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<!DOCTYPE chapter SYSTEM "chapter.dtd">

<chapter>
  <header>
    <copyright>
      <year>2004</year><year>2022</year>
      <holder>Ericsson AB. All Rights Reserved.</holder>
    </copyright>
    <legalnotice>
      Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
      you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
      You may obtain a copy of the License at
 
          http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

      Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
      distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
      WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
      See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
      limitations under the License.

    </legalnotice>

    <title>Erl_interface Release Notes</title>
    <prepared>otp_appnotes</prepared>
    <docno>nil</docno>
    <date>nil</date>
    <rev>nil</rev>
    <file>notes.xml</file>
  </header>
  <p>This document describes the changes made to the Erl_interface application.</p>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 5.3</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    <c>erl_call</c> no longer links against <c>nsl</c> on
	    platforms where <c>gethostbyname</c> is provided by libc.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-17846 Aux Id: PR-5558 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>The following distribution flags are now mandatory:
	    <c>DFLAG_BIT_BINARIES</c>, <c>DFLAG_EXPORT_PTR_TAG</c>,
	    <c>DFLAG_MAP_TAGS</c>, <c>DFLAG_NEW_FLOATS</c>, and
	    <c>DFLAG_FUN_TAGS</c>. This mainly concerns libraries or
	    application that implement the distribution protocol
	    themselves.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-17318 Aux Id: PR-4972 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Input for <c>configure</c> scripts adapted to
	    <c>autoconf</c> 2.71.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-17414 Aux Id: PR-4967 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Removed use of node creation value zero as a wildcard.
	    Also prevent zero from being used as creation by
	    <c>erl_interface</c> and <c>jinterface</c> nodes.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-17682 Aux Id: PR-5347 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Changed <c>creation</c> arguments, of function
	    <c>ei_connect_init</c> and friends, from type
	    <c>short</c> to <c>unsigned int</c> for full 32-bit
	    range.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-17802 Aux Id: PR-5347 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Known Bugs and Problems</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The <c>ei</c> API for decoding/encoding terms is not
	    fully 64-bit compatible since terms that have a
	    representation on the external term format larger than 2
	    GB cannot be handled.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16607 Aux Id: OTP-16608 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 5.2.2</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Avoid attempt build dynamic libs if config option
	    <c>--enable-ei-dynamic-lib</c> is not given.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-17987 Aux Id: GH-5781, PR-5787 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 5.2.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix compile error regarding <c>gethostbyaddr_r</c> on
	    Android. Error introduced in OTP 24.3.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-17975 Aux Id: PR-5763 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 5.2</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Add <c>--enable-ei-dynamic-lib</c> configure option that
	    will make erl_interface also release a dynamic library
	    version of libei.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-17883 Aux Id: PR-5601 ERIERL-724 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Known Bugs and Problems</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The <c>ei</c> API for decoding/encoding terms is not
	    fully 64-bit compatible since terms that have a
	    representation on the external term format larger than 2
	    GB cannot be handled.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16607 Aux Id: OTP-16608 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 5.1</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    erl_call now prints an error when the arguments cannot be
	    parsed.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-17626</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Known Bugs and Problems</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The <c>ei</c> API for decoding/encoding terms is not
	    fully 64-bit compatible since terms that have a
	    representation on the external term format larger than 2
	    GB cannot be handled.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16607 Aux Id: OTP-16608 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 5.0.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Commit of generated <c>configure</c> script.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-17420 Aux Id: OTP-17398, GH-4821 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 5.0</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Two options have been added to <c>erl_call</c>. The
	    <c>-fetch_stdout</c> option fetches stdout data resulting
	    from the code invoked by <c>erl_call</c>. The
	    <c>-fetch_stdout</c> option disables printing of the
	    result term. In order to implement the first of these two
	    options a new function called <c>ei_xrpc_from</c> has
	    been added to erl_interface. For details see the
	    <c>erl_call</c> documentation and <c>erl_interface</c>
	    documentation.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-17132</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Accept 64-bit process identifiers from external nodes.
	    This is the first step in an upgrade path toward using
	    64-bit pids in a future OTP release.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16720 Aux Id: PR-2680 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The experimental HiPE application has been removed,
	    together with all related functionality in other
	    applications.</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16963</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The <c>registry</c> functionality part of
	    <c>erl_interface</c> has been removed. It was as of OTP
	    23 deprecated and scheduled for removal in OTP 24.</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16970</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Accept references up to a size of 160-bits from remote
	    nodes. This is the first step in an upgrade path toward
	    using references up to 160-bits in a future OTP release.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-17005 Aux Id: OTP-16718 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Accept 64-bit port identifiers from external nodes. This
	    is the first step in an upgrade path toward using 64-bit
	    port identifiers in a future OTP release.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-17007</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Support the new link protocol in order to be able to
	    phase out the old link protocol in the future.
	    <c>erl_interface</c> does not support setting up or
	    removing links from the <c>erl_interface</c> side, so the
	    bug present with the old protocol did not effect
	    <c>erl_interface</c>. This since both participants of a
	    link simultaneously needed to operate on the link in
	    order to trigger the bug.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-17270 Aux Id: OTP-17127 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Known Bugs and Problems</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The <c>ei</c> API for decoding/encoding terms is not
