diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'erts/doc/src/notes.xml')
-rw-r--r-- | erts/doc/src/notes.xml | 507 |
1 files changed, 507 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/erts/doc/src/notes.xml b/erts/doc/src/notes.xml index 1703ce0942..102fa43c1f 100644 --- a/erts/doc/src/notes.xml +++ b/erts/doc/src/notes.xml @@ -30,6 +30,513 @@ </header> <p>This document describes the changes made to the ERTS application.</p> +<section><title>Erts 5.8.3</title> + + <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title> + <list> + <item> + <p> + The scroll wheel now scrolls the werl window on Windows.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8985</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + Some malformed distribution messages could cause VM to + crash, this is now corrected.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8993</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + The OS function getifaddrs() can return NULL in some + address fields for e.g PPP and tunnel devices which + caused the emulator to segfault. This bug has now been + corrected.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8996</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + The expression <<A:0>> would always produce + an empty binary, even if <c>A</c> was not an integer. + Corrected to cause a <c>badarg</c> exception if the type + of <c>A</c> is invalid. (Thanks to Zvi.)</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8997</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + A bug that potentially could cause an emulator crash when + deleting an ETS-table has been fixed. A resource leak + when hitting the maximum amount of ETS-tables allowed has + also been fixed.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8999</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + A bug in the <c>exit/2</c> BIF could potentially cause an + emulator crash.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-9005</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + Due to a bug in glibc the runtime system could abort + while trying to destroy a mutex. The runtime system will + now issue a warning instead of aborting.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-9009</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + A bug in epmd could create strange behaviour when + listen() calls failed. This is now corrected thanks to + Steve Vinoski.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-9024</p> + </item> + <item> + <p>When setting file_info the win32_driver will now + correctly set access and modified time. Previously these + entities were swapped.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-9046</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + Setting scheduler bind type to <c>unbound</c> failed if + binding of schedulers wasn't supported, or if CPU + topology wasn't present. This even though the + documentation stated that it is possible to set the bind + type to <c>unbound</c>.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-9056 Aux Id: Seq11779 </p> + </item> + <item> + <p>Two problems were fixed in crash dump: The time left + for timers are now shown as unsigned integers and the + contents of ordered_set ETS tables is no longer + included.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-9057</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + The VM could fail to set IP_TOS and SO_PRIORITY in + certain situations, either because sockets were supplied + as open file descriptors, or because SO_PRIORITY by + default was set higher than the user can explicitly set + it to. Those situations are now handled.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-9069</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + Wx on MacOS X generated complains on stderr about certain + cocoa functions not beeing called from the "Main thread". + This is now corrected.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-9081</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + Fix a couple typos in driver_entry(3) (thanks to Tuncer + Ayaz).</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-9085</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + Mention that "-detached" implies "-noinput"</p> + <p> + Clarify that specifying "-noinput" is unnecessary if the + "-detached" flag is given. (thanks to Holger Wei�)</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-9086</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + A potential problem (found by code inspection) when + calling a fun whose code was not loaded has been fixed.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-9095</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + The emulator could get into a state where it didn't check + for I/O.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-9105 Aux Id: Seq11798 </p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + Attempting to create binaries exceeding 2Gb (using for + example <c>term_to_binary/1</c>) would crash the emulator + with an attempt to allocate huge amounts of memory. + (Thanks to Jon Meredith.)</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-9117</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + Fix erlang:hibernate/3 on HiPE enabled emulator (Thanks + to Paul Guyot)</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-9125</p> + </item> + </list> + </section> + + + <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title> + <list> + <item> + <p>From this release, the previously experimental + halfword emulator is now official. It can be enabled by + giving the <c>--enable-halfword-emulator</c> option to + the <c>configure</c> script.</p> + <p>The halfword emulator is a 64-bit application, but + uses halfwords (32-bit words) for all data in Erlang + processes, therefore using less memory and being faster + than the standard 64-bit emulator. The total size of all + BEAM code and all process data for all processes is + limited to 4Gb, but ETS tables and off-heap binaries are + only limited by the amount of available memory.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8941</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + 32-bit atomic memory operations have been introduced + internally in the run time system, and are now used where + appropriate. There were previously only atomic memory + operations of word size available. The 32-bit atomic + memory operations slightly reduce memory consumption, and + slightly improve performance on 64-bit runtime systems.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8974</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + Performance enhancements for looking up timer-entries and + removing timers from the wheel.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8990</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + Write accesses to ETS tables have been optimized by + reducing the amount of atomic memory operations needed + during a write access.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-9000</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + Strange C coding in the VM made the -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE + option to gcc-4.5 react badly. The code is now cleaned up + so that it's accepted by gcc-4.5.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-9025</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + The memory footprint for loaded code has been somewhat + reduced (especially in the 64-bit BEAM machine).</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-9030</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + The maximum number of allowed arguments for an Erlang + function has been lowered from 256 to 255, so that the + number of arguments can now fit in a byte.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-9049</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + Dependency generation for Makefiles has been added to the + compiler and erlc. See the manual pages for + <c>compile</c> and <c>erlc</c>. (Thanks to Jean-Sebastien + Pedron.)</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-9065</p> + </item> + </list> + </section> + +</section> + +<section><title>Erts 5.8.2</title> + + <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title> + <list> + <item> + <p> Fix format_man_pages so it handles all man sections + and remove warnings/errors in various man pages. </p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8600</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + The <c>configure</c> command line argument <seealso + marker="doc/installation_guide:INSTALL#How-to-Build-and-Install-ErlangOTP_A-Closer-Look-at-the-individual-Steps_Configuring">--enable-ethread-pre-pentium4-compatibility</seealso> + had no effect. This option is now also automatically + enabled if required on the build machine.