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# Runtime_Tools Release Notes

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This document describes the changes made to the Runtime_Tools application.

## Runtime_Tools 2.4

### Improvements and New Features

- Added support for `-unsafe` attributes, which is used to mark functions as unsafe to use.

  This is similar to but separate from deprecation, and the compiler will by default now generate warnings for calls to functions in Erlang/OTP that are known to be always unsafe.

  Furthermore, `xref` can now be used to find calls to functions in another application that lack a `-doc` attribute (`undocumented_function_calls`), calls to functions in another application marked `-doc false.` (`private_function_calls`), as well as calls to unsafe functions (`unsafe_function_calls`).

  Own Id: OTP-20066 Aux Id: PR-10839

## Runtime_Tools 2.3.1

### Improvements and New Features

- Release applications, tests, and documentation are now placed in their respective directories. Source SBOM with more packages.

  A `make release` application places only the necessary code in the release folder. The main change is that the documentation and examples are not part of the release folder anymore.

  `make release_docs` places the documentation in the released code under the `doc` folder.

  `make release_tests` places the tests in their own directory. It used to be the case that some source code was mixed with the tests, and this should not happen anymore.

  The Software Bill of Materials places the examples folders as if they are part of the `SPDX-otp-<app>-doc` packge, instead of placing examples as if they were running source code.

  Overall, this change cleans up many things that were not quite correct by definition, and everything should still continue to work as expected. To test a release, one can still run `./Install -minimal \`pwd``and add the release to the`PATH`. After that, one can run tests as usual, going into the released tests directory, entering`test_server` and running the emulator.

  Improves the source Software-Bill-of-Materials

  - The improvements adds new SPDX relations for `asmjit` and `zlib` to be `optional_components_of` the Erlang/OTP project.
  - The `autoconf` scripts in `make` and `erts` have now been categorised as `build_tool_of` the Erlang/OTP project.
  - All remaining `configure`, `configure.ac`, `config.h.in`, `Makefile.in`, `Makefile.src`, `EMakefile`, and `GNUMakefile` are now part of a specific SPDX package with relation `build_tool_of` the Erlang/OTP project.

  Own Id: OTP-19886 Aux Id: PR-10434

## Runtime_Tools 2.3

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- NIFs and linked-in drivers are now loadable when running in an Erlang source tree on Windows.

  Own Id: OTP-19686 Aux Id: PR-9969

### Improvements and New Features

- The default tracer is now aware that it is started by a remote shell (`-remsh`), in which case the traces will be sent to the remote group_leader to make the traces visible in the remote shell.

  Own Id: OTP-19648 Aux Id: PR-9589

- A User's Guide to `dbg` is now available in the documentation.

  Own Id: OTP-19655 Aux Id: PR-9853

## Runtime_Tools 2.2

### Improvements and New Features

- EEP-69: Nominal Types has been implemented. As a side effect, nominal types can encode opaque types. We changed all opaque-handling logic and improved opaque warnings in Dialyzer.

  All existing Erlang type systems are structural: two types are seen as equivalent if their structures are the same. Type comparisons are based on the structures of the types, not on how the user explicitly defines them. For example, in the following example, `meter()` and `foot()` are equivalent. The two types can be used interchangeably. Neither of them differ from the basic type `integer()`.

      -type meter() :: integer().
      -type foot() :: integer().

  Nominal typing is an alternative type system, where two types are equivalent if and only if they are declared with the same type name. The EEP proposes one new syntax -nominal for declaring nominal types. Under nominal typing, `meter()` and `foot()` are no longer compatible. Whenever a function expects type `meter()`, passing in type `foot()` would result in a Dialyzer error.

      -nominal meter() :: integer().
      -nominal foot() :: integer().

  More nominal type-checking rules can be found in the EEP. It is worth noting that most work for adding nominal types and type-checking is in `erl_types.erl`. The rest are changes that removed the previous opaque type-checking, and added an improved version of it using nominal type-checking with reworked warnings.

  Backwards compatibility for opaque type-checking is not preserved by this PR. Previous opaque warnings can appear with slightly different wordings. A new kind of opaque warning `opaque_union` is added, together with a Dialyzer option `no_opaque_union` to turn this kind of warnings off.

  Own Id: OTP-19364 Aux Id: PR-9079

- When compiling C/C++ code on Unix systems, the compiler hardening flags suggested by the Open Source Security Foundation are now enabled by default. To disable them, pass `--disable-security-hardening-flags` to `configure`.

