TON v2024.10 and FunC 0.4.5

2024.10 Update

1. Parallel write to celldb: substantial improvement of sync and GC speed, especially with slow disks.
2. Decreased network traffic: only first block candidate is sent optimistically.
3. Improved channel creation and dht lookups, introduction of semi-private overlays
4. New LS dispatch queue related methods and improvement security
5. Fixing recursion in TVM continuations
6. Improved stats for actors, validator sessions, perf counters, overlays, adnl, rocksdb
7. Migration to C++20
8. Improved block size estimates: account for depth in various structures
9. Fix bug with << optimization in FunC
10. Minor changes of TVM which will be activated by Config8.version >= 9
11. Multiple minor improvements

Besides the work of the core team, this update is based on the efforts of @krigga (emulator), Arayz @ TonBit (LS security, TVM recursion), @ret2happy (UB in BLST).

TON v2024.09

2024.09 Update

1. Add ratelimit for ADNL packets sent/received without channel: this type of communication requires slow asymmetric encryption and may cause issues (high memory consumption and long queues of packets to be decrypted) under load.
2. Dynamic catchchain delays: reach consensus faster when possible, but reduce load if block production is difficult.
3. State serialization improvement: explicitly clean the memory if serialization was canceled.
4. Collator config updates: update default block collation parameters (message deferral threshold) to better match real-world load.
5. Added more verbose garbage collection stats and fixed issues in LS.

TON v2024.08

2024.08 Update

1. Introduction of dispatch queues, message envelopes with transaction chain metadata, and explicitly stored msg_queue size, which will be activated by Config8.version >= 8 and new Config8.capabilities bits: capStoreOutMsgQueueSize, capMsgMetadata, capDeferMessages.
2. A number of changes to transcation executor which will activated for Config8.version >= 8:
   • Check mode on invalid action_send_msg. Ignore action if IGNORE_ERROR (+2) bit is set, bounce if BOUNCE_ON_FAIL (+16) bit is set.
   • Slightly change random seed generation to fix mix of addr_rewrite and addr.
   • Fill in skipped_actions for both invalid and valid messages with IGNORE_ERROR mode that can't be sent.
   • Allow unfreeze through external messages.
   • Don't use user-provided fwd_fee and ihr_fee for internal messages.
3. A few issues with broadcasts were fixed: stop on receiving last piece, response to AdnlMessageCreateChannel
4. A number of fixes and improvements for emulator and tonlib: correct work with config_addr, not accepted externals, bounces, debug ops gas consumption, added version and c5 dump, fixed tonlib crashes
5. Added new flags and commands to the node, in particular --fast-state-serializer, getcollatoroptionsjson, setcollatoroptionsjson

Besides the work of the core team, this update is based on the efforts of @krigga (emulator), stonfi team, in particular @dbaranovstonfi and @hey-researcher (emulator), and @loeul, @xiaoxianBoy, @simlecode (typos in comments and docs).

TON v2024.06

2024.04 Update

1. Make Jemalloc default allocator
2. Add candidate broadcasting and caching
3. Limit per address speed for external messages broadcast by reasonably large number
4. Overlay improvements: fix dropping peers in small custom overlays, fix wrong certificate on missed keyblocks
5. Extended statistics and logs for celldb usage, session stats, persistent state serialization
6. Tonlib and explorer fixes
7. Flags for precize control of Celldb: --celldb-cache-size, --celldb-direct-io and --celldb-preload-all
8. Add valiator-console command to stop persistent state serialization
9. Use @ path separator for defining include path in fift and create-state utilities on Windows only.

TON v2024.04

2024.04 Update

1. Emulator: Single call optimized runGetMethod added
2. Tonlib: a series of proof improvements, also breaking Change in liteServer.getAllShardsInfo method (see below)
3. DB: usage statistics now collected, outdated persistent states are not serialized
4. LS: fast getOutMsgQueueSizes added, preliminary support of non-final block requests
5. Network: lz4 compression of block candidates (disabled by default).
6. Overlays: add custom overlays
7. Transaction Executor: fixed issue with due_payment collection

• liteServer.getAllShardsInfo method was updated for better efficiency. Previously, field proof contained BoC with two roots: one for BlockState from block's root and another for ShardHashes from BlockState. Now, it returns a single-root proof BoC, specifically the merkle proof of ShardHashes directly from the block's root, streamlining data access and integrity. Checking of the proof requires to check that ShardHashes in the data correspond to ShardHashes from the block.

