path: root/lib/observer/doc/src/notes.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE chapter SYSTEM "chapter.dtd">

<chapter>
  <header>
    <copyright>
      <year>2004</year><year>2017</year>
      <holder>Ericsson AB. All Rights Reserved.</holder>
    </copyright>
    <legalnotice>
      Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
      you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
      You may obtain a copy of the License at
 
          http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

      Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
      distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
      WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
      See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
      limitations under the License.

    </legalnotice>

    <title>Observer Release Notes</title>
    <prepared>otp_appnotes</prepared>
    <docno>nil</docno>
    <date>nil</date>
    <rev>nil</rev>
    <file>notes.xml</file>
  </header>
  <p>This document describes the changes made to the Observer
    application.</p>

<section><title>Observer 2.4</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    <c>etop</c> had a hardcoded timeout value of 1 second
	    when waiting for data from a remote node. When this
	    expired, which could happen for instance if there were
	    very many processes on the remote node, etop would exit
	    with reason <c>connection_lost</c>. To overcome this
	    problem, the timeout is now changed to be the same as the
	    update interval, which is configurable.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-14393</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Show dirty-scheduler threads in performance monitor graph
	    and add a column with maximum allocated memory in the
	    Memory Allocators table.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-14137</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Keep table and port selection after refresh of tables.
	    Store settings before shutdown and restore when starting
	    application.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-14270</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    When observing a node older than OTP-19.0, a pop-up will
	    be displayed when trying to access port information.
	    Earlier, observer would crash in this situation.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-14345 Aux Id: ERL-399 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 2.3.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    etop erroneously reported the average scheduler
	    utilization since the tool was first started instead of
	    the scheduler utilization since last update. This is now
	    corrected.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-14090 Aux Id: seq13232 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    crashdump_viewer crashed when the 'Slogan' had more than
	    one line. This is now corrected.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-14093 Aux Id: ERL-318 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    When clicking an HTML-link to a port before the port tab
	    has been opened for the first time, observer would crash
	    since port info is not initiated. This is now corrected.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-14151 Aux Id: PR-1296 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The dialyzer and observer applications will now use a
	    portable way to find the home directory. That means that
	    there is no longer any need to manually set the HOME
	    environment variable on Windows.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-14249 Aux Id: ERL-161 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 2.3</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The shell script (priv/bin/cdv) and bat file
	    (priv/bin/cdv.bat) which can be used for starting
	    crashdump_viewer both started a distributed erlang node.
	    This would cause any attempt at starting a second
	    instance of the crashdump_viewer to fail. To solve this
	    problem, cdv and cdv.bat now use non-distributed nodes
	    when starting the crashdump_viewer.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-14010</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    A bug caused the number of buckets to be shown in the
	    'Objects' column, and the number of objects to be shown
	    in the 'Memory' column for ets table in crashdump_viewer.
	    This is now corrected.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-14064</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Add option <c>queue_size</c> to ttb:tracer/2. This sets
	    the maximum queue size for the IP trace driver which is
	    used when tracing to shell and/or <c>{local,File}</c>.</p>
          <p>
	    The default value for <c>queue_size</c> is specified by
	    <c>dbg</c>, and it is now changed from 50 to 200.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-13829 Aux Id: seq13171 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The port information page is updated to show more
	    information per port.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-13948 Aux Id: ERL-272 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 2.2.2</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fixed error handling in observer when mnesia tables was
	    requested and not available.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-13845 Aux Id: ERL-237 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 2.2.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fixed a crash happening when observing another node, who
	    have a different number of schedulers than the current
	    one.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-13702 Aux Id: ERL-171 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 2.2</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Update observer GUI to support tracing on ports, and to
	    set matchspecs for send/receive. This required some minor
	    bugfixes in runtime_tools/dbg.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-13481</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Update dbg and ttb to work with a tracer module as tracer
	    and tracing on ports.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-13500</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Added possibility to change update frequency and length
	    of the graph windows.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-13555</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Improved background coloring to work with dark themes and
	    other visual improvements.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-13556</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Crashdump viewer now allows port info "Port controls
	    forker process..."</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-13647</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 2.1.2</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Documentation corrections.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-12994</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 2.1.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Show ets owner pid in crashdump viewers popup window,
