setting `USR_CPPFLAGS +=
+-DUSE_TYPED_RSET` inside a Makefile. After activating the new typed rset in
+this way and making the following changes, the result should still compile and
+work properly against older versions of Base.
+
+The first parameter of `init_record` and `process` has been changed to `struct
+dbCommon *`. Record types that use `void*` here should be changed to use
+`struct dbCommon*`, and cast the argument to their own `xxxRecord *`.
+
+When compiled against this release, compiler warnings about incompatible types
+for the method pointers should be taken seriously. When compiled against older
+versions of base, such warnings are unavoidable.
+
+Record types written in C++ need to take more drastic measures because of the
+stricter type checking in C++. To remain compatible with older versions of
+base you will need to use something like:
+
+```
+    #include "epicsVersion.h"
+    #ifdef VERSION_INT
+    #  if EPICS_VERSION_INT < VERSION_INT(3,16,0,2)
+    #    define RECSUPFUN_CAST (RECSUPFUN)
+    #  else
+    #    define RECSUPFUN_CAST
+    #  endif
+    #else
+    #  define RECSUPFUN_CAST (RECSUPFUN)
+    #endif
+```
+
+and then replace `(RECSUPFUN)` with `RECSUPFUN_CAST` when initializing the
+rset. Further changes might also be needed, e.g. to adapt `const`-ness of
+method parameters.
+
+-----
+
+## Changes made between 3.15.3 and 3.16.0.1
+
+### Build support for CapFast and dbst removed
+
+The build rules associated with the CapFast-related tools `sch2edif` and
+`e2db` and the database optimization tool `dbst` have been removed, along with
+the `DB_OPT` build configuration variable.
+
+### compressRecord buffering order
+
+The compressRecord has a new field `BALG` which can select between FIFO
+(append) and LIFO (prepend) ordering for insertion of new elements. FIFO
+ordering is the default, matching the behaviour of previous versions.
+
+### Valgrind Instrumentation
+
+Valgrind is a software debugging suite provided by many Linux distributions.
+The header valgrind/valgrind.h is now included in, and installed by, Base.
+When included by a C or C++ source file this header defines some macros which
+expand to provide hints to the Valgrind runtime. These have no effect on
+normal operation of the software, but when run using the valgrind tool they
+can help to find memory leaks and buffer overflows. Suitable hints have been
+added to several free-lists within libCom, including freeListLib, allowing
+valgrind to provide more accurate information about the source of potential
+leaks.
+
+valgrind.h automatically disables itself when the build target is not
+supported by the valgrind tool. It can also explicitly be disabled by defining
+the macro `NVALGRIND`. See `src/libCom/Makefile` for a commented-out example.
+
+As a matter of policy valgrind.h will never be included by any header file
+installed by Base, so its use will remain purely an implementation detail
+hidden from application software. Support modules which choose to use
+valgrind.h are advised to do likewise.
+
+### Database Multi-locking
+
+The IOC record locking code has been re-written with an expanded API; global
+locks are no longer required by the IOC database implementation.
+
+The new API functions center around `dbScanLockMany()`, which behaves like
+`dbScanLock()` applied to an arbitrary group of records. `dbLockerAlloc()` is
+used to prepare a list or record pointers, then `dbScanLockMany()` is called.
+When it returns, all of the records listed may be accessed (in any order) until
+`dbScanUnlockMany()` is called.
+
+The Application Developer's Guide has been updated to describe the API and
+implementation is more detail.
+
+Previously a global mutex `lockSetModifyLock` was locked and unlocked during
+`dbScanLock()`, acting as a sequencing point for otherwise unrelated calls. The
+new dbLock.c implementation does not include any global mutex in `dbScanLock()`
+or `dbScanLockMany()`. Locking and unlocking of unrelated lock sets is now
+completely concurrent.
+
+### Generate Version Header
+
+A Perl script and Makefile rules have been added to allow modules to generate
+a C header file with a macro defined with an automatically updated identifier.
+This is a VCS revision ID (Darcs, Git, Mercurial, Subversion, and Bazaar are
+supported) or the date/time of the build if no VCS system is in use.
+
+The makeBaseApp example template has been updated with a new device support
+which makes this identifier visible via a lsi (long string input) record.
+
+### epicsTime API return status
+
+The epicsTime routines that used to return epicsTimeERROR now return a
+specific `S_time_` status value, allowing the caller to discover the reason for
+any failure. The identifier `epicsTimeERROR` is no longer defined, so any
+references to it in source code will no longer compile. The identifier
+epicsTimeOK still exists and has the value 0 as before, so most code that uses
+these APIs can be changed in a way that is backwards-compatible with the
+previous return status.
+
+Time providers that have to return a status value and still need to be built
+with earlier versions of Base can define the necessary status symbols like
+this:
+
+```
+    #include "epicsTime.h"
+
+    #ifndef M_time
+      /* S_time_... status values were not provided before Base 3.16 */
+      #define S_time_unsynchronized epicsTimeERROR
+      #define S_time_...whatever... epicsTimeERROR
+    #endif
+```
+
+### Refactoring of epicsReadline
+
+The epicsReadline code has been reorganized to allow the commandline history
+editor to be disabled at runtime. The `EPICS_COMMANDLINE_LIBRARY` build setting
+still selects the preferred editor, but the new `IOCSH_HISTEDIT_DISABLE`
+environment variable can be set at runtime to disable history editing and make
+the IOC or other program use the basic editor instead. This is useful when
+starting and controlling an IOC from another program through its stdin and
+stdout streams since history editors often insert invisible escape codes into
+the stdout stream, making it hard to parse.
+
+### Callback subsystem API
+
+Added a new macro `callbackGetPriority(prio, callback)` to the callback.h
+header and removed the need for dbScan.c to reach into the internals of its
+`CALLBACK` objects.

documentation/RELEASE-7.0.1.1.md

@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+# Release Notes
+
+This document describes the changes that were included in the release of EPICS
+noted below. Release entries are now provided in a separate document for each
+version in the EPICS 7 series, but all are combined into a single page for
+publishing on the EPICS website. Separate release documents are also included
+from the older Base 3.15 and 3.16 series.
+
+## EPICS Release 7.0.1.1
+
+### Changed SIML failure behavior
+
+A failure when fetching the simulation mode through `SIML` will not put the
+record into INVALID alarm state anymore. Instead, as long as the record's
+current alarm severity (`SEVR`)is `NO_ALARM`, its alarm status (`STAT`) will be
+set to `LINK_ALARM` without increasing the severity. This allows clients to get
+some notification of a failing or bad `SIML` link without otherwise affecting
+record processing.
+
+### `dbVerify()` has been restored to dbStaticLib
+
+This routine was removed in Base-3.16.1 but has been reimplemented in this
+release by special request. Note that the error message strings that it
+returns when verification fails have changed, but are still designed for
+display to the user.
+
+### Simulation mode improvements
+
+Records that support simulation mode have two new fields, `SSCN` (Simulation
+Scan Mode) and `SDLY` (Simulation Delay). `SSCN` is a menu field that provides
+an alternate value for the `SCAN` field to be used while the record is in
+simulation mode. This is especially useful for I/O scanned records, for which
+simulation mode was not working at all. Setting `SDLY` to a positive value
+makes the record process asynchronously in simulation mode, with the second
+stage processing happening after the specified time (in seconds).
+
+### Extend the dbServer API with init/run/pause/stop methods
+
+This change permits IOCs to be built that omit the CA server (RSRV) by
+removing its registrar entry which is now provided in the new `rsrv.dbd` file.
+Other server layers can be built into the IOC (alongside RSRV or in place of
+it) by registering them in a similar manner. The dbServer API is documented
+with Doxygen comments in the header file.
+
+Specific IOC server layers can be disabled at runtime by adding their name to
+the environment variable `EPICS_IOC_IGNORE_SERVERS` (separated by spaces if more
+than one should be ignored).
+
+### Grand source-code reorganization
+
+EPICS 7.0.1 contains the IOC Database, RSRV server and the Channel Access
+client code from EPICS Base 3.16.1 along with all the original record types
+and soft device support, but GDD and the Portable Channel Access Server have
+been unbundled and are now available separately. In their place we have
+brought in the more recently written EPICS V4 C++ libraries (collectively
+referred to as the PVA modules). The directory tree for EPICS is somewhat
+larger as a result, and the original structure of the Base directories has
+been split into 4 separate Git repositories. External modules should build
+against this new structure with little or no changes needed, except that some
+allowance may be needed for the merging of the V4 modules.
+
+There should be rather more description and documentation of these changes
+than is currently available, but as developers we generally much prefer to
+write code than documentation. Send questions to the tech-talk mailing list
+and we'll be happy to try and answer them!

