ERL-36: ram_file:get_file_close/1 is undocumented but necessary/useful

[OTP-Maintainer]

Original reporter: okeuday
Affected version: OTP-18.1
Component: kernel
Migrated from: https://bugs.erlang.org/browse/ERL-36

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Either the ram_file:get_file_close/1 function could be documented, or a function within the file module could be added to get documented.  It provides useful functionality to retrieve the data from a ram file after being written to and that functionality can not be found elsewhere.

[OTP-Maintainer]

swvist@gmail.com said:

@okeuday, is ram_file module public? I do not see docs for it on erlang.org. Erldocs.com seems to have it though.

[OTP-Maintainer]

kenneth said:

The ram_file is not a public interface today, only the documented interfaces are regarded as public. Erldocs has unfortunately got it wrong since it is harvesting function signatures from all .erl modules. This results in a misleading result when you search for modules and functions. As you can see there is no describing text for the functions that Erldocs has found this way. We are in contact with Erldocs developer and hope to find a solution for this.

Regarding the ram_file module we have to discuss internally (the OTP team) if we think it is should be made public and documented.

[OTP-Maintainer]

kenneth said:

ram_file is a module where none of the functions are documented so we find no reason to document the get_file_close/1 function or to document the other functions for that matter.  What might happen is that we remove the whole module since we don't see much use for it. But the removal is not decided yet. Note!, undocumented modules are not supported and might be removed or changed anytime.