Erlang Programming

. {CustId. In our example.5] and [4. 363 defined. calls the handle function. or. but when testing with records from the shell. AllowedRestarts. Mnesia is the brainchild of Claes “Klacke” Wikström* from the days when he was working at Ericsson’s Computer Science Lab. we’ll discuss this shortly). The following example of list comprehensions. you can use erlang:demonitor(Reference. . We discuss optimizations in Chapter 20 and will cover there what really affects the performance of your code. set_service/3.12. tuesday.5}.erl:110: The pattern [] can never match the type {'error'. 0).name=Name}) -> io:format("name: ~p age: ~p phone: ~p~n". Value}. will be traversed only once. To quote Joe Armstrong in one of the many type system flame wars.116. The following code shows the conversion to this representation: treeToList({leaf. the system will not maintain a global list of connected nodes. which isolates it from the higher levels of the system. Buffer) -> lists:reverse(Buffer). We will provide more examples in Chapter 11."Hello ok 4> inet:getstat(Socket). You will also get more flexible code. [binary. stop(_State) -> ok. List) Removes all elements in the list for which Predicate is false. Considering that this target has been achieved at a fraction of the effort that would have been needed in a conventional programming language.2. TypEr was applied to a version of usr_db without type annotations. terminate/2. Ericsson’s Computer Science Laboratory was given the task of investigating programming languages suitable for programming the next generation of telecom products.[2. VarN need to begin with a capital letter. is passed as the third argument to the handle_call/3 function. if you have many recipients or are forwarding the unchanged message to many processes. you can access it using either the name or the table identifier. you can just bind them to a variable.erlang-consulting. . because in a live system. 212 bitwise operators. allocate} -> {NewFrequencies.cook}] This is a list of guard expressions. .100.ok} 3> timer:tc(myring. N}.bad_day}}]. and bind it to the variable A. Using passive mode is a good way to ensure that your system does not get flooded with requests. average_acc([]. -> index(N-1. So. Sverker Eriksson. The lecturer held up the first edition of Concurrent Programming in Erlang (Prentice Hall) and said. you might not find the priv directory. Translations to match specifications are done at compile time. critics said it was madness to use a language compiling for a VM with a garbage collector (just like Java!) for soft real-time systems. duplicate_bag Including one of these in the options list creates an ETS table of the specified sort.. overwriting the entry in the peer node.do_apply. 260 trunc/1 function. Once the connection has been established. which involves process linking and supervision. {shell. sos]). 3]) => sum([1. . which returns on success the tuple {value. %% Internal Server Functions 240 | Chapter 10: ETS and Dets Tables init(FileName. you can omit the of. The default size of an integer is 8.daisy}]}. 447 handle function. we need a local get_index/1 call.atom} 4> io:read("ok. Luckily. ok 2> my_db:write(foo. A common trick to reduce indentation is to create temporary composite data types.NET platform. Fields}. As soon as you turn on trace printouts. false 10> lists:member(24.acm.. and loop/0. Exercises | 393 CHAPTER 18 Types and Documentation The basic types in Erlang—integers. . not only are programs shorter and easier to understand. status=enabled. 250 string comparison. and as you can see from the following example.|. In practice. {shell. return a new list that is the symmetric difference of the two lists. .2}. and Event Types The Erlang wx binding allows events to be handled in two ways. Now that we’ve looked at ETS and Dets tables in detail.1 of the db module. Request} -> Reply = request(Request). | or + You can use these to form the union of two types. symbols.msisdn}]). using the flush() command in the shell. but one of the really powerful features of the trace BIFs. and Haskell: The Craft of Functional Programming. delete_usr/1. At its best performance. For large binaries. the two mandatory applications of any OTP release. so we define a new helper function. the BIF self() returns a pid. Frequency}. usr_db]}. Two functions in the same module might have the same name but a different arity. 1. send email to: bookquestions@oreilly. whether it is a function call. we could have replaced all of the ETS and Dets read.2]. and different instances of these callback modules could exist in different managers.. E2. 14 Thompson. There are many features and details we have not covered. .loop. F. [{exception. there should be no module X. Exercise 7-4: Records and Shapes Define a record type to represent circles. Var2. If you are fast enough. not a fun that is bound to a variable which is then passed as an argument. User Datagram Protocol | 325 and sending [0. In a tuple.kill) is used. Many Erlang processes will fall into one of these three categories. In this example. It is a common design pattern to spawn a new process that handles the request for each message received. 148–154 message passing. 1. To connect a process with pid Pid to a port Port. 'Mike'. this time using guards: factorial(N) when N > 0 -> N * factorial(N . despite being appended to the Help menu in setup. 378 add_handler function.{name. You have to be careful when using timeouts. or the atom error otherwise. We will store it as an integer in the ETS table.VarN).false). So. you can try them out in the shell to be sure you understand what is going on: 16> Bump = fun(X) -> X+1 end. . you would have [11.Y*X.6. Mnesia chapter exercises.eval_loop. user status. 110 creating. and the loop/1 function is called recursively with the updated loop data. 3. for example. . For example. Moreover. go() -> Pid = spawn(echo. init(Data) -> loop(initialize(Data)).2. we need to lock the tables using the safe_fixtable/2 call. This should generate random store and lookup requests. described in Chapter 14. The call returns the atom ok. . ++ included. 49–50 runtime errors. Rest) -> gen_tcp:send(Socket. the code is more easily modified if the composition of the record is changed or extended.tftp_binary. starting at zero. We want to compute the average of a list of numbers.31> 3> receive {'DOWN'.hrl"). 75. . bnot. factorial(N) -> N * factorial(N-1). 'Armstrong'} {person. suspending it in the receive clause. normal. and what are the contents of the app file? Let’s start with the application callback file. lines 18–26. can be complex at times. we’ll revisit the example of the factorial server just given for Java. no abbreviations used by the tracer tool are allowed. use the literal function bindings(). and are what we refer to as internal help functions: • If there are no available frequencies.3]. 700000003}) end). Function. With lightweight processes. Distributed Computing in Erlang: The Basics An Erlang node is an executing Erlang runtime system that has been given a name. is not pretty. which works in a similar way to function clause selection. Now. In an example such as the index. This guarantee is not extended to messages sent from different processes. creating what is called a supervision tree (see Figure 12-1). resp). All of the functions that change the database state are synchronously executed by the database server to guarantee data consistency: add_usr(PhoneNum.. as in this C++ example: File->Append(NEW. ringing(Number). will be in one of three states.. {error. treeToList(tree1())). How should protocols ensure that data is generated and transmitted as quickly and efficiently as possible? The answer is to make use of every possible bit of storage. Wildcards need to follow the preceding pattern. allowing DECT cordless phone users to roam across private office networks. 225–226. Erlang terms can be simple data values. The error report shown in the shell comes from the add_one process. the local variable X in Bump shadows the earlier X. or structured? Is an integer in Java the same thing as an integer in Erlang? (It isn’t!) Interoperation is not only about interlanguage communication.0. The . You should ensure that the expression is evaluated only once whichever case holds. . If you want to override one of the modules in a sticky directory. an Erlang open source Jabber-based instant messaging (IM) server. They are. for the example in Figure 9-1 this would begin "{node. A race condition occurs when the behavior of a system depends on the order in which certain events occur: these events “race” to influence the behavior.[binary_to_list(Msg)]) 1> end. The guards allowed in literal funs are the same as in conventional guards. if. . The only difference between this and the nondistributed case is that a remote node may become unavailable. the call will immediately return the atom ok...{size. Exercise 3-5: Manipulating Lists Write a function that.erlang. 296 table structure. 8 interfaces defined.BStr. And Finally. Upon receiving the messages.Reason} signal is the process identifier of the receiving process itself. 157 functions and.sweden}). [p. as shown here? erlang:trace_pattern({ping. 342 erl_marshal function.16. ok. except that the Pid in the {'EXIT'. CA 95472 800-998-9938 (in the United States or Canada) 707-829-0515 (international or local) 707-829-0104 (fax) On the web page for this book we list errata.‡ In your case.erl %%% Description : API and server code for cell user db -module(usr). Notice how memory is allocated in the old heap while being freed in the current heap. Pid} -> [{Pid. and not simply in a single module.lbs]}. in the dbg:fun2ms/1 fun body call. To construct the same term manually. Before starting to look at lists. . dets:close(subDisk). all processes that are waiting for or holding the semaphore are allowed to complete their tasks. . LoopData) -> {ok. . 1.0> 5> ping:send(Pid).app file.# When you do so. experimenting with insertion. then>>"). Pid}. By only handling positive cases where the structure is correctly parsed. . Name}. Arity}). DataOffset:4. meaning “all fields that are not explicitly mentioned” are matched to a wildcard. if there is no other traffic. It is stripped down so that all it can do is display an About box. Exercise 3-4: Database Handling Using Lists Write a module db. whereas an enter_window event will also have associated with it the position of the mouse when the event occurred (among other things).catch construct. often follow standards and application-level protocols that allow programs written independently of each other to interact with each other. 343. The effect of this is as follows: 248 | Chapter 11: Distributed Programming in Erlang 1.eval_loop. all you need to do is ensure that there is no schema directory for that particular node. Fd) -> Fd. you might not enjoy the trail of peace and tranquility the call leaves behind. where we retrieve only the messages we are explicitly interested in based on certain criteria. Here is the code from Chapter 5. 349 bit sequences. Which one of them do you prefer? 154 | Chapter 6: Process Error Handling Exercise 6-3: A Supervisor Process The supervisor we provided in the example is very basic. either constructing a new list or calculating a value. We say that process A depends on process B when the fact of B terminating can prevent A from functioning correctly. race conditions can occur.{2008. it can be linked to the supervision tree. Socket. Let’s take a closer look at how this evaluates: even([10. 65 2> $A + 32. true} Ensures that the connected socket sends keepalive messages when no data is being transferred. . process) process manager (pman). math:pi()*2*2. where the first element is the construct and the remaining ones are the logical expressions.0> global_group:init/1 71 0 <0. {num. first for intermodule calls. {put_chars. Device drivers are typically written in C. true The ability to compare values from different data types allows you to write generic functions such as sort. Use it in a safe test environment as carelessly as you want. Modules are your basic building blocks. .. With a Prolog-based Erlang virtual machine (VM). after which it saves the data to a file. Indexing When creating the usr table. Pid ! stop. You can use the ping method on a node to test whether a remote node exists.return_error.4. one for each entry. Had you been using transactions. on the other hand. Instead. 31 variables. In the early days. and events triggered by the passage of time or by external user gestures with a mouse or keyboard. The home page of the Erlang online documentation installed.null]}.228}. and messages to denote events. 182 worker. {error. increment the head. as Erlang had all of the qualities he was looking for in a database application. use the code:unstick_dir(Dir) call or start Erlang using the –nostick flag.98. all of which are read and executed at startup. Mnesia might not be the right choice."Armstrong".[]. given a list of lists. 1. {NextWord. In turn. 74 | Chapter 3: Sequential Erlang Let’s try catching exceptions by using the list_to_integer/1 BIF. disabled). These macros include the following: debugVal(Expr) Will print the source code and current value of Expr. There are two variants of the system on Windows.age. return(X) when is_integer(X) -> catch return_error(X). of course.0).{size.72}. 'Armstrong'}. World"} World"} World"} World"} 332 | Chapter 15: Socket Programming {send_oct. 445 Index . 378 is_record function. or its definition. And most importantly. However. stopping. . you are presented with a list of all the applications running on all distributed nodes. A shallow garbage collection looks only at data in the youngest generation. sum(6. and behaviour for now. and lbs allows third parties to execute location lookups on this particular user. Args). register(add_two. Oscar Hellström.5.W) when ?Multiple(Z. you must benchmark whole systems in the application domain for which those languages were designed. where he has taught computing at undergraduate and postgraduate levels for the past 25 years. the shell commands rf(RecordName) and rf() forget one or all of the record definitions currently visible in the shell. compile it in the same shell where we ran the previous iteration.{1.. https://www.3. Element]. %% The client Functions 150 | Chapter 6: Process Error Handling stop() -> call(stop). 421 development considerations. Tracing Local and Global Function Calls So far. .[{usr. The system will create a node with the default cookie if none is supplied when the node is started. send(Socket. you will discover that there are many variants of the tp.41. instance} 4> my_db:read(foo).108. 342. It allows a programmer to traverse a data structure via successive calls to the same function. Example: reverse([1. running in a separate operating system thread (see Figure 16-1). [harryPotter. where you do not want to affect the state of the process you are calling and don’t want it to receive an exit signal if the client terminates as a result of a link to another process. 371 palin/1 function. and training and systems development. The various language features covered in this chapter. you are bound to come across this." The ++ operator takes two lists and joins them together into a new list. but also in a degradation of the performance of the operations applied on the table.5}. Once you’ve created an atom. If you type the same code in a module as part of a function and compile it.104.0. 338 RPC support. . A. 80 single assignment. We could also call this an “explicit” or a “manifest” fun. "length ( [ 1 . N}.{cat. respectively. or just an integer. 41 compile:file function. Pid = spawn(?MODULE. Exercises | 243 CHAPTER 11 Distributed Programming in Erlang To write a fault-tolerant system. we’ll use the example of an index. [] -> {error. If you are interested in reading more about other Internet Protocol implementations. . and reverse. but there will be some surprises. 302–304 ETS tables and. You can access this page at: https://www.<0.10. Using case studies from commercial. we clean up by removing the file UsrTabFile. wxFrame:show(Frame). shared between connected nodes so that if A knows about B.{Word. There 226 | Chapter 10: ETS and Dets Tables is a catch. thus reducing the risk of bugs. In our example.21. beta. Payload). remove.128. 160 implementing. .8] should return [4. Given the data structure returned by the dict module. Now that we can insert data. This fault tolerance allows the system to be more robust and reliable. [Size2|_] = TTL2. benchmarks show that Erlang manages to outperform these languages for the same reasons it outperforms them in process creation times. or existing. and the time/0 function returns the current time as a tuple of {Hour. But now. When changing a float to an integer.3} badarg This is returned when a BIF is called with the wrong arguments.<0. A number of the format 071234567 is thus represented as 71234567. preferred(X) -> Y = case X of one -> 12._. . 416 assertNot macro. whereas false will disable it. 437 error handling.00000 7> 2*2*3. loop. 367 set_on_spawn flag. Options) This will run the command Cmd as an external program. .. let’s look at how you access the documentation associated with them. . true.otp. We start the event manager with the log_handler. and cannot occur within function definitions. Large Erlang systems consist of loosely coupled Erlang modules. . . 411 The implementer benefits from such an approach because she has a clear target at each stage: pass the tests. or worse. LoopData}. 205 serializing. Richard Carlson. 30 | Chapter 2: Basic Erlang are trying to execute on the variable. . . and it is now supported by a team of approximately 20 developers and a wide circle of contributors. {stdlib. Occurrences must precede the module declaration itself. prepay). are implemented in the runtime system for efficiency. 380 messages node communications. Conditions. but this is not necessary. {shell. writing "Hello " "Concurrent " "World" will result in the compiler appending the three strings together. 417 test-generating function. Node) -> {facserver. Radius}) -> Side * Side . The handle_cast/1 callback function handles the specifics of the message.and disk-efficient storage and retrieval of large collections of data. Defensive Programming Assume your program has to map to an integer an atom representing a day of the week. where we covered distributed Erlang. and which can be left unchanged? 168 | Chapter 7: Records and Macros Exercise 7-2: Record Guards Using the record BIF record(P. Allocated}. The Erlang approach is to use standard return values of the form ok. {ok.Reason} is sent to the monitoring process. nil() Has one element.111.m.g. It is the responsibility of the calling process to guarantee that these preconditions are met. are not allowed. 23 Erlang type notation. Languages that don’t provide these tools put a huge burden on developers and support engineers alike. Count]). and open source projects. Double} [true. including those consisting of binary chunks. just as an OTP application will do. So. Functions that have side effects require a more complex infrastructure..[{vsn. You can avoid this problem by using references and assuming that no other processes will send messages of the format {reply. true 21> lists:all(Positive. X has the value 10 as passed in by the parameter.B. For more information on the Inets application. 264 ETS and Dets tables. and traverse them.0}. {reply. . Two processes that have each created a separate server will not be able to share objects. Pay special attention to the different memory types. you can see a list comprehension appear as part of the result expression. and all the ways in which X can be inserted into that permutation. The following code style is a typical example of what happens when someone writes code. reverse it. -spec delete_usr(_) -> 'ok' | {'error'.11. you do not need to check the return value of each recursive call for an error. 362 reverse function. the underlying TCP buffer can be used to throttle the requests and reject messages on the client side. we will stick to describing supervision within the OTP framework. When destroy is invoked. so to avoid terminating.protected}] 4> ets:info(usrRam). [{shoeSize. as both distributed Erlang nodes share the same root directory. Message) gen_server:call(Name. Communication with linked-in drivers uses ports and the same BIFs as used in port programs. contains information on your application resources and dependencies. Act I As an example of ETS tables in use.[{new.111.'$2'}.0). . is_atom(X) . 24 4> bnot 9. But that is exactly what the bump function is supposed to do! The solution is to call the function we are defining recursively using the tail of the list: bump([Head | Tail]) -> [Head + 1 | bump(Tail)]. The pattern matching fails. You should use this if there is a strong dependency among all of the children regardless of the order in which they were started. Send email to index@oreilly.F. he started his career as an intern at Ericsson’s computer science lab. with more complex graphical entities.. meaning they can be called from outside the module.10} 4> frequency:allocate().[c]). even if called more than once in the same microsecond. closed} -> handle(lists:reverse(BinaryList). as they are meant to be accessible outside the module. but it has the disadvantage of making it harder to meet certain lower-level. bags. Usr). . san_francisco. finite state machines.integer()) -> ok|{error.0. returning true if the element is a member of the list and false if not. 408 running. exit This can be raised by calling the exit/1 BIF. 276– 280 tail recursion. as generated from a file that begins like this: @author Francesco Cesarini exp11. 391 shell (see Erlang shell) Short Message Service (SMS). In telecom systems.15} 9> frequency:allocate(). If you are serious about your fault tolerance and high availability. Records and operations on records are converted to tuples and element calls. they will probably be in the form of a bug.7. . 21 Y Yahoo!. and the system calls you need to handle. 282 is_loaded function.W) when Z rem W == 0 -> true. 331 getopts function. 30. These functions can be called by the event manager. To understand what happens next.emu} } }.3] ++ [4. 198 defined. which ignores incoming messages. receive pong -> pong end. "#{n}!=#{(fac n)}") f. Board} -> reset(Board). In the R13 release. 9 10 loop() -> 11 receive 12 {Pid.108. or will help another programmer who has to use or modify your program. However. admin_disabled} end. you use the following function calls: gen_udp:open(Port) gen_udp:open(Port. EDoc is part of the standard Erlang distribution. Things in the world don’t share data. false 4> less) call ping:start() (<0.surname = "Williams"}. It is better to make your program terminate in the convert function with a clause error (meaning no clause was matched). loop."Hello Shell got {udp. Socket. initialize(. This chapter introduces wxWidgets and explains the principles underlying its Erlang binding. In the previous version. 365 process trace flags.hrl"). This would include the call ets:insert(msgQ. In Erlang. ok 2> dbg:h(p). If the file does not exist.1. spend some time reading through the manual pages of the rpc module and become familiar with it. string).html page. upgrade(Data) -> db_server ! {upgrade. many other universities around the world are not far behind. In programs. using the usual function application in command 9.ericsson.6}. We’ve just given you a top-level summary of how ports work. Do not future-proof your code. you would do so in the LoopData variable. look for the .Bs]). It is not part of the function expression itself. service_flag/2]). Pid). delete_handler(Name. [{harryPotter. if a function f is given a success typing (S) -> T. convert/2]).5. like so: compile:file(foo. As most Erlang functions are side effect free. -1 3> 11 div 5. the waterfall model is as disastrous in Erlang as it is in any other programming language. reset(BladeId. Even if they are most commonly used in the match specification body.. what programmers do as a matter of course. DisableList. loop/0]). the programmer. replace your recursive functions iterating on lists with a call to one of the higher-order functions in the lists module. LoopData) -> 1. 284.[]. the overhead causes the process to run more slowly. but you might not necessarily want to do all of them at the same time. 01010101.4.{1. 383–391 generating.name)#name. . For the badmatch exception. Note that the information contains not only the types of the arguments and results. which takes an exp and returns its value • A pretty printer. inserting an element where the tuple is identical for a second time has no effect: 12> ets:insert(TabId2. The dbg tracer is a text-based debugger providing a user-friendly interface to the trace and trace_pattern BIFs.[{erlang. the FSM changes to the dial state and you enter your aunt’s phone number. This call has the effect of generating a synchronous message which is sent to the server. When comparing atoms. gen_server will call the callback function handle_cast(Message.En>> You can pattern-match them like this: < is_binary(Term4).3] 3> [a. the machine can be said to display intelligence. as in the following: -record(person. 213 You would use a set to model the collection of people coming to a birthday party.117. and then recursively call itself. . but also specifies its modules. The function returns true if any processes were terminated as a result of the call or false otherwise. Value) BIF. .~s. you can encrypt the packets you send using the crypto module. . pick a higher number. The Erlang compiler implements records before programs are run. * This is done for the duplicate code detection algorithm in Wrangler. and then communicates with it. . Further Reading | 333 Exercises Exercise 15-1: Snooping an HTTP Request Open a listener socket on your local machine. the italicized path gives the path to the latest version of erl_interface on your system. you can open it using the call dets:open_file(FileName). To meet such requirements. and it would thus not be appropriate to trace all table entries as the overhead and amount of data to be filtered would be too large."2. the second argument. init(Count) -> Count. get_index(CustId) -> case ets:lookup(usrIndex. it is copied from the sending process into the recipient’s mailbox for retrieval. you have a proper or well-formed list. the specifications are complex to write.3]].Fun. A positive delta value means memory has been freed in the (current) heap and the old heap. {error. 47 fun expressions. Record Implementation We are now about to let you in on a poorly kept secret. 331 controlling process function. After the code upgrade. dirty operations will significantly enhance the performance of your program. not to mention engineers who are well practiced in their maintenance skills. events. Another attribute we have come across is the export attribute. . {keepalive.<0.5}]} You should spend some time getting acquainted with the tracer and its interface.000. The equal (==) and not equal (/=) operators compare the values on either side of the operator without paying attention to the data types. . 349 test/1 function. This alias is used to send the message to the newly spawned child. very general library modules have been built. Make sure you test the upgrade steps thoroughly and cover all potential scenarios. as its value will change in each iteration! We do not want to change the interface to bump/1. {error. 53–59 chapter exercises.Rest).0}.6}. Data}} -> end. we need to create the ETS tables and reopen the Dets table. {erl_eval. 314–320 bnot operator.2|. 2.2} 4> Second = ets:next(indexTable.2.eval_exprs. []) -> false. If these processes are part of a supervision tree.6] Left-associated concatenation is inefficient. Search times that are proportional to the amount of data being searched are not acceptable in soft real-time systems. It is not mandatory.'$4'}}. File} a client would call: printerserver:print(File) 118 | Chapter 5: Process Design Patterns This is a form of information hiding. Msg} -> Pid ! {result. In this call. and the hardware ID of the sender is 2.12. The q module Applications and Modules | 425 should have exported the function empty() -> [].<0. as it isn’t there. The error handler and database processes were not needed. just cd to the lib directory from the Erlang root directory. {file. All of these behavior library modules have manual pages that you can reference. this is shown in Figure 11-3.0. catch loop_delete_disabled(ets:first(usrRam)). Tail-Recursive Functions In writing the sum function earlier: sum([]) -> 0. Java. The process ring consists of the new process spawning the next process in the ring. Each of these actions is defined in a separate callback module with its own LoopData. But until recently.120.francesco]}. The second process spawns the database server and might go a little further than the first one.0>} 2> dbg:p(all. deallocate/1]).cat . what you see here with assignment to variables is a special case of pattern matching. and in particular. and Erlang can provide lightweight.cookie file. . not all tests are successful.lbs]} (om@Vaio)10> mnesia:transaction(fun() -> mnesia:write(Rec) end). 401 Persson. . stress test. when the first element is an atom. We have removed the Pid!stop expression at the end of the go/0 function. including Haskell. . Func. 299 functional programming. export the function prep_stop(Data) in your callback module. where Socket is the identifier for the socket opened and Reason is one of several POSIX error codes returned as an atom. but will result in a runtime error when you try to execute it: Var = one. you would lose that particular message.3]. download chapters. -export([start/0. 'or'. When a process is dispatched.. 423 process identifier (pid) defined. Remember that every port consists of two file descriptors. This means the upper limit of a Mnesia table is 2 GB if the storage type is disc-only copies. Multiple) -> Even = lists:filter(fun(X) -> (X rem 2) == 0 end. You need to create your schema and tables only once. They also need to be linked to their parent. by which header files containing macro and record definitions are used in Erlang projects. Perl. and function types and binaries in Chapter 9. "lkdsjfljasdkjflkajsdf. to function correctly. media gateways. . so it has a head and a tail which are bound to the variables Head and Tail. . X is given the value and Y ranges through [2. making @spec tags superfluous. After the tests. allocate} to the frequency server. therefore. list_to_atom/1. #wx{id=?EXIT. 415. catch statement: Handling Errors | 71 5> try (throw(non_normal_return)) of 5> Val -> {normal. 175 upgrading processes. {size. as we’ve been caught by it many times. 378 RPC (remote procedure call) interworking with Java.nonode@nohost.[inets. eaddrnotavail if you are using a port in a range your OS has reserved. ."Williams". we enable the trace events for all messages sent and received by the ping process after which we call the ping:send/1 function. even during sustained peaks. . Multiple = lists:map(fun(X) -> X * Multiple end. fun () -> create_tables("UsrTabFile"). Kenneth Lundin. as well as starts the top-level supervisor through a set of callback functions. 299 deleting objects. erlang:demonitor(Reference) Clears the monitor so that monitoring no longer takes place. atom() Includes all Erlang atoms. 212 defined. . but it will always be an overapproximation. which we explain fully in Chapter 9.[c]). as this is one of the most powerful tools available with the Erlang runtime distribution.3] 7> Bin2 = list_to_binary(Bs). pass it to the factorial function. . the first element of the tuple is the logical construct and the remaining ones are (possibly nested) conditional expressions or guards. A semaphore is a process that serializes access to a particular resource. they are internally converted to representation using an arbitrary number of words. tpl. enable_trace(Pid. 352 dtp function. . . Pid = spawn_link(add_two. 3]) sum([1.0. Use f() to forget existing variable bindings in the shell. 164 recursion controlling. 5. about pids or tables—to be communicated to the cleanup phase. The head tells us the function is of arity 3. 191. we do something different. Data) -> db_server ! {write.pdf. The type of create_tables here indicates that the FileName argument is a string. For example. This chapter also introduces other features directly related to sequential programming. we passed the literal function caller() as Data. And finally. It therefore makes sense to garbage-collect in the current data more frequently than in the old data. {caller}}] }]).oreilly. 124 keysearch/3 function. Seq = lists:seq(1. you will match the oldest message in your receive clause. if you do the same trace but replace local with global in command 3. the handle function would take appropriate actions in executing that menu choice.1. 226 sets. the same ugly but extremely powerful terms describing a simple program that we discussed in Chapter 10. after which we’ll create the ETS table and insert and look up a few elements. and to Rachel Monaghan. this is not the case in C or C++ where the definitions are only introduced by the preprocessor. they are not. In the previous two clauses. and if nothing has arrived. * https://www. no single language encompassed them all. Rest). As this is really a simplified case construct. Here is how the application is set up: %% Top-level frame: create a menu bar. integers. receive {ok. 215 Index | 455 E e/1 shell command. ok 6> io:format("the sum of ~W is ~w. -export([start_link/0]). . let’s look at the details of the propagation semantics associated with the exit signals as summarized in Table 6-1. [. all of which have open source Erlang drivers and APIs available. . loop(ChildList) -> receive {'EXIT'. what do you do? You implement a match specification that. As you saw in Chapter 3. 50–52 library modules. other than the one that terminated. Name. 2 useful modules. -spec delete_usr(_) -> any(). including the size information that forms part of the sequence. Boundary.two.21. we will be starting the database on two nodes. and YAWS. a guard follows the generator for X. document-oriented database. false -> ok end. The full details of these are available in the documentation for the io module. if you have none.4. Arguments}. Look at the following code to get a feel for how to use tail-recursive functions to denote the states. setup(Frame) -> * In releases before R13. Freq}). FileName}. instead of returning {reply.do_not_exist. The OTP framework.). the call returns a tuple {atomic. and EDoc on the solutions you wrote for exercises earlier in the book. We often call this function the receive/evaluate loop of the process. together with an example of a function that generates them and how that will actually look in the shell when you call that function. 216 Dets tables and. You can write this directly. Not only would this result in an overhead of the monitoring messages being sent among the nodes.39. ok. tic messages are sent and acknowledged by a tok. . If you do not want to terminate any processes running the old version of the code. in Java. tuple() Contains all tuples. 80 CouchDB database. merge them together. ets:insert(msgQ. 402 | Chapter 18: Types and Documentation Documenting usr_db. {data. However. delete_usr(CustId) -> ok | {error. . one of the inventors of Erlang. the first expression will (assuming Int is unbound) bind the Pattern Matching | 35 variable Int to the integer 1.erlang file. . ok 4> event_manager:send_event(alarm.2.0. the final guard shows how multiple variables can take part in a guard.~w. each time we have given some definitions. Ensuring that there are no cycles in your module dependencies is a step in the right direction. giving back a little of what the community has given to us. opening what we call an attach window. false -> Services end. 361. They should all be stored in the lib subdirectory of the Erlang root.0>) << {io_reply. 129. Although Heriot-Watt might have taken Ericsson’s word that Erlang was suitable for programming telecom applications. The first is by calling a function in a module that has not yet been loaded. This call has the same effect as calling the BIF erlang:system_info(trace_control_word). and terms is to the corresponding Java class OtpErlangAtom. you might miss an event. that becomes the current version. .. Arguments. ??? 9> ets:match(countries. • The CouchDB “schema-less” document-oriented database. . stdlib]}. and their expected return values: Setup The following calls: start(Name. #Fun> . They will show the principles of pattern matching and single-variable assignment described in this chapter. under which messages are sent to the group leader.0/ebin"). pop=2400000}). The client pid. but do not press Enter. . Write a function that. the cleanup will vary from process to process. You can find additional information on JInterface and its Erlang classes in the “Interface and Communication Applications” section of the Erlang/OTP documentation. you will end up receiving the response from the server after the timeout. the sum of [2.. handling.status = disabled. you can refactor it into two separate functions. Some of the most challenging bugs are those caused by race conditions. bar} 5> my_db:match(bar). As soon as the parent has printed the atom hello in the shell. Here’s a common scenario: you run a test and are able to re-create the same bug every time. 103 if construct development considerations. false -> ok end. binary Forwards all messages in the packet as a binary. namely allocate.) gives their conjunction. true 6> ets:insert(foo. 378 is_float function. Where to Learn More The best place to start when you want to learn more about Erlang is the Erlang home page. Together with clients/servers.. Process states Figure 17-2. or '/='. If all of this sounds simple. 301 partitioned networks. 412. if your system is complex and upgrades are major. lists and tuples are processed in very different ways. Breakpoints can have a status of active or inactive.[c]). so there is no need to flatten the list. . In the following example. * Our birthdays are January 12 and March 26. The processWords function inserts the words into the Table. References. a function call ensured that it was decoded and handled. increasing the backend support only when necessary. could be used as follows: NewQ = []. -spec(update_usr(#usr{}) -> ok). End). Although the basics of upgrading your code in runtime are very simple.erl example earlier. The supervisor uses the tuple {Module. The good news is that the ones we described are all you need. The correct implementation of keysearch/2 would thus be: keysearch(Key. Int2:6>> = <<128>>. The reason for not allowing developers to implement their own guard functions. 9> {Element. This might not always be the best way to handle debugging information. As a child process can crash and be restarted. It is part of the standard library application. [1. even though this should be the least of your worries. Leslie Lamport: 246 | Chapter 11: Distributed Programming in Erlang A distributed system is one in which the failure of a computer you didn’t even know existed can render your own computer unusable.[{matched.13/ include/inet. stop() -> ok | {error. so where possible.0.usr_db} 17> usr_db:restore_backup()..6. [[france. and as a result. asynchronous message passing. Further Reading We are almost done with our module subscriber database. 192. 174. For example: > list_to_binary([<<1. reply(Pid. so thus far. The parent. request({set_service. Each node has a cookie value at any one time.{italy.4. read(Key. or as values of variables. benchmark. so the message that an “append” menu item has been selected would be treated as follows: receive #wx{id=?APPEND. we are testing a pattern match that either succeeds or fails.{badarith. Had the db module stored everything on file. Although I had already solved the same problem and was able to reuse a good part of the algorithms. lookup_id/1]). in turn. 398 | Chapter 18: Types and Documentation TypEr: Success Types and Type Inference The TypEr system. delete(Key. ok 4> dets:lookup(food. implement the following function: event_manager:swap_handlers(Name. whereas atoms are represented in a system table and take a couple of bytes to reference regardless of their size. Quicksort (Chapter 9) using list comprehensions or remote procedure call server examples (Chapter 11). Pid.Z>. 3 7> 6 bsl 4. . spawn a separate process. 366 ln function. typically something like /usr/local/lib/erlang/lib or C:/Program Files/erl5. always refer to the release notes and documentation of the runtime system you are using.