documentation/RELEASE-7.0.10.md

@@ -0,0 +1,431 @@
+# Release Notes
+
+This document describes the changes that were included in the release of EPICS
+noted below. Release entries are now provided in a separate document for each
+version in the EPICS 7 series, but all are combined into a single page for
+publishing on the EPICS website. Separate release documents are also included
+from the older Base 3.15 and 3.16 series.
+
+The external PVA submodules continue to maintain their own release notes files
+as before, but the entries describing changes in those submodules since version
+7.0.5 have been copied into the associated EPICS Release Notes files; they will
+also be manually added to new EPICS Release Notes published in the future.
+
+
+## EPICS Release 7.0.10
+
+### Reduce symbol and macro pollution from epicsAtomic.h on WIN32
+
+`epicsAtomic.h` no longer pulls in as many unneeded declarations and macros from
+`windows.h`. Prior to this change, including `epicsAtomic.h` at the wrong time
+could result in unexpected compiler errors. Due to the nature of `windows.h`,
+some unneeded declarations are still pulled in, however the number is greatly reduced.
+Code that needs these declarations should explicitly include `windows.h` before `epicsAtomic.h`.
+
+### New `afterIocRunning` IOC Shell Command Added
+
+This release incorporates [PR #558](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/pull/558) which added a new IOC shell command `afterIocRunning`. This command allows startup scripts to schedule arbitrary commands to be executed automatically after the IOC initialization phase (`iocInit`).
+
+`afterIocRunning` allows you to write better-structured IOC shell files to include in your startup scripts without tracking where `iocInit` is located (and how IOC is deployed) e.g.:
+- to achieve the best maintainability (e.g. encapsulation of the context into one file),
+- to improve writing boot sequences,
+- to improve IOC startup flexibility and scripting capabilities,
+- it replaces the community [`afterInit`](https://github.com/paulscherrerinstitute/iocsh_utilities/blob/master/afterInit.c) and [`doAfterIocInit`](https://github.com/epics-modules/std/blob/master/stdApp/src/delayCmd.cpp) IOC shell commands,
+- community usage examples:
+  - [`pf4filters.iocsh`](https://github.com/epics-modules/optics/blob/master/opticsApp/iocsh/pf4filters.iocsh) - enable/disable with a single comment ([full description](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/pull/558#issuecomment-2430057167))
+  - [ALS-U autosave management](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/pull/558#issuecomment-2430447220)
+
+#### Features
+
+- Define commands that run after IOC initialization completes.
+- Executes following `iocInit` and `autosave` initialization (important for proper PV configuration).
+- Supports any valid IOC shell command as an argument.
+- Example usages:
+  - `afterIocRunning "dbpf <PV> <VAL>"`
+  - `afterIocRunning "date"`
+  - `afterIocRunning "dbpf $(P)EvtClkSource-Sel 'Upstream (fanout)'"`
+  - `afterIocRunning "dbpf $(P)Enable-Sel Enabled"`
+
+### fdManager file descriptor limit removed
+
+In order to support file descriptors above 1023, fdManager now uses
+`poll()` instead of `select()` on all architectures that support it
+(Linux, MacOS, Windows, newer RTEMS).
+
+### New `dbServerStats()` API for iocStats
+
+A new routine provides the ability to request channel and client counts from
+named server layers that implement the `stats()` method, or to get a summary
+of the counts from all registered server layers. A preprocessor macro
+`HAS_DBSERVER_STATS` macro is defined in the `dbServer.h` header file to
+simplify code that needs to support older versions of Base as well.
+
+### epicsExport simplifications
+
+`epicsExportAddress()`, `epicsExportRegistrar()` and `epicsRegisterFunction()`
+no longer require to be wrapped in `extern "C" { }` in C++ code.
+
+### Support for multiline strings in iocsh files
+
+GitHub [PR #603](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/pull/603)
+
+This update introduces support for multiline strings in IOC shell (iocsh) files.
+Previously, string values in iocsh files were limited to a single line, making
+it difficult to include longer or formatted text. With this change, users can
+now define strings that span multiple lines, improving readability and
+flexibility when configuring IOC shell scripts.
+
+To create a multiline string, end a line with a backslash (`\`). The following
+line, including any leading whitespace, will be joined to the previous line.
+If the backslash is immediately followed by any character other than a newline,
+it will not be treated as a multiline continuation.
+
+### Enhancement to IOC `dbgrep` command
+
+`dbgrep` now takes an optional second string argument consisting of a list of field names
+separated by spaces, e.g. `dbgrep "*PRESSURE*", "VAL DESC"`
+
+### ACF Syntax Forward Compatibility
+
+This release modifies the Access Security Configuration File (ACF) parser to
+**standardize the ACF grammar for forward compatibility**.
+It does not change the syntax that was accepted by earlier versions of the parser,
+so **existing access security configuration files will not need to be modified.**
+All ACF definitions will adhere to a consistent syntax format,
+which will allow future additions to the access security language
+without breaking existing configurations.
+In practice, this means the structure of ACF files is now formally defined
+and will remain stable going forward,
+so any new grammar features will fit into the same pattern.
+(Existing ACF files continue to work as-is under the new parser,
+so no changes are required for legacy configurations or tools.).
+
+**Generic ACF Syntax:**
+The ACF file consists of definitions for User Access Groups (UAG),
+Host Access Groups (HAG),
+and Access Security Groups (ASG),
+using the following general format
+(angle brackets below denote placeholders):
+
+```text
+
+UAG(<name>) [{ <user> [, <user> ...] }]
+...
+
+HAG(<name>) [{ <host> [, <host> ...] }]
+...
+
+ASG(<name>) [{
+    [INP<index>(<pvname>)
+     ...]
+
+    RULE(<level>, NONE | READ | WRITE [, NOTRAPWRITE | TRAPWRITE]) {
+        [UAG(<name> [, <name> ...])]
+        [HAG(<name> [, <name> ...])]
+        [CALC(<calculation>)]
+    }
+    ...
+}]
+...
+
+```
+
+Under this schema each definition comprises a keyword,
+a name in parentheses,
+and (optionally) a braced block of contents.
+This uniform structure ensures that
+**future keywords or sections**
+can be introduced in the same form,
+maintaining compatibility with the parser.
+For example, if a new type of condition or group is added in a later release,
+it would follow the `KEYWORD(name) { ... }` pattern,
+so 7.0.10-era parsers can handle or ignore it gracefully
+instead of failing on unknown syntax.
+
+**Supported Syntax in EPICS 7.0.10:**
+The current release defines the following specific elements
+within the above generic format:
+
+-   **UAG** -- *User Access Group*.
+Defines a group of user names.
+-   **HAG** -- *Host Access Group*.
+Defines a group of host names
+(or IP addresses) that clients can connect from.
+-   **ASG** -- *Access Security Group*.
+Defines a security group which records can be assigned to.
+An ASG entry may contain a block with input definitions and access rules.
+For example:
+
+```text
+ASG(MyGroup) {
+    INPA(myPV1)
+    INPB(myPV2)
+    RULE(1, WRITE) { ... }
+    RULE(1, READ) { ... }
+}
+```
+
+If no rules are defined for an ASG,
+the access permissions default to always allowed.
+
+-   **INP<index>(<pvname>)** -- *Input link*.
+Declares an input process variable whose value can be used in a CALC condition.
+-   **RULE(<level>, <permission> [, <logOption>]) { ... }** --
+Defines an access rule for the ASG.
+
+Inside the curly braces of a RULE,
+**optional conditions** can restrict when that rule applies.
+All conditions that are present must be satisfied
+(they function as a logical AND):
+
+-   **UAG(<name>, ...)** -- User-group condition.
+The rule only applies if the Channel Access client's user
+is a member of one of the listed UAGs.
+-   **HAG(<name>, ...)** -- Host-group condition.
+The rule only applies if the client's host
+(as determined by its IP or hostname) is in one of the listed HAGs
+-   **CALC("<expression>")** -- Calculation condition.
+The rule only applies if the given expression evaluates to true (non-zero).
+
+**Special Semantics for RULEs:**
+Rules will continue to allow the prescribed access if and only if
+all the predicates the rule contains are satisfied.
+- If the rule contains predicates that are unknown to the parser
+(indicating future functionality),
+then the rule will NOT not match,
+but no syntax error will be reported as long as the syntax is correct.
+- If the rule contains predicates that the parser does not recognise
+which are malformed (e.g. missing parentheses),
+then the rule will not match and the parser will report a syntax error.
+- In this way rules can be extended with new predicates
+without breaking older clients or giving those older clients elevated privileges.
+
+**Special Semantics for unrecognised ACF file elements:**
+Any elements that are included in an ACF file will be ignored silently
+by a parser that does not understand them.
+- If an element is seen in an ACF file that is not understood by the parser,
+the parser will simply ignore it silently,
+without reporting an error,
+as long as its syntax is correct.
+- If elements are added to the ACF file that are malformed
+(e.g. missing parentheses),
+the parser will report a syntax error.
+- Thus new elements can be added to ACF files in new EPICS releases
+without breaking older clients that loads those files.
+
+In summary, **ACF forward compatibility**
+means that from EPICS 7.0.10 onward,
+any new access security features will use this established syntax.
+The parser will recognize new group types or rule options using the same
+`<KEYWORD>(...) { ... }` convention,
+ensuring they can be used in files loaded by IOCs running EPICS 7.0.10 or later
+without breaking those IOCs or requiring their parser to be modified.
+This change **does not require any modifications to existing ACF files
+or downstream tools** -- all legacy syntax remains valid,
+and the new standardized grammar provides a robust foundation for future extensions.
+
+A full EBNF grammar for the new syntax can be found in the
+[IOC Access Security](ACF-Language.md) document added to this release.
+
+### Add `dbglob` to replace `dbgrep`
+
+A new IOC shell command, `dbglob` has been added, with `dbgrep` becoming
+an alias of this new function, with the intent of deprecating it in a
+future release.
+
+### Conflict-free release note entries for GitHub pull requests
+
+GitHub [PR #628](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/pull/628)
+
+This release replaces the developer-edited `documentation/RELEASE_NOTES.md`
+source file in the EPICS tree with a process which generates that file from a
+series of individual files added for each changeset in the release, thus
+preventing merge conflicts when entries are added by many different pull
+requests.
+
+For this new approach each pull request must add its own Markdown file to the
+`documentation/new-notes` directory, using a unique filename.
+When a release is made, all these files will be combined into a single
+`RELEASE-<version>.md` file and the `new-notes` directory emptied to prepare
+for development of the next release.
+
+Developers can generate the `RELEASE_NOTES.md` file by running `make` in the
+`documentation` directory, which will install the result in the `doc` top-level
+directory along with the `RELEASE-<version>.md` files describing older EPICS
+releases going back to 3.15.
+The `documentation/Makefile` provides some other targets which can also be
+requested, but they require additional non-EPICS software such as Doxygen and
+Sphinx to have been installed first.
+
+Between releases the generated `RELEASE_NOTES.md` file contains the text from
+any `new-notes` files added to document changes already merged.
+It also provides links to the older `RELEASE-<version>.md` files, so it remains
+the starting point for documentation on all release changes.
+
+Detailed instructions on creating new entries are provided in a `README.txt`
+file in the `documentation/new-notes` directory.
+The release-time process that generates a new `RELEASE-<version>.md` file is
+described in the developers' [Release Checklist](ReleaseChecklist.md).
+
+### Add support for `EPICS_DB_INCLUDE_PATH` to `dbLoadTemplate`
+
+GitHub [PR #636](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/pull/636)
+
+Allow finding the substitution file through a path in `EPICS_DB_INCLUDE_PATH` or
+an additional parameter to the iocsh `dbLoadTemplate` command.
+
+### Expand the use of colour in the IOCs output
+
+This release includes various changes to iocsh.cpp and elsewhere to add and
+expand the use of color:
+
+- When loading a startup script, the IOC Shell now displays comment lines in
+blue, and uses bold to make command lines stand out from other text.
+
+- The `softIoc -v` output also uses the above color scheme for the commands it
+prints.
+
+- The default IOC Shell prompt is now displayed in green; this color can be
+modified in the `configure/CONFIG_SITE_ENV` file for all targets, or set for
+a specific target by adding a `configure/os/CONFIG_SITE_ENV.<arch>` file.
+The value of the `IOCSH_PS1` environment parameter in those files can use the
+`ANSI_ENV_*` and `ANSI_*()` color macros found in errlog.h to configure the
+appearance of the prompt. The C string literal concatenation syntax can be
+used to construct the prompt string:
+
+```Makefile
+    IOCSH_PS1 = ANSI_ESC_RED "e" ANSI_ESC_YELLOW "p" ANSI_ESC_GREEN "i" \
+        ANSI_ESC_CYAN "c" ANSI_BLUE("s") "> "
+```
+
+- More error messages printed by IOC Shell commands now appear in red, or use
+the red `ERROR` prefix that was introduced in previous releases.
+
+- The word "Illegal" has been replaced with "Invalid" in several Shell error
+messages.
+
+- The iocsh `var` command now shows the data type of the registered variables
+as well as their values.
+
+### Documentation Updates
+
+The reference documentation for the [event](eventRecord.md) record type
+has been updated to cover the use of named events which were added in Base
+3.14.12.3 and 3.15.1.
+
+Documentation for CALC expression evaluation has been updated for format
+enhancements and to add some missing operators.
+The best documentation for these expressions can be found in the
+[postfix.h](postfix_h.md) header in libCom, but both the
+[calc](calcRecord.md) and [calcout](calcoutRecord.md) record reference
+pages also cover the infix expressions supported.
+
+### Records calc, calcout and sub extended
+
+The record types calc, calcout and sub have been extended from 12 inputs
+A - L to 21 inputs A - U.
+The macro `CALCPERFORM_NARGS` reflects this change.
+The new inputs can be used in calc links and access security as well.
+The size of CALC and OCAL fields has been doubled to 160 chars.
+
+### Allow hex and octal strings in dbPut and dbGet
+
+It is now possible to convert hex and octal strings to integer fields
+with `dbPut()`, `dbGet()` and related functions like the iocsh command
+`dbpf` or through database links.
+
+Possible incompatibility: Up to now, leading `0`s have been ignored,
+now they switch to octal mode.
+
+For backward compatibility, this behavior can be switched off, returning
+to the old decimal only conversions, by setting the environment variable
+`EPICS_DB_CONVERT_DECIMAL_ONLY` to `YES` (case insensitive) before `iocInit`.
+
+### `dfanout` improvements
+
+The [dfanout](dfanoutRecord.md) record now has invalid output handling with the usual fields
+`IVOA` and `IVOV` just like many other output record types.
+
+The number of output links has also been increased from 8 to 16.
+
+### CA Client Library Enhancement
+
+GitHub [PR #711](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/pull/711)
+
+* Allow CA clients to determine a server's protocol version.
+
+  Adds a call to the CA client API that allows a client to determine the
+  server's protocol minor version number.
+  This is needed to allow the ca-nameserver to report a server's protocol
+  version correctly to a client.
+
+* `ca_host_minor_protocol()` return for disconnected channels
+
+  `ca_host_minor_protocol()` now explicitly returns `CA_UKN_MINOR_VERSION`
+  for a disconnected channel.
+
+### Add environment variable to opt out of POSIX Real-Time scheduling
+
+On POSIX systems, processes with real-time capabilities can opt out of using
+Posix thread priority scheduling and memory locking.
+Set `EPICS_ALLOW_POSIX_THREAD_PRIORITY_SCHEDULING=NO` to achieve this.
+
+### Avoid early expiration of timers on non-RTOS IOCs
+
+Previously the epicsTimer code rounded down user requested delays
+by subtracting one half of the sleep "quantum".
+On RTEMS and vxWorks,
+this allowed periodic timers which expired on every tick.
+However this also resulted in timers expiring slightly
+[earlier than requested](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/issues/106).
+
+With [PR 744](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/pull/744)
+rounding is only done for RTEMS and vxWorks, which still have tick timers.
+
+This affects several facilities which use epicsTimer,
+including record delays.
+For example, `calcout.ODLY` becomes more
+[accurate](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/issues/106#issuecomment-1260232765)
+on non-RTOS IOCs.
+
+### normativeTypes Module
+
+Changes to this module since the previous release:
+
+#### Release 6.0.2
+
+- Fix potential NULL pointer dereference in `NTNDArray::getValueSize()`
+
+### pvAccess Module
+
+Changes to this module since the previous release:
+
+#### Release 7.1.8
+
+- Compatible changes
+  - Capped the number and age of PVA beacons to avoid a resource leak. Beacons
+    older than 360 seconds will be destroyed automatically, new beacons will be
+    ignored if >=2048 exist already.
+  - Various Clang, MSVC and GCC compiler warnings cleaned up.
+
+### pvData Module
+
+Changes to this module since the previous release:
+
+#### Release 8.0.7
+
+- Compatible changes
+  - Allow epics::pvData::Timer to be cancelled during callback execution.
+  - Clang compiler warnings cleaned up.
+  - Limit periodic timers to one catch-up after missing many events.
+ 
+
+### pvaClient Module
+
+Changes to this module since the previous release:
+
+## Release 4.8.1
+
+* Fix error message generation code.
+
+

documentation/RELEASE-7.0.2.1.md

@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+# Release Notes
+
+This document describes the changes that were included in the release of EPICS
+noted below. Release entries are now provided in a separate document for each
+version in the EPICS 7 series, but all are combined into a single page for
+publishing on the EPICS website. Separate release documents are also included
+from the older Base 3.15 and 3.16 series.
+
+## EPICS Release 7.0.2.1
+
+### Linking shared libraries on macOS
+
+The linker flag `-flat_namespace` has been restored for creating shared
+libraries, although not for loadable libraries (bundles). This was required
+for building using the latest versions of Apple XCode.
+
+### Fix `DB_LINK` loop breaking
+
+A regression was introduced in 7.0.2 which caused record chains with loops to
+be incorrectly broken. Processing should be skipped when a `DB_LINK` with
+Process Passive (PP) closes a loop to a synchronous record.
+
+Instead in 7.0.2 the targeted record would be processed if processing began
+with a remote action (or some other caller of `dbPutField()`). This would
+result in the loop running a second time. The loop would be broken on the
+second iteration.
+
+[See lp: #1809570](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1809570)
+
+### Old dbStaticLib APIs removed
+
+Support for some obsolete dbStaticLib Database Configuration Tool (DCT) APIs
+was removed some time ago, but vestiges of them still remained. The following
+routines and macros and have now finally been removed:
+
+  * `int dbGetFieldType(DBENTRY *pdbentry)`
+  * `int dbGetLinkType(DBENTRY *pdbentry)`
+  * `DCT_STRING`
+  * `DCT_INTEGER`
+  * `DCT_REAL`
+  * `DCT_MENU`
+  * `DCT_MENUFORM`
+  * `DCT_INLINK`
+  * `DCT_OUTLINK`
+  * `DCT_FWDLINK`
+  * `DCT_NOACCESS`
+  * `DCT_LINK_CONSTANT`
+  * `DCT_LINK_FORM`
+  * `DCT_LINK_PV`
+
+### Fix for `dbhcr` before `iocInit`
+
+The `dbhcr` command used to work before `iocInit` as well as afterwards. It
+displays all records that have hardware addresses (`VME_IO`, `CAMAC_IO`,
+`GPIB_IO`, `INST_IO` etc.) but stopped working if run before iocInit due to the
+rewrite of the link address parser code in dbStaticLib. This release fixes that
+issue, although in some cases the output may be slightly different than it used
+to be.

documentation/RELEASE-7.0.2.2.md

@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+# Release Notes
+
+This document describes the changes that were included in the release of EPICS
+noted below. Release entries are now provided in a separate document for each
+version in the EPICS 7 series, but all are combined into a single page for
+publishing on the EPICS website. Separate release documents are also included
+from the older Base 3.15 and 3.16 series.
+
+## EPICS Release 7.0.2.2
+
+### Build System changes
+
+ * The GNUmake build targets `cvsclean` and `depclean` are now available from
+any directory; previously they were only available from application top
+directories.
+
+ * The approach that EPICS Base uses for building submodules inside the parent
+module looks useful for support modules too. The rules for building submodules
+have been modified and extracted into a new `RULES_MODULES` file, so a support
+module will be able to use them too without having to copy them into its own
+`modules/Makefile`. There are some specific requirements that support modules
+and their submodules must follow, which are described as comments in the new
+`base/configure/RULES_MODULES` file itself.
+
+### `EPICS_BASE_VERSION` Update Policy change
+
+In the past, a build of EPICS using sources checked out from the repository
+branch between official releases would have shown the version number of the
+previous release, followed by a -DEV suffix, for example 7.0.2.1-DEV.
+
+The policy that controls when the number gets updated has been changed, and
+now immediately after a release has been tagged the version number will be
+updated to the next patch release version, plus the -DEV suffix as before.
+Thus following 7.0.2.2 the version number will show as 7.0.2.3-DEV. This does
+not require the next official release to be numbered 7.0.2.3 though, it could
+become 7.0.3 or even 7.1.0 if the changes incorporated into it are more
+substantial than bug fixes.
+
+### Drop `CLOCK_MONOTONIC_RAW` from posix/osdMonotonic.c
+
+Turns out this is ~10x slower to query than `CLOCK_MONOTONIC`.

documentation/RELEASE-7.0.2.md

@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+# Release Notes
+
+This document describes the changes that were included in the release of EPICS
+noted below. Release entries are now provided in a separate document for each
+version in the EPICS 7 series, but all are combined into a single page for
+publishing on the EPICS website. Separate release documents are also included
+from the older Base 3.15 and 3.16 series.
+
+## EPICS Release 7.0.2
+
+### Launchpad Bugs
+
+The list of tracked bugs fixed in this release can be found on the
+[Launchpad Milestone page for EPICS Base 7.0.2](https://launchpad.net/epics-base/+milestone/7.0.2).
+
+### Git Branches Recombined
+
+The four separate Git branches `core/master`, `libcom/master`, `ca/master` and
+`database/master` have been recombined into one branch called `7.0`. Keeping
+these as 4 separate branches in the same repository made it impossible to
+create merge requests that contained changes in more than one of these
+modules. The layout of the source files has not changed at all however, so the
+source code for libcom, ca and the database are still found separately under
+the module subdirectory.

