What's cooking in erlang/otp (2010-03-02)

Tue Mar 2 09:12:17 CET 2010

We are back with the first What's cooking after R13B04
release. The next release will be R14A.

There is a new wiki page about how to write good commit
messages:

http://wiki.github.com/erlang/otp/writing-good-commit-messages

There is also new page with some guidelines about what
sort of patches that are likely to be approved:

http://wiki.github.com/erlang/otp/faq-what-kind-of-patches-will-be-approved

------------------------------------------------------------
[New topics]

* am/kernel-stops (kernel) (2010-02-21) 1 commit
 - Change restart behavior of network apps from permanent to transient (397343b)

* am/net_kernel_catchall (kernel) (2010-02-20) 1 commit
 - Add catch all handle_call to net_kernel (77ee109)

* au/crypto (crypto) (2010-03-01) 2 commits
 - Add missing docs for crypto:md4/1 (b869aef)
 - Add des_ecb_encrypt/2 and des_ecb_decrypt/2 to crypto module (544ed56)

* bg/efficiency-guide (otp) (2010-02-28) 3 commits
 - Efficiency Guide: Recommend external funs over tuple funs (5a662ce)
 - Efficiency Guide: The maximum number of atoms can be configured (cedee54)
 - Efficiency Guide: Fix typos (a0fc666)

* dgud/emacs-bugfixes (tools) (2010-02-25) 2 commits
 - Added erlang-skels to release target (ddcad46)
 - Fixed electric semi-colon and tuples inside lists. (cfde62b)

* jl/windows-file-share-delete (erts) (2010-02-22) 1 commit
 - Windows: Open files with FILE_SHARE_DELETE to get closer to UNIX semantics (e5e5597)

* jv/update-rpccall-to-use-try (kernel) (2010-02-24) 1 commit
 - fix rpc handling of uncaught throws (99b7776)

* sv/format_status_error_info (stdlib) (2010-02-28) 2 commits
 - Add support for the format_status callback to gen_event (fd9abcb)
 - Extend format_status for gen_server/gen_fsm termination error logging (3d06952)

------------------------------------------------------------
[Stalled]

* am/spawn-rpc (erts, kernel) (2010-02-28) 3 commits
 . Update preloaded modules (457abb4)
 . Add filtering of remote spawn and rpc calls (17f1f44)
 . Move remote spawning from net_kernel to rpc (rex) (47fe61b)

This topic branch introduce an mechanism to filter spawn
requests and rpc calls from other nodes, as an incremental
first step to have additional security besides the cookie.
(It is still possible to send messages to any process on
another node, as well as overflow the atom table on the
other node, so it is still not safe.)

We think the Erlang distribution protocol should only be
used between trusted nodes. Adding security afterwards
is a very difficult task and I don't think it should
be done incrementally, because "almost secure" is worse
than "definitely not secure". If you need to talk with
untrusted nodes, use your own protocol over a socket.

I have dropped this branch from 'pu' for now because it
introduces a backwards incompatibility when there are nodes
of diffent versions. (We don't recommend permanently running
nodes of different version, but it is necessary when upgrading
a live system.)

If that compability issue is fixed, the OTP Technical Board
will have to decide whether the topic branch can be accepted,
since it touches sensitive code paths, and is likely to
decrease performance even it the new filtering features
are not used.

* at/odbc_osx_fix (odbc) (2009-11-30) 1 commit
 - Workaround broken ODBC implementation on OSX 10.5 (88c71c9)

The patch in itself is good. It solves the problem on Mac OS X
in the only way that seems possible. Unfortunately, our
test cases fail on Linux, and fixing it seems to require a
backward-incompatible change to the API of the odbc module or
ugly workarounds. The reviewer (Jakob Cederlund) will email
the details and suggest and/or implement a solution.

Action expected from: OTP/Jakob Cederlund

* bg/safer-local_to_univ (erts) (2010-02-11) 1 commit
 - erl_time_sup.c: test for error return from mktime() (0f62f0b)

We will not include this branch in R13B04 for two reasons:

  o We are not 100% sure that this change is harmless on all
    platforms in all timezones.
  o We have an idea how the underlying problem can be fixed in
    the calendar module (only) and I plan to try it out after the
    release. We will keep this branch in pu as a reminder.