  Own Id: OTP-19519 Aux Id: PR-9441

- The license and copyright header has changed format to include an `SPDX-License-Identifier`. At the same time, most files have been updated to follow a uniform standard for license headers.

  Own Id: OTP-19575 Aux Id: PR-9670

- With this change observer will use cheaper iterators to avoid locking when not necessary.

  Own Id: OTP-19584 Aux Id: PR-9711

## Runtime_Tools 2.1.1

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- Fixed a bug where dbg sessions on remote nodes were terminated prematurely.

  Own Id: OTP-19188 Aux Id: PR-8692

## Runtime_Tools 2.1

### Improvements and New Features

- The `instrument` module can now track allocations on a per-process or per-port basis.

  Own Id: OTP-18577 Aux Id: PR-7236

- The new function `proc_lib:set_label/1` can be used to add a descriptive term to any process that does not have a registered name. The name will be shown by tools such as `c:i/0`, `observer`, and it will be included in crash reports produced by processes using `gen_server`, `gen_statem`, `gen_event`, and `gen_fsm`.

  The label for a process can be retrieved by calling `proc_lib:get_label/1`.

  Note that those functions work on any process, not only processes that use `proc_lib`.

  Example:

      1> self().
      <0.90.0>
      2> proc_lib:set_label(my_label).
      ok
      3> i().
          .
          .
          .
      <0.90.0>              erlang:apply/2                        2586    75011    0
      my_label              c:pinfo/2                               51
      4> proc_lib:get_label(self()).
      my_label

  Own Id: OTP-18789 Aux Id: PR-7720, PR-8003

- Type specs had been added to all `dbg` functions.

  Own Id: OTP-18859 Aux Id: PR-7782

- The documentation has been migrated to use Markdown and ExDoc.

  Own Id: OTP-18955 Aux Id: PR-8026

- `dbg` have been updated to use trace sessions.

  `dbg:session_create/1`, `dbg:session/2`, and `dbg:session_destroy/1` have been added to work sessions. See the documentation for details.

  Own Id: OTP-19081 Aux Id: PR-8363

## Runtime_Tools 2.0.1

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- Fixed issue with fetching port information for observer could crash if port had died.

  Own Id: OTP-18868 Aux Id: GH-7735

- Fixed some benign compile warnings on Windows.

  Own Id: OTP-18895

## Runtime_Tools 2.0

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- Fixed the type specification for `instrument:carriers/0,1`

  Own Id: OTP-18499 Aux Id: PR-6946

### Improvements and New Features

- Add `dbg:tracer(file, Filename)` as a convenient way to trace to a file in clean text.

  Own Id: OTP-18211 Aux Id: PR-6143

- Handling of `on_load` modules during boot has been improved by adding an extra step in the boot order for embedded mode that runs all `on_load` handlers, instead of relying on explicit invocation of them, later, when the kernel supervision tree starts.

  This is mostly a code improvement and OTP internal simplification to avoid future bugs and to simplify code maintenance.

  Own Id: OTP-18447

- Deprecates `dbg:stop_clear/0` because it is simply a function alias to `dbg:stop/0`

  Own Id: OTP-18478 Aux Id: GH-6903

- The `instrument` module has been moved from `tools` to `runtime_tools`.

  Own Id: OTP-18487 Aux Id: PR-6829

- Removed the experimental `erts_alloc_config` module. It no longer produced good configurations and cannot be fixed in a reasonably backwards compatible manner. It has since OTP 25 been deprecated and scheduled for removal in OTP 26.

  * POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY *

  Own Id: OTP-18549 Aux Id: PR-7105

## Runtime_Tools 1.19

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- Reading port socket options on macOS and Windows "skips" invalid options.

  Own Id: OTP-18012 Aux Id: #5798

### Improvements and New Features

- `dbg:stop/0` now behaves like `dbg:stop_clear/0`, clearing all global trace patterns for all functions.

  Own Id: OTP-17909 Aux Id: ERIERL-760

- `erts_alloc_config` has been scheduled for removal in OTP 26. It has not produced good configurations for a very long time, and unfortunately it cannot be fixed in a backwards compatible manner.

  Own Id: OTP-17939

## Runtime_Tools 1.18

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- Fixed bug in `scheduler:utilization(Seconds)` that would leave the `scheduler_wall_time` system flag incorrectly enabled.

