January 2025 GNU Spotlight with Amin Bandali: Seventeen new GNU releases!

• artanis-1.2.2: GNU Artanis is a web application framework written in Guile Scheme. A web application framework (WAF) is a software framework that is designed to support the development of dynamic websites, web applications, web services and web resources. The framework aims to alleviate the overhead associated with common activities performed in web development. Artanis provides several tools for web development: database access, templating frameworks, session management, URL-remapping for RESTful, page caching, and more.
• bc-1.08.1: bc is an arbitrary precision numeric processing language. It includes an interactive environment for evaluating mathematical statements. Its syntax is similar to that of C, so basic usage is familiar. It also includes dc, a reverse-polish calculator.
• coreutils-9.6: GNU Coreutils includes all of the basic command-line tools that are expected in a POSIX system. These provide the basic file, shell and text manipulation functions of the GNU system. Most of these tools offer extended functionality beyond that which is outlined in the POSIX standard.
• ddrescue-1.29: GNU ddrescue is a fully automated data recovery tool. It copies data from one file to another, working to rescue data in case of read errors. The program also includes a tool for manipulating its log files, which are used to recover data more efficiently by only reading the necessary blocks.
• ed-1.21: Ed is a line-oriented text editor: rather than offering an overview of a document, ed performs editing one line at a time. It can be executed both interactively and via shell scripts. Its method of command input allows complex tasks to be performed in an automated way. GNU ed offers several extensions over the standard utility.
• freeipmi-1.6.15: GNU FreeIPMI is a collection of in-band and out-of-band IPMI software in accordance with the IPMI v1.5/2.0 specification. These programs provide a set of interfaces for platform management. Common functionality includes sensor monitoring, system event monitoring, power control and serial-over-LAN.
• gama-2.33: GNU Gama is a program for the adjustment of geodetic networks. It is useful in measurements where Global Positioning System (GPS) is not available, such as underground. It features the ability to adjust in local Cartesian coordinates as well as partial support for adjustments in global coordinate systems.
• gdb-16.1: GDB is the GNU debugger. With it, you can monitor what a program is doing while it runs or what it was doing just before a crash. It allows you to specify the runtime conditions, to define breakpoints, and to change how the program is running to try to fix bugs. It can be used to debug programs written in C, C++, Ada, Objective-C, Pascal, and more.
• glibc-2.41: The GNU C Library is the standard C library of the GNU system. It defines the system calls and other basic functionality necessary to write programs in the C language. It handles low-level functionality that communicates with the kernel, such as process and file management, as well as higher-level functionality such as string manipulation or command-line argument handling.
• gprofng-gui-2.0: gprofng GUI is a full-fledged graphical interface to operate gprofng, which is part of the GNU binutils.
• linux-libre-6.13-gnu: GNU Linux-Libre is a free (as in freedom) variant of the kernel Linux. It has been modified to remove all non-free binary blobs.
• mailutils-3.18: GNU Mailutils is a collection of programs for managing, viewing and processing electronic mail. It contains both utilities and server daemons and all operate in a protocol-agnostic way. The underlying libraries are also available, simplifying the addition of mail capabilities to new software.
• moe-1.15: GNU Moe is a powerful-but-simple-to-use text editor. It works in a modeless manner, and features an intuitive set of key-bindings that assign a degree of severity to each key; for example, key combinations with the Alt key are for harmless commands like cursor movements while combinations with the Control key are for commands that will modify the text. Moe features multiple windows, unlimited undo/redo, unlimited line length, global search and replace, and more.
• mtools-4.0.47: GNU Mtools is a set of utilities for accessing MS-DOS disks from a GNU or Unix system. It supports long file names and multiple disk formats. It also supports some FAT-specific features such as volume labels and FAT-specific file attributes.
• parallel-20250122: GNU Parallel is a tool for executing shell jobs in parallel using one or more computers. Jobs can consist of single commands or of scripts and they are executed on lists of files, hosts, users or other items.
• shepherd-1.0.1: The GNU Shepherd is a daemon-managing daemon, meaning that it supervises the execution of system services, replacing similar functionality found in typical init systems. It provides dependency-handling through a convenient interface and is based on GNU Guile.
• which-2.22: The which program finds the location of executables in PATH, with a variety of options. It is an alternative to the shell type built-in command.

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A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance. Please see https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint if you'd like to help. The general page on how to help GNU is at https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html.

If you have a working or partly working program that you'd like to offer to the GNU project as a GNU package, see https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html.

As always, please feel free to write to me, bandali@gnu.org, with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.