documentation/RELEASE-7.0.3.1.md

@@ -0,0 +1,200 @@
+# Release Notes
+
+This document describes the changes that were included in the release of EPICS
+noted below. Release entries are now provided in a separate document for each
+version in the EPICS 7 series, but all are combined into a single page for
+publishing on the EPICS website. Separate release documents are also included
+from the older Base 3.15 and 3.16 series.
+
+## EPICS Release 7.0.3.1
+
+**IMPORTANT NOTE:** *Some record types in this release will not be compatible
+with device support binaries compiled against earlier versions of those record
+types, because importing the record documentation from the EPICS Wiki
+[as described below](#imported-record-reference-documentation-from-wiki)
+also modified the order of some of the fields in the record definitions.*
+As long as all support modules and IOCs are rebuilt from source after updating
+them to use this release of EPICS Base, these changes should not have any
+affect.
+
+
+### logClient reliability
+
+On supported targets (Linux, Mac, Windows) logClient will attempt to avoid dropping
+undelivered log messages when the connection to the log server is closed/reset.
+
+### Timers and delays use monotonic clock
+
+Many internal timers and delay calculations use a monotonic clock
+epicsTimeGetMonotonic() instead of the realtime epicsTimeGetCurrent(). This is
+intended to make IOCs less susceptible to jumps in system time.
+
+### Iocsh `on error ...`
+
+A new statement is added to enable IOC shell commands to signal error
+conditions, and for scripts to respond. This first is through the new function
+
+```C
+    int iocshSetError(int err);
+```
+
+A script may be prefixed with eg. "on error break" to stop at the failed
+command.
+
+```sh
+    on error continue | break | wait [value] | halt
+```
+
+A suggested form for IOC shell commands is:
+
+```C
+    static void doSomethingCallFunc(const iocshArgBuf *args)
+    {
+        iocshSetError(doSomething(...)); /* return 0 == success */
+    }
+```
+
+### Relocatable Builds
+
+Allows built trees to be copied or moved without invalidating RPATH entries.
+
+The `LINKER_USE_RPATH` Makefile variable (see `configure/CONFIG_SITE`) may be
+set to `YES`, `NO`, and a new third option `ORIGIN`.  This is limited to
+targets using the ELF executable format (eg. Linux).
+
+When `LINKER_USE_RPATH=ORIGIN`, the variable `LINKER_ORIGIN_ROOT` is set to
+one of the parents of the build directory.  Any libraries being linked
+to which are found under this root will have a relative RPATH entry.
+Other libraries continue to result in absolute RPATH entries.
+
+An effect of this might change a support library from being linked with
+`-Wl,-rpath /build/epics-base/lib/linux-x86`
+to being linked with
+`-Wl,-rpath \$ORIGIN/../../../epics-base/lib/linux-x86`
+if the support module directory is `/build/mymodule`
+and `LINKER_ORIGIN_ROOT=/build`.
+
+The API functions `epicsGetExecDir()` and `epicsGetExecName()` are also
+added to `osiFileName.h` to provide runtime access to the directory or
+filename of the executable with which the process was started.
+
+### Decouple `LINKER_USE_RPATH` and `STATIC_BUILD`
+
+Previously, setting `STATIC_BUILD=NO` implied `LINKER_USE_RPATH=NO`.
+This is no longer the case.  Setting `LINKER_USE_RPATH=YES` will
+always emit RPATH entries.  This was found to be helpful when linking
+against some 3rd party libraries which are only available as shared objects.
+
+### Channel Access Security: Check Hostname Against DNS
+
+Host names given in a `HAG` entry of an IOC's Access Security Configuration
+File (ACF) have to date been compared against the hostname provided by the CA
+client at connection time, which may or may not be the actual name of that
+client. This allows rogue clients to pretend to be a different host, and the
+IOC would believe them.
+
+An option is now available to cause an IOC to ask its operating system to look
+up the IP address of any hostnames listed in its ACF (which will normally be
+done using the DNS or the `/etc/hosts` file). The IOC will then compare the
+resulting IP address against the client's actual IP address when checking
+access permissions at connection time. This name resolution is performed at
+ACF file load time, which has a few consequences:
+
+  1. If the DNS is slow when the names are resolved this will delay the process
+of loading the ACF file.
+
+  2. If a host name cannot be resolved the IOC will proceed, but this host name
+will never be matched.
+
+  3. Any changes in the hostname to IP address mapping will not be picked up by
+the IOC unless and until the ACF file gets reloaded.
+
+Optionally, IP addresses may be added instead of, or in addition to, host
+names in the ACF file.
+
+This feature can be enabled before `iocInit` with
+
+```
+    var("asCheckClientIP",1)
+```
+
+or with the VxWorks target shell use
+
+```C
+    asCheckClientIP = 1
+```
+
+### New and modified epicsThread APIs
+
+#### `epicsThreadCreateOpt()`
+
+A new routine `epicsThreadCreateOpt()` is an alternative to
+`epicsThreadCreate()` which takes some arguments via a structure (`struct
+epicsThreadOpts`) to allow for future extensions.
+
+```C
+    typedef struct epicsThreadOpts {
+        unsigned int priority;
+        unsigned int stackSize;
+        unsigned int joinable;
+    } epicsThreadOpts;
+    #define EPICS_THREAD_OPTS_INIT { \
+        epicsThreadPriorityLow, epicsThreadStackMedium, 0}
+     epicsThreadId epicsThreadCreateOpt(const char * name,
+        EPICSTHREADFUNC funptr, void * parm, const epicsThreadOpts *opts);
+```
+
+The final `opts` parameter may be `NULL` to use the default values of thread
+priority (low) and stack size (medium). Callers wishing to provide alternative
+settings for these thread options or to create a joinable thread (see below)
+should create and pass in an `epicsThreadOpts` structure as shown below.
+Always initialize one of these structures using the `EPICS_THREAD_OPTS_INIT`
+macro to ensure that any additional fields that get added in the future are
+set to their default values.
+
+```C
+    void startitup(void) {
+        epicsThreadOpts opts = EPICS_THREAD_OPTS_INIT;
+        epicsThreadId tid;
+
+        opts.priority = epicsThreadPriorityMedium;
+        tid = epicsThreadCreateOpt("my thread", &threadMain, NULL, &opts);
+    }
+```
+
+C or C++ Code that also needs to build on earlier versions of Base can use
+`#ifdef EPICS_THREAD_OPTS_INIT` to determine whether the
+`epicsThreadCreateOpt()` API is available on this Base version.
+
+#### Thread stack sizes
+
+The `stackSize` member of the `epicsThreadOpts` structure and the equivalent
+parameters to the `epicsThreadCreate()` and `epicsThreadMustCreate()` routines
+can now be passed either one of the `epicsThreadStackSizeClass` enum values or
+a value returned from the `epicsThreadGetStackSize()` routine.
+
+#### `epicsThreadMustJoin()`
+
+If the new `joinable` flag of an `epicsThreadOpts` structure is non-zero (the
+default value is zero), the new API routine `epicsThreadMustJoin()` *must* be
+called with the thread's `epicsThreadId` when/after the thread exits, to free
+up thread resources. This function will block until the thread's main function
+has returned, allowing the parent to wait for its child thread. The child's
+`epicsThreadId` will no longer be valid and should not be used after the
+`epicsThreadMustJoin()` routine returns.
+
+A thread that was originally created with its joinable flag set may itself
+call `epicsThreadMustJoin()`, passing in its own epicsThreadId. This marks the
+thread as no longer being joinable, so it will then free the thread resources
+itself when its main function returns. The `epicsThreadId` of a thread that is
+not joinable gets invalidated as soon as its main function returns.
+
+### Non-VME RTEMS targets now define pdevLibVME
+
+Previously IOC executables that made calls to devLib routines would fail to
+link when built for some non-VME based RTEMS targets, which would have to be
+explicitly filtered out by sites that build Base for those targets. [This
+fix](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1841692) makes that no longer
+necessary, all RTEMS targets should now link although the IOC won't be able to
+be used with the VME I/O on those systems (that we don't have VMEbus I/O
+support for in libCom).

documentation/RELEASE-7.0.3.md

@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+# Release Notes
+
+This document describes the changes that were included in the release of EPICS
+noted below. Release entries are now provided in a separate document for each
+version in the EPICS 7 series, but all are combined into a single page for
+publishing on the EPICS website. Separate release documents are also included
+from the older Base 3.15 and 3.16 series.
+
+## EPICS Release 7.0.3
+
+### `epicsTimeGetCurrent()` optimization
+
+Add a fast path to epicsTimeGetCurrent() and related calls in the common case
+where only the default OS current time provider is registered. This path does
+not take the global mutex guarding the time providers list, potentially
+reducing lock contention.
+
+### dbEvent tweak Queue size
+
+The size of the queue used by dbEvent to push monitor updates has been
+slightly increased based on `DBR_TIME_DOUBLE` to better fill an ethernet frame.
+This may result in slightly fewer, but larger frames being sent.
+
+### mbbo/mbbiDirect number of bits as precision
+
+Report NOBT as "precision" through the dbAccess API. This is not accessible
+through CA, but is planned to be used through QSRV.

documentation/RELEASE-7.0.4.1.md

@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+# Release Notes
+
+This document describes the changes that were included in the release of EPICS
+noted below. Release entries are now provided in a separate document for each
+version in the EPICS 7 series, but all are combined into a single page for
+publishing on the EPICS website. Separate release documents are also included
+from the older Base 3.15 and 3.16 series.
+
+## EPICS Release 7.0.4.1
+
+### ARM Architecture Changes
+
+Build configuration files for a new cross-build architecture `linux-aarch64`
+have been added, and the targets `linux-arm_el` and `linux-arm_eb` removed.
+The 64-bit ARM architecture target doesn't have build files for self-hosting
+yet but they should be relatively easy to add, contributions welcome!
+
+### Bug fixes
+
+The following bugs/issues have fixes included in this release:
+
+- [lp: 1884339](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1884339),
+  Inaccessible CA servers on Windows
+- [github: 83](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/issues/83)
+  osdTimeGetCurrent doesn't work for subprocess on macOS
+- Recent Cygwin build problem with a missing `TCP_NODELAY` declaration.
+
+### Perl CA Bindings under Conda
+
+Builds of the Perl CA bindings weren't working properly when the Perl
+installation was from Conda. This release also fixed the capr.pl script
+to handle the INT64 data types, and to be able to properly handle missing
+fields, as happens if the IOC is running an older EPICS version for example.
+
+### epicsMessageQueue implementation on RTEMS
+
+The implementation of the `epicsMessageQueue` used on RTEMS has switched from
+the native RTEMS-specific one to the EPICS generic version, avoiding a bug
+in the RTEMS Kernel message queue code.
+
+### Record Name Validation
+
+Historically, there have been very few restrictions on which characters
+may be present in record and alias names.  Base 3.14.12.3 added a warning
+for names containing space, single or double quote, period/dot, or
+dollar sign.
+
+```
+Bad character ' ' in record name "bad practice"
+```
+
+7.0.4.1 Turns this warning into an error, and adds a new warning
+if a record name begins with a minus, plus, left square bracket,
+or left curly bracket.

documentation/RELEASE-7.0.4.md

@@ -0,0 +1,191 @@
+# Release Notes
+
+This document describes the changes that were included in the release of EPICS
+noted below. Release entries are now provided in a separate document for each
+version in the EPICS 7 series, but all are combined into a single page for
+publishing on the EPICS website. Separate release documents are also included
+from the older Base 3.15 and 3.16 series.
+
+## EPICS Release 7.0.4
+
+### Bug fixes
+
+The following launchpad bugs have fixes included in this release:
+
+- [lp: 1812084](https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1812084), Build failure on
+  RTEMS 4.10.2
+- [lp: 1829919](https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1829919), IOC segfaults when
+  calling dbLoadRecords after iocInit
+- [lp: 1838792](https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1838792), epicsCalc bit-wise
+  operators on aarch64
+- [lp: 1853148](https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1853148), mingw compiler
+  problem with printf/scanf formats
+- [lp: 1852653](https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1852653), `USE_TYPED_DSET`
+  incompatible with C++
+- [lp: 1862328](https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1862328), Race condition on
+  IOC start leaves rsrv unresponsive
+- [lp: 1866651](https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1866651), thread joinable race
+- [lp: 1868486](https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1868486), epicsMessageQueue
+  lost messages
+- [lp: 1868680](https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1868680), Access Security file
+  reload (asInit) fails
+
+### `*_API` macros in EPICS headers
+
+Internally, the Com and ca libraries now express dllimport/export (Windows)
+and symbol visibility (GCC) using library-specific macros (eg. `LIBCOM_API`)
+instead of the macros `epicsShareFunc`, `epicsShareClass`, `epicsShareDef` etc.
+that are defined in the `shareLib.h` header.
+This change may affect some user code which uses the `epicsShare*` macros
+without having explicitly included the `shareLib.h` header themselves.
+Such code should be changed to include `shareLib.h` directly.
+
+A new helper script `makeAPIheader.pl` and build rules to generate a
+library-specific `*API.h` header file has been added. Run `makeAPIheader.pl -h`
+for information on how to use this in your own applications, but note that the
+resulting sources will not be able to be compiled using earlier versions of
+EPICS Base.
+
+### IOCsh usage messages
+
+At the iocShell prompt `help <cmd>` now prints a descriptive usage message
+for many internal IOCsh commands in addition to the command parameters.
+Try `help *` to see all commands, or a glob pattern such as `help db*` to see
+a subset.
+
+External code may provide usage messages when registering commands using a
+new `const char *usage` member of the `iocshFuncDef` structure.
+The `iocsh.h` header also now defines a macro `IOCSHFUNCDEF_HAS_USAGE` which
+can be used to detect Base versions that support this feature at compile-time.
+
+### Variable names in RELEASE files
+
+`configure/RELEASE` files are parsed by both GNUmake and the `convertRelease.pl`
+script. While GNUmake is quite relaxed about what characters may be used in a
+RELEASE variable name, the `convertRelease.pl` script parser has only recognized
+variable names that match the Perl regular expression `\w+`, i.e. upper and
+lower-case letters, digits and underscore characters.
+
+The script has been modified so now RELEASE variable names must start with a
+letter or underscore, and be followed by any number of letters, digits,
+underscore or hyphen characters, matching the regular expression
+`[A-Za-z_][A-Za-z_0-9-]*`. The hyphen character `-` was not previously allowed
+and if used would have prevented a build from finding include files and
+libraries in any module using that in its RELEASE variable name.
+
+This change does disallow names that start with a digit which used to be
+allowed, but hopefully nobody has been relying on that ability. The regular
+expression used for names can be found in the file `src/tools/EPICS/Release.pm`
+and can be adjusted locally if necessary.
+
+### caRepeater /dev/null
+
+On \*NIX targets caRepeater will now partially daemonize by redirecting
+stdin/out/err to /dev/null.  This prevents caRepeater from inheriting
+the stdin/out of a process, like caget, which has spawned it in the
+background.  This has been known to cause problems in some cases when
+caget is itself being run from a shell script.
+
+caRepeater will now understand the `-v` argument to retain stdin/out/err
+which may be necessary to see any error messages it may emit.
+
+### `state` record deprecated
+
+IOCs now emit a warning when a database file containing the `state` record is
+loaded. This record has been deprecated for a while and will be removed
+beginning with EPICS 7.1. Consider using the `stringin` record instead.
+
+### Record types publish dset's
+
+The record types in Base now define their device support entry table (DSET)
+structures in the record header file. While still optional, developers of
+external support modules are encouraged to start converting their code to use
+the record's new definitions instead of the traditional approach of copying the
+structure definitions into each source file that needs them. By following the
+instructions below it is still possible for the converted code to build and
+work with older Base releases.
+
+This would also be a good time to modify the device support to use the type-safe
+device support entry tables that were introduced in Base-3.16.2 -- see
+[this entry below](#type-safe-device-and-driver-support-tables) for the
+description of that change, which is also optional for now.
+
+Look at the aiRecord for example. Near the top of the generated `aiRecord.h`
+header file is a new section that declares the `aidset`:
+
+```C
+/* Declare Device Support Entry Table */
+struct aiRecord;
+typedef struct aidset {
+    dset common;
+    long (*read_ai)(struct aiRecord *prec);
+    long (*special_linconv)(struct aiRecord *prec, int after);
+} aidset;
+#define HAS_aidset
+```
+
+Notice that the common members (`number`, `report()`, `init()`, `init_record()`
+and `get_ioint_info()` don't appear directly but are included by embedding the
+`dset common` member instead. This avoids the need to have separate definitions
+of those members in each record dset, but does require those members to be
+wrapped inside another set of braces `{}` when initializing the data structure
+for the individual device supports. It also requires changes to code that
+references those common members, but that code usually only appears inside the
+record type implementation and very rarely in device supports.
+
+An aiRecord device support that will only be built against this or later
+versions of EPICS can now declare its dset like this:
+
+```C
+aidset devAiSoft = {
+    { 6, NULL, NULL, init_record, NULL },
+    read_ai, NULL
+};
+epicsExportAddress(dset, devAiSoft);
+```
+
+However most device support that is not built into EPICS itself will need to
+remain compatible with older EPICS versions, which is why the ai record's header
+file also declares the preprocessor macro `HAS_aidset`. This makes it easy to
+define the `aidset` in the device support code when it's needed, and not when
+it's provided in the header:
+
+```C
+#ifndef HAS_aidset
+typedef struct aidset {
+    dset common;
+    long (*read_ai)(aiRecord *prec);
+    long (*special_linconv)(aiRecord *prec, int after);
+} aidset;
+#endif
+aidset devAiSoft = {
+    { 6, NULL, NULL, init_record, NULL },
+    read_ai, NULL
+};
+epicsExportAddress(dset, devAiSoft);
+```
+
+The above `typedef struct` declaration was copied directly from the new
+aiRecord.h file and wrapped in the `#ifndef HAS_aidset` conditional.
+
+This same pattern should be followed for all record types except for the lsi,
+lso and printf record types, which have published their device support entry
+table structures since they were first added to Base but didn't previously embed
+the `dset common` member. Device support for these record types therefore can't
+use the dset name since the new definitions are different from the originals and
+will cause a compile error, so this pattern should be used instead:
+
+```C
+#ifndef HAS_lsidset
+struct {
+    dset common;
+    long (*read_string)(lsiRecord *prec);
+}
+#else
+lsidset
+#endif
+devLsiEtherIP = {
+    {5, NULL, lsi_init, lsi_init_record, get_ioint_info},
+    lsi_read
+};
+```

