Blog

MIB Smithy 4.6 Released [updated]

MIB Smithy 4.6 is now available for download. In addition to some bug fixes and new features brought in from the MIB Smithy SDK 4.5 and MIB Views 1.9 releases, there are a few cool new features in this release I’d like to highlight that are designed to simplify your MIB editing workflow a bit:

First, MIB Smithy has always had a single “Preview” tab. Whenever you “Preview” a file, or a module, or any other record within a module, whatever was in the Preview was replaced. You could show and hide the tab, but you could not preview more than one thing or in more than one format at a time. You could not preview two different modules at the same time. You could not see how your changes look before and after. That’s no longer the case! Now a new tab is opened whenever you tell MIB Smithy to generate a preview of an item, and there’s an [X] button in the upper right corner to close the tab:

Second (and third) are two new features for the Tasks tab, where compiler/MIB validation messages appear to inform you of errors and warnings in your MIB/PIB modules. There’s now a check box next to each entry in the Tasks list, and two below the list indicating the number of errors and warnings detected:

In past versions, after you’d made changes to your module to address the issues, you needed to re-validate to get rid of any messages that were no longer pertinent. You might have to re-sort and re-find your place to continue working. Now, once you’ve addressed an item (or believe so, or simply want to hide it temporarily), you can click the check box next to the item. After a short delay (in case you clicked the wrong item or changed your mind) it will be deleted from the list, and will only return when you re-validate if the issue still remains.

Second, in addition to now having a clear count of the number of errors and warnings (previously only available from the Log tab), you can check or uncheck the boxes next to the error and warning counts to choose to show or hide errors or warnings separately. If you have a handful of errors and many warnings, for example, you may choose to hide the warnings while you focus on first making sure your modules are error-free.

Release Notes

The following changes are in this release:

5027: Options to filter compiler/validation results for errors/warnings

New checkbuttons were added below the Tasks tab where validation errors and warnings appear. The checkbuttons show the current error and warning count and can be checked/unchecked to show/hide errors or warnings (for example, hiding warnings to focus on fixing errors first).

674: Add checkbutton to Tasks list entries

Each validation error or warning message in the Tasks tab now has a checkbutton associated with it. Checking a task off removes the message after a short delay so that you can mark an item as resolved without having to re-validate to clear it. If the issue has not been corrected it will reappear the next time the module is validated.

1233: Support for multiple preview windows

Previous versions of MIB Smithy used a single Preview tab in the Workspace that was updated each time a preview was requested. Now, each time a preview is requested, a new tab is opened (and can be closed with the X button in the upper right corner). This allows you to preview multiple records, in multiple formats, or visually compare previews.

2381: Rename File->Open to File->Open Project

The File->Open and File->Open Project menu entries performed the same task (namely, closing the current project and opening a new one). File->Open is now File->Open Project, and the redundant entry removed.

493: Auto-hide Workspace panel when no tabs visible

When no tabs are open in the Workspace panel for previewing or editing records, the panel is now automatically hidden, allowing the Project panel/tree to expand into the unoccupied space.

5006: Add format for TimeTicks values

TimeTicks values (such as sysUpTime) in the SNMP Tools are now rendered in “Nd HH:MM:SS.ss” format (days, hours, minutes, seconds, deciseconds) rather than leaving them as an integer value, by default, unless there’s an associated TEXTUAL-CONVENTION with a different DISPLAY-HINT.

5046: More reliable methods to get Host IDs on Unix

Another/new method is used to determine Host IDs on FreeBSD, Linux and Mac OS X. This method should be able to see interfaces that are disconnected or unconfigured. In some cases, these were previously not seen, which could be a hassle for multi-homing or laptop use with no active network connection.

4806: Warning for tables with only accessible-for-notify columns

It is now a warning rather than an error if at least one column of a table is accessible-for-notify and all others not-accessible, rather than an error as it is for all columns to be not-accessible. There is one IETF standard MIB (RAQMON-RDS-MIB) where this is used, so accessible-for-notify should be sufficient to satisfy RFC2578 section 7.7 requirement that at least one column be accessible.

