agent agent An entity that terminates a management protocol in the Network Element. mbj API API Application Programming Interface. The interface towards an application. Usually this is a set of functions available, but can also be a set of messages sent to or from an application. mbj application application A collection of resources which is required to offer a specific service. mbj appmon Application Monitor A graphical node and application process tree viewer. See also appmon. mbj Appmon Appmon Application name for the Application Monitor within Erlang/OTP. A graphical node and process viewer. mbj app callback application callback module A module which is called when the application is started, and when it has stopped. Every application has one application callback module. mbj AC application controller A process which coordinates all operations on applications. mbj app master application master The application master is a process that monitors the application. It is provided by the Erlang run-time system. Every application has an application master process. mbj .app file application resource file Specifies the resources required by the application and how the application should be started. Every application has one application resource file, called AppName.app. mbj arity arity Denotes the number of arguments to a function. jocke ASN.1 ASN.1 Abstract Syntax Notation One - an ITU-T and ISO standard notation for describing data formats used in communication protocols. kenneth ASN.1 Compiler ASN.1 Compiler The Erlang/OTP ASN.1 Compiler translates an ASN.1 module into a corresponding Erlang module with encode and decode functions. kenneth atom atom An atom is a constant. Atoms always starts with a lower case letter (a-z) and are terminated by a non-alphanumeric character - otherwise they must be quoted (enclosed in ' '). An atom is a data type in Erlang, used to enhance the legibility of programs. kenneth atomicity atomicity Atomicity refers to the "all or nothing" property. If a transaction succeeds (i.e. commits), then all its effects on the data is captured in the database. If the transaction does not succeed (i.e. aborts), then none of its effect on the data is captured in the database. In other words, the transaction processing algorithm guarantees that the database will not reflect a partitial effect of a transaction. hakan attach attach The debugger may attach to a process. When attached, the debugger may show process details, such as message queues and variable bindings. olin behaviour behaviour A "pattern of design" which can be used to build applications and processes in an applications. mbj BIF BIF Built-In Functions which perform operations that are impossible or inefficient to program in Erlang itself. Are defined in the module Erlang in the application kernel kenneth binary binary A data type in Erlang which is used to store an area of untyped memory. Binaries are used for efficiently handling large quantities of untyped data. kenneth boolean boolean A common data type in programming and specification languages. The value can be either true or false. kenneth boot file boot file A binary file with extension .boot which is read during start of an Erlang node. See SASL User's Guide for more info. kenneth break point break point By setting a break point using the debugger, the user specifies a position in the source code of a module where execution is to be suspended and control transferred to the debugger. olin CAshort CA See Certification Authority. helen CA certificate CA certificate A certificate containing a CA's public key. Network entities use this public key to verify certificates signed with the CA's private key. helen callback function callback function A callback function is a function exported from a callback module, that a generic behaviour calls to perform a specific task. mbj callback module callback module A callback module is a module that implements the specific parts of a generic behaviour. The generic behaviour specifies which callback functions must be exported from the module. mbj certificate certificate A file used for authenticating network entities under the SSL protocol. A certificate contains information about its owner (called the subject) and issuer, plus the owner's public key and a signature made by a CA. Network entities verify these signatures using CA certificates. helen CAlong Certification Authority (CA) A trusted third party whose purpose is to sign certificates for network entities it has authenticated using secure means. Other network entities can check the signature to verify that a CA has authenticated the bearer of a certificate. helen CSRlong Certificate Signing Request (CSR) An unsigned certificate for submission to a Certification Authority, which signs it with its private key. Once the CSR is signed, it becomes a certificate. helen child child A supervised process. See also permanent, transient, temporary child. mbj cipher cipher A system of encryption. helen ClearCase ClearCase A configuration management system from Rational Software Corporation. lars