20042012 Ericsson AB. 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. Erl_interface Release Notes otp_appnotes nil nil nil notes.xml

This document describes the changes made to the Erl_interface application.

Erl_Interface 3.7.10
Improvements and New Features

Where necessary a comment stating encoding has been added to Erlang files. The comment is meant to be removed in Erlang/OTP R17B when UTF-8 becomes the default encoding.

Own Id: OTP-10630

Limited support for unicode atoms in the external format and in the internal representation of the vm. This is a preparative feature in order to support communication with future releases of Erlang/OTP that may create unicode atoms.

Own Id: OTP-10753
Erl_Interface 3.7.9
Improvements and New Features

Teach lib/erl_interface/configure.in to look for pthreads support in libc (where it can be found on QNX)

A minor tweak such that this configure *fails* if you pass --enable-threads and no pthreads support can be found.

(Thanks to Per Hedeland)

Own Id: OTP-10581
Erl_Interface 3.7.8
Improvements and New Features

Detect when middle endian doubles are used by a platform and account for it when decoding floats. (Thanks to Mike Sperber)

Own Id: OTP-10209
Erl_Interface 3.7.7
Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

Minor suppressions and fixes of compilation warnings

Own Id: OTP-10016
Erl_Interface 3.7.6
Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

An error when getting global names on OS X Lion has been fixed. The error caused truncated strings to be returned from the function.

Own Id: OTP-9799
Improvements and New Features

Erlang/OTP can now be built using parallel make if you limit the number of jobs, for instance using 'make -j6' or 'make -j10'. 'make -j' does not work at the moment because of some missing dependencies.

Own Id: OTP-9451

Eliminate use of deprecated regexp module

Own Id: OTP-9810
Erl_Interface 3.7.5
Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

Align ei buffer according to size of pointers

Own Id: OTP-9390

XML files have been corrected.

Own Id: OTP-9550 Aux Id: OTP-9541

Make comment and documentation reflect code in erl_interface/src/misc/ei_decode_term.c (Thanks to Anneli Cuss)

Own Id: OTP-9559
Improvements and New Features

ei: integer overflow in string/atom encoding

ei_encode_atom() and ei_encode_string() use strlen() to get the length of the buffer. As strlen() returns an unsigned long long and both ei functions take a signed integer, the length fields may overflow.

Check so that the results of strlen can be held in a signed integer. (Thanks to Michael Santos)

Own Id: OTP-9530
Erl_Interface 3.7.4
Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

Fix using sizeof() for array given as function argument

When using the sizeof() operator for an array given as function argument it returns the size of the pointer. In this case, the affected function hex(char digest[16], char buff[33]) will just print 4 or 8 byte instead of the full length of 16 bytes, on 32bit and 64bit systems respectively. (Thanks to Cristian greco)

Own Id: OTP-9151

Initialize to and to_name in erl_receive_msg. (Thanks to Göran Larsson)

Own Id: OTP-9241

erl_interface: fix compile error(Thanks to Michael Santos)

Own Id: OTP-9252
Erl_Interface 3.7.3
Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

Some malformed distribution messages could cause VM to crash, this is now corrected.

Own Id: OTP-8993

Strengthen string copy check (Thanks to Michael Santos).

Own Id: OTP-9071

Strengthen atom length check when decoding atoms (Thanks to Michael Santos).

Own Id: OTP-9072
Improvements and New Features

Fix global registration. C node needed DFLAG_DIST_MONITOR_FLAT set when connecting. Fix list compare in erl_compare_ext to return correct result. (Thanks to Vitaliy Batichko and Evgeny Khirin)

Own Id: OTP-9015
Erl_Interface 3.7.2
Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

erl_call: remove get_hostent

get_hostent does not properly handle IPv4 addresses on little endian platforms and fails with hostnames beginning with a number. Remove get_hostent and use ei_gethostbyname directly since gethostbyname supports IPv4 addresses.