documentation/RELEASE-7.0.5.md

@@ -0,0 +1,326 @@
+# Release Notes
+
+This document describes the changes that were included in the release of EPICS
+noted below. Release entries are now provided in a separate document for each
+version in the EPICS 7 series, but all are combined into a single page for
+publishing on the EPICS website. Separate release documents are also included
+from the older Base 3.15 and 3.16 series.
+
+The external PVA submodules continue to maintain their own release notes files
+as before, but the entries describing changes in those submodules since version
+7.0.5 have been copied into the associated EPICS Release Notes files, and will
+be added to new EPICS Release Notes published in the future.
+
+## EPICS Release 7.0.5
+
+### Fix aai's Device Support Initialization
+
+Krisztian Loki [reported](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/issues/97)
+segfaults occurring when a Soft Channel aai record INP field was a DB link to
+an array field of a compress record. This was caused by the aai record's
+pass-0 device support initialization clashing with the semantics of the new
+link support API.
+
+The aai record
+[has been modified](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/pull/114) to
+allow the Soft Channel device support to request a pass-1 initialization
+callback. See the Device Support section of the Array Analogue Input Record
+Reference pages in this release for the API changes, which are fully backwards
+compatible for existing aai device support.
+
+### Prevent default DTYPs from changing
+
+[Kay Kasemir reported](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1908305) that
+it is possible to change the Base record type's default DTYP if a `device()`
+entry is seen before the `recordtype()` definition to which it refers. The
+default DTYP is the first device loaded, which is normally the `Soft Channel`
+support from Base. A warning was being displayed by dbdExpand when a `device()`
+entry was see first, but that was easily missed.
+
+The DBD file parser in dbdExpand.pl has now been modified to make this an error,
+although the registerRecordDeviceDriver.pl script will still accept `device()`
+entries without having their `recordtype()` loaded since this is necessary to
+compile device supports as loadable modules.
+
+
+### Priority inversion safe Posix mutexes
+
+On Posix systems, epicsMutex now support priority inheritance if available.
+The IOC needs to run with `SCHED_FIFO` engaged to use these.
+Support for Posix implementations before POSIX.1-2001 (`_XOPEN_SOURCE < 500`,
+glibc version &lt; 2.3.3) has been dropped.
+
+The IOC shell's `epicsMutexShowAll` command prints "PI is enabled" if both
+libc and kernel support is present.
+
+### Fix for Periodic Scan threads hanging on Windows
+
+Since 7.0.3.1 a Windows IOC could not run for more than 49.7 days; at that
+time the periodic scan threads would stop processing. This issue should now
+have been fixed and the Monotonic time functions on Windows should return
+values which count at nanosecond resolution. However we have not waited 49.7
+days to test the final software, so there is a small chance that it's still
+broken.
+
+This fixes [lauchpad bug #1896295](https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1896295).
+
+### Support for Apple M1/M2 (arm64) Processors
+
+Thanks to Jeong Han Lee this release comes with build support for Apple's new
+M1/M2 CPUs running macOS, using the target name `darwin-aarch64`.
+
+It should also be possible to build universal binaries containing code for
+both the Intel and arm64 processors under either target name: In the
+appropriate `configure/os/CONFIG_SITE.Common.darwin-*` file add the other
+architecture class name to the `ARCH_CLASS` variable (after a space).
+
+### New String Comparison Routine `epicsStrSimilarity()`
+
+The new `epicsStrSimilarity()` routine in epicsString.h uses a modified
+Levenshtein distance to compare two strings, with a character case difference
+being half the weight of a full substitution. The double return value falls in
+the range 0.0 (identical) through 1.0 (no characters matching), or -1.0 for
+error. This is used to provide a new "Did you mean ..." suggestion when a .db
+file provides an invalid choice string for a `DBF_MENU` or `DBF_DEVICE` field.
+
+### Build System: New `VALID_BUILDS` type "Command"
+
+Target architectures that support command-line programs that run the `main()`
+routine can now be marked as such in their `VALID_BUILDS` definition. This
+enables a new set of Makefile target variables `PROD_CMD` (similar to
+`PROD_HOST`), `LIBRARY_CMD` (like `LIBRARY_HOST`, etc.), `LOADABLE_LIBRARY_CMD`,
+`OBJS_CMD`, `SCRIPTS_CMD`, `TARGETS_CMD`, `TESTLIBRARY_CMD`, `TESTSCRIPTS_CMD`
+and `TESTPROD_CMD`. The CA client tools and programs such as `caRepeater` are now built for all such targets (previously they were built for all targets except where the OS was VxWorks, RTEMS and iOS).
+
+If you have created your own site-specific target architectures you may need to
+update the `VALID_BUILDS` variable if it gets set in your locally added
+`configure/os/CONFIG.Common.<arch>` files. This is usually only needed for
+cross-compiled targets though since `CONFIG.Common.UnixCommon` sets it.
+
+The other `VALID_BUILDS` types are "Host" for target architectures that can
+compile and run their own programs (`PROD_HOST` etc.), and "Ioc" for targets
+that can run IOCs (`PROD_IOC` etc.).
+
+### Support for JSON5
+
+The YAJL parser and generator routines in libcom and in the IOC's dbStatic
+parser now support the JSON5 standard. This adds various features to JSON
+without altering the API for the code other than adding a new option to the
+YAJL parser which can be used to disable JSON5 support if desired. The new
+features include:
+
+- The ability to handle numeric values `Infinity`, `-Infinity` and `NaN`.
+- String values and map keys may be enclosed in single quotes `'`, inside which
+  the double-quote character `"` doesn't have to be escaped with a back-slash
+  `\`, although a single-quote character `'` (or apostrophy) must be escaped
+  inside a single-quoted string.
+- Numbers may start with a plus sign, `+`.
+- Integers may be expressed in hexadecimal with a leading `0x` or `0X`.
+- Floating-point numbers may start or end with their decimal point `.`
+  (after the sign or before the exponent respectively if present).
+- Map keys that match the regex `[A-Za-z_][A-Za-z_0-9]*` don't have to be
+  enclosed in quotes at all. The dbStatic parser adds `.+-` to the characters
+  allowed but will add quotes around such keys before passing them to YAJL.
+- Arrays and maps allow a comma before the closing bracket/brace character.
+- The YAJL parser will elide a backslash followed by a newline characters from
+  a string value. The dbStatic parser doesn't allow that however.
+
+Code that must also compile against the older API can use the new C macro
+`HAS_JSON5` to detect the new version. This macro is defined on including
+either the `yajl_parse.h` or `yajl_gen.h` headers, which also provide the
+new configuration options to turn on JSON5 support.
+
+All APIs in the IOC that previously accepted JSON will now accept JSON5.
+This includes JSON field modifiers (channel filters), JSON link addresses,
+constant input link array values and database info-tag values. JSON values
+that get parsed by the dbLoadRecords() routine are still more liberal than
+the other uses as the ability to use unquoted strings that was called
+"relaxed JSON" is still supported, whereas the JSON5 standard and the YAJL
+parser only allow unquoted strings to be used for keys in a JSON map.
+
+This also fixes [lauchpad bug #1714455](https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1714455).
+
+
+### Character Escape Changes
+
+- The libCom routines `epicsStrnRawFromEscaped()` and `dbTranslateEscape()`
+  declared in epicsString.h no longer accept octal escaped characters such as
+  `\123` or `\41`.
+- The routine `epicsStrnEscapedFromRaw()` now generates hex
+  escaped characters for unprintable characters such as `\x1f`.
+- Hex escape character sequences `\xXX` must now contain exactly 2 hex digits.
+- An escape sequence `\0` now generates a zero byte in the raw string, but the
+  other digits `1-9` should not appear after a back-slash.
+
+These changes are to more closely follow the JSON5 standard, which doesn't
+support octal character escapes or the `\a` (Bel, `\x07`) escape sequence.
+
+### Filters in database input links
+
+Input database links can now use channel filters, it is not necessary to
+make them CA links for the filters to work.
+
+### ai Soft Channel support
+
+The Soft Channel device support for ai records now returns failure when
+fetching the INP link fails.
+
+### Support for zero-length arrays
+
+Several modifications have been made to properly support zero-length
+array values inside the IOC and over Channel Access. Some of these changes
+may affect external code that interfaces with the IOC, either directly or
+over the CA client API so we recommend thorough testing of any external
+code that handles array fields when upgrading to this release.
+
+Since these changes affect the Channel Access client-side API they will
+require rebuilding any CA Gateways against this version or Base to
+properly handle zero-length arrays. The `caget`, `caput` and `camonitor`
+client programs are known to work with empty arrays as long as they were
+built with this or a later version of EPICS.
+
+#### Change to the db\_access.h `dbr_size_n(TYPE, COUNT)` macro
+
+When called with COUNT=0 this macro no longer returns the number of bytes
+required for a scalar (1 element) but for an empty array (0 elements).
+Make sure code that uses this doesn't call it with COUNT=0 when it really
+means COUNT=1.
+
+Note that the db\_access.h header file is included by cadef.h so the change
+can impact Channel Access client programs that use this macro.
+
+#### Channel Access support for zero-length arrays
+
+The `ca_array_put()` and `ca_array_put_callback()` routines now accept an
+element count of zero, and will write a zero-length array to the PV if
+possible. No error will be raised if the target is a scalar field though,
+and the field's value will not be changed.
+
+The `ca_array_get_callback()` and `ca_create_subscription()` routines
+still accept a count of zero to mean fetch as many elements as the PV
+currently holds.
+
+Client programs should be prepared for the `count` fields of any
+`struct event_handler_args` or `struct exception_handler_args` passed to
+their callback routines to be zero.
+
+#### Array records
+
+The soft device support for the array records aai, waveform, and subArray
+as well as the aSub record type now correctly report reading 0 elements
+when getting an empty array from an input link.
+
+#### Array support for dbpf
+
+The dbpf command now accepts array values, including empty arrays, when
+provided as a JSON string. This must be enclosed in quotes so the iocsh
+argument parser sees the JSON as a single argument:
+
+```
+epics> dbpf wf10:i32 '[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]'
+DBF_LONG[5]:        1 = 0x1   2 = 0x2   3 = 0x3   4 = 0x4   5 = 0x5
+```
+
+#### Reading empty arrays as scalar values
+
+Record links that get a scalar value from an array that is currently
+empty will cause the record that has the link field to be set to an
+`INVALID/LINK` alarm status.
+The record code must call `dbGetLink()` with `pnRequest=NULL` for it to
+be recognized as a request for a scalar value though.
+
+This changes the semantics of passing `pnRequest=NULL` to `dbGetLink()`,
+which now behaves differently than passing it a pointer to a long integer
+containing the value 1, which was previously equivalent.
+The latter can successfully fetch a zero-element array without triggering
+a LINK alarm.
+
+#### Writing empty arrays to scalar fields
+
+Record links that put a zero-element array into a scalar field will now set
+the target record to `INVALID/LINK` alarm without changing the field's value.
+Previously the field was set to 0 in this case (with no alarm).
+The target field must be marked as `special(SPC_DBADDR)` to be recognized
+as an array field, and its record support must define a `put_array_info()`
+routine.
+
+### Timestamp before processing output links
+
+The record processing code for records with output links has been modified to
+update the timestamp via recGblGetTimeStamp() _before_ processing the output
+links.  This ensures that other records which get processed via an output link
+can use TSEL links to fetch the timestamp corresponding to the data processed
+by the output link.
+
+This change could result in a slightly earlier timestamp for records whose
+output link is handled by a device driver, but only if the device driver does
+not handle its own timestamping via TSE -2 and instead uses TSE 0 or TSE -1 to
+get current time or best time, and the time spent in the device driver is
+greater than your timestamp provider resolution.  For these situations it is
+recommended to set TSE to -2 and set the timestamp in the driver code.
+
+### Add registerAllRecordDeviceDrivers()
+
+A new iocsh command `registerAllRecordDeviceDrivers` is provided and also
+defined as a function in iocshRegisterCommon.h. This uses dynamic symbol
+lookup with `epicsFindSymbol()` to perform the same function as a generated
+`*_registerRecordDeviceDriver()` function. This allows for an alternative
+approach to dynamic loading of support modules without code generation.
+
+This feature is not intended for use by IOCs constructed using the standard
+EPICS application build process and booted from a startup script in an iocBoot
+subdirectory, although it might work in some of those cases &mdash; the
+generated registerRecordDeviceDriver.cpp file is normally required to link
+everything referred to in the DBD file into the IOC's executable. It also
+won't work with some static build configurations, or if the symbol table has
+been stripped from the executable.
+
+### Using a `{const:"string"}` to initialize an array of `DBF_CHAR`
+
+It is now possible to use a JSON Const link with a string value to initialize
+an aai or waveform record that has `FTVL` set to `CHAR` through the INP link.
+The string length is not limited to 40 characters. This should also work for
+aSub record inputs similarly configured as long strings.
+
+```
+  record(waveform, "wf") {
+    field(NELM, 100)
+    field(FTVL, CHAR)
+    field(INP, {const:"This is a waveform and more than 40 characters"})
+  }
+```
+
+### RELEASE files may use `undefine`
+
+GNUmake added the directive `undefine` in version 3.82 to allow variables to
+be undefined. Support for this has been added to the EPICS Release file parser,
+so `undefine` can now be used in configure/RELEASE files to unset variables.
+
+
+### Submodule updates
+
+The pvData module was updated to version 8.0.4:
+
+- Incompatible changes
+ - Remove `ByteBuffer::align()`
+- Compatible changes
+ - Deprecate `SerializableControl::alignBuffer()` and
+   `DeserializableControl::alignData()`
+ - `shared_vector_convert<>()` fix convert of empty, untyped, array
+
+The pvAccess module was updated to version 7.1.3:
+
+- Bug fixes
+  - Increase default TCP timeout to 40 seconds.
+    Applies a 4/3 multiplier on `$EPICS_PVA_CONN_TMO` for compatibility.
+  - CA Provider implementation restructured to simplify, reduce duplication
+    and fix issues #163 and #165.
+- Changes
+  - Enable building of pvtools to all except vxWorks, RTEMS and iOS.
+
+The pva2pva module was updated to version 1.3.0:
+
+- Changes
+ - Add `dbLoadGroup()` iocsh function to read group JSON definitions
+   from a file.  Mappings in files must refer to full record names
+   instead of fields.  eg. 'recname.VAL' instead of 'VAL'.

documentation/RELEASE-7.0.6.1.md

@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+# Release Notes
+
+This document describes the changes that were included in the release of EPICS
+noted below. Release entries are now provided in a separate document for each
+version in the EPICS 7 series, but all are combined into a single page for
+publishing on the EPICS website. Separate release documents are also included
+from the older Base 3.15 and 3.16 series.
+
+The external PVA submodules continue to maintain their own release notes files
+as before, but the entries describing changes in those submodules since version
+7.0.5 have been copied into the associated EPICS Release Notes files, and will
+be added to new EPICS Release Notes published in the future.
+
+## EPICS Release 7.0.6.1
+
+### `mbboDirectRecord` enhancements
+
+The bit fields `B0` - `B1F` of this record are now always updated and have a
+monitor posted when the `VAL` field is set and the record processed. It is now
+possible to initialize the record's value by setting the bit fields inside a
+database file as long as no other method was used to initialize it (suc as
+setting `VAL` directly, using `DOL`, or by an initial readback from device
+support). A new internal field `OBIT` was added to store information about
+monitors posted on the bit fields.
+
+### Minimum Perl Version is now 5.10.1
+
+Some scripts now make use of features that were introduced to this Perl version
+that was released in 2009.
+
+### DB Links to `DBF_MENU` fields fixed
+
+[GH:183](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/issues/183)
+These were broken in a previous release, but now work again.
+
+### Long String access to CALC fields fixed
+
+[GH:194](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/issues/194)
+This was broken in a previous release, but now works again.
+
+### Minor Changes
+
++ Many code comments have been spell-checked and corrected.
++ Passing a `-DDEBUG` compiler flag no longer breaks the build.
++ Parallel builds of RTEMS-mvme2100 and RTEMS-mvme2700 targets now work.
++ Illegal characters seen in JSON strings in a database file should now get a
+better error message.
+
+### Other Launchpad Bugs and GitHub Issues Fixed
+
++ [lp:1938459](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1938459)
+  [GH:191](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/pull/191) int64in only
+  checks lower 32 bits for change
++ [lp:1941875](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1941875) Buggy
+  warning message "Record/Alias name '...' should not contain non-printable ...
++ [GH:187](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/issues/187) waveformRecord
+  missing PACT=true?
++ [GH:189](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/pull/189) Fix a couple
+  memory leaks and a segfault
++ [GH:200](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/pull/200) and
+  [GH:201](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/pull/201) Fix timers on MS
+  Windows for non-EPICS threads
+
+### Compiler interface for epicsAtomic tidied up
+
+[GH:192](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/pull/192)
+Both GCC and CLANG compiler intrisics used for the epicsAtomic APIs have been revised; implementations using CLANG should now run faster as they now use the compiler's built-in atomic functions instead of taking a mutex.
+
+### The epicsTime code has been reimplemented
+
+[GH:185](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/pull/185)
+This was done to simplify the code and may have improved performance slightly for some uses. Support for the old NTP-specific `struct l_fp` has been dropped but all other routines and methods of the `class epicsTime` function as before.
+
+### Updates to Record Reference documentation
+
+Many of the built-in record types have had improvements to their documentation with additional fields added to the tables, rewrites of descriptions and links to other documents added or fixed.
+
+### Submodule updates
+
+The pvAccess module was updated to version 7.1.4:
+
+- Changes to caProvider
+  - Resolve issues with pv structures that don't have a value field
+  - Add NULL checks for handling unusual structures
+  - Speed up channel creation when using large numbers of channels

