I had cause to check the types exported by a module, and I immediately thought "right, module_info then" but was surprised to run into a few difficulties. I found I can get the exported types from modules I compile, but not from say modules in stdlib.
My (three) questions are, how do I reliably get the exported types of a module, why are the exported types in the attributes bit of the module info on some modules, and why some modules and not others?
I discovered that if I build this module:
-module(foo).
-export([bar/0]).
-export_types([baz/0]).
bar() -> bat .
And then use foo:module_info/0, I get this:
[{exports,[{bar,0},{module_info,0},{module_info,1}]},
{imports,[]},
{attributes,[{vsn,[108921085595958308709649797749441408863]},
{export_types,[{baz,0}]}]},
{compile,[{options,[{outdir,"/tmp"}]},
{version,"5.0.1"},
{time,{2015,10,22,10,38,8}},
{source,"/tmp/foo.erl"}]}]
Great, hidden away in 'attributes' is 'export_types'. Why this is in attributes I'm not quite sure, but... whatever...
I now know this will work:
4> lists:keyfind(export_types, 1, foo:module_info(attributes)).
{export_types,[{baz,0}]}
Great. So, I now know this will work:
5> lists:keyfind(export_types, 1, ets:module_info(attributes)).
false
Ah... it doesn't.
I know there are exported types of course, if the documentation isn't good enough the ets source shows:
-export_type([tab/0, tid/0, match_spec/0, comp_match_spec/0, match_pattern/0]).
In fact the exported type information for the ets module doesn't seem to be anywhere in the module info:
6> rp(ets:module_info()).
[{exports,[{match_spec_run,2},
{repair_continuation,2},
{fun2ms,1},
{foldl,3},
{foldr,3},
{from_dets,2},
{to_dets,2},
{test_ms,2},
{init_table,2},
{tab2file,2},
{tab2file,3},
{file2tab,1},
{file2tab,2},
{tabfile_info,1},
{table,1},
{table,2},
{i,0},
{i,1},
{i,2},
{i,3},
{module_info,0},
{module_info,1},
{tab2list,1},
{match_delete,2},
{filter,3},
{setopts,2},
{give_away,3},
{update_element,3},
{match_spec_run_r,3},
{match_spec_compile,1},
{select_delete,2},
{select_reverse,3},
{select_reverse,2},
{select_reverse,1},
{select_count,2},
{select,3},
{select,2},
{select,1},
{update_counter,3},
{slot,2},
{safe_fixtable,2},
{rename,2},
{insert_new,2},
{insert,2},
{prev,2},
{next,2},
{member,2},
{match_object,3},
{match_object,2},
{match_object,1},
{match,3},
{match,2},
{match,1},
{last,1},
{info,2},
{info,1},
{lookup_element,3},
{lookup,2},
{is_compiled_ms,1},
{first,1},
{delete_object,2},
{delete_all_objects,1},
{delete,2},
{delete,1},
{new,2},
{all,0}]},
{imports,[]},
{attributes,[{vsn,[310474638056108355984984900680115120081]}]},
{compile,[{options,[{outdir,"/tmp/buildd/erlang-17.1-dfsg/lib/stdlib/src/../ebin"},
{i,"/tmp/buildd/erlang-17.1-dfsg/lib/stdlib/src/../include"},
{i,"/tmp/buildd/erlang-17.1-dfsg/lib/stdlib/src/../../kernel/include"},
warnings_as_errors,debug_info]},
{version,"5.0.1"},
{time,{2014,7,25,16,54,59}},
{source,"/tmp/buildd/erlang-17.1-dfsg/lib/stdlib/src/ets.erl"}]}]
ok
I took things to extremes now and ran this, logging the output to a file:
rp(beam_disasm:file("/usr/lib/erlang/lib/stdlib-2.1/ebin/ets.beam")).
Not that I don't consider this absurd... but anyway, it's about 5,000 lines of output, but nowhere do I find an instance of the string "tid".
Up to Erlang 18 this information is not easily available.
Dialyzer, for example, extracts it from the abstract syntax tree of the core Erlang version of a module (see e.g. dialyzer_utils:get_record_and_type_info/1 used by e.g. dialyzer_analysis_callgraph:compile_byte/5)
Regarding this part:
why are the exported types in the attributes bit of the module info on some modules, and why some modules and not others?
this is due to a bad definition in your module. The attribute should be -export_type, not -export_types. If you use the correct one (and define the baz/0 type and use it somewhere so that the module compiles), the exported types... vanish, as is expected.