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diff --git a/erts/etc/unix/RELNOTES b/erts/etc/unix/RELNOTES new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..d1a110fce3 --- /dev/null +++ b/erts/etc/unix/RELNOTES @@ -0,0 +1,327 @@ + + %CopyrightBegin% + + Copyright Ericsson AB 1996-2009. All Rights Reserved. + + The contents of this file are subject to the Erlang Public License, + Version 1.1, (the "License"); you may not use this file except in + compliance with the License. You should have received a copy of the + Erlang Public License along with this software. If not, it can be + retrieved online at http://www.erlang.org/. + + Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" + basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See + the License for the specific language governing rights and limitations + under the License. + + %CopyrightEnd% + +============================================================================= + +Release Notes Erlang 4.3.1, Stockholm, October 1995 + +This is a maintenance release correcting some minor problems in the 4.3 +release. The changes are mostly related to problems when using Erlang in +an distributed environment. For features and incompatibilities look in the +following description of the 4.3 release. + +-- If you already have the 4.3 release and run in an distributed environment + you should change all nodes to 4.3.1 since some changes could (at least + potentially) create problems/incompatibilities. (You ought to change + anyway due to bugs fixed...). + +============================================================================= + +Release Notes Erlang 4.3, Stockholm, June 1995 + +This is a list of the changes, fixes, and enhancements which have occurred +between the Erlang 4.2 release of March 1994, and the Erlang 4.3 release of +June 1995. There is also information on problems reported for 4.2 that still +remain in release 4.3. For a more detailed description of new or changed +functions, please refer to the respective manual pages, which are referred +to as man-page(3) or man-page(1). + +Erlang release 4.3 is basically the same system as release 4.2. +A large number of improvements and enhancements have, however, +occurred. The 4.3 system is largely source code compatible with +the 4.2 system, but there is a number of incompatibilities. + +*** Major Improvements +------------------------------------------------------------------ + +-- The system is considerably faster and smaller. + A fully networked system now requires less than a Megabyte + of memory to start. + +-- The system has built-in hashlists which makes it possible + to store,search and manipulate very large quantities of data, + see ets(3). + +-- Bignums, integers can now be arbitrarily large (almost) + +-- A fully integrated debugger/interpreter that can be used + to debug distributed applications, see int(3), and + the user manual. + +-- Distributed Erlang can now be run in environments where DNS + (The Domain Name system) is not configured, see dist_erl(1). + +-- A new trace/3 BIF which can be used for a variety of + purposes, see erlang(3). + + +*** Minor improvements and new modules. +--------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-- A new BIF to monitor other nodes, monitor_node/2, + see erlang(3). + +-- Floating point exceptions and bad parameters to math functions + are now handled correctly, (possibly not implemented on all + architectures) + +-- epmd can be used to access DNS, see epmd(3). + +-- Erlang now contains MACROS, include files, structures, etc. + These are currently not documented, and are used at the + user's own risk, as the syntax might change. + +-- The configuration of the Erlang system has been simplified. + Not many users are aware of this possibility at all, however. + The only parameter left for configuration is now the size of + TMP_BUF, so no upper limits remain for the number of functions, + modules, etc. + +-- Parallel make, see make(3). + +-- generic.erl, is recommended for writing servers, + see generic(3). + +-- timer.erl a new module to be used for various types of timing + related activities. + +-- The new formatter ~p has been introduced into the formatting + routines. io:format("String ~p", [Term]). will print the + term Term with any lists of integers that seem to be strings + as strings. This means that the majority of printouts will + now have a more attractive appearance. However, it also means + that some lists of integers that are real "lists of integers" + will be displayed as strings. Example: + + 1> [65,66]. + "AB" + +-- Deep lists can now be sent to ports. The lists must be well formed + but can contain integers and binaries. + +-- There is a new interface to udp/ip, see udp(3). + +-- slave.erl is a new and nicer way to start up slave nodes in a + UNIX environment. + +-- ddd.erl is a distributed fully replicated data dictionary. + +-- queue.erl FIFO queues as an abstract datatype. + +-- There are enhancements in the socket interface, see socket(3). + +-- rpc.erl is a new module that now contains some of the functions + that used to be in net.erl, which has now been removed, + see rpc(3). + +-- lists.erl contains some new functionality, see lists(3). + +-- BIF erlang:now() returns the current time. + This BIF is guaranteed to produce continuously increasing values. + +-- The new module auth.erl is for handling authentication, see auth(3). + +-- The file $HOME/.erlang.cookie is now automatically and + silently created if it does not exist. This means that new and/or + naive users can ignore the issues of cookies entirely. + +-- user.erl has been slightly rewritten so that Erlang + programs can now be part of a UNIX pipe, see erl(3), io(3). + +-- The new library directory tools now contain various + "tools" + + +*** Command line flags changes. +------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-- The -s and -h flags take values measured in H_GRAIN and S_GRAIN + H_GRAIN == S_GRAIN == 64. (Default is 1, which means that the default + heap and stack size is 64 words.) + +-- The maximum