GNU Spotlight July 2022

Nineteen new GNU releases in the last month (as of July 29, 2022):

• datamash-1.8: GNU Datamash is a command-line program which performs basic numeric, textual, and statistical operations on input textual data files. GNU Datamash is designed to work within standard pipelines without needing to write additional code.
• gama-2.21: 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.
• gnuastro-0.18: The GNU Astronomy Utilities (Gnuastro) is an official GNU package consisting of various programs and library functions for the manipulation and analysis of astronomical data.
• gnunet-0.17.2: GNUnet is a framework for secure peer-to-peer networking. The high-level goal is to provide a strong foundation of free software for a global, distributed network that provides security and privacy. GNUnet in that sense aims to replace the current internet protocol stack. Along with an application for secure publication of files, it has grown to include all kinds of basic applications for the foundation of a GNU internet.
• gnutls-3.7.7: GnuTLS is a secure communications library implementing the SSL, TLS and DTLS protocols. It is provided in the form of a C library to support the protocols, as well as to parse and write X.509, PKCS 12, OpenPGP and other required structures.
• gsasl-2.0.1: GNU SASL is an implementation of the Simple Authentication and Security Layer framework. On network servers such as IMAP or SMTP servers, SASL is used to handle client/server authentication. This package contains both a library and a command-line tool to access the library.
• gwl-0.5.0: GWL is a workflow language that extends Guix's declarative language for package management to automate execution of programs. Additionally, GWL can use Grid Engine to offload program execution.
• inetutils-2.3: Inetutils is a collection of common network programs, such as an ftp client and server, a telnet client and server, and an rsh client and server.
• jami-20220726.1515.da8d1da: Jami is a GNU package for universal communication that respects the freedom and privacy of its users. Jami uses distributed hash tables for establishing communication. This avoids keeping centralized registries of users and storing personal data.
• libidn2-2.3.3: Libidn2 is a free software implementation of IDNA2008, Punycode and Unicode TR46. Its purpose is to encode and decode internationalized domain names.
• librejs-7.21.0: LibreJS is an add-on for GNU Icecat and other Firefox-based browsers. It detects non-trivial and non-free JavaScript code from being loaded without your consent when you browse the web. JavaScript code that is free or trivial is allowed to be loaded.
• nettle-3.8.1: GNU Nettle is a low-level cryptographic library. It is designed to fit in easily in almost any context. It can be easily included in cryptographic toolkits for object-oriented languages or in applications themselves.
• octave-7.2.0: GNU Octave is a high-level interpreted language that is specialized for numerical computations. It can be used for both linear and non-linear applications and it provides great support for visualizing results. Work may be performed both at the interactive command-line as well as via script files.
• parallel-20220722: 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.
• poke-2.4: GNU poke is an interactive, extensible editor for binary data. Not limited to editing basic entities such as bits and bytes, it provides a full-fledged procedural, interactive programming language designed to describe data structures and to operate on them.
• pspp-1.6.2: GNU PSPP is a statistical analysis program. It can perform descriptive statistics, T-tests, linear regression and non-parametric tests. It features both a graphical interface as well as command-line input. PSPP is designed to interoperate with Gnumeric, LibreOffice and OpenOffice. Data can be imported from spreadsheets, text files and database sources and it can be output in text, PostScript, PDF or HTML.
• r-4.2.1: R is a language and environment for statistical computing and graphics. It provides a variety of statistical techniques, such as linear and nonlinear modeling, classical statistical tests, time-series analysis, classification and clustering. It also provides robust support for producing publication-quality data plots. A large amount of 3rd-party packages are available, greatly increasing its breadth and scope.
• rush-2.3: GNU Rush is a restricted user shell, for systems on which users are to be provided with only limited functionality or resources. Administrators set user rights via a configuration file which can be used to limit, for example, the commands that can be executed, CPU time, or virtual memory usage.
• tramp-2.5.3: TRAMP is a GNU Emacs package that allows you to access files on remote machines as though they were local files. This includes editing files, performing version control tasks and modifying directory contents with `dired`. Access is performed via ssh, rsh, rlogin, telnet or other similar methods.

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To download: nearly all GNU software is available most reliably from https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/. Optionally, you may find faster download speeds at a mirror geographically close to you by choosing from the list of mirrors published at https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html, or using https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/ to be automatically redirected to a (hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.

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.