OpenADS Release Notes

Complete history of releases with categorized improvements.

v1.8.96 — 2026-08-21

New Features

  • remote_only_access = log audit mode (Pritpal Bedi) — deny mode (1) raises the RTE wherever the first local open happens, and an app whose error handler itself opens tables via ADSCDX dies from Harbour error-handler recursion (“recursive call” error). The new log (or 2) mode writes a LOCALACCESS="OPEN|CREATE" ASKED="..." VIA=LOCAL line to the audit console / log_file and lets the access proceed, so the full inventory of legacy local paths is collected in one run before switching to deny mode.

v1.8.95 — 2026-08-20

New Features

  • Client settings in openads.ini (Pritpal Bedi) — every OPENADS_* client setting now also reads from openads.ini (env var wins): remote_only_access, resolve_verbose, log, log_file, trace, wire_trace, arc_trace, tls_insecure, adi_v2, adt_cdx_index. The client DLL looks for the file next to itself, then in the app working directory; OPENADS_INI points at an explicit path. The file is re-read when it changes. See openads.ini.sample.

v1.8.94 — 2026-08-20

New Features

  • OPENADS_REMOTE_ONLY_ACCESS=1 client guard (Pritpal Bedi) — remote-only deployments can now forbid legacy local-path access through ACE. With the env var set on the client process, a local AdsOpenTable / AdsCreateTable fails with AE_ACCESS_DENIED (rddads raises a Harbour runtime error) instead of silently reading/writing a .dbf next to the app. Remote and SQL-backend connections are unaffected, as is local I/O through another RDD. See Migrating from ADS.

v1.8.93 — 2026-08-19

New Features

  • OAds_Mutex* Harbour wrappers — the server-side distributed mutex service (v1.8.92, remote connections only) is now callable from Harbour PRG code without RDDADS via contrib/oads_hb/oads_hb.c: OAds_MutexCreate( [hConn], cName ), OAds_MutexLock( [hConn], cName, nTimeoutMs ), OAds_MutexTryLock( [hConn], cName ), OAds_MutexUnlock( [hConn], cName ), OAds_MutexDestroy( [hConn], cName ). Omitting hConn uses the default connection set with OAds_SetConnection() (Pritpal Bedi).

Documentation

  • API reference — new section 26 “Distributed Mutex (server-side, remote only)” with the Harbour signatures; last_updated timestamp added to the front matter.

v1.8.89 — 2026-08-17

New Features

  • Process-wide audit sequence — each RESOLVED line is now CONN ENTRY SEQ TIMESTAMP …. ENTRY still restarts per connection; SEQ is a single incrementing number for the process so two connections no longer look like a repeated counter (Pritpal Bedi).

v1.8.88 — 2026-08-17

Bug Fixes

  • oads_hb.c includes "ace.h" — Harbour drop-in glue now uses the same header as contrib/rddads, so it compiles in a consumer project without editing the file each time (Pritpal Bedi).

Packaging

  • Windows ZIP names — only openads-<ver>-windows-x64.zip / windows-x86.zip. The parallel *-win-*.zip slim kit is no longer published (it was a different ace64.dll and confused downloads).

v1.8.87 — 2026-08-17

New Features

  • Resolve audit trail — every table-path resolve is a fixed-width line (CONN6 ENTRY8 TIMESTAMP RESOLVED=... asked=... via=local|remote). Console default is only RESOLVED. Set OPENADS_RESOLVE_VERBOSE=1 for detail lines; OPENADS_LOG_FILE stores only RESOLVED (Pritpal Bedi).

Bug Fixes

  • Remote is safe storage — a remote-server connection no longer opens a leftover host-absolute path. --legacy-paths remounts under --data; otherwise the open fails with the normal RDD error (Pritpal Bedi).

v1.8.79 — 2026-08-15

New Features

  • Connection switching + optional hConn for OAds_F* — OAds_SetConnection( hConn ) sets the thread-local default connection; OAds_GetConnection() retrieves it. All OAds_F* Harbour functions (OAds_FOpen, OAds_FCreate, OAds_CheckExistence, OAds_DeleteFile, OAds_RenameFile, OAds_GetFileSize, OAds_GetFileDate, OAds_GetFileTime, OAds_DirMake, OAds_DirRemove, OAds_DirExist, OAds_Directory, OAds_FExist) now accept hConn as optional. When omitted, the thread-local default is used. Backward compatible — existing code passing hConn continues to work.