  Own Id: OTP-17800 Aux Id: PR-5425

### Improvements and New Features

- Add `scheduler:get_sample/0` and `get_sample_all/0`. Also clarify `scheduler` module documentation about how it depends on system flag `scheduler_wall_time`.

  Own Id: OTP-17830 Aux Id: GH-5425, PR-5444

## Runtime_Tools 1.17

### Improvements and New Features

- Observer now has a sectiion for new socket.

  Own Id: OTP-17346

- The dbg docs have been expanded to include the meaning of all the function name acronyms.

  Own Id: OTP-17572 Aux Id: PR-5117

## Runtime_Tools 1.16.2

### Improvements and New Features

- The experimental HiPE application has been removed, together with all related functionality in other applications.

  * POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY *

  Own Id: OTP-16963

## Runtime_Tools 1.16.1

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- The function `dbg:n/1` used a local fun to set up a tracer on a remote node. This works fine as long as the remote node is running exactly the same version of Erlang/OTP but does not work at all otherwise. This is fixed by exporting the relevant function and by calling this function on the remote node to set up remote tracing.

  Own Id: OTP-16930 Aux Id: ERL-1371, GH-4396

## Runtime_Tools 1.16

### Improvements and New Features

- Clarify documentation of module 'scheduler'.

  Own Id: OTP-17208 Aux Id: GH-4502, PR-4532

## Runtime_Tools 1.15.1

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- Fixed a crash in `appmon_info` triggered by trying to read port info from a port that was in the process of terminating.

  `appmon_info` is used by `observer` to get information from the observed node.

  Own Id: OTP-16787 Aux Id: PR-2673

## Runtime_Tools 1.15

### Improvements and New Features

- Improved the presentation of allocations and carriers in the `instrument` module.

  Own Id: OTP-16327

- Minor updates due to the new spawn improvements made.

  Own Id: OTP-16368 Aux Id: OTP-15251

## Runtime_Tools 1.14.0.1

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- The function `dbg:n/1` used a local fun to set up a tracer on a remote node. This works fine as long as the remote node is running exactly the same version of Erlang/OTP but does not work at all otherwise. This is fixed by exporting the relevant function and by calling this function on the remote node to set up remote tracing.

  Own Id: OTP-16930 Aux Id: ERL-1371, GH-4396

## Runtime_Tools 1.14

### Improvements and New Features

- Fix `dbg:stop_clear/0` to also clear trace events (`send` and `'receive'`).

  Own Id: OTP-16044

## Runtime_Tools 1.13.3

### Improvements and New Features

- Minor updates to build system necessary due to move of configuration of `crypto` application.

  Own Id: OTP-15262 Aux Id: OTP-15129

## Runtime_Tools 1.13.2.1

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- The function `dbg:n/1` used a local fun to set up a tracer on a remote node. This works fine as long as the remote node is running exactly the same version of Erlang/OTP but does not work at all otherwise. This is fixed by exporting the relevant function and by calling this function on the remote node to set up remote tracing.

  Own Id: OTP-16930 Aux Id: ERL-1371, GH-4396

## Runtime_Tools 1.13.2

### Improvements and New Features

- Update of systemtap trace example scripts.

  Own Id: OTP-15670

## Runtime_Tools 1.13.1

### Improvements and New Features

- Optimize `observer` by using new `system_info(ets_count)` instead of more expensive `length(ets:all())`.

  Own Id: OTP-15163 Aux Id: PR-1844

## Runtime_Tools 1.13

### Improvements and New Features

- New utility module `scheduler` which makes it easier to measure scheduler utilization.

  Own Id: OTP-14904

## Runtime_Tools 1.12.5

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- `system_information:to_file/1` will now use slightly less memory.

  Own Id: OTP-14816

## Runtime_Tools 1.12.4

### Improvements and New Features

- New family of `erts_alloc` strategies: Age Order First Fit. Similar to "address order", but instead the oldest possible carrier is always chosen for allocation.

  Own Id: OTP-14917 Aux Id: ERIERL-88

## Runtime_Tools 1.12.3

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- Removed all old unused files in the documentation.

  Own Id: OTP-14475 Aux Id: ERL-409, PR-1493

## Runtime_Tools 1.12.2

### Improvements and New Features

- General Unicode improvements.

  Own Id: OTP-14462

## Runtime_Tools 1.12.1

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- A faulty encoding comment was added when saving trace patterns to file. This is now corrected.

  Own Id: OTP-14479

## Runtime_Tools 1.12

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- Add compile option `-compile(no_native)` in modules with `on_load` directive which is not yet supported by HiPE.

