1. Release Notes for 3.6.8 
Overview
GemStone/S 64 Bit™ 3.6.8 is a new version of the GemStone/S 64 Bit object server. Version 3.6.8 fixes a critical bug in v3.6.7, and includes other changes and bug fixes. We recommend all customers that are not currently able to upgrade to v3.7.x, upgrade to this new version.
These Release Notes include changes between the previous version of GemStone/S 64 Bit, v3.6.7, and v3.6.8. If you are upgrading from a version prior to 3.6.7, review the release notes for each intermediate release to see the full set of changes.
The Installation Guide has not been updated for this release. For installation, upgrade and conversion instructions, use the Installation Guide for version 3.6.7.
Supported Platforms
Platforms for Version 3.6.8
GemStone/S 64 Bit version 3.6.8 is supported on the following platforms:
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server, CentOS Linux, and Rocky Linux 7.9, 8.9, and 9.3; Ubuntu 20.04 and 22.04; all on x86.
Ubuntu 20.04 on ARM (Ubuntu on ARM is supported for development only)
GemStone performs testing on a mixture of Red Hat, CentOS, and Rocky Linux; these are all fully certified platforms. Any reference to Red Hat applies to all these distributions. - AIX 7.1 and 7.2
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macOS 13.1 (Ventura) with Darwin 22.2.0 kernel, and macOS 12.6 (Monterey) with Darwin 21.6.0 kernel on x86; and macOS 11.6 (Big Sur) with Darwin 20.6.0 kernel on Apple silicon.
(Mac is supported for development only)
For more information and detailed requirements for each supported platforms, please refer to the GemStone/S 64 Bit Installation Guide for that platform.
GemBuilder for Smalltalk (GBS) Versions
The following versions of GBS are supported with GemStone/S 64 Bit version 3.6.8:
GBS/VW version 8.7
VSD Version
The GemStone/S 64 Bit v3.6.8 distribution includes VSD version 5.6.1. This is the same version that was included with the previous GemStone/S 64 Bit version, v3.6.7. VSD 5.6.1 includes a fix for a rare but significant bug.
VSD v5.6.1 is included with the GemStone distribution, and can also be downloaded as a separate product. For details or to download, go to https://gemtalksystems.com/vsd/.
Changes in this version
Added Topaz command SET AUTOSTACKSAVE
set autostacksave requires one argument, OFF or ON.
If on, STACK SAVE is executed automatically for each error returned to topaz from an execution (doit, send, or run).
The default is ON if the topaz stdin is a terminal, otherwise default is OFF.
Bugs Fixed
Risk of garbage collection of live objects
In code changes introduced in v3.6.7, there was a corner case in which an iteration in creating the transitive closure of live objects could terminate before it was complete, such that some objects could be omitted. These objects would be subject to garbage collection. This is expected to be rare and related to configurations with multiple extents with many threads. (#50847)
Due to this bug, version 3.6.7 should not be used, and is not available for download.
startstone recovery may fail with tranlogs on raw partitions
After an unclean Stone shutdown, such as a kill -9, on restart the Stone performs recovery by reading the current tranlog that was being written before the shutdown. When tranlogs are configured as a list of raw partitions, there is a codepath in which the stone may fail to find the tranlogs needed for recovery; in this case, the stone will not start unless startstone -N is used. (#50843)