Bug fix release : otp_src_R8B-1
Build from snapshot : 20020412
This is a bug fix release R8B-1. You can download the full source
distribution or the patch that take R8B-0 up to R8B-1.
http://www.erlang.org/download/otp_src_R8B-1.tar.gz
http://www.erlang.org/download/otp_src_R8B-0to1.patch.gz
http://www.erlang.org/download/otp_src_R8B-1.readme (this file)
If you have access to the Ericsson intranet you can find the same files at
http://erlang.ericsson.se/opensource/download/
To patch the previous release "otp_src_R8B-0" you use a patch program
that understand the "unified" patch format and do
% cd otp_src_R8B-X
% gzip -dc /location/of/patch/file/otp_src_R8B-0to1.patch.gz | patch -p1
For installation instructions please read the README that is part of
the distribution.
There is no support for building a Windows version from source.
The Windows binary distribution can be downloaded from
http://www.erlang.org/download/otp_win32_R8B-1.exe
The documentation at http://www.erlang.org will be updated. You can
also download the complete HTML documentation or the Unix manual files
http://www.erlang.org/download/otp_html_R8B-1.tar.gz
http://www.erlang.org/download/otp_man_R8B-1.tar.gz
The bug fixes and improvements in this release is described in the
release notes below. For some OTP applications there are more detailed
release notes in the HTML documentation.
We also want to thank those that sent us patches, suggestions and bug
reports,
The OTP Team
-- erts kernel stdlib runtime_tools ---------------------------------------
OTP-4251 - The rpc behaviour has accidentally changed from R6B to R7B,
so that an rpc:call() to a function that calls
erlang:throw(Term) no longer returns Term, but rather
{badrpc, {'EXIT, {{nocatch, Term}, _}}}.
This has now been changed back to the original behaviour.
OTP-3509 - A race condition in dist_ac has been removed.
The documentation didn't clearly state that all
distributed applications depend on (at least) kernel
and stdlib (kernel and stdlib should be part of
"applications" in the .app file). This has now been
added to the app(4) manual page.
The following has also been changed in the system
documentation (not shipped with patches):
PREVIOUSLY:
When distributed applications are specified, it is
advised that the sync_nodes functionality in the kernel
application is used. If not used, and several nodes are
started at the same time, the node that comes up first
will start all applications, and the other nodes will
take over the applications when they come up.
NOW:
When distributed applications are specified, it is
required that the sync_nodes functionality in the
kernel application (see kernel(6)) is used to synchronize
all involved nodes. If not used, the distribution
mechanism for distributed applications will not
function correctly.
OTP-4191 - A bug in disk_log:unblock/1 that could cause
messages to be processed in wrong order has been fixed.
Write errors no longer terminate the disk log process.
OTP-4227 - When an application that depended upon another that
had been started but crashed (supervisor killed),
tried to start but failed (as expected), the return
value was {error, no_report}, which now has been
corrected to {error, {not_running, App}}.
OTP-4224 - If poll() is missing the function prototype for
driver_select() was incorrect. Other small build problems
on MacOS X 10.1 where corrected as well.
OTP-4181 - Solaris embedded support was extended to other Unix
platforms. Mainly improvements in the run_erl/to_erl
Unix commands.
OTP-4179 - spawn_opt/4 used 0 as default value for fullsweep_after
instead of the default value used by spawn/3, and
spawn_link/3. This caused all processes spawned by
spawn_opt/4 (e.g. all gen_servers) to always use
fullsweep if the fullsweep_after option wasn't
explicitly set. spawn_opt/4 has now been changed to use
the same default value as spawn/3, and spawn_link/3.
OTP-4184 - Due to unstable resolving mechanisms in the host OS,
the inet_gethost_native service may timeout, which in turn
can make net_kernel crash. This is fatal to the OTP system.
OTP-4185 - The spawn bifs didn't fail with badarg as they should
if the argument list wasn't a list; instead, the
spawned process immediately exited. All spawn BIFs
now fail with badarg if they are passed a bad argument
as argument list.
spawn BIFs which take funs as arguments and remote
spawn BIFs could fail with other errors than badarg
when passed bad arguments. All spawn BIFs now fail
with badarg when they fail due to bad arguments.