	    fully 64-bit compatible since terms that have a
	    representation on the external term format larger than 2
	    GB cannot be handled.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16607 Aux Id: OTP-16608 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 4.0.3.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Commit of generated <c>configure</c> script.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-17420 Aux Id: OTP-17398, GH-4821 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Known Bugs and Problems</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The <c>ei</c> API for decoding/encoding terms is not
	    fully 64-bit compatible since terms that have a
	    representation on the external term format larger than 2
	    GB cannot be handled.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16607 Aux Id: OTP-16608 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 4.0.3</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix bug where sending of large data with ei_send_*/ei_rpc
	    with infinite timeout could fail when the tcp buffer
	    becomes full.</p>
          <p>
	    Fault has existed since OTP-21.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-17358 Aux Id: ERLERL-610 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Known Bugs and Problems</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The <c>ei</c> API for decoding/encoding terms is not
	    fully 64-bit compatible since terms that have a
	    representation on the external term format larger than 2
	    GB cannot be handled.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16607 Aux Id: OTP-16608 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 4.0.2.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix bug where sending of large data with ei_send_*/ei_rpc
	    with infinite timeout could fail when the tcp buffer
	    becomes full.</p>
          <p>
	    Fault has existed since OTP-21.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-17358 Aux Id: ERLERL-610 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 4.0.2</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Integers outside of the range [-(1 bsl 32) - 1, (1 bsl
	    32) -1] were previously intended to be printed in an
	    internal bignum format by <c>ei_print_term()</c> and
	    <c>ei_s_print_term()</c>. Unfortunately the
	    implementation has been buggy since OTP R13B02 and since
	    then produced results with random content which also
	    could crash the calling program.</p>
          <p>
	    This fix replaces the printing of the internal format
	    with printing in hexadecimal form and extend the range
	    for printing in decimal form. Currently integers in the
	    range [-(1 bsl 64), (1 bsl 64)] are printed in decimal
	    form and integers outside of this range in Erlang
	    hexadecimal form.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-17099 Aux Id: ERIERL-585 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Known Bugs and Problems</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The <c>ei</c> API for decoding/encoding terms is not
	    fully 64-bit compatible since terms that have a
	    representation on the external term format larger than 2
	    GB cannot be handled.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16607 Aux Id: OTP-16608 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 4.0.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix erl_interface on windows to be compiled with correct
	    flags to make internal primitives reentrant.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16740</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fixed <c>ei_get_type</c> to set <c>*size</c> to zero for
	    floats, pids, port and refs according to documentation.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16753 Aux Id: ERL-1288, PR-2678 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix ei_connect when using a dynamic node name to force
	    usage of distribution version 6.</p>
          <p>
	    This bug caused <c>erl_call -R -address</c> to not work
	    properly.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16786</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Changes in order to build on the Haiku operating system.</p>
          <p>
	    Thanks to Calvin Buckley</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16707 Aux Id: PR-2638 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Known Bugs and Problems</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The <c>ei</c> API for decoding/encoding terms is not
	    fully 64-bit compatible since terms that have a
	    representation on the external term format larger than 2
	    GB cannot be handled.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16607 Aux Id: OTP-16608 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 4.0</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix various compiler warnings on 64-bit Windows.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15800</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p><c>erl_call</c> will now work properly on systems that
	    cannot resolve their own hostname.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16604</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>Various bug fixes:</p> <list> <item>Internal error
	    checking in various functions.</item> <item><seecref
	    marker="ei_connect#ei_rpc"><c>ei_rpc()</c></seecref>
	    accepted any 2-tuple message as an rpc response.</item>
	    <item><seecref
	    marker="ei#ei_decode_ref"><c>ei_decode_ref()</c></seecref>
	    now refuse to write outside of allocated memory in case a
	    huge reference is decoded.</item> <item><seecref
	    marker="ei#ei_decode_ei_term"><c>ei_decode_ei_term()</c></seecref>
	    now reports the same term types as <seecref
	    marker="ei#ei_get_type"><c>ei_get_type()</c></seecref>.</item>
	    </list>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16623</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>A client node can receive its node name dynamically
	    from the node that it first connects to. This featured
	    can by used by</p> <list> <item><p>starting with <c>erl
	    -sname undefined</c></p></item> <item><p>erl_interface
	    functions <c>ei_connect_init</c> and friends</p></item>
	    <item><p><c>erl_call -R</c></p></item> </list>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-13812</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Increased size of node incarnation numbers (aka
	    "creation"), from 2 bits to 32 bits. This will reduce the
	    risk of pids/ports/refs, from different node incarnation
	    with the same name, being mixed up.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15603</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix various build issues when compiling Erlang/OTP to the
	    IBM AIX platform.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15866 Aux Id: PR-2110 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Improved node connection setup handshake protocol. Made
	    possible to agree on protocol version without dependence
	    on <c>epmd</c> or other prior knowledge of peer node
	    version. Also added exchange of node incarnation
	    ("creation") values and expanded the distribution
	    capability flag field from 32 to 64 bits.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16229</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    New <c>erl_call</c> option <c>-address [Host]:Port</c> to
	    connect directly to a node without being dependent on
	    <c>epmd</c> to resolve the node name.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16251</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    As announced in OTP 22.0, the deprecated parts of
	    <c>erl_interface</c> have now been removed (essentially
	    all C functions with prefix <c>erl_</c>).</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16328</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    As announced in OTP 22.0, the previously existing limited
