Changelog

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All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.

The format is based on Keep a Changelog, and this project adheres to Semantic Versioning.

[1.6.0] - 2026-07-02

Added

  • CLI dispatch via -eval + start_clean.boot: CLI mode (execution_mode: :cli) now boots the VM with start_clean.boot (minimal boot — no application supervision tree) instead of start.boot (full release boot). CLI args are dispatched via -eval 'Elixir.Module.CLI':main([<<"...">>]) followed by -s init stop, so the binary runs the CLI command and exits cleanly without ever starting OTP applications. Daemon and TUI modes continue using start.boot (full supervision tree).
  • smoke_tests/test_escript_otp26: regression guard for escript builds targeting OTP 26 (OTP compatibility).
  • smoke_tests/test_release_nif: regression guard that exercises include_erts: false with explicit :erlang.system_info/1 + Supervisor.start_link/2 calls that fail if kernel/supervisor did not load. Wired into smoke_tests.sh.
  • derive_cli_module/1: derives the CLI module name from the app name at runtime (:delfos → "Delfos.CLI", :test_cli → "TestCli.CLI"), following Alaja convention.
  • ROOTDIR heuristic: new logic checks if <release>/lib/kernel-* exists to determine whether ROOTDIR should point to the release root (standard layout) or the bundled ERTS directory (include_erts: false layout).

Fixed

  • CLI args silently dropped (critical): the args vector (containing -eval, -s init stop, and user arguments) was built but never passed to the Command in CLI mode. The Command was constructed from scratch with individual .arg() calls, duplicating only the base erlexec args. Now uses .args(&args) — the complete vector is passed to the spawned process.
  • CLI args as charlists instead of binaries: "version" in Erlang syntax produces a charlist ([118,101,114,...]), which Elixir receives as 'version' (charlist) instead of "version" (string). All CLI arg comparisons using == "version" evaluated to false, causing 'unknown command' errors. Fixed by formatting args as Erlang binary syntax: <<"version">>.
  • CLI mode used start.boot (full supervision tree): before this release, exec_mode == :cli still started the full OTP release (start.boot), starting the application supervisor tree, Ecto repos, and all children. The CLI command ran as a side effect after the full tree started, and -s init stop was ineffective because the supervision tree kept the VM alive. Daemon/TUI remain unaffected.
  • exec_mode overridden by args presence: cli_mode = !user_args.is_empty() in run_with_erlexec meant any binary launched without arguments entered daemon mode even when execution_mode: :cli was configured. An empty-args CLI binary (e.g. delfos with no subcommand) would boot the full supervision tree and hang forever. Now exec_mode is the sole determinant of boot strategy.
  • --erl-config vs -config flag: previous releases used the -config flag for erlexec, which is unsupported in newer OTP versions. Changed to --erl-config for compatibility.
  • Release mode boot crash (load_failed on kernel/stdlib): when a release is built with include_erts: false (or when batamanta flattens the ERTS into release/erts/), the wrapper's ROOTDIR was set to the release root, but the boot script references $ROOT/lib/kernel-*, $ROOT/lib/stdlib-*, etc. Those modules live in the bundled ERTS, not in release/lib/. The VM crashed on boot with {load_failed,[supervisor,kernel,...]}. The wrapper now detects where erlexec actually lives and points ROOTDIR to the bundled ERTS directory when it is flattened. Two new Rust unit tests cover the include_erts: true and include_erts: false layouts.
  • Umbrella release builds were silently broken: run_umbrella_release/7 ran mix release from the umbrella root (no cd:), so only the root's release (typically a no-op) was ever built. The sub-app releases were never assembled. The loop now iterates sub-apps and runs mix release with cd: app_path so each sub-app produces its own release.
  • Umbrella get_release_path/1 pointed at the wrong directory: the function computed <root>/_build/prod/rel/<app> for every app, but in a sub-app the release lives in <sub_app>/_build/prod/rel/<app>. Now accepts an optional app_path argument; the umbrella caller passes the sub-app path while the standalone path is unchanged. Four new unit tests cover standalone, single-level umbrella, nested umbrella, and app_path precedence.
  • flatten_nested_erts removed from Packager.prepare_erts/1: the flattening step was accidentally removed in a previous refactor, causing include_erts: false releases to have a malformed ERTS layout (erlexec two levels deep). Restored the call to ensure erlexec and kernel are at the same level under ROOTDIR.
  • test_escript missing main_module: the test_escript_otp26 smoke test project lacked the escript: [main_module: ...] configuration in its mix.exs and the corresponding cli.ex entry point. Added both.