client-server model client-server model A model where there is a server, which manages some resource, and a number of clients which send requests to the server to access the resource. The client-server model is one of the basic programming techniques for coordinating the activities of several parallel processes. mbj cover Coverage Analyser Module name for the coverage analyser tool, located in the Tools application. gunilla CORBAlong Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) A specification of an architecture for a distributed object system lars CORBA Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) A specification of an architecture for a distributed object system lars compiler compiler A compiler is a translator. A common type of compilers are those who takes source code for a programming language and translates it into code that is executable on a specific platform. E.g. the Erlang compiler translates Erlang source code to an intermediary code that is executable by the Erlang Run Time System. kenneth consistency consistency Consistency refers to the requirement that, given a consistent initial database state, the state of the database after the successful execution of a transaction is also consistent; that is, a transaction transforms the database from a consistent state to another consistent state. Database consistency may be defined as a set of rules or constraints. If the execution of a transaction causes the consistency constraints to be violated, the transaction is not accepted (and thus aborted) by the system. hakan cookie cookie A magic cookie is a secret atom assigned to each Erlang node. The Erlang nodes in a distributed system must know each others cookies in order to authorize each other for communication kenneth CORBAshort CORBA See Common Object RequestBroker Architecture. lars Coverage Analyser Coverage Analyser A tool which provides a set of functions for coverage analysis of Erlang programs, i.e observing how many times each line or function are executed. See also cover. olin coverage analysis coverage analysis The task of determining which lines, or how many lines of code, has actually been executed. Useful for determining the completeness of test suites. olin cross reference tool cross reference tool A tool that can be used for finding dependencies between functions, modules, applications and releases. The Erlang/OTP cross reference tool is called xref and is part of the Tools application. gunilla CSRshort CSR See Certificate Signing Request. helen data type data type The data types in Erlang are numbers, atoms, tuples, lists, pids, funs, records, ports, references and binaries. The values of Erlang data types can be stored in variables. kenneth DBMSlong Database Management System (DBMS) A database is a collection of data and a DBMS is a system which manages the database. Applications accesses the database through the database management system. hakan DBMSshort DBMS See Database Management System. hakan Debugger Debugger An Erlang/OTP tool which provides mechanisms which makes it possible to see what happens during the execution of code in specified modules, or when processes crash. olin dets dets A module within the stdlib application, which provides a term storage, and which is used as the underlying file storage mechanism by the Mnesia DBMS. hakan dirty operations dirty operations Functions which manipulate data in a DBMS, without using transactions. hakan distributed application distributed application An application which runs on one of several nodes. May be restarted on another node. (See local application.) mbj DNSshort DNS See Domain Name System. lars Docbuilder Docbuilder The documentation system used in Erlang/OTP. jocke DNSlong Domain Name System (DNS) DNS is a service that map names to internet addresses lars DTD DTD Document Type Definition as defined in SGML. jocke durability durability If a transaction succeeds, then its effect on the data is persistently captured, and will survive subsequent system failures resulting in loss of data in volatile memory. Durability is usually enforced by first writing modified data to some non-volatile memory (usually disc), before a transaction is allowed to commit. If there is a system failure, the state of the non-volatile memory must be recovered to reflect the effect of all and only committed transactions. hakan Emacs Emacs A widely used text editor which allows customization of its behaviour. An Erlang mode for Emacs is included in the Erlang deliverables. kenneth Emacs for Erlang Emacs for Erlang A tool which provides a major mode for editing Erlang source files in Emacs. olin encaps encapsulation Data can be encapsulated into another data element. kent eprof eprof A module in the tools application. See Profiler. olin erl erl The command which starts an Erlang run-time system. kenneth erl_interface erl_interface library A thread safe library with C-functions which makes it possible to write a C-program which appears as one of the nodes in a system of distributed Erlang nodes. kenneth Erlang Erlang