	    support for VxWorks has now been removed.</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16329 Aux Id: OTP-15621 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    New function <c>ei_connect_host_port</c> and friends to
	    allow node connection without being dependent on
	    <c>epmd</c> for node name resolution.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16496 Aux Id: OTP-16251 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>A number of new functions have been added to the
	    <c>erl_interface</c> API:</p> <list> <item><seecref
	    marker="erl_interface:ei#ei_cmp_pids"><c>ei_cmp_pids()</c></seecref></item>
	    <item><seecref
	    marker="erl_interface:ei#ei_cmp_ports"><c>ei_cmp_ports()</c></seecref></item>
	    <item><seecref
	    marker="erl_interface:ei#ei_cmp_refs"><c>ei_cmp_refs()</c></seecref></item>
	    <item><seecref
	    marker="erl_interface:ei#ei_decode_iodata"><c>ei_decode_iodata()</c></seecref></item>
	    <item><seecref
	    marker="erl_interface:ei_connect#ei_make_pid"><c>ei_make_pid()</c></seecref></item>
	    <item><seecref
	    marker="erl_interface:ei_connect#ei_make_ref"><c>ei_make_ref()</c></seecref></item>
	    </list>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16594</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>Added a <c>-timeout</c> option to <c>erl_call</c>.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16624</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The <c>erl_interface</c> <c>registry</c>
	    functionality is deprecated as of OTP 23, and will be
	    removed in OTP 24. Reasonably new <c>gcc</c> compilers
	    will issue deprecation warnings when using this
	    functionality. In order to disable these warnings, define
	    the macro <c>EI_NO_DEPR_WARN</c>.</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16630</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Documentation improvements.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16633</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Known Bugs and Problems</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The <c>ei</c> API for decoding/encoding terms is not
	    fully 64-bit compatible since terms that have a
	    representation on the external term format larger than 2
	    GB cannot be handled.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16607 Aux Id: OTP-16608 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.13.2.2</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Commit of generated <c>configure</c> script.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-17420 Aux Id: OTP-17398, GH-4821 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Known Bugs and Problems</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The <c>ei</c> API for decoding/encoding terms is not
	    fully 64-bit compatible since terms that have a
	    representation on the external term format larger than 2
	    GB cannot be handled.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16607 Aux Id: OTP-16608 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.13.2.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix bug where sending of large data with ei_send_*/ei_rpc
	    with infinite timeout could fail when the tcp buffer
	    becomes full.</p>
          <p>
	    Fault has existed since OTP-21.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-17358 Aux Id: ERLERL-610 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Known Bugs and Problems</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The <c>ei</c> API for decoding/encoding terms is not
	    fully 64-bit compatible since terms that have a
	    representation on the external term format larger than 2
	    GB cannot be handled.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16607 Aux Id: OTP-16608 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.13.2.0.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix bug where sending of large data with ei_send_*/ei_rpc
	    with infinite timeout could fail when the tcp buffer
	    becomes full.</p>
          <p>
	    Fault has existed since OTP-21.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-17358 Aux Id: ERIERL-610 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.13.2</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix link error "multiple definition of
	    `ei_default_socket_callbacks'" for gcc version 10 or when
	    built with gcc option -fno-common. Error exists since
	    OTP-21.3.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16412 Aux Id: PR-2503 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.13.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix user supplied socket implementation for Windows and
	    other platforms without gcc atomics.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16308</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.13</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix bugs in <c>ei_print_term</c> for binaries and bit
	    strings causing incorrect output.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15917</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fixed bug in <c>ei_decode_fun</c> for very old fun
	    encoding format. Bug exist since OTP 22.0.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15996</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p><c>ei_print_term()</c> now supports printing of maps
	    and funs.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15814</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.12</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The vxworks configure has been updated to respect the
	    environment CFLAGS.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15773</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Minor adjustments made to build system for parallel
	    configure.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15340 Aux Id: OTP-14625 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The limited support for VxWorks is deprecated as of OTP
	    22, and will be removed in OTP 23.</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15621</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>The old legacy <c>erl_interface</c> library (functions
	    with prefix <c>erl_</c>) is deprecated as of OTP 22, and
	    will be removed in OTP 23. This does not apply to the
	    <c>ei</c> library. Reasonably new <c>gcc</c> compilers
	    will issue deprecation warnings. In order to disable
	    these warnings, define the macro
	    <c>EI_NO_DEPR_WARN</c>.</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15622</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>Added support to receive, decode, encode and send both
	    bit strings and export funs (<c>fun M:F/A</c>).</p>
	    <p>New functions <c>ei_decode_bitstring</c> and
	    <c>ei_encode_bitstring</c> have been added in order to
	    decode and encode bit strings where the number of bits is
	    not necessary divisible by 8 (a whole number of bytes).
	    The existing functions <c>ei_decode_fun</c> and
	    <c>ei_encode_fun</c> can now also handle export funs.</p>
	    <p>Before this change, bit strings and export funs sent
	    to an erl_interface c-node were encoded using an
	    undocumented fallback tuple format. For bit strings
	    <c>{Binary,BitsInLastByte}</c> and for export funs
	    <c>{M,F}</c>. Existing c-node implementations expecting
	    these tuples must be changed to instead use
	    <c>ei_decode_bitstring</c> and <c>ei_decode_fun</c>. As a
	    temporary solution you can also build erl_interface with
	    macro <c>EI_COMPAT=21</c> or call
	    <c>ei_set_compat_rel(21)</c> to receive the old fallback
	    tuples.</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15712 Aux Id: OTP-15774 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.11.3.2</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix bug where sending of large data with ei_send_*/ei_rpc