Changed

  • exec_mode is the sole boot strategy selector: Previously, the presence of CLI arguments could override exec_mode, causing daemon-configured apps to accidentally enter CLI mode (and vice versa). Now exec_mode is evaluated first and always respected.
  • flatten_nested_erts is now always applied: even for standard releases, the flattening step is harmless (no-op when files are already flat) and essential for include_erts: false. The erlexec binary is moved up one level to match the kernel directory location.

Quality

  • Format: ✅ clean
  • Credo --strict: ✅ 0 issues
  • Compile --warnings-as-errors: ✅ 0 warnings
  • Tests: 221 passing, 3 excluded (integration); 14 new tests added (6 Rust, 8 Elixir)
  • Smoke tests: 7/7 passing (test_cli, test_tui, test_daemon, test_escript, test_release_otp27, test_release_nif, test_escript_otp26)

[1.5.1] - 2026-06-10

Added

  • Umbrella Projects Support: New umbrella: true config option to build standalone binaries for umbrella sub-apps. Batamanta detects sub-apps with batamanta: config in apps/, builds releases/escripts once, and packages only configured apps.
    • find_umbrella_apps/1 to detect sub-apps with batamanta config
    • partition_apps_by_format/2 to split apps by release/escript format
    • run_umbrella_release/6 to build releases for umbrella sub-apps
    • run_umbrella_escripts/6 to build escripts for umbrella sub-apps
    • read_umbrella_app_config/2 to read per-app batamanta configuration
    • build_umbrella_banner/6 for umbrella-specific build banner
  • Banner images: Six PNG banner assets added to priv/assets/
  • Banner fallback text: Informational message when banner image file is not found

Changed

  • Banner image resolution: Expanded search candidates to include priv/assets/ paths for both dev and prod builds
  • Host detection fallback: Default to :ubuntu_22_04_x86_64 when host detection fails
  • mtime_to_age_seconds/1: Extracted duplicate datetime arithmetic into a shared helper with safe fallback for non-tuple inputs
  • Documentation: Added comprehensive umbrella project guide in English and Spanish

Fixed

  • Banner render with show_banner: false: Removed redundant protocol == :ascii check that skipped banner context initialization when show_banner was false

Quality

  • Format: ✅ clean
  • Tests: 199 passing, 3 excluded (integration); 5 new umbrella-related tests added

[1.5.0] - 2026-05-19

Changed

  • Development versions upgraded: Erlang 28.1 + Elixir 1.19.5 (OTP 28)
    • Internal development now uses latest stable OTP/Elixir
    • Minimum packagable OTP remains at 25 (ERTS repository unchanged)
    • Minimum OTP to run mix batamanta remains at 25
  • CI matrix updated: Elixir 1.15.8/OTP 26.2.5 + Elixir 1.19.5/OTP 28.1
  • CI caching: Mix and Cargo dependency caching added for faster runs
  • CI artifacts: Built binaries are now uploaded as artifacts for debugging
  • CI cleanup: Simplified cleanup step — only clears ERTS cache, not project build artifacts

Fixed

  • Escript wrapper args (critical): Arguments wrapped by the shell wrapper script no longer carry literal double-quote characters. \"$arg\" in the wrapper injected "status" (with literal quotes) instead of status. Replaced with shift/set -- pattern using "$@" — fixes all CLI subcommands in escript-mode binaries.
  • Release daemon args: Missing -extra -- separator before user arguments in the daemon spawn path caused erlexec to interpret user args as its own flags. Added -extra -- before forwarding, matching the non-daemon path.
  • Unless-else style: Three unless condition do :ok else ... end blocks in EscriptPackager inverted to if condition do ... else :ok end (Credo compliance).
  • LibcDetector: ldd --version detection now works on CachyOS and other rolling-release distributions (OTP 28 handles edge cases gracefully)
  • RustTemplate: Removed stale P1 FIX markers; build.rs now panics with a clear error if the payload is missing instead of silently skipping
  • mix.exs: Removed stale P2 FIX comment about rust.test alias (implementation was already correct)
  • ex_doc: Updated from ~> 0.34 to ~> 0.40