    Use case: single-connection apps set the default once; multi-connection apps switch via OAds_SetConnection(hConn) before each call — handy for transparent backup across two endpoints.

Bug Fixes

  • macOS build — arc2_stamp() now uses localtime_r on POSIX (was Windows-only localtime_s); trace log uses /tmp/ace_calls.log on POSIX. AE_NO_MATCHING_FILE (5059) added to the error enum.

v1.8.78 — 2026-08-15

New Features

  • Multi-port server — A single openads_serverd instance can now listen on multiple TCP ports, each with its own data directory. Configure additional ports with [port:NNNN] sections in openads.ini, each specifying a data path. Matches LetoDB’s Port= / DataPath= capability: one process, one config file, multiple logical servers.

Bug Fixes

  • CDX index corruption on record update (macOS) — sync_all_indexes_() silently discarded the B-tree erase result when updating a record, so the old index entry stayed in the tree and the new entry was inserted on top — creating duplicate/stale keys that corrupted B-tree separators. The erase error is now propagated so the caller can abort before inserting. For fresh appends, the blank-key snapshot (fields not yet set) is tolerated because those keys were never inserted. (Commit df9c2cc.)

Tests

  • abi_alternating_append_test: 4 cases — alternating local/remote appends maintain all CDX tag keys.
  • abi_adt_scope_validation_test: M5 stress append + index order + memo round-trip.
  • Full unit suite: 524/524 on Windows, same on macOS.

v1.8.77 — 2026-08-14

Bug Fixes

  • Remote ordListClear() + ordListAdd() left the workarea without an order — The client-side remote AdsCloseAllIndexes closed the indexes on the server but never invalidated the cached tag/handle map in the ACE client DLL. The next AdsOpenIndex / SET ORDER TO reused dead server wire-ids (SetOrder 5000 on run 2) or found no order at all (ADSCDX/301 “Workarea not indexed” on dbSeek on run 1). The client cache is now dropped on close-all. (Reported by Pritpal Bedi — Harbour 32-bit TestIndexes().)
  • OrdCount() stale after OrdCreate() without reopen — The remote create path never registered the new tag in the client’s index handle list, so AdsGetNumIndexes / AdsGetIndexHandle lagged until close+reopen. After a successful create_index the client now refreshes the whole bag from the server (ADS semantics: creating a tag opens every tag in the bag), in bag order. (Reported by Pritpal Bedi.)
  • x86 openads_serverd crashed at startup — dll_probe_ace called AdsGetVersion through a mismatched calling convention whenever an ace32.dll/openace32.dll sat next to the exe. The probe now identifies OpenADS builds via the OpenADS-only oads_* exports before calling anything, and calls __cdecl. (Reported by Pritpal Bedi: “Server does not launch”.)
  • x86 undecorated exports restored to the __cdecl implementations (v1.8.74 behavior) — The stdcall rework had aliased the plain AdsXxx export names to the __stdcall wrappers, so __cdecl callers (FWH apps such as B_BIG.exe, GetProcAddress probes, Xbase++) crashed with ACCESS_VIOLATION on the first ACE call (ADS_GETFUNCTABLE). The plain names now target the __cdecl implementations again; _AdsXxx@N remains on the __stdcall wrappers. (Reported by Pritpal Bedi.)
  • Release CI unblocked — C4100 in AdsFindNextTable/AdsFindClose (MSVC /WX), UUID buffer worst-case %llx sizing (clang -Wformat-truncation), and sign-conversion casts in session.cpp transaction dispatch (clang -Wsign-conversion).

Tests

  • abi_remote_index_reopen_test: 2 cases — remote ordListClear + ordListAdd leaves a usable order (created bag and auto-opened bag variants).
  • Fixed iterator-of-two-temporaries UB in abi_server_fs_test / abi_remote_index_reopen_test (flaky vector too long).
  • Import libraries under dist/import-libs regenerated from the current DLLs.

v1.8.75 — 2026-08-13

New Features

  • ADS-compatible replication (Phase 1) — One-way async replication between OpenADS servers via publications, articles, and subscriptions. The DataDict now supports Publication, Article, and Subscription object types with full CRUD and round-trip persistence. A durable CRC-32C queue (ReplQueue) captures INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE mutations through best-effort capture hooks, and repl_apply_once() drains the queue to apply changes to a local target table. 35 unit tests (464 assertions).
  • M12.33 remote FindTables — AdsOpenTable and the server OpenTable dispatcher now strip tcp://host:port/ URI prefixes that legacy Delphi TAdsTable components embed in table names.