	    with infinite timeout could fail when the tcp buffer
	    becomes full.</p>
          <p>
	    Fault has existed since OTP-21.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-17358 Aux Id: ERLERL-610 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Known Bugs and Problems</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The <c>ei</c> API for decoding/encoding terms is not
	    fully 64-bit compatible since terms that have a
	    representation on the external term format larger than 2
	    GB cannot be handled.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16607 Aux Id: OTP-16608 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.11.3.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix link error "multiple definition of
	    `ei_default_socket_callbacks'" for gcc version 10 or when
	    built with gcc option -fno-common. Error exists since
	    OTP-21.3.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16412 Aux Id: PR-2503 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Known Bugs and Problems</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The <c>ei</c> API for decoding/encoding terms is not
	    fully 64-bit compatible since terms that have a
	    representation on the external term format larger than 2
	    GB cannot be handled.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-16607 Aux Id: OTP-16608 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.11.3</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    <c>erl_interface</c>/<c>ei</c> refused to use node names
	    with an alive name (the part of the node name preceding
	    the @ sign) longer than 63 characters and a host name
	    longer than 64 characters. The total amount of characters
	    allowed in a node name (alivename@hostname) was thus
	    limited to 128 characters. These limits applied both to
	    the own node name as well as node names of other nodes.
	    Ordinary Erlang nodes limit the node name length to 256
	    characters, which meant that you could not communicate
	    with certain Erlang nodes due to their node name used.</p>
          <p>
	    <c>erl_interface</c>/<c>ei</c> now allow the total amount
	    of characters in a node name to be up to 256 characters.
	    These characters may be distributed between alive name
	    and host name in whatever way needed. That is, the
	    maximum amount of characters in the alive name may be 254
	    and the maximum amount of characters in the host name may
	    be 254, but in total the node name must not exceed 256
	    characters.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15781 Aux Id: ERIERL-356 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.11.2.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    <c>erl_interface</c>/<c>ei</c> refused to use node names
	    with an alive name (the part of the node name preceding
	    the @ sign) longer than 63 characters and a host name
	    longer than 64 characters. The total amount of characters
	    allowed in a node name (alivename@hostname) was thus
	    limited to 128 characters. These limits applied both to
	    the own node name as well as node names of other nodes.
	    Ordinary Erlang nodes limit the node name length to 256
	    characters, which meant that you could not communicate
	    with certain Erlang nodes due to their node name used.</p>
          <p>
	    <c>erl_interface</c>/<c>ei</c> now allow the total amount
	    of characters in a node name to be up to 256 characters.
	    These characters may be distributed between alive name
	    and host name in whatever way needed. That is, the
	    maximum amount of characters in the alive name may be 254
	    and the maximum amount of characters in the host name may
	    be 254, but in total the node name must not exceed 256
	    characters.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15781 Aux Id: ERIERL-356 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.11.2</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix handling of Makefile dependencies so that parallel
	    make works properly.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15757</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.11.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fixed two bugs in the <c>erl_call</c> program. A missing
	    initialization (introduced in <c>erl_interface-3.11</c>)
	    which either caused a crash or failure to connect to or
	    start a node, and an incorrectly calculated timeout which
	    could cause failure to start an erlang node. These bugs
	    only caused failures on some platforms.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15676 Aux Id: OTP-15442, ERL-881 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.11</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Support for plugin of a <seecref
	    marker="ei_connect#ussi">user supplied socket
	    implementation</seecref> has been added.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15442 Aux Id: ERIERL-258 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.10.4</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Make <c>ei_connect</c> and friends also accept state
	    <c>ok_simultaneous</c> during handshake, which means the
	    other node has initiated a connection setup that will be
	    cancelled in favor of this connection.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15161 Aux Id: ERIERL-191 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fixed bug in <c>ei_receive_msg</c>,
	    <c>ei_xreceive_msg</c>, <c>ei_receive_msg_tmo</c> and
	    <c>ei_xreceive_msg_tmo</c>. The <c>x-&gt;index</c> was
	    set to entire buffer size instead of the number of bytes
	    actually received.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15171</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fixed bug in <c>ei_connect_init</c> which could be
	    provoked if called by concurrent threads.
	    <c>ei_connect_init</c> called posix interface
	    <c>gethostbyname</c> which is documented as not thread
	    safe.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15191</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fixed bug in erl_compare_ext() ignoring the tail of lists
	    of otherwise equal content. Example: <c>[a | b]</c> and
	    <c>[a | c]</c> compared equal and <c>{[a], b}</c> and
	    <c>{[a], c}</c> compared equal.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15277 Aux Id: PR-1929 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.10.3</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix bug where calling erl_init on certain platforms could
	    result in a buffer overflow bug.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15033</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fixed <c>erl_call -m</c> to not deallocate module source
	    binary before it has been read.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15105 Aux Id: ERL-629 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p> The program <c>erl_call</c> calls
	    <c>erl_eval:eval_str/1</c> when it used to call
	    <c>lib:eval_str/1</c>. This means that <c>erl_call</c>
	    will fail when trying interact with an Erlang node
	    running Erlang/OTP 20 or earlier. </p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15114 Aux Id: OTP-15072, ERL-634 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.10.2.2</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix handling of Makefile dependencies so that parallel
	    make works properly.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15757</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.10.2.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Make <c>ei_connect</c> and friends also accept state
	    <c>ok_simultaneous</c> during handshake, which means the
	    other node has initiated a connection setup that will be
	    cancelled in favor of this connection.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15161 Aux Id: ERIERL-191 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.10.2</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix bug in <c>ei_connect</c> functions that may cause
