Who contributed to Elixir & Phoenix on July 22, 2026?

3 developers shipped this update, including Alexander Gubarev, Frank Hunleth, and greg-rychlewski.

What were the notable Elixir & Phoenix updates?

Fix elixirc --profile time switch argv parsing (#15647), Fix String.reverse/1 grapheme ordering around invalid utf8 bytes (#15645), and Fix System.cmd/3 unit test that fails on Ubuntu 26.04 (#15646).

Jul 22, 2026

$ the-wire · showcase

ELIXIR TOOLING FIXES LAND AHEAD OF SYSTEM COMPATIBILITY PUSH

By RepoJournal · Filed 07:02 UTC on July 22, 2026 · About Elixir & Phoenix · Composed from the cited sources · methodology

3 people shipped this

Alexander Gubarev @AlexGx 2 cited

Frank Hunleth @fhunleth 1 cited

greg-rychlewski @greg-rychlewski 1 cited

The compiler stops misinterpreting profile flags, string reversal handles invalid UTF8 correctly, and Ecto gains fragment column selection in a wave of fixes that shores up core library reliability.

In brief

elixirc --profile time had a busted argv parser. fixes it. compiler flags are boring until they silently fail on your ci box.
String.reverse/1 was mangling graphemes around invalid utf8 bytes. patches it. not flashy but it bites you when dealing with real world text.
System.cmd/3 test was flaking on Ubuntu 26.04. lands the fix. test suite should run the same everywhere or you're just guessing.
Ecto now lets you select fragment source with columns (). more flexibility when you need to mix raw sql fragments with your schema columns.

Elixir's compiler got a critical fix [1] where the `--profile time` switch was being parsed as a file pattern instead of a flag, making profiling data collection impossible. This landed alongside a precision correction in `String.reverse/1` [2] that now properly orders graphemes around invalid UTF8 bytes, fixing a bug where reversing a string with corrupt bytes would reverse the wrong segments. The fixes reflect active maintenance across the stack as the team also addresses emerging compatibility issues. A `System.cmd/3` unit test [3] that fails on Ubuntu 26.04 exposed a deeper problem: the Rust-based uutils coreutils don't dispatch through argv[0] like traditional multicall binaries, breaking symlink invocations. On the Ecto side, fragment queries just got more flexible [4] with support for selecting specific columns from fragment sources, extending query composability for complex SQL patterns.

Action items

→ Update Elixir if you use --profile time flag for compiler profiling elixir-lang/elixir [plan]
→ Review String.reverse/1 usage if handling binary data with potential UTF8 corruption elixir-lang/elixir [monitor]
→ Test System.cmd/3 symlink calls if deploying to Ubuntu 26.04 elixir-lang/elixir [plan]

References

[1] Fix elixirc --profile time switch argv parsing (#15647) ↗ elixir-lang/elixir
[2] Fix String.reverse/1 grapheme ordering around invalid utf8 bytes (#15645) ↗ elixir-lang/elixir
[3] Fix System.cmd/3 unit test that fails on Ubuntu 26.04 (#15646) ↗ elixir-lang/elixir
[4] Allow selecting fragment source with columns (#4760) ↗ elixir-ecto/ecto