  Own Id: OTP-14316 Aux Id: PR-1390

### Improvements and New Features

- Miscellaneous updates due to atoms containing arbitrary Unicode characters.

  Own Id: OTP-14285

- Sockets can now be bound to device (SO_BINDTODEVICE) on platforms where it is supported.

  This has been implemented e.g to support VRF-Lite under Linux; see VRF , and GitHub pull request #1326.

  Own Id: OTP-14357 Aux Id: PR-1326

## Runtime_Tools 1.11.1

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- etop erroneously reported the average scheduler utilization since the tool was first started instead of the scheduler utilization since last update. This is now corrected.

  Own Id: OTP-14090 Aux Id: seq13232

## Runtime_Tools 1.11

### Improvements and New Features

- Add option `queue_size` to ttb:tracer/2. This sets the maximum queue size for the IP trace driver which is used when tracing to shell and/or `{local,File}`.

  The default value for `queue_size` is specified by `dbg`, and it is now changed from 50 to 200.

  Own Id: OTP-13829 Aux Id: seq13171

- The port information page is updated to show more information per port.

  Own Id: OTP-13948 Aux Id: ERL-272

## Runtime_Tools 1.10.1

### Improvements and New Features

- Correct some minor documentation issues.

  Own Id: OTP-13891

## Runtime_Tools 1.10

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- Fix bug in dbg:trace_port/2 that could cause the trace ip driver to produce faulty error reports "...(re)selected before stop_select was called for driver trace_ip_drv".

  Own Id: OTP-13576 Aux Id: ERL-119

### Improvements and New Features

- Add microstate accounting

  Microstate accounting is a way to track which state the different threads within ERTS are in. The main usage area is to pin point performance bottlenecks by checking which states the threads are in and then from there figuring out why and where to optimize.

  Since checking whether microstate accounting is on or off is relatively expensive only a few of the states are enabled by default and more states can be enabled through configure.

  There is a convenience module called msacc that has been added to runtime_tools that can assist in gathering and interpreting the data from Microstate accounting.

  For more information see erlang:statistics(microstateaccounting, ) and the `msacc` module in runtime_tools.

  Own Id: OTP-12345

- Update observer GUI to support tracing on ports, and to set matchspecs for send/receive. This required some minor bugfixes in runtime_tools/dbg.

  Own Id: OTP-13481

- Update dbg and ttb to work with a tracer module as tracer and tracing on ports.

  Own Id: OTP-13500

- Updated dbg to accept the new trace options `monotonic_timestamp` and `strict_monotonic_timestamp`.

  Own Id: OTP-13502

- Introduce LTTng tracing via Erlang tracing.

  For LTTng to be enabled OTP needs to be built with configure option `--with-dynamic-trace=lttng`.

  The dynamic trace module `dyntrace` is now capable to be used as a LTTng sink for Erlang tracing. For a list of all tracepoints, see Runtime Tools User's Guide .

  This feature also introduces an incompatible change in trace tags. The trace tags `gc_start` and `gc_end` has been split into `gc_minor_start`, `gc_minor_end` and `gc_major_start`, `gc_major_end`.

  * POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY *

  Own Id: OTP-13532

## Runtime_Tools 1.9.3

### Improvements and New Features

- `dbg:trace_client()` now uses a read buffer to speed up reading of trace files.

  Own Id: OTP-13279

## Runtime_Tools 1.9.2

### Improvements and New Features

- Clarified dbg:stop documentation

  Own Id: OTP-13078

## Runtime_Tools 1.9.1

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- The `trace_file_drv` did not handle `EINTR` correct which caused it to fail when the runtime system received a signal.

  Own Id: OTP-12890 Aux Id: seq12885

## Runtime_Tools 1.9

### Improvements and New Features

- Change license text from Erlang Public License to Apache Public License v2

  Own Id: OTP-12845

## Runtime_Tools 1.8.16

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- The trace process started by `dbg` would not always terminate when `dbg:stop/0` was called.

  Own Id: OTP-12517

## Runtime_Tools 1.8.15

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- Add `nif_version` to `erlang:system_info/1` in order to get the NIF API version of the runtime system in a way similar to `driver_version`.

  Own Id: OTP-12298

## Runtime_Tools 1.8.14

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- The documentation for the return value of dbg:{stop,stop_clear} functions are now correct (Thanks to Luca Favatella)

  Own Id: OTP-11603

- Fix DTrace build on Illumos. (Thanks to Ryan Zezeski.)