	    failure due to insufficient buffer space for
	    gethostbyname_r.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15022 Aux Id: ERIERL-163 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Optimize encoding/decoding for pure 7-bit ascii atoms.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-15023 Aux Id: ERIERL-150 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.10.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p> Removed all old unused files in the documentation.
	    </p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-14475 Aux Id: ERL-409, PR-1493 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.10</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix bug where gethostname would incorrectly fail with
	    enametoolong on Linux.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-14310</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Remove generation of atoms in old latin1 external format
	    in the distribution between erlang nodes,
	    <c>erl_interface</c>, and <c>jinterface</c>. The new utf8
	    format for atoms was introduced in OTP R16. An OTP 20
	    node can therefore not connect to nodes older than R16.</p>
          <p>
	    Atoms that can be encoded using latin1 are still encoded
	    by <c>term_to_binary()</c> using latin1 encoding. Note
	    that all atoms will by default be encoded using utf8 in a
	    future Erlang/OTP release. For more information see the
	    documentation of <seemfa
	    marker="erts:erlang#term_to_binary/2"><c>erlang:term_to_binary/2</c></seemfa>.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-14337</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.9.3</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Minor documentation update</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-14233 Aux Id: PR-1343 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.9.2</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix <c>ei_connect_init</c> and <c>ei_connect_xinit</c> to
	    adjust the <c>creation</c> argument to be compatible with
	    nodes older than OTP-19.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-13981</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Editorial documentation changes</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-13980</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.9.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Look for .erlang.cookie in windows system directory if
	    HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH is not set. The same behaviour as
	    the VM.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-13849</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.9</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix decoding of LLONG_MIN in erl_decode</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-13666 Aux Id: ERL-158 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    On windows <c>ei_decode_ulong</c> and
	    <c>ei_decode_long</c> now correctly returns an error when
	    trying to decode a number that does not fit in a long.
	    Fixed a bug on windows where enabling ei tracing would
	    cause a segmentation fault.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-13673</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Handle terms (pids,ports and refs) from nodes with a
	    'creation' value larger than 3. This is a preparation of
	    the distribution protocol to allow OTP 19 nodes to
	    correctly communicate with future nodes (20 or higher).
	    The 'creation' value differentiates different
	    incarnations of the same node (name).</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-13488</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.8.2</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix Erl_Interface build error on Debian/Hurd and
	    Debian/kFreeBSD. (Thanks to Sergei Golovan)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-13328</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    EPMD supports both IPv4 and IPv6</p>
          <p>
	    Also affects oldest supported windows version.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-13364</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.8.1</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix the conditional selection of gethostbyname_r and
	    gethostbyaddr_r.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-13188</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.8</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Do not accept Nan and Infinity values</p>
          <p>
	    Erlang does not accept these values, so we return an
	    error in the C interface rather than letting them through
	    to the Erlang VM, which rejects the message with a
	    somewhat cryptic "bad external term".</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-12801</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.7.20</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Use C99 function isfinite() instead of finite() when
	    available on non GCC compilers.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-12268</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Distribute <c>autoconf</c> helpers to applications at
	    build time instead of having multiple identical copies
	    committed in the repository.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-12348</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Added an .appup file for the application.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-12358 Aux Id: OTP-12178 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.7.19</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Added a <c>.app</c> file for the application.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-12178</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.7.18</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Implement --enable-sanitizers[=sanitizers]. Similar to
	    debugging with Valgrind, it's very useful to enable
	    -fsanitize= switches to catch bugs at runtime.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-12153</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.7.17</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Now works with Visual Studio.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-11984</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.7.16</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix memcheck warning in gen_challange (Thanks to Olivier
	    Girondel)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-11608</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.7.15</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Silence warnings (Thanks to Anthony Ramine)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-11517</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.7.14</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Introduced functionality for inspection of system and
	    build configuration.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-11196</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Header and library files from ic and erl_interface are
	    now installed into usr/{include,lib}. Note that these
	    directories are unversioned, so the latest installed
	    version will be the one in the directory.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-11284</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix location of true binary under Mac OSX. Thanks to
	    Simon Cornish.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-11289</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.7.13</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    A guard was added to check if file descriptor is valid
	    before closing it.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-11167</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.7.12</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Superfluous trailing comma in enum erlang_char_encoding