	    thanks Leo Liu.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-13030</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Several initialisms (eg, ERTS, ETS, SMP) are used as
	    headings. They were being capitalized incorrectly.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-13044</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fixed a crash in crashdump viewer when dump contained a
	    truncated binary.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-13163</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 2.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Show run queue status in crashdump viewer.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-12401</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Don't refresh observer table view if there was no change</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-12819</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Added display of new crashdump information available in
	    crashdumps from Erlang/OTP 18.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-12363</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Added the possibility to view sasl log entries for
	    processes.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-12504</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Add memory allocator usage and utilization graphs.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-12631</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 2.0.4</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix crash when opening a process information window.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-12634</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 2.0.3</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    A note saying only R15B nodes can be observed is removed
	    from the user guide.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-12078</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 2.0.2</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fixed statusbar on Windows</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-12162</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 2.0.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    crashdump_viewer would crash if the owner of a timer was
	    specified as the process' registered name. This has been
	    corrected.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-11919</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix crash and minor updates.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-11949</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 2.0</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    etop trace handler now works in smp environment (Thanks
	    to Péter Gömöri)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-11633</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Application upgrade (appup) files are corrected for the
	    following applications: </p>
          <p>
	    <c>asn1, common_test, compiler, crypto, debugger,
	    dialyzer, edoc, eldap, erl_docgen, et, eunit, gs, hipe,
	    inets, observer, odbc, os_mon, otp_mibs, parsetools,
	    percept, public_key, reltool, runtime_tools, ssh,
	    syntax_tools, test_server, tools, typer, webtool, wx,
	    xmerl</c></p>
          <p>
	    A new test utility for testing appup files is added to
	    test_server. This is now used by most applications in
	    OTP.</p>
          <p>
	    (Thanks to Tobias Schlager)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-11744</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Removed gs based applications and gs based backends. The
	    <c>observer</c> application replaces the removed
	    applications.</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-10915</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The <c>crashdump_viewer</c> is re-written using
	    <c>wx</c>. The old <c>webtool</c> interface for
	    <c>crashdump_viewer</c> does no longer exist.</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-11179</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 1.3.1.2</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The documentation for <c>ttb:tracer/2</c> incorrectly
	    stated that there was an option named '<c>overload</c>',
	    while the correct name used in the implementation is
	    '<c>overload_check</c>'.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-11335 Aux Id: seq12385 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fixed typo in observer documentation. Thanks to Dave
	    Parfitt.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-11475</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 1.3.1.1</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The encoding of the <c>notes.xml</c> file has been
	    changed from latin1 to utf-8 to avoid future merge
	    problems.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-11310</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 1.3.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Some bugs related to calculation of CPU/scheduler
	    utilization in observer are corrected.</p>
          <p>
	    Current function for a process is accepted to be
	    'undefined' when running hipe.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-10894</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <list> <item> The new Memory field from a crash dump is
	    now presented by crashdump viewer, both in the process
	    overview and in the process detail page. </item> <item> A
	    summary of blocks- and carriers sizes is added to the
	    allocator information page in the crashdump viewer.
	    </item> </list>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-10604 Aux Id: kunagi-336 [247] </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Use "open" as default browser for crashdump viewer on Mac
	    OS X. Thanks to Magnus Henoch.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-10929</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix observer table viewer crash on formatting improper
	    lists. Thanks to Andrey Tsirulev</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-10931</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p> Postscript files no longer needed for the generation
	    of PDF files have been removed. </p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-11016</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Add processes state view in observer. Thanks to Eric
	    Pailleau.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-11136</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 1.3</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>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. </p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-10630</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 1.2</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The module name in the link to the detail page for each
