
[;1m  term_to_binary(Term)[0m

  Returns a binary data object that is the result of encoding [;;4mTerm[0m
  according to the Erlang external term format.

  This can be used for various purposes, for example, writing a term
  to a file in an efficient way, or sending an Erlang term to some
  type of communications channel not supported by distributed
  Erlang.

    > Bin = term_to_binary(hello).
    <<131,100,0,5,104,101,108,108,111>>
    > hello = binary_to_term(Bin).
    hello

  See also [;;4mbinary_to_term/1[0m.

  [;;4mNote[0m

    There is no guarantee that this function will return the same
    encoded representation for the same term.

[;1m  term_to_binary(Term, Options)[0m

  Returns a binary data object that is the result of encoding [;;4mTerm[0m
  according to the Erlang external term format.

  Currently supported options:

   • [;;4mcompressed[0m - Compress the external term format. The
     compressed format is automatically recognized by [;;4m[0m
     [;;4mbinary_to_term/1[0m as from Erlang/OTP R7B.

   • [;;4m{compressed, Level}[0m - Compress the external term format to
     a given level. The compression level is specified by [;;4mLevel[0m
     which is an integer in the range 0..9, where:

      ￮ [;;4m0[0m - No compression is done (it is the same as giving
        no [;;4mcompressed[0m option).

      ￮ [;;4m1[0m - Takes least time but may not compress as well as
        the higher levels.

      ￮ [;;4m6[0m - Default level when option [;;4mcompressed[0m is
        provided.

      ￮ [;;4m9[0m - Takes most time and tries to produce a smaller
        result. Notice "tries" in the preceding sentence;
        depending on the input term, level 9 compression
        either does or does not produce a smaller result than
        level 1 compression.

   • [;;4m{minor_version, Version}[0m(Since R11B-4) The option can be
     used to control some encoding details. Valid values for [;;4m[0m
     [;;4mVersion[0m are:

      ￮ [;;4m0[0m - Floats are encoded using a textual
        representation.

        Atoms that can be represented by a latin1 string are
        encoded using latin1 while only atoms that cannot be
        represented by latin1 are encoded using utf8.

      ￮ [;;4m1[0m - Floats are encoded in a more space-efficient and
        exact way (namely in the 64-bit IEEE format, rather
        than converted to a textual representation). As from
        Erlang/OTP R11B-4, [;;4mbinary_to_term/1[0m can decode this
        representation.

        Atoms that can be represented by a latin1 string are
        encoded using latin1 while only atoms that cannot be
        represented by latin1 are encoded using utf8.

      ￮ [;;4m2[0m - This is as of Erlang/OTP 26.0 the default.
        Atoms are unconditionally encoded using utf8.
        Erlang/OTP systems as of R16B can decode this
        representation.

   • [;;4mdeterministic[0m(Since OTP 24.1) This option can be used to
     ensure that, within the same major release of Erlang/OTP,
     the same encoded representation is returned for the same
     term. There is still no guarantee that the encoded
     representation remains the same between major releases of
     Erlang/OTP.

     This option cannot be combined with the [;;4mlocal[0m option.

   • [;;4mlocal[0m (Since OTP 26.0) This option will cause encoding of [;;4m[0m
     [;;4mTerm[0m to an alternative local version of the external term
     format which when decoded by the same runtime system
     instance will produce a term identical to the encoded term
     even when the node name and/or creation of the current
     runtime system instance have changed between encoding and
     decoding. When encoding without the [;;4mlocal[0m option, local
     identifiers such as pids, ports and references will not be
     the same if node name and/or creation of the current runtime
     system instance changed between encoding and decoding. This
     since such identifiers refer to a specific node by node name
     and creation.

     Node name and creation of a runtime system instance change
     when the distribution is started or stopped. The
     distribution is started when the runtime system is started
     using the [;;4m-name[0m or [;;4m-sname[0m command line arguments. Note
     that the actual start of the distribution happens after
     other code in the startup phase has begun executing. The
     distribution can also be started by calling [;;4m[0m
     [;;4mnet_kernel:start/2[0m and stopped by calling [;;4m[0m
     [;;4mnet_kernel:stop/1[0m if it has not been started via the
     command line.

     The decoding of a term encoded with the [;;4mlocal[0m option,
     using for example [;;4mbinary_to_term()[0m, will try to verify
     that the term actually was encoded by the same runtime
     system instance, and will in the vast majority of cases fail
     if the encoding was performed by another runtime system
     instance. You should however not trust that this
     verification will work in all cases. You should make sure
     to only decode terms encoded with the [;;4mlocal[0m option on
     the same Erlang runtime system instance as the one that
     encoded the terms.

     Since it is only the runtime system that encoded a term
     using the [;;4mlocal[0m option that can decode it, the local
     encoding is typically pieced together with something else to
     produce a reply to where the [;;4mlocal[0m encoding originates
     from. If a term encoded using the [;;4mlocal[0m option is stripped
     of its leading version number, it can be added as part of a
     larger term (for example as an element in a tuple) when
     encoding on the external term format using, for example, ei.
     In the [;;4mei[0m case, you would strip it of the version number
     using [;;4mei_decode_version()[0m and then add the remaining local
     encoding to what you are encoding using for example [;;4m[0m
     [;;4mei_x_append_buf()[0m.

     A good example of when you want to use the [;;4mlocal[0m option,
     is when you want to make a request from a process to a port
     driver and utilize the selective receive optimization when
     receiving the reply. In this scenario you want to create a
     reference, serialize the reference on the external term
     format using the [;;4mlocal[0m option, pass this to the driver in
     the request, and then wait for the reply message in a
     selective receive matching on the reference. The driver
     should send the reply using either [;;4merl_drv_output_term()[0m
     or [;;4merl_drv_send_term()[0m using the term type [;;4m[0m
     [;;4mERL_DRV_EXT2TERM[0m for the, in the request, previously
     received reference on the external term format. Note that
     you should not strip the leading version number from the
     local encoding when using the term type [;;4mERL_DRV_EXT2TERM[0m
     of this functionality. If you in this example do not encode
     the reference using the [;;4mlocal[0m option, and the distribution
     is started or stopped while the request is ongoing, the
     process that made the request will hang indefinitely since
     the reference in the reply message will never match.

     This option cannot be combined with the [;;4mdeterministic[0m
     option.

     For more information see the [;;4mLOCAL_EXT[0m tag in the
     documentation of the external term format.

  See also [;;4mbinary_to_term/1[0m.