	    causing compile error for g++ with --pedantic option.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-10913 Aux Id: seq12264 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.7.11</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Revert the structs <c>erlang_pid</c>, <c>erlang_port</c>
	    and <c>erlang_ref</c> as they were before R16A (without
	    <c>node_org_enc</c>) in order to be backward compatible
	    with user code that accesses the fields of these structs.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-10885 Aux Id: seq12256 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.7.10</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>Where necessary a comment stating encoding has been
	    added to Erlang files. The comment is meant to be removed
	    in Erlang/OTP R17B when UTF-8 becomes the default
	    encoding. </p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-10630</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Limited support for unicode atoms in the external format
	    and in the internal representation of the vm. This is a
	    preparative feature in order to support communication
	    with future releases of Erlang/OTP that may create
	    unicode atoms.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-10753</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.7.9</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>Teach lib/erl_interface/configure.in to look for
	    pthreads support in libc (where it can be found on
	    QNX)</p> <p>A minor tweak such that this configure
	    *fails* if you pass --enable-threads and no pthreads
	    support can be found.</p> (Thanks to Per Hedeland)
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-10581</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.7.8</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Detect when middle endian doubles are used by a platform
	    and account for it when decoding floats. (Thanks to Mike
	    Sperber)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-10209</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.7.7</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>Minor suppressions and fixes of compilation
	    warnings</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-10016</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.7.6</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    An error when getting global names on OS X Lion has been
	    fixed. The error caused truncated strings to be returned
	    from the function.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9799</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>Erlang/OTP can now be built using parallel make if you
	    limit the number of jobs, for instance using '<c>make
	    -j6</c>' or '<c>make -j10</c>'. '<c>make -j</c>' does not
	    work at the moment because of some missing
	    dependencies.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9451</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Eliminate use of deprecated regexp module</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9810</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.7.5</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>Align ei buffer according to size of pointers</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9390</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p> XML files have been corrected. </p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9550 Aux Id: OTP-9541 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Make comment and documentation reflect code in
	    erl_interface/src/misc/ei_decode_term.c (Thanks to Anneli
	    Cuss)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9559</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    ei: integer overflow in string/atom encoding</p>
          <p>
	    ei_encode_atom() and ei_encode_string() use strlen() to
	    get the length of the buffer. As strlen() returns an
	    unsigned long long and both ei functions take a signed
	    integer, the length fields may overflow.</p>
          <p>
	    Check so that the results of strlen can be held in a
	    signed integer. (Thanks to Michael Santos)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9530</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.7.4</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fix using sizeof() for array given as function argument</p>
          <p>
	    When using the sizeof() operator for an array given as
	    function argument it returns the size of the pointer. In
	    this case, the affected function hex(char digest[16],
	    char buff[33]) will just print 4 or 8 byte instead of the
	    full length of 16 bytes, on 32bit and 64bit systems
	    respectively. (Thanks to Cristian greco)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9151</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Initialize <c>to</c> and <c>to_name</c> in
	    <c>erl_receive_msg</c>. (Thanks to Göran Larsson)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9241</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    erl_interface: fix compile error(Thanks to Michael
	    Santos)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9252</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.7.3</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Some malformed distribution messages could cause VM to
	    crash, this is now corrected.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8993</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Strengthen string copy check (Thanks to Michael Santos).</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9071</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Strengthen atom length check when decoding atoms (Thanks
	    to Michael Santos).</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9072</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>Fix global registration. C node needed
	    DFLAG_DIST_MONITOR_FLAT set when connecting. Fix list
	    compare in erl_compare_ext to return correct result.
	    (Thanks to Vitaliy Batichko and Evgeny Khirin)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-9015</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.7.2</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    erl_call: remove get_hostent</p>
          <p>
	    get_hostent does not properly handle IPv4 addresses on
	    little endian platforms and fails with hostnames
	    beginning with a number. Remove get_hostent and use
	    ei_gethostbyname directly since gethostbyname supports
	    IPv4 addresses.</p>
          <p>
	    (Thanks to Michael Santos)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8890</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p> teach ei_x_format to handle unary - and + (Thanks to
	    Steve Vinoski)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8891</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>Fix zero byte allocation in registry. (Thanks to
	    Michael Santos)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8893</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p> Check the length of the node name to prevent an
	    overflow. Memory error control of ei_alloc_big. (Thanks
	    to Michael Santos) </p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8943</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    erl_term_len() in erl_interface could returned too large
	    values for integers (since R14B) and too small values for
	    refs (since R9B).</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8945</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.7.1.1</title>
    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>
		The <c>erl_interface</c> tracelevel for erlang messages was incorrect. This has now been fixed.
	    </p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8874</p>
        </item>
    </list>
    </section>

