Build 11.2.2 is a minor release, including performance optimizations, and multiple bug fixes. It represents the final state of the B11_2 branch and the prototype for the Ultralog program.

• Added new agent suicide service, to allow Cougaar to kill off a node or agent that is dying or dead (in particular, if a plugin throws an exception, or if the JVM is about to run out of memory). See org.cougaar.core.node.SuicideServiceComponent ( bug 3691 ).
• Added new WP bootstrap mechanism to replace old RMI registry implementation. The new "discovery" mechanism supports HTTP, RMI, multicast, and config-file-based bootstrap of nameserver addresses. Once servers have been found and "ping"ed, the bootstrap process is stopped, and restarted if the servers become unresponsive. The new bootstrap passes the full WP record instead of just the "-RMI" address ( bug 3756, ).
• Added Node-level incarnation service for coordinated agent incarnation tracking between Agents, WP, and MTS. The MTS also detects duplicate agents and selects the newest agent version ( bug 3756, bug 3727 ).
• Fixed several bugs related to the ThreadService silently catching OutOfMemoryErrors, which were caused by excessively large thread client "toString()"s. The ThreadService was modified to log exceptions, and the CommunityCache detailed toString was moved to a new toXML method ( bug 3804, bug 3805, bug 3811, bug 3812, bug 3813, bug 3814).
• The RescindLP is much more aggressive in removing orphaned objects. Whenever a Task is added or changed or a PlanElement is added or removed, the links among Tasks and PEs are checked to ensure they are "consistent" -- ensuring references point to Objects that exist on the blackboard, for example.
• Added new "/consistency" servlet (org.cougaar.planning.servlet.ConsistencyCheckServlet) to show inconsistent tasks, which uses the same methods as the RescindLP.
• Implemented ThreadService pooled thread continuation, to reduce thread context switching overhead (bug 3629).
• Remove old -D flags for MTS aspects, protocols, and link selection (bug 3240)
• Clean up initializing AssetInitializer service, particularly when not using a database (bug 3699).
• Allow per-agent XML file (bug 3632)
• Added system properties to change the default agent and node template files. The default behavior is:
   -Dorg.cougaar.society.xsl.param.defaultAgent=SimpleAgent.xsl
   -Dorg.cougaar.society.xsl.param.defaultNode=NodeAgent.xsl
• Use an empty "DefaultAgent.xml" if the XML parser can't find an agent's configuration in the node or per-agent XML files. This is primarily used for rehydrating an agent on a remote node (bug 3713).
• Allow host addresses to change at runtime (bug 3575)
• Do not publish Compositions.
• AspectValue subclass fields are now final.
• Added org.cougaar.util.ToStringMemo to help in caching toStrings (bug 3692)
• Bug 3695: Added version of RelationshipSchedule.getMatchingRelationships that takes a single time.
• Bug 3667: Added system properties to WP SelectManager to allow favoring a local WP
• Added org.cougaar.util.TimeSpans for factories, canonical implementations
• Turned off Blackboard pedantic mode by default (bug 3674)
• Bug 3680: Preserve backpointers in Tasks and Expansions.
• Bug 3685: OplanReaderPlugin's MyStages serializable.
• Bug 3678: Aggregations made to match bug 3663's API change
• Bug 3688: Ensure myAgentAddr is initialized in OrgDataPlugin
• Bug 3696: Fix Subscriber support for multiple watchers
• Remove DataGathererServlet from MiniTest
• Bug 3722: Avoid publishAdd'ing a Task with a null verb
• Bug 3725: The node-level servlet server now advertises a RootServletService, to avoid confusion by service listeners
• YPServer drops unused database connections. Default to 10 minutes. Set via -Dorg.cougaar.yp.UnusedDBConnectionInterval
• Moved TrafficMatrix and AgentFlowAspect out of core.
• Bug 3757: Do not make local changes when an incoming Task is past its commitment date (logged at INFO).
• Bug 3760: The /agentQuiescentState servlet now shows which quiescence clients are blocking quiescence. Also logged at detail.
• Added org.cougaar.core.persist.RehydrateTest for printing the contents of a blackboard persistence snapshot. Bug 3381.
• Dropped org.cougaar.mts.std.MulticastMessageAddress
• Bug 3798: Added Agent incarnation # to Agent Lifecycle events.
• Added StateDumpService in org.cougaar.core.node, for use when an agent is about to suicide, to do a post-mortem. Implementation is in mts/org.cougaar.mts.std.StateDumpServiceComponent
• Added MTS DetectBigMessageAspect
• ClusterOPlan.updateOPlanTimes made accessible from subclasses.
• Turn down some RescindLP WARNs
• Bug 3635: name YP databases with a system time, allowing 2 agents with the same name on the same host to avoid dying due to YP database name
• Bug 3698 fixed in service discovery
• Various changes and additions to the metrics service.
• Various small changes to support minimal agent configurations (no Blackboard?)
• Avoid calling postRehydration on inActive objects in PersistenceServiceComponent (bug 3588)
• Optimize Blackboard handling of MessageAddresses with attributes (bug 3796)