OTP-4189 - Documentation of the previously undocumented
proc_lib:spawn_opt/4, and the spawn_opt
option of gen_server:start, and gen_fsm:start
has been added.
OTP-4190 - Due to a bug in the Solaris system call gethrtime, which
is used for the Erlang internal time correction, implicit
(internal) time correction is now disabled on certain
hardware/software platforms.
OTP-4244 - Distribution table entries used for hidden nodes can
now be reused.
The distribution table is a table used internally in
the Erlang run-time system. An entry in the
distribution table contains information about a node.
The distribution table can contain at most 256 entries
(one of them is used for the local node). An entry
will be reserved the first time a node needs to store
information about a specific remote node, and this
entry will normally never be reused for information
about another remote node. When a hidden node is
disconnected, the distribution table entry used for
the hidden node will be unreserved, so that it later
can be reused. This is the only event that unreserves
an entry. Events that reserves an entry are:
* A pid, a port, or a reference from previously
unknown node enters the node. (for example:
a pid originating from an unknown node is received
in a message from another node).
* A new connection to a previously unknown node.
nodes(known) (BIF) returns a list of all nodes that
there currently are distribution table entries reserved
for.
OTP-4255 - The set_net_ticktime/[1,2] and get_net_ticktime/0
functions has been added to the net_kernel module
(see net_kernel(3)) which makes it possible to change
the net_tick time during operation.
OTP-4267 - sl_alloc release 2 has been introduced in the emulator.
By default sl_alloc release 1 is enabled. For
information on how to enable sl_alloc release 2, etc,
see the sl_alloc(3) man page.
OTP-4273 - When setting the process flag 'save_calls', the process got
scheduled out more often than without the flag. This is no
longer the case.
OTP-4276 - The supervisor module could behave incorrectly during
code change, simple_one_for_one supervised children
got duplicate childspecs after upgrade causing the
supervisor to crash. The SupFlags from Module:init was
also ignored by the code_change callback in supervisor.
Both these malfunctions are now corrected.
OTP-4277 - Same as OTP-4276 above.
OTP-4283 - A special purpose Bif to be used when communicating with
unreliable C nodes is added. This Bif is only recommended
for special purposes. It's named erlang:send_nosuspend/2
and the process gets a boolean reply telling if the message
could be sent without the driver blocking (suspending) the
erlang process due to excessive driver output queue length.
OTP-4291 - The send_nosuspend does now also appear in a version with
an optionlist. The single allowed option is noconnect, which
makes the bif simply return 'false' when sending to a node
not currently connected.
OTP-4300 - The call ets:test_ms({0,3},[{{1.47,'_'},[],['$_']}]). and
similar comparisons between small integers and values
stored on the heap could crash the emulator. The necessary
checks are now added to avoid this.
OTP-4309 - Huge timechanges on linux could make erlang confused, this
is now corrected.
OTP-4312 - System flags (+ command line arguments) taking values
weren't handled correctly. If the value and the system
flag were separated by whitespace some flags didn't
work (e.g. +A 10). If multiple system flags with their
corresponding values were passed, and the flags and
the values were separated by whitespace, all of these
flags were replaced by the last one passed. These bugs
have now been corrected.
OTP-4313 - More memory block types (most of the existing ones)
are now identified by the instrumented emulator.
OTP-4314 - Memory blocks in the emulator that are guaranteed never
to be removed are placed in a special block at the
beginning of the emulators heap segment if there are
space left in it. This special block has been called
the definite alloc block. The size of the definite
alloc block can be set with the +d system flag (see
the erl(1) manpage) (default size is 2 Mb).
The tuple {definite_alloc, BlockSize, UsedSize} that
is part of the list returned from
erlang:system_info(allocated_areas) can be used to
determine how much that is used of the definite alloc
block.
OTP-4222 - When the match spec {set_seq_token, _, _} was used to
start sequential tracing, it crashed the heap of the
process it was running from, and corrupted heap data
or crashed the emulator. This bug has now been
corrected.
OTP-4218 - Messages received from ports does no longer reset the
seq trace token for the receiving process. This might
be regarded as an incompatibility,
but presumably desired. Now the seq trace token does
not get swallowed by file operations, io operations,
and other kernel/stdlib functions that use ports in
their implementation.
