==================================
58.0 Journey to the Christmas Star
==================================

The Avocado team is proud to present another release: Avocado version
58.0, AKA "Journey to the Christmas Star", is now available!

Release documentation: `Avocado 58.0
<http://avocado-framework.readthedocs.io/en/58.0/>`_

The major changes introduced on this version are listed below,
roughly categorized into major topics and intended audience:

Users/Test Writers
==================

* The :mod:`avocado.utils.vmimage` library now contains support for
  Avocado's own JeOS image.  A nice addition given the fact that
  it's the default image used in Avocado-VT and the latest version
  is available in the following architectures: x86_64, aarch64, ppc64,
  ppc64le and s390x.

* Avocado packages are now available in binary "wheel" format on PyPI.
  This brings faster, more convenient and reliable installs via
  ``pip``.  Previously, the source-only tarballs would require the
  source to be built on the target system, but the wheel package
  install is mostly an unpack of the already compiled files.

* The installation of Avocado from sources has improved and moved
  towards a more "Pythonic" approach.  Installation of files in
  "non-Pythonic locations" such as ``/etc`` are no longer attempted by
  the Python ``setup.py`` code.  Configuration files, for instance,
  are now considered package data files of the ``avocado`` package.
  The end result is that installation from source works fine outside
  virtual environments (in addition to installations *inside* virtual
  environments).

* Python 3 has been enabled, in "allow failures mode" in Avocado's CI
  environment.  All static source code checks pass, and most of the
  unittests (*not* the functional tests) also pass.  It's yet another
  incremental steps towards full Python 3 support.

Bug Fixes
=========

* The :mod:`avocado.utils.software_manager` library received
  improvements with regards to downloads of source packages,
  working around bugs in older ``yumdownloader`` versions.

Internal Changes
================

* Spelling exceptions and fixes were added throughout and now ``make
  spell`` is back to a good shape.

* The Avocado CI checks (Travis-CI) are now run in parallel, similar
  to the stock ``make check`` behavior.

For more information, please check out the complete
`Avocado changelog
<https://github.com/avocado-framework/avocado/compare/57.0...58.0>`_.

Release Meeting
===============

The Avocado release meetings are now open to the community via
Hangouts on Air.  The meetings are recorded and made available on the
`Avocado Test Framework YouTube channel
<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-RVZ_HFTbEztDM7wNY4NfA>`_.

For this release, you can watch the meeting on `this link
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjWilUSdEnw>`_.

----

| Sprint theme: https://trello.com/c/lHnzJT06/1208-sprint-theme-journey-to-the-christmas-star