Quality

  • Format: ✅ clean
  • Credo --strict: ✅ 0 issues (340 mods/funs)
  • Compile --warnings-as-errors: ✅ 0 warnings
  • Tests: 199 passing, 3 excluded (integration)

[1.4.0] - 2026-04-07

Added

  • Build Environment Isolation: Introduced Batamanta.EnvCleaner to isolate the build process from version managers (asdf, mise, kerl, etc.). This ensures that the Erlang/Elixir version used for compilation matches the target ERTS, preventing "corrupt atom table" errors.
  • Shared Environment Logic: Both Escript and Release pipelines now share a sanitized environment containing only essential system variables (HOME, USER, TMPDIR, LANG, SHELL, TERM, SSH_AUTH_SOCK).
  • Detailed Build Logs: Improved error reporting for mix release failures by capturing and displaying the full compiler output in case of status non-zero.

Fixed

  • Version Manager Interference: Fixed a critical bug where asdf shims in the PATH would cause mix to use a different ERTS version than the one intended for packaging.
  • Legacy Elixir Compatibility: Replaced File.executable?/1 (introduced in Elixir 1.16) with File.regular?/1 to maintain compatibility with Elixir 1.15.x.
  • Typo cleanup: Corrected multiple instances of BatmanManta namespace typos to Batamanta.
  • Credo & Code Quality: Refactored system_paths/0 in EnvCleaner to reduce cyclomatic complexity and flattened nested logic in clean_mix_build_artifacts.

[1.3.0] - 2026-03-25

Added

  • Temporary Files Cleanup: Batamanta now automatically cleans up internal temporary artifacts (bat_cargo_cache, bat_pkg_*, bat_build_*) after each compilation to keep /tmp empty while strictly preserving the ERTS cache.

Fixed

  • Daemon Initialization Crash (Crítical / undef): Reimplemented the spawn_detached hook in Rust to fully inherit the parent environment (std::env::vars()) and properly map argv[0]. Fixing an elusive bug where the BEAM VM crashed on spawn in Daemon mode due to a missing environment block.
  • Daemon Logging Isolation: spawn_detached no longer strictly forces a dup2 redirect to /dev/null for standard file descriptors, allowing application logs to correctly print to the terminal prior to background detachment. Perfectly compatible with CI Smoke Tests.
  • Dialyzer & Compiler Specs: Resolved compiler typing violations related to {error, _} on detect_host in Target and removed unused legacy branches.
  • Cleaned Test Coverage: Updated multiple test namespaces (Baton -> Batamanta) and expanded coverage for internal functions.

[1.2.1] - 2026-03-23

Fixed

  • Execution Mode vs Format Nomenclature: Corrected confusing naming - renamed execution_mode to format in configuration and documentation
  • Daemon Mode macOS Support: Fixed daemon spawning to work on both Linux and macOS (uses fork() + setsid() via libc)
  • Banner Positioning: Improved banner display to work consistently whether terminal is fresh or has existing output

[1.2.0] - 2026-03-23

Added

  • Escript Support: New format: :escript option to build lightweight escripts instead of full OTP releases
  • Auto-detection: Automatically detects escript format when project has :escript config in mix.exs
  • CLI Override: --format option to override format detection from command line
  • Dynamic Version Detection: Fixed hardcoded version 0.1.0 in Rust wrapper, now reads version from start_erl.data
  • Smoke Tests: Added test_escript smoke test project for escript builds
  • Retry Logic for Downloads: ERTS downloads now retry up to 3 times with exponential backoff (1s, 2s, 4s) on network failures
  • Cache Lock Mechanism: File-based locking prevents race conditions when multiple processes try to download ERTS simultaneously
  • Improved Tar Error Parsing: Extract-specific error messages for tar failures (permission denied, disk full, corrupted archive, etc.)
  • zstd Dependency Check: Packager now raises a clear error with installation instructions if zstd is not found
  • Integration Tests: New FetcherIntegrationTest module for tests requiring network access (excluded by default, run with mix test --include integration)

Changed

  • Compilation Without --warnings-as-errors: EscriptBuilder no longer fails on compiler warnings, improving build reliability across different OTP versions
  • EscriptBuilder Validation: Improved escript validation using File.read/1 with proper ELF/shebang magic byte detection
  • LibcDetector Refactoring: Consolidated regex patterns for OS detection, renamed is_musl_distro? to musl_distro? for Credo compliance
  • Smaller Binaries: Escript format produces ~60-70% smaller binaries than release format
  • EscriptPackager: New module for packaging escripts with minimal ERTS
  • EscriptBuilder: New module for building escripts via mix escript.build
  • Rust Template: Updated to support both :release and :escript output formats via BATAMANTA_FORMAT env var
  • Banner Positioning: Improved banner display to work consistently whether terminal is fresh or has existing output

