[erlang-questions] Specifying 'erts' as an application

[Kostis Sagonas]

The Erlang/OTP documentation specifies 'erts' as an application:

   http://erlang.org/doc/applications.html

In a project we are working on, we have an application resource file 
that reads:

   {application, APP_NAME,
    [{description, ...},
     ...
     {applications, [erts, kernel, stdlib, ...]
     ...
    ]}.

A user informed us that "erts isn't actually an application that can be 
dependent upon and that having it in the applications list breaks releases".

I personally consider this a bug, of Erlang/OTP that is, but I will 
gladly be enlightened why 'erts' is listed as an OTP application but 
cannot be listed in the application resource file and releases break 
miserably when one does so.

Kostis