pkgsrc-2017Q4 packages for illumos now available

[Jonathan Perkin <jperkin%joyent.com@localhost>]

Hi all,

I'm pleased to announce that the pkgsrc-2017Q4 binary package sets for
illumos are now available.  This is a new LTS release supported for 3
years until the release of pkgsrc-2020Q4.  This release marks the end
of support for pkgsrc-2014Q4 and SmartOS 14.4.x images.

The main new feature of 2017Q4 is CTF debug information is now enabled
in all packages that support it.  See below for more details.

As always you can install pkgsrc using the instructions here:

  https://pkgsrc.joyent.com/install-on-illumos/

SmartOS users should use the new 17.4.0 images via imgadm(1M) due to
be released shortly.

Changes since pkgsrc-2017Q3:

 - Number of binary packages available:

   - x86_64: 17,500+
   - i386: 17,000+
   - multiarch: 15,000+

 - New packages introduced (not all necessarily available as binary
   packages) include:

   - Many new perl, python, go and tex packages.
   - PostgreSQL 10
   - Rust 1.22.1
   - PHP 7.2
   - clang/llvm/lldb 5.0.0
   - Firefox 57.0.2

 - Package removals include:

   - Emacs 22, 23, and 24
   - Firefox 10 through 38
   - GDB 5 and 6
   - KDE 3

 - Infrastructure changes:

   - CTF is now enabled for all packages that support it.  For the x86_64 set
     this translates to 22,708 binaries across 5,625 packages.  CTF enables
     improved debugging and DTrace support, see Robert Mustacci's blog post
     http://dtrace.org/blogs/rm/2013/11/14/userland-ctf-in-dtrace/ for more
     information.

   - The STRIP_DEBUG infrastructure has been improved and enabled to ensure
     that packages aren't bloated by the addition of debug data.  Packages
     that have CTF enabled will see a small increase (usually around 3%) in
     size, but those that don't (primarily those written in C++ or other
     languages not supported by CTF) may see a significant reduction.  The
     net result is that the sizes of the bootstrap kits and images have been
     reduced since 2017Q3.

 - Commit stats since 2017Q3:

   - 222 packages added
   - 225 packages removed
   - 1,701 package updates (to 1,145 unique packages)
   - 4,089 commits from 67 contributors

Please report any bugs or feature requests specifically related to
this binary package set on our GitHub issues page:

  https://github.com/joyent/pkgsrc/issues

Enjoy!

-- 
Jonathan Perkin  -  Joyent, Inc.  -  www.joyent.com