5095: Improve handling of MIB ambiguities in SNMP Tools

Several improvements were made in handling of issues with looking up MIB definitions (such as “search string is ambiguous” errors). The Tree View in particular previously would report the ambiguity and not allow further expansion, but now will ignore it and continue, and (for all tools) message dialogs reporting a problem looking up the entered OID will provide more/better details about what the issue is.

393: Add option to show additional columns in tools

You can now show additional columns in most tools, either through the View menu or by right-clicking on the table header. For example, for the Table View you can opt to show the instance identifiers, which previously only appeared if the index values could not be parsed. For other tools, you can opt to show the OID and module name.

4210: Invalid type reference ” setting object with unimported type

An “Invalid type reference ”” error could occur in the SNMP Query tool when setting object with an undefined/unimported type.

3916: When Tcl error occurs, stop button no longer works

In some cases, an error that occurred during an SNMP operation in a tool that caused the tool to cancel the operation would leave other parts of the GUI (such as the stop button) in a state thinking the operation was still in progress. Typically this required having to open a new window to make the tool usable again.

3915: Error: Don’t know how to encode objects of type ‘SEQUENCE’

The SNMP Query tool will no longer allow entering an ASN.1 type (such as SEQUENCE) that is not legal for an accessible OBJECT-TYPE. Doing so would result in a “Don’t know how to encode …” error (which, while correct, would leave the tool in an unusable state).

338: Hide EXPORTS property in SMIv2 modules

The EXPORTS tab will no longer appear in the SMIv2 or COPS-PR-SPPI module workspaces, unless the loaded modules already specify EXPORTS. This property is only legal in SMIv1 and true ASN.1 modules, so should not otherwise be available.

341: Hide SMIv2 data types in SMIv1 modules

The data type/filter comboboxes in the Syntax/Write-Syntax tabs for object/typedef/variation records now only shows base types that are appropriate for the module’s SMI version (e.g. Counter for SMIv1 vs Counter32 for SMIv2), rather than making all base types available for direct selection. Such incorrect usage would be caught during validation, but better to not make the wrong type selectable in the first place.

5062: Add COPS-PR-SPPI types to Syntax tab’s class filter

The data type/filter comboboxes in the Syntax/Write-Syntax tabs for object/typedef/variation records now lists COPS-PR-SPPI base types when editing PIB modules.

3967: “Root identifier doesn’t exist” error with IMPORTS auto-update

A “Root identifier doesn’t exist” error could occur when editing a record’s OID property if the OID used an imported symbol and the module imported from was not loaded into the project, or other changes in similar conditions where a module’s IMPORTS are being updated automatically.

5031: No such variable error removing MIB files from project

A “no such variable” error would occur when removing certain records without OID properties from a project (such as removing a file). The record would actually be removed, but the error would cause the Project tree to not update, so a subsequent attempt would otherwise appear successful without error.

340: Do not allow structured types in variations

The data type/filter comboboxes in the Syntax/Write-Syntax tabs for variations no longer allow selecting data types that aren’t appropriate for variations (such as SEQUENCE).

1657: Wrong PIB-MIN-ACCESS values for COPS MODULE-COMPLIANCE

The PIB-MIN-ACCESS property for COPS-PR-SPPI (PIB) MODULE-COMPLIANCE OBJECTs listed SMIv2 access values for selection rather than the legal/proper COPS access values (install, install-notify, etc).

4822: MIB Smithy should not bind port at startup

Earlier versions of MIB Smithy SDK would bind port to a socket upon doing any SNMP session configuration that would be used for subsequent SNMP messaging. The introduction of SNMPv3 inform support in MIB Smithy 4.5 stores and configures an snmpEngineID value at startup, which would cause the socket to be created, even if the user was not intending to use the SNMP Tools. MIB Smithy will no longer open/configure a socket unless/until the SNMP Tools are used.

Update: The initial build had a bug introduced with 5027 (error/warning filters) that caused double-clicking the Tasks list to open the associated record’s properties to generate a Tcl error, and I accidentally forgot to include a handful of items in the release notes. I’ve re-built the 4.6 releases to correct these issues.

For MIB Smithy Professional users, also refer to the MIB Smithy SDK 4.5 Release Notes for additional changes.