Erlang is a functional programming language intended for designing large industrial soft real time systems. kenneth Erlang emulator Erlang emulator Another word for Erlang Virtual Machine. kenneth ERTSlong Erlang Run Time System A fundamental part of Erlang/OTP which contains the Erlang Virtual Machine, the kernel and stdlib applications. The Erlang Run Time System is a mandatory part which all other Erlang applications are dependent upon. kenneth Erlang VM Erlang Virtual Machine The virtual machine, which makes Erlang/OTP work together with a specific OS/HW platform. The Erlang Virtual Machine is available on several different platforms. The Erlang Virtual Machine is the glue which makes it possible to run an Erlang application on any platform without change. kenneth ERTSshort ERTS See Erlang Run Time System. kenneth ETS ETS Erlang Term Storage tables. olin EVAshort EVA See Event and Alarm handling application mbj EVAlong Event and Alarm handling application (EVA) An application that consists of Fault Management functionality, such as sending and logging of events and alarms. mbj event handler event handler A module exporting functions which can process events sent to an event manager process. The event handler is a behaviour of type gen_event. mbj event manager event manager A process to which events of a certain category is sent. gen_event handler can be installed in the event manager. mbj exit signal exit signal A signal which is sent from a terminating process to the processes and ports it is linked to. An EXIT signal has the following format: {'EXIT', Exiting_Process_Id, Reason}. kent foo foo Algebraic place holder. kent FSM FSM Finite State Machine. kenneth fun fun A data type, introduced in Erlang 4.4, which represent functional objects. kenneth function function Erlang programs are written entirely in terms of modules with functions. A function can have arguments and does always return a result. A function can be exported which makes it available for calls from other modules. Non exported functions can only be called internally within the module. kenneth Gateway gateway A server which acts as an intermediary for some other server. Unlike a proxy, a gateway receives requests as if it were the origin server for the requested resource; the requesting client may not be aware that it is communicating with a gateway. jocke gen_event gen_event A behaviour used for programming event handling mechanisms, such as alarm handlers, error loggers, and plug-and-play handlers. mbj gen_fsm gen_fsm A behaviour used for programming finite state machines. mbj gen_server gen_server A behaviour used for programming client-server processes. mbj gterm Global Glossary Database A glossary database used to list common acronymns and defintions etc. jocke xref xref A cross reference tool that can be used for finding dependencies between functions, modules, applications and releases. Part of the Tools application. gunilla GSlong Graphics System A library module which provides a graphics interface for Erlang. mbj grid grid A multi-column object which is used to display tables. (Graphics System.) mbj GSshort GS See Graphics System. olin GS Contributions GS Contributions Unsupported user supplied tools which are included with the Erlang/OTP software release. olin GUI GUI Graphical User Interface mbj Home Directory Home Directory The position of a user account in the file system. The Home Directory is automatically passed to the Erlang run-time system at startup. On Unix the contents of the environment variable "HOME" is passed. Om Win32 the concatenation of the environment variables "HOMEDRIVE" and "HOMEPATH" is passed, or if these variables are not set, the value returned by the Win32 API function "GetWindowsDirectory" is passed. kenneth host name host name The name of a machine on a network, e.g. erlang.ericsson.se. kent HTML HTML Hypertext Markup Language. jocke HTTP HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol. jocke HTTPS HTTPS The Hypertext Transport Protocol, Secure, the standard SSL communication mechanism of the World Wide Web. helen IDLshort IDL See Interface Description Language. lars IDLlong Interface Description Language (IDL) The interface specification language created by OMG. lars indexing indexing Fast lookup using an (usually enumerated) key. kent I1 INETS The Internet Services application jocke initial call initial call The first call to an interpreted function (when using the Interpreter). kent instrumentation function instrumentation function A function used to implement a Managed Object, i.e. give access to the real resources behind an MO. mbj IDLlong Interface Description Language (IDL) The interface specification language created by OMG. lars interpreter interpreter An application which provides mechanisms which make it possible to see what happens during the execution of code in specified (interpreted) modules, or when processes crash. kent isolation isolation A transaction executes as if no other concurrent transactions are executing, and thus its execution results are equivalent to