Tests

  • repl_queue_test: 10 cases — append, read_from, CRC corruption, empty file
  • repl_catalog_test: 8 cases — DD round-trip, table_is_published, cascade, rejects
  • abi_repl_capture_test: 1 case — capture hooks fire on INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE
  • repl_apply_test: 23 cases — subscription resolution, INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE apply, mixed batches, idempotency, last_lsn persistence, error paths

v1.8.74 — 2026-08-12

Bug Fixes

  • INDEX ON bag remounted through table’s connection — AdsCreateIndex61 / AdsCreateIndex / AdsOpenIndex now remount the index bag through the table’s connection the same way as the .dbf. Fixes INDEX ON writing .z01 next to the app while the .dbf remounted under --legacy-paths.
  • Explicit local Connection handle no longer hijacked — An explicit local Connection handle is no longer hijacked by “any live RemoteConnection” (in-process server ABI twin + mixed local/remote apps).

Tests

  • AdsCreateIndex61 remounts client-absolute .z01 under legacy_paths
  • remote INDEX ON remounts client-absolute .z01 under legacy-paths jail

v1.8.73 — 2026-08-12

Bug Fixes

  • --legacy-paths now remounts every client-absolute path under --data — Previously, host files that already existed outside --data could still be opened. Every client-absolute open/create now remounts under --data first; the host-absolute OPEN/CREATE exceptions apply only in strict mode.

Documentation

  • Documented the --data / URI / --legacy-paths contract (forward slashes recommended) in cookbook/docs/local-and-remote.md and connection-strings.md.

Tests

  • session_connection_test: host-absolute file outside the jail must not win when legacy_paths is on.
  • abi_mt_create_vs_dbfcdx_test: Harbour helpers are Windows-only so clang -Werror (Linux/macOS) does not fail on unused stubs.

v1.8.72 — 2026-08-11

Performance

  • ADSCDX multi-thread create ~30x faster than Harbour DBFCDX — Measured on 40 tables / 4 threads, 10 rows + 3-tag CDX each:
    • Harbour DBFCDX: ~4 s (baseline)
    • OpenADS ADSCDX: ~0.13 s (~30x faster)
    • Harbour ADSCDX (rddads): ~0.15 s (~27x faster)
  • No per-op FlushFileBuffers — Default is page-write only; set OPENADS_FSYNC=1 to restore the old power-fail-safe path.
  • AdsCreateIndex61 no longer holds state().mu across bulk build — Only index_bindings_mu around map mutations, so multi-thread INDEX ON scales.
  • CDX write-lock wait uses a condition variable — Not 100 us poll; always releases the batch join on flush error paths.

Tests

  • abi_mt_create_vs_dbfcdx_test.cpp — every ADSCDX speed run paired with a Harbour DBFCDX baseline.
  • Build harness: tests/unit/build_mt_create_bench.bat.

v1.8.68 — 2026-08-09

Bug Fixes

  • clang -Werror build breaks in new test files — Two unused-code warnings (lambda capture, helper functions) failed macOS/Linux CI builds. No product code changes beyond the warning fixes; supersedes v1.8.67 on POSIX.

v1.8.67 — 2026-08-09

Bug Fixes

  • CDX B+tree Harbour-exact (key, recno) ordering — Insert descent now compares full (key, recno) pairs. Separators are refreshed on every max-pair change, on insert and on erase.
  • Two multithreading defects fixed — CDX write-lock batch now has an owner thread; remote AdsOpenIndex handle array overflow fixed.
  • DBF headers now byte-identical with Harbour DBFCDX — Header length 32 + 32*n + 2 with 2-byte terminator. Production-index flag set when CDX bag shares table’s basename.

Tests

  • cdx_dup_key_split_test: independent raw-page decoder asserting parent-separator == child-max.
  • abi_alternating_append_test: two local connections and a remote server + local client alternating duplicate-key bursts.

v1.8.66 — 2026-08-08

Bug Fixes

  • Multi-tag CDX bags: creation and binding — Legacy AdsCreateIndex no longer truncates the bag when adding a second tag. AdsOpenIndex now binds all tags regardless of handle array size.
  • DBF record-count race under concurrent mixed writers — refresh_record_count_ now takes the max of header and size-derived counts.

v1.8.65 — 2026-08-07

Bug Fixes (POSIX)

