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xPack GNU flex v2.6.4-1 released

· 3 min read
Liviu Ionescu (ilg)
Liviu Ionescu (ilg)

Version 2.6.4-1 is the first release of GNU flex.

The xPack GNU flex is a standalone cross-platform binary distribution of GNU flex.

There are separate binaries for macOS (x64 and arm64) and GNU/Linux (x64, arm64 and arm).

Raspberry Pi

The main targets for the GNU/Linux Arm binaries are the Raspberry Pi class devices (armv7l and aarch64; armv6 is not supported).

Download​

The binary files are available from GitHub Releases.

Prerequisites​

  • x64 GNU/Linux: any system with GLIBC 2.27 or higher (like Ubuntu 18 or later, Debian 10 or later, RedHat 8 or later, Fedora 29 or later, etc)
  • arm64/arm GNU/Linux: any system with GLIBC 2.27 or higher (like Raspberry Pi OS, Ubuntu 18 or later, Debian 10 or later, RedHat 8 or later, Fedora 29 or later, etc)
  • x64 macOS: 10.13 or later
  • arm64 macOS: 11.6 or later

Install​

The easiest way to install this specific version, is by using xpm:

xpm install @xpack-dev-tools/flex@2.6.4-1.1 -verbose

Comprehensive instructions for installing xPack flex on different platforms can be found in the Install Guide.

Compliance​

The xPack GNU flex generally follows the official GNU flex releases.

The current version is based on:

  • GNU flex version 2.6.4 from May 6, 2017.

Changes​

Compared to the upstream version, there are no functional changes.

Bug fixes​

  • none

Enhancements​

  • none

Known problems​

  • none

Documentation​

The original documentation is available online.

Build​

The binaries for all supported platforms (Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux) were built using the xPack Build Box (XBB), a set of build environments based on slightly older distributions, that should be compatible with most recent systems.

For the prerequisites and more details on the build procedure, please see the How to build page.

CI tests​

Before publishing, a set of simple tests were performed on an exhaustive set of platforms. The results are available from:

Tests​

TBD

Checksums​

The SHA-256 hashes for the files are:

5b26784eee815f81decc3f77eb414019576e453154664433c2714817d43925cb
xpack-flex-2.6.4-1-darwin-arm64.tar.gz

3b6b672e30e6c91557b14f3aea523e2af42140e18905ef741cb88a3b8e5eb7ab
xpack-flex-2.6.4-1-darwin-x64.tar.gz

f58f75328b2adac7e7004460d68df5a0a900928d692481f814db0a61a0da1996
xpack-flex-2.6.4-1-linux-arm.tar.gz

356493f256c68a7fb371ff2dd7d0795d799b9becbc1c5cc3ca3e50efb7952ae9
xpack-flex-2.6.4-1-linux-arm64.tar.gz

131fcc0a59a0bdc56c15754d3e8d7d570e003b8cd28eeea391ec0fe20b4c8616
xpack-flex-2.6.4-1-linux-x64.tar.gz

Deprecation notices​

32-bit support​

Support for 32-bit x86 GNU/Linux and x86 Windows was dropped in 2022. Support for 32-bit Arm GNU/Linux (armv7l) will be preserved for a while, due to the large user base of 32-bit Raspberry Pi systems.

GNU/Linux minimum requirements​

Support for RedHat 7 was dropped in 2022 and the minimum requirement was raised to GLIBC 2.27, available starting with Ubuntu 18, Debian 10 and RedHat 8.

Pre-deprecation notice for Ubuntu 18.04​

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Bionic Beaver reached the end of the standard five-year maintenance window for Long-Term Support (LTS) release on 31 May 2023.

As a courtesy, the xPack GNU/Linux releases will continue to be based on Ubuntu 18.04 for another year.

From 2025 onwards, the GNU/Linux binaries will be built on Debian 10, (GLIBC 2.28), and are also expected to run on RedHat 8.

Users are urged to update their build and test infrastructure to ensure a smooth transition to the next xPack releases.

Download analytics​

Credit to Shields IO for the badges and to Somsubhra/github-release-stats for the individual file counters.