those obtained by executing database transactions serially. A system which maintains transaction isolation is also said to be enforcing serializability. hakan kernel kernel An application which contains file servers, code servers and other code necessary for the Erlang run-time system. kenneth key key A file containing the value that must be fed into an algorithm in order to encrypt or decrypt a message. helen key pair key pair A set of two keys used in public key cryptography. One is the public key used to encrypt data, and the other is the private key necessary to decrypt the same data. helen list list Terms separated by commas and enclosed in square brackets [ ] are called lists. A list is a data type in Erlang, used for storing a variable number of terms. It is dynamically sized. The first element of the list is referred to as the head of the list, and the remainer of the list as the tail. kenneth list box list box A list of labels with optional scroll bars attached. (Graphics System.) mbj lc list comprehension A language construct in Erlang which are analogous to set comprehensions in Zermelo-Frankel set theory. Analogous to the 'setof' and 'findall' predicates in Prolog. kenneth local application local application An application which runs on one node and which are always started at the local node only. (See distributed application.) mbj manager manager An entity that terminates a management protocol in the Network Management Station. mbj Master Agent Master Agent The SNMP agent system consists of one Master Agent which terminates the SNMP protocol mbj MIB Management Information Base (MIB) An abstract definition of the management information available through a management interface in a system. mbj matching matching See pattern matching. kenneth message queue message queue The queue of not yet received messages that are in the mailbox of a process. olin Mnemosyne Mnemosyne Mnemosyne was the query language of Mnesia up to the R11B release. Supersed by QLC. hakan Mnesia Mnesia Mnesia is a distributed Database Management System, appropriate for telecommunications applications and other applications with need of continuous operation and soft real-time properties. hakan MIBshort MIB See Management Information Base. mbj MIME MIME Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions. jocke MOlong Managed Object (MO) The abstract management information defined in a MIB. mbj MO MO Managed Object; The abstract management information defined in a MIB. nibe MOshort MO See Managed Object. mbj module module Module is the unit for compilation and for loading in Erlang. A Module contains a module declaration, export declarations and code representing the functions in the module. kenneth NCSA NCSA The National Center for Supercomputing Applications. jocke NEshort NE See Network Element. mbj NElong Network Element In OTP, the Network Element is the entire distributed OTP system, meaning that the distributed OTP system is managed as one entity. mbj NE NE Network Element; In OTP, the Network Element is the entire distributed OTP system, meaning that the distributed OTP system is managed as one entity. mbj NMSlong Network Management Station (NMS) The place where the operator manages the network. mbj NMS NMS Network Management Station; The place where the operator manages the network. nibe NMSshort NMS See Network Management Station. mbj node node An executing Erlang run-time system which can communicate with other Erlang run-time systems. kenneth node name node name A node name is an atom constructed as the concatenation of a name supplied by the user, an "@" character, and the name of the host where the node is executing. kenneth notation notation How things are written. kent notification notification Information of an event. kent NROFF NROFF A text formatting language for line printer quality output devices that runs on the UNIX operating system. jocke number number A data type in Erlang. Are subdivided into integers, for storing natural numbers, or floats, for storing real numbers. kenneth OMGlong Object Managment Group (OMG) A standardisation group for all specifications in the area of CORBA. lars OMGshort OMG Object Managment Group. lars OTP OTP Open Telecom Platform mike os_mon os_mon An application which monitors the behaviour of the underlying operating system mbj parser generator parser generator A tool for making compilers which takes a grammar description as input and generates a complete program (a parser) which recognizes input which complies with the grammar. YECC is a parser generator included in the Erlang/OTP. kenneth pass phrase pass phrase The word or phrase which authenticates the user who is authorized to use private key file. The pass phrase prevents unauthorized users from starting, restarting, or reconfiguring the server. helen pattern matching pattern matching A basic mechanism in Erlang for assigning values to variables and for controlling the flow of a program. kenneth permanent child permanent child A supervised process which always is restarted when it dies. mbj Pid Pid Process