[]. whereas the {HandlerFun. Configuring Mnesia Mnesia is packaged as an OTP application. start() -> register(frequency. they are caught at a very early stage of testing. one 3> tl(List). Now. To represent the two special atoms true and false. PhoneNum and CustId are integers. Each open socket in Erlang was associated with a process that was receiving and sending data through this socket. signal/0]). . close_tables() -> ets:delete(usrRam). 3] => [1 + 1 | bump([2. 20. For example. Xs). But if your behavior receives an EXIT signal from its parent. OptionList). and 'receive' generates events when messages are added to the mailbox of the traced process. unknown_msg}} should not have been inserted in the table in the first place. Socket} message will be sent to the socket on the other side. 5 selective receives. the only thing we can depend on is being able to reach all the keys by stepping through them using first and next. 214. bxor. .~n". You will quickly discover that in the majority of cases. suggested a review of Erlang’s exception handling. You can deserialize a string such as this by parsing it. because it uses functional programming principles without making a big fuss about it: they are simply the right foundation on which to build a language with concurrency designed in from the start. 373 tracing functions. Haskell. false). You can also change these features by right-clicking the file icon and selecting Properties. Second) of true -> Y = atom_to_list(First) ++ [$ |atom_to_list(Second)] ++ [$ |get_nickname(First. you need to add fields to these tuples. Pattern Matching | 37 unbound variables. The first is defined in the function f/1 and is used in the final expression of the body of f. or TCP for short. LineNumber} pairs from the text file. Db) of error -> {error.983. 30000). {value.echo} 2> echo:go().6}. LoopData}. 139–148 robust systems. . and utilities. It is no coincidence that records and macros. the dbg Tracer. Let’s look at two examples to see the difference. It is often bundled with the Erlang release. request/1. dets:open_file(subDisk. {slot. The values matched to the variables are given in a list in ascending order of the variables."Hello Shell got {udp. without affecting any of the other children.30. {leaf. which will print an Erlang term. false). . is trapping exits. 147 behavioral aspects. • The example relies on connections between nodes being made automatically. Large systems usually have an event manager for every type of event.false}]? How do you distinguish the return value of the key with the atom false returned as the base case when the entry is not found? keysearch(Key. flush() -> receive {read."/Users/Francesco/patches/"}]}. . for a frame (whose reference is in the Frame variable) to connect to the events generated by a command being selected in a menu. and so forth. Linkage to an old version Loading Code Code is loaded in the Erlang runtime system in a variety of ways. and then in Chapter 4. Operations on integers alone always result in an integer. ['$1']}] 10> ets:select(countries. All rights reserved. This leaves one minor change to be made in the usr. the proposal of the try . Be warned. Count) -> case gen_tcp:recv(Socket. The state is passed to a receiveevaluate function. disable}}}. As a result. you must enclose it in single quotes. 277 symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) background. Its processes are lightweight in that the Erlang virtual machine does not create an OS thread for every created process. <0. '<'.surname="Williams"}}. {person. they can be used as a general mechanism for managing any resource.erl From the Erlang shell. and not are reserved words in Erlang. Exercises | 171 CHAPTER 8 Software Upgrade You receive a bug report that in one of your instant messaging (IM) servers. log these errors and crashes in a separate error logger process. public. Fixtures: Setup and Cleanup It is characteristic of state-based systems that you can test particular properties only after you have set up the right configuration. status=enabled}} -> lists:member(Service. Arguments. allowing the process to terminate normally. 214 | Chapter 10: ETS and Dets Tables Sets.five] 2> hd(List). and produce a list containing ranges as well as removing duplicates. The flush() in command 7 shows that the message indeed went to the shell process. which we introduce in Chapter 13. as shown here: dialyzer --build_plt -r /kernel-2. a process needs to be notified of it and store its value. age. the erlang. Haskell. regardless of whether the gen_server to which you are sending the message is alive. If you want your endian value to be determined at runtime. have to be prefixed with the erlang module prefix. or indeed operating system structures such as files and I/O. as in command 9? The first occurrence is unbound. . but three if you ask Leslie Lamport. instead of generating a runtime error. loop(Frame. . [{alison. The head of the miniblog. You can see this in commands 3 and 4. keeping the interface between them safe and simple. 165 ?FILE macro. ** exception error: no match of right hand side value [1. The summation is performed using a for loop. The clause will be selected only if the pattern matches and the guard expression evaluate to the atom true. If you add a field to the record.stockholm}. start. exchanging messages within the system takes microseconds. You can use first and next. delete/2. which has more than 5 million users and 150 million bookmarked URLs. which is the alias with which the process is registered. informing whoever is reading the code that this value is ignored. and chat servers. Args). This short example provided you with a taste of the Erlang type notation. that is. 2. . You could do the same in C or Java. • The Erlang Factory. two|[three. 261 epmd command. and erl_malloc For handling the Erlang term format. As an example.0>) call ping:send(<0. {write. when the recursive call is fully qualified: loop() -> receive {Sender. true 4> ets:insert(countries. multiplication. We picked the mnesia:foldl/3 call for no particular reason other than the fact that it is an interesting function that deserves mention. you might not notice any difference in execution time. The macro definition is used here to make a guard expression more readable. . How do you have to change the tests when the implementation is modified to register the process? Exercise 19-3: Software Upgrade How would you define EUnit tests for a software upgrade in the db_server example given in Chapter 8? Exercise 19-4: Testing OTP Behaviors Incorporate the test examples given in Chapter 12 into the EUnit framework. because the List is nonempty. . do not forget to release it. Not needing to check the head of the list.emu] representing the left subtree of the top node. the patched module will be used and the euro symbol will be mapped correctly. and delete elements. they would all be processed in parallel. which not only determines control flow.42}.0>> 6> < [1. For this reason. {name. listToTree([2. lookup_id(1)) Note in the cleanup that we can call an external Unix command to remove the file using the ?cmd macro. By creating a composite data type with the variables A. insert. catch construct has the following form: try Exprs of Pattern1 [when Guard1] -> ExpressionBody1.{claire. Sniff the contents of the request and extract the URL of the web page your browser is trying to load.2"}.PadC. durability. ** exception error: no match of right hand side value {1. 336. and instead treats them equally.42}. bar@localhost 1> application:start(mnesia). as in: -define(TIMEOUT. or functional programming. Socket} = gen_tcp:accept(ListenSocket).3}}. [100000]). That changed a few months later when I started studying object-oriented programming. 2]) => [2. this parameter looks rather like a variable in an imperative language. . programmers would make their strings span many lines. 330. possibly resulting in a runtime error. attributes. Pid} -> Pid ! ok.. 296 dbg module. {M. 23 _ (underscore). Y+X.27. One of the flags –n. busy(Pid) -> receive {signal.org/10. When tracing recursive calls. the size of the tuple created by the compiler will change. The remaining arguments are as for spawn/3: the module.erl References include name/arity for functions within the module. sharing the same group leader as their parent. # Assuming. test2() -> showPerson(birthday(joe())).Xs) Alternatively. <0.five]. -spec update_usr(#usr{}) -> 'ok'. and are recognizable by the – sign in front of the attribute name and the full stop termination. Match1). two types of events are connected to the frame for processing: those signaling the choice of a menu item (command_menu_selected) and the close_window event. Here is how the client functions are implemented: %% The client Functions stop() -> call(stop). Bjorn Gustavsson. A Java package such as JInterface consists of a collection of Java classes. If none of the guards evaluates to the atom true. 96 process skeleton. 72. As you become more * If you are writing industrial applications. dropping the leading zero. 102–104 tail recursion. Reply. you will not get the intended behavior. Exercise 12-3: The Database Server As an Application Encapsulate your supervision tree from Exercise 12-2 in an application. F. {error.~n". The GUI is event-driven: the GUI objects handle events—both user-initiated and internal—by associating the events with (member) functions to be called when the events occur.{badarith. 378 is_integer function.cs. as deleted objects are not removed from the table as long as it remains fixed.[_|Xs]) when N>0 -> index(N-1. and moved to the list of allocated frequencies.. 352 ei_connect function.. 247 distribution and security. Second) -> case person_exists(First. 296 ping module.org. . With higher-order functions encapsulating common computation patterns. as no translation of the data is required between systems. In this section. 373 tp/2 function. 447–449 usage suggestions. and the return value of a function is the result of the last expression executed. hello 11> flush(). functions for downgrading in case an upgrade fails.. when the if expression has a sequence of guards that test the value of a particular expression: if X rem 2 == 1 -> odd. . In those rare occasions where they slip through the design phase.{_..e. prettyIndex(). filter(P.. we break the list into a head and a tail. you will want to execute some. but is called with an atom: Runtime Errors | 69 1> length(helloWorld). respectively.Phone}: -module(tuples1). Reply} -> Reply end. you could potentially update all even keys on one node and all odd ones on the other. 296. • Separating individual expressions (or indeed.org To comment or ask technical questions about this book. ⇒ NewDb.{owner. . Finally. . all event tags containing an {M. On receiving a message. handle_call({add_usr. you have to use the reference returned by the function. normal and nonnormal. 332 i function. 360 process trace flags. . bypassing the call stack.do_not_exist. or by typing them as commands to a command prompt.{likes. atom()}). 1. Memory Management in Erlang When the first Erlang-based products were being developed in 1993. 220 visualizing. . 295 starting. the entry {Pid. introduce new arguments in your functions..'$2'}. you need a separate enable_trace call. owner = "lelle"}. and as a result. Complex Data Structures When we refer to Erlang terms. 420 concurrent programs. It is presaved as the match specification [{'_'.Code). A process fixes a table by calling ets:safe_fixtable(TableRef. and place the beam and source code files in a subdirectory called patches.Sum) -> Sum. you would often spawn a new process for every request.23. When a file is loaded. there is just one. -spec close_tables() -> 'ok' | {'error'. Though not included in the following examples.stockholm}. and can then be used to reference the table in ETS operations. a tuple with the first element error will be returned. The Head The head is a list of variables. {ok. This is used in defining byte() and char() and a number of other built-ins.{count.M}. There is also an Erlang plug-in package for Vim. 373 socket programming additional information. stockholm.102}] through a sequence of transformations. This message will be the response sent back after the timeout. This call is global. and underscores. The first test we’ll write will test a lookup on an empty database after the tables are created with create_tables("UsrTabFile"): ?_assertMatch({error. which is introduced in the head of the function clause.[]. . double([].msg). 302 demonitor function. 0:64. or they can be received as Erlang messages. it will terminate and propagate an exit signal. called with number N and string Word. OperState) -> case AdminState of enabled -> disable(BladeId). You can do this in the shell using the following command: c(Module. the atom ok is returned to the process that initiated the stop call: stop(Name) -> Name ! {stop. {person.3. .cookie file. Representing Erlang Types The JInterface package contains a variety of classes that represent. Also. . most editors with an Erlang mode should have direct hooks into the manual pages.30. in an application or a package).] 2> gc_mon:measure(gc_test. A = A + 1.#Port<0. . many of its features were ahead of its time.[]. . . This might be for efficiency reasons. This has the look and feel of a Mac application. 353 erl_call command. . and Erlang strings—which are lists of integers in Erlang—are described by OtpErlang String. 202 concurrency considerations. Pid ! Message is a valid Erlang expression. 5000) of {ok. already_started} Assume that the database server process has not been started and two processes simultaneously start executing the start/0 function. and Erlang/OTP also supports communication by means of XML. Usr} -> usr_db:update_usr(Usr#usr{status=Status}). Only one operation is missing: traversing the list and deleting all disabled subscribers. Argument). often with a small memory footprint. Func. only the modules the runtime system needs are loaded. The specific code.age=30}.3. 28. ** Registered procs on Name application_controlle code_server ddll_server erl_prim_loader error_logger file_server file_server_2 global_group global_name_server inet_db init kernel_safe_sup kernel_sup rex node nonode@nohost ** Pid Initial Call Reds Msgs <0. functions are listed in alphabetical order. foldr(F.[].{type. {atomic.3>>. It is a trade-off between having a good memory and remembering all of the 370 | Chapter 17: Trace BIFs. Data}} -> Reply = {data. Person == francesco].† An alternative to including this as a module directive is to make it an option on compilation. 346 FFI and.. At least you will not be able to say you picked up this bad habit from us. In an IM system. pid(). You prefix the BIF with the name of the erlang module that contains it.101. try pattern matching in the shell. an Example: Tree Serialization In the section “Serialization” on page 208 in Chapter 9.4] -.1]]).2} < [1.3]. self()])). QuickCheck is a product of Quviq AB.2. and debug. {line. Pid.3}]}} 5> X. as destructive operations during the traversal might cause a runtime error. Just picture your application’s database. These exported functions include start. Interval is an integer in milliseconds (the default is 180. • Facebook uses Erlang to power the backend of its chat service. .468>} 2> inet:getopts(Socket. which will probably make any fault you are hiding hard to detect. and the second consists of a list of options. I picked up the phone and called Joe Armstrong. the group leader is passed to the remote node with the call. User Datagram Protocol User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is a connectionless protocol. 242 | Chapter 10: ETS and Dets Tables Exercise 10-2: Indexing Revisited How would you modify the index program so that the ETS table is an ordered set keyed on the Word field of tuples of the form {Word. Val} catch exit:_ -> 34. powerful code. then when the network comes back up again."Save\tCtrl-S"). the image of a brush-tailed rat kangaroo. {'EXIT'.#Fun fac:call(7).34. in this case. [])). In a similar fashion. the message hi is sent together with the Pid of the shell running at foo. It is received in the ping:send/1 call and is returned as a result of that function. 43 inserting records in ETS tables. the application binary_to_term(Bin3) will decode only the first element in the segment.0]}. . so the process using the monitor should not forget to flush its mailbox. 215 hash tables. receive {ok.75238199> 9> hof1:times(3)(2). The terminate function is the natural place to insert the code needed to clean up the LoopData of the server and any other persistent data used by the system.{'$2'. the loop data is returned unchanged and the {error. plan = prepay. 369 calendar module. 326 recv/3 function. So. This is useful if you are not interested in the arguments passed to a function and you want to minimize the size of the messages passed as a result of the call trace. you create an empty schema table which. So. 978-0-596-51818-9. Pid.surname = "Williams"}. The final result was amusingly fun to watch. It was originally used by the Erlang runtime system for loading code over the network. or rather.erl /ebin/usr. @time. say) will result in a function test/0 being exported. Generic Servers Generic servers that implement client/server behaviors are defined in the gen_server behavior that comes as part of the standard library application.'$2'. [a]) not: not spawn(m. Node) -> monitor_node(Node."(\\ |\\. 161 runtime errors.1088366 and https://doi. the filename of the Dets table. {ok. and gives detailed feedback on the cause of failure. Data has to be accessible and up-to-date across the cluster and destructive database operations. as well as facilities for broadcast and parallel evaluation of RPC calls. Message passing Each Erlang process has a mailbox in which incoming messages are stored. receive {ok. 10000. []}]).3] 3> <='. You can unset the flag by using c(Module. you will notice that all other applications also have an inets. Make sure the crash is recorded and can be used for post-mortem debugging. true. 378 is_port function. and Efficient Concurrency Erlang concurrency is fast and scalable. we’ll come back to this in later sections when we discuss how the data in the table can be accessed or traversed. they are followed by a set of parentheses. We will look at boot files in the next section. test_int(Int) when is_integer(Int) -> true. it spawns all of the children. we will go back to the example of the mobile user database. and accessing C encodings of Erlang binary terms. {ok. A common error is shadowing clauses that will never match. The effect of the functions should be clear from the examples. you should pattern-match them in the first argument of the call. which happens to have the same name. through automated recovery or manual intervention. 90 | Chapter 4: Concurrent Programming Once spawned. Msg]) when Id /=1. In command 2. CallbackModule Is the name of the module in which the specific callback functions are placed. wxFrame:setMenuBar(Frame. Also note command 13. including defining the internal message protocol • Storing the loop data and managing the process loop • Stopping the process Although the behavior module is provided. By literal function. ** exception error: bad argument in function list_to_integer/1 called as list_to_integer("one") 2> catch list_to_integer("one"). instance} -> {error. Could you not fit all of the specific code into the initialize/1. These exit signals can be normal or nonnormal. 12 | Chapter 1: Introduction The focus of the study consisted of two C++-based systems referred to as the Data Mobility (DM) component and the Dispatch Call Controller (DCC). prompting the transaction to release all of its locks and start again. return sum. .. the constructors for a class are replaced by new functions of the same arity. {ok. 1}. invalid_object}.. there was an 85% reduction in code. my_db_gen:delete(Key) ⇒ ok. Let’s try it out in the shell. CustId. The two payment types for mobile subscribers. or they should be handled. {shell. 416 functionality.send!(:result. This will apply to all functions from B. 15 loop() 16 end. which we described in the section “Inheritance Flags” on page 360 sol and sofl Denote the set_on_link and set_on_first_link flags. pad(Other) -> Other. Ericsson’s first major Erlang product was the AXD301 ATM switch. In conjunction with these projects.2] -. is_float. so sending anything but an integer will cause a runtime error that terminates the process. 53 tuple_to_list/1 function.53. CustId).5-7. . it is not possible to add Erlang processes to the supervision tree in the form you know them.107. .erl Eshell V5. let’s focus on identifying the caller and see whether it helps us solve the bug: 8> Match2 = dbg:fun2ms(fun([_. you need multiple computers. and Erlang is now supported in Eclipse through Erlide. {send_cnt. This is another example of simple but powerful and well-thought-out constructs that reduce development and support efforts and bug turnaround times.5]). wxDialog:destroy(MD). M}.erl module as follows: add_usr(PhoneNo. It is common to register processes that offer specific services with an alias. .'$1']]}] 18> ets:select(countries. By “literal fun.1 of the db module. The position of a field in the representing tuple is given by #recType. {marcus. but if you are dealing with distributed applications. /* Representations of Erlang terms 22 int res. if the message {reset.4]). true In the preceding code. you use application:which_applications(): 1> application:which_applications().. Service is a list of atoms. %% FTP ftp. [joern] 11> Due to single assignment of variables in Erlang. Unfortunately. inserting an io:format/2 statement that prints the error and process information would not solve the problem.[{crash. the conditions and the body are denoted by empty lists. tuesday.simon. CustId. 378 + (unary addition) operator. 190–192 as results. The same argument applies for message passing. Revisiting the example from the beginning of the section.and cell phone-free vacations. Events can be sent synchronously and asynchronously with a predefined set of actions being applied when they are received. Once the packet was received. a connectionless. This gives us a constant access time from the key to the corresponding tuple(s). 3. Allocated}. Reply} -> Reply end. 313 wxErlang background. _Reserved:4. To speed up its operation. The project was a mobility server. erl_connect and ei_connect For providing a connection with Erlang through a distributed Erlang node. Accu. is_list.0. Service. 118–124 process skeleton example. On the other hand.4. Design with flexibility so that any changes introduced to your internal data representations will not influence the exported functional interface. -export([birthday/1. where OId is an object identifier of the format {TableName. Finally.. Reply}. Software development in Erlang is best achieved using an agile approach.0> with exit value: {undef. {erl_eval.do_not_exist. handle_event({Action. math:sqrt(S*(S-A)*(S-B)*(S-C)). such as start. If."&File;"). possibly those that manipulate values of the same type. • The Erlang mailing lists. The Database Server The database server exports three sets of functions.marcus. as well as losing many of the advantages of using OTP in the first place. This differs from tuples. 379–381 ln function. Instead of time() and date(). These are also available in wxErlang through the Erlang preprocessor mechanism with the inclusion of the header file wx. 82–87 conditional evaluations.1. any typos will result in you having to type everything from scratch. 68 cast/2 function.do_apply. residing on the same or separate machines. • And finally.'$1'. with a different value—def—in the second position. Note that for space considerations. it is a good practice to redirect your trace events either to a file. . {expected. Reply). loop(Db). terminate() -> receive {wait. We bind the name field of the record stored in the variable Person to a new record instance we create in one operation. for readability."Hello Shell got {udp. 378 is_binary function. {22}} As _ is never bound. which returns the database in a possibly updated format. ets:delete(subRam. you would have to cater for two return values in a case clause.32. such as processes being spawned or terminated. 'Robert'. and also because so much of the code is already written for you. Have a look at its manual page. {non_integer. 57 read/1 function. denoted by atoms* and used to specify which trace events you want to generate or suppress. the type field of Rec contains the type of the message sent. Their tails are also useful: brush-tailed rat kangaroos are able to curl their tails to carry bundles of material to build their nests. "Mobile Services Database"}. If you are dealing with functions that accept nonflat lists. Printed in the United States of America.. KeyN]. and analyzed.erl_parse. since the inferred type for this function is consistent with any one-argument function type.hrl header file.]. Another useful feature of Erlang variables is that there is no need to declare them: you just use them. 0 -> even end To test your understanding of if and case expressions. The link/1 BIF will have been used by this other process to allow it to monitor and detect abnormal terminations and handle them generically.. either because the supervisor has reached its maximum number of allowed child restarts or because of a rest_for_one or one_for_all restart strategy. 168 indexes building. The phone can be in the idle state when it is plugged in and waiting either for an incoming phone call or for a user to take it off the hook. Otherwise. Pid2} getting_linked | getting_unlinked. but you are now probably asking yourself how a process can handle abnormal terminations and recovery strategies if the only thing it can do when it receives an exit signal is to terminate itself. They might require automated or manual intervention. 192 functions and variables. []) -> []. To recover from having made an error. 2 race conditions concurrent programming."About MicroBlog"). resource ! {request. The return value of these calls. which is passed to the following functions: gen_tcp:accept(Socket) gen_tcp:accept(Socket. depending on whether the Service is being added or deleted.db} 9> db:read(francesco. and Help—appear. 340 Turing. bar). 216 next/2 function. the whole mailbox has to be traversed before this message is successfully matched.2. . 98 | Chapter 4: Concurrent Programming Figure 4-6. As Erlang programs will run for years without having to be restarted. %% Exported Client Functions %% Operation & Maintenance API start_link() -> start_link("usrDb"). erl_format. no_frequency}}. That being said. 114. you saw some of the errors that can occur in an Erlang system. each process would call the initialize function. LoopData) -> {stop.2.1 to version 1. insects. both examples appear to do the same thing. The result is a list of elements derived from the generators for which the predicate evaluated to true. This behavior is different from sending a message to a process identifier for a nonexistent process. The precision of the floats in Erlang is given by the 64-bit representation in the IEEE 754–1985 standard. In discussing them and their differences.87. {[Freq|Free]. covering its key features for building high-availability. try to figure out what the terminate function should do to clean up when the mutex is terminated.~p~n". This function will produce three different kinds of behavior depending on whether its argument is positive. If you want to store some of the arguments you passed to the init function. it will traverse the list of services to determine whether the subscriber is allowed to use this Service in a particular request. with a pattern in the head (to the left of the arrow) and a sequence of expressions in the body (to the right). Figure 14-5 shows the text entry dialog that is used to input a new blog entry in Mac OS X. {nodelay. however. either with the prebuilt Mac and Windows binaries or by building the system from source. † The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council provides U.". So."/usr/local/lib/erlang/lib/kernel-2. list_to_existing_atom/1 All convert atoms to strings and back. note how the error report is formatted. 302 add_usr function. Add controls to allow a user to select a file in which to save her blog file. The option {fullsweep_after. 303 dirty_write function. Distribution. You probably want to log all the trace events to file. Db) -> dict:erase(Key. you might think you are changing the value of the name field to a new name. . 319 wxWidgets additional information."Nystrom"} 13> [1. {ok. it needs to compare the strings character by character while traversing both of them. process inspection. including developers. It will also ensure that crashes and recovery strategies are handled consistently.19.111]] 2> io:format("~s~n". financial systems. . If you are not careful. In this section. 357 tracer/2 function. 3. [sqrt/1]). Msg} -> {Reply.math.tuesday. When a new version of module A is loaded.'starting'}. Sending a message to a registered process Look at Example 4-2. The proplists module contains functions for working with property lists. 378 exactly not equal to (=/=) operator. the time-critical functions are those that are service-related. though./lib/kernel-2. this is hyperlinked to its definition. Example 2-1. a wxPoint is represented by a pair. {ok. Plan}). it is possible to define conditional macros.101.0>. We re-create the tables using create_tables/1: 11> exit(self(). The most useful parameters include: list Forwards all messages in the packet as a list of integers. namely the available memory. is_function.#usr{msisdn = 700000000. Generating the match specification using the following function: foo(A) -> dbg:fun2ms(fun([B. As the following example demonstrates. the preferred option if tracing is expected to impose a heavy load. The first aspect of this is the ability to get hold of the argument to a macro as a string. following a pattern: call(Name.21}. The Erlang distribution itself is based on nodes communicating with each other through sockets. If you do not want your file to flush. emphasis and keyword phrases. OTP applications not only are the building blocks of Erlang systems. "New blog entry"}]).[]. '_'.. none() Is a void type with no elements. we are done and the newly constructed list should be the result: bump_acc([]. where we execute a read outside the scope of a transaction. You do so by passing the {tracer. Using trace_pattern/3. Needless to say. Db2). send/1. case lists:keysearch(Handler. . In doing this. 414.173>} 10> dets:lookup(Ref. and special processes. where the variable Pid is already bound (as a result of the spawn BIF) to the pid of the child process.'$0'. The bitstring comprehension notation performs a similar role for bitstrings. . handle(1.[1. . {[disable.$W. the atom abc. the sum of [2. . as in most cases. This makes a call to deallocate(Frequencies. where Name is an optional argument. We can easily add this condition by adding a guard to our literal fun: dbg:fun2ms(fun([Id. All tables owned by this process will be terminated. It contains specific code for the particular server. Info} {trace. #capital{name="Rome".{marco. The second is to be able to load them either at startup or when loading the application. or OtpErlangLong. .As. Marlowe Shaeffer. The string "Hello World" can be split into its Lists | 23 list of constituent words—["Hello". 68 troubleshooting atom syntax. 150 process design patterns. Args). 249.F>> = Bin1. .0.2. the process calling gen_tcp:accept becomes the controlling process. let’s compile the records1 module using compile:file(records1. 396 garbage collection and.[{new.org. Sender. the message is split into the (two-integer) header and the message. id.sms]}} Finally. where the length M in the representation is used as the point for splitting the representation before converting the two halves. one or more actions are applied to each event. instance} Will look up a user based on its CustId and return a record of type usr. unknown_msg}}]) -> true end). . as might be the case for interactive mode.3. timeout} will be returned. and maintainable. . ."Hungary"]. . [1. concurrent. timeout} end. coding and decoding data formats are provided in encoder.104. unknown_shape}. 86. Every time you want to use your phone’s premium-rated text capability to. Note also that the dialog MD is explicitly destroyed after it is displayed. Every occurrence of these variables is replaced in the match specification conditions and body. sponsored by ACM SIGPLAN and collocated with the International Conference on Functional Where to Learn More | 449 Programming (https://www.6}. erl_global For providing access to globally registered names."1.2}. are not affected. let’s use the Erlang shell as a glorified calculator* and test these operators. Sending a message will never fail. Think of the incremental approach to software development that we use in Erlang. We bind the first argument to the variable '$1'. event=#wxCommand{type=command_menu_selected}} -> {_. On top of fixing the connectivity module.0. In the following example 14> Var = {person. [] -> {error. mbox.2]. 208. After the window has been shut down.2. Reply. HandlerList is a list of tuples of the form {Handler. some of the classes representing data types are mapped directly to Erlang data types. and the result of foo() shows that within Bump(10)..0> 2> erlang:trace(Pid. {version. so if you want to spawn the function m:f/1 with the argument a. We implement a db_server module that provides a process storing the database in the dictionary format used by version 1. loop(Frequencies). OperState) -> case {AdminState.1}. These functions are global. trace stacks.instance} 15> dets:lookup(usrDisk.U This is the range of integers from lower bound L to upper bound U. and so a search of this page in your browser can lead you to the functionality you are looking for. Some examples of integers include: −234 0 10 100000000 To express integers in a base other than 10. One exception to this is if you want to determine whether two queues are equal. Arguments}} is added to the list of spawned children that is passed to the loop/1 function: -module(my_supervisor). Calling frequency:init() from anywhere in your code would be considered a very bad practice. The Erlang Enhancement Proposal (EEP) process§ is a mechanism for the Erlang community to propose enhancements to the language. and service types. set_seq_token/2 and get_seq_token/0. 10}}]. or forward the output to a socket or a file. you should include the Mnesia application in your release file. [])). 413 listToTree/1 function. 223–224 new function. 199 overview. a full description is in the EUnit documentation. In the following example. processLines(IoDevice._} raised when loop() fails on the atom six. A fundamental principle of design in Erlang is to create a one-to-one mapping between the parallel processes in your Erlang program and the set of parallel activities in the system you are modeling. 360 | Chapter 17: Trace BIFs. and the examples of interactions in the Erlang shell show this informal test-driven approach in practice.2.{claire. but also years! Using tail recursion. use erlang:monitor(type. 112–114 epmd command support. exp1n. It provides you with a means to monitor concurrency. ref()} | {error.dog}). you might want to print them to standard I/O. just ignore the argument. called with the call and return_to flags.3.0. Message}. 166.. or a fun that results from applying a higher-order function. [H | Acc]). 112–114 receiving messages.id = 1. Text = wxTextCtrl:new(Frame. 105 receive flag. with the filename set as an option. Using fun expressions you can now use map and filter to define doubleAll and palins: doubleAll(Xs) -> map( fun(X) -> X*2 end . Usr). the number of parameters in a function is called its arity. Blogs. global calls to the old module are no longer possible. Pid} or {ok. 157 Erlang type notation.2/lib/. 23.[Y]). if a runtime error such as a bad match or a case failure occurs.3. Packet) The Socket is the UDP socket on the local machine from which the message is to be sent. Happy and. LoopData) -> {ok.4}. 28. Instead of using ++. Atoms serve much the same purpose as values in enumeration types in other languages. To connect the client. . One of the most common constructions in computing is to bring together a number of pieces of data as a single item.4. and are of the following format: {trace. we would have passed their references here. It will return a list of items of the form {Handler. you can do it in two ways: • Using cons directly. the question is how do we proceed with the rest of list? We want to construct a new list where all the elements are one larger than in the old list. . 324 open/2 function. 10 node function. [c]). Pid} = usr:start_link(). the facserver process is on the bar@STC node and runs in the facLoop/0 loop function: server() -> register(facserver. bag. . stop/0]). X >= 0 -> true end end. 82. speed becomes critical. To show this in more detail. 368 | Chapter 17: Trace BIFs.] is 8. and debugging parallelized C and Java is even harder. 326 recv/3 function gen_tcp module.5.. you will need to import all the definitions from foo into foo_tests. The standard Mac OS X menus—Erlang (the application menu). you might Generic Servers | 269 have to fine-tune the value and possibly even use infinity. write. providing examples of passing messages and handling data types when communicating between Erlang and Java.cook}). Use the socket in the second node to send the string "Hello World" to the same IP address and listening socket.31. Erlang binaries give a pattern-matching notation for manipulating binary data structures. incoming} -> start_ringing(). determines the internal functions that are called.3}.name.2}] %% File: "usr.age. lists are often used to represent collections of objects. the garbage collector will not be triggered unless a message is received and more memory is required. . which are Erlang data values but which do not have to all be the same type. listToTree(Code1). that its first element is RecordTag. and event handlers.Text). undefined Pay special attention to dets:open_file/1 in commands 9–12..name. id) of [] -> {error. To build the index. the server will receive an exit signal and deallocate it automatically. 442 concurrency considerations.eval_exprs. allowed in excess of 20. 266.ietf. In its first release back in 1996. defined in the inet.[1. 17. FileName} Is used to override the default name of the table as a filename and provide a location in which to save the Dets file. each state is represented as a tail-recursive function. {active. abc} {abc. 291 profiling functions.[{matched.Name] end). The logical construct {'not'. stop/0. which will be caught by an enclosing try . . 55 overview. Socket} = gen_udp:open(1234). you need to be extra careful when testing them in the shell. where spawned processes are dependent only on their already started siblings.3|. [Usr] -> mnesia:write(Usr#usr{status=Status}) end end. 258 rr/1 shell command. List). discussed in the body of this book and in the section “Integration and Openness” on page 8. Libraries You should put commonly used code into libraries. but also easier to write. node. 186 scheduling. the accumulators contain the sum and length. A test-driven approach turns this on its head. start a separate Erlang node on which your tracer receives and prints all trace messages. currently. but it is not necessary to enclose each line in a comment. Michal Ptaszek. “Software Measurement for Functional Programming. gen_tcp:controlling_process(Socket. @private. As an example of “. Handler) Will remove the handler defined in the callback module Handler. Using the interface provided in the usr module. Second Edition (all books published by Addison-Wesley). C Nodes The erl_interface library provides C-side functionality for constructing.[]}}]}. but if you include them in your modules. If this sounds too good to be true. try evaluating some in the shell and in simple programs that you can compile and run. 133 delete_usr/1 function. 350–352 library modules (see modules) Lindahl. If the event were the result of a few keystrokes typed in a form.Y:1/binary>> will never match. An example of a child specification for the mobile subscriber database will follow in the next section. 