OTP-4183 - The tool Fprof in application Tools has been improved.
See OTP-4183 in the tools section.
OTP-4301 - Negative field sizes in construction of binaries using
the bit syntax would crash the emulator. Corrected.
OTP-4265 - application:start/1,2 could in some cases return an
erroneous error reason if the application callback function
Module:start/2 returned {error,Reason}.
OTP-4204 - lists:sort/2 and lists:merge/3 were not stable.
lists:ukeysort/3 and lists:usort/2 could leave duplicates.
A bug in lists:umerge/3 has been fixed.
OTP-4327 - There are new functions bchunk/2,3 in the disk_log module
that are to be used like chunk/2,3 but return objects as
binaries.
OTP-4268 - Bug fixes in Dets: delete_object after insert on a table of
set type could cause crash; it was sometimes impossible to
open a fragmented table; init_table did not always call
InitFun exactly once; delete_all_objects did not handle
fixed tables correctly. The function init_table recognizes
the new options min_no_slots and format. The new function
bchunk can be used in conjunction with init_table for
copying open tables efficiently.
OTP-4326 - The file_sorter module now provides an easy way of passing
a value from input functions to output functions: if the
last input function returns {end_of_input, Value}, the
first output function is called with the argument
{value, Value}.
OTP-4208 - Traversing a read only Dets table no longer results in a
crash.
OTP-4220 - When converting a version 8 Dets file or repairing a
version 9 Dets file containing sufficiently large objects,
the resulting file was sometimes badly formed. This has
been fixed.
OTP-4221 - The file_sorter module now recognises a format called
binary which compares binaries using the standard order
of terms.
-- compiler ---------------------------------------------------------------
OTP-4194 - Using the 'not' operator in guards could crash the emulator.
OTP-4219 - A bug in the compilation of bit syntax matching
could cause parts of the binary to be skipped.
-- erl_interface ----------------------------------------------------------
OTP-4217 - The function ei_x_encode_binary() was added.
OTP-4333 - A memory allocated bug was corrected in ei_x_encode_term().
-- os_mon -----------------------------------------------------------------
OTP-4225 - OpenBSD support for OS_MON contributed by Daniel Neri.
-- orber ------------------------------------------------------------------
OTP-3966 - If the underlying OS was not configured to allow Erlang
to use the fully qualified host name the result could an
incorrect IP-address. Hence, if you want to upgrade to
Orber-3.2.11 and the fully qualified name must be used
you must upgrade your kernel version. Most likely, this
change will NOT cause any problems, but if in
doubt please contact support or use the mailing-list.
See also the release notes for Orber-3.2.6.
OTP-4264 - When looking up Initial Service (e.g. using corbaloc,
corbaname or corba:resolve_initial_references_remote/2)
and communicating via SSL, Orber used the wrong port number.
OTP-4293 - When invoking a Locate Request, Orber in some cases did not
reply with a Locate Reply header (used a Reply header).
OTP-4294 - Orber now check if an external IOR contains any
TAG_ALTERNATE_IIOP_ADDRESS components when trying to setup
a connection to another ORB. It is now possible to add
TAG_ALTERNATE_IIOP_ADDRESS components to a local object
reference. See corba:add_alternate_iiop_address/3.
OTP-4295 - Orber now allows unions with no default value defined and a
discriminator out of range to be sent via IIOP. The
value-field is set to the atom undefined.
OTP-4296 - The corba module now exports a function, print_object/1/2,
which prints IOR's in a more readable form.
OTP-4298 - Since "all" ORB's accept ISO-8859-1 encoding of chars and
strings, Orber assumed that it could be used at all time
to reduce the overhead. The JDK-1.3 only accepts ISO
646:1991 IRV (US-ASCII), even though ISO-8859-1 is default,
which is why Orber now checks which codeset is accepted.
New Features:
OTP-4258 - It is now possible to add new initial references,
which can, for example, be accessed via
corba:resolve_initial_references/1 or the corbaloc schema.
OTP-4262 - The orber module now exports functions, iiop_connections
and iiop_connections_pending, which, respectively, list
all currently open connections to other ORB's and
connections which are in process of being set up to
another ORB.
