Changes/Glibc Unicode 7

Glibc Unicode 7.0

Summary

We are updating Glibc Unicode data from Unicode 5.1 to Unicode 7.0 version. It took long time since there was not much documentation on how to update Unicode data and also there was chance of loosing backward compatibility. Most of the issues are resolved now and patches are ready for inclusion. This update added around XXXX number character support in Glibc and also correcting the Unicode data of number of characters as per latest Unicode standard.

Owner

• Name: Mike Fabian Pravin Satpute Siddhesh Poyarekar
• Email: mfabian At redhat DOT com, pravins At fedoraproject DOT org, : spoyarek AT redhat DOT com
• Release notes owner:

Current status

• Targeted release: Fedora 22
• Last updated: 14 Jan 2015
• Tracker bug: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>

Detailed Description

Glibc provides two files for Unicode data, UTF-8 and i18n. UTF-8 file provides information about UTF-16 to UTF-8 conversion and also WIDTH information for Unicode characters. i18n file provides CTYPE (uppercase, lowercase, punct etc.) information for all Unicode characters. This information is used by number of programs for rendering and determining type of characters. It has been long time this is not updated due to incomplete documentation and also possible chances of loosing backward compatibility. Work has been started on this 5-6 months back and now most of the issues are resolved.

Benefit to Fedora

With this change users and developers of Fedora will get Unicode 7.0 support through Glibc. Though we are upgrading from Unicode 5.1 to 7.0, users will only get updated Unicode data from Glibc. No new functionality added. Fedora is leading distribution when it comes to internationalization. By including this change Fedora users and developers will get latest Unicode standard.

Scope

• Proposal owners: Mike Fabian Pravin Satpute Siddhesh Poyarekar

  1. Writing scripts for generating UTF-8 and i18n files from Unicode character database.
  2. Preparing patch for UTF-8 and i18n files.
  3. Preparing backward compatibility report.
  4. Applying patches to Fedora.

• Other developers: N/A (not a System Wide Change)

  Other Developers do not need to do any changes. We need proper testing though to see it does not break any application using Glibc api for UTF-8 and i18n.

• Release engineering: N/A (not a System Wide Change)

  No work required from Release engineering.

• Policies and guidelines: N/A (not a System Wide Change)

   No, this change does not required any updates to Policies or packaging guideline updates.

Upgrade/compatibility impact

Upgrade will be smooth. Users will get exact things with updated Unicode data.

N/A (not a System Wide Change)

Dependencies

• No other RPMs packages depends on this.
• Glibc upstream release 2.21 with this patch is going to miss Fedora 22 release deadline. We are going forward by patching Fedora glibc version.

Contingency Plan

• Contingency mechanism: Will drop patches from Glibc build/
• Contingency deadline: Before F22 Beta release. (not a System Wide Change)
• Blocks release? No
• Blocks product? product No

Documentation

This will be available with backward compatibility report.