# Erl_Interface Release Notes

> These document describes the release notes for older versions of the Erl_Interface application.

> ## Erl_interface 3.2.9

> ### Fixed errors and malfunctions

> - Changed back the return values from erl_send() and erl_reg_send() to 1 (as they used to be). Incompatible with plain R7, compatible with previous versions.
>   (*** INCOMPATIBILITY with R7B ***)
>   Own Id: OTP-3772
> - A race-condition bug in the term allocation routines was corrected.
>   Own Id: OTP-3809
> - erl_interface could not be linked with pthreads.
>   Own Id: OTP-3810
>   Aux Id: Seq 5032
> - The TCB of VxWorks processes no longer grows when erl_errno is accessed. On Pthreads plattforms the use of erl_errno no longer crashes programs using multithreading.
>   Own Id: OTP-3820
> - Name clashes between Erlang emulator and erl_interface on VxWorks removed.
>   Own Id: OTP-3824

> ## Erl_Interface 3.2.3

> ### Fixed errors

> - Memory lossage affecting Pids, Ports and Refs fixed.

> ## Erl_Interface 3.2.2

> ### Improvements and New Features

> - An error reporting facility `erl_errno` has been introduced.
>   Own Id: OTP-3641
> - ETERMs are now shrunk to a more reasonable size.
>   Own Id: OTP-3648

> ## Erl_Interface 3.2.1

> ### Fixed Errors and Malfunctions

> - Lists containing negative numbers were incorrectly encoded by `erl_encode()`. This has been corrected.
>   Own Id: OTP-3535

> ## Erl_interface 3.2

> ### Improvements and new features

> - The reference type has been extended from 18 bits to 82 bits. For compatibility with older nodes, an R6 node can send a ref to an older node; if the older node sends it back, it has lost all but its 18 least significant bits, but still compares equal to the original ref. The external format has been extended to represent the new longer refs; that means for example that binaries with refs, produced on an R6 node, cannot be converted to a term on an older node. In `erl_interface`, a function `erl_mk_long_ref` has been added, and macros `ERL_REF_NUMBERS` and `ERL_REF_LEN`.
>   (*** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***)
>   Own Id: OTP-3140
>   Aux Id: OTP-3139
> - The function `erl_receive_msg` has the problem that a fixed buffer must be given - a larger message than expected is simply discarded. A function `erl_xreceive_msg` has been introduced, which dynamically resizes the buffer given to it, if needed.
>   Own Id: OTP-3313
>   Aux Id: OTP-2927

> ## Erl_interface 3.1.1

> ### Improvements and new features

> - `#ifdef __cplusplus extern C {` is added to all the `erl*.h` and `ei*.h` files in order to support use from C++.
>   On Unix the object files are now produced with the `-fPIC` option to make it possible to include them in a shared library.
>   Own Id: OTP-3138
>   Aux Id: Seq 1722

> ## Erl_interface 3.1

> ### Fixed errors and malfunctions

> - A buffer overflow in erl_connect() was causing C-node crashes on Linux.
>   Own Id: OTP-2743
> - When decoding very long strings (more than 65535 characters) the terminating 0 was left out.
>   Own Id: OTP-2744
> - erl_accept() was not handshaking properly with Erlang, causing incoming connection attempts to fail.
>   Own Id: OTP-2862
> - Very large negative numbers are no longer encoded incorrectly.
>   Own Id: OTP-2897
> - Atoms could sometimes contain an unterminated string. This is fixed.
>   Own Id: OTP-2956
> - Erl_interface now uses the SENS resolver functions if they are available at runtime. This primarily concerns use on the VxWorks platform.
>   Own Id: OTP-3034
>   Aux Id: Seq 1559
> - The documentation for erl_connect_init() no longer makes erroneous reference to the remote node.
>   Own Id: OTP-3102
>   Aux Id: Seq 1671

> ### Improvements and new features

> - Erl_interface has been moved out of the Erlang runtime system (Erts) and is now a separate application. This has implications for all users of Erl_interface, who will need to make changes to the Makefiles used to build applications based on Erl_interface. In particular, header and library files are no longer in $(OTPROOT)/usr/. The include and lib directories are now located in the directory $(OTPROOT)/lib/erl_interface-3.1 (i.e. the directory name is now version specific).
>   Own Id: OTP-3082

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