OTP-4260 - Orber now allows the user to define an interval of ports
which Orber is may use (i.e. ports on the local machine)
when trying to connect to another ORB. This behavior is
useful if Orber resides behind a firewall which only allow
applications to use certain ports when communicating with
the outside world. If this option is set, it is absolutely
necessary to set iiop_connection_timeout.
If not, there is risk that Orber run out of ports, which
will result in communication failure. This option cannot be
used when using SSL since it does not support this feature.
The default behavior is
that any available port will be used (as before).
OTP-4259 - One can now install Orber's NameService as disc_copies, but
the default behavior is that Orber uses ram_copies.
OTP-4257 - A pre-compiled IIOP-trace interceptor is now included in
the Orber release. For more information, see the Debugging
chapter in the User's Guide.
The Orber release now include OrberWeb, which is an
extension of the
WebTool application (first released in R8B). Hence,
WebTool must be installed to enable this feature. For more
information, see the chapter OrberWeb in the User's Guide.
OrberWeb is intended to be used during test and development.
OTP-4261 - It is now possible to set Orber's configuration parameters
in, for example, an Erlang shell. Consult corba:orb_init/1
and orber:configure/2.
Fixed Bugs:
OTP-4229 - When setting up two Orber ORB's, where one of the ORB's
domain name was a prefix of the other ORB's, communication
via IIOP would fail. To eliminate any further configuration
problems, one may not use ^G (i.e. "\007") in the domain
name. Due to this change it is not possible to upgrade
during run-time.
OTP-4230 - When using a mix of IIOP-versions (1.0 vs 1.1/1.2) and
sending/receiving IOR's to/from Orber could result in a
MARSHAL exception.
OTP-4263 - Encoding/decoding of wchar/wstring when using IIOP-1.2 do
now follow the OMG standard. If your ORB do not follow the
standard, contact support for information how to make a
work-around to solve this problem. In most cases it is
sufficient to configure the ORB's to communicate via
IIOP-1.1.
Incompatibilities:
OTP-4263 - The encoding/decoding of wchar/wstring when using IIOP-1.2
have been updated. See above.
OTP-4256 - Orber no longer returns a 'EXIT' message when trying to
install Orber, i.e., invoking orber:install/1/2, on a
disc-less node. But if if the installation fails due to
any other reason, Orber still return a 'EXIT' message.
Known bugs and problems:
OTP-4257 - OrberWeb only tested with Netscape-4.75. Furthermore,
until WebTool reaches version 1.0 OrberWeb should also be
considered to be a beta version. OrberWeb do not escape
arguments passed when, for example, creating a new context.
Hence, for now you are recommended to only use letters.
-- cosNotification --------------------------------------------------------
OTP-4340 - If one tries to set an unavailable/incorrect property or
property value, an exception is thrown. In some cases the
exception was not correct, which would cause problems if
communicating via IIOP.
OTP-4272 - When using Filter's, with the QoS OrderPolicy set to
FifoOrder, and passing a sequence of structured events,
they could be delivered in the wrong order.
OTP-4272 - If Filter's where attached to Supplier proxies it could
cause the Proxy to terminate.
-- megaco -----------------------------------------------------------------
OTP-4224 - Fixed Makefile.in for the flex scanner. Removed
unnecessary '-lfl' link option.
OTP-4236 - Memory leak in the flex scanner. Message larger then
approx. 1000 bytes cannot be decoded. Will cause a core
dump! Note that this will only be a problem if the flex
scanner has been configured as encoding/decoding module!
-------- - Added another binary decoder; per_bin. To be able to use
the per_bin encoder the ASN.1 application of version 1.3.2
or later is needed for R8B systems. For R7B01,
ASN.1 of version 1.3.1.3 or later must be used.
-------- - Installed source was not placed in their proper
(sub-) directory.
OTP-4212 - The megaco application now forwards unexpected replies.
This is done with a call to handle_unexpected_trans/3.
OTP-4213 - Megaco leaves entries in the megaco_replies table.
OTP-4299 - Handling of comments in text messages incorrect.
For the ordinary text codec comments did not work.
For the flex text codecs, double quoted strings in
comments did not work.