139. containing the atom 'EXIT'. the parameters passed to the function included in the crash report usually contain enough information to solve the bug. Inc. embedded in both Emacs and Erlide. Some of these actions you already saw in the examples. TraceFlag) Is the same as enable_trace/1. UDP provides little error recovery. or drift across the page. 366–368 profiling functions.local. we are stating that the second argument has to be a tuple with at least two elements: [{[enable.. short messages. [{{'$1'.5. book a room.Pid.debug}]). Here. but certainly important to applications in general. actions must always be defined in tuples. .0>. .5. where a throw allows an exit from a deeply nested structure on an error condition. true 8> TabId2 = ets:new(myTable.97. tuples. In the example of the mobile user database in Chapter 10. for example. If you have four Erlang nodes.4 release of Erlang made it into production. with different representations providing different kinds of collections. Guards. As an example. known as the type of the event. if. spawn(?MODULE.". %% show the application. projectleader). 117. the result is a new tuple. as well as obvious type errors. Erlang tuples provide the basic mechanism for collecting data. 50–52. If an exit signal is trapped. {error. . which also came out of Uppsala University and can pick up other faults at compile time.[boats. change the code to ensure that only the client who allocated a frequency is allowed to deallocate it. 5. and in extreme cases. . receive.. a useful command to know. CustId. changing the internal format of the db_server loop data. Later in this and in the following chapters. need_repair}. . [named_table. The last clause with the function head area(Other) -> is a catch-all clause... 1. The foo node attempts to communicate using net_adm:ping/1: the pang response shows that this fails. selection. so good. daVinciCode} ]. gc_start.3}] 11> [ {X. you can say: -spec(create_tables(FileName::string()) -> {ok. hence the “no match” error. OtpErlangObject. In the preceding directive. you can call it directly: 3> (fun(Int) -> Int + 1 end)(9). A test representation TestRep is run by calling eunit:test(TestRep): Simple test objects The simplest test object is a nullary fun. but many sockets could simultaneously be receiving and handling packets.erlang. allowing him to continue developing CouchDB as an open source project. You can see that this is the case in command 9.. Sometimes you see the end followed by a period. if any. In the Erlang shell on the first node. init. TraceFlag} and {disable_trace. English spelling in your directive: -behaviour(gen_server). and lower-level facilities such as memory management. As it is not possible to index on secondary keys when using ETS and Dets tables. A leaf process performing operational tasks is called a * You can catch the call exit(kill). 6.2. Freq}). the server links to it. You can use this package alone to give Erlang-style concurrency in Java. without stopping execution When we “invented” Erlang. we are trying to find the caller of the io:format/2 function in the shell. exit_status. but they do happen when you might least expect them.[{crash. requiring that the first argument be exactly equal to the second. and they are referenced in usr. solve the problem by: • Picking shorter variable and function names • Using temporary variables to divide your statement or expression across several lines of code • Reducing the level of indentation in your case. an agent would automatically try to reconfigure the system to use the standby link. we would have had to add the option {dir. loop(Frame. You can then start tracing this calling function and inspecting its arguments. 441 garbage_collection flag.{ping. EEP7 is a proposal for a foreign function interface (FFI). or a wrap files specification. You can use the return_to flag only in conjunction with the call flag. Look at the following code fragments.0}. messages would have been sent to the process in the format {tcp. and having full visibility over process state changes is possible with no extra effort on behalf of the developer. 258 guard expression. Finally. 446 f/1 shell command. and module names. configuring Erlang distribution to work through firewalls.4]. 358–360 timestamps. NotItalian). the condition fails. a reference created in the newly restarted node might then be equal to the saved value.1}. empty}. When defining a function. and everyone else on the production team. self(). [2. showing six digits in all. . If you do. The final part of the code gives the main loop function: loop(Frame) -> receive #wx{id=?ABOUT. seminars. and diskless nodes. Info} where Info is a list of tagged tuples containing the following: heap_size The used part of the current heap heap_block_size The size of the memory block used to store the heap and the stack old_heap_size The used part of the old heap old_heap_block_size The size of the memory block used to store the old heap The Trace BIFs | 361 stack_size The actual stack size recent_size The size of the data that survived the previous garbage collection mbuf_size The message buffer (or mailbox) size All heap and message buffer sizes provided in the tagged tuples are in words.{2. we have the generator {francesco. Retrieve them using the flush() shell command. Sec. A Mobile Subscriber Database Example | 241 [usr] 3> usr:start(). 296 stop_clear/0 function. These are described by a list of trace flags.0}.0>. as described earlier. When doing so. while(true) try { o = mbox. Types in Erlang | 397 {T1. ["the sum of ~W is ~. you should always use cons ([. These functions are not BIFs. try using one of the Erlang timer BIFs erlang:send_after/3. Any entry for "refactorings" would precede an entry for "replay". ** exception error: bad argument in an arithmetic expression in operator rem/2 called as 2. []). null). instance | disabled} Will check whether a user exists and has an enabled status.0>) call ets:insert(msgQ. 378 == (equal to) operator.[]. true (<0. true 2> application:start(usr). 80 efficiency considerations.{NextWord. . . the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed.hrl %%% Description : Include file for -record(usr. In the case of leaf_negative_test.12.{100. '_'} {Module. We start monitoring it and immediately receive the 'DOWN' message. they provide the nutrients necessary for the brush-tailed rat-kangaroo’s health. you can see in command 6 that this would succeed. {"OTP APN 181 01". so you can call them without the module prefix. Look at the following example: -module(math). you know the size of the representation that is produced. [{description. Data}}. . true 6> ets:lookup(TabId. showPerson({Name.5.com website. {data. Exit signals with reason normal are ignored.food} 2> dets:insert(food. {shell. send/1. The return value of the initialize function contains references to the widgets displayed in the window. NewHandler) which swaps the handlers atomically. true). but it is considered a good practice to give your process the same name as the module in which it is defined. {[Freq|Free]. 34 undef conditional macro.erl Exercise Revisited Revisit the database example db.2} As well as using variables. badmonth}. in this section we will discuss how errors can be caught and handled. List} Is a list of attributes (record field names) which can be used as secondary keys when accessing elements in the table. 173.2. the parent is suspended in the receive clause. and insert it into the list we are building. as we cover them in Chapters 7 and 12. I didn’t think much about the fact that.0. Others are as a result of priorities. 1 3> ping:send(Pid).2. and integrate with components written in other languages. for the remainder of this section. 431 function definitions and.A}}|lists:keydelete(Pid. whereas in a case statement a runtime error occurs.989.0). 96 relational.<0.lbs). in the module hof1. however. This introduction gives a high-level overview of the characteristics and features that have made Erlang so successful. namely the number of fields plus one. Among all the subdirectories in an application. In the next chapter.{saved. Person#person. 1> frequency:start(). . LineNumber}}. The connected process can communicate with the Port using port_command/2. allowing communication between Python and Erlang. and closing the table: 1> dets:open_file(food. a member of the High Performance Erlang Team at Uppsala University. Once started. and we are done.modtest2} 5> modtest2:do(99). Editor: Mike Loukides Production Editor: Sumita Mukherji Copyeditor: Audrey Doyle Proofreader: Sumita Mukherji Printing History: June 2009: First Edition.~w. Allocated}. Count+1. compiling the modules. partitioned databases will rarely manifest themselves until you’ve gone live and your system is under heavy stress. {index. which we cover in more detail in Chapter 6. it is possible to monitor whether a node is alive. the state reverts to idle. which is also the default value. depending on the particular integral value and sign. Instead of the process dictionary. This child process starts executing in the loop/0 function and is immediately suspended in the receive clause. 181. Finally.{127. But it is clearer to use pattern matching: birthday(#person{age=Age} = P) -> P#person{age=Age+1}.com/catalog/9780596518189/"> Erlang Programming. when a third version is loaded the oldest version is purged (removed) and the current version becomes the old version. MS). . -234 2> 2#1010. 64 | Chapter 3: Sequential Erlang Why might sum_acc be more efficient than the original sum? The clue is in the evaluation we gave earlier.. In the case of the person example. Distributing the Erlang code: A warning Your first attempt to distribute the Erlang code may fail: why? The following call: 250 | Chapter 11: Distributed Programming in Erlang (foo@STC)1> spawn('bar@FCC'. 152.. Reply). You should create processes using the proc_lib library. remove all non-integers from a polymorphic list. delete_disabled() -> gen_server:call(?MODULE. {error. which is also started with the spawn_link/3 BIF as it needs to be linked to its parent. . Representation of a string takes up space proportional to the string’s size. . 138 offline state. 'Joe'. $\n. {ok. . and Match Specifications This abnormal termination will result in a crash report being printed. {'=:='.cook}]. <0. 11 7> trunc(10. the code becomes more complex. Release Handling | 287 Figure 12-4. NewLoopData} end. The net_kernel process at each node coordinates operations at a distributed Erlang node. as well as the following TCP-specific ones: {active. Handler:init(InitData)}|LoopData]}. .Y} || X <. 3}.{claire. tuples. buttons. 119. instead of sending the stop message. all of the ETS tables that it created are destroyed. and how the system can be extended to accommodate comments on blog entries.true). The answer is by trapping exits. {shell.httpc_handler. 196 foldl/3 function. . Sharing Pid data between processes An Echo Example Now that we have covered process creation and message passing.131. With these definitions in place. but not in wxErlang. id=CustId. well. >=. would trigger an event. receive {reply. Ignore the warnings. you do not openly question how methods taking atoms as parameters actually work. should provide us with sufficient data to ensure that the database is production worthy for a smaller mobile operator: 1> c(usr_db). therefore allowing faults to be detected earlier and fixed at a lower cost. with the key in position 1.4].Z} Denotes the process represented by the process ID erlang:trace_pattern({ping. . and so on (there are quite a lot of others to think of!) You can also extend the collection of expressions to add conditionals: if ((2+3)-4) then 4 else ~((2*3)+(3*4)) where the value returned is the “then” value if the “if” expression evaluates to 0. the main difference between TCP and UDP is that once you’ve opened a socket connection using TCP. 5 scalable. for example. program data needs to be converted to binary in some way or another before communication.[1. returns the tuple {ok. bump_acc/2. 338 OtpErlangObject class. . ok Match Specifications: The fun Syntax We introduced the powerful (but ugly) match specifications in Chapter 10. + and – can be used as unary operators in front of expressions of the format Op Expression. "Hello Wor" ok 3> io:format("~w~n".1:2>> Note how <<5:4. the child called the loop/0 function recursively. or merely an expression returning the tuple {'EXIT'. 226 tab2list function. but it is also really. read/2. 369–371 tracing functions. pids. 192. overwriting its contents if it already exists. This example shows the transparency of communication. Try the command on your machine. each containing functions that are logically grouped together.62.5. If the pseudo function is dbg:fun2ms/1. destroy/1. Consecutive lines are shown in the form of a range. . (blah@STC2)1> c(fac). .2. this may be part of a command. By default. MD = wxTextEntryDialog:new(Frame. [22. Pid. The idea is to create a centralized point that receives events of a specific kind. false 3> {1. 2004. and in this call N is bound to 2 and returns the value 2 * factorial(1). one used for error 110 | Chapter 4: Concurrent Programming Figure 4-13.erl:134: Call to missing or unexported function unicode:characters_to_list/2 re. effectively closing the socket. The tuple {abc. fault-tolerant concurrency. Sum. {127. computer telephony. List comprehension constructs allow you to generate lists. we would use message(caller()): dbg:fun2ms(fun([_. they mainly deal with the filtering and manipulation of trace events. as well as find it bundled in many of the major Linux distributions. update_usr(Usr) -> ets:insert(subRam. Two interfaces will be provided. In the following example. C#. 291 gen_fsm module.2. So. 225 guards BIF support. This is cast to an OtpErlangTuple in line 19. [#usr{msisdn = 700000001.Node. 0.2. called an accumulating parameter.3. see the online documentation. the inverse BIFs term_to_binary/1 and binary_to_term/1 code and decode terms as binaries.3. the IndexEntry needs to be output before the recursive call with a new partial index entry {NextWord. Shell got {trace_ts.receive(). as in ( . Data in the new heap that survives a sweep by the garbage collector is moved to the old heap. place related functions close to each other. attempting to access the table in this way will give rise to the bad argument runtime error. which contains the information collected so far regarding the Word. OtpErlangTuple. Exercise 14-7: Layout and wxErlang Sizers To give a complex layout to your answers to Exercises 14-4. 165 Erlang shell chapter exercises."Armstrong".§ move along. receive statements. or one of its many derivatives. false} and a failed lookup using the atom false. connected(Number) start_ringing() -> . This does not have to be a phone. 17 float_to_list/1 function. . At the heart of the AXD301 are more than 1. you should call: mnesia:wait_for_tables(TableList. The mutex semaphore state diagram If a process called PidB tries to call mutex:wait() when the semaphore is busy with PidA. write). '$3'}}.116. it is assumed that the supervisor has not been able to resolve the problem.cs. The usrDisk file is a Dets table. the system can identify default behaviors to associate with particular identifiers. such as changing the authentication scheme or not allowing processes from another node to spawn processes. Attempting to compare it to the contents of Int would fail. Creating Processes | 91 init <0. and that their size is the same. is used to uniquely identify the node in the network. it is one of the conventions of Erlang programming that use of nonproper lists should be avoided. 47 argp = erl_element(2. They are presented in the upcoming list. An ordered binary tree Exercise 7-6: Parameterized Macros Define a parameterized macro SHOW_EVAL that will simply return the result of an expression when the show mode is switched off. translated to modern technology.instance} 9> code:add_patha("/Users/Francesco/patches").2. You can clearly see this in the following example. Name} or {global.0>) call ping:send(<0.2. Keep in mind that when reading the example. 378 accept function. if not all. The function erlang:is_alive() will test whether the local runtime system is alive. . as we explained in Chapter 8. shared memory. all you need to do is load the new module. we have the apply/3 function that takes three arguments. {erl_eval. • Refactoring for Erlang is supported by the Wrangler tool. 94–102 registered processes. When garbage collection takes place. but the function most commonly used is io:format/2. N will successfully be bound to 3. even before it was profiled. allocate() -> call(allocate). '$1'}. the demo module would be stored in a file called demo. [1. . fmt({AInt. Next. . or simply because of lack of memory. append(Xss) -> [ X || Xs <. . A week later. the flag is turned off. . 'bnot'. or strings). {Handler.bad_day}}) Instead of '$1' and '$2'. Robert Virding. []). 286 | Chapter 12: OTP Behaviors The Application Monitor The application monitor is a tool that provides an overview of all running applications. she can check the directives at the head of the file to see that it is indeed imported. 135. retrieve. 152 spawn_monitor function. {sweden. keysearch(Key. if you wanted to add or remove a service a subscriber is entitled to use. <0. what happens if you do a key search on key 1 using the list [{0. Given a list. the table gets rehashed (or reorganized). 413–415 OTP behaviors. the schema directory name will be Mnesia.. and gives debugging support. You can also pass a match specification. t. 165 queue module. This performance is given by replication of a service—in this case a web server— which is often found in the architecture of a distributed system. 98–99 self function exit signals. What happens if you are traversing an ETS table of type set or a bag using ets:first/1 and ets:next/2 while other processes write and delete elements concurrently? What happens if another process. if successful. Notice that the reason is noproc. [_ | T]) -> member(H. we can see the order of the elements is the lexicographical order on the {Word. however. 117 Client/Server Models A Client/Server Example A Process Pattern Example Finite State Machines An FSM Example A Mutex Semaphore Event Managers and Handlers A Generic Event Manager Example Event Handlers Exercises 118 119 125 126 127 129 131 132 135 137 6.Data2]} where [. all the modules listed in a binary boot file are loaded at startup.$l. or typing in a few extra characters. you need to make a fully qualified function call to run your functions. and as a result. ok. it is best for a function to do one thing: in this case. These actions are followed by a state transition achieved by calling the function corresponding to the new state. as you access the fields by name. M} -> if NextWord == Word -> prettyIndexNext(Next.CInt}) -> AStr = pad(integer_to_list(AInt)).' Note how command 19 failed.1.4]. 123}. Alias A registered process alias other than all. . 1. 216 file2tab function.?APPEND.ioExs:sum([2. as we need to guarantee the release table in the event of a runtime error. #Fun {exit. {upgrade. -define(TIMEOUT. With these tests included in the file. he founded Erlang Training and Consulting. {atomic. In large systems. The table is updated thousands of times per day.0}]}} =ERROR REPORT==== 24-Aug-2008::18:59:30 === Error in process <0.|\\. such as –12 or +12. catch around the call. but also in complex protocol stacks. -> {Type. When you want to turn them off. This follows the convention of registering a process with the same name as the module in which it is defined. Explain how you would use this to modify the function foobar. {write.#Port<0. "usrDb"}]}.37. 321 running. After all. you should hide the internal message protocol from the client. unknown_msg}.org/scripts/script. so in the preceding example. you need to run Erlang with symmetric multiprocessing enabled via the -smp flag. -export([init/1]). In this chapter. In this code. It always pays to spend some time reviewing what is available and making a mental note of the library modules that might contain functionality you might find useful. those that are unchanged from Person to NewPerson need not figure in the definition.55. . These directories are sequentially searched for the compiled version of the module you want to load. From. because it makes understanding program behavior substantially more difficult. The message is the result of calling node(). you will use the gen_server:start/4 and gen_server:start_link/4 functions. Fun. registry For providing the facility to store and back up key-value pairs. You will notice that Inets (and other) applications may have a few more directories.975. dets_name). 17. Within a module M.3}]}}. {ok. the publisher and authors assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. so you return a timeout error by using the receive .[]. Inc. and gen_event (which provides event-handling functionality). local traces are disabled using dbg:ctpl({Mod. If the old list contains at least one element. you can use the dbg:trace_client(Type. The application monitor window In Figure 12-3. such as those generated by the display/1 literal. they would be closed here. {set_service. If you are interested in learning more about them. It is either a process identifier or one of the atoms existing. and we cover some of these next. Figure 10-4. Add(10) 1> funs:bar() 13 In foo. If you’re going to introduce Erlang to your organization. This will be the longer-lived data that has survived a garbage collection in the current heap and is being moved to the old heap. generate a runtime error when the tail of the list is treated as a list and not as an atom. this forms the basis for a series of suggested extensions that will give you a chance to program in wxErlang for yourself.hoo}<{adder.[#usr{msisdn = 700000002.[Str]).|.erl with a number of identifier macro definitions. [10000000]). [{i. Please. Element: 2 Element: 3 Element: 4 ok 6> hof1:foreach(fun(X) -> self() ! X end. If in some places. known incompatibilities with more recent earlier releases are detailed on our website. . I was not sure whether the language that would lead the way in this paradigm shift was going to be Erlang. 167 ?MODULE macro.dog. defined here: -module(exception). Standard and nonstandard BIFs are listed in the manual page of the erlang module. Tools such as the debugger and the process manager use this BIF to collect and display trace events. false)). the longer of the lists is effectively truncated. CustId}. and if it fails to match the guarded pattern. modify. This means that at startup.4 -> X+Y. {ok.9]} 5> lists:sum([3. undefined {ok. two.6]]) ⇒ [1. {keypos. and we’re getting an {error. Other types are covered later: records in Chapter 7.103>> 4> Bin3 = list_to_binary([Bin1. List). you can pick the inheritance level of your trace events. . 355..tftp_engine.31. creating a list of the format [[[[[1]. my_db:write(Key.Xs)."Jan-Henry". even([Head | Tail]) when Head rem 2 == 0 -> [Head | even(Tail)]. In a live environment. self()}. you need at least two computers* and you need to distribute your program across them. {MsgId. ETS Tables | 227 Visualizing Tables The Erlang system comes with a tool for visualizing the current state of ETS and Mnesia tables. this needs to be an explicit include of the wx. However.erl that takes logical expressions and Boolean values (represented as the atoms true and false) and returns their Boolean result. the database server can traverse the Dets table.. Data} tuple is the same as in tracer/2. The general form for parameterized macros is: -define(Name(Var1. you can start your system using the following command: erl -boot Name This ensures that all of the modules specified in the boot file are loaded and that the applications and their respective supervision trees are started correctly. it’s a generalization of what you already saw when we talked about variables. where you get a badmatch error when pattern matching the result of the call ets:lookup(msgQ. If a particular port needs to be used. will search for the compiled (. if the underlying operating system or the socket type you are using does not support that particular option. Mike. Reason. It is possible to repeat variables within specifications. 18 Mattsson. <<21:7>> 12> Y. <<"Hello World">>). 42 macros chapter exercises. . Safe. The third form is the if construct. with web documentation for each of them. -define(ABOUT. implementing one clause at a time.[]. The Erlang code to connect to the C node is given next. the number of reductions starts at 2. In large systems.” how should you define the function? The first case is when the list is empty—you must then return the “sum so far”: sum_acc([]. null}). The macro library allows you to write this more succinctly: leaf_value_test_() -> ?_assertEqual([2. FileSuffix} will result in eight wraparound files. This makes it easy to follow the message flow without having to jump between modules.erl file extension.4]. this is port 4369. • Replication also provides fault tolerance: if one of the replicated web servers fails or becomes unavailable for some reason. 6 Funs and Higher-Order Functions | 193 Evaluating hof1:times(3) gives a result that says. Message passing is asynchronous. including the following: • OTP. disabled). true) in the start/0 function. Data is sent to the Port (and on to the external program) through the call to port_command(Port. 250 connection considerations. Other available tags include a cross-reference to another object’s documentation (@see). 230 duplicate bags. Here.daisy}]}. [3. and because of this. ModuleList} In the preceding code: Id Is a unique identifier for a particular child within a supervisor. Using the bit syntax.ireland. thousands.0>. . the content of the name field in a person record could itself be a record: -record(name. The is_record/2 guard is converted to {is_record. and particularly with C and Java. This message includes a reference to the monitor.3}. The system documentation—which you can access at https://www. is available in the overview of the wxErlang documentation and the wxWidgets online documentation and book. for example. These references are stored in the state variable and are used whenever the window needs updating. {imports. be deleted. 20 4> demo:times(1. so once a message is sent. We now use our divide-and-conquer technique to solve the problem. as in the following: erl -sname foo -setcookie blah If no value is set on launch.100. and optimizations in old performance guides.4]. badmonth}. It is a simple program that spawns a process that links to its parent. and Mac OS X. In the sections that follow. which takes a prompt string (or atom) as its input: 1> io:get_line("gissa line>"). #capital{name="Budapest".. Java. area({triangle. and a timestamp. [1. allows you to pass a set of commands and configuration parameters. and encoding that was the answer. Pid. so runtime performance is not affected by using these literal functions. Function definitions and case expressions have a lot in common. in this case. we’ll look at two nodes running on the same machine. as a result. Under lazy evaluation._test() function. "Hello World"). 49–50 variable scope. If this happens. 304 | Chapter 13: Introducing Mnesia What do you do? Which of the two table copies do you pick? Can you somehow merge the two databases together again? Recovery of databases from partitioned networks is an area of research for which no “silver bullet” solutions have been found. Port. 5 4> Pid = ping:start(). Ref. see our website at: https://www.. 6}. X rem 2 == 0]. Pid ! pong.Words} -> processWords(Words. 139–148 list comprehensions chapter exercises.990000}} Shell got {trace_ts. Preface | xvii • Erlang distribution gives one mechanism for linking Erlang systems to each other.serial2}. as in: NewPerson = Person#person{phone="999-999". This includes the basic Erlang installation you have been running. This ability to dynamically determine the function to run is essential when writing generic code: 1> Module = examples.3}]}} 2> exception:return(0).[{new. this propagated message call chain is traced. which returns the pid of the process in which it is evaluated. What will be the values of these? The general form for this field access will be: RecordExp#name. start(FileName) -> ok Is used to override the usrDb filename with any valid string. 28. We quickly discovered that the software revision of the originating hardware was a later release than the one supported by our installation. including instructions on how to start it.D:4>> = << 1998:6 >>. {127. This isolates the two parts of the system so that a crash in the external program will not affect the Erlang program. so good. . services=[data. . interactions. In the following example. You already know about the first inner component. Variables bound outside the scope of the fun and not appearing in the head are imported. request/1. The brush-tailed rat kangaroo is a small mammal found in western and southern Australia. 3. 57 } } } } 58 59 int fac(int y) { 60 if (y <= 0) 61 {return 1. and hijack your machine. If your code drifts across the page.[1. say) into the module mod_tests. since −1 is less than 0 and not equal to 0.16. It is a free-to-use status value used by some advanced tools (possibly user-defined). you would get [1|[2|[3]] and [1|[2|[3|[]]]]. 200 | Chapter 9: More Data Types and High-Level Constructs We’ll conclude this discussion with a three-line implementation of a quicksort using list comprehensions. 313 wxFrame:show function. Pid. Let’s revisit the add_one example. .erlang. we’ll show this in the next example. not least in defining object identifiers such as NEW. where you can have more than one element separated by commas before appending the tail with the cons operator. The supervisor’s supervisor receives the exit signal and. 173 purging modules. process_dump() Returns the process stack properly formatted as a string in the form of a binary.g. init(File) -> {ok. 321 event handlers. receive {reply. ok 22> ets:info(usrRam). Xs). ok Generic Servers | 273 Did you notice the –behavior(gen_server) directive in the module? This tells the compiler that your module is a gen_server callback module. 102 spawn function. You access the documentation using the menu on the lefthand side of the page.Age. the code would look like this: server() -> {ok. module_info() -> erlang:get_module_info(records1). does not take any options. all you need to do is comment the second definition of DBG and uncomment the first one before recompiling the code. country="Hungary". the process adds one to N and returns the result to the Pid. To make the definitions available to more than one module. 67 tail-recursive functions. . . .erl module.11.. Count). Shutdown will also take the atom infinity.status = enabled. Length + 1). If you insert a print statement: loop() -> receive {Sender. or download it from the book’s website. Your create_tables/1 and close_tables/0 calls should start and stop the Mnesia application.34. {active. and Match Specifications 3> dbg:tracer(). id=Id} = Usr) -> ets:insert(usrRam. Any reply is also sent back to the process where the request originated. This section explains the top-level correspondences. Figure 6-3. . timeout} is returned. including ping (described earlier) and functions to examine the local hosts file. He worked with a group of engineers who were developing an IM proxy for Jabber. a user-defined fun of arity 2. Message}. [M]}) end end.. [4. although rare. the second elements are compared. gc_start. In our case. As you can see in Figure 15-1. All 6 tests successful. no nodes are visible unless you view them with the hidden or connected flag. a private table is readable and writable only by the process that owns the table.marcus.set}. This design decision is based on the fact that if our frequency server terminates abnormally. you define which processes you want to monitor. 190. [0|#Fun db_server:read(martin). is_constant. loop(Frame). and extract the age field. Flag}). 97–99 don’t care.0. The conditional-expression is evaluated and matched against Pattern1. the process executing the call/2 function is terminated. If we use the id. catch construct to handle the exceptional case. lookup_msisdn(700000001) ) } }. and you saw that processes will handle very different tasks in a similar way. About MicroBlog in Windows XP The MiniBlog Example This example extends the preceding example to give a basic implementation of a “mini blog”.N]. loop(). however.[{matched. 2. 306–307 configuring. This is extracted in the documentation for the usr module. ensuring that no events are lost. By that. usr_app]}.4. The format is the same as the one returned by the BIF now(). make it fast while keeping it beautiful. As well as comparisons for (in)equality. Reply) -> Pid ! {reply..phone = undefined} 4> Person#person.ireland. but left the original version as an exercise. efficient.italy) 13> dets:info(Ref). and instead allow the caller of this function to make the decision based on the return value of the call: tax_to_death(Person) -> case is_swede(Person) of true -> {ok. 314 Nyström. you could use this as a non-tail-recursive function: average(List) -> average_acc(List. In a normal implementation. and C being bound to the integers 1. . You achieve all of this without strange or complex workarounds. which shows that guards can be complex combinations of tests. Function. Concurrent Processes and Message Passing Concurrency in Erlang is fundamental to its success. We now have three cases to take care of. listToTree([_|Code]) -> case Code of [M|_] -> {Code1. MicroSeconds} that have passed since midnight. as it was originally included for test purposes. and related trade dress are trademarks of O’Reilly Media.6. it is a literal fun expression that is handled by the precompiler. 42 include directive.three. <0. to establish and administer connections between the Java and Erlang nodes it is necessary that epmd (the Erlang Port Mapper Daemon) is running when a node is created. and Match Specifications specifications by hand. Food}) when Loc /= italy -> Food end). true 4> {123. we get the new module version in the attribute list: 7> db:module_info().Y) -> X+Y. 313 wxWindow class. See Figure 4-8 for a visual depiction of this process. The implementation of this uses the wxWidgets dynamic event-handler connection mechanism. xvi. When sent an integer N by the process in the message {request. ?MODULE. {deallocate.[74024422977681734035664295266840124102]}]}. they are ignored. Time. When you add new features.1235. 393 concurrent updates and. It includes a web server called Inets as well as HTTP and FTP clients. loop(NewState) end. however. but the variables Head and Tail are bound already. -behavior(supervisor). Because of this. in writing out a complete index.ant])). which is the POSIX error code denoting an invalid argument. the following pattern match: < Reply end. If the old list is empty. • If you want to move EUnit tests from the module foo to the module foo_tests without changing them. handle_call({set_status. Test your results using the database server developed in Exercise 5-1 in Chapter 5.6}. And finally. multiple network interfaces and reliable networks. Table 2-1."ll". Always tag the messages using the client function name. These commands are not always listed in the manual pages.ok} Process Skeletons There is a common pattern to the behavior of processes. handle_event(Event. .stockholm}.?NEW. It behaves just like its counterpart in the lists module. .4] Why do we use pattern matching? Take assignment of variables as an example. 47 records and. Although it might be feasible to set this up manually for small projects. you might come across the notation {Module. embody demand-driven (or lazy) evaluation. ETS Tables | 221 If you fix a table. Pid. from which the size of the optional part of the header can be calculated. When to Use Mnesia Mnesia was originally built for integration in distributed. 314 signal function. Here is how not to do it: reset(BladeId.4. 217. The atom '_' denotes the “don’t care” variable. 423. _ -> start_children(ChildSpecList) end. 276–280 destroy/1 function. harryPotter}. 90 Erlang type notation. 228 W wait function. 107. Put effort in choosing algorithms and constructs that scale effectively. The match is successful only if each guard evaluates to true. and then reconstructed from the list. [{Handler. The loop of the supervisor waits in a receive clause for EXIT and stop messages. 2) -> Accu. and pattern-match the element with the head. Both of these functions are executed in the scope of the calling process. _Pid) -> {{[]. Passing Messages If you want to send a message to your server. The first process calls whereis(db_server). and tutorials at conferences worldwide. we can give yet another definition of doubleAll! double(Xs) -> map(times(2). 186.16. london). handling all of the messages in separate functions where we pattern-match on the first argument of each call. the first bit determines the sign: 0 is positive. upon triggering the specification. and for the enhancements to be incorporated into the standard distribution. you bought the wrong book. the Mobility Server. the language itself.55. and we add one instead. . CustId. Here are some examples: 1> [monday. {Module. 401 pman (process manager). . Id. N} and sends the result {ok.usrIndex}. . Now. and Match Specifications Match Specifications: The Nuts and Bolts When covering the help function dbg:fun2ms/1.F. . {active. close_tables/0]). A new tagged tuple is sent to PidC. we will use this program as an example: -module(ping).33}}. • It forces the programmer to write code in a way that avoids errors typically found in concurrent applications. Distributed Computing in Erlang: The Basics | 259 erlang:set_cookie(Node.3. 15> funs:foo() 11 bar() -> X = 3. either directly or by a fully qualified call (see Figure 8-1. Message}.ireland. Reply. Passing a message results in the data in the message being copied from the heap of the sending process to the heap of the receiving one. As soon as a request comes in.[]}. as its input and output types are any(). • The specific part of the supervisor consists of the children. Comparisons such as 1 == 1. rather than alphabetically.0}. 224 peer module connect function. or a login request. [1000. Before going on to the next section.3. . . Looking at the software revision 378 | Chapter 17: Trace BIFs.erl usr_db. 355 (see also trace BIFs) binary support. The net_kernel process also handles authentication by cookies. Remember that when passing funs to other Erlang nodes. you should try to export as few functions as possible. an 'ok' tuple containing a reference to the created table is returned.. the string "Hello World" is in fact the list [72. The process with PidA will send a tagged tuple with its own process identifier. it is possible to get the compiler to dump a file of the results of applying epp to a file. and instead place all of our functionality in the usr. If packets are larger than Size. 250 documentation EDoc support. So if.[]). The product manager for Erlang also started wondering. in both cases. Service) -> true | false | {error. {leaf. 338 OtpErlangString class.100. GUI Programming with wxErlang . and Ruby in this chapter.ghi} 4> {1. They can be positive or negative and expressed in bases other than 10. these are very similar to function definitions. instance | timeout} Is used to add or delete a Service for a particular subscriber. Suppose you want to store basic information about a person. we would do it like this. {stop. ensuring that no one picks up on your blunder. Although Uppsala University has for many years led the way with research on Erlang through the High Performance Erlang Project (HiPE). In a test environment where you are not using OTP behaviors. a fun head such as that which occurs in the following: fun([Id. Reply}. In sets. within a directory. Message) call. self().0. Generators. All updates during the partitioning done in tables not on the master node are discarded. 346 port_close command. The exit BIFs The BIF call exit(Reason) causes the calling process to terminate. 114 | Chapter 4: Concurrent Programming This chapter introduced the basics of concurrency in Erlang. Types are documented like this: the definition is given first. wait() -> mutex ! {wait. 330 lists chapter exercises.Bs) || Ps <.* while the fault rate per thousand lines of code was the same. the Erlang runtime system runs out of memory. this message should not have made it as far as the insert call. 290 map function. The function interfaces are shown here: echo:start() ⇒ ok echo:print(Term) ⇒ ok echo:stop() ⇒ ok Hint: use the register/2 built-in function. instant messaging (IM) clients. written by the programmer. you have to execute the following call: index_read(TableName. Joe. 41 . since with hot code loading.[1. The examples at commands 5. . Dict. two 6> Tuple = {1. {shell. Timeout) Length is relevant only to the raw transmission mode in TCP. and Mnesia. this can be captured by a function. 