size of the atom_table is now configurable from + the command line. + +-- erl -sname Name starts a new node with a short name. (s == short), + see erl(1). + +-- The breakhandler can now be turned off with the aid of the flag +B. + +-- init.erl has been rewritten. A -load flag is now accepted, + see init(3). + +-- The -cookie flag is no longer necessary if the system is to + read the $HOME/.erlang.cookie file. This is the default. + +-- The flag -env Variable Value extends the UNIX environment + for the Erlang system, see erl(3). + + +*** Reported Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions +------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-- Do not assume that the first two directory entries "." and ".." + make file:list_dir() work better in some environments. + +-- Faster/better garbage collection. + +-- Stack sizes are automatically shrunk. + +-- Distributed Erlang now handles the case when for example the + Ethernet plug is unplugged. Erlang continuously polls all + remote nodes to ensure that the remote nodes are really alive. + +-- A bug has been corrected in the terminal driver. The system + could fail after a large series of printouts without any + newlines "\n" at all. + +-- Formating of floats: a '9' would sometimes become a ':'. + +-- Formating with the use of '*' and negativ size fields now work + as expected. + +-- The format of the 'EXIT' values is now ALWAYS the same + regardless of where the 'EXIT' was produced. + +-- Bugs in exit/2 when the first argument is a port + and second argument is a tuple, have been fixed. + +-- A bug in the random generator has been fixed, see random(3)) + +-- Object code can now be 'trace' compiled by passing the + flag 'trace' to the compiler. This is necessary for + the trace/3 BIF to work on function calls. + +-- error_logger has been improved and is more flexible, see error_logger(3). + +-- The compiler is not so verbose any more. + +-- A bug in the loading of code has been fixed. It is now possible to load + code into the "hole" created by erlang:delete_module/1. + +-- The file system now accepts very large messages. In 4.2 there + was a limit of 64K, which meant that some VERY large modules + could not be compiled. + +-- Support for real interrupts/signals in linked-in drivers have been added. + +-- open_port does not make new atoms all the time. + +-- statistics(io) does now return two counters, + one for all input and one for all output. + +-- There have been minor bug fixes in the erl_interface c-library. + + +*** New TOOLS for Software Development/Tuning/Debugging +--------------------------------------------------------------- + +-- int, is a fully integrated debugger/interpreter, see int(3). + +-- eprof, is a (tty-based) tool for real-time profiling, see eprof(3). + +-- dbg, is a (tty-based) interface to the the trace/3 BIF, see dbg(3). + +-- pman, is a (pxw-based) interface to the trace/3 BIF. + +-- emseq, is a (tty-based) message sequence chart tool. (Not documented) + +-- perfmon, is a (pxw-based) performance monitor. (Not documented) + +-- exref, is a (tty-based) cross-reference tool. + + +*** New Targets Not Generally Available for 4.2 +------------------------------------------------------------------ + +FreeBSD running on PCs +LINUX running on PCs +QNX + + +*** Incompatibilities with 4.2. +-------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-- The BIF node_link/1 has been replace by monitor_node/2 + See erlang(3). + +-- The 4.3 system is not object code compatible with 4.2. + This means that all source code has to be recompiled. It + is not possible to load 4.2 object code. It is also not + possible to run distribution between 4.3 and erlier versions + due to the new alive check. + +-- The external term format has been changed. This will only affect + programs where the BIF term_to_binary/1 has been used for writing + output on files. The directory misc/external contains a program + ext42_to_ext43.erl that can be used for converting files and + binaries from 4.2 format to 4.3 format. This will affect very + few programs. + +-- The names of the Erlang specific i/o modules are now prefixed by + "erl_", for example erl_scan and erl_parse. + +-- The calls to tokenize/parse have been changed, partially to make their + naming more systematic and also to handle the new line number + information. Their return values have also been made more regular with + all functions returning 'ok', {ok, Value} or {ok, Value, EndLine} where + appropriate when successful, and {error, ErrorInfo} or + {error, ErrorInfo, EndLine} if there is an error. + +-- There is a standardised error information format, ErrorInfo above, which + is returned for all input functions. It has the format: + {ErrorLine, Module, ErrorDescriptor} + where a string describing the error can be obtained by calling + apply(Module, format_error, [ErrorDescriptor]). + The handling of line number is application specific. + +-- The function io:read/1/2 now returns {ok, Term} or {error, ErrorInfo} + for consistency. + +-- The Erlang tokeniser/parser has been converted to return line number + information in the token and parse formats. These formats can now + be handled by the pretty printer (erl_pp) but it does not make use of them. + +-- The function file:open/2 now returns {ok, Pid} or {error, What}. This is + consistent with the return values from the rest of the i/o system. + +-- RTFMP! (Read The Friendly Man Pages) + +-- Module net.erl has been removed. The functionality of net.erl + now resides in the rpc, auth and net_kernel modules. + +-- The old debug BIFs (including the module debugger.erl) have + been removed. The BIF trace/3 replaces it. + +-- The BIF not_alive/0 has been removed. + + +*** Documentation: +-------------- + +All manual pages have been updated, some of them substantially. + + +*** Known problems: +--------------- + +The $HOME/.erlang file should be run before the shell is started. + +The Postscript documentation in the doc directory assumes A4 paper. + +list_to_pid/1 on remote pids may behave in an unexpected manner. |