The overall format of the term format is as follows:

The compressed term format is as follows:

Uncompressed size (unsigned 32-bit integer in big-endian byte order) is the size of the data before it was compressed. The compressed data has the following format when it has been expanded:

The distribution header is sent by the erlang distribution to carry metadata about the coming control message and potential payload. It is primarily used to handle the atom cache in the Erlang distribution. Since OTP-22 it is also used to fragment large distribution messages into multiple smaller fragments. For more information about how the distribution uses the distribution header, see the documentation of the protocol between connected nodes in the distribution protocol documentation.

Any ATOM_CACHE_REF entries with corresponding AtomCacheReferenceIndex in terms encoded on the external format following a distribution header refer to the atom cache references made in the distribution header. The range is 0 <= AtomCacheReferenceIndex < 255, that is, at most 255 different atom cache references from the following terms can be made.

Refers to the atom with AtomCacheReferenceIndex in the distribution header.

Unsigned 8-bit integer.

Signed 32-bit integer in big-endian format.

A finite float (i.e. not inf, -inf or NaN) is stored in string format. The format used in sprintf to format the float is "%.20e" (there are more bytes allocated than necessary). To unpack the float, use sscanf with format "%lf".

This term is used in minor version 0 of the external format; it has been superseded by NEW_FLOAT_EXT.

Same as NEW_PORT_EXT except the Creation field is only one byte and only two bits are significant, the rest are to be 0.

Encodes a port identifier (obtained from erlang:open_port/2). Node is an encoded atom, that is, ATOM_UTF8_EXT, SMALL_ATOM_UTF8_EXT or ATOM_CACHE_REF. ID is a 32-bit big endian unsigned integer. Only 28 bits are significant; the rest are to be 0. The Creation works just like in NEW_PID_EXT. Port operations are not allowed across node boundaries.

Introduced in OTP 19, but only to be decoded and echoed back. Not encoded for local ports. Planned to supersede PORT_EXT in OTP 23 when DFLAG_BIG_CREATON becomes mandatory.

Same as NEW_PID_EXT except the Creation field is only one byte and only two bits are significant, the rest are to be 0.

Encodes an Erlang process identifier object.

Introduced in OTP 19, but only to be decoded and echoed back. Not encoded for local processes. Planned to supersede PID_EXT in OTP 23 when DFLAG_BIG_CREATON becomes mandatory.

Encodes a tuple. The Arity field is an unsigned byte that determines how many elements that follows in section Elements.

Same as SMALL_TUPLE_EXT except that Arity is an unsigned 4 byte integer in big-endian format.

Encodes a map. The Arity field is an unsigned 4 byte integer in big-endian format that determines the number of key-value pairs in the map. Key and value pairs (Ki => Vi) are encoded in section Pairs in the following order: K1, V1, K2, V2,..., Kn, Vn. Duplicate keys are not allowed within the same map.

As from Erlang/OTP 17.0

The representation for an empty list, that is, the Erlang syntax [].

String does not have a corresponding Erlang representation, but is an optimization for sending lists of bytes (integer in the range 0-255) more efficiently over the distribution. As field Length is an unsigned 2 byte integer (big-endian), implementations must ensure that lists longer than 65535 elements are encoded as LIST_EXT.

Length is the number of elements that follows in section Elements. Tail is the final tail of the list; it is NIL_EXT for a proper list, but can be any type if the list is improper (for example, [a|b]).

Binaries are generated with bit syntax expression or with erlang:list_to_binary/1, erlang:term_to_binary/1, or as input from binary ports. The Len length field is an unsigned 4 byte integer (big-endian).

Bignums are stored in unary form with a Sign byte, that is, 0 if the bignum is positive and 1 if it is negative. The digits are stored with the least significant byte stored first. To calculate the integer, the following formula can be used:

B = 256
(d0*B^0 + d1*B^1 + d2*B^2 + ... d(N-1)*B^(n-1))

Same as SMALL_BIG_EXT except that the length field is an unsigned 4 byte integer.

The same as NEW_REFERENCE_EXT except ID is only one word (Len = 1).

The same as NEWER_REFERENCE_EXT except:

Encodes a reference term generated with erlang:make_ref/0.

Introduced in OTP 19, but only to be decoded and echoed back. Not encoded for local references. Planned to supersede NEW_REFERENCE_EXT in OTP 23 when DFLAG_BIG_CREATON becomes mandatory.

This is the new encoding of internal funs: fun F/A and fun(Arg1,..) -> ... end.

This term is the encoding for external funs: fun M:F/A.

Module and Function are atoms (encoded using ATOM_UTF8_EXT, SMALL_ATOM_UTF8_EXT, or ATOM_CACHE_REF).

Arity is an integer encoded using SMALL_INTEGER_EXT.

This term represents a bitstring whose length in bits does not have to be a multiple of 8. The Len field is an unsigned 4 byte integer (big-endian). The Bits field is the number of bits (1-8) that are used in the last byte in the data field, counting from the most significant bit to the least significant.

A finite float (i.e. not inf, -inf or NaN) is stored as 8 bytes in big-endian IEEE format.

This term is used in minor version 1 of the external format.

An atom is stored with a 2 byte unsigned length in big-endian order, followed by Len bytes containing the AtomName encoded in UTF-8.

For more information on encoding of atoms, see the note on UTF-8 encoded atoms in the beginning of this section.

An atom is stored with a 1 byte unsigned length, followed by Len bytes containing the AtomName encoded in UTF-8. Longer atoms encoded in UTF-8 can be represented using ATOM_UTF8_EXT.

For more information on encoding of atoms, see the note on UTF-8 encoded atoms in the beginning of this section.

An atom is stored with a 2 byte unsigned length in big-endian order, followed by Len numbers of 8-bit Latin-1 characters that forms the AtomName. The maximum allowed value for Len is 255.

An atom is stored with a 1 byte unsigned length, followed by Len numbers of 8-bit Latin-1 characters that forms the AtomName.