106 Berkeley DB. thursday. in fact. Note how the shell process sends the stop message to the echo process without knowing its pid. In the second call. Chapter 18 showed you how you can use –spec to express what you think the input and output types of a function should be.. By using the not equals (/=) conditional guard to test for invalid integers in the shell. Test-driven development (TDD) has been associated with agile programming. which is often used for operation and maintenance purposes.4]): 10> [ {X. instead. true 3> a>z. Packet}. and also because it’s more efficiently implemented as a BIF. Referring to the mathematical sidebar “Sets and Bags” on page 213. which describes any paths to the application ebin directories not known by the code server.myTable}. an OtpErlangObject. Let’s rewrite the server. throw:Throw -> {throw.2. it also needs its key position specified: 1> c(usr_db). 192 functions and. as the function lists:flatten/1 is an expensive operation. end. . they terminate. as illustrated in Figure 1-3. 226 insert/2 function. As a reminder. risking that your replies get out of sync with the sequence of requests sent to the database server.17}]}]. The dbg tracer assigns integers to all match specifications.103>>} 7> Term4 = binary_to_term(Bin5).+X). 7 try.[]. The inet Module | 331 in this section we will demonstrate the most commonly used functions by showing their use in the shell. e(−1) is the previous command v(N) The return value of command N v(-N) The return value of the nth previous command. many of which are described in Purely Functional Data Structures by Chris Okasaki (Cambridge University Press). • While covering sequential programming.{100. just delete it. cairo). 28. Pid} tuple as an element in the TraceFlags list (which we’ll described shortly). but not to tell anyone about them! A few months later. AdminState.msisdn}]).41. atom()} -spec(close_tables() -> ok | {error. 54 type test support. You will find help functions for synchronous. together with the table name. {element. The library that solves a particular problem for you may not be written in your favorite language. This statement differs from an Erlang receive in that it performs no pattern matching on the message. {_. if you change the spec of create_tables/1. {ok. In the following example.42>> 4> [D. wxWidgets The wxWidgets open source project was initiated by Julian Smart in the early 1990s. The fun returns data that is passed back to it in its next iteration. We start the Erlang runtime system using the –pa patches flag (or add the directory dynamically using code:add_patha/1). but eliding structure at a depth of 3. The first element is the atom a. A and B will be bound to 1 and 2. not only to change numerical types. stating that the boot file should not assume that all the applications will be found under lib in the Erlang root directory. 5 5> hd(tl(List)).6}. 12 multicore processing benchmarking example. ETS Tables and Concurrent Updates ETS tables provide very limited support for concurrent updates.108. 363 Williams. TypEr. The reason for using a catch.{type. 349 binary_to_term/1 function. We reordered the clauses in the factorial function.114] ok Recursion The best way to tackle programming problems is to use the well-tested strategy of divide and conquer to break the problem into a number of simpler subproblems. Javadoc. handling more than 100 million active users.Y) -> case X of 0 -> case Y of [Z|_] -> Z end. 337–342 JInterface Java package additional capabilities. This active mode is the default value when opening a socket. Note in Figure 11-3 how the two nodes are explicitly started with the same cookie value.] Old heap size delta after gc:-676 Heap size delta after gc:3367 372 | Chapter 17: Trace BIFs. hidden nests made up of grass and shredded bark.. BIFs. Functions As Arguments One of the most common operations on lists is to visit every element and transform it in some way. they are used not only to handle the state of equipment. it will wait for Timeout milliseconds. these actions are complemented by specific ones that are directly related to the specific tasks assigned to the process. It is the internal Ericsson product numbering scheme. {data.hrl. with robustness designed into their core. we now know that dp:handle/3 is called with message type 3. Since the introduction of compiler warnings for singleton variables (variables that appear once in the function). 342–346 erl_malloc function. 361. and nodes sharing the same value can communicate. CallbackModule Is the name of the module in which the init/1 callback function is placed.. sum([Head | Tail]) -> Head + sum(Tail). Name}. . 338 lists.1145/1088361. the mod parameter is a tuple containing the callback module and the arguments passed to the start/2 callback function. 1 Note how commands 2 and 5 return the integer 1.. you can pass their names to dbg:h/1. possible ranges.name.0}. Meta Programming One often refers to the ability of a function to determine what other function to call at runtime as meta programming. it is necessary to point the Java compiler and runtime to where it is held. If. 145 functionality. %% These are the start functions used to create and %% initialize the server. The intersection of the trace and trace_pattern BIFs subset of functions you are tracing. {'=<'.do_not_exist. Putting it all together we get the following:* average(List) -> sum(List) / len(List). This is not good. FIN:1>> = <>. This is useful when running Erlang as a background process without a shell looking for name conflicts. We are introducing match specifications in this chapter not because of their beauty (you must agree with us that they are pretty ugly constructs).0. Full details about these and other functions are in the ets module documentation. Second. update_usr(Usr) -> ets:insert(usrRam. It also contains the functionality for handling the dynamic generation of XHTML. and Match Specifications Redirecting to sockets and binary files You have seen how to write your own funs to handle trace messages. 335 An Overview of Interworking Interworking with Java Nodes and Mailboxes Representing Erlang Types Communication Putting It Together: RPC Revisited Interaction The Small Print Taking It Further C Nodes Going Further Erlang from the Unix Shell: erl_call Port Programs Erlang Port Commands Communicating Data to and from a Port Library Support for Communication Working in Ruby: erlectricity Linked-in Drivers and the FFI Exercises 336 337 337 338 338 339 340 341 342 342 345 346 346 347 349 350 351 352 353 17. . Type and Arg are the same as in the earlier descriptions of trace_client/2.nonode@nohost. It is a good practice to isolate all the database operations that are directly dependent on Dets and ETS tables in a module of their own. the target machine needs to support high-resolution CPU measurements and the Pid argument to the trace BIF must be all. setup(Frame. Although both might provide the same result. we’ll quickly go over the ways in which functions in one module can refer to functions in another. productivity. 'band'. ok. {1. xviii | Preface Constant width italics Indicates text that should be replaced with user-supplied values or values determined by context. Flushing the table means there is no need to repair it if it is not properly closed. and will give this result: 400 | Chapter 18: Types and Documentation %% File: "usr_db. • The MochiWeb library that provides support for building lightweight HTTP servers.erl" %% ------------------spec create_tables(_) -> any(). 165 include files. syntactically identical but semantically different way of generating the error in the example. and Named all look pretty similar! If you use prefixes. 385 compile directive. Nonetheless. 391 wx class get_env/0 function. birthday({person. 161 robust systems. 26 27 /* initialize the connection mechanism */ 28 if (erl_connect_init(1. 395 record_info function. you can let the compiler do the concatenation for you by writing: lines(Str) -> ["Hello ". where possible. With SMP. Implementations and Trade-offs The implementations of these collections give a constant lookup time for elements. and calling foo(10) will generate a specification of the following format: [{['$1'. Reason} timeout Process Links and Exit Signals | 143 Note how we call process_flag(trap_exit. 96 Erlang Preprocessor (EPP). {ok. 22 check_childspecs/1 function. 24 lists module all function. you start the application by calling the following: application:start(mnesia). since it forms the foundation for implementing Erlang’s Mnesia database. 37 unit testing. These nodes provide an environment where foreign programs can be run. true 5> ets:insert(countries. This allows different Erlang runtime systems (or nodes). it calls the frequency:allocate() client function. 32 | Chapter 2: Basic Erlang {children. The key of this object. including cube and sphere: flatten(Other) -> {error. Module tags In the example. This clause returns the {error. If Int is unbound. 1005 Gravenstein Highway North. 228 start_children/1 function. mathematical operations. but inserts potential bugs in the code when they are mistakenly reused in other clauses in the same function. The vertical bar (|) is used to separate alternatives in the return type. you do not need to do anything. Undo latest Undoes the latest “add entry”.[#usr{msisdn = 700000003. processes are so cheap it is best to use a process for each truly concurrent activity in your system.0> Owner Local Address *:54843 localhost:54844 Local Address Foreign Address *:* localhost:4369 Foreign Address State ACCEPTING CONNECTED State Further Reading This chapter covered the low-level mechanisms on which to build more complex protocols and layers. binary]). links to it. distributed “soft real-time systems”: • To be able to develop the software quickly and efficiently • To have systems that are tolerant of software errors and hardware failures • To be able to update the software on the fly. The SASL application. 258–260 fault tolerance and. {data. You can easily add your own stop function by including the following code in your supervisor callback module. 361 set_on_first_spawn flag. Enable) and trace(Pid. When the development work is done. a function f is tail-recursive when the only calls to f occur as the last expression (i.Text) -> . . #Fun {stop. Using the garbage_collection flag.3. The module provides an example of using ETS and DETS tables. Together with the API exported by the seq_trace module. Using list comprehensions and given two lists. to achieve the goals I’ve just mentioned. and how to traverse a table.2."Joe". persistency. Release Handling | 289 Because in the running example we are using the shell where we previously added the path to usr-1. . The notion of a maximum size of integers in Erlang does not exist.exprs. There might be a network glitch. As with constant functions. These requests follow the same format defined in the call/1 function.{claire. .{'EXIT'. Purging Modules The code server can get rid of or purge old versions of a module by calling code:purge(Module). after which the Socket connection is closed. The head refers to the first element in the list. a nonzero value of Length denotes the number of bytes the socket will wait for before returning the message. Reply}. . treeToList(tree0())) end.101. ML. _LoopData) -> usr_db:close_tables(). F. and so forth. #person{name = "Mike". a table is linked to the process that created it. Instead.Country.2. as the function it is supposed to execute is undefined. 378 existing flag. In the preceding code. Use variables only when you need them. 23. .0> supervisor:kernel/1 1377 0 <0. • Cleaning up the process loop data upon termination. Status) when Status==enabled. we return true: member(H.server.} surrounds an expression to be evaluated.two. 25. revAll([X|Xs]) -> [reverse(X) | revAll(Xs)]. Sequential Erlang . Primitives The primitives do not contain embedded test sets as arguments. a process will continue executing and remain alive until it terminates. but only the owner to write to it. This was to ensure that data consistency was maintained.1]] The following code shows these two example functions in action: evens([]) -> []. Another example of distributed systems is in one of the first flagship Erlang products. [#capital{name = "Rome". not(is_atom(Y)) . Using funs and higher-order functions. and when done. which is also the return value of the call once the list has been traversed. Avoid the underscore on its own. delete_usr/1. {saved. %% HTTP client: http. Within a particular module. Not only should you use this feature sparingly. use its pid. if you do register it. This partial index entry and the current field. as the make_script/2 function had not been implemented! Other Behaviors and Further Reading What we described in this chapter should cover a majority of the cases you will come across when using OTP behaviors. Endian values can be big (the default). This section deals with the most commonly used libraries in Erlang systems. What’s more. handle_event({clear_alarm. Behind the scenes. . whereas andalso and orelse will stop evaluating as soon as one expression returns false or true. The Trace BIFs | 359 {trace. meatballs}). frequency ! {request. LoopData}. At any one time. Args} Appends the Args to the trace events. To create the schema. we want to run the database on two remote nodes called om and switch. [72. and C will be bound to the list containing [3. the behavior will be undefined in the sense that any element or the '$end_of_table' atom might be returned. Functions and Variables All variables that are introduced in fun expressions are considered to be new variables. -vsn(1. An alternative approach to this is to raise an exception in the case of no corresponding key value being found. self()}. Options). Errors detected by the shell are instead formatted in a more readable form. Port. term()} .992. update the status using the msisdn: set_service(CustId. An FSM Example As an example. Pos} This creates a table with the key in position Pos. Your supervisor should be able to handle five crashes per hour. but you would struggle when scaling the system to hundreds of thousands of concurrent events. <<131. you would use a bag to model the presents received at the birthday party.wine]}]}] One of the beauties of Erlang is the fact that there is no explicit need for memory allocation and deallocation. [usr] 4> usr:start_link(). surname = "Virding"}} First = (P#person. 276 start_link/4 function. The request should be forwarded to your socket connection. In addition. and instead write: bump(List) -> lists:map(fun(X) -> X+1 end. such as unit:Val The number of bits used by the entry will be Val*N. as shown here and illustrated in Figure 11-6: remote_call(Message. profitable reading. You can create a process on this node by creating a mailbox.[]. The garbage collection time will be reduced as all its memory area will be deallocated at once. 266–276 process example. "Mike". we break it up into a head and a tail. You call the functions as follows (we show two variants for each of the two functions): gen_server:start_link(ServerName. stop. read the manual page for seq_trace.1.[{matched. You use the same principle and do nothing to the elements to get an accumulator-based reverse function: reverse(List) -> reverse_acc(List. {atomic. {'orelse'. wxMenu:append(File.. TraceFlags) allows you to specify which processes you want to trace and which trace events you want them to generate. Erlang Port Commands To open an Erlang port. timeouts.true. Lists and tuples are very different. Worker processes are OTP behaviors including gen_server. http:start() and http:request("https:// www. erlang:set_cookie(node(). kill). you were building an IM server (a recurring theme throughout this book). The executable is located in the Erlang root directory. since computation and communication can proceed in parallel across the processors and networks comprising the system. []. They are created. Using “don’t care” variables is considered good programming practice."Armstrong". 17. but can also be used in modified ways by the user.1}. and getting started with the system.10}}]. [named_table])..io_lib. construct.8. . undefined 9> ets:info(usrIndex).recursion} 2> recursion:member(friday. you reduce the memory imprint and generate subsequent values only when you need them. listlen. services = [data. . Item). Intermodule dependencies Reducing interdependencies not only facilitates the maintenance of the modules being called. true). why did ping:send/1 not generate a trace event? It is. _. . or low. A part of distributed Erlang is the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) application. Pid) -> NPid = spawn(?MODULE. • Also.id = 0. Finally.nonode@nohost. For a fragment of the usr_db module. [fun/arity.{badarg. Synchronous communication Use call(Name. In the following example. .atom()}.0. ghi} has three elements. also referred to as FSMs. Should this happen. Id. 180 logical operators.{_. which in turn returns the message to be sent to Pid3. user groups. How to Use EUnit EUnit provides a detailed representation of tests. it is necessary to resolve hostnames to IP addresses. which will be a tuple. In the trace printouts that follow. if necessary.cat}. To scale the system. . 196 predefined higher-order functions. In setting up the GUI. Exercise 9-6: Bitstrings Using bitstring constructors and pattern matching. 1. You use TypEr from the command line. We start our ping process and a separate tracer process. 147 design patterns. and 100+ others.cabinet_open ok 5> event_manager:send_event(alarm.france]. Figure 11-6. You might include client functions such as start/0. you will end up with deadlocks. LoopData). 282 process dictionary. Dialyzer can create a Persistent Lookup Table (PLT). . and gen_event. [] }] Match Specifications: The Nuts and Bolts | 385 Let’s break up the preceding code bit by bit. 2}. 8 receive pong -> pong end. Agents might receive the events and try to resolve the issues themselves. . You can read more about this application in the user guides and manuals that come with the Erlang distribution. Finally. processes can share information about each other. {active. -export([create_tables/1. . exp2n. . too. Exercise 9-2: List Comprehensions Using list comprehensions. Nodelist} Provides the list of nodes where you want disc and RAM replicas of the table. {daVinciCode. not how it does it. Side}) -> area({circle. we named the variables with their data types: 1> JoeAttributeList = [{shoeSize. 96 reference data type defined.2}.0]}. and so on are the command prompts.. = should not be used. unless you have modified the code search path structure. Exercise | 187 ok 7> my_db:read(bob). Although not apparently a problem for a three-element tuple. Args) Atomically spawns and sets a monitor between the calling process and the spawned process.[]}]} {ok. monday 4> list_to_tuple(tuple_to_list({one. . EUnit Test Representation EUnit represents tests and test sets in a variety of different ways. We’ll cover the fundamentals of how to communicate using TCP/IP in Erlang in Chapter 15. <<"Hello Concurrent World">>).26. in which we will store the result. Options Is a list that allows you to set the memory management flags fullsweep_after and heapsize. . 391 dbg tracer distributed environments. .JoeAttributeList}. just not too soon. . -export([start/0. Based on the reactions on the mailing list.100] [$H. 156. ?_assertEqual(tree1() . usr_db:update_usr(Usr#usr{services=NewServices}). which will be expanded to the text of the parameter as a string. we are dealing with one OS thread per processor (or core). the original system did not have a process for every truly concurrent activity—the processing of a packet from end to end—but instead used a process for every different task—decoding..*failed* .protected}] After having added all of the functions.2.. only one entry per word is allowed: in this case. If a call setup node terminates. [id]}]).[1. Instead. the second one is new: Distributed Computing in Erlang: The Basics | 249 Short names: erl –sname foo .0>. 1. what happens when you type in a list of ASCII values? How does the shell display them? We’ll finish this section with a short discussion of the history of strings in the Erlang system. ..4. ok). you solve the bigger one without even realizing it! Let’s try this approach by taking a list of integers and adding 1 to every element in the list. .116. false} Sets the socket to passive mode. 83. priv Is an optional directory that contains necessary scripts. . since we are already defining a function to solve this problem. 10. In abstracting your interfaces.. Insert). available in the online documentation. monitor. instance} -> {error.† Nonproper lists can be useful in supporting demand-driven or lazy programming. In the following example. resulting in the data being corrupted. the call will still fail unless there is a compiled version of the code in the code search path on the remote Erlang node on host FCC.2. Acc) -> bump_acc(Tail. {shell. If two messages are sent from one process to another. RPC is simple to implement in Erlang. and press Enter a few times. Function. {{slot. as this message was either tagged incorrectly or should not have made it this far into the system in the first place. 236 Sagnonas. Style and Efficiency . If at any point. Status}. you can Erlang’s Characteristics | 7 Figure 1-2. You can start the ring with the call ring:start(M. This representation needs to be used both when provisioning and when doing database lookups. In the example of bar. . Avoid unnecessary concurrency. the cookie of foo is set to that of bar. If you stop your application. waiting for you to type in an expression. N-1. Body]. so it is important to always separate the symbol << from equality with a space. that is. the objects associated with certain identifiers can be treated in a platform-sensitive way. We’ll build on this in Chapter 3. the authors of this book will disown you and deny any involvement in helping you learn Erlang. Never. init(FileName) -> UsrChild = {usr. If all callback functions are not implemented. 2. and we’ll introduce erl_call.3}. Another relatively common cause is when you match to retrieve parts of a result from a function call. Flags can be one of s. use the element on its own. as it is called from outside the module as a result of the spawn/3 BIF.108. When you are designing a library of your own. 281 purging. They are also unique to a node.Sum]). if you are interested in the details. These could include “node down” messages from nodes you are monitoring. 360. as there were fewer tools and IDEs available. make sure all of your processes are linked to a supervision tree. The absence of a strong type system and the flexibility and dynamic nature of some of Erlang’s constructs result in runtime errors that. [[2. It is stored in a variable we refer to as the process state. {write. SYN:1. CustId. the solution would be: Recursion | 59 bump([]) -> [].erlangprogramming. PidB is suspended in its receive clause until PidA calls signal/0.9. without the programmer having to be aware of it. you need to assign the updated database to a new variable every time. Example 8-1 shows the interaction in full. . bag. {field1 [ = default1 ]. Click the module you want to trace and a * will appear next to it. This is called the (unique) identifier of the node. [H|T] = [] will also fail.101. If init/1 returns {stop.Database]."Pretoria"] Look at how we matched the record at commands 7 and 8. receive ok -> ok end. 370 ctpl function. 352 links. If a linked process terminates abnormally. loop().{'EXIT'. He stumbled upon Erlang. include Contains all the Erlang header files (hrl) intended for use outside the application.4]. This creates a problem when variables are bound in only some of the clauses of a case or if construct. also try to kill the child and ensure that it has been restarted. so any modification to your record type will not be reflected in the code using the tuples. it is possible to pattern-match simultaneously on all the arguments: Conditional Evaluations | 47 index(0. Coding the elements separately.0>) <0. Most importantly.erlang. be aware of race conditions. It should contain valid Erlang expressions. You can start the process manager by writing pman:start() in the shell. At the start of the chapter.33. 341 P p function.write/3.41}. If sets and bags give constant time access. 229 sys module. This window (see Figure 3-3) allows you to step through the code.[{crash. is a container for IP-based protocol implementations. . If you need to use dirty operations in a distributed environment. you start working on feature enhancements for the second release. . The body of the fun. The name of the function is an atom. where the access time is logarithmic in the size of the collection. If you are setting and resetting a lot of timers. [{{'$1'. 97 There is no string data type in Erlang.4]”. a shortcut to the documentation is included in the Erlang/ OTP installation directory within the Program Files menu. mnesia:foldl(FoldFun. Going Further The C node you just saw is running as a client: it can make connections to Erlang nodes. 0:4.[Msg]) end. Resource Centers. Exercise 3-9: Indexing A raw document is a list of lines (i. Term} Displays a single Term on stdout.3} 6> ets:next(indexTable. '_'. 1. Starting Your Server With the gen_server behavior. you will get a string. and implement the function start_child(Module. "/Users/Francesco/"}]). This function first creates an instance of the wx-server.K. .{3. 1 2> Bin = < supervisor:start_link({local. . as shown in Figure 8-2.* For example. and encoding being the bottleneck. []). 2. Using funs and higher-order functions. Try calling the function even with a float or an atom. “Read it. and use a higher-order function to traverse the list. The body of the clause also uses pattern matching. We open the file in the init/1 function. Tune for full garbage collection. Once you have compiled your code. call the db:code_upgrade/1 function with the old database. . where we read the environment variable in the start_link/0 call: † We do not cover distributed applications in this chapter. monitor_node(Node. list_to_integer/1 All return integers. the body of the match specification. an obvious application of this sort of supervision is for processes that terminate after a software upgrade. {expression. Very quickly. it will return false and will do nothing else.true}.3]. Insert a few elements in the database and switch over to the tree version of the db module. The first two tests that check that applying the functions one after the other returns the original argument. The only limit on how large an integer can become depends on the physical constraints of the machine. 2). 183. . In this chapter. The pattern of wxErlang functions taking an extra “this” or “self” value as the first argument is used throughout the binding. Msg + 1} end. [[3.] operator.do_apply. status=enabled}} -> lists:member(Service. If not already running.29. This may be OK.0>} 3> dbg:p(all. and Match Specifications {trace. This section will describe the most common of them. . of processes running in parallel. both are useful in making programs easier to read. 205 bit sequences. 384 | Chapter 17: Trace BIFs. Service) -> case usr_db:lookup_msisdn(PhoneNo) of {ok. 'xor'. true 10> code:load_file(db). {Xcoord. is the root directory of the distribution. 214 ordered.[{enable_trace. the process is said to terminate abnormally. • The unbound variables are bound to the corresponding value in the Expression if the pattern match succeeds. [[ireland. and a set of macros which simplify the way EUnit tests can be written. For example. The mini blog application The main function. Because receive is a reserved word in Erlang.hrl"). receive {Port. . The table will have the default type set. the fully meshed network would result in six TCP/IP connections among the nodes. 7. and while doing so.0> 2> add_one:start(). 267. In the receive clause. . Four} = Tuple.[{active. The mode will also check that your module names and filenames match.lists:seq(X.'_'}). Funs and Higher-Order Functions To understand what funs are all about.emu. {badrpc. where Constant is the literal value of the Constant. Investigate how user identities can be managed (using passwords). In the preceding code. the request function has an additional pattern match over {'EXIT'. the function compile:file(Module).erl usr_db. 28 release handling.. itself a consequence of where the processes are suspended and which core they are running on. 3. Robustness How do you build a robust system? Although Erlang might not solve all your problems. as can a number of coding and decoding functions provided in the erlang module. Help = wxMenu:new(). {module_info. including a SIP telephony stack. Resource}. If we instead wrote Int = Int + 1. the “at” symbol (@). [{'<'. 54. The tools available with Erlang. 210 make_rel function.[1. The solution is to merge the efficiency and simplicity of ETS and Dets tables with the Erlang distribution and to add a transaction layer on top.A. principally because it means the development team engages with potential problems earlier. We know this already. Pid. rather than in the processes spawned. deconstruct.231}]. The reason is that the process receiving the trace messages cannot be traced. '1+2+3' 9> 'missing a full stop. What is important is that in the process. Passing global traces only exported functions. 243 documentation.Y. and “bumps up” its numerical value by one. Use records as the principal data structure to store compound data types. This program can then accept connections from Erlang nodes. Pid. which is the integer 85. fault-tolerant. expect to see the {error. Before doing anything with the shell. 85 Erlang shell and. When doing so. for instance. -export([init/1. we will provide more detail in the information we write to it and spend less effort with its formatting. which we cover in Chapter 13. Modules An alphabetical list of the modules in the Erlang distribution.{4. TraceFlag} where TraceFlag is a single flag as defined in the section “The Trace BIFs” on page 357. 418 event handlers chapter exercises. If you need to send a large message to many processes. sets and bags are two different kinds of collections. compiling. wxErlang: An Erlang Binding for wxWidgets | 313 A First Example: MicroBlog The first example we will develop is minimal: a “micro” blogging application. {throw. This option specifies which of the interfaces the socket should use. If any processes are still running the code. [{disc_copies. so even if they compile correctly.safaribooksonline. false Recursion is one of the most fundamental tools not only in Erlang. [2. .100. If there is no more code to execute. %% Service API lookup_msisdn(PhoneNo) -> case mnesia:dirty_read({usr. In Mnesia. 50–52 runtime errors. The if Construct The if construct looks like a case without the conditional-expression and the of keyword: if Guard1 -> expression11. as for normal Erlang variables. not for only two or three! If you are coming from an object-oriented background. defined in the order in which they should be started. Name. san_francisco Hold it! Something went wrong. the sum of [2. together with the parameters to the function and its local variables. 91 processWords function. [{alison. where List is the representation of the list.catch construct development considerations. Nationality} -> io:format("Person not Swedish:~p~n".3]).' Booleans There are no separate types of Boolean values or characters in Erlang.zebra. When this fun is called. the calling process terminates. tuple_to_list/1 Both convert between the two data types. the FlagList defines the type of traced function. because at any one time. ** exception throw: {error. Ericsson’s experiences of tracing live telephony switches are reflected in the trace BIFs. Let’s test these functions from the shell. the full stop (. In Erlang. 0:32.1}. this result is returned here. Handler) -> call(Name. 1. . Freq}} -> NewFrequencies = deallocate(Frequencies.5:8>>.1}. 378 > (greater than) operator. bar@localhost]). If so. the modules in which those called functions are defined must be in the code search path of the remote Erlang node. especially when starting the behavior from the shell using start_link. 117. pattern matching in the first clause of the receive statement. Figure 8-2. Upon receiving the message. average_acc([H | T]. Visualizing a table 228 | Chapter 10: ETS and Dets Tables Dets Tables Dets tables provide efficient file-based Erlang term storage. to hold the value of the sum as it is calculated. or radio frequencies. The principles of bitstring comprehension are the same as for lists: pattern-matching syntax is used in the generator (on the left side of the <= symbol) and results can be described using bit syntax. . and to write debugging code. relieving us of the need to understand or write match specifications: ETS Tables | 225 17> MS = ets:fun2ms(fun({Name. 206 <= (leftwards arrow). not code snippets or simple functions. Call tracing is disabled using dbg:ctp({Mod. The code is completely generic and independent of the individual handlers. rabbits. It is much more efficient to add the element to the head of the list and when the recursive call reaches the base case. For example. This way. Service. A finite state machine In Erlang. CustId}). to the pid. . and in such cases. _} = {1. you can use the following notation (if there are two arguments): Mod:Fun(Arg1. it’s possible to detect many of the faults in a program without running it. {recent_size. . . As this file will probably be read and manipulated by other programs. port_command(Port. an Example: Tree Serialization The EUnit Infrastructure Assert Macros Test-Generating Functions EUnit Test Representation Testing State-Based Systems Fixtures: Setup and Cleanup Testing Concurrent Programs in Erlang Exercises 411 412 413 413 416 416 416 417 418 418 419 420 20. 416 variables and. as well as the way data is coded and decoded for communication to the external program. We are calling the length function len to avoid clashing with the built-in function.uk/~sjt/] @doc Back end for the mobile subscriber database. instead of raising a badarg exception.2}. where the trace on the {Module. As soon as the message is sent. the process that owns the socket will receive messages of the form {tcp. static analysis can check for dead code as well as type anomalies. When you get the Erlang command prompt (of the form number>). As we were not running distributed nodes. We will convert the sum/1 and len/1 functions to be tail-recursive. erl–sname bar. . ctpl. manipulating. {request. When you press Enter. we list a possibly empty set of predefined actions that have to be taken if the match in the head is successful and the logical conditions are met..[].” If you feel your proposed use of code examples falls outside fair use or the permission given here. {ok. Whereas sockets are used to create a byte-oriented communication stream between programs possibly running on different machines. you should search for it in the open source community. In recent Erlang/OTP releases. Note how in the exited/2 function we ensure that the pair consisting of the client Pid and the frequency is a member of the list containing the allocated frequencies. Erlang’s SSL application is based on the open source OpenSSL toolkit. wait_connect.Pid) will return different references. Of course. 32 dict module functionality. 316 | Chapter 14: GUI Programming with wxErlang Figure 14-3. retrieved through the get_frequencies/0 call. you can compare references for equality and use them in pattern-matching definitions. The subject of OTP behaviors and their related middleware is vast. is_number. If these preconditions are not met. 'receive'.2/ebin". 38 overriding precedence. Example: Building an Index. where all errors were passed. according to the Boolean value of the second argument: true to generate and false to suppress. unknown_msg}. the @spec for cre ate_tables/1 says the following: %% @spec create_tables(string()) -> {ok.<0. You want to write an index for a document. forwarded the reply to the socket process that held the open connection belonging to the recipient.erl. Attribute). what are the features of Erlang that differentiate it from many of its peers? High-Level Constructs Erlang is a declarative language. _='_'})..'_'}).0>} 9> dbg:p(Pid. business. or updated for every specific event manager.16. allowing communication between processes that initially did not have knowledge of each other. The updated frequency data is returned by the allocate function. Communication and Messages The most elementary communication is for one node to test whether it can communicate with another. you will create a distributed Mnesia database of Muppets. we load the person record definition from the records1 module. 220. the compiler will rearrange the clauses for you. true 13> Tuple = {name.8. 138 design patterns. Lastly. For large persistent tables. . [usr. and the second parameter holds the “sum so far. This can be made on either the client or the server side. the handle function might want to display them. as handlers can be subsequently added using the add_handler/2 call. 359 foldl/3 function lists module. to send the child a message containing a tuple with the parent’s process identifier (given as a result of calling self()) and the atom hello. built by the implementers of Dialyzer. 217 implementations and trade-offs. [Function/Arity. . use pen and paper to work your way through a few examples of the tail-recursive version of average. 226 tags. Storage management in Erlang is automated. simultaneously extracts the eight 1-bit flags from the Flags byte. Use of Pid!Msg does not comply with the internal OTP message protocol. To open an Erlang file in Windows. 378 -. . N} -> Sender ! modtest2:a(N) end. on the basis of this. 0:32. 253–255 defined. plan = prepay. The E-10 is a conventional floating-point notation stating that the decimal point has been moved 10 positions to the left: 1.instance} 5> application:get_env(usr. db ! {self().wine]}]. 305 set_on_first_link flag.5. necessitating deeply recursive calls.Ys. providing coverage analysis. false -> {Free. To test your supervisor. List} constructs. . Although EUnit provides the scaffolding for an expression to be applied at a particular point during system evolution. There are four different kinds of ETS tables. . Some of these conditions arise as a result of shared memory and the need for semaphores to access them. but in general. if there are none. Recursive list definitions L = [A|[2. manager). {delete. listToTree(treeToList(tree1()))).4] 7> [Head1|Tail1] = [1]. 392 dbg tracer.‖ If you have similar patterns of code. the request/1 function returns the atom timeout.italy}] If you delete the existing table and re-create the table as a bag. as integers are converted to floats before being compared with them in such a comparison. and books. In the examples using the trace BIFs in the section “Tracing Calls with the trace_pattern BIF” on page 362.3. factorial(0) -> 1. they were probably not matched because of a bug in one of the receive clauses. 164 | Chapter 7: Records and Macros Macros Macros allow you to write abbreviations of Erlang constructs that the Erlang Preprocessor (EPP) expands at compile time. the callback function stop(Data) is called in the application callback module. 201. g] is said to have a length of 3. 63–67. You can do this (on Mac OS X) using the following command: gcc -o fac -I/usr/local/lib/erlang/lib/erl_interface-3. 181.12. month('December') -> 12.script files are produced. Db) db:read(Key.1 compiler. Although these processes may handle different requests. "Francesco". we extract the first name by looking up the name field in the record of type person stored in the variable NewPerson. You can learn information about a table using ets:info/1. which is a wildcard that will match any value in this position • '$0'and '$1'.jar" ServerNode Taking It Further The JInterface library has more extensive capabilities than you have seen so far: • It is possible to link to and unlink from Java processes using the link and unlink methods on OtpMbox. . Types in Erlang Let’s start this chapter with an example and follow it with an overview of the type notation for Erlang. the return_to event is sent only when the recursive base case has been reached. 117 process design patterns. including the following: {auto_save. picture a campaign in which the operator sends an SMS to millions of subscribers as quickly as it can. allowing the following: • Guards to be evaluated over the variables matched • Return expressions to be more than simply a list of bindings Here is an example. 