All notable changes to GNU Radio will be documented in this file.
The format is based on Keep a Changelog and this project adheres to Semantic Versioning, starting with version 3.7.12.0.
Older Logs can be found in docs/RELEASE-NOTES-*
.
- Moved PDU blocks from gr-blocks to gr-network and gr-pdu
- Compatibility shim included to allow access to these blocks from gr-blocks but these are deprecated from the gr-blocks namespace and the shim is scheduled for removal in 3.11.
- gr::blocks::pdu namespace has been reorganized in gr
- PDU vector types are accessible in gr::types
- PDU functions are accessible in gr::pdu
- Common msg port names are accessible in gr::ports
- C++17
- requires MSVC 1914 (Microsoft VS 2017 15.7)
- Windows build: removed unnecessary MSVC-specific system include overrides
- Remove deprecated networking blocks:
udp_source
,udp_sink
,tcp_server_sink
; replaced in 3.9 with more capable blocks ingr-network
fastnoise_source
: Useuint64_t
seed API, usesize_t
for vector length/indicesfastnoise_source
: Use a simple bitmask if the random pool length is a power of 2 to determine indices, instead of%
, which consumed considerable CPUsig_source
: Remove deprecatedfreq
message port of signal source block; Usecmd
port instead
- Remove deprecated
mmse_interpolator
block; Replaced previously bymmse_resampler
- Remove deprecated simple_{correlator,framer}
- Remove deprecated cma, lms, kurtotic equalizers; replaced in 3.9 by
linear_equalizer
gr::random
uses xoroshiro128+ internally, takesuint64_t
seed
- New in-tree module gr-pdu
- dtools: Added run-clang-tidy-on-codebase, which does what the name suggests, then updates all bindtool hashes, and commits everything appropriately
- We now require commits to be signed off (DCO); this means you have to
attach
-s
to yourgit commit
command line - License headers now SPDX format
- C++14
- use C++11 facilities in a lot of places where Boost was still used, especially smart pointers, range loops
- lambdas where
boost::bind
was used - C11
- Dependency versions:
- Python 3.6.5
- numpy 1.13.3
- VOLK 2.4.1
- CMake 3.10.2
- Boost 1.65
- Mako 1.0.7
- PyBind11 2.4.3
- Compiler options:
- GCC 8.3.0
- Clang 11.0.0 / Apple Clang 1100
- MSVC 1910 (Microsoft VS 2017 15.0)
- VOLK now "regular" dependency, not in-tree submodule
- numpy now also a CMake-checked hard dependency for Python support
- Exception Handling: throw by value, catch by reference (clang-tidy check)
- C++11: Emplace in vectors where you can; brings performance boni, but not included in clang-tidy-checks
- Further clang-tidy based code optimizations:
- empty() instead of size() == 0
- override where overriding virtual functions (which we do a lot)
- Logging: removed all
std::cerr
andfprintf(stderr,…)
by GNU Radio logging - Logging: Changed logging format for many multiline error logs
- purged
snprintf
,printf
logging - There were a lot of places where a malloc'ed object was used internally, where that was inappropriate. Using simple instance-holding fields now.
const
for members that were only set at construction time is now desired, and implemented in most placesconst
->constexp
in a lot of places.assert
->static_assert
- An exception-throwing block will now terminate the flow graph process,
configurable through
top_block
gr-utils
cleanup, folder restructuring- config version checks installed CMake file will accept "at least this version" now
- PyBind11 replaces SWIG
- Full tree conversion from SWIG to Pybind11 bindings
- Doxygen now uses MathJax, full LaTeX installation no longer required
NOTE: Most of the changes above change the generally preferred coding style in a lot of situations.
