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I'm pleased to announce version 1.4.0 of libbson and libmongoc, the libraries constituting the MongoDB C Driver. This is a very big release a long time coming.

The headline feature is support for the TLS libraries included in Mac and Windows, so you no longer need OpenSSL there. Hannes Magnusson built this feature off contributions by Samantha Ritter and Mark Benvenuto. He overcame months of frustrations and roadblocks to achieve a secure, production-quality implementation; it's an extraordinary achievement.

libbson

New features and bug fixes:

  • bson_reader_reset seeks to the beginning of a BSON buffer.
  • bson_steal efficiently transfers contents from one bson_t to another.
  • Fix Windows compile error with BSON_EXTRA_ALIGN disabled.
  • Potential buffer overrun in bson_strndup.
  • bson_oid_to_string optimization for MS Visual Studio
  • bson_oid_is_valid accepts uppercase hex characters.
  • bson_json_reader_read aborted on some invalid Extended JSON documents.
  • All man page names now begin with "bson_" to avoid install conflicts.
  • Error messages sometimes truncated at 63 chars.

This release tentatively supports the new BSON decimal type when built like:

./configure --enable-experimental-features

Or:

cmake -DENABLE_EXPERIMENTAL_FEATURES=ON

This feature may change between now and libbson 1.5.

libmongoc

TLS

The driver can now use the native TLS and crypto functions included in Mac OS X and Windows. OpenSSL is no longer required for TLS or authentication on Mac or Windows. By default, OpenSSL is used if available, the default will switch in version 2.0 to prefer native TLS.

For native TLS on Mac:

./configure --enable-ssl=darwin

For Windows:

cmake "-DENABLE_SSL=WINDOWS" -G "Visual Studio 10 Win64" "-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=C:\mongo-c-driver"

All of the TLS implementations now load the native default certificate store, with OpenSSL on Windows falling back on the Windows native certificate store if no other can be found.

The "ca_dir" field on mongoc_ssl_opt_t is only supported by OpenSSL. All other fields, including "pem_file", are supported by all implementations.

A new field, "allow_invalid_hostname", has been added to mongoc_ssl_opt_t and is preferred over the existing "allow_invalid_certificate" to disable hostname verification.

See the documentation for mongoc_ssl_opt_t for details.

The driver now supports the latest OpenSSL 1.1 in addition to past versions.

Application Performance Monitoring

The driver implements the MongoDB Command Monitoring Spec. Applications can record the duration and other details of every operation the driver performs on the server. See Introduction to Application Performance Monitoring in the docs.

Error API

New functions mongoc_client_set_error_api and mongoc_client_pool_set_error_api allow applications to distinguish client and server errors. See the "Error Reporting" doc.

Unacknowledged Write Results

Unacknowledged writes (writes whose mongoc_write_concern_t "w" value is zero) now reply with an empty document instead of one with nInserted: 0, nUpdated: 0, and so on.

Command functions now ignore the read preferences set on a client, database, or collection. Instead, they use the mongoc_read_prefs_t passed in explicitly, or default to "primary". This change was made to bring them in line with the Server Selection Spec. These are the affected functions:

  • mongoc_client_command
  • mongoc_client_command_simple
  • mongoc_database_command
  • mongoc_database_command_simple
  • mongoc_collection_command
  • mongoc_collection_command_simple

On the other hand, the following command-specific helper functions now use the collection's read preference:

  • mongoc_collection_count
  • mongoc_collection_stats

New functions to send maxTimeMS or any arbitrary options with findAndModify:

  • mongoc_find_and_modify_opts_set_max_time_ms
  • mongoc_find_and_modify_opts_append

New function to include a write concern with a generic command function like mongoc_client_command_simple:

  • mongoc_write_concern_append

Public API For Higher-Level Drivers

New functions support language drivers (specifically the PHP and HHVM drivers) using only the libmongoc public API:

