Native Erlang setup

Tested runtimes

JavaScript is tested on Node 24.10.0 and the desktop versions listed in Browser compatibility. Erlang implements all core operations. The tested native runtimes are macOS arm64 with OTP 29 and Ubuntu 24.04 x86_64 with OTP 28.5.0.7 and 29.1.1, using Gleam 1.18.1. Deployment is tested with Gleam shipments. Other platforms, OTP releases and deployment tools remain unverified. The helper uses POSIX APIs; Windows is not supported.

Build the regex helper

Erlang uses a standalone C regex executable. Install make and a C compiler. For a downloaded dependency in a Gleam application, run from the application root:

gleam deps download
make -C build/packages/gargamelle/priv/regex-src
gleam run --target erlang

For a local path dependency, run make -C priv/regex-src in that dependency’s source directory instead. Gleam does not automatically run this Makefile. The build creates build/native/gargamelle_regex_port inside the dependency. JavaScript builds do not require it. No JavaScript runtime is needed on Erlang.

Rebuild the helper for each deployment operating system and architecture.

Release deployment

Install the executable as priv/gargamelle_regex_port in the deployed Gargamelle OTP application, preserving its executable permissions. The binding first checks that installed location. During development it also resolves the source priv symlink and checks the dependency’s build/native directory. Release tooling must copy the helper explicitly; compiling Gleam alone does not install it.

For a downloaded dependency, a minimal Gleam shipment is:

gleam deps download
make -C build/packages/gargamelle/priv/regex-src
gleam export erlang-shipment
cp build/packages/gargamelle/build/native/gargamelle_regex_port build/erlang-shipment/gargamelle/priv/
chmod +x build/erlang-shipment/gargamelle/priv/gargamelle_regex_port
sh build/erlang-shipment/entrypoint.sh run

For a path dependency, copy the helper from that dependency’s build/native directory.

A missing helper or a native crash raises an operational error. Execution budget, stack, packet and timeout limits also raise operational errors, including within conditional and exclusion checks. They do not become pattern syntax errors or ordinary validation rejection.

Regex compatibility

The native regex engine uses Unicode 16 tables and is tested against Node 24.10.0. JavaScript uses its host’s Unicode tables, so Unicode property patterns can match differently on hosts with newer tables, including Node 24.21.0. See Browser compatibility for a concrete example.