- start flowgraph in folder where it resides
- When calculating offsets in non-integer rate FEC,
lround
- default seed for
gr::random
now actually as documented time-dependent - loggers moved from
gr::block
togr::basic_block
- PMT serialization
- PMT dicts no longer indistinguishable from pairs
- PMT symbol hashing no longer suffers under oddball own implementations
- Increased ALSA buffer nperiods
add
,add_const
VOLK'ized, templated- this seems to break things in other places, even if it proves to be mathematically identical
wavfile
infrastructure:libsndfile
now dependency
transcendental
block: default to 32 bit float complex, not double- Linear equalizer: separate adaptive algorithm, allows for using e.g. trained sequences instead of the classical LMS, CMA
- DFE: better structure for decision history
- LDPC encoder: template functions instead of
#define
d macros - LDPC encoder: smaller tables through
uint16_t
for index tables
- API
uint8_t
, notchar
- FFT blocks/functions templatized
- logging format
rational_resampler_base
->rational_resampler
- Required UHD version bumped to 3.9.7
- logging format
sig_source
:freq
port will be removed in the future
audio-sink
,-source
: Windows audio sink/source deprecated, the portaudio sink/source works even better under windows anyway
- In favor of
symbol_sync
, deprecate:clock_recovery_mm
msk_timing_recovery
pfb_clock_sync
- C++ Generation all over the place
- PyBind bindings + generator
- Github actions
- Reproducible builds-compatible CMake TIMESTAMP
block_gateway
:set_max_output_buffer
GR_PREFS_PATH
environment variable sensitivity to configure the path to the config filegnuradio-config-info --print-all
- option to toggle ID visibilities globally
- Validation check for QT GUI hints
- Python snippets
- block header parsing tool (GSoC 2019)
- option to convert blacklisted files
sig_source
:cmd
port adds support for dicts, setting of frequency, amplitude, offset and phase parameters
selector
now has control message ports- Rotator-based freq shift convenience wrapper
- Message-to-Variable and vice versa blocks
- DC Spike removal
- IQ Swap
- Complex to interleaved char / short: scaling option
- Delay block: control message port
- Phase Shift block with message port
wavfile_sink
,_source
can now deal with a lot of audio formats: uncompressed WAV/AIFF, µ- and A-law compressed audio, OGG/Vorbis, FLAC, even octave files- Stream Demux, which demuxes streams according to lengths vector
rotator
:phase()
getter
- OFDM: multiple CP lengths
ofdm_equalizer_simpledfe
:enable_soft_output
- Constellation Encoder
- Constellation: normalization options
{en,de}code_rs_8
,{en,de}code_rs_ccsds
: Reed-Solomon en- and decoders
- Windows:
- Gaussian
- Flat Top
- Tukey
- Window build() call now with default beta
- GRC: File taps loader block
- Low pass FFT filter convenience wrapper
- ichar / ishort decimator
- phase continuity for
freq_xlating_fir_filter
gr-network
: a whole new networking blocks module!- TCP
- UDP
- Much better lockup/multithreading support than 3.7-era
blks2
nightmare infrastructure :)
- Azimuth/Elevation plot
- Autocorrelation plot
- Compass visualization
- Dial control
- Gauge: dial, level
- Distance plot
- LED-like indicator
- Message-passing check box
- Message-passing numeric control
- Message-passing push button
- Toggle Button
- Eye sink
- Vertical slider
- Filter API
- UHD 4.0 support
- Power Reference API
- Bidirectional setting messages on both sink, source
- Codec2 dev branch support
- FreeDV: In/output rates can differ
- FreeDV: text message output
- C++ GRC templates
- Tag filtering for tag-forwarding blocks
- VOLK is no longer a submodule
- Sphinx: consolidate into doxygen, or wiki-maintained block list.
- Python 2
- SWIG
gru
python module
circular_file.cc
math/common_factor.hpp
bin_statistics_f
log2_const
- PFB clock sync:
set_taps
- deprecated old OFDM infrastructur
ofdm_frame_acquisition
ofdm_frame_sink
ofdm_insert_preamble
ofdm_sync_fixed
ofdm_sync_pn
ofdm_sync_pnac
ofdm_sync_ml
ofdm_receiver
digital_voice
malloc_float
,_double
: rely on VOLK- Goertzel: dtor superfluous
- deprecated window function duplicates (use them from gr-fft!)
