[erlang-questions] Tail call optimization

[Dmytro Lytovchenko]

In the doc page you linked:
> If the last expression of a function body is a function call, a *tail
recursive* call is done.

Compiler will replace call opcode with a tail call (call_last,
call_ext_last, apply_last). You can check it with "erl -S test.erl" to see
assembly, and in erl console: "l(modulename)." to load the module then
"erts_debug:df(modulename)." to create disassembly from BEAM VM memory (it
will be a bit different from the erl -S output).

See that your calls are replaced with one of: call_last, call_ext_last,
apply_last.

2016-10-17 10:58 GMT+02:00 Salikhov Dinislam <
Dinislam.Salikhov@REDACTED>:

> Hello.
>
> Erlang guarantees tail recursion optimization and states it in the
> documentation:
> http://erlang.org/doc/reference_manual/functions.html#id78464
>
> Does erlang guarantee that tail call optimization is done in a generic
> case, without recursion?
> Say, we have a function calling a function from another module as its
> final statement:
>     alpha() ->
>         xxx:beta().
> Is it guaranteed that xxx:beta() will use the stack of alpha() regardless
> whether recursion is involved.
> I mean whether the language guarantees it rather than virtual machine may
> provide such optimization.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Salikhov Dinislam
>
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