[svn-r12414] Purpose:

    Bug fix

Description:
    Fix bug which could lead to files with incorrect count of messages in the
header for an object.  The exact sequence of operations is complicated and
is described in the release notes.

Solution:
    Mark merged null header messages as dirty.

Platforms tested:
    FreeBSD 4.11 (sleipnir)
    Linux 2.4 (chicago)
    Mac OS/X (amazon)

1 files changed, 38 insertions, 3 deletions

diff --git a/release_docs/RELEASE.txt b/release_docs/RELEASE.txt
index f6b366e..4d914b8 100644
--- a/release_docs/RELEASE.txt
+++ b/release_docs/RELEASE.txt
@@ -49,9 +49,7 @@ New Features
           configure option, it was never up to production standards
           anyway.  -QAK 2006/4/20
         - Added a --enable-group-revision option to configure, to enable
-          segregating the ongoing work on changing the file format.  DO
-          NOT ENABLE THIS OPTION!  It is strictly for internal library
-          development! -QAK 2006/4/14
+          segregating the ongoing work on changing the file format.
 
                            .-"""""-.
                           /         \
@@ -63,6 +61,8 @@ New Features
                  .-.-'_.-'  `-----'  '-._'-.-.
                 (,_.'`                   `'._,)
 
+          DO NOT ENABLE THIS OPTION!  It is strictly for internal library
+          development! -QAK 2006/4/14
         - Added a macro hdf5_mpi_special_collective_io_works to filter out
           some mpi-io packages that don't support collective IO for no IO
           contributions in some processes. -KY 2006/2/16
@@ -468,6 +468,41 @@ Bug Fixes since HDF5-1.6.0 release
 
     Library
     -------
+        - Fixed file corruption bug which could write an incorrect number of
+            messages to an object's header under certain circumstances.
+            Generally, the sequence of actions to generate this bug looks
+            like this:
+                - Create an object
+                - Close the file
+                - Re-open the file
+                - Add 2 (or more) attributes to the object
+                - Close the file
+                - Re-open the file
+                - Delete one of the attributes on the object
+                - Add a smaller attribute to the object
+                - Delete the smaller atttribute on the object
+                - Add a larger attribute on the object
+
+            After this, the number of header messages stored for the object
+            will be off by one.  Other sequences of modifying attributes on an
+            object could also trigger this bug.  If you are opening an
+            object and the bottom few messages of the HDF5 error stack
+            resembles this, the object has been affected by this bug:
+
+              #007: ../../hdf5_v1.6/src/H5C.c line 3887 in H5C_load_entry(): unable to load entry
+                major(08): Meta data cache layer
+                minor(40): Unable to load metadata into cache
+              #008: ../../hdf5_v1.6/src/H5Ocache.c line 332 in H5O_load(): corrupt object header - too few messages
+                major(12): Object header layer
+                minor(40): Unable to load metadata into cache
+
+            Specifically, "corrupt object header" is the best string to search
+            for in the HDF5 error stack output.
+
+            If your files have been affected by this bug, or you are concerned
+            that your files might have been, please contact the HDF Helpdesk
+            at hdfhelp@ncsa.uiuc.edu for a tool to detect and repair files
+            affected by this problem.  QAK - 2006/6/16
         - Fixed various problems with retrieving names of objects, especially
             with mounted files.  QAK - 2005/12/25
         - Fixed core dump when closing root groups opened through two different