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Xi-Batch 1.10.0 and Xi-Text 1.26.0

Three security advisories for hosts that accept work from other hosts, a record of sign-ons and privilege changes in the system log, a scheduler that stays up when a worker is lost, and every command able to say exactly what it is.

Both products are released, and they are the versions to run on every platform we build for. Each change is set out in the release notes with the versions it applies to and what it means for an installation; read them against the version you run before you upgrade.

Security advisories

Three advisories are resolved in these releases. Each concerns what a host accepts from another host, and the release notes say for each which installations it affects.

  • XI-SA-2026-003, Xi-Batch. A job arriving from another host is refused unless its tables sit where the message format requires.
  • XI-SA-2026-004 and XI-SA-2026-005, Xi-Batch and Xi-Text. The network server listens on the local host alone until the hosts file names a remote host or client, and a new LISTEN setting chooses otherwise. A single-host installation and a site that links hosts both see no change.

Together with XI-SA-2026-001 and 002 in the October releases, that is five this year. Sites that link hosts, or accept jobs from clients on other hosts, should take these releases.

A record of who did what

Sign-ons, privilege changes and remote jobs accepted are now logged to the system log under auth, beside the system's own: what succeeded at notice, what was refused at warning, and never a password. It is on by default, and SECURITYLOG turns it off. And every command answers --version with its product, version, build reference and platform, so an auditor or an operator can name the exact build of every installed program.

What else is in it

  • Xi-Batch: the scheduler stays up when it loses an exec worker. It reports the loss and what ended it, ends that worker's jobs, starts a replacement and carries on with everything else.
  • Xi-Batch: remote submission between Unix hosts. A job sent with rbtr or btr -Q host is queued on a receiving host that runs 1.10.0, and a refused remote submission exits 15.
  • Xi-Batch: btr and bts give an answer within REPLYTIMEOUT, 60 seconds by default, if the scheduler does not reply.
  • Xi-Batch and Xi-Text: the products own their port numbers. Each starts on its own ports whatever /etc/services holds, and a site that set its ports there keeps them.
  • Xi-Text: linked spoolers check for lost messages again, and a printer name of the form host:printer is refused at submission with the reason.

Upgrading

  • Xi-Batch and Xi-Text. A package upgrade ends with the service enabled and running, and an rpm installation made from a 2025 package upgrades in place, keeping its configuration, licence and spool.
  • Xi-Batch, tar installations. When a tar upgrade finds a service unit that does not restart the scheduler after an abort, the installer says so and offers the new unit, with Yes as the default. A 2025 installation upgraded by tar with the defaults kept its 2025 unit; this offer brings it the restart behaviour introduced in 1.9.3. A unit that already restarts the scheduler keeps No as the default.
  • Xi-Batch, removal. DEINSTALL, asked to delete the system user, now checks that the user is gone, and says so when it is not, naming the command and its exit status.

The release notes set out what applies when upgrading from each earlier release, including from the 2025 packages.

CUPSPY

CUPSPY, the Xi-Text component that presents a CUPS face to applications, is deprecated. Nothing is removed: an installation with CUPSPY in service keeps it, supported as before. Two replacements are in development, an IPP receiver and an IPP sender, both with no Python dependency. The release note says how applications print into Xi-Text today on a new installation.

Where it runs

Both releases are issued for every platform the platforms page lists as built for every release, from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 to 10 families, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 and Debian to Raspberry Pi OS. Every platform package is built in a clean image of that platform, installed, upgraded over the previous release, started under systemd and exercised with jobs before it is published.

Release notes · Downloads and licensing · Security