The following release notes correspond to the dates March 1 to March 7, 2025. This release also includes back-end updates to workflows, interactive analysis (Notebooks, Galaxy, RStudio), user interface, Data Repository (TDR), and Google integrations to improve upcoming features.
Workflows
Avoid cache collisions with updates to call caching
- As of the March 4, 2025 release, Terra call caching uses md5 hashes to track GCS objects. The md5 hash replaces the previously used crc32c hash. By increasing precision from 32 bits to md5's 128, the new algorithm is a better fit for massive projects with tens to hundreds of thousands of tasks. A hash collision is now effectively impossible.
- Composite objects, such as ones created with parallel composite upload, do not have an md5 hash. Call caching now tracks them by their identity, which is derived from the object's path and generation. Any change to an object’s bytes increments the generation, ensuring that new versions have unique identity values.
- As part of this change, users will experience a one-time re-run of tasks as the cache index rebuilds in the new format.
Workflow cost reporting
- The "Total Run Cost" field on the submission detail page now properly displays the $0.00 value. Previously, a value of $0.00 was displayed as "N/A".
Removed Azure Hail Batch App from Terra on Azure
- Note that it was only available via private feature preview in dev and staging, never in prod.
Workspaces
The "getSharees" API at `GET https://api.firecloud.org/api/sharelog/sharees` is now deprecated and will be fully deleted on or after April 7, 2025. Note that the functionality of auto-suggesting who to share workspaces with from the Share Workspace screen had been turned off in Terra, with no observed API traffic.