MySQL 5.0.77 packages are now available on Dotdeb for Debian Etch amd64/i386. This is a maintenance release that fix some annoying bugs and a severe security issue. Please read the official list of changes in 5.0.77 before upgrading.

MySQL 5.1.31 is now available on Dotdeb for Etch amd64/i386. It fixes several problems and brings many enhancement to the previous release. Please read the official Changelog before upgrading.

MySQL AB has just made MySQL 5.0.75 available. Even it is just a maintenance release - since the 5.1 branch is now golden - it is now packaged and uploaded to Dotdeb for Etch amd64/i386. Anyway, if you did not make the jump and still use MySQL 5.0, please upgrade your server, to fix some annoying bugs, fill up some security holes and enhance the overall security of your favorite SGDB. And don’t forget to take a look at the release notes of MySQL 5.0.75. ...

The PHP Group released PHP 5.2.8 this morning to fix the magic_quotes_gpc issue. If you previously installed PHP 5.2.7-0.dotdeb.1 from Dotdeb and do not care about the version number displayed in your phpinfo(), save your bandwidth, your server is already secure :) Otherwise, just apt-get upgrade your LAM P stack… [update] The packages have been upgraded to 5.2.8-0.dotdeb.1 to fix an issue about pcre & utf8.

Stefan Esser has posted a warning about upgrading PHP to the 5.2.7 release : (…)a change in the ext/filter extension that by default processes all incoming data, broke the magic_quotes_gpc feature. While magic_quotes_gpc itself is deprecated and it is recommended to not rely on it as protection against SQL injection, it is still used in many legacy applications that become very insecure once it is turned off. And exactly that happens with the upgrade to PHP 5.2.7. The fix for this was already commited to the PHP CVS and PHP 5.2.8 will be released next week. ...

From PHP.net : The PHP development team would like to announce the immediateavailability of PHP 5.2.7. This release focuses on improving the stability ofthe PHP 5.2.x branch with over 120 bug fixes, several of which are security related.All users of PHP are encouraged to upgrade to this release. (…) Further details about the PHP 5.2.7 release can be found in the release announcement for 5.2.7, the full list of changes is available in the ChangeLog for PHP 5. ...

MySQL, the most popular open source database, releases on November 27, 2008, its version 5.1 GA (General Availability). It is now available on Dotdeb for Etch (amd64/i386)! Version 5.1 introduces several enhancements to the already rich set of features. Most notable are partitioning, row based replication, the event scheduler, a new plugin infrastructure, and logs on demand. There are more new features, but the general improvement is better performance and manageability. Many users have already adopted MySQL 5.1 in production. Their feedback has been reported in the MySQL technical articles. Check them out. MySQL 5.1 is ready for prime time! ...

Awstats is a commonly used program to calculate web statistics from your webserver logfiles. It can detect useragents, referers, unique visitors… But one of its another feature is to build usage reports from your mail server’s logfiles, as seen on this demo. Here is how to quickly configure Awstats to take profit of your Qmail log files…

The Vpopmail 5.4.25 packages has been updated to fix a problem with passwords longer than 8 characters. The /etc/init.d/vpopmail script has been updated to launch simultaneously : the (enabled by default) POP3 server the (disabled by default) POP3-SSL server the (disabled by default) Vpopmaild server depending on the settings in /etc/vpopmail/options.

On the previous week-end, Dotdeb’s website went down due to configuation problems. Sorry for that, it is now fixed.