Build 11.2 is a minor release, including a backwards-compatible core refactor, performance optimizations, and multiple bug fixes.

• Applied updated & simplified BSD-derived copyright notice.
• Converted minitestconfig and tutorials to run completely from XML. Running of MiniNode does not require the database. All "*.INI" files have been removed as they are no longer supported.
• Refactored core to support node and agent templates, moving most formerly hard-coded components to new XSL style sheets. For example, a developer can modify the "configs/common/NodeAgent.xsl" to replace the MTS, disable the blackboard, etc. See the Cougaar Developers' Guide version 11.2 for details.
• New XML Node startup scripts (bin/XSLNode) to use -D system properties ("<vm_parameter>") specified in XML files. For most developers, this simplifies configuration management, since per-node system properties can be maintained in the same XML file as the node and agent configurations.
• The RescindLP now does many sanity checks on the addition and removal of objects. In particular, it enforces that Tasks are added before PlanElements that handle them, and child tasks after the PlanElements. Typically the result is that many tasks without a parent task (because an infrastructure rescind is in progress) are removed. System properties permit disabling this behavior.
• Multiple fixes to minimize persistence overhead. Disabled persistence now has nearly zero overhead, since the agents no longer do trivial "P" persists or hold onto change tuples. When persistence is enabled, redundant tuples are now consolidated between persists, allowing early GC; for example, an object publishAdded and publishRemoved between persist cycles can now be GC'ed before the next persist.
• Drop explicit GC before persistence. This means persistence may temporarily store removed objects, but the new design is more efficient if a node contains many agents.
• New component model load order of "initialize()", "load()", and "start()": now all components are initialized before any are loaded, etc. In particular, all plugins are now loaded before any are started, where start schedules the "setupSubscriptions()". This should be transparent to most developers.
• Many fewer native threads created directly - more use of the Cougaar ThreadService (bug 3542). For example, JVM thread dumps will no longer show per-agent "RQ" message handler threads.
• Alarms now use the ThreadService for scheduling.
• Multiple enhancements in initializers to reduce String consing, LoggingService instances, and other memory enhancements. In particular, community file is only parsed once per Node.
• Do not propogate add/change of Allocations of Tasks that are not on the blackboard (have just been rescinded).
• Added a SimpleRelayExample to core/relay package.
• Support running plugins in a mode where only a single transaction may be open at one time (default is off: that is, fully parallel plugin operation). See cougaar bug 3664.
• org.cougaar.planning.plugin.PluginSanityBinder is an optional new binder for use with plugins. When inserted, it will complain whenever a bound object (e.g. plugin) publish adds/changes a task which did not originate in the agent. As an added extra bonus, this is a moderately good example of a simple but functional Binder.
