[erlang-questions] Feedback wanted: Remove compilation times from BEAM files in OTP 19?

[Loïc Hoguin]

If you don't have hash(file1) = hash(file2) that means the usual tooling 
doesn't work as well as it could: packages will do file changes that 
don't change the program, rsync will do similar with syncs, and so on.

It's also a bit dubious to require Erlang to verify that the Erlang 
files (including the compiler itself) were compiled as expected.

On 04/08/2016 02:11 PM, Éric Pailleau wrote:
> Hi,
> Beam files are separated in different chunks.
> All dynamic information should be placed in a separate chunck Mho.
> And sha1sum of code part, or checksum of its canonical abstract code
> maybe available in a chunk, existing or new one.
> This could allow to know that a beam, even without the same checksum on
> the file globally,  run the same code than another Beam file, and so be
> able to do some Nix like distribution.
>
> Compiler version allow to estimate what Erlang version compiled the
> beam. This is something to keep I think.
>
> Regards
>
> "Envoyé depuis mon mobile " Eric
>
>
>
> ---- Matthias Rieber a écrit ----
>
> On Fri, 8 Apr 2016, Björn Gustavsson wrote:
>
>  > As long as anyone can remember, the compilation time has been included
>  > in BEAM files (and can be retrieved using module_info()).
>  >
>  > As far as I know, the inclusion of the time has only caused problems.
>  > I can't remember that anyone has found any use for the compilation
>  > time.
>  >
>  > So if we decide to remove the compilation time by default in OTP 19...
>  >
>  > ... would it cause any problem for someone in some workflow?
>
> I couldn't resist:
>
> https://xkcd.com/1172/
>
> Matthias
>
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-- 
Loïc Hoguin
http://ninenines.eu
Author of The Erlanger Playbook,
A book about software development using Erlang