--- /dev/null
+Subject: ANNOUNCE: mdadm 2.6.8 - A tool for managing Soft RAID under Linux
+
+I am pleased to announce the availability of
+ mdadm version 2.6.8
+
+It is available at the usual places:
+ countrycode=xx.
+ http://www.${countrycode}kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/raid/mdadm/
+and via git at
+ git://neil.brown.name/mdadm
+ http://neil.brown.name/git?p=mdadm
+
+mdadm is a tool for creating, managing and monitoring
+device arrays using the "md" driver in Linux, also
+known as Software RAID arrays.
+
+Release 2.6.8 contains various bug fixes and minor enhancements.
+It is possibly that 2.6.8 will be the last release in the 2.x
+series and very likely that there will never be a 2.7.
+Hopefully 3.0 will be released soon making future development
+of 2.6.x unnecessary. However if a need does arise for a 2.6.9
+it will be considered.
+
+Changelog Entries:
+ fix add_dev() handling of broken links
+ Assemble: allow --force to work even when event counts are 0.
+ mapfile: fix bug in testing for /var/run/mdadm/
+ Incremental: change precedence order for autof setting.
+ Adjust major number testing to allow for extended minor number in 2.6.28
+ Incremental: allow assembly of foreign array.
+ Incremental: fix setting of 'autof' flag.
+ Fix --incremental assembly of partitions arrays.
+ Fix NULL pointer oops
+ Fix bad metadata formatting
+ Allow WRITEMOSTLY to be cleared on --readd using --readwrite.
+ Remove .UR .UE macros from man page because the don't do what we want.
+ Grow: Fix linear-growth when devices are not all the same size.
+ Improve reporting of layout for raid10.
+ Manage: allow adding device that is just large enough to v1.x array.
+ Cosmetic cleanup of some messages.
+ Clean up usage of open()
+ Add support for distribution specific build extensions
+ Fix confusing usage in md.4 man page.
+ Describe the HOMEHOST entry in the mdadm.conf man page.
+ Some more cleanup of tests.
+ Add test for stoping and restarting a raid5 reshape.
+ Add "bitmap=" to "--detail --brief" output when relevant.
+ Improve error message when mdadm fails to stop an array.
+ Couple more man page fixes
+ Add text to man pages suggesting partition type to use for version 1.x metadata.
+ Italic/bold fixes in man pages.
+ Fix bug in forced assemble.
+ Fix an error when assembling arrays that are in the middle of a reshape.
+
+Development of mdadm is sponsored by
+ SUSE Labs, Novell Inc.
+
+NeilBrown 28th November 2008