	    loaded module was earlier not URL encoded. If the module
	    name contained e.g. a # this could cause the crashdump
	    viewer to crash when opening the link. This has been
	    corrected.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-10090 Aux Id: seq12068 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Escape control characters in Table Viewer</p>
          <p>
	    Similar behaviour to old tv. Objects in tables supposed
	    to be printed in a single line and it looks ugly when a
	    [...,10,...] integer list creates a new-line. Fix Table
	    Viewer search crash on new|changed|deleted rows.</p>
          <p>
	    Fix Table Viewer crash after a 'Found' -&gt; 'Not found'
	    search sequence</p>
          <p>
	    Start position was lost after a 'Found' -&gt; 'Not found'
	    search sequence leading an undefined position in the next
	    search. Thanks to Peti Gömori</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-10218</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    observer: fix app file (Noticed-by: Motiejus Jakstys)</p>
          <p>
	    Add missing observer modules to observer.app.src. Thanks
	    to Tuncer Ayaz.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-10221</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Make Table Viewer search a bit faster</p>
          <p>
	    Edit table row in a multiline text dialog. Thanks to Peti
	    Gomori.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-10225</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>Allow tracing on bifs.</p> <p>Ask epmd for local
	    nodes, and remember users last input in connect.</p>
	    <p>Fix crashes when a table or process information could
	    not be retrieved.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-10075</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 1.0</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The following bugs in <c>ttb</c> have been corrected:</p>
	    <list> <item><c>ttb:tracer/2</c> would earlier crash when
	    trying to set up tracing for a diskless node to wrap
	    files, i.e. when option
	    <c>{file,{local,{wrap,Filename,Size,Count}}}</c> was
	    used.</item> <item><c>ttb:stop([fetch])</c> would
	    sometimes silently fail if multiple nodes with different
	    current working directories were traced.</item>
	    <item><c>ttb:stop([fetch])</c> would crash if the tracer
	    was started with option
	    <c>{file,{local,Filename}}</c></item> <item>A deadlock
	    would sometimes occur due to an information printout from
	    the <c>ttb_control</c> process when <c>ttb</c> was
	    stopped.</item> </list>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9431</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The file trace port to which the IP trace client relays
	    all traces from diskless nodes was not flushed and closed
	    properly on ttb:stop. This has been corrected.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9665</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    A new GUI for Observer. Integrating pman, etop, appmon
	    and tv into observer with tracing facilities.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-4779</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The following new features are added to <c>ttb</c>:</p>
	    <list> <item>A one-command trace setup is added,
	    <c>ttb:start_trace/4</c>.</item> <item>The following new
	    options are added to <c>ttb:tracer/2</c>: <list>
	    <item><em><c>shell</c></em> - Show trace messages on the
	    console in real time</item> <item><em><c>timer</c></em> -
	    Time constrained tracing</item>
	    <item><em><c>overload</c></em> - Overload
	    protection</item> <item><em><c>flush</c></em> - Flush
	    file trace port buffers with given frequency</item>
	    <item><em><c>resume</c></em> - Automatically resume
	    tracing after node restart</item> </list> </item> <item>
	    A new shortcut is added for common tracer settings
	    similar to using the <c>dbg</c> module directly,
	    <c>ttb:tracer(shell | dbg)</c>. </item> <item> Some
	    shortcuts are added for commonly used match
	    specifications in <c>ttb:tp</c> and <c>ttb:tpl</c>.
	    </item> <item> The <c>Options</c> argument to functions
	    <c>ttb:tracer</c>, <c>ttb:write_config</c>,
	    <c>ttb:stop</c> and <c>ttb:format</c> may now be one
	    single option instead of a list. </item> <item> The
	    history buffer of the last trace is now always
	    automatically dumped to the file <c>ttb_last_config</c>
	    when <c>ttb:stop</c> is called. </item> <item> The
	    following new options are added to <c>ttb:stop/1</c>:
	    <list> <item><em><c>fetch_dir</c></em> - Specify where to
	    store fetched logs</item>
	    <item><em><c>{format,FormatOpts}</c></em> - Specify
	    options to use when formatting the fetched logs</item>
	    <item><em><c>return_fetch_dir</c></em> - Indicate that
	    the return value from <c>ttb:stop/1</c> should include
	    the name of the directory where the fetched logs are
	    stored</item> </list> </item> <item> The option
	    <c>disable_sort</c> is added to <c>ttb:format/2</c>. When
	    this option is used, trace messages from different logs
	    are not merged according to timestamps, but just appended
	    one log after the other. </item> </list>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9403</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The following non backwards compatible changes are done
	    in <c>ttb</c>:</p>
	    <list> <item> When setting up trace with ttb, the
	    'timestamp' trace flag will now always be set. </item>
	    <item> The 'fetch' option to ttb:stop/1 is removed since
	    it is now default behavior that trace logs are fetched
	    when stopping ttb. Fetching can be disabled with the
	    'nofetch' option to ttb:stop/1. </item> <item> The name
	    of the upload directory is changed from
	    ttb_upload-Timestamp to ttb_upload_FileName-Timestamp.
	    </item> <item> To format the output using 'et', you now
	    need to provide the option {handler,ttb:get_et_handler()}
	    instead of {handler,et}. </item> <item> When formatting a
	    trace log, the handler state was earlier reset after each
	    trace file, this is now changed so the handler state is
	    passed not only from one trace message to the next in the
	    same file, but also from one file to the next. </item>
	    </list>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9430</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 0.9.10</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Do not install *.bat files on non-win32 machines (Thanks
	    to Hans Ulrich Niedermann)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9515</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 0.9.9</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The time needed for loading a crashump into the crashdump
	    viewer would earlier grow exponentially with the size of
	    the crashdump file. Reading a file of 20M would take a