  • SIGPIPE guard — sock_send() with MSG_NOSIGNAL on Linux; SO_NOSIGPIPE on macOS.
  • ADT byte-lock offset wrap — Offsets ≥ 2^63 folded into positive range.
  • CDX write-lock registry per-file mutex — Each .cdx path serialises on its own entry mutex.

v1.8.64 — 2026-08-07

Bug Fixes

  • Harbour DBFCDX interop: shared-index visibility — Peer CDX updates now detected via file-header version counter.
  • Physical write guard (GoHot) — Shared-mode writes require RLock / FLock / exclusive.
  • Index corruption under mixed ADS/DBFCDX writers — Lock offsets aligned with Harbour DBFCDX VFP scheme.

v1.8.63 — 2026-08-07

Bug Fixes

  • Remote keyno stale after APPEND/WRITE/DELETE/RECALL — keyno_valid and prefetch/BOF-EOF flags now cleared.

v1.8.62 — 2026-08-07

Performance

  • Server-side GetKeyNum via CDX O(1) cache — New wire opcodes GetKeyNum / GetKeyNumAck (0x03/0x04).
  • Same-record GotoRecord preserves keyno — TXBrowse:Refresh() after remote APPEND stays O(1).

v1.8.61 — 2026-08-07

Bug Fixes

  • CDX tag-header update counter endianness — Now big-endian to match Harbour DBFCDX.

v1.8.60 — 2026-08-06

Bug Fixes

  • CDX page allocator tail reset after recreate — Prevents ~10x sparse-file bloat.

v1.8.59 — 2026-08-05

Performance

  • Legacy ADI CREATE INDEX bottom-up bulk pack — Index ~49% smaller (73,216 → 37,376 bytes for 10,000 keys).

v1.8.58 — 2026-08-05

Documentation

  • Error log vs transaction journal paths — Documented ads_err.dbf location and relocation options.

v1.8.57 — 2026-08-05

New Features

  • ADI v2 tags — Compound/computed/FOR on ADT tables.
  • AdsGetKeyCount memoise — Performance improvement.
  • ADT read-ahead — Prefetch optimization.
  • PACK truncate — Efficient table compaction.

v1.8.56 — 2026-08-05

Bug Fixes

  • CDX numeric leaves type-dependent trail byte — NUL for FoxNumeric, matching DBFCDX density.

v1.8.55 — 2026-08-04

New Features

  • SAP date display format — AdsGetField formatted vs AdsGetString raw.
  • Join/union/aggregate temps are ADT — Temporary tables use ADT format.

v1.8.54 — 2026-08-04

Bug Fixes

  • Connect no longer fails when data root is not writable — e.g. --data "C:\".

v1.8.53 — 2026-08-03

Bug Fixes

  • legacy_paths remote create/reindex — Fixed un-flagged ABI twin usage.
  • Drive-letter routing for whole-filesystem servers — --data "C:\;D:\;E:\".

v1.8.52 — 2026-08-03

New Features

  • legacy_paths server mode — Zero-change ERP ports with absolute path remapping.

v1.8.51 — 2026-08-02

Bug Fixes

  • x86 ace32.dll exports cdecl aliases — For MinGW rddads compatibility.

v1.8.50 — 2026-08-01

Bug Fixes

  • Empty AOF visible-set returns Limbo — AdsSeekLast positions correctly.
  • AOF index selection — Fixed.
  • ADI keycount fix — Fixed.

v1.8.49 — 2026-08-01

Bug Fixes

  • Write coalescing broke rollback/CDX/AFTER triggers — Fixed.
  • Remote ADT numeric round-trip encoding — Fixed.

v1.8.48 — 2026-08-01

Bug Fixes

  • 32-bit toolchain: ace.h __stdcall on MSVC x86 — All in-tree tools link against exported stdcall names.

v1.8.47 — 2026-08-01

Bug Fixes

  • Remote AtBOF/AtEOF answered from wrong cursor — Fixed.
  • Row trailer at BOF fixed phantom duplicate row — Fixed.

v1.8.46 — 2026-08-01

Bug Fixes

  • DbSetOrder(0) restores natural order — Fixed.
  • ace32.dll exports stdcall @N names — Fixed.
  • ADSHANDLE 32-bit — Fixed.

v1.8.45 — 2026-07-31

Bug Fixes

  • Remote KeyNo/RelKeyPos clamps to scope-aware key count — Eliminates phantom rows in xBrowse.

For the full commit-by-commit history see the CHANGELOG.

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