14-5. but also we might not have wanted to connect all of these nodes to each other in the first place. let’s try to clean up the preceding example. In the next section. try to download any web page. Enable) allow you to enable and disable many flags at the same time. Try out various combinations yourself: 1> +1. 3]) sum([2. an event will have different kinds of information associated with it. Although fungi are not considered a good food source for mammals in general.[]. for extremely large.age + 1. For instance. and are later used within the same function body.or example-based approach. get_data/2. Multiple clauses use syntax similar to case: the keyword fun does not appear before each different pattern-matching case. Attribute) and del_table_index(Tab. Most applications will function appropriately with a timeout of five seconds."Undo latest\tCtrl-U").CStr].[]. This was the eye-opener that led me to believe the declarative and concurrent features in Erlang had to be the direction in which software development was heading. [named_table. E. Even though you can use ets match specifications from the shell. From.13.2.2"}.] 5> Add = fun(Id) -> usr_db:add_usr(#usr{msisdn = 700000000 + Id. Using these callback functions..3. . record_info(size. 122 | Chapter 5: Process Design Patterns The receive clause will accept three kinds of requests originating from the client functions. There’s just one exception to this: one thing you can’t do with a function created dynamically is to spawn it. The Reply is sent to the reply(Pid.id = 1. the Erlang terminology can be seen to reflect how the keys are handled: sets and ordered sets can contain each key only once. waiting for an event to trigger a chain of actions. however. PhoneNo}). 2 bsl operator. Reply} -> Reply. and produces no bindings. ?wxID_ANY. Imagine 15. as in the function definition foo(N. What might have been inefficient constructs or necessary workarounds in earlier releases are not necessarily a problem in the current version. are provided in Chapter 6 of the online Interoperability Tutorial. By atomic operation.sms]}] What’s happening here? Have we missed something? The database is not being restored in the RAM-based tables. you can go in more detail when working with generic servers. for instance. 2. you can use the shell command flush/0. . tstFun(Z. a trace event is generated and some predefined actions can be executed. 3 9> Bin. 278 | Chapter 12: OTP Behaviors ModuleList Is a list of the modules that implement the process.{module_info.. pad([M1]) -> [$0. Don’t forget to implement the stop_child(Id) call. the atom person is the tag and might denote that the second field in the tuple is always the first name of the person.2}. you use the functions of arity two. all bitstring entities are indicated by being enclosed within <<. The output is: 3> flush(). as we did earlier in “High-Level Constructs” on page 4. or a tuple containing the integers making up the IP address. get_data(Name. is_pid.8. Ensuring a lack of dependency between this process and the processes handling all the other messages guarantees that these messages are safely processed and delivered to their recipients regardless of the bug. id = Id. It is easy to see that you would have to match the message above the {Mod.3] 4> lists:split(2. true). 80 pid (process identifier) defined. whose task is to monitor workers and other supervisors. g(Xs). through different tabs.. wxFrame:setStatusText(Frame. the result of case expression evaluation should match one of the patterns. This return value would either force the user of the function to test for and handle this error value. the virtual machine model has evolved from a single monolithic run queue—possibly with processes running on different processors—to a run queue for each processor. Francesco has come across only one deadlock that made it as far as the integration phase. Reason} is returned. which after formatting it. {'not'. Be careful when using catch and throw. using trees as an example. 38 Armstrong. To understand how this version differs from the original.26. using the usr. Description} in our example and keep a count of how many times the combination of {Type. that is. Pay special attention to how the quotes are (and are not) displayed and how and where the expressions are terminated with a full stop: 1> abc. true 12> db_server:upgrade(dict). 413–415 functions. 382.Reason} -> Reason end. the system could process five simultaneous messages.{lelle. When working in functional programming languages.3. bar@localhost}]). • The many Erlang-focused blogs. The supervision tree is packaged in an application that can be loaded.2). as given by the splits function. 5 8> element(2. 2 module directive.[]. it took me and a fellow student 120 man-hours to solve. 228 type notation. When writing your program. Length) gen_tcp:recv(Socket.0. . make sure you experiment and get better acquainted with tuples and the tuple BIFs in the Erlang shell. 23 endian values. {applications. This means that gradually bringing Erlang into a system and displacing less-capable conventional languages is not at all unusual. ordered_set]). Test-Driven Development The waterfall model of software development saw a software system being developed in a series of steps: first. Default values and maximum values are OS-dependent. Additionally.100]. Error} end. _} | ChildList]) -> exit(Pid. and applications.[{add_one. How did Erlang contribute to the success of the AXD301? It supports incremental development. raise_taxes(Person)}. And as a fallback. and on the multicore processors inside all of our computers. 30 call flag (tracing). the remainder of the binary is matched to Payload/binary.16.hrl file: %%% File : usr. restarting the process.3. reference() Are all self-explanatory. . that is.sean]. With its approach that avoids shared data. [[francesco|san_francisco]]}}} 174 | Chapter 8: Software Upgrade 5> db:read(francesco. was aware of a trademark claim. or sales promotional use. LoopData) callback function. {shell. Client/Server Models | 123 deallocate({Free. ok 5> usr:set_service(0. file The file module provides an interface to the filesystem. 184 | Chapter 8: Software Upgrade {delete. Db) db:delete(Key. you will find a list of release files. 260 essential modules. Frequency server message sequence diagram Through a functional interface. 195 G garbage collection atoms and. Another way of opening an attach window is by preselecting one of the attach options in the monitor window. Mnesia knows the tables are partitioned and will report this event so that you can act on it. terminate is called. . Erlang from the Unix Shell: erl_call One of the “hidden gems of OTP” is the erl_call Unix command. times(X. but the installation that shot to prominence was used by British Telecom to build what was at the time the largest “Voice over ATM” backbone in the world. where Pid is the return value of the tracer/2 call. where three nodes are running on the hosts STC and FCC in their respective subnetworks. 270 term_to_binary/1 function. This function sends a message of the format {request. complex data structures are created by nesting composite data types together. 230 lookup function.[]). _Pid. Maintain the same interface to the db module. unknown_element} is returned: case lists:member(foo.996.nonode@nohost. 338 OtpErlangChar class. enter_window. or equal to 1: if X < 1 -> smaller. you get full flexibility in rearranging the order of your messages and avoid incorrectly pattern matching messages in the wrong clause: loop(State) -> receive {apply. usr.0>) call ping:start() (<0. .instance} (switch@Vaio)14> usr:set_status(1. 81]. Every time you authenticate your mobile terminal to start a data session. _ -> ok end. and press Enter to get back to the shell command line. Each instance of a record in a Mnesia table is called an object. Before going on to the next section. armed with all of the preceding information. 123}. the call is “inlined” thus: tstFun(Z. regardless of whether it is registered. {def. as a message to that Pid. as opposed to integers. . but they can also be running on different host computers. • Using this supervision and linking. the result of evaluating the last expression in the body of the clause that was executed. but they will usually contain fewer bugs. Allocated}. 196 | Chapter 9: More Data Types and High-Level Constructs [2. The implementation of ETS tables in the Erlang distribution is very flexible. or have a dynamic function to look up a record type and generically use it to forward a request to a callback module. ok 7> usr:lookup_id(0). shutdown). 416 assertError macro. handle_msg({delete_handler. is to make the listener process the accept process. if the first match specification is successful.80. running on the host where the statement is executed. Rest/binary>> will bind the first 100 bytes of the binary to Chunk and what remains to Rest. Library Modules A large number of library modules are distributed with the Erlang runtime system. because Double is already bound to the integer 2. giving the string 010101. io:format("#~w. {kernel.0> error_logger <0. They are called by the client process and result in a synchronous message being sent to the server process registered with the same name as the callback module. denoting the ASCII value of U. Executing this call in a match specification is the equivalent of calling erlang:trace(self(). 359 process scheduling. NewLoopData} or {stop. As a record. Assert Macros The basic building block of EUnit is a single test. ?wxID_ANY. . causing it to terminate as well.4.atom()}. 362 OtpErlangByte class. and deallocates the frequency using the client function. but you can easily change it by starting the Erlang shell with the command erl +P MaxProcceses. regardless of the number of distributed Erlang nodes running on it.2. All destructive database operations such as write and delete were serialized through this process. . the last thing you want to have to do is to learn a new editor. is that a tester chats with two “people” online. rest_for_one Will terminate all of the children that were started after the child that crashed. allowing the processes shared access to their objects. giving the map function.2. and to have the excuse to introduce a new library. Once the actions were completed. If they are equal. Extend the system so that a number of blogs can be accessed at the same time. C. 146 error handling and. Figure 11-4. 412 | Chapter 19: EUnit and Test-Driven Development EUnit supports testing side-effecting and concurrent programs. If another process is holding a conflicting lock on an object. The error you see is typical of errors returned by the runtime system. Difference Between ets and dbg Match Specifications There are differences between the match specifications used by the ets and the dbg modules. which can call an operating system command from inside the Erlang shell: 1> os:cmd("date"). ~p.12.4]. Finally.cairo} The server is still up and running. Binaries are effective in moving large amounts of data. while the exception exit printout comes from the shell itself.15. we put two of them together.operator. test1/1.1000). 190 data structures. Generally.[2. so any attempt to override a module defined in them fails. . and not for every iteration of the function. <<4. request(Int) -> add_two ! {request.[]. That will not solve your problem."New\tCtrl-N").4. together with the binaries of the virtual machine. The individual guard expressions can be built using the following constructs: • Bound variables • Literal Erlang terms denoting data values including numbers."/Users/Francesco/food"}] 12> dets:lookup(food. lists:sum(Multiple). Match Specifications: The fun Syntax | 379 message(true) Is another special case of message/1.6}. In testing listToTree. To understand the structure of messages. In this chapter. {ok.#usr{msisdn = 700000000. Ycoord}. Pid.0. Having used Erlang on a daily basis since 1995. services = [data. NewStatus = reset(BladeId. <<2. The real load will be on the frontend. even if it were possible to do at all. 299 Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) decoding segments. .2}=={2. spawn_link(my_supervisor. <<1. tend to overuse if statements when the same result can be achieved more elegantly using pattern matching in case statements.5}]}. upgrade/1]). . Table 2-3 lists the comparison operators. You expect your program to pattern-match on an atom denoting a message type. Look at what happens in command 10. For more information. So.{100. write to it in handle_event/2. [])). dets:open_file(subDisk. . as they have to either develop this infrastructure from scratch themselves or troubleshoot their systems in a black-box environment. This call returns the tuple {error. Service. the breakpoint can. When one list is exhausted. . TypEr infers success types. 2000. You can create this association using an event table. as it facilitates the hop from the client function to the location in your process loop where you handle the message: free(Resource) -> resource_server ! {free. or the Systems Architecture Support Library (sasl) application directories.erl" %% ---------------spec start() -> 'ok' | {'error'. reply(From. By using sockets in passive mode.972|. ets:delete(msgQ. The Appendix covers how to get started with Erlang. Id. services = [data. At any one time. After startup. Finally. another difference between atoms and strings is efficiency. the process we call Pid1 executes the spawn BIF somewhere in its program. calendar. With each runtime error.app /priv/ /include/usr. spawn(frequency. Testing is aided by EUnit for unit testing.48. {erts. its clauses are checked sequentially by pattern matching the arguments passed in the call to the patterns defined in the function heads. Dets tables are closed when the owning process terminates or calls the dets:close(Name) call. and the newly loaded one becoming the current one.34}. [] -> {error.2]).. the ERTS User’s Guide dedicates a whole chapter to them. This should be the same as the suffix of the application directory.. plan = Plan}. {atomic.3 [source] [64-bit] [smp:2] [async-threads:0] [kernel-poll:false] Eshell V5. true 5> ets:insert(countries. Function. if traced. {daVinciCode. as in the following: loop() -> receive {Sender. Writing <<"Hello">> is the same as writing <<$H. /Users/Francesco/database ok 2> make:all([load]). Further investigation shows that an ETS table called coun tries gets corrupted by the entry {'EXIT'. ECE:1. Connected processes remain connected. and so on. Pid) This can be called by any process. ensuring that the chapters kept on coming. $a represents the integer 97 and $A represents the integer 65. start(_Type. field2 [ = default2 ]. 45 Conditional Evaluations The case Construct Variable Scope The if Construct Guards Built-in Functions Object Access and Examination Type Conversion Process Dictionary Meta Programming Process. returning [Y|P] (coding this is left as an exercise for the reader). So.do_apply. as they facilitate development of the complex architecture that provides the required fault tolerance through isolating errors and ensuring nonstop operation.0>}. instance} end.format. You can save even more memory by using erlang:hibernate/3. Using the nodes/0 BIF will not return any hidden nodes.{2. The process will act as a “factorial server. Shell got 2 Shell got 3 Shell got 4 ok Note that foreach is defined not only in the hof1 example.. {erts. and all the words in the document are normalized to noncapitalized form in the index. Disable. Frame = wxFrame:new(wx:null(). The Erlang distribution has library support for many protocols. write a function that prints out the even integers between 1 and N. where N =< M. Sum. a bag will be the right choice of data structure. Pid}. 420 seq_trace module. causing the process to crash. we use a module test which exports the functions factorial/1.) Once the ETS version of the db. and Process Starvation Anyone who has programmed concurrent applications before moving to Erlang will have his favorite horror stories on memory corruption. 378 Gudmundsson. and we can see that it is indeed a badmatch of the expression 3 (with X): 4> try (X=3) of 4> Val -> {normal. test/2]). usr_sup]}.'$3']. it is safer to reduce the throughput by introducing synchronous calls. new()). it will be omitted from the result.#Port<0. The same restrictions to TraceFlag apply as in the enable_trace/1 literal call.Age. The function ets:fun2ms/1 takes a fun as an argument. there are toolkits. . In the example that follows. we are leaking out the fact that the queue data structure is a list when we bind the variable NewQ to the empty queue. The simplest fixtures have the following form: {setup. Data}}. Processes and Concurrency | 429 Stylistic Conventions Programs are written not just to be executed by a computer. . such as is_binary. prettyIndexNext(First. the second is the list [b. .. 40.1"}. 96 Serialization In this section. [binary. except that it will do so atomically (i. they cannot be reused as “don’t care” variables.6. create_tables(FileName) -> ets:new(usrRam. the pack would start chasing it. we’ll build on this introduction and look at design patterns for process-based systems. and not superfluous. nonblocking operation. in a new iteration of the server. you would typically undo things you did in init/1.eu/publications/survey._) -> ok. 361 trace/3 function. when you want to add an element to the head of the list. When monitoring is active. QuickCheck is also able to test properties of concurrent systems using finite state machines to exercise their behavior. efficiently extracting relevant bits and bytes with a minimal amount of effort and code. expressioni2. 447 ebin directory..jar" ServerNode. 46 | Chapter 3: Sequential Erlang As with function definitions. first collecting the word occurrence data as {Word. For instance. as the first process had not gotten as far as registering it. Port = open_port({spawn. links are provided in the index to the module identified. It was not the action of decoding. Function. 27. as the first element of the tuple containing the list of available frequencies is empty. stop} -> reply(Pid. CallBackModule.. QueueSize}. send_event(Name. they would often break the strings into manageable chunks and concatenate them using the append function in the lists library module. Making the arguments into a tuple allows a case to be used to define index. Service. 3}. Binding of variables is allowed only in the function head: using = in your match fun will result in an error being returned. type systems. '_'} Wildcards are allowed using the '_' atom. where Tuple is the sought tuple.Y) -> X*Y.modtest2} 2> modtest2:main(). floating-point numbers. updates the state. Joe Armstrong. The result (possibly an error) was encoded and sent to the socket process managing the connection belonging to the final recipient. 3}. with some subtleties in its behavior that allow you to do some amazing things in one or two lines of code._} = P) -> begin Rec0 = Age + 1. loop(NewFrequencies). the Erlang implementation avoids many of the pitfalls of RPC in other languages. 1.frequency} 2> frequency:start(). Arguments) In the preceding calls: ServerName Is the name to be registered for the supervisor. a trace message will be generated. including those on remote nodes.[1.'instance'} usr_db.111>>. The function returns a tagged list where. Variable} -> Pid ! get_variable(Variable). A function to double its argument is given by: fun(X) -> X*2 end A function to add two numbers is: fun(X. corrupt internal data or a missing configuration file is. 230 | Chapter 10: ETS and Dets Tables ETS and Dets tables are used when a sizable key value store is needed. Elements in lists do not have to be of the same data type and. You need to execute the function within the scope of a transaction.daVinciCode] 4> [Book || {francesco. and Mac OS X. % setup % cleanup 418 | Chapter 19: EUnit and Test-Driven Development } }. we will trace all message-related events from the ping module that we introduced in “Inheritance Flags” on page 360. {def. 68 variable scope.Last). 236 select function. and very quickly. You could define the function using field selection and update like this: birthday(P) -> P#person{age = P#person. 57 – (subtraction) operator. The pinged node also gives an error report to signal the connection attempt. you need to change the hardcoded values everywhere they are used. Receive timeouts Assume you have a process registered with the alias db. expressionin Conditional Evaluations | 49 The result of the complete if expression is the result of this sequence. Other examples include a cabinet door being opened. List comprehension is another powerful construct whose roots lie in functional programming. char() Is the Unicode subset of the integer() type. as illustrated in Figure 10-1. test. timeout}.<0. Let’s try to insert records in ETS tables through the shell.{keypos. 21 tail-recursive functions. Name} or {global. and different degrees of support for translating between complex data in the two languages can be provided. Other reviewers who deserve a special mention include Thomas Arts. Shell Modes: Interactive and Embedded The Erlang shell is started by default in what we call interactive mode. 45 Conditional Evaluations Erlang has three forms of conditional evaluation that are (at least partially) interchangeable. reference()} | {error.15. From the code:get_path/0 example. where the position in the table storing the tuple is determined by the value of a function (called a hash function) mapping the key of the tuple to the memory location where its contents are stored.san_francisco} 6> db_server:write(alison. The most common errors you will come across are eaddrinuse if the address is already in use. literal and compound data types must be described using a special syntax. Usr#usr. Now we select the recursive clause (i. 395 case constructs development considerations. [{packet. which we introduce in the next chapter. the top-level supervisor is sent a shutdown message.30. namely 6: factorial(3). #wx{id=?OPEN. 359 exit function.6}. handle_event(_. Each function is hyperlinked to its details. where Result is the return value of the last expression executed in the fun. and all the tests within the module are run by calling mod:test(). open a UDP socket on port 1234. the start(StartType.usr_db} 21> usr_db:delete_disabled().1.<0. application:stop(ApplicationName). 376 filter function. and sent counters with send_. a function which is the result of applying times to 2. 'Joe'. and the previous current version becomes the old version. Erlang’s reputation for handling the fault-tolerant and high-availability aspects of these systems has its foundations in the simple but powerful constructs built into the language’s concurrency model. The frontend nodes contain the web servers (running in the Erlang node). Boundary. tuesday. If the number of arguments is known at compile time. []} ] The Specification Body If the match is successful and the conditions evaluate to true.[]. or to interpret debugging information. is an implementation of the quicksort algorithm in a couple of lines of code: qsort([]) -> [].6. The wxErlang documentation contains an overview page together with an EDoc page for each module. • The newly spawned process starts executing in the init/1 function with a Handler List tuple list of the format {Handler. ."Williams". Service. and whichever is smaller indicates the smaller list: if they are the same. Going into the output for each of these is X+1. Having used ML xv in my functional programming courses and ADA in my real-time programming courses. . you must ensure that the TimeOut value is at least a few minutes. Expr) Will test for a program exit or a throw of an exception. as they will be application-dependent. 181. and will restart them. [{shoeSize. the pattern matching will be successful.. etc. and as N is unbound. and a socket connected to the epmd port mapper daemon: (bar@Vaio)1> inet:i(). Pid) assigns the group leader process LeaderPid to the process denoted by Pid.[{options.0. Exercises | 307 CHAPTER 14 GUI Programming with wxErlang Programming graphical user interfaces (GUIs) is not one of Erlang’s touted strengths. or Distributed Emacs Lisp. '$2'}. but old ones will not.. days.{{one_for_all. 252 receiving. 324. 21. This is because it makes last-call optimization possible. and LoopData is the argument originally returned by the init/1 callback function. presumably indicating the nature of the error. The mobility application in question had lots of concurrency.[]. a call setup node and an operation and maintenance (O&M;) node. if the event was caused by an external process pushing data.elementAt(0)). SequenceNumber:32. Every event relating to this window is translated to an Erlang message and sent to the process."treeToList ( tree1 ( ) )"}. and arity of the calls you want to result in a trace event. there are a number of advantages in building a distributed system: • It will provide performance that can be scaled with demand. CustId.instance}. and the garbage left behind is overwritten in the other heap.$r. and error handling.'$1'. 368 stop_trace_client function.1}. start two nodes: erl -sname foo erl -sname bar In the first node. They are relatively slow-moving creatures. {HandlerFun.[{cat.4. marked with a double circle. you may use the code in this book in your programs and documentation. {imports. Reply} -> Reply end. 378. Also included are functions for dealing with memory allocation in term (de)construction and manipulation. What happens in receive statements? The syntax and semantics of receive are very similar to those of case. as a result. cmd. 57 io_handler event handler. friday]).0000000001234. When calling: erlang:trace_pattern(MFA. why is it necessary to give an ordered set representation that has slower access to particular elements? The answer is that ordered sets allow the collection to be traversed in key order. Event handler processes will receive messages of a specific type. examine which function in the lists module is being called. you can do so only restrictively. {delete_handler. fac(N)} end. one human and one a machine: if the tester cannot reliably decide which is the human and which is the machine. {shell. Comparison operators take tuples with three elements. Save Saves the current blog in the BLOG file. Lists are deconstructed into a head and tail using {hd. 96 memory management background. effect. 69. foo. 12> {person. 2 Index | 457 F f/0 shell command. using the erlectricity library.. kill). avoid writing deeply nested code.3. io. stop()-> db_server ! stop.. which is in the following: /jinterface-XXX/priv/OtpErlang. as Timeout can be a variable set every time the function is called. . Port. but this is not always the case. What can you do to avoid this? Make your code as deterministic as possible. both integers and floats. [{'=='. so this does not result in the two processes sharing a storage location (which each might read or write) but only in them each having their own copy of the data. which is slightly more than 1 million.'$1'].expr. 384 bignums. . . [])). as the messages might cross and cause the deadlock. 1234). The call factorial(0) matches in the first clause. enable(BladeId).2. Seconds. two good books are Internet Core Protocols by Eric Hall (O’Reilly) and TCP Illustrated by W. The io_handler event handler filters out events of the format {raise_alarm.hrl include file. {named_table.Edit. The default value of this attribute is [node()]. queries. If something as minor as a network glitch occurs between the nodes and both copies of the table are updated independently of each other. instance}. If you want to delete a subscriber record.[{crash.cairo} 15> db_server:read(francesco). {ok. Let’s start with the sum. but not in command 10.{chris. 331 connect function. When an active breakpoint is reached.6.Pid. Before doing this it is important to make sure no old schemas exist. 170 conditional. Only upon deletion will the child specification be permanently removed.N}) -> [2. month(String) when is_list(String) -> {error.'$3'} This is a pattern. continue with your household chores. and lists—were introduced in Chapter 2. You can pass the following calls as arguments to the display/1 and message/1 literal functions: caller() Returns the {Module. you might want to turn the logging to the console off while maintaining the gathering of statistics and logging to file. ghi}). 38. and retrieve data as well as interact with the operating system. Functions As Results You have seen how functions can be arguments to other functions. These clauses are included to demonstrate the syntax and allow you to experiment.5}. Shell got {'EXIT'. Node. it is discouraged if it is used as a form of defensive programming (see the sidebar “Defensive Programming” for more information on catch-all clauses). 52 | Chapter 3: Sequential Erlang Built-in Functions The following subsections will familiarize you with a few of the more commonly used built-in functions grouped according to the type of function. ] is a powerful way to describe lists that are generated from other lists by “generate and test” methods.0>) (<0. Status) when Status==enabled. Tests} Will run the tests for Time seconds. URLs. by default. Hint: use concatenate to solve flatten.erl:69: Call to missing or unexported function ets:safefixtable/2 done in 0m0. Rewrite it using records instead of tuples. allocate({[]. Result.[1. Hint: assume that the lists contain no duplicates. For every TraceFlag that you want to enable. this chapter covers the principles underlying the toolkit and provides a taste of some of its most-used aspects. Here is an example of a record instance of this type: 158 | Chapter 7: Records and Macros #person{name="Joe". update a window. 330.format. we start a local tracer that redirects trace events to IP port 1234 on a different Erlang node running on the same host. {module_info. This header markup will automatically generate an anchor (equivalent to ). TypEr: Success Types and Type Inference | 399 In the usr_db. 437–442 module considerations. Allocated}. The History of Erlang | 3 Ericsson made the decision to release Erlang as open source in December 1998 using the EPL license. start_link(FileName) -> gen_server:start_link({local. the macros have no effect in that module. To further Receiving Messages | 101 familiarize yourself with concurrency. but certainly not a new process for every event. even if it’s tempting.Sum]). 424–425 return_to flag. If the network connection between the two nodes goes down. but also is allowed to receive premium-rated SMSs. 11% of memory management. and impact of the programming language constructs. 296 which_applications function. 3 We said these are not BIFs: the exception to this is length.0. 142–144.{alison. 155 child specifications. It is common to have processes handling thousands of messages per second over sustained periods of not only hours. returns the tuple {ok. The Erlang shell is nothing other than an Erlang 92 | Chapter 4: Concurrent Programming process in a read-evaluate-print loop. give excellent software development support. and duplicate bags are stored as hash tables. or download it from the book’s website: 1> HandlerFun = fun({trace. true Elements of the table are 3-tuples. net_kernel This module contains the infrastructure for manually starting. it will load it in the virtual machine.3. 357–362 trace_pattern/3 function. binding the variable _Other to the atom restart. all you need to do is terminate the top-level supervisor. and a year later. Handler:terminate(Data)}. the role of atoms is played by #define constants in C and C++. Depending on 126 | Chapter 5: Process Design Patterns the incoming event and the current state of the FSM. and not by the order on the keys themselves or by the order in which the values are inserted into the table. Another example is a reimplementation of the bump/1 function. using the net_kernel:start functions to start a distributed node results in the node being given a long name. where each record instance contains three fields named name. -include("usr. 167 @ (at) symbol. When designing your modules. init:loop/1 erlang:apply/2 erl_prim_loader:loop/3 gen_event:init_it/6 gen_event:fetch_msg/5 erlang:apply/2 2 2584 5 610 11 1597 61740 219 508 0 0 0 If you are wondering why the processes() BIF returned far more than 20 processes when you created only one that failed right after being spawned. [T] This is the type of a list whose elements come from the type T. no_frequencies}}. but this is not enforced. Milliseconds}. ok). and instead of binding the return value of spawn/3.0>} 15> whereis(usr).6} Type Conversion Type conversions have to be BIFs since they change the underlying representation of the data. ant}. . Be kind to Erlang consultants supporting and maintaining your code in the years to come. 9 overview.{badarith. . is_port. 202. Erlang is not completely problem-free.22. Hint: use lists and tuples as your main data structures.Var2.{undef. and binaries.[]}]. . {italy.2. recursion. 1. 194 | Chapter 9: More Data Types and High-Level Constructs Something such as fun foo/2 is only syntactic sugar* for the notation fun(A1.{2008. fragmented. Message. interworking with.eval_loop. [])..301}. Db) ⇒ Db. As we aim to have a process for each truly concurrent activity. If OperState is bound to enabled.$l. as described in the section “Child Specifications” on page 278 Id Is the unique child identifier defined in the ChildSpec Of particular importance in the ChildSpec tuple is the child Id. and message passing are managed by the VM.{'$1'. In the majority of cases. Receipt of messages regardless of the sending order In Figure 4-5. Traversing Tables You already saw how you can find information relating to a single key using ets:lookup/2.111. 362 tracer process. 382. . as they are commonly used in languages with shared memory. jamesBond}. Use abbreviations and acronyms to shorten your names.Entry. Standard built-in functions are auto-imported. you will probably want to use templates and automate the task for larger projects. all the optional arguments are passed by means of a single unordered property list. . . 4 | Chapter 1: Introduction Another aspect of Erlang is that functions (or closures) are first-class data. .44. Internal Data Structures Do not allow private data to leak out. san_francisco}. Args}} exit. .{saved. Messages sent between processes result in the message being copied from the stack of the sending process to the heap of the receiving one. create an instance of it. 184 add_pathz function. Y*X—whereas the scope of Y is the remainder of the body after it is introduced.0. [{disable_trace. these messages are saved in the process mailbox in exactly the same way as other messages. You can also do this separately from the creation of the mailbox using the following statement: mbox. Calling the traced function foo(0. event(_. particularly if they are being transported by an application rather than being analyzed in any way.0. 301 reading objects.erlang-factory. self(). <<1.5). status. We will use the key value dictionary store defined in the dict module to create a bit of variety. {version. starting with its client functions: start(Name.3.[export_all]). this typing information is given in a different format. lookup_id/1. 0. which begins like this:* %% A micro-blog. the shell evaluates what you typed in and prints out a result. wait_connect(ListenSocket. Once you have achieved success on a small scale. 371–374 tracing function calls. Partitioned Networks One of the biggest problems when using Mnesia in a distributed environment is the presence of partitioned networks. 28–29 Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP). {ram_file. the monitor_node(Node.0>} 3> dbg:p(self(). digits. after which we add and delete the io_handler.973. it goes to state ringing. byte() Contains the numbers 0–255. . . 341 interworking with. 390 specification body. true 13> ets:lookup(TabId2.. . end Further details about connections. loop(NewFrequencies). X+Y. 396 partition function. load balancing. pay particular notice to the fact that two different processes will be executing and interacting with each other using code defined in the same module. and we need to look at all the elements to verify that a given value is absent. We discuss propagation of errors in more detail in the section “Propagation Semantics” on page 148. or risk there being an arithmetical error. .16. Data}|Rest]) -> [{Handler. start() -> wx:new(). four bits that are reserved (and so matched to a “don’t care” variable). On the other hand.13229925> 6> lists:foreach(Add. particularly as a result of any I/O in the shell. it is possible to use a variable to specify segment size if the variable is already defined. ok 2> whereis(add_two). and so on. and Patrik Nyblom. Handler. 106 bottlenecks. init. [M|Lines]}). • fd = erl_connect("blah@STC") connects to the Erlang node blah@STC and returns a file descriptor fd for the connection.'$3'. and ensure that neither firewall is blocking the relevant ports. in this case. distributing the server across a number of machines will make this possible without failure. The message arrives and is successfully patternmatched. Although the notation used here is a little more verbose. .{caller}}]}] 2: [{['_']. salary}). 299–304 visualizing tables.Pid) Creates a unidirectional monitor toward Pid.[]}]} 6> flush(). understanding it before continuing will allow you to make the most of Erlang as you progress. 1.N).. 312 MicroBlog example.4] In command 2. 331 gen_udp module. all mathematical operations. The remaining links in the left column can be expanded to submenus containing a wealth of information about various aspects of the system.spawn. if. service flag list The msisdn§ field refers to the subscriber phone number associated with the GSM SIM card. you would delete the entry and update the user profile in the persistent database. . Termination Upon receiving a stop construct from one of the callback functions (except for init). in that order. <<21:6>> A bitstring comprehension is delimited by << .[]}. They behave like their counterpart BIFs and consist of a tuple of size 2 or 3. GbTree) -> GbTree. Dets tables have a similar set of functions to ETS tables. Flag) -> ok | {error. This will from now on allow you to get an Erlang shell in the right directory just by double-clicking any . The ASCII value representation of a newline. and terminate with a final press of the Enter key. The dbg Tracer | 373 In the following example. a function or collection of functions—behaves as expected. Erlang and Functional Programming The recent success of Erlang is a success for functional programming. Connections are kept open by a keepalive. {ok. Mutex semaphores might not be the first thing that comes to mind when working with Erlang. -export([add/2]). When dealing with memory-intensive operations.17.1}. In this section. In R13. you can explicitly load a module using the code:load_file(Module) call. 195 pattern matching. [{1.services] (om@Vaio)7> application:start(mnesia).” inheriting from a number of more fundamental entities.0>.{caller}}]}] 9> dbg:tp({ets. preserved in between calls. Test sets Test sets are given by lists and deep lists.e. nonode@nohost. Extracting Table Information: select A match specification is an Erlang term that describes a small program. 17 unary subtraction operator. Teams should be small in size.4]) => sum_acc([2. try typing some integers in their various notations. 1 =:= 1. as illustrated by the tree in Figure 9-1. hello2 7> flush(). Take a look at the implementation of the lists module itself._.. Every time you want to look up an item.{alison. and an external program system: for instance. and –vsn(Version). the process that acknowledges the connection request becomes the accept process. 378 Heriot-Watt University. Buffer) -> Buffer. Getting something to work with Erlang took extra effort compared to Java. {keypos. 11> {Element. one of the courses I took was on parallel programming. 217. It is a standard used for controlling and monitoring systems over IP-based networks. Start your web browser and send it a request for a web page. Payload). LoopData) -> {reply. Here is an example of a conditional expression where all three expressions have to evaluate to true: {'and'. . To do this.40. which is based on message passing between concurrent processes. Figure 14-4. 57–59. and more importantly. Assuming our hash table has allocated space for 10 entries. Accu. {shell. . as the ETS and Dets tables are named.#Port<0. .{error. enable}}.