	    couple of minutes, and for a dump of 250M it would take
	    between 1 and 2 hours. This has been solved.</p>
          <p>
	    Earlier, all processes, timers, funs or ets-tables would
	    be loaded into the memory of the crashdump viewer node
	    before sending it on to the web server. This has been
	    changed and the pages are now sent to the web server in
	    chunks.</p>
          <p>
	    A security function in newer web browsers prevents a full
	    file path to be sent from an HTML file input field, i.e.
	    the field needed to implement the "Browse" button when
	    loading a file into the crashdump viewer. To overcome
	    this, the file input field is no longer used. Instead a
	    normal text input field is used, and the user needs to
	    manually insert the complete file path. For convenience,
	    a shell script and a batch file are added to the observer
	    application. These can be used to start the
	    crashdump_viewer and a browser and load a file - with the
	    file name given from the command line. The shell script
	    and batch file are called cdv and cdv.bat respectively,
	    and can be found in the priv dir of the observer
	    application.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9051 Aux Id: seq11789 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 0.9.8.4</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The multitrace.erl installation example file is now
	    installed in the examples directory. (Thanks to Peter
	    Lemenkov.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8857</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 0.9.8.3</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The test suite has been updated for R14A.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8708</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 0.9.8.2</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Misc updates</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8456</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 0.9.8.1</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Major improvements of the Erlang distribution for Erlang
	    runtime systems with SMP support. Previously distribution
	    port locks were heavily contended, and all encoding and
	    decoding for a specific distribution channel had to be
	    done in sequence. Lock contention due to the distribution
	    is now negligible and both encoding and decoding of
	    Erlang messages can be done in parallel.</p>
          <p>
	    The old atom cache protocol used by the Erlang
	    distribution has been dropped since it effectively
	    prevented all parallel encoding and decoding of messages
	    passed over the same distribution channel.</p>
          <p>
	    A new atom cache protocol has been introduced which
	    isolates atom cache accesses and makes parallel encoding
	    and decoding of messages passed over the same
	    distribution channel possible. The new atom cache
	    protocol also use an atom cache size 8 times larger than
	    before. The new atom cache protocol is documented in the
	    ERTS users guide.</p>
          <p>
	    Erlang messages received via the distribution are now
	    decoded by the receiving Erlang processes without holding
	    any distribution channel specific locks. Erlang messages
	    and signals sent over the distribution are as before
	    encoded by the sending Erlang process, but now without
	    holding any distribution channel specific locks during
	    the encoding. That is, both encoding and decoding can be
	    and are done in parallel regardless of distribution
	    channel used.</p>
          <p>
	    The part that cannot be parallelized is the atom cache
	    updates. Atom cache updates are therefore now scheduled
	    on the distribution port. Since it is only one entity per
	    distribution channel doing this work there is no lock
	    contention due to the atom cache updates.</p>
          <p>
	    The new runtime system does not understand the old atom
	    cache protocol. New and old runtime systems can however
	    still communicate, but no atom cache will be used.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7774</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Observer 0.9.8</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    <c>etop</c> would crash if the emulator's custom
	    allocators had been turned off (e.g. using the
	    <c>+Meamin</c> option).</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7519</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The copyright notices have been updated.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7851</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

  <section>
    <title>Observer 0.9.7.4</title>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Minor Makefile changes.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6689</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>Obsolete guard tests (such as list()) have been replaced
            with the modern guard tests (such as is_list()).</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6725</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Observer 0.9.7.3</title>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>This application has been updated to eliminate warnings
            by Dialyzer.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6551</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Observer 0.9.7.2</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Several minor bugs and race conditions eliminated in the
            runtime_tools and observer applications.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6265</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Observer 0.9.7.1</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Crash dump with large integers could crash the
            <c>crashdump_viewer</c>.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6301</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Observer 0.9.7 (R11B)</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Fixed a bug in <c>etop</c> which made the Load and Memory
            information in the header incorrect -- for example the
            value shown for <c>binary</c> (memory allocated for
            binaries) was actually the number of currently running
            processes. (Thanks to Rikard Johansson.)</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6075</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Observer 0.9.6.2</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>The Observer application has been recompiled because of
            a compiler bug.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5700</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Observer 0.9.6.1</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p><c>crashdump_viewer</c> is faster when showing message,
            dictionary, and stack dump for large processes.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5408</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>
</chapter>