14.6.1 Obfuscating code in saved states

If the option obfuscate(true) is used with qsave_program/2, certain atoms in the saved state are renamed. The renaming is performed by library library(obfuscate). The current implementation is rather conservative, renaming atoms that are used only to define the functor that names a predicate. This is a safe operation, provided the application does not create new references to renamed predicates by reading additional source code or constructing the atom that names the predicate dynamically in some other way such as using atom_concat/3. Predicates that are called this way must be declared using public/1.

Note that more aggressive renaming is possible, but this requires more detailed analysis of the various roles played by some atom. Helpful and descriptive predicate names tend to be unique and are thus subject to this transformation. More general names tend to collide with other roles of the same atom and thus prevent renaming.