documentation/RELEASE-7.0.6.md

@@ -0,0 +1,283 @@
+# Release Notes
+
+This document describes the changes that were included in the release of EPICS
+noted below. Release entries are now provided in a separate document for each
+version in the EPICS 7 series, but all are combined into a single page for
+publishing on the EPICS website. Separate release documents are also included
+from the older Base 3.15 and 3.16 series.
+
+The external PVA submodules continue to maintain their own release notes files
+as before, but the entries describing changes in those submodules since version
+7.0.5 have been copied into the associated EPICS Release Notes files, and will
+be added to new EPICS Release Notes published in the future.
+
+## EPICS Release 7.0.6
+
+### Support for obsolete architectures removed
+
+These target architectures have been removed:
+
++ darwin-ppc, darwin-ppcx86
++ linux-386, linux-486, linux-586, linux-686, linux-athlon (cross-build)
++ linux-cris, linux-cris\_v10, linux-cris\_v32 (cross-build)
++ RTEMS-at91rm9200ek, RTEMS-gen68360, RTEMS-mcp750, RTEMS-mvme167,
+RTEMS-psim (cross-build)
+
+### Experimental Support for RTEMS 5
+
+The new major release of the RTEMS real-time OS contains many changes
+including the ability to support SMP systems. This release of EPICS
+can still be built with RTEMS 4.9.x or 4.10.x and should work just
+the same as earlier releases, although due to code having moved around
+we recommend thorough testing before this release is first used in
+production systems.
+
+This release of EPICS comes with support for several new RTEMS targets
+running on RTEMS 5:
+
+- RTEMS-beagleboneblack
+- RTEMS-pc686
+- RTEMS-qoriq\_e500 (MVME2500)
+- RTEMS-xilinx\_zynq\_a9\_qemu
+- RTEMS-xilinx\_zynq\_zedboard
+
+The EPICS support for RTEMS 4 has always relied on RTEMS-specific
+kernel APIs which cannot be used on an SMP system, so a new port was
+created to use the Posix real-time APIs that are now recommended for
+RTEMS 5. Note that a single installation of EPICS cannot build both
+RTEMS 4 and RTEMS 5 targets, if you need to support targets running
+on both versions you must use a separate installation, and be sure
+to run `make distclean` if switching a single source tree from one
+to the other (both header files and dependency files are different
+between the two and must be cleaned out).
+
+The configuration variable `RTEMS_VERSION` in the EPICS config file
+`configure/os/CONFIG_SITE.Common.RTEMS` must be set to the full 3-
+part version number for RTEMS 4 releases, e.g. `4.9.1`, `4.10.2`
+but for RTEMS 5.1 and later it must only contain the major version
+number e.g. `5`.
+
+Some RTEMS BSPs can be built and may work with the newer libbsd
+network stack which RTEMS is moving over to, but most of the MVME
+boards (and the uC5282) still require the legacy network stack.
+
+The dependency on bspExt has been removed, EPICS now provides its
+own routine for VMEbus probing (or uses one built into the BSP).
+
+Anyone using this release on RTEMS is advised to discuss problems
+building or running it on either the tech-talk or core-talk email
+lists so the core developers can help with and find out about any
+problems with the old or new port.
+
+Known Issues:
+- MVME2100 and MVME2700 need changes to the RTEMS 5 BSP to build.
+- VMEBus support is not yet available for the MVME2500 BSP.
+- There are some known issues with floating point on MVME2500,
+  probably related to its newer e500 FPU.
+- Changed network driver for beatnik to work with libbsd.  Some
+  issues with DHCP, but network stack usable.  Can load env from
+  NVRAM.
+
+### `epicsEnvShow` accepts a glob pattern
+
+The optional argument to epicsEnvShow can now be a glob pattern.
+
+### New function `epicsStrnGlobMatch()`
+
+The function `epicsStrnGlobMatch(char* str, size_t len, char* pattern)`
+works exactly the same as `epicsStrGlobMatch()` but takes an additional
+length arguments which limits the number of characters of `str` to match.
+
+### Automatic fallback to thread when unable to exec caRepeater
+
+A process using libca which does not find an existing caRepeater process
+will attempt to start one by running the caRepeater executable.
+This is not always possible, usually when caRepeater is not in `$PATH`.
+Now, instead of printing a warning, an internal caRepeater thread
+will be started (as is done be RTEMS and vxWorks targets).
+
+If this fallback occurs, the lifetime of the caRepeater thread
+may be shorter than the lifetime of a separate caRepeater process
+would have been.
+
+It remains the recommended practice to explicitly start a caRepeater
+instance.  Examples of both systemd (`caRepeater.service`) and sysv
+(`S99caRepeater`) scripts may be found under `bin/`.
+
+### Glob pattern allowed in `var` command
+
+When used with one argument, the `var` command can be used with a glob pattern
+for printing matching variables.
+
+### Formalize/fix `FINAL_LOCATION`
+
+The `FINAL_LOCATION` make variable has for some time been an undocumented
+means of performing a staged build.  This is a build which "installs" to
+a temporary location, which will later be moved to a final location.
+
+This has now been added to `configure/CONFIG_SITE`.
+
+Usage analogous to the autotools recipe
+
+```sh
+./configure --prefix=/usr/lib/epics
+make install DESTDIR=/tmp/build
+```
+
+would be
+
+```sh
+make INSTALL_LOCATION=/tmp/build FINAL_LOCATION=/usr/lib/epics
+```
+
+`FINAL_LOCATION` is now correctly used in systemd and sysv init scripts
+`caRepeater.service`, `S99caRepeater`, and `S99logServer`.
+
+### IOCsh sets `${PWD}`
+
+IOC shell will now ensure `${PWD}` is set on startup,
+and updated by the `cd` iocsh function.
+
+### Add Alarm Message and Time Tag Fields
+
+Two new fields have been added to `dbCommon` so will be present in all
+records: `AMSG` and `UTAG`.
+
+#### `AMSG`
+
+`AMSG` can hold an arbitrary 40-character string, providing additional
+information about the alarm condition indicated in `STAT` and `SEVR`. With no
+alarm it will hold an empty string. The new `recGblSetSevrMsg()` function can
+be used in place of `recGblSetSevr()` to signal an alarm while providing a
+message.
+
+For example, a device support's `read_bi()` routine for a hypothetical
+multi-channel ethernet attached device might flag a communication error
+between the IOC and controller, or an error involving a certain channel like
+this:
+
+```c
+static long read_bi(biRecord* prec) {
+    ...
+    if (!priv->connected) {
+        recGblSetSevrMsg(prec, COMM_ALARM, INVALID_ALARM,
+            "No controller connected");
+        return S_dev_noDevice;
+    }
+    if (!priv->err) {
+        recGblSetSevrMsg(prec, READ_ALARM, INVALID_ALARM,
+            "Channel %u disconnexted", priv->chan);
+        return S_dev_noDevice;
+    }
+    return status;
+}
+```
+
+#### `UTAG`
+
+`UTAG` holds an `epicsUInt64` value which is semantically part of the record's
+timestamp (`TIME`). The value defaults to zero if not explicitly set. Device
+support or an event time provider which supports this feature may write a tag
+value directly to the `dbCommon::utag` field.
+
+`TSEL` links will copy both `TIME` and `UTAG` between records if the link type
+supports this (CA links do not).
+
+A `utag` server side channel filter has been added which can be configured to
+filter out monitor updates which don't pass the test `(UTAG & M) == V` where
+`M` and `V` are client specified integers. For example running the command
+`camonitor BPM0:X.{utag:{M:1,V:1}}` will only show updates for which
+`(UTAG & 1) == 1` i.e. the least significant bit of the `UTAG` field is set.
+
+This feature is intended for use by intelligent devices which can provide
+contextual information along with a value/alarm/time.  For example, a beam
+diagnostic device which is aware of whether a beam signal should be present
+(eg. from a global timing system).
+
+#### Link Support
+
+Two new optional methods have been added to the Link Support Entry Table
+(`struct lset`): `lset::getAlarmMsg()` and `lset::getTimeStampTag()`. See
+comments in dbLink.h for details on implementing these.
+
+Two new accessor functions have also been added which call these methods:
+`dbGetAlarmMsg()` and `dbGetTimeStampTag()`.
+
+#### Compatibility
+
+User code wishing to call these interfaces while maintaining compatibility with older
+versions of Base may add some of the following macro definitions, and ensure
+that the variables referenced by output pointers are initialized.
+
+```c
+#ifndef HAS_ALARM_MESSAGE
+#  define recGblSetSevrMsg(REC, STAT, SEVR, ...) recGblSetSevr(REC, STAT, SEVR)
+#endif
+#ifndef dbGetAlarmMsg
+#  define dbGetAlarmMsg(LINK, STAT, SEVR, BUF, BUFLEN) dbGetAlarm(LINK, STAT, SEVR)
+#endif
+#ifndef dbGetTimeStampTag
+#  define dbGetTimeStampTag(LINK, STAMP, TAG) dbGetTimeStamp(LINK, STAMP)
+#endif
+```
+
+
+### Timeouts for Unit Test Programs
+
+The unit test programs that are run by the `make runtests` or `make tapfiles`
+commands get executed by a `.t` wrapper script which is normally generated by
+the EPICS `makeTestfile.pl` program. Those generated wrapper scripts now
+impose a time-limit on the test program they execute, and will kill it if it
+runs for longer than 500 seconds (8 minutes 20) without exiting. That
+time-limit can be changed for any such test by modifying the Makefile which
+creates and runs the `.t` wrapper script.
+
+Setting the environment variable `EPICS_UNITTEST_TIMEOUT` to the desired
+number of seconds while the Makefile is generating the test script changes the
+timeout in that script. For example:
+
+```
+  TESTSCRIPTS_HOST += hourLongTest.t
+  hourLongTest.t: export EPICS_UNITTEST_TIMEOUT=3600
+```
+
+When selecting such a timeout remember that different Continuous Integration
+systems such as GitHub Actions and Appveyor run on processors with different
+speeds, so allow enough head-room for slower systems to complete the test.
+
+Test programs written directly in Perl as a `.plt` script should implement a
+similar timeout for themselves. The "netget" test in Base does this in a way
+that works on Windows as well as Unix-like hosts.
+
+### Submodule updates
+
+The pvAccess module was updated to version 7.1.4:
+
+- Changes
+  - Adjust argument parsing with pvput (Jesus Vasquez).
+
+The pva2pva module was updated to version 1.3.1:
+
+- Bug Fixes
+ - Correct handling for server side filters.
+- Changes
+ - Syncing softMain.cpp with epics-base
+
+The pvDatabase module was updated to version 4.6.0:
+
+* Access Security is now supported.
+* <b>special</b> has been revised and extended.
+* addRecord, removeRecord, processRecord, and traceRecord are replaced by pvdbcr versions.
+* <b>support</b> is DEPRECATED
+
+The pvaClient module was updated to version 4.8.0:
+
+* `PvaClientNTMultiData::getChannelChangeFlags` is a new method. It fixes
+  issue #66.
+* Fix for issue #68. Both `PvaClientArray` and `PvaClientField` are not longer
+  present. Neither was previously implemented.
+* Several public methods are now protected. They were never meant to be called
+  by clients.
+* Issue #70 has been fixed.
+* Changes was made to increase the performance of `pvaMultiChannel`.
+* doxygen changes were made.

documentation/RELEASE-7.0.7.md

@@ -0,0 +1,298 @@
+# Release Notes
+
+This document describes the changes that were included in the release of EPICS
+noted below. Release entries are now provided in a separate document for each
+version in the EPICS 7 series, but all are combined into a single page for
+publishing on the EPICS website. Separate release documents are also included
+from the older Base 3.15 and 3.16 series.
+
+The external PVA submodules continue to maintain their own release notes files
+as before, but the entries describing changes in those submodules since version
+7.0.5 have been copied into the associated EPICS Release Notes files, and will
+be added to new EPICS Release Notes published in the future.
+
+## EPICS Release 7.0.7
+
+### Doxygen Annotations
+
+Thanks to several attendees at the 2022 EPICS Codeathon the number of header
+files with Doxygen annotations in the EPICS Core has again increased.
+
+### Build System updates
+
+The top-level make targets `uninstall`, `archuninstall` and similar no
+longer trigger the `clean` target which empties build directories, this
+was a bug introduced in 7.0.5.
+
+The `make distclean` target now properly deletes the generated file(s)
+`modules/RELEASE.<host>.local` which are essential to build the external
+submodules under the `modules` directory, and should not crash if the
+build is configured with `INSTALL_LOCATION` pointing to an empty external directory (i.e. if you run `make distclean` twice in succession). When
+`INSTALL_LOCATION` is set in the files `configure/CONFIG_SITE` or
+`configure/CONFIG_SITE.local` the `modules/RELEASE.<host>.local` file
+will now be regenerated in case the install path has been modified.
+
+Note that passing `INSTALL_LOCATION=<path>` on the make command-line will
+only work if you have run `make distclean` immediately beforehand, as the
+`modules/RELEASE.<host>.local` file must be recreated using the new path.
+
+### Enhancements to `capr.pl`
+
+The `capr.pl` script can now display records from older Base versions to
+which fields have since been added, and shows long strings and array data
+up to 10 elements, use the new `-n` option to increase that number.
+The script is fully event-driven and prints all the field data received by
+the end of the CA wait time (`-w` option which defaults to 2 seconds).
+The interest level can now be specified using the `-l` option before the
+PV name, and the new `-D` flag outputs debugging information.
+
+### Time Synchronization on VxWorks
+
+VxWorks 6.9 can do its own OS clock time synchronization, if it has been
+configured by setting `SNTPC_PRIMARY_IPV4_ADDR`. Since EPICS 3.15.3 the
+IOC time support code has checked for the existence of the VxWorks time
+synchronization task and avoided starting the EPICS one if the OS task
+exists and the OS clock gives a "recent" time (i.e. after when EPICS was
+compiled), unless the environment variable `EPICS_TS_FORCE_NTPTIME` is
+also set. However a logic error in that code required the environment
+variable to be set in more cases than it should have.
+
+This error has been fixed and the IOC should work normally if the VxWorks
+task is configured and running. The `TIMEZONE` value for the year is also
+now calculated at initialization in this configuration, previously it was
+only done when the IOC synchronzation task was used. Setting the above
+environment variable will now cause the IOC support code to shut down the
+VxWorks synchronization thread (if running) before starting the EPICS one.
+
+Running the iocsh command `ClockTime_Report` now shows whether the VxWorks
+task is running as well as giving the state of the IOC synchronization task.
+The `ClockTime_Init` command can also be used to stop or restart the IOC
+time synchronization task while the IOC is running, depending on the `0` or
+`1` parameter passed to it. This last change also applies to RTEMS IOCs.
+
+### Incompatible change to `struct db_field_log`
+
+This change may cause channel filters which manipulate array updates
+to fail to compile.
+
+To avoid potential speculation issues arising from overlapping code pointers
+with data values, `union dbfl_ref` is modified to remove the `dtor` member.
+`dtor` is moved out into the enclosing `struct db_field_log`.
+
+So eg. using a `db_field_log* p`, the expression `p->u.r.dtor` must be
+changed to `(p)->dtor`.
+
+### Fix undef ts on first camonitor update of NORD from waveformRecord
+
+The order over operations when processing a waveformRecord is adjusted
+so that updates to NORD is posted with the correct timestamp.
+
+### Automatic `COMMANDLINE_LIBRARY` with newer compilers
+
+When built with a compiler supporting `__has_include<>`, the presence
+of a `readline/readline.h` header will be used to automatically determine
+a default value for `COMMANDLINE_LIBRARY`.
+
+Mingw builds with readline support now link `-ltermcap` instead of `-lcurses`.
+
+This should not effect sites which set explicitly set `COMMANDLINE_LIBRARY`
+as the only definition in Base now has the form `COMMANDLINE_LIBRARY ?= ...`.
+
+### Perl CA support for empty long strings
+
+The Perl CA bindings have been fixed to handle zero-length long string data
+properly.
+
+### `aao` gains `OMSL` and `DOL`
+
+The `aao` record types gains the same `DOL` functionality found
+in other output record types (`ao`, `longout`, etc.)
+
+### Server exports `RSRV_SERVER_PORT`
+
+During `iocInit()`, the environment variable `RSRV_SERVER_PORT` is set
+with the TCP port number selected.
+
+### `dbdExpand.pl` sorts all items by name
+
+DBD files generated by the `dbdExpand.pl` script are now sorted within each
+item type by the primary name of the item. The result should resolve any
+issues with reproducible builds. No option is provided to prevent the sorting,
+previously the order was essentially random and varied each time.
+
+### `dbExpand.pl` sorts records by name
+
+Records are now output by this program in order, sorted by name. The new flag
+`-s` can be given to output the records in the same order they were read in,
+instead of sorting them.
+
+Note that there are currently no build rules provided with Base which make use
+of this program.
+
+### Simulation Mode RAW Support for Output Record Types
+
+SIMM=RAW support has been added for the relevant output record types
+(ao, bo, mbbo, mbboDirect).
+RAW simulation mode will have those records do the appropriate conversion
+and write RVAL to the location pointed to by SIOL.
+
+### Fixed leak from a non-EPICS thread
+
+On some targets, if a thread not created by `epicsThreadCreate*()` directly
+or indirectly calls an `epicsThread*()` function, a specific tracking struct
+is allocated.
+
+Prior to this release, on POSIX and WIN32 targets, this
+struct would not be `free()`d, resulting in a memory leak.
+
+This release fixed the leak on POSIX targets.
+
+See the associated github [issue 241](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/issues/241)
+for WIN32 status.
+
+### Fixed leak from a non-EPICS thread
+
+On some targets, if a thread not created by `epicsThreadCreate*()` directly
+or indirectly calls an `epicsThread*()` function, a specific tracking struct
+is allocated.
+
+Prior to this release, on POSIX and WIN32 targets, this
+allocation would not be `free()`d, resulting in a memory leak.
+
+This release fixed the leak on POSIX and WIN32 targets (excluding
+MSVC before vs2012, and the WINE runtime).
+
+### Fixed leak from a non-EPICS thread
+
+On some targets, if a thread not created by `epicsThreadCreate*()` directly
+or indirectly calls an `epicsThread*()` function, a specific tracking struct
+is allocated.
+
+Prior to this release, on POSIX and WIN32 targets, this
+struct would not be `free()`d, resulting in a memory leak.
+
+This release fixed the leak on POSIX targets.
+
+See the associated github [issue 241](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/issues/241)
+for WIN32 status.
+
+### Fix `CHECK_RELEASE = WARN`
+
+This now works again, it was broken in 2019 (7.0.3.1) by an errant commit.
+
+### Document `DISP` as design-time field
+
+The DISP field can be set to a non-zero value to prevent records being changed
+from outside the IOC (this is ancient behavior), but has never been documented
+as being usable at design-time (DCT=Yes in the Record Reference tables). This
+has now been changed.
+
+### Make `epicsInt8` signed on all architectures
+
+The `epicsInt8` and thus `DBF_CHAR` types have always been unsigned on
+architectures where `char` is unsigned, for example on many PowerPC CPU
+architectures. This was counter-intuitive, and resulted in IOC behavior
+differing between architectures when converting `DBF_CHAR` values into a
+signed integer or floating point type.
+
+**WARNING**: This fix may change behavior of existing databases on target
+architectures with unsigned `char` (mainly PowerPC) when using input links to
+read from `CHAR` arrays. Architectures with signed `char` (usually x86) should
+be unaffected, although some compilers might generate new warnings.
+
+### Allow hexadecimal and octal numbers in hardware links
+
+[GH:213](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/pull/213)
+
+Several types of hardware links (`VME_IO`, `CAMAC_IO`, etc) now accept
+hexadecimal and octal numbers. (Hexadecimal numbers had already been valid
+up to EPICS R3.15.) This change may introduce incompatibilities when using
+numbers with leading `0` as they will now be parsed as octal.
+
+### Fix embedded implementations of `epicsEvent`
+
+[GH:202](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/issues/202) and
+[GH:206](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/pull/206)
+
+Heinz Junkes provided a new implementation of the `epicsEvent` API suitable for
+RTEMS Posix targets (RTEMS 5.1 and later). In review a few issues related to
+overflow of timeout values surfaced in this and other embedded implementations,
+and these were also been fixed in this Pull Request. The API documentation for
+this and some other routines has also been updated.
+
+### Breakpoint Table Names
+
+The names of breakpoint tables were made unnecessarily strict when DBD file
+processing was moved to Perl for the 3.15 release series. Table names may now
+contain the special characters `_` `-` `:` `;` `.` `[` `]` `<` `>` in addition
+to letters and digits.
+
+### Fix for `undefined` in configure/RELEASE files
+
+Prevents `Use of uninitialized value` warnings from convertRelease.pl.
+
+### Colorized Messages for errlog
+
+Many internal error messages now emit ANSI escape sequences to highlight the
+words "ERROR" and "WARNING" in an attempt to make occurrences more noticeable
+during IOC startup.
+
+The macros `ERL_ERROR` and `ERL_WARNING` are defined for external usage,
+and expand as string constants.  eg.
+
+```c
+#include <errlog.h>
+#ifndef ERL_ERROR
+#  define ERL_ERROR "ERROR"
+#endif
+void fn() {
+   ...
+   errlogPrintf(ERL_ERROR ": something bad happens :(\n");
+```
+
+ANSI escapes are automatically removed from errlog output not destined
+for a terminal.  For example, for logClient, if stderr is redirected,
+or if unsupported (`$TERM` not set, or Windows < 10).
+
+### `dbnd` filter pass through `DBE_ALARM|DBE_PROPERTY`
+
+The `dbnd` server side filter now passes through alarm and property
+change events, even when not exceeding the deadband.
+
+### Submodule updates
+
+The pvData module was updated to version 8.0.5:
+
+- Compatible changes
+ - Internal changes to use the YAJL API for generating JSON and JSON-5 output.
+
+The pvAccess module was updated to version 7.1.6:
+
+- Changes to caProvider
+  - Bug fix related to enum values.
+  - More internal changes to improve performance when connecting tens of
+    thousands of CA channels.
+- Several minor internal improvements.
+
+The pva2pva module was updated to version 1.4.0:
+
+- Bug Fixes
+ - Apply ACF when writing to atomic group
+- Additions
+ - Add new "structure" to @ref qsrv_group_map_types
+- Changes
+ - Add Access Security hooks for single and group writes.
+ - Enable "Async Soft Channel" for output links
+ - When built against Base 7.0.6.1, set timeStamp.userTag from UTAG field.
+ - Add DTYP="QSRV Set UTag" for longin, which sets UTAG=VAL.
+
+The pvDatabase module was updated to version 4.7.0:
+
+* Added support for the whole structure (master field) server side plugins.
+  The whole structure is identified as the `_` string, and a pvRequest string
+  that applies a plugin to it takes the form:
+
+  `field(_[XYZ=A:3;B:uniqueId])`
+
+  where `XYZ` is the name of a specific filter plugin that takes parameters
+  `A` and `B` with values `3` and `uniqueId` respectively.

