Release v1.8.1-aws

Signed-off-by: Raghu Raja <raghunch@amazon.com>

RELEASENOTES.md

@@ -11,6 +11,23 @@ AWS-specific parts a compile-time option.  When a feature (or entire
 release) was only available in one of the two variants, we note that
 in the release notes.
 
+# v1.8.1-aws release notes
+This is a bugfix release that requires
+[Libfabric v1.18.0](https://github.com/ofiwg/libfabric/releases/tag/v1.18.0) or later and
+supports [NCCL v2.19.4-1](https://github.com/NVIDIA/nccl/releases/tag/v2.19.4-1)
+while maintaining backward compatibility with older NCCL versions
+([NCCL v2.4.8](https://github.com/NVIDIA/nccl/releases/tag/v2.4.8-1) and later).
+
+Bug Fixes:
+* Fix an issue with the ID pool's reference counting and allocation
+* Improved error propagation for failed NCCL requests, allowing applications
+  to fail early instead of blocking on requests that can never be completed.
+
+The plugin has been tested with following libfabric providers using tests
+bundled in the source code and
+[nccl-tests](https://github.com/NVIDIA/nccl-tests) suite:
+* efa
+
 # v1.8.0-aws release notes
 This release requires [Libfabric v1.18.0](https://github.com/ofiwg/libfabric/releases/tag/v1.18.0)
 or later and supports [NCCL v2.19.4-1](https://github.com/NVIDIA/nccl/releases/tag/v2.19.4-1)

configure.ac

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 #
 
 # Initialization
-AC_INIT([aws-ofi-nccl], [1.8.1a1-aws], [al-ofi-nccl-team@amazon.com], , [http://github.com/aws/aws-ofi-nccl])
+AC_INIT([aws-ofi-nccl], [1.8.1-aws], [al-ofi-nccl-team@amazon.com], , [http://github.com/aws/aws-ofi-nccl])
 AC_PREREQ([2.69])
 AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([src/nccl_ofi_net.c])
 AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([build-aux])