Release notes

This document outlines the key changes introduced in VPL Jail System since the version 3.0.1. The highlight of this changes is the introduction of Docker support, among other significant improvements and fixes.

Docker Support

• Auto-detection of containerized environments.
• Capability to run the jail server inside a container, both in privileged and non-privileged modes.
• Includes three Dockerfiles for various configurations:
  • Dockerfile.no_https: HTTP without HTTPS support.
  • Dockerfile: HTTP and HTTPS support.
  • Dockerfile.letsencrypt: HTTP and HTTPS with Let's Encrypt certificates.
• Three Compose files (compose.no_https.yaml, compose.yaml, compose.letsencrypt.yaml) corresponding to the Dockerfiles.

Server Enhancements

• Fixed JSON encoding of control codes < 32.
• Added ability to start the server in foreground mode, suitable for containerized environments.
• Standardized JSONRPC to use 3 parameters, while maintaining backward compatibility for 2 parameters.
• Introduced support for challenge mode for Let's Encrypt certificate management. Available using new CERTBOT_WEBROOT_PATH configuration parameter to support certbot.
• Allow running waiting for certificates.
• Environment Variable Support. Configuration parameters from the environment variables now take precedence over the config file. Environment variables should be prefixed with VPL_JAIL_, followed by the config parameter name.
  • Example: export VPL_JAIL_PORT=8000 to set the PORT parameter.

Installer Updates

• Introduced new command-line options for the installer:

  • help: Display help information.

  • update: Update the VPL-Jail-System server software.

  • start: Start the VPL-Jail-System service post-installation.

  • noninteractive: Enable installation without user interaction.

  • [inst_level]: Set installation level (minimum, basic, standard, full).

  • list: Show packages to be installed per [inst_level].

  • Examples of installer launch

    • ./install-vpl.sh update: Update server software.
    • ./install-vpl.sh standard noninteractive start: Non-interactive installation of standard packages and start the server.
    • ./install-vpl.sh full: Interactive installation of all development packages.
• Added Rust programming language support.
• Added .NET packages, enabling support for C#, F#, and Visual Basic .NET. C# on Mono remains available.
• Expanded package manager support to APT, DNF, and APK, increasing the compatibility with various Linux distributions. YUM support has been discontinued.
• Package Customization. Extracted the list of packages to install to separate files, allowing for better customization. These files are located in the package_files directory.

Running Tasks enhancement

• VNC Launching Enhancements:

  • Fixes and improvements in VNC launch process.
  • Confirmed functionality on Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, and Alpine distributions.

• Terminal and Task Execution Changes:

  • Modified running tasks terminal behavior to use only newline as the end-of-line character.
  • Removed local echo in evaluations.

Other Improvements and fixes

• Improved testing by performing syntax checks for bash scripts.
• This update fixes a typo in the name of CERTBOT
• The installer has been enhanced to support command line options in any order.