  • mongoc_bulk_operation_get_hint
  • mongoc_client_command_simple_with_server_id
  • mongoc_client_get_server_description
  • mongoc_client_get_server_description_by_id
  • mongoc_client_get_server_descriptions
  • mongoc_client_select_server
  • mongoc_cursor_get_limit
  • mongoc_cursor_new_from_command_reply
  • mongoc_cursor_set_hint
  • mongoc_cursor_set_limit
  • mongoc_log_trace_disable
  • mongoc_log_trace_enable
  • mongoc_server_description_ismaster
  • mongoc_server_description_round_trip_time
  • mongoc_server_description_type
  • mongoc_server_descriptions_destroy_all
  • mongoc_uri_get_option_as_bool
  • mongoc_uri_get_option_as_int32
  • mongoc_uri_get_option_as_utf8
  • mongoc_uri_option_is_bool
  • mongoc_uri_option_is_int32
  • mongoc_uri_option_is_utf8
  • mongoc_uri_set_auth_source
  • mongoc_uri_set_database
  • mongoc_uri_set_option_as_bool
  • mongoc_uri_set_option_as_int32
  • mongoc_uri_set_option_as_utf8
  • mongoc_uri_set_password
  • mongoc_uri_set_read_concern
  • mongoc_uri_set_read_prefs_t
  • mongoc_uri_set_username
  • mongoc_uri_set_write_concern
  • mongoc_write_concern_is_acknowledged
  • mongoc_write_concern_is_valid
  • mongoc_write_concern_journal_is_set

Now that these public APIs are available, the PHP drivers no longer define the MONGOC_I_AM_A_DRIVER preprocessor symbol to access private APIs. The symbol is removed from C Driver headers, and libmongoc-priv.so is no longer installed.

Other Features

  • New connection string option "localThresholdMS".
  • zSeries, POWER8, and ARM 64-bit platform support.
  • Performance enhancements, reduce allocation and copying in command code.
  • All man page names now begin with "mongoc_" to avoid install conflicts.
  • New function mongoc_gridfs_file_set_id.

Deprecations

Automatically calling mongoc_init and mongoc_cleanup is a GCC-specific feature that is now deprecated, and will be removed in version 2. The driver should be built with:

./configure --disable-automatic-init-and-cleanup

Or:

cmake "-DENABLE_AUTOMATIC_INIT_AND_CLEANUP=OFF" -G "Visual Studio 10 Win64" "-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=C:\mongo-c-driver"

In this configuration, applications must explicitly init and cleanup libmongoc.

Deprecated functions:

  • mongoc_write_concern_get_fsync
  • mongoc_write_concern_set_fsync

Notable Bug Fixes

  • Logic bugs using tag sets to select replica set members with complex configs
  • mongoc_client_get_database_names no longer filters out a replica set member's "local" database.
  • mongoc_client_get_gridfs now ensures the proper indexes on the files and chunks collections.
  • SecondaryPreferred fails if primary matches tags but secondaries don't.
  • mongoc_collection_find_and_modify_with_opts can return true on writeConcernError.
  • mongoc_collection_validate doesn't always init "reply".
  • The strings referred to by mongoc_ssl_opt_t, like pem_file and ca_file, are now copied into the client or client pool by mongoc_client_set_ssl_opts or mongoc_client_pool_set_ssl_opts, and need not be kept valid afterward.
  • mongoc_collection_count_with_opts ignored flags and read_prefs.
  • minPoolSize of 0 should mean "no minimum".
  • mongoc_database_create_collection should always use the primary.
  • The GSSAPI properties SERVICE_NAME and CANONICALIZE_HOST_NAME are now properly parsed from the URI, see the "Authentication" doc for details.
  • Comprehensive compatibility with various C standards and compilers.
  • mongoc_bulk_operation_execute didn't initialize "reply" if it was passed invalid arguments.

Links

Acknowledgments

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this release.

  • A. Jesse Jiryu Davis
  • Hannes Magnusson
  • Ian Boros
  • Fiona Rowan
  • Jeremy Mikola
  • Christoph Schwarz
  • Remi Collet
  • Derick Rethans
  • Mike Lloyd
  • David Hatch
  • Brian Samek
  • Jean-Bernard Jansen
  • Shane Harvey
  • Runar Buvik
  • Raymond Jacobson
  • ReadmeCritic
  • Maverick Chan

Peace,
  — A. Jesse Jiryu Davis

Image: Steamship in Potsdam Harbor, circa 1900.