Fixed

  • Cache Race Conditions: TOCTOU race condition in check_erts_cache now protected by file locks
  • Tar Error Messages: Better error messages when tar extraction fails, including "Permission denied", "Disk full", etc.
  • Download Retry Pattern: Fixed pattern matching to handle both :ok (file downloads) and {:ok, body} (manifest downloads) return values
  • Version Detection: Release version is now dynamically detected from releases/start_erl.data instead of being hardcoded

[1.1.0] - 2026-03-19

Added

  • OTP Version Control: Users can specify exact OTP versions in config (otp_version: "28.1") or via CLI (--otp-version)
  • Explicit vs Auto Mode: Explicit mode uses exact version (fails if unavailable), auto mode uses conservative fallback
  • Smoke Tests: Added test_cli, test_tui, and test_daemon smoke test projects
  • CI Matrix: Comprehensive CI with tests on Elixir 1.15/1.18 and OTP 25/28

Fixed

  • MANIFEST JSON Parser: Rewrote broken parser that incorrectly handled nested JSON structures
  • Release Path: Fixed get_release_path/1 to correctly use _build/prod/rel/<app>
  • Duplicate Logging: Removed duplicate ERTS cached messages during build
  • Version Resolution: Improved generate_version_variants/1 with proper fallbacks
  • TUI Key Handling: Fixed crash when pressing keys (handles <<key, "\n">> pattern)
  • Application Start: Fixed Application behaviour to return proper {:ok, pid} tuple

Changed

  • generate_version_variants/1 refactored to reduce nesting depth (Credo compliance)
  • CI simplified to focus on reliable tests (removed problematic macOS ARM64 cross-compile)

[1.0.1] - 2026-03-09

Fixed

  • Linux auto-detection: Automatically detects between glibc and musl based on distribution
  • Arch Linux support: Fixed compilation on Arch-based distributions (CachyOS, Manjaro, etc.)
  • Terminal cleanup: Improved ANSI sequence cleanup on exit
  • ERTS embedded: Now uses the ERTS embedded in the release instead of downloading external one, fixing "Exec format error"

Changed

  • Default Linux target changed from musl to gnu for better compatibility
  • Uses ctrlc instead of signal-hook for better cross-platform support

[1.0.0] - 2026-03-16

Added

  • Monolithic Binary Generation: Core capability to wrap Elixir releases and the Erlang Runtime System (ERTS) into a single, static executable.
  • Dynamic ERTS Management: Automatically fetches and caches compatible ERTS versions from Hex.pm or Beam Machine based on the target system.
  • Cross-Platform Support: Built-in support for multiple targets including x86_64-linux-musl, x86_64-pc-windows-msvc, x86_64-apple-darwin, and aarch64-apple-darwin.
  • Rust-powered Dispenser: A high-performance Rust wrapper that handles payload extraction, signal proxying, and secure execution.
  • Static Compilation: Generates binaries with zero external dependencies (no Erlang or Elixir needed on the target host).
  • Binary Minification: Integrated support for strip and upx to significantly reduce the final executable size.
  • Smart Native Fallback: Intelligent detection to use the local native ERTS when building for the same host OS to ensure perfect compatibility.
  • Clean Task: Provided mix batamanta.clean to manage and clear the local ERTS cache.
  • CLI Arg Handling: Support for passing plain arguments directly to the Erlang VM for portable CLI tools.
  • RAII Cleanup: Support for automatically removing temporary extraction files when the application exits.

Improved

  • Idiomatic Refactor: Completely refactored the codebase to use modern Elixir patterns (pipelines, pattern matching, with statements).
  • Documentation: Comprehensive documentation in both English (primary) and Spanish, including detailed architecture guides and usage examples.

  • Error Handling: Migrated to result-tuple based error propagation ({:ok, term} | {:error, reason}) for more reliable orchestration.

  • Unit Testing: Full test suite covering target resolution, packaging logic, and cache management.
  • CI/CD Integration: Pre-configured GitHub Actions to validate compatibility across multiple Elixir and OTP versions.