F45 Change Proposal: Erlang 27 (self-contained)

Project Discussion Change Proposals
,
1

Erlang 27

This is a proposed Change for Fedora Linux.
This document represents a proposed Change. As part of the Changes process, proposals are publicly announced in order to receive community feedback. This proposal will only be implemented if approved by the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee.

Wiki
Announced

:link: Summary

Update Erlang/OTP to version 27.

:link: Owner

:link: Previous Change History

  • Attempted for Fedora 43 (FESCo issue: #2809) — withdrawn due to RabbitMQ not yet supporting Erlang 27.
  • Retargeted to Fedora 44 (FESCo issue: #3433) — rejected/deferred, same reason.
  • RabbitMQ 4.0.4 added full Erlang 27 support. The blocker no longer exists.

:link: Detailed Description

Upgrade Erlang to version 27 which brings a lot of changes. Just a few highlights from many:

  • Triple-Quoted strings
  • Sigils
  • The new json module
  • Process labels
  • New functionality in STDLIB
  • New SSL client-side stapling support
  • Lots of bugfixes

Aside from this, we plan to further improve quality of Erlang and related packages. These are shortcomings we want to address:

  • Finish switching to rebar3 as a main build tool and deprecate rebar2. Note: the new declarative BuildSystem: rebar3 directive is now available in F45+ via erlang-srpm-macros ≥ 0.3.11.
  • Improve Erlang Packaging Guidelines and promote them as the official guideline.
  • SELinux rules for main Erlang applications (Ejabberd, CouchDB, RabbitMQ) are still outdated or missing.

:link: Benefit to Fedora

Fedora users, both developers and end-users, will have visible benefits from using Fedora-provided packages. Namely:

  • Improved scalability and robustness.
  • Much easier developing and debugging.
  • Unblocks ecosystem packages that require OTP 27 syntax (triple-quoted strings, new -doc attributes, json module, etc.).
  • RabbitMQ 4.2.x and 4.3.x both fully support Erlang 27 — the previous blocker is resolved.

:link: Scope

  • Proposal owners:
    • Upgrade Erlang to version 27.
    • Upgrade outdated packages:
      • ejabberd
      • rabbitmq-server
    • Package GDB macros for easier coredump debugging (see also this ticket).
  • Other developers: N/A
  • Release engineering: No special action required. NIF-based packages will be rebuilt as part of the regular mass rebuild.
  • Policies and guidelines:
  • Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)

:link: Upgrade/compatibility impact

N/A — Erlang 27 is backward compatible with code compiled on Erlang 26. Packages with Native Implemented Functions (NIFs) need to be rebuilt, which happens automatically during the mass rebuild.

:link: How To Test

Ensure that high-grade Erlang applications are still working:

Name Tested
ejabberd No
elixir No
rabbitmq-server No
  • Collect feedback from volunteers regarding their experience with this Erlang/OTP version.

:link: User Experience

Users will get more robust, scalable, and fast Erlang applications. Developers will benefit from new language features (triple-quoted strings, sigils, the json module) without needing to install Erlang from external sources.

:link: Dependencies

The following packages must be rebuilt: NIF-libraries (happens automatically during mass rebuild).

:link: Contingency Plan

  • Contingency mechanism: None necessary. Instead of falling back to the previous version we should fix existing packages in order to help the Community. We should also monitor upstream development process for potentially discovered issues and proactively apply patches (as we already did with Erlang R14, Erlang R15, Erlang R16, Erlang 17, Erlang 18, Erlang 19, Erlang 20, Erlang 21, Erlang 22, Erlang 23, Erlang 24, and Erlang 25). It should be noted that this change consists of independent or loosely coupled smaller changes. If we fail to deliver some changes in time, we should reschedule these exact changes to the future Fedora release while keeping already implemented ones.
  • Contingency deadline: N/A
  • Blocks release? No
  • Blocks product? No

:link: Documentation

:link: Release Notes

Erlang/OTP 27.0 is available in Fedora 45.

Last edited by @amoloney 2026-05-27T09:10:58Z

Last edited by @amoloney 2026-05-27T09:10:58Z

2

How do you feel about the proposal as written?

  • Strongly in favor
  • In favor, with reservations
  • Neutral
  • Opposed, but could be convinced
  • Strongly opposed
0 voters

If you are in favor but have reservations, or are opposed but something could change your mind, please explain in a reply.

We want everyone to be heard, but many posts repeating the same thing actually makes that harder. If you have something new to say, please say it. If, instead, you find someone has already covered what you’d like to express, please simply give that post a :heart: instead of reiterating. You can even do this by email, by replying with the heart emoji or just “+1”. This will make long topics easier to follow.

Please note that this is an advisory “straw poll” meant to gauge sentiment. It isn’t a vote or a scientific survey. See About the Change Proposals category for more about the Change Process and moderation policy.