Action expected from: BjÃ¶rn Gustavsson

* db/tv_nthtail_fix (tv) (2009-12-01) 1 commit
 - Fix for tv which restarts while trying to open a table (abe0759)

I should have put this into the stalled state earlier.

Since our long-term goal is to migrate from gs towards wx,
maintaining the old gs applications has a low priority for
the Erlang/OTP team. Therefore, we will accept patches that
seem sound, but we are unlikely to spend much of our own time
fixing bugs.

The author of this topic branch has found the real reason for
the problem, but uncovered additional issues.

Action expected from: The topic author - to decide whether to
include the topic branch (which is a workaround, but does eliminate
the crash) or to wait for a better fix from himself or someone else
with an interest to advance the topic.

* jp/dependencies_makefile (compiler, erts) (2010-02-14) 3 commits
 - squash! eliminate dialyzer warning (434e2ca)
 - squash! fix snprintf for Windows (bf2708d)
 - Add dependencies Makefile generation to erlc(1) and compile(3) (7cbc437)

Approved in principle by the OTP Technical Board; now awaits a closer
review of the implementation.

Action expected from: BjÃ¶rn Gustavsson (the reviewer)

* kr/gs-browser (gs) (2010-02-10) 1 commit
 - Change lib/gs/src/tool_utils.erl to select multiple browsers other than Netscape (802d159)

This topic branch introduces a new call to the deprecated regexp module.

Action expected from: Topic author or anyone else with an interest to
advance the topic

------------------------------------------------------------
[Cooking]

* bd/mnesia-activity-subscription (mnesia) (2010-02-12) 1 commit
 - Add mnesia activity subscription message (a564dd3)

* bg/compiler-bugs (otp) (2010-02-16) 1 commit
 - bug: inlining a module causes an internal compiler error (f77e8aa)

Reminder for a (low priority) bug to fix after the R13B04 release.

* bg/temp-hipe-fixes (compiler, hipe, kernel) (2010-01-31) 4 commits
 - Crudely fix return type for the lists:key{search,find,member}/3 (0e3ab3e)
 - seq_trace_SUITE: Don't native-compile (c9fc04b)
 - Disable native code if on_load is used (bd4fe28)
 - andor_SUITE: Don't native-compile (8aadc4c)

This branch contains temporary workarounds to avoid failing test
cases and is never intended to graduate.

* gl/jinterface-pom (jinterface, otp) (2010-02-15) 2 commits
 - Exclude jinterface build artifact from git (5acf5fa)
 - Add pom.xml for jinterface build (aa68190)

* ks/cleanups (cosNotification, debugger, docbuilder, gs, kernel, orber, stdlib) (2010-02-23) 9 commits
 - Add right parentheses to defines ending without them (3338f8c)
 - debugger: Clean up as suggested by tidier (a9d454b)
 - docbuilder: Clean up as suggested by tidier (20d6b5e)
 - gs: Clean up as suggested by tidier (b3453b5)
 - Take out type declarations from file.hrl. (1f81c55)
 - stdlib: Use fun object instead of {M,F} tuple (cafe3a0)
 - ets: Cleanup as suggested by tidier (932ec62)
 - kernel: Add types and specs + cleanup (098f321)
 - kernel: Clean up as suggested by tidier (f71b7f2)

Was formerly called ks/cleanups-after-r13b04.

* mh/ssh_channel-init-no-catch (ssh) (2010-01-25) 1 commit
 - Remove pointless catch from ssh_channel:init/1. (bb7eaa5)

* ra/include-public_key-in-ssh (ssh) (2010-01-20) 1 commit
 - Added public_key among ssh applications. (3a0c2c5)

------------------------------------------------------------
[Dropped]

* at/terminate-can-modify-state (stdlib) (2010-02-24) 1 commit
 . Add ability for gen_(server|fsm):terminate to modify state sent to error_logger (aedff05)

Replaced by sv/format_status_error_info.