• There is a service alternative to ConfigFinder in the form of ConfigurationService. The service is provided by org.cougaar.core.node.ConfigurationServiceComponent which is loaded by default only in XML configurations. See cougaar bug (RFE) 2569.
• Multiple planning object tweaks: synchronize access to key members, avoid serializing un-necessary members, and add debug logging on acess to other members.
• ActiveSubscriptionObject actions may now be delayed from immediate (upon object publish) to LogicProvider time. This is more correct, but breaks a fair amount of old code. In particular, new code should avoid expecting that objects change immediately at publish time - the most common problems are dependence on Task.getPlanElement() and immediate updates to Assets RoleSchedules after allocation or reassignment. See ActiveSubscriptionObject for more information. This new option defaults to the old behavior, but will probably switch to the more correct semantics in a future release. When enabled, turns on extensive debugging code which notes problematic usage. (see cougaar bug 3663)
• GLSExpanderPlugin supports a -D argument which forces a persistence after the GLS task has been propogated. See the source for that plugin.
• Added new method to PluginHelper which plugins should use when removing a task from its workflow, to recalculate the aggregated Allocation Result if necessary.
• Further work for propogating Allocation Result changes up to a task that was Expanded. In particular support a change to undefined. See bug 3462.
• New OperationalSuperior concept.
• Restore prototype cache on rehydration.
• Improve algorithm efficiency for detecting Node-level queiscence.
• New optional core servlet, QuiescenceStateServlet, which shows the quiescence status of individual Nodes and the agents within those nodes.
• Added components to restrict the number of threads per node or per agent.
• Added multiple utilities.
• Added new generic BlackboardAlert object for indicating a problem on the local blackboard for higher-level application resolution.
• MessageTransportClient API change: added getIncarnationNumber, to avoid WP lookup for the incarnation numbers of local agents.
• Added DestinationLink validity support.
• Added MTS OldIncarnationAspect to ignore messages from an old instance of an agent that has restarted elsewhere.
• Added more regression tests.
• Multiple fixes to avoid locking agent when persistence is slow.
• Reduce usage of deprecated blocking WP calls.
• Modified API for PluginAlarm to take an absolute time instead of a delay, allowing for consistent usage between base classes.
• Moved Ping society and configuration from core to new ping module.
• Shortened Node quiescence announcement delay to 20 seconds, and added -D argument to configure this value.
• Suppress some YP errors that may be transient while component re-tries.
• Updated Vishnu server 3rd party jar to include a performance improvement.
• Support community service access control.
• Added new -D argument to suppress reconciliation (org.cougaar.core.node.SkipReconciliation).
• Added trivial single-node MTS implementation. See "configs/common/NodeAgent.xsl" for details.
• Require reasonable AspectScorePoints in ScoringFunctions.
• Multi-threading fixes to GLM's ClusterOPlan fix to ensure start & end times are consistent.
• Suppress resending the self Organization if only LocalPG changes have happened (as in OPlanWatcherLP).
• Javadoc cleanup.

