erlang.adoc

=== FreeBSD Erlang Ecosystem Ports update

Links: +
link:https://wiki.freebsd.org/Erlang[FreeBSD Erlang wiki] URL: link:https://wiki.freebsd.org/Erlang[https://wiki.freebsd.org/Erlang] +
link:https://erlang.org/[Erlang/OTP language] URL: link:https://erlang.org/[https://erlang.org/] +
link:https://elixir-lang.org/[Elixir language] URL: link:https://elixir-lang.org/[https://elixir-lang.org/] +
link:https://gleam.run/[Gleam language] URL: link:https://gleam.run/[https://gleam.run/] +

Contact: FreeBSD Erlang mailing list <[email protected]>

The Erlang runtime system, commonly known as the BEAM, provides a
runtime that is used by a number of programming languages and
applications in the FreeBSD ports collection.

Earlier this year, both Elixir and Erlang runtimes were brought up to
date, but as separate ports, to enable porters and users to test
applications side by side.

In Q3, the current runtimes have been brought across as defaults - this
means that `lang/elixir` and `lang/erlang` are running as the latest
releases of these superb programming languages and runtimes.

Older releases of `lang/erlang-runtime{21,22,23}` are still available as
ports. The very old releases prior to OTP20 have been removed from the
ports tree, as they are no longer supported upstream either.

Only newer OTP releases include the updated SSL application that will
correctly validate cross-signed certificates, as used in Let's Encrypt's
upcoming root certificate deprecations.

Further details on these changes are well documented at
link:https://blog.voltone.net/post/29[Erlang/OTP impact of DST Root CA X3 expiration]
and link:https://blog.voltone.net/post/30[DST Root CA X3 expiration update]

All of the NIF driver related ports that pull in other FreeBSD ports
tree dependencies have been updated to match the newer `lang/erlang`
release, and a number of ports that are not being updated in their
upstream community, have therefore been marked as broken.

The Erlang team is planning to:

* remove the deprecated OTP20 and OTP21 runtimes in 2021Q4
* remove ports directly dependent on erlang- and elixir- languages,
  where they are more commonly installed via `mix` and `rebar3` tools,
  the standard community build tool chain.

Additional testing and community contributions are welcome; please
reach out on the mailing list, especially if you are able to help
testing of specific port updates.