Home/Releases/2.8.1

2.8.1

Released 2026-10-09Patch releasePrevious 2.8.0, 2026-09-17

A patch release for the 2.8 line. Two apply failures that only appeared on Windows checkouts are fixed, the cache moved to layout v3, and bep verify can now name every file it compares. The patch format is unchanged.

Added

• bep verify --manifest prints one line per file with the expected and actual hash. On a mismatch it prints only the differing files unless --all is also given.
• bep cache path --layout reports the layout version of an existing cache and the version the binary expects.
• bep doctor reports warn when free disk is below the estimated size of the configured target, instead of waiting for the build to fail.

Changed

• The cache moved to cache/v3. The key for a fetched tree is now a content hash of the revision plus the fetch command, so two series that pin the same revision share one checkout. The first run after upgrading fetches sources again; the old directory is left in place until bep cache gc --all.
• bep apply prints tree changed, run build when the applied tree differs from the one recorded by the last build. This is a hint, not a warning, and it does not change the exit code.
• A stale lockfile is reported before the build starts. The check reads the patch hashes, not the tree, so it costs milliseconds.

Fixed

• A patch whose file used CRLF line endings failed with context mismatch even when the content matched. The apply now normalises the comparison but writes bytes unchanged.
• bep doctor reported the first compiler on PATH rather than the one the build would select from CC and CXX.
• --reject wrote .rej files next to symlinked sources, which made the next apply follow the link and edit the cache. Rejects now land in the working tree copy.
• bep series lint crashed on an empty series.toml instead of reporting an empty series.

Known issues

• Gecko-family builds still do not support incremental builds. Every bep build reconfigures and rebuilds from scratch, which takes 25 to 40 minutes. This is the main item for 2.9.
• On Windows without long-path support enabled, a build fails when a path crosses 260 characters. Enable long paths or use WSL2.
• bep cache gc walks the whole cache and can take several minutes with more than 200 GB of object files. It is safe to interrupt.

Upgrade notes

Replace the binary and run bep doctor. Then run bep fetch once: the new cache layout starts empty. Series and lockfiles are compatible; the first apply rewrites the lock with content hashes and prints a diff summary, so commit it as a normal change. There is no need to re-apply from scratch.

Checksums

3f0c9d8e5b1a47c26d0e8f4a91b7c3d5e0f2a6b8c4d1e9f7a3b5c0d2e6f8a1c4  bep-2.8.1.tar.zst
9a7e2c4d6b8f0a1c3e5d7f9b2a4c6e8d0f1a3b5c7d9e2f4a6b8c0d1e3f5a7b9  bep-2.8.1.sha256

Verify with sha256sum -c bep-2.8.1.sha256 after unpacking. The archive contains the source tree, the licence and the bundled patch catalogue; it contains no binaries.

Thanks

Six people reported problems that led to fixes in this release, and two of them sent patches: the CRLF comparison and the symlink reject bug both came in as series files with a test note. Review took two rounds on each. The community page explains how to send one.