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Elektra 0.11.0
0.9.11 Release

  • guid: 1390D163-9CEC-493D-839D-3930B9FFB6C4
  • author: Mihael Pranjić
  • pubDate: Wed, 05 Oct 2022 08:14:35 +0200
  • shortDesc: New Backend System, Opensesame Application, FLOSS Course

We are proud to release Elektra 0.9.11.

What is Elektra?

Elektra serves as a universal and secure framework to access configuration settings in a global, hierarchical key database. For more information, visit https://libelektra.org.

You can also read the news on our website.

You can try out the latest Elektra release using our Docker image elektra/elektra. This is the quickest way to get started with Elektra without compiling and other obstacles, simply run:

docker pull elektra/elektra
docker run -it elektra/elektra

Highlights

  • Preparing new-backend merge
  • Olimex
  • Improving Elektra in FLOSS course

Preparing new-backend merge

In a separated branch we rewrote the whole backend system. With this new backend system, backends are now also plugins, allowing backends also to be non-file-based, e.g., using databases. The main purpose of this release is to give a last stable release before master gets disrupted with a huge changeset. The next release is not to be expected in this year.

A huge thanks to _(Klemens Böswirth @kodebach)_, _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_ for the many changes in the branch. Thanks to _(Richard Stöckl @Eiskasten)_ for testing.

Olimex

Elektra is used for server, desktop and embedded. With this release, we strengthen our embedded mainstay, specifically in open source hardware OSHW. We developed a major application running on OSHW Olimex boards. The application is called opensesame. It is heavily relying on Elektra and ansible-libelektra.

In the initial release opensesame already allows:

  • [x] opening (garage) doors via a novel PIN entry method: you can press and release buttons in any sequence
  • [x] switching on entry lights
  • [x] ringing doorbells
  • [x] detection of fire
  • [x] report events to Nextcloud chats (English and German)

To give a smoother experience when running such an application we will develop Ansible scripts to customize the Olimex base images. They will allow changing the language, time zone, static network configuration etc.

Olimex likes this idea and will send us an A20 board. A big thanks to Olimex.

Improving Elektra in FLOSS course

Also in the upcoming term Elektra will be object of study how FLOSS initiatives work. Students will make improvements in Elektra as part of their homework, teamwork and, if chosen, also for their project. Alternatively, they can also improve other self-chosen FLOSS initiatives.

Plugins

The following text list news about the plugins we updated in this release.

  • fix unused-but-set-variable warnings. _(Markus Raab)_

csvstorage

  • Remove superfluous if-conditions that lead to a build error on Debian Unstable _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_

specload

  • fail if either the spec or parentKey parameter of elektraSpecloadSendSpec is NULL _(@hannes99)_

Libraries

The text below summarizes updates to the C (and C++)-based libraries of Elektra.

  • fix unused-but-set-variable warnings. _(Markus Raab)_

opts

  • opts: fix possible 'free(): invalid pointer' error and add test for it _(@hannes99)_

Bindings

Bindings allow you to utilize Elektra using various programming languages. This section keeps you up-to-date with the multi-language support provided by Elektra.

Python

  • add merging based on elektraMerge _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_

Rust

  • start again to publish on crates.io, used by opensesame _(Markus Raab)_

Documentation

  • Added Documentation Guidelines _(Markus Raab)_
  • Decisions for changes to keyIsBelow and new keyGetNextPart functions _(@kodebach)_
  • Apply fix spelling to more files. _(Markus Raab)_

Tutorials

  • opts: use arg/help instead of arg/name _(@hannes99)_

Man Pages

  • Update FAQ. _(Markus Raab)_

Tests

  • Use GoogleTest framework v1.12.1. _(Mihael Pranjić @mpranj)_

Build

CMake

  • Fix build with newer libgit2 versions _(Fabian Vogt)_
  • We now require at least CMake 3.12 (released in July 2018). _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_

Docker

  • Bump Alpine Linux to 3.16.0. _(Mihael Pranjić @mpranj)_
  • The Docker image for building the documentation is now based on Debian Bullseye. _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_
  • Add Fedora 36 images. _(Mihael Pranjić @mpranj)_

Infrastructure

Jenkins

  • We no longer build and test on Ubuntu Xenial and Debian Stretch due to outdated CMake versions _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_
  • Add Fedora 36 builds, remove Fedora 34 builds. _(Mihael Pranjić @mpranj)_

Cirrus

  • Update FreeBSD images to 13.1 and 12.3 and update packages before builds. _(Mihael Pranjić @mpranj)_
  • Bump Fedora builds to Fedora 36. _(Mihael Pranjić @mpranj)_

Website

The website is generated from the repository, so all information about plugins, bindings and tools are always up-to-date.

Outlook

We are currently working on following topics:

  • 1.0 API _(Klemens Böswirth @kodebach)_ and _(Stefan Hanreich)_
  • Elektrify KDE and GNOME _(Mihael Pranjić @mpranj)_
  • Elektrify XFCE _(Richard Stöckl @Eiskasten)_
  • Mounting SQL databases _(Florian Lindner @flo91)_
  • Recording Configuration _(Maximilian Irlinger)_
  • Ansible-Elektra _(Lukas Hartl)_ and _(Maximilian Irlinger)_
  • Configure Olimex Base Images _(Maximilian Irlinger)_
  • Improving Build Server Infrastructure _(Lukas Hartl)_ and _(Maximilian Irlinger)_
  • Improve Java Development Experience _(Michael Tucek)_
  • Rewriting tools in C _(@hannes99)_

Statistics

We closed 17 issues for this release.

About 11 authors changed 156 files with 4020 insertions(+) and 3298 deletions(-) in 134 commits.

Thanks to all authors for making this release possible!

Join the Initiative!

We welcome new contributors! Read here about how to get started.

As first step, you could give us feedback about these release notes. Contact us via our issue tracker.

Get the Release!

You can download the release from

The hashsums are:

  • name: elektra-0.9.11.tar.gz
  • size: 9149900
  • md5sum: 227094a7760f8faece1a7b8386d01fce
  • sha1: a0d2f0d39c8360f67da96585993223b7f9cdebe6
  • sha256: 3509adf83efdf08fa0dc5d51396772addff7d8fc82299c18b146fa4406eecff5

The release tarball is also available signed using GnuPG from

The following GPG Key was used to sign this release: 12CC44541E1B8AD9B66AFAD55262E7353324914A

Already built API documentation can be found here or on GitHub.

Stay tuned!

Subscribe to the RSS feed to always get the release notifications.

If you also want to participate, or for any questions and comments please contact us via our issue tracker on GitHub.

Permalink to this NEWS entry

For more information, see https://libelektra.org.

Best regards, Elektra Initiative

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