</section>
<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.7.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Removed unused variable in <c>ei_decode_term.c</c>.</p>
          <p>
	    Fixed faulty deallocation in <c>erl_call</c>.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8748</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>ei_connect: correct man page examples (Thanks to
	    Michael Santos)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8813</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>ei: prevent overflow in <c>ei_connect_init</c> and
	    <c>ei_xconnect</c></p> <p>Add length check of the buffer
	    before copying. (Thanks to Michael Santos)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8814</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>Remove DECLSPEC feature which fails on Windows Vista
	    and use the fallback implementation instead.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8826</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>erl_call: fix multiple buffer overflows (Thanks to
	    Michael Santos)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8827</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>Fix incorrect writev iovec buffer handling in
	    <c>erl_interface</c> (Thanks to Steve Vinoski)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8837</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.7</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>compact IEEE 754 double encoding in external binary
	    format for ei</p> <list><item><p>Implement the compact
	    IEEE 754 double encoding in external binary format for
	    ei. Encoding for ei now always produces the NEW_FLOAT_EXT
	    format. Decoding and term printing handle both the old
	    ERL_FLOAT_EXT encoding and the new NEW_FLOAT_EXT
	    encoding. </p></item> <item><p>Legacy erl_interface code
	    also handles the new encoding, but still produces the
	    ERL_FLOAT_EXT encoding by default.</p></item>
	    <item><p>Also enable the DFLAG_NEW_FLOATS distribution
	    flag.</p></item> <item><p>ei_get_type() will return
	    ERL_FLOAT_EXT regardless if the external format is
	    encoded with ERL_FLOAT_EXT or NEW_FLOAT_EXT for
	    doubles.</p></item> <item><p>Reduce the number of copies
	    of the code for encoding and decoding doubles throughout
	    ei and erl_interface by instead calling the ei encoding
	    and decoding functions wherever possible.</p></item>
	    <item><p>Restore commented-out float tests in
	    ei_decode_SUITE and ei_encode_SUITE in
	    lib/erl_interface/test. Modify them to make them match
	    the style of other tests in the same suites.</p></item>
	    </list> <p>These changes are based on an ei float patch
	    from Serge Aleynikov originally submitted against R12B-2
	    in July 2008 and reworked by Steve Vinoski May 2010.</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8684</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.6.5</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Document debug support.</p>
          <p>
	    Debug trace output for connection activity could be
	    enabled setting the trace level as an integer to the
	    EI_TRACELEVEL environment variable. This option could
	    also be read and set from a running program using
	    ei_get_tracelevel(void) and ei_set_tracelevel(int).</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-5037</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>Cross compilation improvements and other build system
	    improvements.</p>
	    <p>Most notable:</p> <list><item> Lots of cross
	    compilation improvements. The old cross compilation
	    support was more or less non-existing as well as broken.
	    Please, note that the cross compilation support should
	    still be considered as experimental. Also note that old
	    cross compilation configurations cannot be used without
	    modifications. For more information on cross compiling
	    Erlang/OTP see the <c>$ERL_TOP/INSTALL-CROSS.md</c> file.
	    </item><item> Support for staged install using <url
	    href="http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/DESTDIR.html">DESTDIR</url>.
	    The old broken <c>INSTALL_PREFIX</c> has also been fixed.
	    For more information see the <c>$ERL_TOP/INSTALL.md</c>
	    file. </item><item> Documentation of the <c>release</c>
	    target of the top <c>Makefile</c>. For more information
	    see the <c>$ERL_TOP/INSTALL.md</c> file. </item><item>
	    <c>make install</c> now by default creates relative
	    symbolic links instead of absolute ones. For more
	    information see the <c>$ERL_TOP/INSTALL.md</c> file.
	    </item><item> <c>$ERL_TOP/configure --help=recursive</c>
	    now works and prints help for all applications with
	    <c>configure</c> scripts. </item><item> Doing <c>make
	    install</c>, or <c>make release</c> directly after
	    <c>make all</c> no longer triggers miscellaneous
	    rebuilds. </item><item> Existing bootstrap system is now
	    used when doing <c>make install</c>, or <c>make
	    release</c> without a preceding <c>make all</c>.
	    </item><item> The <c>crypto</c> and <c>ssl</c>
	    applications use the same runtime library path when
	    dynamically linking against <c>libssl.so</c> and
	    <c>libcrypto.so</c>. The runtime library search path has
	    also been extended. </item><item> The <c>configure</c>
	    scripts of <c>erl_interface</c> and <c>odbc</c> now
	    search for thread libraries and thread library quirks the
	    same way as <c>erts</c> do. </item><item> The
	    <c>configure</c> script of the <c>odbc</c> application
	    now also looks for odbc libraries in <c>lib64</c> and
	    <c>lib/64</c> directories when building on a 64-bit
	    system. </item><item> The <c>config.h.in</c> file in the
	    <c>erl_interface</c> application is now automatically
	    generated in instead of statically updated which reduces
	    the risk of <c>configure</c> tests without any effect.
	    </item></list>
	    <p>(Thanks to Henrik Riomar for suggestions and
	    testing)</p>
	    <p>(Thanks to Winston Smith for the AVR32-Linux cross
	    configuration and testing)</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8323</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Change erroneous "\\0" in documentation files
	    <c>erl_notes.xml</c> and <c> erl_eterm.xml</c>.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8326</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Allow <c>erl_match()</c> to match <c>ERL_LONGLONG</c> and
	    <c>ERL_U_LONGLONG</c> terms (Thanks to Scott Lystig
	    Fritchie).</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8400</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.6.4</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The documentation is now built with open source tools
	    (xsltproc and fop) that exists on most platforms. One
	    visible change is that the frames are removed.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8201</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.6.3</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The manual states that erl_receive() return the reason in
	    the <c>ErlMessage</c> struct. This was not the case and
	    the function is now corrected.</p>
          <p>
	    *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-4969</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    In <c>send_exit.c</c> an erroneous size of memory
	    allocation could occur when reallocating a buffer.</p>
          <p>
	    In <c>ei_decode_trace.c</c> the index could be updated
	    when the decoding failed.</p>
          <p>
	    In <c>ei_printterm.c</c> the index could be updated when
	    the decoding failed in lists and tuples.</p>
          <p>
	    In <c>ei_decode_term.c</c> when decoding a double
	    (ERL_FLOAT_EXT) no check was done to ensure that the last
	    of the 31 bytes was null terminated.</p>
          <p>
	    In <c>ei_decode_term.c</c> when decoding references, only
	    the first 3 bytes are read, but the index did not
	    increment by the total size.</p>
          <p>
	    In <c>ei_decode_fun.c</c> no check of correct buffer
	    allocation or data length was done.</p>
          <p>
	    In <c>ei_decode_string.c</c> the integer list string case
	    did not decode the NIL tail correctly.</p>
          <p>
	    These errors has now been fixed. (Thanks to Romain
	    Lenglet, Paul Mineiro and Paul Guyot).</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6117</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    <c>ei_decode_big</c> could be decoded with a garbage
	    byte.</p>
          <p>
	    <c>ei_encode_big</c> and <c>ei_x_encode_big</c> is now
	    available.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7554</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The function <c>erl_init_resolve()</c> did not conform to
	    C99 standard which caused a build error on some
	    platforms. This has now been fixed.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8093</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    <c>Makefile.in</c> has been updated to use the LDFLAGS
	    environment variable (if set). (Thanks to Davide
	    Pesavento.)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-8157</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Added support for 64-bit integers in encoding/decoding.</p>
          <p>
	    Added support for better printouts of binaries.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6091</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.6.2</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    A problem with <c>gethostbyname</c> in <c>erl_start.c</c>
	    could cause a buffer overflow. This has now been fixed.</p>
          <p>
	    Clean up of code and removed compiler warnings.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7978</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.6.1</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>A faulty validation in <c>ei_reg_getpval</c> caused it
	    to never return the key-value. This has now been fixed.
	    (Thanks to Matt Stancliff)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7960</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>


