Hello 2.9.0!

No, not the Linux release of that version (that's still far away, if it will ever be developed, and I don't think I'll be wanting to run that if/when it does).

Instead, I'm talking about the NBD userland tools of that version, which I just released. Today we're only a few weeks after the release of 2.8.7—sorry for all you packagers out there who now have to throw away your work. But it's well worth it; nbd-server now finally functions like a real UNIX daemon: you specify exports in a configuration file, you can export more than just one export from the same server, and it has some interesting new features today. If you ever looked at nbd-server and decided that the way it's implemented is too hackish for your taste, then 2.9.0 may be a good time to revisit that opinion.

Of course, I should note that 2.9.0 is a .0 release, so does still need some testing in the wild, so might not yet be ready for your production server. But other than that, it should be pretty much okay and usable.

Give it a try!

In related news, Ronnie Sahlberg, one of the wireshark developers, has made my day by writing an NBD dissector, which I've been wanting to have for quite a while now. Happy happy, joy joy.