  Own Id: OTP-11622

- Do not turn off scheduler_wall_time, as it can interfere with other applications usage.

  Own Id: OTP-11693 Aux Id: seq12528

- Application upgrade (appup) files are corrected for the following applications:

  `asn1, common_test, compiler, crypto, debugger, dialyzer, edoc, eldap, erl_docgen, et, eunit, gs, hipe, inets, observer, odbc, os_mon, otp_mibs, parsetools, percept, public_key, reltool, runtime_tools, ssh, syntax_tools, test_server, tools, typer, webtool, wx, xmerl`

  A new test utility for testing appup files is added to test_server. This is now used by most applications in OTP.

  (Thanks to Tobias Schlager)

  Own Id: OTP-11744

### Improvements and New Features

- Allow install path to have unicode characters.

  Own Id: OTP-10877

- The `erts_alloc_config` tool has been updated to produce configurations that better fit todays SMP support in the VM.

  Own Id: OTP-11662

- The `app`-file key `runtime_dependencies` has been introduced.

  Runtime dependencies have been added to all app-files in OTP. Note that these may not be completely correct during OTP 17, but this is actively being worked on.

  The function `system_information:sanity_check/0` will verify all declared runtime dependencies in the system when called.

  Own Id: OTP-11773

## Runtime_Tools 1.8.13

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- Observer did not produce correct result when ERTS internal memory allocators had been disabled.

  Own Id: OTP-11520

## Runtime_Tools 1.8.12

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- The process trace flag 'silent' is now allowed in call to dbg:p/2.

  Own Id: OTP-11222

### Improvements and New Features

- Introduced functionality for inspection of system and build configuration.

  Own Id: OTP-11196

## Runtime_Tools 1.8.11

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- Some bugs related to calculation of CPU/scheduler utilization in observer are corrected.

  Current function for a process is accepted to be 'undefined' when running hipe.

  Own Id: OTP-10894

### Improvements and New Features

- Erlang source files with non-ASCII characters are now encoded in UTF-8 (instead of latin1).

  Own Id: OTP-11041 Aux Id: OTP-10907

## Runtime_Tools 1.8.10

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- Fix Table Viewer refresh crash on no more existing ets tables (Thanks to Peti Gömori)

  Own Id: OTP-10635

### Improvements and New Features

- User Guides for the dynamic tracing tools dtrace and systemtap have been added to the documentation.

  Own Id: OTP-10155

- 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.

  Own Id: OTP-10630

- Some examples overflowing the width of PDF pages have been corrected.

  Own Id: OTP-10665

- The backend module appmon_info.erl is moved from appmon application to runtime_tools. This allows appmon to be run from a remote erlang node towards a target node which does not have appmon (and its dependencies) installed, as long as runtime_tools is installed there.

  Own Id: OTP-10786

## Runtime_Tools 1.8.9

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- Change the module-level docs to give complete step-by-step instructions for using the `dyntrace:p()` trace function. (Thanks to Scott Lystig Fritchie)

  Own Id: OTP-10141

- Add 1024 separate USDT probes to dyntrace.erl and dyntrace.c (Thanks to Scott Lystig Fritchie)

  Own Id: OTP-10143

- Relocate bodies of DTrace probes to the statically-linked VM.

  Due to various operating systems (in both the DTrace and SystemTap worlds) not fully supporting DTrace probes (or SystemTap-compatibility mode probes) in shared libraries, we relocate those probes to the statically-linked virtual machine. This could be seen as pollution of the pristine VM by a (yet) experimental feature. However:

  1. This code can be eliminated completely by the C preprocessor. 2. Leaving the probes in the dyntrace NIF shared library simply does not work correctly on too many platforms. Many thanks to Macneil Shonle at Basho for assisting when my RSI-injured fingers gave out. (note: Solaris 10 and FreeBSD 9.0-RELEASE can take a long time to compile)

  Own Id: OTP-10189

## Runtime_Tools 1.8.8

### Improvements and New Features

- The DTrace source patch from Scott Lystig Fritchie is integrated in the source tree. Using an emulator with dtrace probe is still not supported for production use, but may be a valuable debugging tool. Configure with --with-dynamic-trace=dtrace (or --with-dynamic-trace=systemtap) to create a build with dtrace probes enabled. See runtime_tools for documentation and examples.

