========================
Salt 0.9.6 Release Notes
========================

:release: 2012-01-21

Salt 0.9.6 is a release targeting a few bugs and changes. This is primarily
targeting an issue found in the names declaration in the state system. But a
few other bugs were also repaired, like missing support for grains in extmods.

Due to a conflict in distribution packaging msgpack will no longer be bundled
with Salt, and is required as a dependency.

New Features
============

HTTP and ftp support in files.managed
-------------------------------------

Now under the source option in the file.managed state a HTTP or ftp address
can be used instead of a file located on the salt master.

Allow Multiple Returners
------------------------

Now the returner interface can define multiple returners, and will also return
data back to the master, making the process less ambiguous.

Minion Memory Improvements
--------------------------

A number of modules have been taken out of the minion if the underlying
systems required by said modules are not present on the minion system.
A number of other modules need to be stripped out in this same way which
should continue to make the minion more efficient.

Minions Can Locally Cache Return Data
-------------------------------------

A new option, cache_jobs, has been added to the minion to allow for all of the
historically run jobs to cache on the minion, allowing for looking up historic
returns. By default cache_jobs is set to False.

Pure Python Template Support For file.managed
---------------------------------------------

Templates in the file.managed state can now be defined in a Python script.
This script needs to have a run function that returns the string that needs to
be in the named file.