(Thanks to Michael Santos)

Own Id: OTP-8890

teach ei_x_format to handle unary - and + (Thanks to Steve Vinoski)

Own Id: OTP-8891

Fix zero byte allocation in registry. (Thanks to Michael Santos)

Own Id: OTP-8893

Check the length of the node name to prevent an overflow. Memory error control of ei_alloc_big. (Thanks to Michael Santos)

Own Id: OTP-8943

erl_term_len() in erl_interface could returned too large values for integers (since R14B) and too small values for refs (since R9B).

Own Id: OTP-8945
Erl_Interface 3.7.1.1
Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

The erl_interface tracelevel for erlang messages was incorrect. This has now been fixed.

Own Id: OTP-8874
Erl_Interface 3.7.1
Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

Removed unused variable in ei_decode_term.c.

Fixed faulty deallocation in erl_call.

Own Id: OTP-8748

ei_connect: correct man page examples (Thanks to Michael Santos)

Own Id: OTP-8813

ei: prevent overflow in ei_connect_init and ei_xconnect

Add length check of the buffer before copying. (Thanks to Michael Santos)

Own Id: OTP-8814

Remove DECLSPEC feature which fails on Windows Vista and use the fallback implementation instead.

Own Id: OTP-8826

erl_call: fix multiple buffer overflows (Thanks to Michael Santos)

Own Id: OTP-8827
Improvements and New Features

Fix incorrect writev iovec buffer handling in erl_interface (Thanks to Steve Vinoski)

Own Id: OTP-8837
Erl_Interface 3.7
Improvements and New Features

compact IEEE 754 double encoding in external binary format for ei

Implement the compact IEEE 754 double encoding in external binary format for ei. Encoding for ei now always produces the NEW_FLOAT_EXT format. Decoding and term printing handle both the old ERL_FLOAT_EXT encoding and the new NEW_FLOAT_EXT encoding.

Legacy erl_interface code also handles the new encoding, but still produces the ERL_FLOAT_EXT encoding by default.

Also enable the DFLAG_NEW_FLOATS distribution flag.

ei_get_type() will return ERL_FLOAT_EXT regardless if the external format is encoded with ERL_FLOAT_EXT or NEW_FLOAT_EXT for doubles.

Reduce the number of copies of the code for encoding and decoding doubles throughout ei and erl_interface by instead calling the ei encoding and decoding functions wherever possible.

Restore commented-out float tests in ei_decode_SUITE and ei_encode_SUITE in lib/erl_interface/test. Modify them to make them match the style of other tests in the same suites.

These changes are based on an ei float patch from Serge Aleynikov originally submitted against R12B-2 in July 2008 and reworked by Steve Vinoski May 2010.

*** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***

Own Id: OTP-8684
Erl_Interface 3.6.5
Improvements and New Features

Document debug support.

Debug trace output for connection activity could be enabled setting the trace level as an integer to the EI_TRACELEVEL environment variable. This option could also be read and set from a running program using ei_get_tracelevel(void) and ei_set_tracelevel(int).

Own Id: OTP-5037

Cross compilation improvements and other build system improvements.

Most notable:

Lots of cross compilation improvements. The old cross compilation support was more or less non-existing as well as broken. Please, note that the cross compilation support should still be considered as experimental. Also note that old cross compilation configurations cannot be used without modifications. For more information on cross compiling Erlang/OTP see the $ERL_TOP/INSTALL-CROSS.md file. Support for staged install using DESTDIR. The old broken INSTALL_PREFIX has also been fixed. For more information see the $ERL_TOP/INSTALL.md file. Documentation of the release target of the top Makefile. For more information see the $ERL_TOP/INSTALL.md file. make install now by default creates relative symbolic links instead of absolute ones. For more information see the $ERL_TOP/INSTALL.md file. $ERL_TOP/configure --help=recursive now works and prints help for all applications with configure scripts. Doing make install, or make release directly after make all no longer triggers miscellaneous rebuilds. Existing bootstrap system is now used when doing make install, or make release without a preceding make all. The crypto and ssl applications use the same runtime library path when dynamically linking against libssl.so and libcrypto.so. The runtime library search path has also been extended. The configure scripts of erl_interface and odbc now search for thread libraries and thread library quirks the same way as erts do. The configure script of the odbc application now also looks for odbc libraries in lib64 and lib/64 directories when building on a 64-bit system. The config.h.in file in the erl_interface application is now automatically generated in instead of statically updated which reduces the risk of configure tests without any effect.