Besides the work of the core team, this update is based on the efforts of @akifoq (due_payment issue).

TON v2024.03

2024.03 Update

1. Preparatory (not enabled yet) code for pre-compiled smart-contract.
2. Minor fixes for fee-related opcodes.

TON v2024.02

2024.02 Update

1. Improvement of validator synchronisation:
   • Better handling of block broadcasts -> faster sync
   • Additional separate overlay among validators as second option for synchronisation
2. Improvements in LS:
   • c7 and library context is fully filled up for server-side rungetmethod
   • Cache for runmethods and successfull external messages
   • Logging of LS requests statistic
3. Precise control of open files:
   • almost instantaneous validator start
   • --max-archive-fd option
   • autoremoval of not used temp archive files
   • --archive-preload-period option
4. Preparatory (not enabled yet) code for addition on new TVM instructions for cheaper fee calculation onchain.

TON v2024.01

2024.01 Update

1. Fixes in how gas in transactions on special accounts is accounted in block limit. Previously, gas was counted as usual, so to conduct elections that costs >30m gas block limit in masterchain was set to 37m gas. To lower the limit for safety reasons it is proposed to caunt gas on special accounts separately. Besides gas_max is set to special_gas_limit for all types of transactions on special accounts. New behavior is activated through setting version >= 5 in ConfigParam 8;.
   • Besides update of config temporally increases gas limit on EQD_v9j1rlsuHHw2FIhcsCFFSD367ldfDdCKcsNmNpIRzUlu to special_gas_limit, see details.
2. Improvements in LS behavior
   • Improved detection of the state with all shards applied to decrease rate of Block is not applied error
   • Better error logs: block not in db and block is not applied separation
   • Fix error in proof generation for blocks after merge
   • Fix most of block is not applied issues related to sending too recent block in Proofs
   • LS now check external messages till accept_message (set_gas).
3. Improvements in DHT work and storage, CellDb, config.json ammendment, peer misbehavior detection, validator session stats collection, emulator.
4. Change in CTOS and XLOAD behavior activated through setting version >= 5 in ConfigParam 8;:
   • Loading "nested libraries" (i.e. a library cell that points to another library cell) throws an exception.
   • Loading a library consumes gas for cell load only once (for the library cell), not twice (both for the library cell and the cell in the library).
   • XLOAD now works differently. When it takes a library cell, it returns the cell that it points to. This allows loading "nested libraries", if needed.

Besides the work of the Core team, this update is based on the efforts of @XaBbl4 (peer misbehavior detection) and @akifoq (CTOS behavior and gas limit scheme for special accounts).

TON v2023.12

1. Optimized message queue handling, now queue cleaning speed doesn't depend on total queue size
   • Cleaning delivered messages using lt augmentation instead of random search / consequtive walk
   • Keeping root cell of queue message in memory until outdated (caching)
2. Changes to block collation/validation limits
3. Stop accepting new external message if message queue is overloaded
4. Introducing conditions for shard split/merge based on queue size

Read more on that update.

TON v2023.11

2023.11 Update

1. New TVM Functionality. (Disabled by default)
2. A series of emulator improvements: libraries support, higher max stack size, etc
3. A series of tonlib and tonlib-cli improvements: wallet-v4 support, getconfig, showtransactions, etc
4. Changes to public libraries: now contract can not publish more than 256 libraries (config parameter) and contracts can not be deployed with public libraries in initstate (instead contracts need explicitly publish all libraries)
5. Changes to storage due payment: now due payment is collected in Storage Phase, however for bouncable messages fee amount can not exceed balance of account prior to message.

Besides the work of the core team, this update is based on the efforts of @aleksej-paschenko (emulator improvements), @akifoq (security improvements), Trail of Bits auditor as well as all participants of TEP-88 discussion.