  Own Id: OTP-10017

## Runtime_Tools 1.8.7

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- Earlier dbg:stop only did erlang:trace_delivered and did not flush the trace file driver. Therefore there could still be trace messages that were delivered to the driver (guaranteed by erlang:trace_delivered) but not yet written to the file when dbg:stop returned. Flushing is now added on each node before the dbg process terminates.

  Own Id: OTP-9651

- File handles created by the trace_file_drv driver was inherited to child processes. This is now corrected.

  Own Id: OTP-9658

### Improvements and New Features

- Erlang/OTP can now be built using parallel make if you limit the number of jobs, for instance using '`make -j6`' or '`make -j10`'. '`make -j`' does not work at the moment because of some missing dependencies.

  Own Id: OTP-9451

- Two new built-in trace pattern aliases have been added: caller_trace (c) and caller_exception_trace (cx). See the dbg:ltp/0 documentation for more info.

  Own Id: OTP-9458

## Runtime_Tools 1.8.6

### Improvements and New Features

- Two new built-in trace pattern aliases have been added: caller_trace (c) and caller_exception_trace (cx). See the dbg:ltp/0 documentation for more info.

  Own Id: OTP-9458

## Runtime_Tools 1.8.5

### Improvements and New Features

- When a big number of trace patterns are set by inviso the Erlang VM could get unresponsive for several seconds. This is now corrected.

  Own Id: OTP-9048 Aux Id: seq11480

## Runtime_Tools 1.8.4.1

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- Minor corrections and removal of a temporary workaround.

  Own Id: OTP-8755 Aux Id: seq-11628, seq-11639

- Small fix in inviso_autostart_server.

  Own Id: OTP-8783 Aux Id: seq11628

## Runtime_Tools 1.8.4

### Improvements and New Features

- Miscellaneous updates.

  Own Id: OTP-8705

## Runtime_Tools 1.8.3

### Improvements and New Features

- Cross compilation improvements and other build system improvements.

  Most notable:

  - 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 `$ERL_TOP/INSTALL-CROSS.md` file.
  - Support for staged install using DESTDIR. The old broken `INSTALL_PREFIX` has also been fixed. For more information see the `$ERL_TOP/INSTALL.md` file.
  - Documentation of the `release` target of the top `Makefile`. For more information see the `$ERL_TOP/INSTALL.md` file.
  - `make install` now by default creates relative symbolic links instead of absolute ones. For more information see the `$ERL_TOP/INSTALL.md` file.
  - `$ERL_TOP/configure --help=recursive` now works and prints help for all applications with `configure` scripts.
  - Doing `make install`, or `make release` directly after `make all` no longer triggers miscellaneous rebuilds.
  - Existing bootstrap system is now used when doing `make install`, or `make release` without a preceding `make all`.
  - The `crypto` and `ssl` applications use the same runtime library path when dynamically linking against `libssl.so` and `libcrypto.so`. The runtime library search path has also been extended.
  - The `configure` scripts of `erl_interface` and `odbc` now search for thread libraries and thread library quirks the same way as ERTS do.
  - The `configure` script of the `odbc` application now also looks for odbc libraries in `lib64` and `lib/64` directories when building on a 64-bit system.
  - The `config.h.in` file in the `erl_interface` application is now automatically generated in instead of statically updated which reduces the risk of `configure` tests without any effect.

  (Thanks to Henrik Riomar for suggestions and testing)

  (Thanks to Winston Smith for the AVR32-Linux cross configuration and testing)

  * POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY *

  Own Id: OTP-8323

- Cleanups suggested by tidier and modernization of types and specs.

  Own Id: OTP-8455

## Runtime_Tools 1.8.2

### Improvements and New Features

- 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.

  Own Id: OTP-8201

## Runtime_Tools 1.8.1

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- `Makefile.in` has been updated to use the LDFLAGS environment variable (if set). (Thanks to Davide Pesavento.)

  Own Id: OTP-8157

## Runtime_Tools 1.8

### Improvements and New Features

- `etop` would crash if the emulator's custom allocators had been turned off (e.g. using the `+Meamin` option).

  Own Id: OTP-7519

- The copyright notices have been updated.

  Own Id: OTP-7851

- Now, dbg:p/2 accepts {X,Y,Z} process specification as stated in the documentation. It also now accepts "<X.Y.Z>" like from erlang:pid_to_list/1.

  There is now a pre-saved match spec in dbg that saves a lot of typing. Use dbg:ltp/0 to find out more...

