1 SASL Release Notes

This document describes the changes made to the SASL application.

Sasl 1.7.1

Fixed errors and malfunctions

• If a system is started and a permanent application has erroneous environment parameters, the system should crash. This is the behaviour now, before the system only printed an error report. The system will only crash if the application is started from a boot script genrated by calling systools:make_script/1/2 If application:start/1/2 is called the behaviour is as before.
  Note: affects the result of the systools:make_script/1/2. systools:make_script generates now a call to application:start_boot/2 instead of as prevoiusly a call to application:start/2.
  Own Id: OTP-3002
• It is now allowed that an application X includes application Y, and application Y in its turn is depending of application X. Previously this caused a circular dependency in systools:make_script.
  Own Id: OTP-3065
  Aux Id: Seq 1593 (OTP-2564, Seq 921)

Improvements and new features

• It is possible to define a new parameter when installing a new release at upgrade. The parameter defines if the node should be restarted or rebooted in case of an error at installation. Syntax is as follows:
  release_handler:install_release(Vsn, Opt) where Opt = [{error_action, EA}] EA = restart | reboot
  Default value is restart. The old install_release/1 gives also the default error action restart, as before.
  Own Id: OTP-2966
  Aux Id: Seq 1464
• When a module with behaviour gen_server, gen_event or gen_fsm was compiled, warnings were given for absent call-back functions, except for code_change. Now, a warning is given for absent code_change as well.
  Own Id: OTP-3148
  Aux Id: OTP-3072, OTP-3026

Sasl 1.7

Fixed errors and malfunctions

• The transient applications were previously treated as temporary applications if an error was detected during start.
  Own Id: OTP-2718
  Aux Id: seq 1136
• Release handler accepts now all types of Erlang terms in -vsn(term()).
  Own Id: OTP-2740
  Aux Id: seq 1181
• When an application was removed from a node the code was previously not removed from the memory.
  Own Id: OTP-2760
• Better error messages from systool:make_script
  Own Id: OTP-2768
  Aux Id: seq 1226
• The instructions for kernel in a release upgrade script were not executed, neither were the configuration parameters for kernel updated when upgrading the system. This is now corrected.
  Own Id: OTP-2997

  Sasl 1.6.2

  Fixed errors and malfunctions

  • In previous releases of OTP it was not possible to upgrade the Erlang emulator (named e.g jam471 or beam471) because the executable file was renamed for each new version. This is now corrected by always giving the same name (jam or beam) without version number to the executable file.
    Own Id: OTP-2372
  • If a local application had permission set to false initially, it was previously started anyway. Sasl could also hang in some cases when permission was changed, this is now corrected.
    Own Id: OTP-2463
    Aux Id: Seq 858

  Improvements and new features

  • the parameter start_phases not correctly checked when creating the boot file.
    Own Id: OTP-2610

  Sasl 1.6.1

  Fixed errors and malfunctions

  • Failover of a loaded MIB did not work. When a MIB was loaded on one node and that node crashed, the failover of the MIB to a new node did not work.
    Own Id: OTP-2200
    Aux Id: seq 651, HA75679
  • It is now allowed for an included application to use its own top application; i.e to have the top application in the applications-key in the resource file.
    Own Id: OTP-2564
    Aux Id: Seq 921

  Improvements and new features

  • systools checks for illegal options in the function parameters.
    Own Id: OTP-1851
  • A crash of the release_handler process now crashes the enitre application SASL, which normally means that the node restarts.
    Own Id: OTP-2516
    Aux Id: seq851

  1.1 SASL 1.5

  1.1.1 Fixed Bugs and malfunctions

  • The release handler didn't handle downgrades correctly. The downgrade script wasn't found even though it did exist.
    Own Id: OTP-2298
    Aux Id: seq755
    
  • The function release_handler:create_RELEASES/4 now handles the new syntax with other restart type than permanent in the .rel file.
    Own Id: OTP-2319
    Aux Id: seq777
    

  1.1.2 Improvements and new features

  • The code_change instruction is extended with explicit support for downgrades.
    The update instruction is extended with information needed for downgrades.
    Text about dowgrades is added in the documentation. See the chapter "Release Handling" in the User's guide.
    

  1.2 SASL 1.4.1

  1.2.1 Fixed Bugs and malfunctions

  • Failover/takeover of the SNMP agent administering the MIB did not work, since the old implementation tried to delete a Mnesia table on a node which was not up and running (which always is the case at failover). Now the SNMP related Mnesia table is defined to have the local_content property.
    Own Id: OTP-2146
    Aux Id: seq1
    

  1.3 SASL 1.4

  1.3.1 Fixed Bugs and malfunctions

  • A code-only application with no dependecies to other applications is now started correctly, when a start script is generated with systools:make_script
    Own Id: OTP-1580
    
  • rb handles unknown reports.
    Own Id: OTP-1595
    
  • The erlNodeWallClock counter in OTP-MIB is now a real Counter32 objects; i.e. wraps to 0 when 2^32 is reached.
    Own Id: OTP-1604
    
  • systools:make_script does not sort applications when it is not necessary. The order specified in the .rel file is maintained.
    Own Id: OTP-1644
    
  • The release handling instruction sync_nodes could hang forever if one node tried to sync before the other node was ready.
    Own Id: OTP-1959
    

  1.3.2 Improvements and new features

  • The syntax of the different files defined by SASL is defined in separate documents. Check the reference manual for appup(4), rel(4), relup(4) and script(4).
    
