ACPICA version 20091214 released

[Moore, Robert]

14 December 2009. Summary of changes for version 20091214:

This release is available at www.acpica.org/downloads

1) ACPI CA Core Subsystem:

Enhanced automatic data type conversions for predefined name repairs. This change expands the automatic repairs/conversions for predefined name return values to make Integers, Strings, and Buffers fully interchangeable. Also, a Buffer can be converted to a Package of Integers if necessary. The nsrepair.c module was completely restructured. Lin Ming, Bob Moore.

Implemented automatic removal of null package elements during predefined name repairs. This change will automatically remove embedded and trailing NULL package elements from returned package objects that are defined to contain a variable number of sub-packages. The driver is then presented with a package with no null elements to deal with. ACPICA BZ 819.

Implemented a repair for the predefined _FDE and _GTM names. The expected return value for both names is a Buffer of 5 DWORDs. This repair fixes two possible problems (both seen in the field), where a package of integers is returned, or a buffer of BYTEs is returned. With assistance from Jung-uk Kim.

Implemented additional module-level code support. This change will properly execute module-level code that is not at the root of the namespace (under a Device object, etc.). Now executes the code within the current scope instead of the root. ACPICA BZ 762. Lin Ming.

Fixed possible mutex acquisition errors when running _REG methods. Fixes a problem where mutex errors can occur when running a _REG method that is in the same scope as a method-defined operation region or an operation region under a module-level IF block. This type of code is rare, so the problem has not been seen before. ACPICA BZ 826. Lin Ming, Bob Moore.

Fixed a possible memory leak during module-level code execution. An object could be leaked for each block of executed module-level code if the interpreter slack mode is enabled This change deletes any implicitly returned object from the module-level code block. Lin Ming.

Removed messages for successful predefined repair(s). The repair mechanism was considered too wordy. Now, messages are only unconditionally emitted if the return object cannot be repaired. Existing messages for successful repairs were converted to ACPI_DEBUG_PRINT messages for now. ACPICA BZ 827.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 32-bit compiler. The debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and has a much larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  86.6K Code, 18.2K Data, 104.8K Total
    Debug Version:     162.7K Code, 50.8K Data, 213.5K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  87.0K Code, 18.0K Data, 105.0K Total
    Debug Version:     163.4K Code, 50.8K Data, 214.2K Total

2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Fixed a regression introduced in 20091112 where intermediate .SRC files were no longer automatically removed at the termination of the compile.

acpiexec: Implemented the -f option to specify default region fill value. This option specifies the value used to initialize buffers that simulate operation regions. Default value is zero. Useful for debugging problems that depend on a specific initial value for a region or field.