OTP-4288 - The streams field in MediaDescriptor, has been made
optional in order to comply with IGv6 6.50. It
does also mean that the new default value is asn1_NOVALUE.
OTP-4290 - The user arguments was not supplied to the callback
function handle_unexpected_trans as described by
megaco_user.
-------- - The scanner item of system info has been removed and instead
been replaced by text_config. Also no longer contains any
MFA info. From now on, just the text config.
-- inets ------------------------------------------------------------------
OTP-4241 - Function reading http body returns a deep list. This error
was introduced as of inets-2.6.0.
OTP-4243 - Request timeout calculation incorrect.
OTP-4233 - Listener process dies with reason normal when listen socket
closes unexpectedly. If the listener process dies with
reason normal, the manager will now open a new listen
socket if needed and create a new listener.
OTP-4231 - Changing of disk log format failes. Restart of webserver
after change of disk log format (DiskLogFormat) fails
with arg_mismatch.
OTP-4228 - Incorrectly formated disk log entries. term_to_binary
was (incorrectly) used for the external format.
OTP-4210 - Added a new configuration directive LogFileFormat,
that alter the file-format of the log files.
OTP-4207 - Calculation of content length incorrect.
OTP-4195 - mod_disk_log returns an error reason that reflects the
error. When disk_log not can open a log file.
OTP-4159 - Request headers now read a chunk at a time (see the
{active,once} inet option) for socket type ip_comm.
OTP-4281 - When opening the disk log (mod_disk_log), an open attempt
is made without a size option. If the file exist, then it
is opened. If the file does not exist, then another attempt
is made, this time with the size option.
-- mnesia -----------------------------------------------------------------
OTP-4187 - Using mnesia:dump_tables/1 or mnesia:change_table_copy(Tab,
Node, disc_copies) on a ram node (schema in ram) causes a
crash in earlier mnesia-3.10.* releases.
OTP-4215 - If a mnesia node was restarted during a checkpoint (also
affects backups) the checkpoint would be trashed, which
could lead to hangings, crashes and other undesired
behaviours, including that the checkpoint could delete
other applications ets tables.
OTP-4318 - Checkpoints could crash mnesia when mnesia nodes started.
OTP-4319 - Some schema operations could return {atomic, ok} but still
fail to commit the operation on nodes with disc, e.g.
transform_table.
OTP-4320 - Mnesia left disk_log files opened in some cases, which
could lead to crashes.
OTP-4325 - mnesia:transform_table didn't work if table had indecies,
it returned {atomic, ok} but the meta-data was not
transformed.
OTP-4292 - Transform table on disc_copies tables, sometimes fail to
store the transformed records to disc.
OTP-4338 - An empty (ram_copies table) file could be created when
unpacking a fallback.
OTP-4338 - Removed a possibility for getting inconsistent tables
during table copying.
OTP-4338 - mnesia:select/[2|3] now works with fragmented tables.
-- snmp -------------------------------------------------------------------
OTP-4206 - Crypto keys changed from string to list.
OTP-4209 - SNMP date diff check changed according to
RFC 2579 (was according to RFC 1903).
OTP-4282 - When opening a log file, the failure reason was not
checked. Instead it was assumed to be {badarg,size} (when
opened without the size option, this means the file does
not exist). This is usually correct, but just to be on the
safe side the test has been changed to make sure that no
other results get through.
OTP-4279 - Added possibility to specify own error report module
(instead of the default, snmp_error). This is done with a
new application config directive: snmp_error_report_mod,
see configuration parameters. Also added a size limit to
the snmp_error module. Messages larger then 1024 chars will
be truncated. Added a very simple error report module,
snmp_error_io, which writes the message to stdout using
the io module (without any limitations).
OTP-4250 - Test manager does not send error message in quiet mode. If
the request to the manager contains an erroneous oid, no
information is sent back to the client (that started the
manager). See quiet config parameter for the new reply
value. Added two new functions for oid to/from aliasname
conversion, to be used by the test manager users, see
oid_to_name and name_to_oid.
OTP-4278 - Handling of large erroneous SNMP messages corrected.
Encoding of the reply to these messages failed due to a bug
in the length encoding. Also corrected counter increments.