documentation/RELEASE-7.0.8.1.md

@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+# Release Notes
+
+This document describes the changes that were included in the release of EPICS
+noted below. Release entries are now provided in a separate document for each
+version in the EPICS 7 series, but all are combined into a single page for
+publishing on the EPICS website. Separate release documents are also included
+from the older Base 3.15 and 3.16 series.
+
+The external PVA submodules continue to maintain their own release notes files
+as before, but the entries describing changes in those submodules since version
+7.0.5 have been copied into the associated EPICS Release Notes files, and will
+be added to new EPICS Release Notes published in the future.
+
+## EPICS Release 7.0.8.1
+
+### Limit to `_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2`
+
+GCC versions 12 and beyond and glibc have added some aggressive runtime
+checks for buffer overflows in libc functions at runtime, and the
+[Ubuntu 2024.04](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ToolChain/CompilerFlags) release
+increased their default gcc fortification level from 2 to 3.
+This has started causing EPICS Base builds to fail on that version, and
+other OS releases may make that configuration change with similar results.
+This release detects a compiler configured with `_FORTIFY_SOURCE=3` and
+overrides it to 2.
+Later releases of Base will adjust the code, providing information to the
+compiler to avoid triggering these incorrect protections.
+
+### Fix issue with compress record
+
+In Base 7.0.8, an update to the compress record was added to allow for certain
+algorithms to use partially filled buffers in their computations. Unfortunately,
+this broke the behaviour of the records in certain cases. This has been fixed.
+
+### Various minor changes
+
+These included fixing minor memory leaks and documentation corrections. The
+`SIZV` field of lsi, lso and printf record VAL fields now can't exceed 32767
+characters, to match an internal limit.
+
+### `epicsSocketAccept()` now returns `SOCKET`, not `int`
+
+This might have some effect on downstream modules still using `int`, but the
+OS-specific osdSock.h headers which osiSock.h includes have all declared
+`SOCKET` (in most casese as a typedef for `int`) for many releases.
+This change removes a compiler warning on WIN32.
+Further details and the discussion about this change can be found
+[here](https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/pull/458).
+
+### `dbLoadRecords` allows macros with default values
+
+Previously the parser assumed that files containing macro substitutions were
+bad if no macro definitions were provided; that assumption was made incorrect
+once macro substitutions were allowed to provide a default value.
+
+### Hostname length limit in CA removed
+
+Before this release, the CA client library only handled hostnames in address
+list environment variables up to 255 characters long.
+This limit has been removed.

documentation/RELEASE-7.0.8.md

@@ -0,0 +1,243 @@
+# Release Notes
+
+This document describes the changes that were included in the release of EPICS
+noted below. Release entries are now provided in a separate document for each
+version in the EPICS 7 series, but all are combined into a single page for
+publishing on the EPICS website. Separate release documents are also included
+from the older Base 3.15 and 3.16 series.
+
+The external PVA submodules continue to maintain their own release notes files
+as before, but the entries describing changes in those submodules since version
+7.0.5 have been copied into the associated EPICS Release Notes files, and will
+be added to new EPICS Release Notes published in the future.
+
+## EPICS Release 7.0.8
+
+### bi "Raw Soft Channel" use MASK
+
+If MASK is non-zero, The raw device support will now apply MASK to the
+value read into RVAL.
+eg. allows extraction of a bit from an input integer.
+
+```
+record(longin, "integer") {
+    field(VAL, "0xff")
+}
+record(bi, "bit1") {
+    field(DESC, "extract bit 1")
+    field(DTYP, "Raw Soft Channel")
+    field(INP , "integer")
+    field(MASK, "0x2")
+    field(ZNAM, "Clear")
+    field(ONAM, "Set")
+}
+```
+
+### ANSI escapes in stderr
+
+ANSI escape character sequences may now be printed to the stderr stream.
+These escapes will appear in logs captured from that stream.
+Tools which parse and/or render these logs may need to be adjusted to
+either strip out the escapes, or to translate them into markup.
+(see [ansi2html](https://pypi.org/project/ansi2html/) for example)
+
+### Allow explicit append with `dbRecordsOnceOnly!=0`
+
+Previously setting `dbRecordsOnceOnly!=0` prevented any further changes to a record via a .db file.  eg.
+
+```
+record(ai, "myrec") {}
+```
+
+`dbRecordsOnceOnly!=0` previously disallowed appending fields with either form:
+
+```
+record("*", "myrec") {} # error
+record(ai, "myrec") {}  # error
+```
+
+Beginning with this release, `dbRecordsOnceOnly!=0` allows appending when explicitly intended (when record type is `"*"`).
+
+```
+record("*", "myrec") {} # allowed
+record(ai, "myrec") {}  # error
+```
+
+### Add `$EPICS_CLI_TIMEOUT`
+
+Add support for CA tools timeout from environment variable `$EPICS_CLI_TIMEOUT`
+which sets the default the default timeout for `caget` et al.
+The `-w` argument continues to take precedence.
+
+### Fixed leak from a non-EPICS thread on WIN32
+
+On Windows targets, if a thread not created by `epicsThreadCreate*()` directly
+or indirectly calls an `epicsThread*()` function, a specific tracking struct
+is allocated.  Prior to this release the allocation would not be `free()`d,
+resulting in a memory leak.
+
+A similar issue on POSIX targets was previously fixed.
+
+### Change compiler for FreeBSD to clang
+
+The default compiler for FreeBSD targets changes from GCC to clang.
+
+### Expose `dbCreateAlias` in IOC shell
+
+Add a new IOC shell command `dbCreateAlias` allow record aliases to be added.
+Intended for use before `iocInit`.  eg. to add an alias "bar" for a record "foo".
+
+```
+dbLoadRecords("some.db") # includes: record(ai, "foo") { ...
+dbCreateAlias("foo", "bar")
+iocInit()
+```
+
+### dbEvent eventsRemaining missed on cancel
+
+In some cases, RSRV may queue a subscription update, but not flush it.
+This partially addresses this issue.
+
+### subRecord on bad INP links
+
+Previously, if a subRecord has an invalid `INP*` link, it was silently failing
+(and not running the proc function).  Now the the status code returned by the
+subroutine is returned from `dbProcess()`.
+
+### COMMANDLINE\_LIBRARY fallback to GNU\_DIR
+
+Fall back to the previous behavior when searching for `readline.h` with older compilers.
+
+### Search for readline installed via HomeBrew.
+
+Look for `/opt/local/include/readline` on OSX.
+
+### Always stop worker threads
+
+The SCAN and callback threads are now stopped during normal IOC shutdown.
+
+### Allow runtime bypass of free list allocator
+
+The environment variable `$EPICS_FREELIST_BYPASS` may be set to `YES` to cause the `freeListLib` functions to always call directly to `malloc()`/`free()`.  May be useful when troubleshooting some kinds of memory allocation bugs which would otherwise be "hidden".  eg. use-after-free data races.  This may also improve the results of dynamic analysis tools which are not aware of this internal free list.
+
+### `compress` record enhancement
+
+The compress record now supports the use of partially-filled buffers when using
+any of the N-to-one algorithms. This is achieved by setting the new field `PBUF`
+to `YES`.
+
+### Extended timestamp channel filter
+
+The `"ts"` filter can now retrieve the record's timestamp in several numeric
+and string formats, some of which support full nanosecond precision.
+
+    Hal$ caget -a test:channel
+    test:channel                   2021-03-11 18:23:48.265386 42
+    Hal$ caget -f9 'test:channel.{"ts": {"num": "dbl"}}'
+    test:channel.{"ts": {"num": "dbl"}} 984331428.265386105
+    Hal$ caget 'test:channel.{"ts": {"str": "iso"}}'
+    test:channel.{"ts": {"str": "iso"}} 2021-03-11T18:23:48.265386+0100
+    Hal$ caget -f1 'test:channel.{"ts": {"num": "ts"}}'
+    test:channel.{"ts": {"num": "ts"}} 2 984331428.0 265386163.0
+
+More information is included in the filters documentation, which can be found in
+the `html/filters.html` document that is generated during the build
+
+### Allow adding new error symbols at any time
+
+`errSymbolAdd` can now be called after early initialization.
+
+### Add conditional output (OOPT) to the longout record
+
+The longout record can now be configured using its new OOPT and OOCH fields
+to (not) write to its output link depending on the contents of VAL, in a
+similar manner to the calcout record. More information can be found on the
+reference page for the longout record type that accompanies this release.
+
+This functionality was suggested in
+[lp# 1398215](https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/1398215) and may
+be added to other output record types if the community finds it useful,
+please send feedback about the feature to tech-talk.
+
+### IOC Shell
+
+#### Tab completion
+
+When built with optional GNU libreadline support, the interactive IOC shell
+will perform tab completion for command names as well as for some arguments
+of the built-in commands. For example, the record name argument of `dbpr`,
+and the path name argument of `cd`.
+
+Externally defined commands have a limited ability to opt into completion by
+using the new `iocshArgStringRecord` and `iocshArgStringPath` argument types.
+Both function identically to `iocshArgString` but indicate how to suggest
+completion strings.
+
+Builds on macOS (`darwin-x86` or `darwin-aarch64` targets) normally use Apple's
+libedit library in readline compatibility mode, which doesn't support the tab
+completion API that GNU readline provides. You can use Homebrew or some other
+third-party package manager to install the GNU readline package, then edit the
+`configure/os/CONFIG_SITE.darwinCommon.darwinCommon` file to have EPICS use the
+real thing to get tab completion in the IOC shell. The default settings in that
+file currently look for and use a Homebrew-installed readline if present.
+
+#### Persist history
+
+Attempt to read and write command to a file (`./.iocsh_history` by default).
+Name may be overwritten with by setting `$EPICS_IOCSH_HISTFILE` to an
+alternate path, or disabled by setting to an empty string.
+
+#### Changes to help output
+
+Rework the `help` command output to improve formatting and readability,
+and include a visual marker (a line of underlines) between different help commands.
+
+### Add FMOD as CALC Expression
+
+The floating point modulo function `FMOD(NUM,DEN)` has been added to the CALC
+expression engine and is available to all software using that (calc and calcout
+record types, access security library and some extensions).
+
+### Submodule updates
+
+The pvData module was updated to version 8.0.6:
+
+- Compatible changes
+  - Actually enable JSON-5 output in PVStructure::Formatter::JSON when available.
+  - Fix unaligned access issues for some ARM/Linux targets.
+
+The pvAccess module was updated to version 7.1.7:
+
+- Changes
+  - Registering the PVA server with the IOC now sets the `PVAS_SERVER_PORT`
+    variable in the environment.
+
+The pva2pva module was updated to version 1.4.1:
+
+- Bug Fixes
+  - `dbLoadGroup` was fixed
+- Additions
+  - Support for "meta" member at top of array of structs
+
+The pvDatabase module was updated to version 4.7.1:
+
+* Added data distributor plugin which can be used for distributing data between
+  a group of clients. The plugin is triggered by the request string of the
+  form:
+
+  `_[distributor=group:<group id>;set:<set_id>;trigger:<field_name>;updates:<n_updates>;mode:<update_mode>]`
+
+  The plugin parameters are optional and are described below:
+
+  - group: this parameter indicates a group that client application belongs to (default value: "default"); groups of clients are completely independent of each other
+
+  - set: this parameter designates a client set that application belongs to within its group (default value: "default")
+
+  - trigger: this is the PV structure field that distinguishes different channel updates (default value: "timeStamp"); for example, for area detector images one could use the "uniqueId" field of the NTND structure
+
+  - updates: this parameter configures how many sequential updates a client (or a set of clients) will receive before the data distributor starts updating the next one (default value: "1")
+
+  - mode: this parameter configures how channel updates are to be distributed between clients in a set:
+    - one: update goes to one client per set
+    - all: update goes to all clients in a set
+    - default is "one" if client set id is not specified, and "all" if set id is specified

