[erlang-questions] Dialyzer and multiple plt files

[Eric Merritt]

Kostis,

Thanks for the update. I look forward to the change. This will allow
me to add this feature to sinan built, faxien distributed apps. It
should make for a pretty interesting new feature!

Thanks,
Eric

On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 10:48 PM, Kostis Sagonas <kostis@REDACTED> wrote:
>
> Eric Merritt wrote:
>
> > Guys (probably Tobias ;)
> >
> > Is there a way to get Dialyzer to use multiple plt files for its
> > analysis. Let me give you the background. Sinan uses dialyzer for its
> > analysis task. During its first run in a project it generates a new
> > plt file for that projects dependencies and stores it in the build
> > area. Depending on the project that can take a huge amount of time. I
> > think a nice way to solve this problem is to generate plt files for an
> > OTP app and distribute those files with that app. Then in my analysis
> > phase I just have to identify the plt files stored in the dependencies
> > and let Dialyzer make use of them. I don't believe this is possible at
> > the moment and it may be that I am the only one with this type of
> > requirement, but it would be a nice feature to have.
> >
>
>  The feature you want is a nice thing to have but realizing it properly is
> quite complicated.  The reason is that good PLTs cannot be built in
> isolation: dependencies between applications have to be taken into account
> and these dependencies are often circular -- Erlang does not enforce an
> hierarchical module system as e.g. ML does.  Also, for a sound analysis,
> these dependencies have to be checked every time a PLT is used.
>
>  We have been discussing this issue for quite a while now and recently (10
> days ago) decided to change the way PLTs are built and used so that it is
> possible to merge two (or more) PLTs.  This will achieve something very
> similar to what you want: you will be able to build PLTs on a per
> application basis, but these PLTs will not be coming pre-built in the OTP
> system.  Interested users will need to build them themselves. Hopefully,
> this change will make it into R12B-3.
>
>  Stay tuned,
>
>  Kostis
>