#usr{services=Services.28. Unlike the example with the dirty operations. this cannot be accurate. is assigned a number of reduction steps. the server will receive the exit signal from the client. trunc/1. but still not make the person reading the code any wiser as to why List got corrupted. Normal exit signals are generated either when the process terminates because there is no more code to execute. namely 0. The result of the allocate/0 call will therefore be either {ok. OperState} of {enabled. and more space efficient than using tuples or lists. Messages are sent using the Pid ! Message construct. The recursive call corresponds to the body of the for loop. The gen_udp:close(Socket) call closes the socket and frees the port number allocated to it. -vsn(1. write(Key. Distributed Computation Erlang has distribution incorporated into the language’s syntax and semantics. providing an overview of the larger-scale structure or assumptions for the whole system. we are going to cover the most common patterns you will come across when working with Erlang processes. There are numerous type conversion functions. loop_delete_disabled('$end_of_table') -> ok. In the top left.5]. All variables must be bound. our event handlers have to export the following three callback functions: init(InitData) Initializes the handler and returns a value that is used the next time a callback function belonging to the handler is invoked. it is not unusual to have hundreds of thousands. Add = fun(Id) -> add_usr(#usr{msisdn = 700000000 + Id. This list describes the children that the supervisor has to supervise by giving the functions that have to be called to start the child processes: an example is given by {add_two. services = [data]}} 7> usr:set_status(0.[{thomas.protest-project. we want to generate only one trace event that is triggered when the second element of the second argument is the tuple that corrupts our table: 376 | Chapter 17: Trace BIFs. 434 exit function. List}.#Port<0. Payload/binary>> when DataOffset>4 -> OptSize = (DataOffset . If you generate atoms dynamically using the list_to_atom/1 BIF on dynamic data. As an exercise you could try to define a fun that will be transformed to this using dbg:fun2ms/1. B. Testing the usr server in the shell could yield something similar to this: 1> c(usr).9) => 9 The definition of sum_acc is called tail-recursive because the body of the function is a call to the function itself. The return value of the generated specification is ignored.erl"]). .expr. true) ⇒ true The notation foo(X) ⇒ Y means that calling the function foo with parameter X will result in the value Y being returned. The wxErlang binding to wxWidgets. 108. These functions will be called automatically by the runtime system. manipulated by the OtpErlangBinary class. so that you can run your Erlang programs on more powerful hardware without having to redesign them. integral types are converted to OtpErlangByte. This is a recurring theme among processes that we usually refer to as a design pattern. flatten(sphere) -> circle. No matter how extensive your testing is. 260 ping/1 function.N) -> case io:get_line(IoDevice. Distributed Systems in Erlang The essence of distributed systems is to provide in a transparent way a service of some kind through a number of computers.script file that was generated when creating the boot file. such as fold or map on lists. for example.[]}. A garbage collection can be shallow or deep. {ok. URG:1. But if a runtime error occurs. . Although we both got into Erlang for very different reasons. The Erlang distributed programming model provides a simple and flexible solution to the high-level question of how other languages can work with Erlang: run the language in other nodes on the same or different machines. reply(Pid. and the arity of this function is dictated by the length of the list passed as the third argument to the BIF. A warning for the faint of heart: what we will describe in the next section. 313 null function. You can create your own sticky directories by calling the function code:stick_dir(Dir). As soon as the process is created and spawn/3 returns the pid. event(_Event. the process will crash with a function clause error. To give a concrete example of this.Allocated). 107 benchmarking. and wolf was represented as an Erlang process communicating through message passing. Upon receiving it. or. {is_integer. To find out the Erlang root directory of your installation. 165 EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council). You can also download Erlang using BitTorrent. 215 list comprehensions and.991.2f. You do not need to contact the publisher for permission unless you are reproducing a significant portion of the code.. Reply). . it depends on the way in which functions within the module are called. 30 functions and. thus guaranteeing that no two processes are simultaneously reading or writing to the same file.0> 7> ping:send(Pid). you will get an error.[]. expin.italy}] Example: Building an Index.dialyzer_plt is up-to-date. Communication with a registered process on another node Node Connections Distributed Erlang nodes are able to communicate with each other.uk/~sjt/] @reference } 4> Match1 = dbg:fun2ms(fun([_.sms. which are both working on refactoring tools. You patternmatch the (normal) result as you would have done in a case statement. {erl_eval. _.71667 Before going on to the next section. Data}} -> Port Programs | 349 end. in which a variable (here.1. can also be used.[X|Xs]) -> F(X). making them more efficient than functions. . In the previous version of the factorial function. . you will obviously not need a handle_cast/2.org") should do the job.Entry). If after Timeout milliseconds no message has arrived."R12B"}. -define(UNDO. uses less space. Your choice will have to depend on what your child processes do. * 1: syntax error before: '. Erlang comes out of that tradition. c . MS). NewPid} = apply(M. If this fails. RecordType)} In the preceding code. ets:insert(usrIndex.es/trac/McErlang/. Here is an example of the program: Behind the Scenes | 177 1> c(modtest2). The construct _ = Expression replaces all unbound record fields with the Expression. There are also three operators on lists. Here the ones that are not autoimported are prefixed with the erlang module: disconnect_node(Node) This will disconnect the Node passed as an argument. 53. Another example is given by the following function: sendTo(Pid) -> fun (X) -> Pid ! X end. meaning there are no elements to examine. 54 list_to_integer/1 function.6}. 330 recv/2 function. and responds by sending the message pong to process <0.2. Result. allocate({[Freq|Frequencies].Database ]} || {_. start/1.. Arguments) supervisor:start(ServerName.{badarith. never.erlang. . {ok. and the contents of the variable Reply become the return value of the client functions. 92 records in. books.{header. . repositories. So. could never afford to go down for years at a time. {Ref. .N}. . use ~w instead: 1> List = [72.-1.38.41}. italy). this is signaled by returning a tuple with the first element ok. and other configuration data.tftp_file. 107. []). F(Hd. unknown_msg} end Assume now that two new messages—restart and {reset. which in our example consists of the new lists of available and allocated frequencies. you should use the stream option instead. 416 assertEqual macro. and the term binary to mean a string whose length is divisible by eight so that it can be seen as a sequence of bytes. namely 12. as defined in the usr. 299 abs/1 function. logical tests are applied on the variables. The argument _From is a tuple containing a unique message reference and the client process identifier. are more familiar. Figure 5-7. it is time to move on to concurrency. Tail). Arguments is a value of any valid Erlang data type. *. connecting.. Directory Structure In your Erlang shell.3. List) because we want to immediately use the retrieved tuple. . you can use the following code: call(Message) -> Ref = make_ref(). unknown_msg} instead of a valid message type. duplicate occurrences of a key will be required. status = enabled plan. 17 DNS servers. {{slot. Fun expressions can also encapsulate side effects. So. the only mandatory directory is ebin. . %% Handling Client Requests request({add_usr. . Another directive is –import(Module.myrpc.[]. . sofl.[X|Xs]) -> case P(X) of true -> [X| filter(P. spawn(?MODULE. Second}. . look around you and type in your current cast of Muppets: foo@localhost 6> mnesia:dirty_write(#muppet {name = "Francesco" callsign="HuluHuluHulu". Pid. '_'}).. but as soon as the first message is received. . handle it. {keypos. 3. From. To run a node. 80 | Chapter 3: Sequential Erlang Figure 3-2. Assigning through pattern matching A B A A = = + = 1. either use an editor to type the example and paste it in the shell.italy}).3>>. function name. The following function clause takes care of this case: bump([]) -> []. . . References Remember the frequency server example in Chapter 5? The client sent a request to allocate a frequency and waited for a response of the format {reply.7. You could use a string to play the role of an atom. 436 delete function.[]}.17.0>. Your application becomes not only efficient but also easy to maintain.Bool) BIF will switch this on/off for Node according to the Boolean flag Bool.StartPos-2. Behind the Scenes So. . From the shell. there should be a corresponding beam file. and facilities for dealing with failure gracefully. 265 Carlson. In this example. Double = Double * Double would result in a runtime error. Brush-tailed rat kangaroos have an unusual mammalian diet that consists of bulbs. In gamma itself. which provides a connection-oriented communication channel. regardless of whether the old heap is full. Port Programs | 347 binary All I/O from the port comprises binary data objects rather than bytes. Attempts to include them in your programs are futile and will result in a compiler error: 1> 9 2> 18 3> 10 4> ** 5> ok 6> ** A = (1+2)*3. Major projects had (without telling anyone) started to use these “undocumented features. • Find the maximum value contained in the tree (if any). a takeover occurs.32. They give Erlang a competitive advantage over other programming languages. and many other non-Erlang-related dependencies in your application. _} -> flush(). What if you were to use Erlang to write an instant messaging (IM) server. and examine the way that strings are a special kind of list. disabled} -> enable(BladeId). Fun. To avoid having to write multiple implementations of a system you’re developing. test1() -> showPerson(joe()). As soon as you start increasing that number. {first.[]. stop/1]). . You should pick this strategy if all of the processes at this level of the supervision tree are not dependent on each other. {active. and the index is required to show all the lines on which a particular word appears. . The loop data is often the result of arguments passed to the spawn BIF and the initialization of the process.8. Acc) -> reverse_acc(T. 158 data types atoms.send(pid. and Rec is a record containing information that is dependent on the particular type of the event. 167 connect function gen_tcp module.return_error. 9. . a fun of the form fun({A. A module example -module(demo). 17 reduction steps. 338 OtpErlangLong class. 227 modes supported. Exercise 14-1: Selecting the Blog File The existing system allows the current blog to be saved in a fixed file only. Each function can take a file handle (of type io_device()) as an additional (first) argument: file operations are defined in the file module.234E-10. Let’s now create a new db module. 103 relational operators. {M.3."4.!.08:33:14. there are other function calls in the module (e. and then look in more detail at a simple database case study. If you are having problems finding bugs or following the recursion. 360.113037538> 2> dbg:tracer(process. The code for the average is faster. in well-formed XHTML text. If process A sends a message to process B. 2. Try them out in the shell: 1> c("/Users/Francesco/records1". For each process with an output window. 46–48 runtime errors.995. processLine(Line. loop/0]). [joern.7]). Even if you are not using the variable. where a function expecting an integer receives the tuple.$l. true 28 | Chapter 2: Basic Erlang Lists are ordered lexicographically. We continue with the OTP team. it just wouldn’t have happened. {ok. we use dbg:tp/2 to start a trace on all calls to the ets:insert/2 function. Arguments) which takes a function and its arguments and executes it. as you need to describe only the functional API. the atoms prepay and postpay. an overview page will be generated. and Event Types Putting It All Together A First Example: MicroBlog The MiniBlog Example Obtaining and Running wxErlang Exercises 309 310 311 312 313 314 317 321 321 15. In the end. NewLoopData} {stop. not for every task. 1005 Gravenstein Highway North Sebastopol. 2. and handled in the VM. Let’s start with a series of examples. by Francesco Cesarini and Simon Thompson. add counters to measure how much memory is reclaimed during execution of the process.4. which then waits for incoming connections. You might like to think of doing this via a function which turns the earlier list of occurrences into a list like [{1. child specifications are created dynamically from a config file. there will be similarities in how these requests are handled. 116 | Chapter 4: Concurrent Programming CHAPTER 5 Process Design Patterns Processes in Erlang systems can act as gateways to databases. reference()} | {error. but in “pretty printing” mode. An example of a list containing tuples of type person (tagged with the atom person) with the first name. you will probably not end up using what you have added anyhow. you can expect to have a shorter time to market. O’Reilly books may be purchased for educational. . They can also be lost en route. =ERROR REPORT==== 21-Jul-2008::15:32:02 === Error in process <0. Packet} and {tcp_error. dropwhile(Predicate. 247 layering and.. Using start instead of spawn makes starting the worker process more deterministic and prevents unforeseen race conditions. 401 functionality. '\n\n' 6> '1 6> 2 6> 3 6> 4'. 56 defined. It could be in an online state. We illustrate this in the blog example later in the chapter. and see what dbg:fun2ms/1 produced.} and a leaf with {leaf.0.hoo]<[adder. Edit = wxMenu:new(). asks the tester to state properties of the system and then tests the properties for randomly generated input values. [1|[2|[3|[]]]]. write a number of functions: • An evaluator. lists:foldr/3. You will recall epmd from Chapter 11. Reason} Deletes the ETS tables and closes the Dets file. nodelay. You can choose what type of term to pass: if you have many arguments to pass. Key} -> loop(db:delete(Key. "/usr/local/lib/erlang/lib/wx-0. Many companies are using Erlang in their production systems: • Amazon uses Erlang to implement SimpleDB. including stdout. 80 mathematical operators.3.Ys} | [ { [X|As] .. 135 handle_msg function. the preceding code would convert to the following: name(First. {ok.0> State: Running Spawned as: erlang:apply/2 Spawned by: <0. Monitors are ideal for monitoring the client call to a behavior process. .999. 360 procs flag. which results in a module. 3. In this section. 214 Dets tables. 30 size qualification. 223.three. it’s possible to return values that show no trace that an error has been raised. The supervision tree viewed in the application monitor It consists of a tuple where the first element is the release tag and the second element is a tuple with a release name and release version number.[true]}] 5> dbg:tp({ets. 97 3> $a. • The C++ macro mechanism is used heavily in wx. {ok. double([]. Short modules facilitate maintenance and debugging as well as the understanding of your code. Throwing these messages away would only make the bug harder to detect. The resulting programs are more compact and easier to understand and maintain. because of its underlying TCL/TK graphics libraries that are no longer supported.erl:11: Warning: undefined callback function handle_info/2 (behaviour 'gen_server') {ok. What is the effect of calling ping:start()? This starts a process with pid Pid that will execute loop/0. The atom is sent back to the client and becomes the return value of the deallocate/1 call. {error. As it will mirror the usrRam table with usr records. Arg.5. 142 results fun expressions. TraceFlags) generates a bad argument error. The start and start_link functions will spawn a new process that calls the init/1 callback function. but without giving the function a name. Some EUnit facilities can be useful. Objects in C++ can be created on the stack. Usr}. {error. you denote processes linked to each other with a line. only one process is allowed to receive packets from a particular socket. Msg}. The argument gives the filename which is used to hold the DETS table. . The variable _int will be bound to the integer 23 and is later compared to the list containing the integer 23. Ignore errors for the time being.age=37} The general case will be: RecordExp#name{. This same optimization is possible for functions that are indirectly tail-recursive. you would use the call inet:setopts(Socket. Pid. listToTree(Code2) }. Pid}. and of a float 64 (eight bytes). resp = erl_mk_tuple(arr. You can find more information about wxWidgets in the extensive online documentation at https://www. built on the erl_interface library.}. . or if it is not a child process you are linking to. Otherwise. you need to look at the module dist. These characteristics may differ from node to node. set_status(CustId.Phone}) -> io:format("name: ~p age: ~p phone: ~p~n". You might want to store a global variable in the process dictionary. -export([start/0. Upon abnormal termination. 163.{2. facLoop() -> receive {Pid.0> ! {io_request.. keep them simple. The last thing you want to do when under pressure debugging a live system after a support call in the middle of the night is to have to look at the Erlang manual pages. Indeed we are. 413–415 binary files. in general. . and Lisp. ok 10> code:soft_purge(db).'_'}. Erlang should be your choice. Exercise 15-3: Peer to Peer Write a module that contains code for a peer-to-peer transport layer. san_francisco). invalid_object}. results in a valid Erlang expression that compiles without any errors. The fun we pass creates an entry in both the usrRam and usrIndex tables.19. that it’s not as elegant as try ."R1"}.2. The trace messages generated by the intersection of these two BIFs will be of the following form: {trace. Such a collection of facilities is provided by modern e-commerce systems. . The Table Visualizer main window Clicking one of the tables launches its visualization. Don’t be defensive. {shell.20. To get a catch-all clause.emu. ["/tmp". 411–420 Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. going directly from tree to bitstream. To avoid this case. the state will change from idle to ringing and will wait for one of two events. [_|Tail]) -> keysearch(Key. combining tests. [1. this means no more sleepless nights hunting for pointer errors or memory leakages. and thus to the external program attached to the port. To start Mnesia with a RAM schema. even if the recipient process does not exist or the spawned process crashes on creation... it has to traverse the potentially hundreds or thousands of messages in the mailbox before reaching one that matches.[]}}]}. but we start by surveying the basic data types in Erlang. you probably forgot to close the double quotes.". 279 generic behavior. It can be easy to insert syntactical and semantic errors in child specification lists. we can write the following: setup1_test_() -> {spawn. we loaded the latest version of the db module in the shell every time it was compiled. Msg) -> To ! {reply. Arity}. Process Links and Exit Signals | 147 This problem is similar to the example of race conditions that we looked at in Chapter 4. and returns false otherwise. why write a tagged return value. Write a function that returns a list of the format [N. stop_clear .21}. and similarly from ===.1292523). . 79 get_line/1 function. and if it is 1 the integer is not even. The integer 5 represented in four bits is equivalent to 0101. many common editors and IDEs provide support for writing programs. Control sequences begin with a tilde (~). 35. 375–382 head. The last element in the tuple is a list of applications and their version numbers. OptionList) where OptionList includes the tuple {min_heap_size. 94 selective receives.0>. Using processes. hello ok 3> whereis(echo). {22}} completely changes the semantics of the program.2}. . and delete. it is preempted. allowing all processes to read the usr records. where LNs is a list of line numbers on which the word occurs? Exercise 10-3: ETS Tables for System Logging An ETS table can be used to log traces from a communication system. This will not survive restarts. it will return true. filenames. registering the process with the same name as the callback module. The only way to discover whether there are any bottlenecks is to observe the throughput and message queue buildup when stress-testing the system. . Mnesia will take care of this for us. 93 functional data types. Can you predict the results of the following matches? Pay particular attention to the order in which the results are returned: 8> ets:match(countries. _Reserved:4. 79 files/1 function. mergeR([]. In the past. . might match only a specific type of message. Assume a client wants to initiate a call.5. File. this value might have to be fine-tuned. Pid). type mnesia:dirty_write/1 with a key and one or more fields. EUnit | 415 If you want to put the test functions into a separate serial_tests module.28}}. If you do not flush the message. Level 1: 3 * factorial(3 . the expression on the righthand side would evaluate to 2. and. prepay). {owner.handle_info. Pid. When creating the schema. ok (switch@Vaio)3> rr(usr). is the subject of Chapter 19.1. Bump = fun(X) -> X+1 end.from). {silent.7}] 7> lists:delete(2. 260 | Chapter 11: Distributed Programming in Erlang -kill Kills the epmd process. They appear to be solitary except when ready to mate. delete/1]). 405 applications.. Tools for Erlang | 447 • • • • coloring for Erlang. where every SMS requires a lookup to ensure that the subscriber not only exists and is enabled. 285 prettyIndexNext function. When reading someone else’s code while armed with a basic comprehension of the existing behaviors. [{exception. 294 traversing. Rec1 = P. The only thing dbg:p/2 does not handle is globally registered names.usr_db} 2> c(usr_db). ** exception error: no case clause matching san_francisco in function db:read/2 6> dict:fetch(francesco. starting} end. 213 ETS Tables Implementations and Trade-offs Creating Tables Handling Table Elements Example: Building an Index. A window will open (see Figure 4-15). we will first introduce a small example dealing with information about people. Status}).[{exception. With this strategy.141592653589793. your code might look something like this: Timeouts | 105 read(Key) -> flush(). atom. The latter bottleneck often manifests itself in a reduction of the overall throughput of the system. 142–144.) -> . will return a flat list. However. 352 EEP (Erlang Enhancement Proposal). 391 stop function. the dbg Tracer. 378. and also that two optional parameters are passed in the final list argument: the initial value of the control and a parameter that sets the control to a multiline style. currently bound to 1. Upon receiving the message. .20. the euro symbol is reaching its final destination in a garbled form. ter minate. 30 environment. {erl_eval. procs}]}.[{matched.4]).2}. A server could be a FIFO queue to a printer. Just like Erlang. and by executing the function call process_flag(trap_exit. '=/='. {normal. The fun itself needs to have one argument. disabled. In the worst of cases. . Fun.0}]} Some of the functions you might find useful and should try in the shell follow. called normal applications. In Damien’s words. they should be treated as bugs and you should allow your system to crash. MatchSpec) And you use this for local calls: dbg:tpl({Mod. {shell. So. LoopData) function in the callback module. In our example. Similarly. Following the call flow in the dp:process_msg() function discovered by the exception error printed in the shell. If you instead prefer to stay clear from match specifications and opt for match specification transforms using the fun2ms functions. courses. which has now become the old version of B (see Figure 8-1. you need to insert the following code before the line that includes the eunit. which will give the application the same appearance on multiple platforms. including a version of Sudoku.usr_sup} 14> usr_sup:start_link(). Inspecting arguments in local and global calls. 342 communication support. . {field1. Before the string concatenation construct was added to the language. and why? A. You also need to factor in that things can go wrong behind this function call. All of a sudden. The results are as efficient as writing the match 374 | Chapter 17: Trace BIFs. Accu.0> with exit value: {undef. three. 201. but often they are redundant. 296. Name. 93. 383–391 h function. particularly when pattern matching is used to handle the arguments of a function you’re defining. using term_to_binary. id=CustId} = Usr) -> ets:insert(subIndex. Here is an explanation of what the code is doing: • The start(Name.7. 215 band operator. where Var is replaced by a variable of the format '$0' and Arity is the size of the tuple. Using the HTTP client from the Inets application. you will ensure that you maximize the throughput while reducing the risk of bottlenecks. services = [data. 422 | Chapter 20: Style and Efficiency Dirty Code Dirty code consists of anything you “should not” do but are forced to do anyhow. as it isolates the call in a single process.fi. Handler}. where each process is represented by an OS thread. the current implementation will probably be more of an issue. Setup... capital 2> ets:new(countries.[5. Alternatively. which is equivalent to writing Pid3!(Pid2!(Pid1!Message)). type-specify your interfaces and model your data structures. Assume that only one process at a time is allowed to use the file server. Applications are loaded. only the parts that are needed will be evaluated. Data}).9. .do_apply.2. To make this clear. Data} as an argument. -export([add_usr/3. including sending trace events. especially those coming from an imperative background. Message}.marcus. 214–216 match specifications. even 3> Arguments = [10]. 'bsl'. There are two functions. '$2'. hello. 382 match/2 function. .. and providing a report on the results. As you will see in the next section. robust.cook}). These applications include both your applications and the subset of the ones you need from the OTP release. ETS. #person{name = "Joe".6) ⇒ 6. you would have to find the tuple {error. PostgreSQL. you can use the following code. Example: create(3) ⇒ [1. Pay attention to the error in command 5. abc] [a. ghi} {} {person. sum([]) -> 0.3. Status) when Status==enabled. and optimize.d. write a parser for these. the “default default” is the atom undefined. Reply} -> wait_reply(Ref) end. ~f A float to be printed with six decimal places. Msg]) when Id /=1.stdlib]}.2}. The module should be completely backward compatible with the ETS. . 166–168 Index | 461 EDoc support. which do the actual processing. Francesco Cesarini and Simon Thompson. Try out the event manager and the two handlers we’ve implemented in the shell. . 396 pattern matching and. 76 addition (+) operator. {node.h> 5 #include . • PHP/Erlang. 5 robustness. tracer. NPid ! ok. LoopData contains the first instance of the loop data that will be passed between the callback functions. As pattern matching holds the key to writing compact and elegant programs. . What § We barely mention it in this book for this reason. 268 handle_cast/1 function. . From now on. {mod. call(Name. 14 Wings 3D modeler. Inc. . when reading C code. []).000. using the history mechanism and the line editing commands. list_to_binary/1 This will return a binary that is composed of the integers and binaries in the argument. flags (including the tracer directive) in the EnableList take precedence over those in the DisableList.. A nondeterministic solution would spawn all of them and check that they have started correctly.11. Finally. so until then. it will be opened instead of being created. . Variable}."/Users/Francesco/db. You might be tempted to write the following: Sin = sin(X). All socket and port communication is binary-based. round/1. 421 Figure 20-1. you can retrieve them using the flush/0 shell command. Once users have logged on. 225 tab2file function. X > 1 -> greater. the result for that particular node would be {matched.8] should return [1. Figure 4-7 demonstrates how processes share data with each other.* Interlanguage communication is never simple in natural languages or in programming. Mike Williams wrote the first C-based virtual machine. 57.{'=:='."Joe". 70–77 guards. so that duplicates are removed and adjacent numbers are put into a range. but you can test whether it is already running by typing the following: epmd -names This will list all the names of the running Erlang nodes on the host. Pid. Pattern Matching Pattern matching in Erlang is used to: • Assign values to variables • Control the execution flow of programs • Extract values from compound data types The combination of these features allows you to write concise. . [francesco] 6> [Book || {Person. {node.h" 9 #include "ei. {version. the Replacement was the literal 1000. from which you have to extract the return value: {ok. and reconstruct data values. For more information on Mnesia.Age.marco]] In command 6 in the preceding code.2. Francesco. In the following example. Do not confuse OTP applications with the more general concept of an application. -endif.. x).status = disabled.eval_exprs.[])). Injecting 100. We will conclude these examples with one where the condition for termination is not necessarily the empty list. erlang:cancel_timer/1.. ok. It differentiates itself from the lists module in that it takes into consideration the fact that the contents of the lists are ASCII characters. Packet} where Socket is the receiving socket and Packet is the message itself. . the construct allows you to differentiate between different return values that arise as a result of Erlang’s different exception-handling mechanisms. Result} = mnesia:transaction(F). Our point is that if you want to build massively concurrent systems. and do everything possible to minimize and avoid such code. . 47 overview. 2003. {ok. . {send_max. [meatballs] 8> dets:close(food). following the order in which they are stored in memory. . We provide the full and gory details of match specifications in Chapter 17. 221. Allocated}. But if your list of integers happens to be valid ASCII values instead of a list of integers. 7} % erl_call -a 'erlang halt' -n blah % Port Programs An Erlang port allows communication between an Erlang node and an external program through binary messages sent to and from an Erlang process running in the node— known as the connected process of the port—and the external program. field2. a takeover of the O&M; applications results in the O&M; functionality being migrated to the newly restarted node and the call setup functionality remaining on what was formerly the O&M; node. those familiar with languages such as Prolog. it is harder to monitor the evolution of the system itself. separated by hyphens. untyped memory. open the main HTML documentation page as described earlier. 153 appmon:start function. 80 TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) decoding segments.3. and you have to implement all the recursive functions yourself.15.2. government support for science research in universities. I/O operations through ports and sockets accept nonflat lists. and some will be virtual-machine-dependent. {M. Using the arity flag in conjunction with the call flag. Industrial-grade systems consist of a set of loosely coupled. Hint: you will have to use a help function and concatenate the lists in several steps. most of which could have been correct. Let’s fix the bug. unknown}). {modules.nonode@nohost. If the transaction fails. otherwise.{inets_app. pattern matching on the first clause of the send/2 call will fail. unknown_msg}}]) -> 8> message(caller()) 8> end). and neither did you.[{matched. shown through a series of commands in the Erlang shell. {ok. . In the first Erlang node.set}. If they are positive.119. The main difference between a local and a remote call is the fact that a remote node may go down. . {ok. Arity} tuple. where the doc subdirectory is located in the root directory of the Erlang installation. each corresponding roughly to a function clause. true 3> recursion:member(sunday. add_usr(#usr{msisdn=PhoneNo. all you need to do is add more hardware and frontend nodes. {[disable. Reason} link | unlink.usr_db} 3> rr("usr. we’ll look at it in more detail.[{crash.97.T2}) -> TTL1 = treeToList(T1). they are sent messages at a faster rate than they can handle them. this is * In the case of the triangle. (You can then start many processes of the same type. you can look it up in the inet module’s manual page. • The append. the ordering is arbitrary. but it also must support massive sustained request bursts. you will lose all of your ETS tables and the data associated with them. List). 288 script2bootfile function.[{exception. If a child process terminates. Distributed Computing in Erlang: The Basics | 257 Don’t forget to demonitor your node when you are done. 12 High Performance Erlang Project (HiPE). the call foo({1. This would have the same effect as calling erlang:trace(self(). {ok. and U.[{thomas.com> @author Simon Thompson [https://www. . [{mbuf_size.7]).hrl include file. 6 concurrent programming benchmarking. we split the list to a head and a tail. china). this was undertaken as part of the ProTest project. but in the process with pid <0. strings).[{message.{francesco. the calling process will terminate. A common way to use dirty operations while ensuring data consistency is to serialize all destructive operations in a single process. and the O&M; applications are restarted on the call setup node. enhancing programmer productivity. 362 call/1 function. . ** exception error: no match of right hand side value <<1. This will ensure that processes trapping exits are not terminated if one of the peers in its link set is killed unconditionally.3} When doing so. At the risk of sounding repetitive. 264. This chapter concludes with a number of pointers for learning more about wxWidgets and wxErlang. is invalid. possibly an image from a webcam or an alert message.. instead of returning {ok. as recursion. instance} end. . {node.. Exercise Exercise 8-1: Software Upgrade During Runtime Take this chapter’s db. with the reason for termination being the argument passed to the BIF. This process is called the controlling process. Erlang gets away with this because it does not use native threads to represent processes. . such as process spawning and termination. as in {dir. These systems handled digital communication streams for pocket radio systems as used by emergency services. the statements that follow are executed. and an unordered collection is good enough for that. 219 ETS tables. our advice about this is to make sure you measure the performance of your system to understand its memory usage and behavior. Failures in the call setup node are considered critical. and providing protected access to the values of the table. It might be an option if you are waiting for very urgent mail or have nothing better to do.{4.3. A temptation might be to use it when reducing the length of lines. A}. Provide references to specifications and protocols and document all principal data structures. a throw. 451 Table of Contents | xi Foreword Erlang is our solution to three problems regarding the development of highly concurrent. . Both have the same effect. 21} % erl_call -s -e -n blah X=3. are free of side effects. Although we have not done it in our example. . a successful match will occur only if the first element of the tuple of size 2 sent as a message is exactly equal to (remember the =:= construct?) the value stored in the variable Pid. Upon receiving a ping message. {expression. and will be assigned to the bits 101010 (42 in binary) in turn.acm. The buffering will happen on both nodes.self(). One example for this is an address book for email.. variables. atoms. A balanced binary tree alphabetical (key) order.† Instead. without having to rewrite any code using the queue module. {error. NewLoopData}.nonode@nohost}. This is because all match operations are implemented as BIFs. . as the call will not return the pid of the worker until it has been initialized. {shell. 121 Fritchie.<0. start two distributed Erlang nodes on separate computers and make them share a Mnesia table. the supervisor will receive the exit signal and restart the child. or your aunt picks up and you go to the connected state. ok 3> my_db:read(baz). 366 h/0 shell command. Once nodes have been added. It is thus not uncommon to create a 180 | Chapter 8: Software Upgrade patches directory that appears first in the code search path. 0. But if you get it right. Sum + H. We conclude by showing you the various commands in the Erlang shell that help you to be a power user of the shell. you can run the Erlang shell from the command line by typing the erl command. Before and after calling spawn The pid of the new process. listlen([_|Xs]) -> 1 + listlen(Xs). Key end. examples 2> Function = even. > (greater than). where WrapTrigger is the size in kilobytes or the tuple {time. {Number.[1. as in supervision trees. In some cases.107.1159792.{{Normalise . You may expect we’ll just be covering things you have seen before in programming languages. 41 Erlang Web framework. hence the negative reply to the first command. • These generic behaviors are linked to a supervisor behavior whose only task is to monitor and handle process termination. RST:1. Note how we get a different pid when calling the self() BIF before and after the crash. In this unoptimized version. N can take the value 1. . Now that we are now done with sequential programming.Text). returning the port identifier.hoo]<[boo. 256–258 rpc module. discussed earlier."999-999"}.” Current data that survives a garbage collection will become old.0> 2> <0. ordered_set. 416 testing concurrent programs. .1145/1291220. loop(State) -> receive {request. 4. In every case. . The default value is 256 entries. ['E']) or the shell command c(records1. Reason} is passed as the second argument to the ets:insert/2 function. 377 handle_msg/1 function. the echoFac. and >. An Erlang function to calculate the area of a shape area({square. The preceding “append” example illustrates two additional points: • In the wxWidgets code. When the need arose to monitor processes unidirectionally. in general Ctrl-P and Ctrl-N Have the same effect as the up and down arrows Left and right arrows Move the cursor one character to the left and right Ctrl-B and Ctrl-F Have the same effect as the left and right arrows Ctrl-A Takes the cursor to the start of the line Ctrl-E Takes the cursor to the end of the line Ctrl-D Deletes the character under the cursor As you’ve seen in the body of the text. try to hold on and optimize only when you know your program is not fast enough.sms]}} 19> usr_db:lookup_id(1). 17 floats defined. 8 is the length of the list [8. 94 design patterns. 378 try. set_service/3.{_. Be smart. the bug in this example was in the connectivity module that allowed hardware with nonsupported software revisions to connect to the system. birthday(#person{age=Age} = P) -> ?DBG("in records1:birthday(~p)~n".erl module. listToTree(treeToList(tree0()))). One of the simplest applications of a port is the os:cmd/1 function. id=CustId} = Usr) -> ets:insert(subIndex. [AStr. and to shrink any data that fails to satisfy the property to minimal counterexamples. .{5. ‡ The only way in practice to get two references that are the same would be to save a reference in a file of Erlang terms. If ets:last/1 is applied to any other sort of table.2]. the dbg Tracer. Arity}} Pman. you can load it manually. Services are specified by atoms. passing Data as an argument to the handler’s init callback function. or other non-Erlang-related resources. 148 defined. 254 | Chapter 11: Distributed Programming in Erlang The solution is to use hidden nodes and explicitly set up the connections where necessary.2. {compile. There are a number of ways to build more efficient collections in a pure functional style. as it is probably one of the most commonly used specifications when debugging. .EndPos+1). and tan/1.3. . MatchDescription}. even millions. The handler’s terminate callback function will be called.safefixtable.