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8847</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + Windows 2003 and Windows XP pre SP3 would sometimes not + start the Erlang R14B VM at all due to a bug in the cpu + topology detection. The bug affects Windows only, no + other platform is even remotely affected. The bug is now + corrected.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8876</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + The HiPE run-time in the 64-bit emulator could do a + 64-bit write to a 32-bit struct field. It happened to be + harmless on Intel/AMD processors. Corrected. (Thanks to + Mikael Pettersson.)</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8877</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + A bug in <seealso + marker="erl_driver#erl_drv_tsd_get">erl_drv_tsd_get()</seealso> + and <seealso + marker="erl_nif#enif_tsd_get">enif_tsd_get()</seealso> + could cause an emulator crash. These functions are + currently not used in OTP. That is, the crash only occur + on systems with user implemented NIF libraries, or + drivers that use one of these functions.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8889</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + Calling <c>erlang:system_info({cpu_topology, + CpuTopologyType})</c> with another <c>CpuTopologyType</c> + element than one of the documented atoms <c>defined</c>, + <c>detected</c>, or <c>used</c> caused an emulator crash. + (Thanks to Paul Guyot)</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8914</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + The ERTS internal rwlock implementation could get into an + inconsistent state. This bug was very seldom triggered, + but could be during heavy contention. The bug was + introduced in R14B (erts-5.8.1).</p> + <p> + The bug was most likely to be triggered when using the + <c>read_concurrency</c> option on an ETS table that was + frequently accessed from multiple processes doing lots of + writes and reads. That is, in a situation where you + typically don't want to use the <c>read_concurrency</c> + option in the first place.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8925 Aux Id: OTP-8544 </p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + Tracing to port could cause an emulator crash when + unloading the trace driver.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8932</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + Removed use of CancelIoEx on Windows that had been shown + to cause problems with some drivers.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8937</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + The fallback implementation used when no native atomic + implementation was found did not compile. (Thanks to + Patrick Baggett, and Tuncer Ayaz)</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8944</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + Some integer values used during load balancing could + under rare circumstances wrap causing a load unbalance + between schedulers.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8950</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + The windows VM now correctly handles appending to large + files (> 4GB).</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8958</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + Name resolving of IPv6 addresses has been implemented for + Windows versions that support it. The use of ancient + resolver flags (AI_V4MAPPED | AI_ADDRCONFIG) to the + getaddrinfo() function has been removed since e.g FreeBSD + regard mapped IPv4 addresses to be a security problem and + the semantics of the address configured flag is + uncertain.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8969</p> + </item> + </list> + </section> + + + <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title> + <list> + <item> + <p> + The help texts produced by the <c>configure</c> scripts + in the top directory and in the erts directory have been + aligned and cleaned up.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8859</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + When the runtime system had fewer schedulers than logical + processors, the system could get an unnecessarily large + amount reader groups.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8861</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + <c>run_rel</c> has been updated to support Solaris's + /dev/ptmx device and to load the necessary STREAMS + modules so that <c>to_erl</c> can provide terminal echo + of keyboard input. (Thanks to Ryan Tilder.)</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8878</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + The Erlang VM now supports Unicode filenames. The feature + is turned on by default on systems where Unicode + filenames are mandatory (Windows and MacOSX), but can be + enabled on other systems with the '+fnu' emulator option. + Enabling the Unicode filename feature on systems where it + is not default is however considered experimental and not + to be used for production. Together with the Unicode file + name support, the concept of "raw filenames" is + introduced, which means filenames provided without + implicit unicode encoding translation. Raw filenames are + provided as binaries, not lists. For further information, + see stdlib users guide and the chapter about using + Unicode in Erlang. Also see the file module manual page.</p> + <p> + *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8887</p> + </item> + <item> + <p>Buffer overflows have been prevented in <c>erlc</c>, + <c>dialyzer</c>, <c>typer</c>, <c>run_test</c>, + <c>heart</c>, <c>escript</c>, and <c>erlexec</c>.</p> + (Thanks to Michael Santos.) + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8892</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + The runtime system is now less eager to suspend processes + sending messages over the distribution. The default value + of the distribution buffer busy limit has also been + increased from 128 KB to 1 MB. This in order to improve + throughput.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8901</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + The distribution buffer busy limit can now be configured + at system startup. For more information see the + documentation of the <c>erl</c> <seealso + marker="erl#+zdbbl">+zdbbl</seealso> command line flag. + (Thanks to Scott Lystig Fritchie)</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8912</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + The inet driver internal buffer stack implementation has + been rewritten in order to reduce lock contention.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8916</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + New ETS option <c>compressed</c>, to enable a more + compact storage format at the expence of heavier table + operations. For test and evaluation, <c>erl +ec</c> can + be used to force compression on all ETS tables.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8922 Aux Id: seq11658 </p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + There is now a new function inet:getifaddrs/0 modeled + after C library function getifaddrs() on BSD and LInux + that reports existing interfaces and their addresses on + the host. This replaces the undocumented and unsupported + inet:getiflist/0 and inet:ifget/2.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8926</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + Support for detection of CPU topology and binding of + schedulers on FreeBSD 8 have been added. (Thanks to Paul + Guyot)</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8939</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + Several bugs related to hibernate/3 and HiPE have been + corrected. (Thanks to Paul Guyot.)</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8952</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + Support for soft and hard links on Windows versions and + filesystems that support them is added.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8955</p> + </item> + <item> + <p> + The win32 virtual machine is now linked large address + aware. his allows the Erlang VM to use up to 3 gigs of + address space on Windows instead of the default of 2 + gigs.</p> + <p> + Own Id: OTP-8956</p> + </item> + </list> + </section> + +</section> + <section><title>Erts 5.8.1.2</title> <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title> |