documentation/RELEASE-7.0.9.md

@@ -0,0 +1,134 @@
+# Release Notes
+
+This document describes the changes that were included in the release of EPICS
+noted below. Release entries are now provided in a separate document for each
+version in the EPICS 7 series, but all are combined into a single page for
+publishing on the EPICS website. Separate release documents are also included
+from the older Base 3.15 and 3.16 series.
+
+The external PVA submodules continue to maintain their own release notes files
+as before, but the entries describing changes in those submodules since version
+7.0.5 have been copied into the associated EPICS Release Notes files, and will
+be added to new EPICS Release Notes published in the future.
+
+## EPICS Release 7.0.9
+
+### Core documentation published at ReadTheDocs
+
+The `documentation` directory's `Makefile` can now run various publication scripts including Sphinx and Doxygen to generate formatted documentation that is now being published
+[at docs.epics-controls.org](https://docs.epics-controls.org/projects/base/en/latest/index.html)
+and integrated into the main [EPICS Documentation website](https://docs.epics-controls.org/en/latest/index.html).
+The best place to find out more about these mechanisms is the
+[Contribution Guide](https://docs.epics-controls.org/en/latest/CONTRIBUTING.html)
+although it doesn't currently cover the new processes added to epics-base.
+
+Much of the documentation generated from .dbd.pod files at build time is now
+also being converted into MarkDown (.md) files and installed into the top-level
+`doc` directory. Some users might find it quicker to look up information about a
+record type by opening these files in a text editor instead of opening a browser
+and loading the HTML versions or finding and opening the files from the EPICS
+Documentation site.
+
+### Post monitors from compress record when it's reset
+
+Writing into a compress record's `RES` field now posts a monitor event instead
+of only changing `VAL`. Monitor clients will therefore receive an empty array.
+
+### The AMSG error message propagates through MSS links
+
+A database link with the MSS attribute will now propagate not only SEVR and
+STAT, but also AMSG. This field contains additional information that complements
+STAT. Links with MS or MSI attributes do not propagate STAT, and therefore do
+not propagate AMSG, either.
+
+Channel Access links do not propagate AMSG, regardless of the MSS attribute,
+because the message is not available as Channel metadata.
+
+### Reloading record aliases
+
+Aliases can now be defined more than once as long as they still refer to the
+same record, unless the global variable `dbRecordsOnceOnly` is non-zero.
+This allows database files to be loaded multiple times, even if they contain
+alias definitions.
+
+### `DBE_PROPERTY` event rate changed
+
+Updating property fields now only posts `DBE_PROPERTY` events if the
+field actually changed.
+
+### Changes to msi related to include paths
+
+There are two changes to `msi` included here.
+
+`msi` now treats files included by .template or .substutiions files in a more
+consistent way: for relative paths, it will always look relative to the current
+working directory if no `-I` flags are passed, and if they are passed then it
+will search for the _relative_ path from each of those flags. That is, the
+following will now find the file `bar.template` located at
+`/some/path/rel/path/bar.template`
+```
+$ cat foo.substitutions
+file rel/path/bar.template {
+ # contents
+}
+$ msi -I /some/path foo.substitutions
+```
+
+Note that this does provide one change from previous behaviour: when opening a
+file from the command line, `msi` will not use the `-I`-specified paths to
+search for the file, but will only work relative to the current working
+directory, consistent with most commandline utilities.
+
+### Allow users to delete previously created records from the database
+
+From this release, record instances and aliases that have already been loaded
+by an IOC can be removed from the database again before the call to iocInit
+by loading a second instance of the named records but using `"#"` in place of
+the record type. Values for the fields are not required or advised, just use
+an empty record body `{}`. This is useful when a template defines records that
+are not wanted in some IOCs, without having to split or duplicate the original
+template.
+
+For example this will remove the record named "unwanted":
+
+```
+record("#", "unwanted") {}
+```
+
+### Only keep readline history for interactive sessions
+
+Previously, all IOCsh commands were persisted in the libreadline history
+(when readline support is included).
+Going forward, only interactive commands are saved.
+
+### Type change to asTrap serverSpecific data
+
+Change `void*` to `dbChannel*` in `asTrapWriteBeforeWithData()` and
+`asTrapWriteMessage::serverSpecific` to reflect the reality since
+the `dbAddr*` to `dbChannel*` migration.
+External code wishing to support both before and after 3.15 should
+already be conditionally casting to/from the appropriate type.
+
+### Fix issues with `_FORTIFY_SOURCE=3`
+
+This release fixes the false positives failures when building with `_FORTIFY_SOURCE` level 3.
+The override introduced in 7.0.8.1 has been removed.
+
+### Other
+
+- genVersionHeader: work with git submodules and worktrees.
+- avoid UB with self `pthread_join()`
+- freebsd: Add support for x86 and amd64 builds
+- Clear AMSG when SEVR becomes zero.
+- `seqRecord` fix support for link `DLY0`
+- Add `ABORT_ON_ASSERT` flag to `CONFIG_SITE_ENV`
+- rationalize osdMutex
+
+### Submodule updates
+
+The pvDatabase module was updated to version 4.7.2:
+
+* Resolved issue with changed field set in the case where the top level (master)
+field ("_") is not requested by the client, but the master field callback causes
+all fields to be marked as updated, rather than only those fields that have
+actually been modified.

documentation/ReleaseChecklist.html

@@ -1,443 +0,0 @@
-<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
-<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
-    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
-<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
-<head>
-  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
-  <title>EPICS Release Procedures &amp; Checklist</title>
-  <style type="text/css" media="print">
-  <!--
-    body {
-      font: 10.5pt/12pt Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
-    }
-    table {
-      border-collapse: collapse;
-      border: thin solid black;
-    }
-    tt {
-      font: 9pt/11pt "Courier New", fixed;
-    }
-    td,th {
-      padding: 2pt 4pt;
-      vertical-align: top
-    }
-    td blockquote {
-      page-break-inside: avoid;
-      margin-right: 0;
-    }
-  -->
-  </style>
-</head>
-
-<body>
-<h1>EPICS Base Release Procedures &amp; Checklist</h1>
-
-<p>This document describes the procedures and provides a checklist of tasks
-that should be performed when creating production releases of EPICS Base.</p>
-
-<h3>The Release Process</h3>
-
-<p>We used to have one written down here, but we weren't following it very
-closely so now the decision to make a new release is taken during the Core
-Developers bi-weekly meetings in an informal manner. The steps detailed below
-were written to remind Andrew (or anyone else who does the release) about
-everything that has to be done since it's so easy to miss steps.</p>
-
-<h3>Roles</h3>
-
-<p>The following roles are used below:</p>
-
-<dl>
-  <dt><strong>Release Manager</strong></dt>
-    <dd>Responsible for managing and tagging the release</dd>
-  <dt><strong>Core Developers</strong></dt>
-    <dd>Responsible for maintaining the EPICS software</dd>
-  <dt><strong>Application Developers</strong></dt>
-    <dd>Responsible for support modules that depend on EPICS Base.</dd>
-  <dt><strong>Website Editors</strong></dt>
-    <dd>Responsible for the EPICS websites</dd>
-</dl>
-
-<form>
-<table border="1" width="100%">
-  <tbody>
-    <tr>
-      <th>Check</th>
-      <th>Who</th>
-      <th>Description</th>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <th colspan="3">Preparing for a release</th>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td>&nbsp;</td>
-      <td>Release Manager</td>
-      <td>Notify core developers about the upcoming release and ask about any
-        remaining tasks that must be finished.</td>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td>&nbsp;</td>
-      <td>All developers</td>
-      <td>Check the bug tracker for any outstanding items and handle
-        appropriately.</td>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td>&nbsp;</td>
-      <td>Release Manager</td>
-      <td>Set a Feature Freeze date, by which time all Git branches for
-        enhancements and new functionality should have been merged. After this
-        date, commits and merges should only be made to fix problems that show
-        up during testing.</td>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td>&nbsp;</td>
-      <td>Release Manager<br />
-        &amp; all developers</td>
-      <td>Ensure that documentation will be updated before the release date:
-        <ul>
-          <li>Release Notes</li>
-          <li>Doxygen annotations</li>
-          <li>Other documents</li>
-        </ul>
-      </td>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td>&nbsp;</td>
-      <td>Release Manager</td>
-      <td>Review and update this checklist for the upcoming release.
-        Update the release version number in the tags and messages below.</td>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <th colspan="3">Testing</th>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td>&nbsp;</td>
-      <td>Platform Developers</td>
-      <td>Run the internal test programs on all available host platforms using
-        <blockquote><tt>
-          make -s runtests
-        </tt></blockquote></td>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td>&nbsp;</td>
-      <td>Platform Developers</td>
-      <td>Run the CA client side regression tests on all available host
-        platforms.</td>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td>&nbsp;</td>
-      <td>Platform Developers</td>
-      <td>Check that all makeBaseApp templates build and run properly, all
-        <i>xxxApp</i> and <i>xxxBoot</i> types and any internal options, e.g.
-        setting <tt>STATIC_BUILD=YES</tt> or using a different
-        <tt>INSTALL_LOCATION</tt> in configure/CONFIG_SITE.</td>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td>&nbsp;</td>
-      <td>Platform Developers</td>
-      <td>Build the SNL Sequencer against this version of Base, and check that
-        the makeBaseApp example builds and runs correctly with it.</td>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td>&nbsp;</td>
-      <td>Application Developers</td>
-      <td>Build external applications against this version of Base on all
-        available platforms and test as appropriate. Application code changes
-        may be necessary where the EPICS Base APIs have been modified.</td>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td>&nbsp;</td>
-      <td>Release Manager</td>
-      <td>Check that documentation has been updated:
-        <ul>
-          <li>Release Notes</li>
-          <li>Doxygen annotations</li>
-          <li>Other documents</li>
-          </ul>
-        </td>
-      </tr>
-
-    <tr>
-      <th colspan="3" id="ReleaseApproval">
-        Release Approval</th>
-    </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td><input type="checkbox"></td>
-      <td>Core Developers</td>
-      <td>Reach a consensus that the software is ready to release.</td>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <th colspan="3">Creating the final release version</th>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td><input type="checkbox"></td>
-      <td>Release Manager</td>
-      <td>
-        <p><b>For each external submodule</b> in turn (assuming it has not been
-          tagged yet):</p>
-        <ol>
-          <li><tt>git grep UNRELEASED</tt> and insert the module version to any
-            doxygen annotations that have a <tt>@since UNRELEASED</tt> comment.
-            Commit (don't push yet).</li>
-
-          <li>Check that the module's Release Notes have been updated to cover
-            all changes; add items as necessary, and set the module version
-            number and release date if appropriate.
-            Commit these changes (don't push).</li>
-
-          <li>Edit the module's release version file
-            <tt>configure/CONFIG_<i>module</i>_VERSION</tt> and the
-            <tt>Doxyfile</tt>s in the top-level and/or documentation
-            directories. In these, set <tt>DEVELOPMENT_FLAG</tt> to 0 and remove
-            <tt>-dev</tt> from the <tt>PROJECT_NUMBER</tt> string. Commit these
-            changes (don't push):
-            <blockquote><tt>
-              git ci -m 'Final commit for &lt;module-version&gt;'
-              </tt></blockquote>
-            </li>
-
-          <li>Tag the module:
-            <blockquote><tt>
-              git tag -m 'ANJ: Tag for EPICS 7.0.8.2' &lt;module-version&gt;
-              </tt></blockquote>
-            </li>
-
-          <li>Generate documentation or Release Notes using one of these:
-            <ul>
-              <li>For older modules with a RELEASE_NOTES.md file convert it to
-                HTML and view in a browser to check the formatting as follows:
-                <blockquote><tt>
-                  cd base-7.0/modules/&lt;module&gt;/documentation<br />
-                  pandoc -f gfm -t html -o RELEASE_NOTES.html RELEASE_NOTES.md
-                  </tt></blockquote>
-
-              <li>For newer modules with release_notes.dox file, generate the
-                new github-pages website as follows:
-                <blockquote><tt>
-                  cd base-7.0/modules/&lt;module&gt;/documentation<br />
-                  make commit
-                  git push --force upstream gh-pages
-                  </tt></blockquote>
-                <i>Q: Delay this <tt>git push</tt> until later?</i></li>
-              </ul></li>
-
-          <li>Update the git submodule on the Base-7.0 branch to the
-            newly-tagged version, check the module's status matches the tag:
-            <blockquote><tt>
-              cd base-7.0/modules<br />
-              git add &lt;module&gt;<br />
-              git submodule status --cached
-              </tt></blockquote>
-            Don't commit the submodule updates yet.
-            </li>
-
-          <li>Edit the module's release version file
-            <tt>configure/CONFIG_<i>module</i>_VERSION</tt> and its top-level
-            <tt>Doxyfile</tt>; increment the <tt>MAINTENANCE_VERSION</tt>, set
-            the <tt>DEVELOPMENT_FLAG</tt> value to 1, and update the
-            <tt>PROJECT_NUMBER</tt> string, appending <tt>-dev</tt> to the new
-            module version number. Commit changes.</li>
-
-          <li>Push commits and the new tag to the submodule's GitHub repository
-            (assumed to be the <tt>upstream</tt> remote):
-            <blockquote><tt>
-              cd base-7.0/modules/&lt;module&gt;<br />
-              git push --follow-tags upstream master
-              </tt></blockquote>
-            </li>
-
-          </ol>
-        <p><b>After all submodules complete</b> commit the submodule updates
-          which were added for each submodule in step 4 above to the 7.0 branch
-          (don't push). After committing, make sure that the output from
-          <tt>git submodule status --cached</tt> only shows the appropriate
-          version tags in the right-most parenthesized column with no
-          <tt>-<i>n</t>-g<i>xxxxxxx</i></tt> suffix.</p>
-        </td>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td><input type="checkbox"></td>
-      <td>Release Manager</td>
-
-      <td>
-        <p><tt>git grep UNRELEASED</tt> and insert the release version to any
-          doxygen annotations that have a <tt>@since UNRELEASED</tt> comment.
-          Commit (don't push).</p>
-        <p>Edit the main EPICS Base version file and the built-in module version
-        files:</p>
-        <ul>
-          <li><tt>configure/CONFIG_BASE_VERSION</tt></li>
-          <li><tt>configure/CONFIG_LIBCOM_VERSION</tt></li>
-          <li><tt>configure/CONFIG_CA_VERSION</tt></li>
-          <li><tt>configure/CONFIG_DATABASE_VERSION</tt></li>
-          </ul>
-        <p>Version numbers should be set according to the level of changes made
-          since the last release. Note that the <tt>MAINTENANCE_VERSION</tt> or
-          <tt>PATCH_LEVEL</tt> value should have been incremented after the
-          previous release tag was applied. Set all <tt>DEVELOPMENT_FLAG</tt>
-          values to 0 and <tt>EPICS_DEV_SNAPSHOT</tt> to the empty string.</p>
-        <p>Edit the headings in the Release Notes to show the appropriate
-          version number and remove the warning about this being an unreleased
-          version of EPICS.</p>
-        <p>Commit these changes (don't push).</p>
-        </td>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td><input type="checkbox"></td>
-      <td>Release Manager</td>
-      <td>Tag the epics-base module in Git:
-        <blockquote><tt>
-          cd base-7.0<br />
-          git tag -m 'ANJ: Tagged for release' R7.0.8.2
-          </tt></blockquote>
-        <p>Don't push to GitHub yet.</p>
-        </td>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td><input type="checkbox"></td>
-      <td>Release Manager</td>
-      <td>Edit the main EPICS Base version file and the built-in module version
-        files:
-        <ul>
-          <li><tt>configure/CONFIG_BASE_VERSION</tt></li>
-          <li><tt>configure/CONFIG_LIBCOM_VERSION</tt></li>
-          <li><tt>configure/CONFIG_CA_VERSION</tt></li>
-          <li><tt>configure/CONFIG_DATABASE_VERSION</tt></li>
-          </ul>
-        <p>Version numbers should be set for the next expected patch/maintenance
-          release by incrementing the MAINTENANCE_VERSION or PATCH_LEVEL value
-          in each file. Set all <tt>DEVELOPMENT_FLAG</tt> values to 1 and
-          <tt>EPICS_DEV_SNAPSHOT</tt> to "-DEV".</p>
-        <p>Set up the headings in the Release Notes for the next release
-          version number and restore the warning about this being an unreleased
-          version of EPICS.</p>
-        <p>Commit these changes (don't push).</p>
-        </td>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td><input type="checkbox"></td>
-      <td>Release Manager</td>
-      <td>Export the tagged version into a tarfile. The <tt>make-tar.sh</tt>
-        script generates a gzipped tarfile directly from the tag, excluding the
-        files and directories that are only used for continuous integration:
-        <blockquote><tt>
-          cd base-7.0<br />
-          ./.tools/make-tar.sh R7.0.8.2 ../base-7.0.8.2.tar.gz base-7.0.8.2/
-          </tt></blockquote>
-        Create a GPG signature file of the tarfile as follows:
-        <blockquote><tt>
-          cd ..<br />
-          gpg --armor --sign --detach-sig base-7.0.8.2.tar.gz
-          </tt></blockquote>
-        </td>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td><input type="checkbox"></td>
-      <td>Release Manager</td>
-      <td>Test the tar file by extracting its contents and building it on at
-        least one supported platform. If this succeeds the commits and new git
-        tag can be pushed to the GitHub repository's 7.0 branch (assumed to be
-        the <tt>upstream</tt> remote):
-        <blockquote><tt>
-          git push --follow-tags upstream 7.0
-          </tt></blockquote>
-        </td>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <th colspan="3">Publish to epics.anl.gov</th>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td><input type="checkbox"></td>
-      <td>Website Editor</td>
-      <td>Copy the tarfile and its signature to the Base download area of the
-        website.</td>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td><input type="checkbox"></td>
-      <td>Website Editor</td>
-      <td>Update the website subdirectory that holds the release
-        documentation, and copy in the files from the base/documentation
-        directory of the tarfile.</td>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td><input type="checkbox"></td>
-      <td>Website Editor</td>
-      <td>Update the webpage for the new release with links to the release
-        documents and tar file.</td>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td><input type="checkbox"></td>
-      <td>Website Editor</td>
-      <td>Add the new release tar file to the website Base download index
-        page.</td>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td><input type="checkbox"></td>
-      <td>Website Editor</td>
-      <td>Link to the release webpage from other relevent areas of the
-        website - update front page and sidebars.</td>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td><input type="checkbox"></td>
-      <td>Website Editor</td>
-      <td>Add an entry to the website News page, linking to the new version
-        webpage.</td>
-      </tr>
-
-    <tr>
-      <th colspan="3">Publish to epics-controls.org</th>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td><input type="checkbox"></td>
-      <td>Website Editor</td>
-      <td>Upload the tar file and its <tt>.asc</tt> signature file to the
-        epics-controls web-server.
-        <blockquote><tt>
-          scp base-7.0.8.2.tar.gz base-7.0.8.2.tar.gz.asc epics-controls:download/base<br />
-          </tt></blockquote>
-        </td>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td><input type="checkbox"></td>
-      <td>Website Editor</td>
-      <td>Follow instructions on
-        <a href="https://epics-controls.org/resources-and-support/documents/epics-website-documentation/adding-a-page-for-a-new-release/">
-        Add a page for a new release</a> to create a new release webpage (not
-        required for a patch release, just edit the existing page). Update the
-        TablePress "Point Releases" table and add the new download, and adjust
-        the XYZ Html Snippet for the series download.
-        </td>
-      </tr>
-
-    <tr>
-      <th colspan="3">Publish to GitHub</th>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td><input type="checkbox"></td>
-      <td>Release Manager</td>
-      <td>Go to the GitHub
-        <a href="https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/releases/new?tag=R7.0.8.2">
-          Create release from tag R7.0.8.2</a> page.
-        Upload the tar file and its <tt>.asc</tt> signature file to the new
-        GitHub release page.</td>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td><input type="checkbox"></td>
-      <td>Release Manager</td>
-      <td>We used to close out bug reports in Launchpad at release-time, this
-        would be the time to do that if we have an equivalent on GitHub.</td>
-      </tr>
-
-    <tr>
-      <th colspan="3">Make Announcement</th>
-      </tr>
-    <tr>
-      <td><input type="checkbox"></td>
-      <td>Release Manager</td>
-      <td>Announce the release on the tech-talk mailing list.</td>
-      </tr>
-    </tbody>
-  </table>
-</form>
-</body>
-</html>