[{exception. research. .[{'/='. although you might not have realized it.2 of the db module. . Status}) -> case usr_db:lookup_id(CustId) of {ok. Error} returned when executing a call encapsulated within a catch was the result of a throw({'EXIT'. they look incomprehensible. 190–192 functions as results. 196 allocate function. month('February') -> 2. Spawning a process will never fail. and blocking calls. Reason} -> {error. and don’t forget to export it: * Did you notice it in the compiler warning in the example? 274 | Chapter 12: OTP Behaviors handle_info(_Msg. SecondaryKey. Pid Initial Call Heap Registered Current Function Stack <0. An existing efficient C library is used to identify candidate “clones” in Erlang software. and as a result could be received in a different order from which they were sent. . 309. We then recursively call quicksort on the newly generated lists. index(Z) -> case Z of {0.eval_exprs. There are two reasons for using a variable.3) ⇒ 6. 390 match specifications. resins. the Erlang refactoring tool. The Erlang language also has legacy versions of the type BIFs that are simply called by the type name: atom/1. Records in the Shell Records in Erlang are a compile-time feature. 373 binary operators. _Pid) -> {{[]. X is bound to 2. Wrangler is available from https://www. You can insert breakpoints in the code by choosing an appropriate entry in the break menu or by clicking the line in the monitor or module window.. 79. 414 | Chapter 19: EUnit and Test-Driven Development These tests use the assertError macro. (): plan() Has two elements.lbs]}} 9> usr_db:update_usr(UsrRec#usr{services = [data. Remember that when spawning a process. In one node. []. you should be using the tool that is best for the job. 107 spawn_link function process links and. Tail). with an _ at the end). . before finally being sent back to the client in line 26.[]. if you take the list [1.N) end. don’t think that all you can do with caught errors is to pass them on in some form. ok 7> io:format("the sum of ~W is ~f. we mean both processes will be running the same code base.init_p. Fun. nonexistent_function. the atoms square and circle will not match. 44 | Chapter 2: Basic Erlang CHAPTER 3 Sequential Erlang Erlang’s design was heavily influenced by functional and logic programming languages. an XRC demo. . For example. the newly created process will terminate with a runtime error: 1> spawn(no_module. [Num-1. is_tuple. This gives you the advantage of reducing the load on the traced node. .C) -> case {A. 351 erl_call command. It returns a reference to the calling process.fish]. will concatenate them.alison). .12. * PLEX is a proprietary language developed by Ericsson and used extensively in the AXE-10 switches. . ftp_progress. keys.2.Manipulate tracer process/port i . as in {"form". true. Before making any calls to the file server. the preceding code will give the following Erlang program: receive after 1000 -> ok end The general form of a simple macro definition is: -define(Name. start(FileName) -> register(?MODULE. even if there is only one variable as the argument. "MiniBlog"). might not always be the best approach. 362–365 yield function. PhoneNo) of usr{status=disabled. {M.age. while [{person. -module(db_server). 1 6> [B|Bs] = binary_to_list(Bin1). .3} 2> {1. 206 <= (less than or equal to) operator. ref()} | {error. The tests are invoked in exactly the same way.). which continually reads and processes trace events written after the call. The spawn returns a pid that is passed as the second argument to the register BIF. until the Erlang runtime system runs out of memory and crashes. You can edit the files and generate a new boot file using the systools:script2bootfile/1 call. regardless of whether the termination was normal or nonnormal. '$1'}}. we want to include it in the list we are constructing. builds heavily on it. sent as a result of the ping:send/1 call. 352 format/1 function. decides how to proceed. []. but this is neither an efficient form of storage nor an efficient deserialization mechanism. As telecom clusters tend to run behind firewalls.1}. They may not contain other “special” characters. and the third is the application version number. ::integer().{'$1'. Its implementation is distributed across a cluster of two or more Erlang nodes. ok 11> frequency:allocate(). It has happened to us! Before using variables. so good. 37 dynamic typing. a receive statement has the following form: receive Pattern1 when Guard1 Pattern2 when Guard2 . bump_acc([]. 377 handling errors (see error handling) hash (#). Race conditions such as this one in Erlang are rare. string The string module contains an array of string processing functions.rb". As a result. Dale Harvey. A callback module contains all of the specific code required to deliver the desired functionality. Reason}. 205 comma (. In the R12 release. where we abort a transaction. {throw. they are also very low-level and are not very user-friendly.ok} 300 | Chapter 13: Introducing Mnesia (switch@Vaio)8> mnesia:transaction(fun() -> mnesia:read({usr. . terminate/2. [List. 434 | Chapter 20: Style and Efficiency If you do not know what the process dictionary is. a solution. adding a second match specification to the list. Result} = mnesia:transaction(F).}. [foo] Exercise 12-2: Supervising the Database Server Implement a supervisor that starts and monitors the gen_server in Exercise 12-1. Data is a valid Erlang data type used to store data that is needed when terminating the application. In Figure 4-1. 368 stop_clear/0 function. Users should be able to retrieve these statistics by using the client function event_manager:get_data/2. if the variable AdminState is bound to the atom disabled. 2 tab2file function. which in Erlang can be viewed as either binaries or integer lists. it is designed to support the native look and feel of each one.<0. These events are handled by invoking the appropriate operations in the wxTextCtrl module. Sumita Mukherji. We also emphasized special cases and potential problems that have to be handled when dealing with concurrency. nodes()}. If you don’t.. If this option is not enabled. 182 | Chapter 8: Software Upgrade -export([write/2. <<1. You can access the root page of the HTML documentation by opening the file:////doc/ index. 79 call by value. Executing the following command in the connected process will send the Data to the Port: port_command(Port. Try running the program in the shell and see what happens: 1> c(echo). Having a “no shared data” approach. but they have made their way to other modules for practicality and efficiency reasons. which from now on we will refer to as a pid. Figure 14-6 shows the same text entry dialog in Windows XP. handle_call({set_service. Alarm]). 396 | Chapter 18: Types and Documentation boolean() Contains the atoms true and false. -include("usr. Distel provides completion of names of functions and modules. A proper design of your concurrency ‡ In 15 years of working with Erlang on systems with millions of lines of code.5. Key}. Using element. .* Erlang functions are defined as a collection of clauses separated by semicolons and terminated by a full stop. the head would be 1 and the tail would be [2.. 208. Heriot-Watt University in the United Kingdom received an EPSRC† grant to study the impact of distributed functional programming languages in the telecom sector. always include the behavior callback module.6. writing [1.1. you can see this in the inbox of foo as a result of the flush() of the inbox. and funs were optimized a long time ago and have gone from being highly inefficient black magic to having performance between that of a regular function call and using an apply/3. But as you will probably be dealing with live systems running nonstop under high load.0>. allowing a node (or Erlang runtime system) on a heterogeneous network to connect to any other node running on any operating system. Distel is a live Google Code project.32.hrl Let’s compile all the modules and take them for a test run. {erl_eval. 96 | Chapter 4: Concurrent Programming without notice in between releases.3. In larger build systems. you ensure that this nonstop operation is possible without memory leakages. . one_for_all Will terminate all of the children and restart them. and erlang:display(Term). how would you package your usr server database into an application. Erlang solves this through asynchronous message passing. [usr] 3> usr_db:create_tables("UsrTabFile").palin."New\tCtrl-N").$l. As you can see from the example. ListenSocket} = gen_tcp:listen(1234. providing an index for the modules in the project. 2. With offices in the U. {attributes. and in most cases will use an efficient binary search to jump to the right clause. would result in the dictionary data structures being passed to the gb_trees module. In the example that follows. If you are desperate to write ugly. 44 don’t care variables. You can pass any flag accepted by the trace BIFs alongside the following flag abbreviations and aggregations: s Traces sent messages r Traces received messages m Traces sent and received messages p Traces process-related events c Traces global and local calls according to the trace patterns set in the dbg:tp/2 call sos and sofs Denote the set_on_spawn and set_on_first_spawn flags. your provider must perform a database lookup to ensure that you are a subscriber who is up-to-date with your payments. without the overhead of them having to monitor each other. and from the user’s point of view. the list on the lefthand side has four elements and the one on the right has only three. . many recursive functions with multiple clauses and base cases become much more compact. month('February') -> 2.40. microblog. hd/1. The setup function sets up the graphical objects within the frame. 3 2> lists:reverse([1. the process <0.. 331 net_kernel module. process chapter exercises.'$2'. 1}) is now also displayed by the tracer. ACK:1. and then encapsulated these tuples in another tuple. and to do it in an elegant and powerful way.. the supervisor will decide whether the worker should be restarted. 54 type system overview. where regardless of the heterogeneous contents of a list. giving him the freedom he needed to continue development. the shell stops responding.2. but today these requirements are applicable to a large number of applications. to Francesco for inviting me to join the project: it’s been really enjoyable working together. you want your process to terminate abnormally. .31154838>] It is possible to build a library of functions that perform similar roles over lazy lists to functions such as map/2 and foldl/3.5 Eshell V5.2.0}]} Sockets will gather statistics about the data they send and receive. • The literals in the pattern have to be equal to the values in the corresponding place in the value of the expression. . . reading all of the trace events written so far. thus dramatically improving their productivity. Sum) -> Sum end. ok 8> usr:service_flag(700000000.four. {shell. The reason the process receiving the trace messages cannot be traced is to avoid infinite cyclic loops. Element) ⇒ ok. the trick is to ensure that updates to a certain key subset are serialized through a process on a single node. programs can recover and continue execution.{2. Status==disabled-> gen_server:call(?MODULE. and how it is supported by EUnit. Tuple. It encourages you to write shorter functions and puts in place a discipline that often results in code with fewer errors. such as whether an operation is atomic. Write a function sum/2 which. false 22> Sum = fun(Element. something that is considered normal in Erlang.. 22 $Character notation. Any process running the oldest version of the purged module is terminated. {ok. 375–382. 63 macro support. Tracing will be enabled on the intersection of the sets created through the calls to the two trace BIFs (see Figure 17-3). Key).41. . It returns the result of the dets:close/1 call. ping}. {leaf. The mutex message sequence diagram -module(mutex). because they are part of the Erlang runtime system. 356 match/2 function. This single point of entry also facilitates tracing and debugging of the call flow into the application. as it allows Emacs to interact with running Erlang nodes.{ping. If a client using the service or resource handled by the server expects a reply to the request. Args). You would either have to suspend the client functions. 378 success types. {_. 40 . although most wxWidgets classes have corresponding wxErlang representations. Functional Programming for Real Erlang is a functional programming language—among other things—but what does that really mean? Prominent in Erlang are function definitions. a function definition or compiler directive). . thus integrating with the Erlang concurrent programming model. an abbreviation for reductions. '$2'. which are variables that will match any value in this position • A value.0}. The result of the expression is one of the Boolean atoms true or false. -> exp21. worker.lists:seq(1. according to Joe Armstrong. 312 open source projects. Process B. including those generated in the shell.[{enable_trace. you have to make sure the erl_interface. this option ensures that the socket is closed if no response to the keepalive is received. . . they can be processed in different ways: the only thing you can do with atoms is compare them. Based on the semantics of message passing. 367 set_on_link flag.10.4] In the next code snippet. handle_msg(. regardless of the underlying concurrency mechanism. we fixed a bug. Run queues on a multicore processor Case Studies Let’s start looking at how the features we just described have contributed to some of Erlang’s successes. You might recall from the description of binaries in Chapter 9 that the expression < [] end. a set of actions and a transition to a new state will occur (see Figure 5-5). 'Williams'}] [72. FileName. FIN. so you should use linked-in drivers with extreme care. or permanent. no guarantee is made that this element will be accessed. as well as tracing and debugging flags. we will show you how iteration in C can be rewritten in Erlang. we return false: member(_. The supervisor can then use the Pid of the child in the exit signal to identify the process and restart it. Let’s look at an example to make this clear: foo() -> X = 2. this strategy results in a fair (but not equal) allocation of execution time among the processes. Who Should Read This Book? We have written this book to introduce you to programming in Erlang. for example. in effect doing a synchronous call.12/ In other operating systems.ping} 7> (<0. _OperState} -> {error. 1970. true). the first-generation garbage collector. the module must always include the ms_transform. given by a . Missing an update will result in a badmatch runtime error when pattern-matching the tuple.eval_exprs. Binaries A binary is a reference to a chunk of raw. callsign. 168 expressions chapter exercises. it does not matter whether you use apples or oranges. {display. 147 exit signals process links and. . -export([new/0. Event}. {shell.3. and the other containing the elements for which the Predicate returned false. and error recovery. Simple combinations with only commas or semicolons are fine. . It should create an ETS table and store in it all the elements passed to it.Erlang Programming Francesco Cesarini and Simon Thompson Beijing • Cambridge • Farnham • Köln • Sebastopol • Taipei • Tokyo Erlang Programming by Francesco Cesarini and Simon Thompson Copyright © 2009 Francesco Cesarini and Simon Thompson. MatchSpec) You use these in conjunction with the dbg:p/2 call. The functionality to be included in the callback module to deliver the specific behavior required includes the following: • Initializing the process loop data. with the same effect as the call to the constructor in the C++ fragment: wxMenu *File = new wxMenu. What happens upon executing dirty_write/1 is that you locally update the local object copy. The garbage collector is also generational.Database.5}. {type. and test your echo server using the process manager. . You can see an example of the frequency allocator in action now: 1> c(frequency). encoding. whereas a document is a list of words. The fact that web services. importantly. Most of the features we describe will work with earlier releases. Look at the error and try to figure out what happened. a).$e. we will add an accumulator that contains the list we are constructing: as we said earlier.[]. Result}. with which you can build tests and test sets..34. the recursive definition of lists is the first hurdle that people can stumble on. allowing a startlingly high-level description of protocol manipulation functions. [ {attributes. In doing so. the procs flag will be added to the list of trace flags. allocate({[Freq|Free]. -spec add_usr(#usr{}) -> 'ok'.hoo}<{boo. its calling function. 15 interworking with Java. which provides support for a more formal test-driven approach. whereas set_on_first_spawn is not. you can use list_to_binary/1 and binary_to_list/1.29.hrl") where Application is the application directory name without the version number (in the example it would be inets) and Name. 228 when to use. 112–114 race conditions. indeed. Often these are used together. unknown_element} end Case expressions always return a value.4.29.com. . both processes can take appropriate action. however. 107 process trace flags all flag. In Erlang. We don’t expect that you have programmed in Erlang before. . . Luckily. Perl or Python is the norm. 117. which is passed as an argument to the io:format/2 call. my_db:stop() ⇒ ok. we return the reason normal in the stop construct. and then you can start Mnesia. receive {reply. if at all? Without a code review. object-oriented. what is apparently a small detail. If you have millions of users logging on to your system every day and you create a registered process for the duration of their sessions. #Fun ets:delete(TabId). In your Unix shell. PhoneNo.000. instance} Will look up a user based on its PhoneNo and return a record of type usr. lists.Database. but the old port owner will stay linked to the Port. keep reading. facLoop(). id = CustId. If a communication link is down.lelle] 9> Db4 = db:delete(lelle. Fixed-line phone finite state machine graciously is not a surprise. the _assertEqual macro plays the same role as assertEqual. the match specification simply returns the atom 'EXIT'. The start functions are often used when testing behaviors from the shell.<0. let’s call the function average.Code2} = lists:split(M. . 391 fun2ms/1 function. F. List pattern matches are converted to use the {hd.". The options list is kept empty: start_link(FileName) -> gen_server:start_link({local. handle_call(delete_disabled. .2.age = 0. 355 loop/0 function. Sadly.instance}. read/1. This is a relatively fast. Aim to keep your modules to a manageable size. there are two separate variables with the name Y. Arguments). Reply} -> Reply end. one thing you need to consider is how the load might be balanced across the nodes. 104 overview. and not of the function that was called.1].2 version of the db module in the patches directory. With these definitions in place.468>. Example 2-1 shows an Erlang function used to calculate the area of a shape. This results in a file with the E suffix. . QueueSize limits the size of the undelivered message queue. The following code shows the decode function and two sample packets: decode(Segment) -> case Segment of << SourcePort:16. you have to export the init/ 0 function as it is used by the spawn/3 BIF.[]]}} (<0. 282 get_request/3 function. is_reference. 4] <= [2 | [3. except the TraceFlag will be disabled on the specified Pid. {dict. Binaries and Serialization | 203 Sizes The size specified is in bits. list_to_binary(integer_to_list(23))}). init. Use this example to experiment with various trace flags.erlang File It is time to introduce the . B.. [H | _]) -> true. as the error does not take place in the shell. 338 OtpErlangTuple class.0 social networking killer application that has to scale to hundreds of millions of users overnight. format. Then make it beautiful.4].. {read.0. guaranteeing mutual exclusion. Result}. but also through his involvement in international research projects. 67 J Java language. and gen_tcp. how many of them you expect the supervisor to monitor.5}.0>}. a name that can be used instead of the pid. If several processes have opened the same table. -define(TION. stop(Name) -> Name ! {stop. 281. . 378 send flag. . You can include the calls in a literal fun and they will be translated to actions during the parse transform in the precompiler. 366.bee}. Extracting Table Information: match You’ve seen how to extract tuples with a given key field from an ETS table. ok 10> usr_db:lookup_msisdn(700000001). ets:new(usrIndex. You also need to open the ports that the individual nodes use to connect to each other. 148 | Chapter 6: Process Error Handling Figure 6-8. This can’t go on forever! This is where AllowedRestarts comes in. Child Specifications The second argument in the structure returned by the init/1 function is a list of child specifications. It creates a tuple consisting of the available frequencies. • The system will not understand the expression <>. The following exercises will get you familiar with recursion and its different uses. There is a variety of information concerning the system that we might want to know.4).0>) call ping:loop() 5> ping:send(Pid). If what you have seen so far does not scare you. readable. In the first attempt. covered in more detail in Chapter 18.. allocate() -> call(allocate). '$_' returns the whole parameter list.29|. . [{const. @module. other messages . we have covered the do and don’ts of Erlang programming. If you do not want to distribute Mnesia. 367 init function event handlers.0>) spawn <0. Examples of patterns include: Double {Double. .0>. If you do not want to go down that route. which comes as part of the Erlang standard distribution. splits([X|Xs] = Ys) -> [ {[]. the main unit used by this module.0. don’t forget to remove Applications and Modules | 423 the directive. In most systems.) and press Enter. Does the function really work? Let’s try working through the call bump([1. including Linux and Mac OS X. {name.[francesco. As supervisors are never meant to be stopped by anyone other than their parent supervisors. . and so on. this comparison deserves to be made.. in command 8. which performs an action for each element of a list: foreach(F. In the second Erlang node. and Chapter 12.cs. true 5> 1 =/= 1. as we do not want to be seen as encouraging bad practices. 363 processes atomic operations. Table 2-3..0> ! pong 7> =ERROR REPORT==== 6-Sep-2008::21:40:31 === Error in process <0. ChildSpecificationList}} The supervisor specification is a tuple containing information on how to handle process crashes and restarts..0> <0. the identifier of the current node. 69 ifdef conditional macro.erlang. Cookie) This sets the cookie at Node to be Cookie. given a list. 194 arguments and.2. UrgentPointer:16. Length) -> average_acc(T. which. and if everything matches.com). NewLoopData}. 180.1. '_'. To retrieve the configuration parameters of an existing socket. the process name. 135 is_alive function.'$1'.12. eval_exprs. .[X|_]) -> X. We covered the Java library at the beginning of the chapter. 1 Why Should I Use Erlang? The History of Erlang Erlang’s Characteristics High-Level Constructs Concurrent Processes and Message Passing Scalable. Steve Kirsch. we provided you with a comprehensive overview of what is available.. 299. .com You can include the erlectricity library in a Ruby program by using a require statement at the head of the file. Not doing so will result in the default key position of one being chosen. when we talk about applications in this chapter. 162–163 include files."&Edit;"). Note how the disc_copies attribute specifies the nodes on which you want to keep a persistent copy. Element}). . Figure 12-3. Process Design Patterns . receive Reply -> Reply end.{2.[[2. Value}) What would have happened if a runtime error occurred in the get_value/1 call? You would have caught the runtime error {'EXIT'."listToTree ( [ 1 . . scalable systems in Erlang. as it will not pattern-match against any of the receive clauses in the request function: 1> process_flag(trap_exit. .5/ebin / stdlib-1. so it returns false.zorro}. you need to use the following: gen_tcp:recv(Socket. and the simplest form is a single character. where hello is the message and null is the loop data. You can trace BIF and function calls.D:2>> = << 1998:8 >>. receive {_Pid. all error patterns in all classes (matching _:_) are mapped to 43. All trace messages will now have the trace_ts tag and will contain an extra field at the end containing the timestamp: 1> Pid = ping:start(). The quotation of the text '. server crashes. and this results in the unbound variables becoming bound (and the value of the expression being returned). and TimeOut is either the atom infinity or an integer in milliseconds. Output in Erlang is provided by io:write/1. SNMP is a standard often used to monitor devices and systems across IP-based networks.2. The match specification head [{'$1'. Error} 5> end. any process can send a message to it without having to be aware of its identifier (see Figure 4-9). false 2> not((1<3) or (2==2)). {ok.K. '$2'. Interworking with Java | 337 which gives the process a name on creation. FileOptions can specify either a filename. including type and spec information as well as textual comments on functions. -spec(close_tables() -> ok | {error. . 302 mobile subscriber database as OTP application. ets:new(subIndex. we would not know either of these functions.87. If you are using a Unix-based system. join them together in a tuple and patternmatch them in one clause: reset(BladeId. it will try to connect to port 1234 on that address. details are given in the online documentation. take a quick look at it before proceeding. Socket. If you have been experimenting with distributed Erlang without setting a cookie. In command 7. and as a result. due to the result of convert being a tuple rather than an integer. however. "mycookie". real-time requirements. started working on a hobby project focused on modeling 3D graphics. @reference 'ok' | {'error'.. the result of a runtime error. matching. including secure protocols such as SSL. 342 error class. As a result. {error. {ok. 79 file2tab function. . Object Identifiers. #Fun [Person || {Person. -export([go/0. and do queries on elements as though nothing has happened.erl server module. the birth place of Erlang. tools. Figure 4-3. Arity}). 22–27 processing. wxWidgets consists of an extensive C++ library that provides components for building menus. 262 client/server model. and this chapter has only scratched the surface of that complexity. 2 -export([start/0. They do. . the commands would look like this: 1> {ok. For 'xor' to evaluate to true.$:. and C is the control character. Figure 4-2. 331 close function. it would return the tuple {error. This can be a potential problem if you decide to register transient processes with an alias derived from converting a string to an atom with the list_to_atom/1 BIF. If your server has no asynchronous calls. as in [1] ++ [2.576>} 2> flush(). usr). . This case study is from one of Francesco’s first consulting assignments outside of Ericsson. take care of the task. The tracer process will receive and display all of the trace events. 256–258 remove_call/2 function. 430 | Chapter 20: Style and Efficiency reset(BladeId. 294 Index | 467 string module functionality. use lists:append/1 instead: 1> Str = [$h. 35. If a program is to compare two strings (or lists).0>) out {io. . 167 debugging support. if you are dealing with users logged in to a system. TabId is a set. Temporary processes are restarted only if they terminate abnormally. Pong =ERROR REPORT==== 6-Sep-2008::20:30:41 === Error in process <0. or when it is explicitly requested to do so through the code:load_file/1 call. Cmd}.Age. the increase of the iterator variable i is mimicked by the Index argument to the recursive call and is incremented by one: sum(Boundary) -> sum_acc(1. If you are using boot scripts as described in Chapter 12. Q) -> lists:append(Q. Range). As the result is the same.25}]} 4> dbg:tp({ping. the data stored by the process (in our example. Options) gen_server:start(ServerName.usrRam}.' puts the enclosed text into verbatim (code) form. You start a hidden node by starting Erlang with the following: erl -sname foo -hidden Once started. as shown in Figure 6-7. '$2']. Some people will pick one style for variables and the other for functions. exit_on_close. 268–270 server example in full. EUnit also provides support for debugging. Pid2} register | unregister. . TraceFlag) Is the same as disable_trace/1.marcus. . so that such a sequence evaluates to true only if all expressions in the sequence evaluate to true. robust concurrent systems.† † Unless your account was in need of some serious housekeeping. {[]..Y). 53. 246 efficient. Compare this with Java and C#. Service) -> case usr_db:lookup_msisdn(PhoneNo) of {ok. 5.tuple). The module attribute is mandatory. [] Finally. Instead of having to focus on how everything is done. . The storage used by tables is not recycled automatically when the tables are no longer referenced by the program (i. In the following example. 104 chapter exercises. it is evident that the original definition of X is accessible within the body of Add.ireland. What you probably did not realize at the time was that each code path was pointing to a specially structured directory of an OTP application. superfluous. and send updates to both. which some Windows developers use to highlight syntax in Erlang programs. .2. <0. which in the shell is bound to the variable Pid and displayed as <0. returns the sum of the integers. notice how we create only one table. . 158 functionality. the virtual machine. Message is the argument passed to the cast/2 function. A rule of thumb is to always use spawn_link unless you are toggling between linking and unlinking to the process. Examples of OTP applications include the Mnesia database. 404 | Chapter 18: Types and Documentation add_usr(#usr{msisdn=PhoneNo. 148. you will get a runtime error..3.2]. and to select the file to be opened when a blog is loaded. 268–270 overview. 190. as this defies the flexibility that records bring to the table: Cat = #cat{name = "tobby".first. and arithmetic operators. Line -> processLine(Line. This will result in the function reset(151) being called: receive {reset. {index. {attributes.16. 1 -> true end. 57 mnesia module.2. Data) -> {ok.4) is [1. the exit signal is sent to its supervisor. . -export([init/0. This is then converted into a tuple (line 25). stop() -> call(stop).erl %%% Description : Database API for subscriber DB -module(usr_db). You use the | symbol to indicate alternatives (as you would in regular expressions and grammars).<0.101. You can use macros to make programs more readable and to implement features outside the language itself. When a message is received and matched in a receive clause. rewritten as a gen_server behavior: %%% File : usr..three} 5> float(1). 1. M} 338 | Chapter 16: Interfacing Erlang with Other Programming Languages in the mbox process is given by: mbox. We would also remove all the process-related calls.[]. We turn to this next. this would be the Frame object). and V of type T. keysearch(_key. For any other result.$l. 342. an expression of the format #capital{name = '$1'. X}.hrl"). CustId. Particularly useful are: • • • • The installation guide (under the Erlang/OTP tab) Getting Started. A. It could also be the process identifier of the server.id = 3. 294 prep_stop function.4-6.0. that arguments are enclosed in parentheses. excluding the local node. 250 Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). init.ireland. In this trace event. And when he has found a solution. we check that the supervisor and gen_server processes no longer exist: 1> code:add_path("usr-1. Erlide implements syntax highlighting and indentation. . an atom containing the local hostname. If a worker crashes. you specify that any process that is spawned will inherit the flags of its parents except the set_on_first_spawn flag. as each binary sequence in a pattern match must have a length that is a multiple of 8. Newq). especially in combination with tuples. Match3). From your Erlang root directory. {vsn. 45 (see also BIFs.{alison.10.{keypos. You can construct Bins using the following bit syntax: Bin = < 1<2. soon after Erlang had been released as open source.Xs). you should find all of the beam files relating to that particular application.. the second argument gives the size of the shift In the following example. To list the nodes on which you are running a trace. you will need to consult the OTP documentation. . for example. however. Selective receive of multiple messages is useful when synchronizing processes in a rendezvous. or if you want to have an accurate record of exactly when a specific trace event is generated? You should use the timestamp flag. perform the update or print an error message of a particular form. We’ll take the first field of the tuple (containing the word) as the key for the rest of this section. These three directories are marked as sticky directories by default. appending them together with the pivot in between: qsort([]) -> []. stick to it throughout your code. The VM automatically handles the task of allocating memory for the system. unknown_msg} clause will not solve the bug. This function will take a database of the format used in the lists version of the database from Chapter 3. Status) when Status==enabled. This is because if elements on the list on the righthand side of the operation do not match. sms. The trace event will return undefined if the function cannot be determined. what if the process receives a stop message? This message might have originated from a user picking the Exit menu entry or clicking the Destroy button. exit(Pid. For example. Any patches in this directory will be picked up first.3]. {keypos. 3.0}]} 142 | Chapter 6: Process Error Handling timeout 4> flush(). as well as concurrency-related events. =ERROR REPORT==== 21-Jul-2008::16:29:38 === Error in process <0. and all the permutations P of the list with Y removed. 23 Erlang type notation. [Name. there would be no point in tracing it. It splits the message into a list of size Size. IP.erl".erl"}]}] 4> db_server:start(). 303.null) in call from gen_server:handle_msg/5 in call from proc_lib:init_p/5 Oops! Something did not go according to plan.3])--[1. EDoc will share information with TypEr.erlang file for configuration or startup purposes. In Windows. true 17> whereis(usr).france.com.sweden}).100}.3}.pong. instance} -> {error. you need to estimate the size of the tasks to be distributed. 295 create_table function. and 'bsr' all take one argument. step by step. This usage is now deprecated and should no longer be used. done in parallel with the startup of other applications.insert. where Vaio is the hostname of the computer on which we executed the command. . look at the source code directory and you will find a file with the same name as the module. Handler) -> call(Name. restore_backup/0.. such as a debugging version and a production version. and the list comprehension notation gives you a powerful and compact way to write down lists constructed in this way. the file with no entries should still be there. just like tuples. others will be Erlang-related. which determines the time complexity of access. Length) -> average_acc(T. . 374 ets and dbg diferences.Y) -> test_int(X). {with. use native. . you compile the code using c(Module) in the Erlang shell. 96 treeToList/1 function.0>) << {<0. and available from the University of Kent in the United Kingdom. and PLEX. true Term Comparison | 29 Variables Variables are used to store values of simple and composite data types. . %% Can now process the Message according to the %% Options (if any) and the flags CWR. It also reduces the turnaround time of bugs and facilitates testing. true Tuples Tuples are a composite data type used to store a collection of items. but also have to be very fast! One of the main composite data types used in programming is a collection of items (or elements. 160 wildcard symbols. we used assertEqual and assertError to check values and exceptions. The definition of sleep/1 in the following code is taken directly from the timer library module. . Msg}.6}. io. This includes the erlang and erl modules. and allows the process executing the code to link to it: link(Pid = spawn(Module. Reply.3. Ports.e]. 168. It is different from the ones you saw previously. 114 process skeletons. 302 write/3 function.31. {484000. the dbg Tracer. pong (om@Vaio)2> nodes().$l. We will rewrite the usr.0. you insert the reserved word try. as your transactions should never fail unless mnesia:abort(Reason) is called from within the transaction.0>. or use two clauses in your fun. and takes the form name@host (e. we would have had to redirect all destructive operations to one of the nodes. We should all do it again sometime. 17 ++ operator. The vsn attribute is a string denoting the version of the application. 378 : (colon). Write your own definitions of these functions.[]. which performs the traversal: prettyIndex() -> case ets:first(indexTable) of '$end_of_table' -> ok. If your supervisor is not registered. In the preceding example.3]} 3> Bin2 = term_to_binary({cat. as well as send and receive Erlang messages and exit signals.ftp_sup. An echo server This functional interface. The name of the record can be used in only one definition.tftp_sup ]}. Characters and Strings Characters are represented by integers. Element. except that the C code has more lower-level operations. You can pass only one flag at a time. As a result.2. set_status/2. uses ports. atom()}). named_table]). 28. the dbg Tracer. A bound variable is a variable which already has a value. 114 declarative languages. as the state of the process dictionary is lost when the program crashes. The child specification list specifies which children the supervisor has to start and monitor.654 1. so using it in the right setting will provide great benefits from a maintenance and operational point of view. As a result.country = "Italy". 305 as OTP application. 27 recursive definitions. and operations themselves are grouped together in tuples. Example with nodes on different hosts Moreover. such issues will be caught in the early stages of the testing phase and dealt with accordingly.fish). Type} States whether the table is a set.{'_'. and we talk about that in Chapter 9. .{'$2'. 245 Distributed Systems in Erlang Distributed Computing in Erlang: The Basics Node Names and Visibility Communication and Security Communication and Messages Node Connections Remote Procedure Calls The rpc Module Essential Distributed Programming Modules The epmd Process Distributed Erlang Behind Firewalls Exercises 245 247 249 250 252 253 256 258 258 260 261 261 12. {M. Here. That is because the full stop signals the end of a definition. Today. and the function call record_info(size. 301 ordered sets. we discuss them in more detail in the next section. there is nothing to see here. <<1. that is. this Text object is then passed to the setup and loop functions: start() -> wx:new(). arguments. Erlang programs consist of functions that call each other. seg1() -> << 0:16. .[OHS-OHE]).0> This supervisor example is relatively simple. 411 regs shell command. Finally. this will not equate to a process for every object or every method applied to an object.. pad/2 This function. He went on to demonstrate the power of list comprehensions. and an instance of the variable N is bound after a successful match. and filter the results based on a set of predicates.0. Data distribution ensures that any calls whose setups were initiated before the failover are not lost. A tuple can be processed only by extracting particular elements. you send the database a message and wait for a response. node_down} end. Types in EDoc The usr_db. combinations of the type {'_'.clear.3. CA 95472.hrl library: -define(NOTEST. You find the error in the library module that maps special characters. end joe() -> {person. there is the OtpErlangBoolean class. Id. and @version as well as the {@link reference.0>. [{memory. Unicode is not an issue. The following example is long. 342 OtpNode class. {atomic. Old BIFs are reimplemented where necessary. tree1() -> {node. erl –man Module is a convenient way of accessing the manual pages. The Universidad Politécnica de Madrid of Spain together with Chalmers University of Technology and the IT University (both in Sweden) are working on Erlang propertybased testing tools that are changing the way people verify Erlang programs. 