Build 11.0 is a major release, including multiple new pieces of functionality.

• Updated Jena to version 2.0 and Xerces to 2.6.0:
  • The new Jena jar required an update to icu4j.jar, and the addition of antlr.jar, jakarta-oro-2.0.5, and rdf-api-2001-01-19
  • The updated Xerces changed names to xercesImpl and xml-apis.jar (split implementation from APIs).
  • Servicediscovery code was changed to support the new Jena. Additionally, we use the built-in Jena file-caching. We still list the cached files in proxyTable.txt, but this is not just documentation. We no longer use custom caching. Additionally, Time.daml was added to the set of cached files.
  • Jena2 now uses log4j. To turn down Jena WARNings, in particular from the RDFDefaultErrorHandler, specify the log4j property "log4j.category.com.hp.hpl.jena=ERROR".
• GLS tasks may no longer be rescinded. For each Oplan stage, the GLSInitServlet now sends a new GLS task with the additional oplan stage - leaving the old tasks behind. It is generally bad usage to modify a task in place to have entirely different meaning. In this case, it appeared to cause confusion about the meaning of the allocation results. See bug 3407.
• The MTS implementation has been factored into a separate module and project. In CougaarForge, it is now the "std" module of the "mts" project. Cougaar builds package it as "mtsstd.jar". The major effect of this refactoring is that most of the classes previously in org.cougaar.core.mts are now in org.cougaar.mts.std (e.g. those which implement the MTS interface have changed packages, while those which define the interface have not. See ReleaseNotes/11.0/mts-refactor.txt for details. Also see the perl script ReleaseNotes/11.0/mts-refactor.pl which will do most of the substitutions requires to port 10.0 code to 11.0. As a side effect of the refactoring, there is a new service available at the node level SocketFactoryService which allows clients to find an appropriate SocketFactory without needing to know about the MTS implementation which may be supporting it.
• Lanes have been added to the Thread Services. This allows finer tuned control over thread policies (max. running, queue ordering, etc). The service APIs have some new methods in support of this. Old methods continue to work and simply use the default lane. For more details see Thread Lanes.
• Minimal MTS and Thread Services have been defined. For more details see Minimal Services
• Multiple changes to Service Discovery. These make specifying matchmaker scoring functions much easier, and provide better support for dynamic provider availability changing. AvailabilityChangeMessages can come in, causing the SD plugins to work to ensure they have contracts covering the required intervals.
• Refactored the DeletionPlugin to make it a generic BBoard object deletion API. See org.cougaar.core.plugin.deletion package.
• Added a new GLM Plugin: org.cougaar.mlm.plugin.organization.ReportChainDetectorPlugin to notice when a Superior/Subordinate hierarchy is complete.
• The uiframework no longer requires the non-open source datagrabber module for compilation. Actual usage of some pieces will likely still require that software.
• Reworked quiescence detection mechanism to avoid logic problems. Quiescence detection is now more sensitive. (Bug 3359)
• Task.getPreferredValue now returns Double.NaN instead of -1.0 when the value is undefined (cbug 2919).
• The base unix shell scripts have been greatly simplified. setarguments and setlibpath are gone, fully replaced by the boost script (now used by the rest of the scripts). Node now fully subsumes the functionality of the now deleted XMLNode and PNode scripts.
• The initialization services now create ComponentDescription parameters as unmodifiable List objects, rather than as (mutable) Vectors. This means that plugins and other components with a setParameter method will get called with a List rather than a Vector (which is, after all, also instanceof List). This closes a security hole (cougaar bug 3263) and drops one more use of Vector. Note that legacy plugins (extending PluginAdapter) continue to see a Vector if they call getParameters() -- while the returned value is mutable, the security exploit cannot be used in this case.
• Most DOS scripts now support directories with a space (" ") in the name. This does _not_ currently include the DB load scripts. Additionally, the bash / csh scripts are not covered.
• Changed default agent start time in the scripts to be 12:05am on 8/10/05
• Multiple other minor bugs fixed (3323, 3423, 3424, 3438, 3448, 3420, 3431, 3221, 3223, 3224, 3181, 3440, 3403, 3427...)
• Dropped very old files from various modules.
• Various caching, interning, & other modifications to reduce memory usage.
• Refactored & cleaned up the tutorials, dropping the old "faststart" tutorials, which were broken.
• Various toolkit module enhancements to reduce memory usage.
• Do not use the Verb object constructor - it is now protected. (bug 2661).
• Multiple changes to clean up code, remove unused variables, sort imports, etc.

Build 10.4.6 is a minor release, including minor improvements in a number of services and multiple bug fixes. It also adds support for distributed hierarchical yellow pages, and service discovery through those.