  Own Id: OTP-7867

## Runtime_Tools 1.7.3

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- Fixed a timestamp problem where some events could be sent out of order. Minor fixes to presentation of data.

  Own Id: OTP-7544 Aux Id: otp-7442

## Runtime_Tools 1.7.2

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- `etop` now collects process information faster and more reliably than before (a race condition reported by Igor Goryachev has been eliminated).

  Trace messages could be lost when `ttb:stop/0` was called.

  Own Id: OTP-7164

## Runtime_Tools 1.7.1

### Improvements and New Features

- The documentation has been updated so as to reflect the last updates of the Erlang shell as well as the minor modifications of the control sequence `p` of the `io_lib` module.

  Superfluous empty lines have been removed from code examples and from Erlang shell examples.

  Own Id: OTP-6944 Aux Id: OTP-6554, OTP-6911

- Memory management improvements especially for the runtime system with SMP support:

  - The runtime system with SMP support can now use multiple, thread specific instances of most memory allocators. This improves performance since it reduces lock contention in the memory allocators. It may however increase memory usage for some applications. The runtime system with SMP support will by default enable this feature on most allocators. The amount of instances used can be configured.
  - `driver_alloc()`, `driver_realloc()`, and `driver_free()` now use their own erts specific memory allocator instead of the default `malloc()` implementation on the system.
  - The default configuration of some allocators have been changed to fit applications that use much memory better.
  - Some new `erts_alloc` configuration parameters have been added.
  - `erts_alloc_config` has been modified to be able to create configurations suitable for multiple instances of allocators.
  - The returned value from `erlang:system_info({allocator, Alloc})` has been changed. This since an allocator may now run in multiple instances.

  If you for some reason want the memory allocators to be configured as before, you can pass the `+Mea r11b` command-line argument to `erl`.

  For more information see the `erts_alloc(3)`, the `m:erts_alloc_config`, and the `erlang` documentation.

  * POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY *

  Own Id: OTP-7100

## Runtime_Tools 1.7

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- `dbg` could leave traced processes in a suspended state if the tracer process was killed with exit reason `kill`.

  `erlang:suspend_process/2` has been introduced which accepts an option list as second argument. For more information see the `erlang` documentation.

  Processes suspended via `erlang:suspend_process/[1,2]` will now be automatically resumed if the process that called `erlang:suspend_process/[1,2]` terminates.

  Processes could previously be suspended by one process and resumed by another unless someone was tracing the suspendee. This is not possible anymore. The process resuming a process has to be the one that suspended it.

  * POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY *

  Own Id: OTP-6946

### Improvements and New Features

- The undocumented and unsupported function `dbg:tracer/1` has been removed. The undocumented, unsupported, and broken function `dbg:i/1` has been removed.

  Own Id: OTP-6939

## Runtime_Tools 1.6.8

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- In this release the following has been fixed and enhanced: Autostart: It is now possible to configure modules that shall be loaded by the autostart mechanism. This because it is not certain that all application systems make use of the OTP boot script to set up paths to all Erlang modules. Runtime_tools/Inviso: A bug in the fetch_log functionality has been fixed. Further a bug that was (supposedly) fixed in a previous patch concerning meta-tracer write_ti has been fixed (again) in this patch. A bug in inviso_as_lib making remote autostart config file updates fail has been fixed. Inviso: inviso_tool has been given a flush API.

  Own Id: OTP-6918

## Runtime_Tools 1.6.7

### Improvements and New Features

- The following bugs/improvements have been done: Internal interworking between inviso_rt and inviso_rt_meta. The call function used by inviso_rt to call inviso_rt_meta is now protected with a monitor. Inviso_rt_meta now includes the timestamp of the incoming meta trace message when calling the call-callback. (Makes it possible to add a "better" timestamp to the ti-file.) Bug in inviso_tool making it not remove trace patterns when terminating. Bug in internal function h_start_session making inviso_tool crash if there were no active nodes to start the session on. The user-inviso_tool and inviso API-inviso control component request/response gen_server protocols had default time-out. Since many trace operations can be time consuming, a longer time-out is necessary. Improved overload protection. It is now possible to let the overload protection renew itself (e.g after an exit from an external overload protector). Inviso_rt_meta now fully uses the exception_trace match spec action term. Run Trace Case API (as in contrast to activate and deactivate trace case APIs) in inviso_tool. Flush trace-port API added to inviso. Get_session_data API added to inviso_tool. Improved inviso_tool:stop making it possible to name nodes which shall not have their trace patterns removed when inviso_tool terminates. Bug in handling of writing multiple ti-entries if returned from a call/return_from call-back in inviso_rt_meta Process trace flags are no longer explicitly removed by the inviso_tool when it terminates. Not necessary. Inviso_tool get_autostart_data adopted to standard autostarter.

