[erlang-questions] changing the internal message transfer protocol

[Jachym Holecek]

# Guilherme Silveira 2009-09-25:
> >> Pid = spawn(NodeName, M, F, A).
> > See lib/kernel/src/erlang.erl:spawn/4.
> spawn invokes gen_server when NodeName =/= node(), which invokes
> gen:call, which invokes erlang:send.
> 
> But I was unable to find who exports erlang:send... the erlang module
> (erlang.erl) only exports dsend, which connnects+invokes send.

Yep, some of the functions in various "core" modules are implemented
directly in C instead of the corresponding Erlang module. Such functions
are called "builtin functions" and live in bif.c/erl_bif_${module}.c and
possibly other places I missed, see below on how to lookup their home.

> Reading the net_kernel and do_connect implementations, it seems as
> connections are treated with their own local pids and kept alive. But
> still...
> 
> Any suggestions where to find the send implementation?

Builtin functions are described in erts/emulator/beam/bif.tab, this
is used to generate BIF dispatch table at compile time using the
erts/emulator/utils/make_tables script. For send/2 we have:

  bif erlang:send/2

which according to make_tables seems to mean (and my Perl-fu is very
weak) that it's implemented by the send_2() function -- this lives
in bif.c as "grep -rs '^send_2[(]' erts/" reveals.

This has been a fair amount of guesswork; I'm sure someone will correct
me if I'm wrong.

HTH,
	-- Jachym