Identifier. A data type in Erlang for storing process references. The process identity of the process displayed in the line. kenneth Pman Pman Module and application name for the Process Trace Tool. olin point point A unit used to indicate the size of a typeface. Equal to 1/72 inches. jocke pointer pointer A pointer tells where data is stored. Memory pointers are not used in Erlang. kent port port A data type in Erlang. Ports provide the basic mechanism for communication with the external world. peterl port controller port controller An Erlang process which controls a port program. A port has exactly one port controller. peterl port program port program A program that runs as an external program in the operating system and which the Erlang run-time system can start and communicate with by means of the Erlang port mechanism. kenneth PostScript PostScript A language describing a fully laid-out page in terms of fonts, lines, grey scales, and so on, in a way that is interpretable by a printer. The language was developed by Adobe Systems. jocke pretty-printed pretty-printed Nicely formatted code or data, e.g. C or Erlang, with indents and tabs etc. jocke primitive primitive The basic elements in a programming language. kent private key private key The secret key in a pair, used to decrypt incoming messages and sign outgoing ones. helen process process A process is a self-contained separate unit of execution which exists concurrently with other processes in the system. The BIF "spawn/3" creates and starts the execution of a new process. kenneth process dictionary process dictionary Each process has an associated dictionary which provides the process with simple destructive storage capabilities. kenneth Process Manager Process Manager Obsolete name for the Process Trace Tool. olin Process Trace Tool Process Trace Tool A tool which gives an overview of the processes in the Erlang run-time system. See also Pman. olin Profiler Profiler Another name for eprof, a tool used to profile a system in order to find out how much time is spent in various segments of a program. olin program program Routines which can be executed by a computer. kent Proxy proxy An intermediary program which acts as both a server and a client for the purpose of making requests on behalf of other clients. jocke public key public key The publicly available key in a key pair, used to encrypt messages bound for its owner and to decrypt signatures made by its owner. helen query query Queries are used for accessing the data in a Database Management System. The query specify a maybe complicated relation that should hold for all of the selected data. This could involve several tables as well as conditions like for instance less then and greater then. hakan query language query language A language which is specially designed to express database queries. Examples of query languages are QLC and SQL. hakan receive receive A primitive for message processing in Erlang, receives a message from a process. kenneth record record A data structure intended for storing a fixed number of related Erlang terms, it is similar to a "struct" in C or a "record" in Pascal. kenneth recursion recursion A function is recursive if it calls itself until the result desired is attained. Recursion is the heart of functional programming. kenneth reference reference A data type in Erlang for storing system unique references. kenneth release handler release handler A SASL process which handles software upgrade. mbj relup release upgrade script A script with instructions to the release handler of how the release should be installed in the system. mbj RPC Remote Proceedure Call A technique for evaluating a function transparently on a remote node. kenneth resource resource The actual resource to be managed. A resource is represented by a Managed Object. Each resource is mapped to one or several resources. mbj resources resources The actual resources to be managed. A resource is represented by a Managed Object. Each resource is mapped to one or several resources. nibe RFC RFC A "Request for Comments" used as a proposed standard by IETF. jocke SASLshort SASL See System Architecture Support Libraries. mbj schema schema The schema contains the definitions and whereabouts for all tables. In Mnesia it is realized as a special table named "schema". hakan schema functions schema functions The functions which are available for managing schemas. hakan SDL SDL Specification and Description Language. A ITU-T standard specification language which is used to specify the behaviour of switching systems. kenneth send send A primitive for message processing in Erlang, sends a message to a process. kenneth shell shell The shell is an interactive front-end to an Erlang node where Erlang expressions can be evaluated. kenneth shell prompt shell prompt The text or symbol shown on the screen when the shell is ready to receive commands. kent SNMPEAlong Simple Network Management Protocol Extensible Agent (SNMPEA). An Erlang/OTP application that includes a bilingual extensible SNMP agent. mbj single assignment