    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>Minor update to the <c>configure</c> script.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7959</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.6.1</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
	    <p>Minor update to the <c>configure</c> script.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7959</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.6</title>

    <section><title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Nodes belonging to different independent clusters can now
	    co-exist on the same host with the help of a new
	    environment variable setting ERL_EPMD_PORT.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7826</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.5.9</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    A type-casting bug in ei_skip_term and ei_printterm on
	    64bit platforms rendering undefined results is now
	    corrected.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7577</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    A bug in the hostent copying code of erl_interface on
	    MacOS X/Darwin is now corrected.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7593</p>
        </item>
        <item>
	    <p>A problem with building <c>erl_interface</c> on
	    FreeBSD has been fixed (Thanks to Akira Kitada).</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7611</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.5.8</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Fixed bug in erl_interface when decoding broken data</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7448</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>


<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.5.7</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    An erroneous freeing of memory could occur when using
	    <c>ei_x_format_wo_ver</c> in erl_interface, resulting in
	    a segmentation fault.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6795</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    A faulty compare in <c>erl_marshal</c> has now been
	    fixed. (Thanks to Simon Cornish and Paul Mineiro)</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7368</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.5.6</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Minor documentation fixes.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7183 Aux Id: OTP-7118 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

<section><title>Erl_Interface 3.5.5.4</title>

    <section><title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list>
        <item>
          <p>
	    The symbol __erl_errno was undefined in the single thread
	    version of the ei library, but is now defined.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-6887</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>
	    Corrected FreeBSD build error.</p>
          <p>
	    Own Id: OTP-7093</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

</section>

  <section>
    <title>Erl_Interface 3.5.5.3</title>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Calls to alloca in erl_marshal.c have been removed. A
            static buffer is now used instead to store node names
            temporarily.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6331 Aux Id: seq10468 </p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>ei_print_term interprets a list of integers with values
            from 0 to 255 as a string. If the original list contains
            the integer 0, this is considered terminator of the
            string. This is incorrect. The function has now been
            modified to not look for '\0' in a string, but always
            print all characters.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6339 Aux Id: seq10492 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Erl_Interface 3.5.5.2</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>The combination of xeon processors with 64bit x86
            extensions and a 32bit linux could cause ei_decode_long
            and ei_decode_longlong to fail for the value LONG_MIN and
            LONGLONG_MIN. The conversion is now made more portable.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6216</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Erl_Interface 3.5.5.1</title>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Portability enhancements.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-6132</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Erl_Interface 3.5.5</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Different (and old) <c><![CDATA[config.guess]]></c> files in the
            <c><![CDATA[erts]]></c> and <c><![CDATA[erl_interface]]></c> applications would
            cause build problems on the new Intel-based iMacs.
            (Thanks to Sebastion Strollo.)</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5967</p>
        </item>
        <item>
          <p>pthread header and library mismatch on linux systems (at
            least some SuSE and Debian) with both NPTL and
            Linuxthreads libraries installed.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5981</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Support for a C node to connect to an Erlang node on a
            standalone host has been added.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5883 Aux Id: seq10170 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Erl_interface 3.5.2</title>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>A configuration test error caused erl_interface to be
            built without support for threads. This has been
            corrected.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5456</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Erl_interface 3.5.1</title>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Changes and improvements have been made to the build and
            test environment to solve problems with failing
            erl_interface test cases.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-5295 Aux Id: OTP-5387 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Erl_interface 3.5</title>

    <section>
      <title>Improvements and New Features</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Process identifiers and port identifiers have been
            made more unique. Previously 18 bits were used as id in
            the internal representation of process and port
            identifiers. Now 28 bits are used. </p>
          <p>The maximum
            limit on the number of concurrently existing processes
            due to the representation of pids has been increased to
            268435456 processes. The same is true for ports. This
            limit will at least on a 32-bit architecture be
            impossible to reach due to memory shortage. </p>
          <p><em>NOTE:</em> By default, the <c><![CDATA[ERTS]]></c>, and the
            <c><![CDATA[erl_interface]]></c>, <c><![CDATA[ei]]></c>, and <c><![CDATA[jinterface]]></c>
            libraries are now only guaranteed to be compatible with
            other Erlang/OTP components from the same release. It is
            possible to set each component in compatibility mode of
            an earlier release, though. See the documentation for
            respective component on how to set it in compatibility
            mode. </p>
          <p>*** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-4968 Aux Id: OTP-4196 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Erl_interface 3.4.5</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Corrections for mistakes done for patch erl_605/OTP-4874.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-4995 Aux Id: OTP-4874 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Erl_interface 3.4.4</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>A small optimization in ei_rpc*() was added and a bug in
            ei_decode_longlong() was corrected.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-4784</p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Erl_interface 3.4.2</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>Strings longer than 65535 bytes were encoded wrong in
            ei/erl_interface.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-4865 Aux Id: EABln07451 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Erl_interface 3.4.1</title>

    <section>
      <title>Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions</title>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>
          <p>erl_call -a parsed erlang terms incorrectly due to a bug
            in ei_format, which is now corrected.</p>
          <p>Own Id: OTP-4777 Aux Id: seq8099 </p>
        </item>
      </list>
    </section>
  </section>
</chapter>