  • It is now possible to customise where the release handler writes its files. The release installation procedure can now be run without write access to the installation root directory.
    Own Id: OTP-1635
    Aux Id: HA54792
    
  • A release packet as constructed with systools:make_tar is now a compressed tar file (.tar.gz) on all platforms. systools and release_handler use the new compress functions in erl_tar.
    Own Id: OTP-1710
    
  • It is now possible to specify the restart type of an application in the .rel file. Previously, all applications were started as permanent applications.
    Own Id: OTP-1835
    

  1.4 SASL 1.3.2

  1.4.1 Fixed Bugs and malfunctions

  • Better tar file open/close control in systools_make.
    

  1.5 SASL 1.3.1

  1.5.1 Fixed Bugs and malfunctions

  • systools:make_script creates the boot script according to new requirements of kernel servers.
    Own Id: OTP-1393
    

  1.6 SASL 1.3

  1.6.1 Improvements and new features

  • Introduced new attribute, included_applications, in application resource files (.app). This attribute is used to group a number of applications together. Included applications are not started automatically by the system (they are only loaded), thus this have to be handled by the including application.
    
  • The release file, Release.rel, can override the included_applications attribute in order to exclude some of the specified (in the .app file) applications.
    
  • Added possibilities to specifiy the path option to systools functions with a wildcard. The only supported wildcard is *. * is expanded to the regular expression [^/]*. If a wildcard is the only character between two directory separators it is treated as a place holder for exactly one directory level, i.e. the regular expression [^/]+.
    
  • It is possible to specify symbolic names for a prefix part of a directory in systools functions. A variable name replaces the specified prefix in the generated boot script and tar file.
    This is useful if one want to install applications in other places than under the Erlang root directory.
    A symbolic name (variable) is specified with the variables option to systools:make_script and systools:make_tar. Use the -boot_var Var Dir command line flag in order to start a system with variables in the boot script.
    
  • no_module_tests option excludes the source code tests (parse for version and validity tests of object code) in systools:make_script and systools:make_tar. This option is always set for systools:make_relup. (Speeds up the generation).
    
  • systools can generate boot script and tar files for another target Erlang emulator than the current emulator. Use the machine option.
    
  • Application .appup files are only read when absolutely necessary by systools:make_relup.
    
  • The start_erl script shall not be modified/edited. This script now reads configuration data generated by the release_handler.
    
  • The requirement that the start script (used for embedded systems) shall be located in <ERL_INSTALL_DIR>/bin is removed. It is now configurable through the SASL configuration parameter start_prg.
    
  • It is possible to install a release not unpacked by the release_handler.
    
  • Added new functions in the release_handler:
    
    • set_unpacked/2
      
    • set_removed/1
      
    • install_file/2
      
  • The release_handler now handles diskless nodes (and/or nodes with read-only filesystems).
    
  • The file sys.config is now mandatory, and must be present in all releases.
    
  • New options exref and {exref, [AppName]} added to systools making it possible to perform a simple cross reference check of function calls. Only modules belonging to applications specified in the .rel file are checked.
    
  • Created tar files (by systools:make_tar) are only compressed on unix systems.
    
  • Added new option var_tar to systools:make_tar.
    
  • Added new function to rb, rb:show/0 that shows all reports.
    Own Id: OTP-1144
    

  1.6.2 Fixed Bugs and malfunctions

  • The term output to the relup file by systools:make_relup/3 is now parsable by Erlang. The function now also accept an Description parameter for release name lists.
    Own Id: OTP-1206
    
  • systools:make_relup now correctly handles new and obsolete applications in the appup scripts.
    Own Id: OTP-1095
    
  • release_handler_1 has now been included in sasl.app file.
    Own Id: OTP-1178 Aux Id: HA40608
    
  • The order among the mandatory applications (kernel and stdlib) in the .rel file does not need to be kernel first.
    
  • Fixed timeout problem in rb:grep/1.
    Own Id: OTP-1144
    
  • release_handler:remove_release/1 handles non-existing files. When it was called and a file to be removed didn't exist, the release handler process crashed.
    Own Id: OTP-1341
    
  • The wrong application version was used in the release down grading script. Note that it is necessary to include the path to all down graded releases. This can be conveniently done by using the new path options specified above.
    Own Id: OTP-1360
    

  1.6.3 Incompatibilities with SASL 1.1.1

  -

  1.6.4 Known bugs and problems

  -

  1.7 SASL 1.1.1

  1.7.1 Improvements and new feature

  -

  1.7.2 Fixed Bugs and malfunctions

  • It is now possible to specify modules without version number in an application resource file (.app), i.e.
    

    ...
    {modules, [Module | {Module, Vsn}]}
    ...

    Own Id: OTP-1116
    
  • Restart (init:restart/0) of system did not work after a software upgrade. Started using the now old version but should have used the new (if release_handler:make_permanent has been called).
    Own Id: OTP-1113
    Aux Id: HA37170
    

  1.7.3 Incompatibilities with SASL 1.1

  -

  1.7.4 Known bugs and problems

  -

  1.8 SASL 1.1

  1.8.1 Improvements and new feature

  • Added systools:make_script, systools:make_relup and systools:make_tar.
    
  • Added the module overload, an overload regulation process.
    
  • Added configuration parameter errlog_type = error | progress | all to supress logging of certain error report types. Default is all.
    
  • Added the OTP-MIB for SNMP monitoring of OTP.
    

  1.8.2 Fixed Bugs and malfunctions

  -

  1.8.3 Incompatibilities with OTP P1G

  -

  1.8.4 Known bugs and problems

  -