Horus: anonymous function to standalone module

Horus is a library that extracts an anonymous function's code as well as the code of the all the functions it calls, and creates a standalone version of it in a new module at runtime.

The goal is to have a storable and transferable function which does not depend on the availability of the modules that defined it or were called.

How does it work?

To achieve that goal, Horus extracts the assembly code of the anonymous function, watches all calls it does and recursively extracts the assembly code of other called functions. When complete, it creates a standalone Erlang module based on it. This module can be stored, transfered to another Erlang node and executed anywhere without the presence of the initial anonymous function's module.

If the extracted function calls directly or indirectly modules from the erts, kernel or stdlib applications, the called functions are not extracted. That's ok because the behavior of Erlang/OTP modules rarely changes and they will be available. Therefore, there is little value in extracting that code.

While processing the assembly instructions and watching function calls, Horus can use callbacks provided by the caller to determine if instructions and calls are allowed or denied.

Project maturity

Horus is still under active development and should be considered Alpha at this stage.

Documentation

• A short tutorial in the Getting started section below
• Documentation and API reference

Getting started

Add as a dependency

Add Horus as a dependency of your project:

Using Rebar:

%% In rebar.config
{deps, [{horus, "0.3.0"}]}.

Using Erlang.mk:

# In your Makefile
DEPS += horus
dep_horus = hex 0.3.0

Using Mix:

# In mix.exs
defp deps do
  [
    {:horus, "0.3.0"}
  ]
end

Extract an anonymous function

To extract an anonymous function, use horus:to_standalone_fun/1:

Fun = fun() ->
          do_something_fancy()
      end,

StandaloneFun = horus:to_standalone_fun(Fun).

It works with references to regular functions are well:

Log = fun logger:info/2,

StandaloneLog = horus:to_standalone_fun(Log).

Execute a standalone function

Once extracted, the function can be stored as an Erlang binary, or transfered to a remote Erlang node. You then use horus:exec/2 to execute it:

receive
    {standalone_fun, StandaloneLog} ->
        horus:exec(
          StandaloneLog,
          ["~p received and executed function", [self()]])
end.

How to build

Build

rebar3 compile

Build documentation

rebar3 edoc

Test

rebar3 xref
rebar3 eunit
rebar3 ct --sname ct
rebar3 as test dialyzer

Copyright and License

© 2021-2024 Broadcom. All Rights Reserved. The term "Broadcom" refers to Broadcom Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.

This work is dual-licensed under the Apache License 2.0 and the Mozilla Public License 2.0. You can choose between one of them if you use this work.

SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 OR MPL-2.0