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- Added a new [doc plugin](https://www.libelektra.org/plugins/doc) _(Max)_

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<<scripts/generate-news-entry>>

We are proud to release Elektra <<VERSION>>.

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

Session Recording
ODBC Backend

Session Recording

Elektra now comes with a powerful new feature that allows users to record and export changes made to the KDB: session recording. This feature enables you to easily track changes made to the configuration database over time, which helps troubleshoot issues, diagnose errors, and improve system performance. It even lets you undo the changes you've performed!

You can also export the changes as Ansible playbooks using the new Ansible storage plugin! This makes it easy to automate and reproduce system configurations. We think that this feature offers significant time savings and improved accuracy when managing complex systems.

Whether you're a system administrator, developer, or DevOps engineer, we believe that the session recording feature in Elektra will become an essential tool for managing and maintaining system configurations. Try it today and experience the benefits of streamlined configuration management.

Note: when you activate session recording, concurrency of Elektra will be somewhat limited. As long as it is active, a global lock will be created to ensure no two processes will write data simultaneously. This behavior is similar as to when multiple processes will write to the same configuration file. Applications should already handle this case gracefully, and just retry writing their configuration.

ODBC Backend

Based on the new and more versatile concept for backends, where backends are implemented as plugins, a new backend-plugin that uses ODBC data sources for storing keys has been developed. It was tested on Gentoo Linux with unixODBC using SQLite and PostgreSQL data sources. The ODBC backend-plugin can only be built if the ODBC library is available on the build system. This can be accomplished by installing e.g. unixODBC. Microsoft ODBC (on MS Windows) and iODBC should also be supported, but were not tested yet. If you use the plugin with another ODBC implementation as unixODBC, you are very welcome to update the documentation with your experiences!

The tutorial is a good place for getting started with the new ODBC backend for Elektra.

Plugins

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

General

Updated target name of shared object files according to #3486

spec

Remove metakeys from array elements correctly #4961 _(Tomislav Makar @tmakar)_

recorder

Add recorder plugin. _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_

jdbc

Fix formatting/spelling problem in README.md _(Hannes Laimer @hannes99)_

backend_odbc

Add ODBC backend _(Florian Lindner @flo91)_

ansible

Add ansible plugin for exporting keysets as ansible-libelektra playbooks. _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_

toml

Fix error reporting when unsupported metakey has been encountered. _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_

length

Remove experimental status. _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_

Xfconf

Implemented the first revision of the Xfconf binding. _(Richard Stöckl @Eiskasten)_
Make Xfconf storage plugin compatible with new backend and noresolver. _(Richard Stöckl @Eiskasten)_
This allows to use elektra as a drop-in replacement for applications which use Xfconf. _(Richard Stöckl @Eiskasten)_
Xfconf applications can now read and write configuration settings to elektra. _(Richard Stöckl @Eiskasten)_
Use cmake variables in the replace and restore scripts. _(Richard Stöckl @Eiskasten)_

c

Improve the c plugin: some refactoring, add documentation, extend README.md, add unit tests. _(Florian Lindner @flo91)_

Libraries

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

kdb

Add elektraCopyError function to copy error from one key to another _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_
Add elektraCopyWarnings function to copy warnings from one key to another _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_
Add elektraCopyErrorAndWarnings function to copy error and warnings from one key to another _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_

record

Add record library used for session recording. _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_

ease

Add elektraArrayGetPrefix function. _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_

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.

C++

Provide getter for the underlying C object of KDB _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_
Add ElektraDiff binding for C++ _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_
The dup method of KeySet now returns a wrapped object _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_
Add an overload for KeySet::cut that accepts a string for the keyname _(Maximilian Irlinger)_
The dup method of Key now returns a wrapped object _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_
Add overloads for Key::isBelow, Key::isBelowOrSame and Key::isDirectBelow that accept a string as the key name _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_
Include the header cstdint in key.hpp. It is needed for an enum of type std::uint8_t _(Florian Lindner @flo91)_

Java

Added documentation about the design of the binding. _(Michael Tucek @tucek)_

Python

Add ElektraDiff binding _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_
The __meta__ attribute on a key now returns a proper keyset _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_
Add new module kdb.errors to simplify extracting errors and warnings from keys _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_
Add new module kdb.record for interfacing with the session recording capabilities of Elektra _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_
Add getConflictingKeys method to kdb.merge.MergeResult. _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_

Rust

Upgrade bindgen dependency to version 0.55.1. _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_

Xfconf

Implemented the first revision of the Xfconf binding. _(Richard Stöckl @Eiskasten)_
This allows to use elektra as a drop-in replacement for applications which use Xfconf. _(Richard Stöckl @Eiskasten)_
Xfconf applications can now read and write configuration settings to elektra. _(Richard Stöckl @Eiskasten)_
Use cmake variables in the replace and restore scripts. _(Richard Stöckl @Eiskasten)_

Tools

kdb

Add commands for session recording. _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_
The kdb mount command will now automatically detect whether the given path is an absolute path. _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_
Fix unwanted removal of subkeys when using mv _(Hannes Laimer @hannes99)_
Fix inconsistent return values in code, tests and man pages _(Hannes Laimer @hannes99)_
Remove smount alias _(Hannes Laimer @hannes99)_

Documentation

Fix bug in Doxygen comment for const char * keyName (const Key * key) which lead to failed building of the refman.pdf on recent TeX Live releases _(Florian Lindner @flo91)_
Update release documentation regarding version tags. _(Mihael Pranjić @mpranj)_
Add glossaries for developers and contributors _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_
Add use cases for using the bindings. _(Richard Stöckl @Eiskasten)_
Write the Xfconf tutorial. _(Richard Stöckl @Eiskasten)_
Add use cases for libelektra-core _(@lawli3t)_

Use Cases

Add end-user and developer integration use case _(Hannes Laimer @hannes99)_
Add use cases for using the bindings. _(Richard Stöckl @Eiskasten)_
Add use cases for libelektra-core _(@lawli3t)_

Decisions

Add decision for Elixir bindings. _(@0x6178656c)_

Tutorials

Add tutorial for session recording. _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_
Add tutorial for ODBC backend. _(Florian Lindner @flo91)_

Man Pages

Add man pages for session recording

Tests

Add macro succeed_if_keyset_contains_key_with_string to assert that a certain key with a certain value must exist. _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_

Docker

Use openwrt/sdk instead of openwrtorg/sdk. _(Richard Stöckl @Eiskasten)_
Reduce fedora docker image size (PR #4637) _(@4ydan)_

Infrastructure

Jenkins

Disable openwrt build until we have found a new maintainer for it. _(Maximilian Irlinger @atmaxinger)_

Cirrus

The arch package texlive-most is no longer available, replaced it with other texlive packages. See https://archlinux.org/packages/?q=texlive _(Florian Lindner @flo91)_