• Bug 3315: Fix up specification of agentStartTime. Now uses the full hours, minutes, seconds of system GMT time for the specified day. Allows specification of the hours and minutes, and an offset for more accuracy. See the bug report for details.
• Added support for service discovery using distributed YPServers. The default behaviour is unchanged, i.e. a single YPServer. For the distributed case, each agent belongs to a YPCommunity which is served by a YPServer. The YP communities are organized along the same lines as the command hierarchy. Service discovery uses the community service to traverse the hierarchy of YPServers to find the providers which most closely match the client's specification.
• Modified GLS task generation. A separate GLS task is created for each oplan stage. Each task has the set of oplan stages which were valid at the time it was created
• RFE 3162: ServiceDiscovery ClientPlugin forces a persist after FindProviders is complete - killing an agent before that point when using ServiceDiscovery is not supported.
• Bug 3324: Suppress RDF startup warnings from ServiceDiscovery
• Bug 3313: Fix problem of MTS holding messages forever
• Bug 3330: Ensure first metric on queue is processed.
• Bug 3331: In MTS, only drop due to timeout on receiver if enabled by a -D flag.
• Bug 3340: In MTS Gossip stuff, move WP calls out of a synchronize.
• Bug 3343: Fix a QuO gui synchronization issue.
• Bug 3345: Various Gossip scalability improvements.
• Bug 3346: Filter metrics Gossip to send only credible info.
• Bug 3348: Drop log level for DeliveryVerification and RogueThread to WARN after 100 seconds.
• Bug 3351: Expose the Contract API to allow using servlets instead of pop-up windows.
• Bug 3357: Run QoS schedulables in serial instead of parallel.
• Bug 3358: Add a synchronization in QuO jar.
• Bugs 3316, 3317, 3318: WP performance improvements
• Bug 3341: Fix a WP replication forwarding bug.
• Fix AdaptivityEngine servlet to be able to change OpMode settings
• Implement Serializable in a ServiceDiscovery object.
• SDRegistrationPlugin, matchmaker plugin: small changes to support proper quiescence.
• Bug 3332: UniversalAllocatorPlugin now restores its sink asset from the blackboard on rehydration.
• Bug 3334: GenericTablePlugin avoids publishChanging PlanElement if the ReportedAR.isEqual(EstimatedAR) already.
• Bug 3337: Fix .equals method for TwoPointScoringFunction.
• Bug 3333: ReceiveNotificationLP: Suppress un-necessary publishChange of PlanElements if ReceivedAR is already .isEqual the ReportedAR.
Bug 3352: Fix ExpansionImpl to properly re-wire the workflow of subtasks, avoiding later illegal publishRemove warnings.
• Tweak local Juddi jar to support closing DB connections.
• Community caches are now per-Node (bug 3354)
• Bug 3094: Fully account for possible GCing of objects during both full and incremental persistence.

Additional Documentation

• Cougaar FAQ
• Cougaar WIKI.
• Cougaar Developers' Guide, v11.4 (December 2004), available on the Cougaar website (see http://cougaar.org/docman/?group_id=17)
• Cougaar Architecture Document, v11.4 (dated December 2004), also available on the Cougaar website
• Release Notes for other modules such as:
• CSMART docs
• GLM Module docs
• Several ChangeLog files (e.g., core/src/ChangeLog)
• Various manual-type documentation files under doc/OnlineManual
• Notes from previous releases at doc/ReleaseNotes.
• Per-module javadocs available in module/doc/api/index.html if the cougaar-api.zip archive has been installed (see Core Javadoc in particular)
• Parameters.html which is a catalog of System Properties (-D flags) used. The file is generated on the basis of @property javadoc tags in the source code. Note that often this is split in per-module Parameters files. Start with core. 
• Pizza sample application serves as a good learning tool.
• Try the Cougaar Tutorials.

Known bugs and bugs resolved/closed since Cougaar release 10.2

• For a list of bugs that were resolved/closed since Cougaar release 10.4 see ClosedBugs103-104.htm.
• For a list of bugs that were resolved/closed since Cougaar release 10.3 see ClosedBugs102-103.htm.
• For a list of bugs that were resolved/closed since Cougaar release 10.0 see ClosedBugs100-102.htm.
• For a list of bugs that were resolved/closed since Cougaar release 9.6 see ClosedBugs96-100.htm.
• For a list of bugs that were resolved/closed since Cougaar release 9.4.1 see ClosedBugs941-96.htm.

Organization of a Release 

Installing Cougaar

You are now ready to run. Try the tutorials (see the slides on cougaar.org). Alternately, try running the Pizza Party application. For details, see the Pizza Readme.

Test Harness Example Implementations

The primary example society for testing an installation, and core changes, is the

Pizza Party application, available in the "pizza" module. Use this for testing your installation. See the Pizza Readme.

Another society, minitestconfig will work "out of the box", but uses many deprecated classes and patterns. Plugin and component developers are encouraged to use pizza as their initial starting point, but minitestconfig may also be useful. For details on MiniTest, see Minitestconfig Readme.

An alternate test society is the "ping" society. See for starting instructions, the simple Ping README.

Delivering Software Products 

All Plugin software must use the Java system parameter "org.cougaar.install.path" as the basis for all searches, data files, etc. For writing output, use "org.cougaar.workspace". For example, if your product is "tops," your classes will be in: 

"$COUGAAR_INSTALL_PATH\lib\tops.jar"

Future Releases

Questions and Submission of Bug Reports