documentation/ReleaseChecklist.md

@@ -0,0 +1,390 @@
+# EPICS Base Release Procedures & Checklist
+
+This document describes the procedures and provides a checklist of tasks
+that should be performed when creating production releases of EPICS
+Base.
+
+## The Release Process
+
+The decision to make a new release is taken during the
+Core Developers bi-weekly meetings in an informal manner. The steps
+detailed below were written to remind Andrew (or whoever does
+the release) exactly what has to be done, since it's so easy to
+miss steps.
+
+### Roles
+
+The following roles are used below:
+
+**Release Manager**
+Responsible for managing and tagging the release
+
+**Core Developers**
+Responsible for maintaining the EPICS software
+
+**Website Editors**
+Responsible for the EPICS websites
+
+<table data-border="1" width="100%">
+<colgroup>
+<col style="width: 20%" />
+<col style="width: 80%" />
+</colgroup>
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+<th>Who</th>
+<th>Description</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<th colspan="3">Preparing for a release</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Release Manager</td>
+<td>Notify core developers about the upcoming release and ask about any
+remaining tasks that must be finished.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>All developers</td>
+<td>Check the bug tracker for any outstanding items and handle
+appropriately.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Release Manager</td>
+<td>Set a Feature Freeze date, by which time all Git branches for
+enhancements and new functionality should have been merged. After this
+date, commits and merges should only be made to fix problems that show
+up during testing.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Release Manager<br />
+&amp; all developers</td>
+<td>Request that documentation be updated and information about new
+features be added before the release date:
+<ul>
+<li>Release Notes</li>
+<li>Doxygen annotations</li>
+<li>Other documents on
+<a href="https://docs.epics-controls.org/en/latest/">
+docs.epics-controls.org</a></li>
+</ul></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Release Manager</td>
+<td>Review and update this checklist for the upcoming release. Update
+the release version number in the tags and messages below.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2">Testing</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Platform Developers</td>
+<td>Run the internal test programs on all appropriate platforms.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Platform Developers</td>
+<td>Check that all makeBaseApp templates build and run properly, all
+<em>xxxApp</em> and <em>xxxBoot</em> types and any internal options,
+e.g. setting <code>STATIC_BUILD=YES</code> or using a different
+<code>INSTALL_LOCATION</code> in configure/CONFIG_SITE.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Release Manager</td>
+<td>Check that documentation has been updated:
+<ul>
+<li>Release Notes</li>
+<li>Doxygen annotations</li>
+<li>Other documents on
+<a href="https://docs.epics-controls.org/en/latest/">
+docs.epics-controls.org</a></li>
+</ul></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" id="ReleaseApproval">Release Approval</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Core Developers</td>
+<td>Reach a consensus that the software is ready to release.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2">Creating the final release version</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Release Manager</td>
+<td><h4 id="for-each-external-submodule-to-be-tagged">For each external
+submodule to be tagged</h4>
+<ol>
+<li><code>cd base-7.0/modules/&lt;module&gt;; git grep UNRELEASED</code>
+and insert the submodule's version number into any doxygen annotations
+that have a <code>@since&nbsp;UNRELEASED</code> comment. Commit (don't push
+yet).</li>
+<li>Check that the submodule's Release Notes have been updated to cover
+all changes; add missing items as necessary, and set the module version
+number and release date if appropriate.<br />
+Commit the changes to the submodule's Notes file (don't push).</li>
+<li>Copy the new submodule version number and Release Notes entries into
+a new file named
+<em><code>module</code></em><code>-</code><em><code>release</code></em>
+in the <code>base-7.0/documentation/new-notes</code> directory.</li>
+<li><p>Edit the module's release version file
+<code>configure/CONFIG_</code><em><code>module</code></em><code>_VERSION</code>
+and the <code>Doxyfile</code>s in the top-level and/or documentation
+directories. In these, set <code>DEVELOPMENT_FLAG=0</code> and remove
+<code>-dev</code> from the <code>PROJECT_NUMBER</code> string. Commit
+these changes (don't push):</p>
+<blockquote>
+<code> git commit -m 'Final commit for &lt;submodule-version&gt;' </code>
+</blockquote></li>
+<li><p>Tag the submodule:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<code> git tag -m 'ANJ: Tag for EPICS 7.0.10' &lt;submodule-version&gt; </code>
+</blockquote></li>
+<li><p>Generate documentation for modules with
+<code>release_notes.dox</code> files. Prepare to update the github-pages
+website as follows:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<code> cd base-7.0/modules/&lt;module&gt;/documentation</code><br />
+<code>make commit</code><br />
+<code>git push --force upstream gh-pages </code>
+</blockquote>
+<p><em>Q: Delay this <code>git push</code> until later?</em></p></li>
+<li><p>Update the Git submodule on the Base-7.0 branch to the
+newly-tagged version, check the module's status matches the tag:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<code> cd base-7.0/modules</code><br />
+<code>git add &lt;module&gt;</code><br />
+<code>git submodule status --cached </code>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Don't commit the submodule updates yet.</p></li>
+<li>Edit the module's release version file
+<code>configure/CONFIG_</code><em><code>module</code></em><code>_VERSION</code>
+and its top-level <code>Doxyfile</code>; increment the
+<code>MAINTENANCE_VERSION</code>, set the <code>DEVELOPMENT_FLAG</code>
+value to 1, and update the <code>PROJECT_NUMBER</code> string, appending
+<code>-dev</code> to the new module version number. Commit changes.</li>
+<li><p>Push commits and the new tag to the submodule's GitHub repository
+(assumed to be the <code>upstream</code> remote):</p>
+<blockquote>
+<code> cd base-7.0/modules/&lt;module&gt;</code><br />
+<code>git push --follow-tags upstream master </code>
+</blockquote></li>
+</ol></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Release Manager</td>
+<td><h4 id="after-all-submodules-have-been-updated">After all submodules
+have been updated:</h4>
+<ol>
+<li><p>Commit the submodule updates which were added for each submodule
+in step 7 above to the 7.0 branch (don't push):</p>
+<blockquote>
+<code> cd base-7.0/modules</code><br />
+<code>git commit -m "Update git submodules for release" </code>
+</blockquote></li>
+<li>Make sure that the output from
+<code>git submodule status --cached</code> only shows the appropriate
+version tags in the right-most parenthesized column with no
+<code>-</code><em><code>n</code></em><code>-g</code><em><code>xxxxxxx</code></em>
+suffix.</li>
+<li><p>Add and commit the new Release Note entry files that were created
+for each submodule in step 3 above (don't push):</p>
+<blockquote>
+<code> cd base-7.0/documentation</code><br />
+<code>git add new-notes</code><br />
+<code>git commit -m "Add submodule release note entries" </code>
+</blockquote></li>
+</ol></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Release Manager</td>
+<td><h4 id="in-the-main-epics-base-repository">In the main epics-base
+repository</h4>
+<ol>
+<li><code>cd base-7.0; git grep UNRELEASED</code> and insert the release
+version to any doxygen annotations that have a
+<code>@since&nbsp;UNRELEASED</code> comment. Commit (don't push).</li>
+<li>Edit the main EPICS Base version file and the built-in module
+version files:
+<ul>
+<li><code>configure/CONFIG_BASE_VERSION</code></li>
+<li><code>configure/CONFIG_LIBCOM_VERSION</code></li>
+<li><code>configure/CONFIG_CA_VERSION</code></li>
+<li><code>configure/CONFIG_DATABASE_VERSION</code></li>
+</ul></li>
+<li>Version numbers should be set according to the level of changes made
+since the last release. Note that the <code>MAINTENANCE_VERSION</code>
+or <code>PATCH_LEVEL</code> value will have been incremented immediately
+after the previous release tag was applied, so don't double-increment
+them. Set all <code>DEVELOPMENT_FLAG</code> values to 0 and set the
+<code>EPICS_DEV_SNAPSHOT</code> to an empty string (no quotes).</li>
+<li><p>Commit the above changes (don't push):</p>
+<blockquote>
+<code> cd base-7.0</code><br />
+<code>git add configure/CONFIG_*_VERSION</code><br />
+<code>git commit -m "Set core version numbers for release" </code>
+</blockquote></li>
+<li><p>When <code>EPICS_DEV_SNAPSHOT</code> is empty because a release
+is being created, the <code>documentation/Makefile</code> supports a
+build target <code>release</code> for creating a new release notes file
+<code>documentation/RELEASE-</code><em><code>version</code></em><code>.md</code>
+from the Markdown files in the <code>documentation/new-notes</code>
+directory. When run, it copies the notes entries from all the
+<code>new-notes/*.md</code> files, then deletes the files and prepares a
+Git commit to apply those changes permanently to the repository.</p>
+<p>Run these commands to generate the <code>RELEASE-7.0.10.md</code>
+file and remove the individual release note entry files:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<code> cd base-7.0/documentation</code><br />
+<code>make release</code>
+</blockquote></li>
+<li><p>The <code>make release</code> command add some changes into the
+Git index but didn't commit them. These commands let you check what was
+done and commit the result (don't push yet!):</p>
+<blockquote>
+<code> git status</code><br />
+<code>git diff --staged</code><br />
+<code>git commit -m "Generate RELEASE-7.0.10.md notes file" </code>
+</blockquote>
+<p>To undo those Git actions and confirm that happened, run these:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<code> make unrelease</code><br />
+<code>git status </code>
+</blockquote></li>
+</ol></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Release Manager</td>
+<td>Tag the epics-base module in Git:
+<blockquote>
+<code> cd base-7.0</code><br />
+<code>git tag -m 'ANJ: Tagged for release' R7.0.10 </code>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Don't push to GitHub yet.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Release Manager</td>
+<td><h4 id="after-tagging-the-release">After tagging the release</h4>
+Edit the main EPICS Base version file and the built-in module version
+files:
+<ul>
+<li><code>configure/CONFIG_BASE_VERSION</code></li>
+<li><code>configure/CONFIG_LIBCOM_VERSION</code></li>
+<li><code>configure/CONFIG_CA_VERSION</code></li>
+<li><code>configure/CONFIG_DATABASE_VERSION</code></li>
+</ul>
+<p>Version numbers should be set for the next expected patch/maintenance
+release by incrementing the MAINTENANCE_VERSION or PATCH_LEVEL value in
+each file. Set all <code>DEVELOPMENT_FLAG</code> values to 1 and
+<code>EPICS_DEV_SNAPSHOT</code> to "-DEV".</p>
+<p>Commit these changes (don't push).</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Release Manager</td>
+<td>Export the tagged version into a tarfile. The
+<code>make-tar.sh</code> script generates a gzipped tarfile directly
+from the tag, excluding the files and directories that are only used for
+continuous integration:
+<blockquote>
+<code> cd base-7.0</code><br />
+<code>./.tools/make-tar.sh R7.0.10 ../base-7.0.10.tar.gz base-7.0.10/ </code>
+</blockquote>
+Create a GPG signature file of the tarfile as follows:
+<blockquote>
+<code> cd ..</code><br />
+<code>gpg --armor --sign --detach-sig base-7.0.10.tar.gz </code>
+</blockquote></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Release Manager</td>
+<td>Test the tar file by extracting its contents and building it on at
+least one supported platform. If this succeeds the commits and new git
+tag can be pushed to the GitHub repository's 7.0 branch (assumed to be
+the <code>upstream</code> remote):
+<blockquote>
+<code> git push --follow-tags upstream 7.0 </code>
+</blockquote></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2">Publish to epics.anl.gov</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Website Editor</td>
+<td>Copy the tarfile and its signature to the Base download area of the
+website.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Website Editor</td>
+<td>Add the new release tar file to the website Base download index
+page.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Website Editor</td>
+<td>Create or update the website subdirectory that holds the release
+documentation, and copy in the files to be published with this release
+version.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Website Editor</td>
+<td>Update the webpage for the new release with links to the release
+documents and tar file.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Website Editor</td>
+<td>Link to the release webpage from other relevant areas of the website
+- update front page and sidebars.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Website Editor</td>
+<td>Add an entry to the website News page, linking to the new version
+webpage.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2">Publish to epics-controls.org</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Website Editor</td>
+<td>Upload the tar file and its <code>.asc</code> signature file to the
+epics-controls web-server.
+<blockquote>
+<code> scp base-7.0.10.tar.gz base-7.0.10.tar.gz.asc epics-controls:download/base</code><br />
+</blockquote></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Website Editor</td>
+<td><p>Follow instructions on
+<a href="https://epics-controls.org/resources-and-support/documents/epics-website-documentation/adding-a-page-for-a-new-release/">
+Add a page for a new release</a>
+to create a new release webpage (not
+required for a patch release, just edit the existing page). Update the
+TablePress "Point Releases" table and add the new download, and adjust
+the Html Snippet for the series download.</p>
+<p>Not covered in those instructions: Go to Posts, find a previous
+release and use "Duplicate Post", then edit the result and publish it.
+This generates the News item.</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2">Publish to GitHub</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Release Manager</td>
+<td>Go to the GitHub
+<a href="https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/releases/new?tag=R7.0.10">
+Create
+release from tag R7.0.10</a> page. Upload the tar file and its
+<code>.asc</code> signature file to the new GitHub release page, or just
+drag-n-drop them into the page. Copy/paste the text from the previous
+release and edit. Submit.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Release Manager</td>
+<td>We used to close out bug reports in Launchpad at release-time, this
+would be the time to do that if we have an equivalent on GitHub.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2">Make Announcement</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Release Manager</td>
+<td>Announce the release on the tech-talk mailing list.</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>

documentation/ca-API.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+Channel Access C/C++ APIs
+=========================
+
+.. toctree::
+   :maxdepth: 1
+   :caption: CA Header Files
+

documentation/ca-cli.md

@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+# Channel Access command-line interface
+
+``` {toctree}
+:titlesonly:
+:caption: Tools
+
+caget
+cainfo
+camonitor
+caput
+```
+
+``` {toctree}
+:titlesonly:
+:caption: Utilities
+
+acctst
+catime
+casw
+caEventRate
+ca_test
+```