Merging all fixes for 2.9

[Inge Wallin]

I talked with Boud today about various things and one thing that came up were 
all the fixes for 2.9.  There are a lot of them and almost all of them are only 
on the 2.9 branch right now. This situation is potentially dangerous and will 
become worse as time goes by.

I volunteered to merge 2.9 into master tonight and Boud thought that would be 
a good idea. But I thought I'd send this mail to see if there is anybody who 
objects.  If not, I'll go ahead, and if there are no conflicts I will just 
push.  

Ok?

	-Inge