(Thanks to Henrik Riomar for suggestions and testing)

(Thanks to Winston Smith for the AVR32-Linux cross configuration and testing)

*** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***

Own Id: OTP-8323

Change erroneous "\\0" in documentation files erl_notes.xml and erl_eterm.xml.

Own Id: OTP-8326

Allow erl_match() to match ERL_LONGLONG and ERL_U_LONGLONG terms (Thanks to Scott Lystig Fritchie).

Own Id: OTP-8400
Erl_Interface 3.6.4
Improvements and New Features

The documentation is now built with open source tools (xsltproc and fop) that exists on most platforms. One visible change is that the frames are removed.

Own Id: OTP-8201
Erl_Interface 3.6.3
Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

The manual states that erl_receive() return the reason in the ErlMessage struct. This was not the case and the function is now corrected.

*** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***

Own Id: OTP-4969

In send_exit.c an errorneous size of memory allocation could occur when reallocating a buffer.

In ei_decode_trace.c the index could be updated when the decoding failed.

In ei_printterm.c the index could be updated when the decoding failed in lists and tuples.

In ei_decode_term.c when decoding a double (ERL_FLOAT_EXT) no check was done to ensure that the last of the 31 bytes was null terminated.

In ei_decode_term.c when decoding references, only the first 3 bytes are read, but the index did not increment by the total size.

In ei_decode_fun.c no check of correct buffer allocation or data length was done.

In ei_decode_string.c the integer list string case did not decode the NIL tail correctly.

These errors has now been fixed. (Thanks to Romain Lenglet, Paul Mineiro and Paul Guyot).

Own Id: OTP-6117

ei_decode_big could be decoded with a garbage byte.

ei_encode_big and ei_x_encode_big is now available.

Own Id: OTP-7554

The function erl_init_resolve() did not conform to C99 standard which caused a build error on some platforms. This has now been fixed.

Own Id: OTP-8093

Makefile.in has been updated to use the LDFLAGS environment variable (if set). (Thanks to Davide Pesavento.)

Own Id: OTP-8157
Improvements and New Features

Added support for 64-bit integers in encoding/decoding.

Added support for better printouts of binaries.

Own Id: OTP-6091
Erl_Interface 3.6.2
Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

A problem with gethostbyname in erl_start.c could cause a buffer overflow. This has now been fixed.

Clean up of code and removed compiler warnings.

Own Id: OTP-7978
Erl_Interface 3.6.1
Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

A faulty validation in ei_reg_getpval caused it to never return the key-value. This has now been fixed. (Thanks to Matt Stancliff)

Own Id: OTP-7960
Improvements and New Features

Minor update to the configure script.

Own Id: OTP-7959
Erl_Interface 3.6.1
Improvements and New Features

Minor update to the configure script.

Own Id: OTP-7959
Erl_Interface 3.6
Improvements and New Features

Nodes belonging to different independent clusters can now co-exist on the same host with the help of a new environment variable setting ERL_EPMD_PORT.

Own Id: OTP-7826
Erl_Interface 3.5.9
Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

A type-casting bug in ei_skip_term and ei_printterm on 64bit platforms rendering undefined results is now corrected.

Own Id: OTP-7577

A bug in the hostent copying code of erl_interface on MacOS X/Darwin is now corrected.

Own Id: OTP-7593

A problem with building erl_interface on FreeBSD has been fixed (Thanks to Akira Kitada).