- CMake: Qwt, Log4Cpp detection
- ctrlport strings unicodified
- Freedesktop install script was not executed
- Redundant icons installed
- Path substitution on Windows was backslash-broken
- YAML definitions: more than I can count
- Cross-building: py interpreter at runtime != build time
- ctrlport: unholy stored reference to stack-allocated object removed
- Sine table generation for fixed point math
gr_unittest
:floatAlmostEqual
had a lot of false passes due abuse ofall()
get_tags_in_range
fordelay < (end-start)
- Premature tag pruning
- release flattened flowgraph after stopping, fixes restartability/shutdown problem
- PMT serialization portability
- latency issue caused by setting block alias on msg block
- Windows logging errors
- ctrlport: Thrift >= 0.13 broke
- Tab widget ID visibilities
- A lot of YAML templates
- Default setting in qtgui chooser restored
- Boolean parameters no longer switch buttons
- Nested namespace handling
- Don't rely on set ordering in tests
- configparser import
- input box color theme on dark themes
- Search box typing doesn't inadvertedly interact with the rest of GRC anymore
- Empty argument lists allowed
- Boost UTF replaced CppUnit, this needed to be done here, too
wfm
left/right, filters
- portaudio: lock acquisition was improper
- Throttle now uses monotonic clock
- Tag debug only saved last
work
call's tags - File sink flushes on
stop
gr_read_file_metadata.py
used to loserx_time
precision- File source big file handling under Windows
file_*
:fseek
errors used to be ignored
map_bb
: thread safety, buffer overflowsadditive_scrambler
: reset was broken- Constellation scalefactor wasn't always initialized
- long-standing
qa_header_payload_demux
bug addressed by waiting for both RX and TX, not only either - false triggers in
correlate_access_code
- rate mismatch in ATSC flowgraphs
async_decoder
Heap corruptioncc_encoder
: constraint length K > 8 led to wrong output
- thread safety of copy assignment/ctor
- log power FFT Python
variable_band_pass_filter
GRC complex taps input- RRC filter gain for alpha = 1
- Remove copies of image data in returns by using move semantics
- Remove bogus overriding in drawing functions of
plot_raster
,_waterfall
- Edit MSG box: don't require key to be set
- Don't check for Python2 libs
- Number Sink ignored averaging setting
- UHD apps: Py3 fixes
- USRP blocks: multichannel objects not properly populating channels
- YUV formats fixed
- Don't depend on deprecated ZMQ functionality (fix warnings, include what you use)
- Unhandled exceptions now handled, much calmer
- Avoid infinite blocking in
tb.stop()
by usingZMQ_LINGER
- Change of log method, and increase message verbosity
- Added
gr::prefs
-configurable logging interval for underflow, overflow and command time error ([uhd]
section,logging_interval_ms
key, milliseconds integer)
Witness me!
Tonight, we release GNU Radio 3.8.0.0.
It's the first minor release version since more than six years, not without pride this community stands to face the brightest future SDR on general purpose hardware ever had.
Since we've not been documenting changes in the shape of a Changelog for the whole of the development that happened since GNU Radio 3.7.0, I'm afraid that these release notes will be more of a GLTL;DR (git log too long; didn't read) than a detailed account of what has changed.
What has _not** changed is the fact that GNU Radio is centered around a very simple truth:
Let the developers hack on DSP. Software interfaces are for humans, not the other way around.
And so, compared to the later 3.7 releases, nothing has fundamentally modified the way one develops signal processing systems with GNU Radio: You write blocks, and you combine blocks to be part of a larger signal processing flow graph.
With that as a success story, we of course have faced quite a bit of change in the systems we use to develop and in the people that develop GNU Radio. This has lead to several changes that weren't compatible with 3.7.
This is an excerpt only:
- Roughly 36 dBBug, (ETOOMANYBUGS)
- Fixed .so versioning
- C++11
- merged the wholeness of the
next
branch - Dependency version bumps: CMake, GCC, MSVC, Swig, Boost
- New dependencies: MPIR/GMP, Qt5, gsm, codec2
- Removed dependencies: libusb, Qt4, CppUnit
- Python: Python 2 & Python 3 compatible. 3.8 will be the last Py2k-compatible release series
- gengen was replaced by templates (if you don't know gengen, don't do any research; save yourself that sorrow)
- Modern CMake (as far as feasible at this point)
- VOLK version updated to v2.0.0
- .clang-format file now dictates coding style
- clang-format'ed the whole tree.
- installed CMake files now tell about configuration
- reworked fractional tag time handling, especially in the context of resamplers
- C++ generation as option
- YAML instead of XML
- removed
blks2
- much better canvas tooling
- consistent gobject usage
- ROUNDED ARROWS
- moving from Qt4 to Qt5
gr_modtool
now vastly improved
- improved versatility
- removed in-tree libgsm, libcodec2, use system-wide libs
- Modules
gr-comedi
,gr-fcd
andgr-wxgui
are gone
- nobody could remember who used this, or for what. It has seen 0 active code contributions in the 3.7 lifecycle
- python-based
packet_encoder
and related tools: Bugs that were sporadic and never fixed, so after long deprecation, we're removing it
- since it's currently untestable by the CI, it's being removed, as there was no code contributions. Generally, we strive to include all batteries with GNU Radio. Re-integration within a more general SDR interface would be desirable.
- removed PyQwt (dead) based tools
- Unmaintained, breaks on increasingly many systems, always was slower than Qtgui. We've been starting to tell people to migrate to Qt since at least 2015. Now, we're finally removing it.