-- ssl --------------------------------------------------------------------
OTP-4305 - All options for gen_tcp are now allowed in SSL, except the
option <c>reuseaddr</c>.
-- ic ---------------------------------------------------------------------
OTP-3222 - The IDL-compiler now (at last) supports integer literals
also in hexadecimal and octal notation according to CORBA
standard.
From the standard ...
Chapter 3.2.5 Literals
Integer Literals
An integer literal consisting of a sequence of digits is
taken to be decimal (base ten) unless it begins with 0
(digit zero). A sequence of digits starting with 0 is taken
to be an octal integer (base eight). The digits 8 and 9 are
not octal digits. A sequence of digits preceded by 0x or 0X
is taken to be a hexadecimal integer (base sixteen). The
hexadecimal digits include a or A through f or F with
decimal values ten through fifteen, respectively. For
example, the number twelve can be written 12, 014, or 0XC.
OTP-4323 - Merging of map's (___map___) using the ___merge___ function
did not work.
OTP-4322 - Error in generated C decode/encode functions for union's
with discriminator where the union has no value for all
discriminator values. E.g. a union with discriminator
boolean where only the discriminator value TRUE has a
corresponding union value.
Here is how such a thing would look in IDL:
union OptXList switch(boolean) {
case TRUE: integer val;
};
OTP-4310 - Scoped op calls ('{scoped_op_calls, true}') does not handle
module/function names beginning with capital letter (e.g.
Megaco should be 'Megaco') for oneway operations
(handle_cast).
OTP-4303 - A bug is fixed on C-IDL erlang binaries that caused
pointer error when residing inside sequences.
-- debugger ---------------------------------------------------------------
OTP-4201 - Parts of the code, mainly for the GUI, has been
rewritten in order to make Debugger more robust and
efficient.
The functionality remains the same but behaviour and
appearance have changed slightly. Modules must have
been compiled with the option debug_info set in
order to be interpreted, only modules for which
this is true are shown in the Interpret window.
-- tools ------------------------------------------------------------------
OTP-4226 - The Emacs mode for Erlang was changed for compatibility
with Emacs 21.
OTP-4313 - More memory block types (most of the existing ones)
are now identified by the instrumented emulator.
OTP-4183 - The tool Fprof in application Tools has been improved:
It now uses the 'caller' call trace match spec to get
more reliable call stack information.
There are more alternatives for the analysis listing,
sorting options, summary, etc.
The analysis listing format has been changed so
standard Erlang parsing tools can be used to process
the listing.
A bug in the emulator that caused call trace match
spec 'caller' to give erroneous return value for
some guard BIFs when used in the body of a function
has been corrected. The BIFs in question were:
erlang:[abs/1, element/2, float/q, hd/1, length/1,
node/1, node/0, round/1, self/0, size/1,
tl/1, trunc/1, 'and'/2, 'or'/2, 'xor'/2,
'not'/1, '>'/2, '>='/2, '<'/2, '=<'/2,
'=:='/2, '=/='/2, '/='/2, '+'/2, '-'/2,
'*'/2, '/'/2, 'div'/2, 'rem'/2, 'bor'/2,
'band'/2, 'bxor'/2, 'bsl'/2, 'bsr'/2,
'bnot'/2, '-'/1, '+'/1]
The BIF erlang:yield/0 has been fixed so that
it does not bump the reduction count, and
the calling process gets scheduled out faster.
Previously, BIFs could be called between
erlang:yield/0 and schedule out. Now,
erlang:yield/0 is also invisible in a call trace.
A new trace flag has been added that makes all
trace timestamps be in cpu time, not wallclock time.
See erlang:trace/3. This feature only works on OS'es
that supports high resolution CPU time measurements
(currently just Solaris), and has to be activated
explicitly with a flag 'cpu_time' to fprof:trace/1
and related.
-- misc -------------------------------------------------------------------
OTP-4216 - Corrections of the HTML documentation to conform to the
standard "HTML 4.01 Transitional".
OTP-3784 - Building from source may fail if INSTALL_PROGRAM is
defined before configure is run. The make files for
creating a FreeBSD port defined the install program
to use "-s" for stripping a binary and this will
fail for installing scripts. The make files are
changed to use INSTALL_SCRIPT for scripts.
-- EOF --