  * INCOMPATIBILITY with Meta trace call-backs are called with different arguments now. *

  Own Id: OTP-6881

## Runtime_Tools 1.6.6

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- A bug in inviso_rt_meta caused an ETS table containing information on initiated (init_tpm) functions to be lost when suspending tracing. Further an enhancement to inviso_rt has been introduced making it possible to activate process trace flags based on globally registered names. It is then not an error to activate a global name on a node where the name does not reside. The process count in the return value will simply be set to zero (hence exactly one node in the NodeResult part of the return value will indicate one matching process found). A bug was found in fetch_log API. At the same time the fetch_log functionality was enhanced to also offer flow control making fetcher processes send chunks of transferred file data at a slower pace.

  Own Id: OTP-6703

### Improvements and New Features

- Minor Makefile changes.

  Own Id: OTP-6689 Aux Id: OTP-6742

- An experimental tool called `erts_alloc_config` has been added. `erts_alloc_config` is intended to be used to aid creation of an `erts_alloc` configuration that is suitable for a limited number of runtime scenarios. For more information see the `m:erts_alloc_config` documentation.

  Own Id: OTP-6700

## Runtime_Tools 1.6.5

### Improvements and New Features

- Misc improvements.

  Own Id: OTP-6576

## Runtime_Tools 1.6.4

### Improvements and New Features

- This application has been updated to eliminate warnings by Dialyzer.

  Own Id: OTP-6551

## Runtime_Tools 1.6.3

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- This ticket includes several improvements and bugfixes to both runtime_tools and inviso. The overload mechanism can now also react to incoming messages. This is useful if an external overload watch-dog is used. Some improvements of variable bindings has been done to the default autostart mechanism - inviso_autostart_server. Autostart "jobs" can now be done in parallel, allowing for some jobs to hang waiting for some parts of the traced system to become ready before proceeding. Previously when using named meta-match-specs (tpm_ms) ending up with zero match-specs still kept the meta trace pattern active. This caused zero match-specs to be equal to unlimited meta tracing on that particular function. If the internal database becomes empty of meta match specs, meta trace pattern is removed for that function. Standard public loop data in the inviso runtime meta tracer process is now extended to a 2-tuple. The functions ctp/1 and ctpl/1 are added making it possible to remove trace patterns for a list of functions rather than one by one. Inviso_rt_meta will now accept a list of binaries to be output into the trace information file, in additions to a single binary. Further it is also possible to make own output to the trace information file using the write_ti/1 function. An error was discovered in inviso_rt making the inviso_rt_meta remain rather than terminate if the inviso_rt terminated due to "running alone" (not allowed to run without a control component). A new tool, inviso_tool, has been added to the inviso application.

  Own Id: OTP-6426

## Runtime_Tools 1.6.2

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- Several minor bugs and race conditions eliminated in the runtime_tools and observer applications.

  Own Id: OTP-6265

## Runtime_Tools 1.6.1

### Improvements and New Features

- There are new BIFs `erlang:spawn_monitor/1,3`, and the new option `monitor` for `spawn_opt/2,3,4,5`.

  The `observer_backend` module has been updated to handle the new BIFs.

  Own Id: OTP-6281

## Runtime_Tools 1.6

Added the runtime part of the Inviso tracer, see the new Inviso application for more information. This also meant adding an application callback module and an application supervisor tree for Runtime_Tools.

## Runtime_Tools 1.5.1.1

### Improvements and New Features

- The `dbg` manual page has been updated with information about how to avoid deadlock when tracing.

  Own Id: OTP-5373 Aux Id: seq9729

## Runtime_Tools 1.5.1

### Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

- Linked in drivers in the Crypto, and Asn1 applications are now compiled with the `-D_THREAD_SAFE` and `-D_REENTRANT` switches on unix when the emulator has thread support enabled.

  Linked in drivers on MacOSX are not compiled with the undocumented `-lbundle1.o` switch anymore. Thanks to Sean Hinde who sent us a patch.

  Linked in driver in Crypto, and port programs in SSL, now compiles on OSF1.

  Minor `Makefile` improvements in Runtime_Tools.

  Own Id: OTP-5346

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