Own Id: OTP-7611
Erl_Interface 3.5.8
Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

Fixed bug in erl_interface when decoding broken data

Own Id: OTP-7448
Erl_Interface 3.5.7
Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

An erroneous freeing of memory could occur when using ei_x_format_wo_ver in erl_interface, resulting in a segmentation fault.

Own Id: OTP-6795

A faulty compare in erl_marshal has now been fixed. (Thanks to Simon Cornish and Paul Mineiro)

Own Id: OTP-7368
Erl_Interface 3.5.6
Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

Minor documentation fixes.

Own Id: OTP-7183 Aux Id: OTP-7118

Erl_Interface 3.5.5.4
Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

The symbol __erl_errno was undefined in the single thread version of the ei library, but is now defined.

Own Id: OTP-6887

Corrected FreeBSD build error.

Own Id: OTP-7093
Erl_Interface 3.5.5.3
Improvements and New Features

Calls to alloca in erl_marshal.c have been removed. A static buffer is now used instead to store node names temporarily.

Own Id: OTP-6331 Aux Id: seq10468

ei_print_term interprets a list of integers with values from 0 to 255 as a string. If the original list contains the integer 0, this is considered terminator of the string. This is incorrect. The function has now been modified to not look for '\0' in a string, but always print all characters.

Own Id: OTP-6339 Aux Id: seq10492

Erl_Interface 3.5.5.2
Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

The combination of xeon processors with 64bit x86 extensions and a 32bit linux could cause ei_decode_long and ei_decode_longlong to fail for the value LONG_MIN and LONGLONG_MIN. The conversion is now made more portable.

Own Id: OTP-6216
Erl_Interface 3.5.5.1
Improvements and New Features

Portability enhancements.

Own Id: OTP-6132
Erl_Interface 3.5.5
Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

Different (and old) files in the and applications would cause build problems on the new Intel-based iMacs. (Thanks to Sebastion Strollo.)

Own Id: OTP-5967

pthread header and library mismatch on linux systems (at least some SuSE and Debian) with both NPTL and Linuxthreads libraries installed.

Own Id: OTP-5981
Improvements and New Features

Support for a C node to connect to an Erlang node on a standalone host has been added.

Own Id: OTP-5883 Aux Id: seq10170

Erl_interface 3.5.2
Improvements and New Features

A configuration test error caused erl_interface to be built without support for threads. This has been corrected.

Own Id: OTP-5456
Erl_interface 3.5.1
Improvements and New Features

Changes and improvements have been made to the build and test environment to solve problems with failing erl_interface test cases.

Own Id: OTP-5295 Aux Id: OTP-5387

Erl_interface 3.5
Improvements and New Features

Process identifiers and port identifiers have been made more unique. Previously 18 bits were used as id in the internal representation of process and port identifiers. Now 28 bits are used.

The maximum limit on the number of concurrently existing processes due to the representation of pids has been increased to 268435456 processes. The same is true for ports. This limit will at least on a 32-bit architecture be impossible to reach due to memory shortage.

NOTE: By default, the , and the , , and libraries are now only guaranteed to be compatible with other Erlang/OTP components from the same release. It is possible to set each component in compatibility mode of an earlier release, though. See the documentation for respective component on how to set it in compatibility mode.

*** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***

Own Id: OTP-4968 Aux Id: OTP-4196

Erl_interface 3.4.5
Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

Corrections for mistakes done for patch erl_605/OTP-4874.

Own Id: OTP-4995 Aux Id: OTP-4874

Erl_interface 3.4.4
Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

A small optimization in ei_rpc*() was added and a bug in ei_decode_longlong() was corrected.

Own Id: OTP-4784
Erl_interface 3.4.2
Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

Strings longer than 65535 bytes were encoded wrong in ei/erl_interface.

Own Id: OTP-4865 Aux Id: EABln07451

Erl_interface 3.4.1
Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

erl_call -a parsed erlang terms incorrectly due to a bug in ei_format, which is now corrected.

Own Id: OTP-4777 Aux Id: seq8099