single assignment Means that once a variable has been assigned a value, the value can never be changed. Erlang is a single assignment language. kenneth single step single step Single stepping is a function provided by the debugger. By single stepping the developer may use the debugger to follow the execution of a process and see what actually happens at each function call. olin slave slave Not in control, can never take over by himself. kent SSLlong Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) A protocol created by Netscape Communications Corporation for authentication and encryption over TCP/IP networks, including Web. helen signature signature An encrypted text block that validates a certificate or other file. A Certification Authority (CA) creates a signature by generating a hash of the public key embedded in a certificate, then encrypting the hash with its own private key. Only the CA's public key can decrypt the signature, verifying that the CA has authenticated the network entity that owns the certificate. helen SNMPshort SNMP Simple Network Management Protocol. mbj SNMPshort SNMPEA See Simple Network Management Protocol Extensible Agent. mbj spawn spawn A primitive for multiprocessing in Erlang, that starts a parallel computation (called a process). The creation of a new process kenneth SSLshort SSL See Secure Sockets Layer. helen SSLeay SSLeay An SSL library developed by Eric Yong (eay@mincom.oz.au). helen SSLTOP SSLTOP The path to your SSL directory, a subdirectory of ServerRoot. helen start script start script A start script is a file with .script extension which is the source when a boot file is created. See SASL User's Guide for more info. kenneth stdlib stdlib An application within Erlang/OTP which contains modules for manipulating lists, strings, files, etc. kenneth sticky directory sticky directory A directory containing Erlang object code that is part of the runtime system. kent sticky lock sticky lock A lock which lingers at a node after the transaction which first acquired the lock has terminated. Once a process has obtained a sticky lock on a node, subsequent locks acquired by processes on the same node, can be set without need of involving remote nodes. hakan string string The ASCII or ISO-8859-1 representation of the list of characters occurring within quotation marks in Erlang code. kent Subagent Subagent The SNMP agent system consists of one Master Agent (See Master Agent) and zero or more Subagents which can be used to distribute the SNMP agent system on several nodes. mbj supervision tree supervision tree A hierarcial tree of processes used to program fault tolerant systems. mbj supervisor supervisor A behaviour to stucture fault tolerant computations, and program supervision trees with. mbj sup_bridge supervisor bridge A behaviour used to connect a process, or subsystem, to a supervisor tree. mbj SASLlong System Architecture Support Libraries (SASL) An Erlang/OTP application which contains services for error logging, release handling and report browsing. mbj .config system configuration file A file which specifies configuration parameters for the applications in the system. mbj table lock table lock Table locks are locks which are set on whole tables. They may either be read locks or write locks. hakan Table Visualizer Table Visualizer A tool which enables the user to examine ETS and Mnesia tables. olin temporary child temporary child A supervised process which is never restarted when it dies. mbj term term The super type of all Erlang types. kenneth Toolbar Toolbar A tool that provides an simplistic interface to the other various Erlang/OTP tools olin tools tools An application within Erlang/OTP which contains the tools which are not applications themselves. olin transaction transaction Transactions groups a set of database accesses into an atomic unit. All transactions has the ACID (atomicity, concistency, isolation and durability) properties. hakan transient child transient child A supervised process which is restarted if it dies non-normally. mbj trigger trigger The Interpreter. A break point that is reached by a process triggers if it is active, and the execution of the process is stopped. olin tty tty tty is a simple command line interface program where keystrokes are collected and interpreted. Originally meant teletypewriter equipment. Now it usually means the user console/terminal/shell window. kent tuple tuple A tuple is a data type in Erlang. Tuples are used as place holders for complex data structures. Tuples may contain anything of any size, and are written as sequences of terms separated by commas, and enclosed in curly brackets { }. kenneth variable variable An alias for a memory position, in which a value can be put. Erlang variables always start with an upper case letter. kenneth workers workers The lower nodes in a supervision tree. These are the processes that actually performs some real work, e.g. servers. mbj YECC YECC A LALR-1 parser generator included in Erlang/OTP. It is written in Erlang and generates a parser as an Erlang module. kenneth