392 memory management and. It is possible. where the result is a float. the system would be designed. Modules | 41 This directive should be used only for testing purposes. . you are not alone. . reset(_BladeId. . So. the active memory is copied to the other heap. false 6> [boo.org/euc/). its connected process. And best of all. as its mailbox is 100 | Chapter 4: Concurrent Programming empty. millions. To view the code produced as a source code transformation on records. using either the msisdn or the subscriber id. some uses will refer to the same variable and others to a different variable.F/binary>> = Bin. where Handler is the name of the handler callback module and Data is the argument passed to the handler’s init callback function. the exit signal will propagate to the parent and terminate it with the same reason: -module(add_one). They can be retrieved for the following packets: avg The average size of the packets cnt The number of packets that have been sent or received dvi The packet size deviation of bytes sent or received by the socket max The size of the largest package oct The number of bytes sent or received by the socket In this example. 331 listen/2 function. Id /=2 -> true end).daisy}]}.98. This will match with anything."BLOG"). We mentioned earlier that variables can start with an underscore. #RecordType.[{'/='. {self(). something which goes against the whole principle of high availability. [{sean.wxwidgets. you will learn about the foundations of the EUnit system. PhoneNum.1}) Note how after the ets:insert/2 trace message.{98. These could be trace messages generated in your program or stock quotes coming from an external feed. which in this example we’ve called loop/1.122. [] -> {error. comparing it with other languages and highlighting its strengths. the AXD301 ATM switch. KeyN]. {delete. Pid.2. Here is the first part: 120 | Chapter 5: Process Design Patterns -module(frequency). ..{name. it is possible to refer to another function in the same module either directly or by a fully qualified name. .N}) -> [2."UsrTabFile"}] 6> usr_db:close_tables().3}.0> inherits all of the flags.{abc. 23.6}. the list contains at least one element."MiniBlog"). 38. . This is a function that takes one argument: X. 20(8). the dbg Tracer. pushing the code base to new levels. This is different from the way in which one process links to another in raw Erlang. Process B terminates with the same reason as A.5]) = [{1. listToTree/1 tree0/0.” It didn’t turn out like that 20 years ago. [{{'$1'. The Erlang evaluation mechanism means that when a list is passed to a function.0> 10> pid(0.116. This could be expected to give better throughput than spawning a new acceptor each time. 311 wxObject class. plan=Plan}). which is accessible from the top-lefthand corner of the home page. or use a frequency. lookup_id(CustId) -> usr_db:lookup_id(CustId).[b. . you would look up the usr record and. you achieve these results by using the dbg tracer tool. {erl_eval. In future calls to the server. Data}} -> {result. that is. and distribution properties of your tables. When retrieving the message.0> otp_ring0:start/2 5017 0 <0. We are including the destroy function to make the interface consistent.beam suffix stands for Björn’s Erlang Abstract Machine. {error.4]. where all the nodes can communicate with each other. imagine an IM server concurrently handling thousands of messages being exchanged by its users.alison). 333 security cookie information and. and if it exists. Frequency} or {error.10}]}].sms]}} Now.6}. . #Ref<0. You might be interested in statistics to determine how often certain errors occur. Records To understand the advantages of records. If the client does not terminate. especially when increasing the number of simultaneously running processes in relation to creation and message passing times. That being said. You might recall from Chapter 7 that when records are used in the shell. 383– 391 handling table elements.1).111. What happens when you call demo:times(3.$e. this function is quite often called in the following way: {value. [])). Messages sent from Haskell to Erlang look like function calls.3. In 2003. The same field name can be used in more than one record type.lists:seq(1.0>} 2> dbg:p(all. You can do this by launching the server process using spawn_link/4 rather than spawn/4: setup() -> process_flag(trap_exit. so using {Module. which we cover in the next chapter. {error. .1.|\\:|\\t|\\n|\\(|\\))+").org and at Planet Erlang. 107 Index | 453 process starvation. {keypos. 160 recursions versus iterations. 17. % Hard Coded get_frequencies() -> [10. The return value of this call replaces the old Data and is used by the handler the next time one of its callbacks is invoked: add_handler(Name. 342 | Chapter 16: Interfacing Erlang with Other Programming Languages In addition. Joe Armstrong waved me (Francesco) into his office and enthusiastically started showing me some new features that had just been added to the language. your next request will result in the response that previously timed out. instance | timeout} Will set the status to enabled or disabled for a particular CustId. 23. .do_not_exist. 290 generic servers. -> X.. 12]) => even([12]) (11 rem 2 == 1) even([12]) => [12 | even([])] (12 rem 2 == 0) even([]) => [] [12 | []] => [12] [12] <= [12] <= [10 | [12]] => [10. and enterprise integration. The pretty printing mode tries to figure out what you are trying to print. the first element of the representation gives its size recursively through the tree? treeToList({leaf.5}]} ** exception exit: undef in function usr:handle_info/2 called as usr:handle_info(hello. {module.[]. used. and is combined with a number of anecdotes explaining the ideas and background behind the development of Erlang. Type}. refer to its user guide and reference manual. Opts) returns the table identifier used to reference the table.0> user:server/2 1459 0 ** Registered ports on node nonode@nohost ** Name Id Command ok The shell command regs() prints out all the registered processes. including Ericsson’s broadband. At the heart of the library is the receiver. Request}.0. 334 controlling_process function. {error.40.{recent_size. rabbit. Finally. A BIF that you can use in guards is is_record(Term. and so the patterns matched against the table will also be 3-tuples. the return value will result in a bad match error. 104–106 tracer. which captures a raised exception and checks that it is of the form specified by the first argument (here. or the end of a line of input to the shell. Event) -> call(Name.[]}.p. .hrl contains a number of these. {1. Operations on real numbers suddenly became much more efficient. You will probably find that these messages originate from ports or sockets or from bugs that should be picked up during a unit test. If you were wondering what math:sqrt/1 did in Example 2-1. The message response times will differ if the process is busy or running on a remote machine. • If the stop message is received. When called. not the wall clock. [named_table. factorial(0) -> 1. Here’s an example: 13> << <> || <> <= <<42:6>> >>. he asked me to use funs and list comprehensions in my programs. You start a gen_server behavior using the gen_server:start_link call.120. short for constructor. Calling this in the Erlang shell gives the following: % erl -sname "blah" -setcookie "mycookie" . create_tables(FileName) -> ets:new(subRam. 229 ETS tables. complex programs are not self-documenting. true -> prettyEntry(IndexEntry). Connected processes can link to it. and the second was a pure Erlang implementation.0>. As most of the services will have access only to the msisdn and not to usr id. init(FileName) -> Generic Servers | 267 usr_db:create_tables(FileName). we had to implement a simulated world inhabited by carrots. {ok. Give functions that work over these types to give the perimeter and area of these geometric figures. "AlarmLog"}]). . 144. %% We hide all message passing and the message %% protocol in a functional interface. Do not do like many others and forget to replace it with an export directive before your code goes into production! The compile directive takes on other options that are useful only in special conditions.23. wx:destroy(). making it reliable by monitoring the clients. with a value determined by a case expression: safe(X) -> case X of one -> Y = 12. 179 modules and. /= Arithmetic operators +.{error.{127. 266. 6 trace BIFs and. Experiment with spaces. this set of BIFs is called the process dictionary. the virtual machine risks running out of memory as the system gets flooded by requests (and hence. 39.” it’s not a good idea in general to use them in your code. . as well as the Prolog logic programming language. removing the lock (see Figure 5-7). <<131. but are able to hop away quickly when disturbed. Queue2 = q:add(klacke. as well as a lot more background information.3}]}} Look at the result of the two calls. 33–38 records and. In this case. allowing a Java system to contain Erlang components or vice versa. • Distel supports the interoperation of Emacs Lisp and Erlang. we see that times(3) applied to 2 gives the result 6. 106 case study. we place the compiled 1. stating that it has to be indexed and that it must have a RAM copy and file backup. namely the one generated as a result of the spawn/3 BIF. N} -> Sender ! a(N) end. Once you have a list representation. . io:format("Old heap size delta after gc:~w~n". Transmission Control Protocol | 329 To run the example. use the gen_server skeleton template: 1> my_db:start(). specifying the pid of the process you want to send the messages to. Msg} -> Pid ! {result. atom()} This gives you the useful extra information that the string argument represents a filename. We will cover them in a minute. . and nodes(connected) will give an aggregated list of all nodes. fragmentation.process. Let’s take a closer look now at how average works in an example: average([1. {trace. 399 type inference. . 283 Wikström. {'EXIT'. Messages received from the socket are buffered. Pattern matching is also used to pick the execution flow in a program. 28. ever use the internal tuple representation of records. Handler.0> ! hello. 333. all in one go. -else. Shutdown Specifies how many milliseconds a behavior that is trapping exits is allowed to execute in its terminate callback function after receiving the shutdown signal from its supervisor. Exercise 9-3: Zip Functions Define the function zip. Fun. Pid}.. Pid) -> link(Pid). fault-tolerant.66. It returns a socket identifier. was designed and implemented from scratch in less than three years.0> receives the message {<0. 378 less than (<) operator. Socket} = gen_tcp:accept(ListenSocket). where both recType and fieldName are atoms: 15> #person.[inets_sup. with the same key-element data. In the signed case. . and are therefore represented by OtpErlangObjects in Java. true. 260. It is important that you understand how this works.'$2'. 151} is sent to the process executing the receive statement.[].A}}|start_children(ChildSpecList)]. timeout} Will traverse the table and delete all users whose status is set to disabled. It also has a Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) client and server. Seq) end. B = A + 1. on the other hand. 336.g. 15 binaries bit syntax. and as a result. "Hello World" 7> [$H. given a Pid. Test the new implementation of echo. They once inhabited more than 60% of the Australian mainland. and many other languages.{Freq. and occasionally. set_tcw(Int) Sets a unique trace control word that you can retrieve using the erlang:system_info(trace_control_word) BIF call. except that it will enable the trace flag on the Pid. . re. [{Freq. Exercises | 291 Hint: if you are using Emacs or Eclipse. hd.2.125. Always try to write clean and understandable code. as this behavior can change † The number of reductions will vary between releases. by connecting handler functions to events on an object-by-object basis and allowing the processing to be modified during an object’s lifetime. Although neither is essential for writing Erlang programs. lists:foldl/3 traverses the list from left to right in a tail-recursive way: foldl(F. Trapping exits Let’s take a specific example. we must understand the different ways in which the languages work. the hidden node gamma does not appear. The effect of this loop is to repeatedly receive messages of the form {M. division. different patterns correspond to different traversals: bottom-up.{'/='. an external program connecting to Erlang will run in a separate operating system process.. Applications The application behavior is used to package Erlang modules into reusable components. handle_event/2]). or to a socket.0. Rabbits and wolves within a certain distance of each other would broadcast information on food and predators. all operations that involve both writing and deleting elements are serialized by sending the request to the process that executes them in the order they are received. causes a rehash of the table.|\\.12. Each message is handled by a process spawned for that particular function. N > 0 -> true end. The second A is now also bound to abc. but also to keep track of what to sell on eBay. receive {reply. Although the caller of the following function: spawn(YourNode. 390 M m (Module) command. but other character sets will need to be handled explicitly. You might instead want to collect statistics. 214 sets and. the init function has to return a tuple of the following format: {ok. Pid. 51 is_constant function. you can use the equivalent shell command l(Module).988. 201 standard functions. If you remember the discussion in Chapter 3. [person] 3> Person = #person{name="Mike". most commonly used as an argument to the message and display actions just described: {process_dump} Returns textual information on the process.ireland. {setup. have pity on those who will be maintaining your code and ensure that they are both called in the same module. 70 optimization. {error. 9. Thanks.3]). .368 −56. one of the three inventors of Erlang: Find the right methods—Design by Prototyping. and Chapter 18 covers tools for checking the correctness of programs. you will have to update the code that uses the tuple representation even if the function is not affected by the field.alison). This book is an excellent and practical introduction of Erlang. [] 3> Db1 = db:write(francesco.. unknown_msg}. 51. After that. 327–331 tcp module. with a substantially more efficient implementation than the regexp library module.org.'$2'.Text) end. Taking a concrete example. Having terminated all the children. Plan==postpay -> gen_server:call(?MODULE. Lists Lists and tuples are used to store collections of elements. ‖ Other languages can avoid variable declarations for other reasons. {DbgFun.fish] .call. 375–382. So. 348 port_connect command. . . . • Traditional testing allows you to check the behavior of a system under particular inputs. ?MODULE. 220 registered processes. wait_connect(ListenSocket. Test-driven development is not confined to the single-person project. in which a wildcard comes before a nonwildcard.” after which Erlang barely got a mention. The obvious difference between the start_link and start functions is that start_link links to its parent and start doesn’t. Setting Up the Schema A schema is a collection of table definitions that describe your database. 356 frequency module allocate function.0. It is a common misconception that messages have to be sent in tuples: this is not the case. remember the rr/1 shell command that reads a file and extracts its record definitions. Remember that you can load record definitions using the shell command rr(".3. The tracing process should receive the spawn trace event from the first process and the exit message with the undef runtime error from the second process: 1> Pid = ping:start(). How you set this up depends on the operating systems. and not a try catch. Try typing [[1. As the main exercise for this course. In our binary. 151}—are received in that order by the executing process. Accu. Try examples of this. Atoms start with a lowercase letter or are delimited by single quotes. let’s kill the shell process. 224 | Chapter 10: ETS and Dets Tables You need to use match operations with great care. 186 erlang module append_element/2 function. Tests} where. migrating it from an Erlang process to a gen_server behavior. 2.S. this is without explicitly creating either the Erlang or the Window menu in MicroBlog. when comparing tuples. who helped jumpstart this project. Such operations are known as dirty operations.1). you will visit an element only once. 222 layering processes. A table is created by a call to ets:new/2: the first parameter gives the name of the table. create a schema so that you can make the tables persistent: foo@localhost2> mnesia:create_schema([foo@localhost.0 =:= 1. len([]) -> 0. Val} 4> catch 4> error:Error -> {error. and is followed by the one-sentence summary of the module and other module tags. it breaks the binary into chunks of 100 bytes and sends them over in separate packets. the more you program in Erlang. [named_table]). . whereas calls to other funs will go to the module in which the fun was defined. 448 | Appendix: Using Erlang RefactorErl also supports some refactorings. true).0> 2> Reference = erlang:monitor(process. 355 bags defined. as it will not be transferred from STC to FCC automatically. handle_msg({get_data. [['$2'. Db3). The most important ones you should be aware of are listed here.32.boot and Name.myring} 2> timer:tc(myring. 7:4. reply(To. unknown_shape}. The guard to check for a record uses is_record and is of the following format: {is_record. stop_ringing() -> . you need to reverse the list in which you stored them. . In our example. event handlers. described in Chapter 2. or a triangle or return the tuple {error.[]. Dirty Operations Sometimes it is acceptable to execute an operation outside the scope of a transaction without setting any locks. {node. sequences of bytes. manipulate. (om@Vaio)9> plan=prepay. and give information about that particular function.org. . allowing you to locate where the BIF was called with the incorrect arguments. =ERROR REPORT==== 21-Jul-2008::16:44:32 === Error in process <0. . . nothing is stopping us from sending the message in the format {restart}. . [{log_handler. . wednesday.msisdn}]). 11. In the 64-bit representation. . which is an example of a cons.math:pi()])]]}]).cook}]. receive ok -> ok end.italy. Using div will result in an integer without a remainder.4] In command 1. Can you think of a reason why you should not use the monitor BIF? The reason for this design choice is similar to the one in our frequency server example. Act II In this section. the tuple {error. the only way for them to share data is through message passing. other rabbits would quickly join him. or. and a socket happens to be listening on the other end. 200 overview. {named_table. no matter how horrid that may sound! Let’s run the example in the shell and make sure it works: 1> my_supervisor:start_link(my_supervisor. the table will remain open until all of the processes have either terminated or explicitly closed the table. Here is the erl_call command in action: % erl_call -s -a 'erlang date' -n blah {2009. 378 < (less than) operator. nodes() This returns a list of visible nodes in the system.<0. {children..bee}. 309 SMP (symmetric multiprocessing) background. '$3'].N}. _. the 'DOWN' message is immediately sent with the Reason set to noproc. If an incoming call arrives. 202 square brackets [ ]. and so are called by putting the module name in front of the function. and corresponding return expressions. We will not explain it in this book. #person{name = "Mike". For example. one used to store the sum and the other to store the average.8.erl Exercise Extend the database example in Exercise 7-3 so that it includes optional debugging code reporting on the actions requested of the database as they are executed. term()). together with Mnesia. passing the message to be sent to the server as an argument. [{type. Figure 18-3 shows a fragment of the documentation for usr. but now they inhabit less than 1%. 154 concurrent programming. As with many other kangaroos. What you write down as the type of a function can be checked for consistency against the function definition using the TypEr tool. and continue testing the module with the same entries we previously inserted in the database. 182 spawn function. If the bytes are not received within Timeout milliseconds {error. the first 356 | Chapter 17: Trace BIFs. which enables full bidirectional communication between programs written in Haskell and Erlang. If Sum is unbound. the following call must be executed: port_connect(Port. that is. only a couple of processes will be executing in parallel: 106 | Chapter 4: Concurrent Programming -module(myring). random The random module. The allocate/2 and deallocate/2 functions are local to the frequency module. with the pivot between them. as the data needed is available through the protected ETS tables. Port. world! ok 4> io:format("the sum of ~w is ~w.976. But before looking at these libraries. Options) 266 | Chapter 12: OTP Behaviors gen_server:start_link(CallBackModule. You turn on the trace on these processes. Because the net_kernel is simply another Erlang process.[{Freq. Hint: use lists:seq(1. Second) of true -> NickName = get_nickname(First. remember that Erlang variables are single-assignment: Interface: db:new() db:destroy(Db) db:write(Key. and telephone number. Exercises | 169 Figure 7-1. and a unique method to handle failures. invoked with a reason for termination.3. As a result.First). accepting only the messages that pattern-match correctly.c */ 2 3 #include ) pong =ERROR REPORT==== 7-Sep-2008::12:47:07 === Error in process <0. 310 background. Pos.[chris]] 7> ets:match(countries. Let’s look at a few more examples. a failover occurs. 183 cos/1 function. and would have to rely on higher-level tests that would eventually lead to these calls being made by a worker processes. In production. 53. 24 record comparison. Id). combining the pattern in a common call. you find its primary key and use it to delete the field: delete_usr(CustId) -> F = fun() -> case mnesia:index_read(usr. Conditional macro definitions such as these need to be properly nested.0>] 3> i(). 'Robert'.{4. status() Also has two elements.but what alternative is there? The Erlang model for concurrency—separate processes with no shared memory communicating via message passing—naturally transfers to multicore processors in a way that is largely transparent to the programmer. 125 threads versus. 356 tracer process and. To illustrate match in operation..024. is made easy in Erlang: 5> Frame = <<1. This BIF. Recent work led by Dan Gudmundsson and Mats-Ola Persson has given us wxWidgets for Erlang. you are right. You run your test. 182 stick_dir function. this was an urban legend among Ericsson programmers long before Erlang was released as open source. 13 loop(). 249 monitor/2 function. -import(serial.. and spawning a process for each. and I/O Imagine an Erlang node that receives HTTP posts with embedded XML that are parsed through a linked-in driver. Double-clicking the application opens a new window with a view of its supervision tree (see Figure 12-4).1235. Which paradigm do they come from? Are the languages functional. Assuming the services using the database described earlier are written in Erlang.” since it more closely resembles creation of the database itself. The mapping between Erlang types of atoms. For example. Pid} and to return the message M to the Pid. Ericsson has gone on to use Erlang on other projects across the company.6. status=enabled.0>. X} = {1. check out the manual page for the compile module.0>} 2> dbg:p(all. 378 Boolean operators atom support.{chris. 216 | Chapter 10: ETS and Dets Tables named_table The name of the table is statically registered. use display(Data). ets:insert(myTable. you close the socket. B.[]. {delete_usr. {keypos.[{crash.1).wait_io_mon_reply. These higher-order functions allow you to hide the recursive pattern in the function call to the lists module while isolating all side effects and operations on the list elements in a fun. Assume that we have created and populated the ordered set table in the index example. just type q() followed by a full stop. ok (switch@Vaio)11> usr:add_usr(700000003. . Erlang has a wide variety of built-in functions. If a runtime error occurs in process A.nonode@nohost. Its return value is ignored."Williams". and maintain. -setcookie Cookie This flag sets the cookie value for the node to Cookie. McErlang.3. In records.. • The OtpConnection class provides a higher-level mechanism for RPC.. To debug macro definitions. catch expression.'$3'. X. 378 bor operator. as it is a local variable that has not been shared with anybody.true}. Args} -> NewState = apply(Mod.[]. CustId. this will allow the second process to start executing.quviq.T2}) -> TTL1 = treeToList(T1). enable(BladeId) end. [X*2|Buffer]). The tuple. Group leaders can be reassigned during runtime. Handler:terminate(Data)}|terminate(Rest)]. 210. Pid. Introducing Mnesia .java ‡ The Turing test was proposed by mathematician and computing pioneer Alan Turing (1912–1954) as a test of machine intelligence.100. badmonth}."usrDb"} 6> application:stop(usr). When dealing with concurrency. he can see whether it behaves as it ought to. Transactions As many concurrent processes. If month/1 is called with an incorrect atom. The format of this is catch expression. which returns the identifier of the node where it is called. and the collections can be of any size. or erlang:read_timer/1. and that transactions running in parallel will not interfere with each other. you should use the dbg tracer with extreme care. Size} Can be used if packets are being received as binaries. the application callback module is relatively simple. Shell got {trace. permanent. For example. • Monitor the average time taken for acknowledgments to be received over a sliding one-second send window. {recv_avg. and they include the following: any() Includes all Erlang data values (as does its synonym.splits(Xs) ] ].. . we follow this by looking at the match specifications themselves. when the module was introduced into the system (@since).erlang. an arithmetical operation. Had we not set the path in the shell. You do this by encapsulating the operations in a fun and executing them in a transaction.emu. and as a result. They provide generic access to the sockets as well as useful library functions. . described in Chapter 9. Perhaps this was true in the early days of the language.111. as well as for trace nodes. and the same values as the old tuple in the other positions. test your changes to see whether they still allow individual clients to allocate more than one frequency at a time.. The 'and'. . calls to modules that have not been loaded result in a runtime error. 78 functionality. a growing number of fully fledged IDEs support Erlang: • According to a recent survey of Erlang users. Documentation with EDoc | 409 =. andalso. the manipulation of trace flags. 0:4. It returns a tuple containing the mega seconds. Deadlocks are extremely rare in Erlang.000 subscribers in all three tables. We’ll save the corrections to the db module. Id. Node} -> {error. Count) -> Count. foldr(F. LoopData)}. including EPSRC and the European Framework programme. If your server crashes because of a runtime error. 75 list_to_tuple/1 function. false 3> not((1<3) xor (2==2)). workarounds. Among the modules that contain built-in functions are ets and lists.978. but without access to a DNS server.‡ By calling the BIF process_flag(priority. and 7 show how generators and guards are used to give more complex results. First. We cover common mistakes and inefficiencies and look at memory handling and profiling.Age. 5.0. • Beyond simple testing. Pid) -> Pid ! ok. 5. and how you’ve set up your supervision strategy. loop(start_children(ChildSpecList)). especially when mixing floats and integers or dealing with floating-point division. For example. Month.5. F. The only difference is that compiler warnings are generated if the value of the normal variable is never used. io_handler). which provides formatted output. Figure 4-5.nonode@nohost. _State -> stop(BladeId) end. and Erlang has all the support you need to get a prototype up and running quickly. RecType). 181 code server. {error. The options include hitting a breakpoint in the code. Port Number} if it is running on a different machine. and permanent processes are always restarted. “A Roadmap for Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) Specification Documents. status=enabled}} -> lists:member(Service.. 382 fun2ms/1 function. -include_lib("eunit/include/eunit. wxFrame:show(Frame). 119. so that the word Erlang might have the following entry: { "Erlang". 171 dbg tracer.$W. 362–365 typical scenarios. {error. the body of the following clause is evaluated: expressioni1. where the port is closed and an EXIT signal is sent to the connected process. The first is used for operation and maintenance purposes to start and stop the server. The call wait_for_tables/2 is called independently of starting Mnesia by the process which needs the tables. or months. any process spawned by the child process will also inherit all of the flags of the child. #Fun> 2> binary_to_list(Bin1). Java.'$2']. Reason. let’s get to the optimization this enables. trunc/1. we’ll discuss how these operations are used in practice. this section shows how you can extract elements from a table by pattern matching. ** exception error: bad argument in an arithmetic expression in operator '/'/2 called as 1 / 0 9> self().2/priv/OtpErlang. When we have declared functions and other definitions. 426 interlanguage working C nodes.2. and the documentation there describes every function exported by the module. which will require some careful thought.com). 68 S safe_fixtable/2 function. . the effect is as follows: 4> c(modtest2). Hint: use the self() BIF in the allocate and deallocate functions called by the client. ok 4> gen_udp:close(Socket). #Fun ok | {error. the data in the Db variables of the shell) was not affected by the upgrade and was still available after loading the new module. 300 writing objects. you will not be able to access the file using its static table name. and then instrument it with logging using an event handler process.987. Comparing Erlang to C++ Most experienced Erlang programmers will confirm that the Erlang programs they have written are substantially shorter than their counterparts in other mainstream programming languages used by the industry. If the TraceFlags argument is omitted. resulting in the child processes. 143. #capital. (<0. . format. []). The first command in the foo node spawns the dist:s/0 process. returning {ok.Z>" can also be used. 226 tab2list function. and IM client/server connections. This is a good (but not entirely secure) way to ensure that the message you receive is. the first message to arrive at the process Pid3 will be processed. LoopData} handle_msg({send_event. Cmd}."/Users/Francesco/database/db. the nouse_stdio option is available. We are using dbg:fun2ms/1 to turn an anonymous fun into a match specification. 367 tracing. error 9> exception:try_wildcard(1).104. When a clause is matched. {ok. which takes the first element in the ETS table and processes it. where Alias is an atom and Pid is the process identifier.sweden}] In this example. at this point the C executable should be called . usr_db:delete_disabled(). and it will occur regardless of the task the process has been assigned to perform. these denote “don’t care” variables. Pid ! started. and not just any message consisting of a tuple with two elements sent by another process. Node} will be sent to the monitoring process: remote_call(Message. receive {Port. retrieve. disable_trace(TraceFlag) Disables a TraceFlag on the particular process that triggered the match specification. Let’s look at some examples in the shell: 1> List = [1. Exported functions in the my_db. We will tell you more about it in just a second. As the process is linked to its parent. LoopData) -> {noreply. a conservative value set to allow massive concurrency. . 7.. Be careful with timeouts. 181. true 5> {2. it will certainly reduce the number of them and will make your system more predictable. as determining the contents of the process dictionary after the process has crashed will be very difficult. 322 | Chapter 14: GUI Programming with wxErlang CHAPTER 15 Socket Programming Although distributed Erlang might be a first step in allowing programs on remote machines to communicate with each other. with the exception of your Mnesia operations.ok} (<0. 251 hidden. 342 erl_format function. use: OtpMbox mbox = bar. &emsg;). Instead. 4 defensive programming. part of the OTP middleware. If repair is needed. 332 get_data function. reply({From. When dealing with large tables containing millions of rows. 252 distributed programming chapter exercises. get_request(Socket.#Ref<0. set_status/2. which transforms an exp into a sequence of code for a stack machine to evaluate the exp • A simulator which will implement expressions for the stack machine • A simplifier. which explain why you may want to adopt Erlang in one of your projects.{2008. and it is the “else” value otherwise. binary. In this chapter. we should also be able to look it up. 'Virding'}. 112–114 defined. 328. erl_eterm. Testing the program shows that it takes 0.receive_loop end end The working part of this program is the receive method: on receipt of a message f this is matched with {fac.. Reply. this is the third argument of a three-argument constructor. The call to the helper function. • The last chapter. an SNMP agent.* Start a listener socket on that port. 102 | Chapter 4: Concurrent Programming echo ! {self(). 10 A fun is a function. and one managing a database.6}. Erlang is the perfect fit for multicore processors. case. fun (_) -> ?cmd("rm UsrTabFile") end. Event}. whereas false will return the tuple {error. it is evident that no change has occurred. 54 application module stop function. spawn(db_server. sleep/1. 3}}} }]. If you can 302 | Chapter 13: Introducing Mnesia guarantee the consistency. {disable_trace. update_usr(Usr). "5. usr_db:delete_disabled().17. Let’s take an example call to the area function: area({circle."Italy"].41. For example. The full details of all data type correspondences are given in the overview section of the wxErlang documentation.. In the main loop.] is 8. 20. 360.0>) << timeout ok Using dbg:c/3 is ideal if you want to monitor memory usage and time spent garbage collecting in a particular function.$o. A good design of a system based on client/server principles is often enough to guarantee that your application will be deadlock-free. A simplistic explanation of what is happening behind the scenes is evident in our mobile subscriber Configuring Mnesia | 297 database backend module using ETS and Dets tables. the binary representation of 21. . returning integers as results.. We want to create a module that exports two functions: create/0. all record definitions in the module moduleName are loaded. is discussed at https://doi.4}. true} Will result in the socket immediately sending the package. 201 .. The specification body will contain imperative commands that result in side effects manifesting themselves as printouts. or if you do not have access to the module in which you’ve defined the record. a common theme we have come across is the use of processes. you must also be able to implement them and know they work. note how in the head section of the match specification we pass in '_'. that is. Therefore. Håkan Mattsson eventually took over and brought Mnesia to the next level. NewLoopData}. and scalable systems with requirements for high availability is not for the faint of heart. size). and second. . Spend some time browsing their manual pages and experiment with them in the shell: array The array module contains an abstract data type for functional. don’t add the handle_info/2 call. ok). also commonly found in functional programming languages. 11 is the length of the whole representation. Deadlocks are extremely rare in Erlang as a direct result of the way in which programs are structured. processes will be using this function to interact with each other. 335–337 port programs.{saved. What is the result? Expressions such as [1|2] and [1. . Once in the directory. {{slot. where gamma is a hidden node. you can also add directories when starting the Erlang shell Behind the Scenes | 181 by passing the erl –pa Path or erl –pz Path directive to the erl command to add the directory at the beginning (a) or end (z) of the path. as all that counts in this example is whether a person is coming. . 208.† is used to check the validity of –spec annotations. If this is Guardi. is that they make the code clear yet efficient. {hd. Common mistakes often made by beginners include: • • • • • • • • • • • • Functions that span many pages Deeply nested if. the number of initial reductions depends on the number of scheduler threads. when we are in fact matching against an empty list. Allocated}. 96 split function. you will most likely get the shell to hang in a receive clause that will not match.ant] ._} to trap the exit message from the loop() process: -module(add_two). 267 manipulating applications. delete(Key) -> db_server ! {delete. where the first element is the atom name. formatted as a string and stored as a binary. Nodes with long names can communicate only with other nodes with long names. '$1'.. Transmission Control Protocol | 327 Figure 15-2.[]) -> ok. 139–148 FSM model. . Developing your own Erlang programming style might take years. . 97–99 Bray. Sets and bags are useful in modeling as well as in programming. [MegaSec. [usr. TraceFlag} Disables the TraceFlag. F. Often. and decoded on receipt. This call returns the tuple {error. destroying the window and all the widgets associated with it. exception error: no match of right hand side value 10 f(A). the first (and oldest) message in the mailbox is pattern-matched against each pattern in the receive expression in turn: 94 | Chapter 4: Concurrent Programming • If a successful match occurs. .0>>.{error. this means there can be only one entry for a particular word on a particular line. The second is a description string. It is easy to see why a language such as Java. event=#wxCommand{type=command_menu_selected}} -> . Pid) -> case lists:keysearch(Pid. Sum.sol. The visualizer allows the contents of the table to be edited. based on the number of arguments it is called with.~s. From your end. . Or. will be allowed to access the file server. Whatever approach you use. and Chill. you can trace all the messages that are sent and received. The following queue module: -module(q). a list of the tables is shown. all documented in the compile library module. [{joern. {test. In Erlang. {M. we picked '_'.eval_exprs. the GUI provides these operations on the blog: New Creates a new. Name. it is possible to link to the server process. close_tables() -> .1235. Running the call in the shell or a recursive function that dispatches the sequence numbers would give you something like this: 24> SeqFun0 = sequence:next(0).3}]}}} 5> exception:try_return(0). "/usr/local/lib/erlang/lib/xmerl-1. process linking. Functions and Pattern Matching over Records Using pattern matching over records it is possible to extract field values and to affect the control flow of computation. . and encode the packet meant that if thousands of packets were received simultaneously. {shell. @type status() = enabled | disabled. {ok. If the pattern match is successful. []). []). or if the event requires some action to be taken. and stopped as one unit. Functional data types in Erlang are called funs. End). [{packet. 1). and System Information In the chapters dealing with concurrency. Exercises wxWidgets is a large and complex GUI toolkit. 355–357 transaction function. . . and they allow you to express all combinations covered in the other variants. Message}. 2 characters Erlang type notation. 440 test-generating. . Missing one tuple will cause a runtime error. • When a new version is loaded. However. Trace BIFs. is_boolean. whether your background is in C/CC++. . generating error reports for every one of them is not the way to go. From} -> reply(From. {shell.["one"]}. it returns the tuple {reply. and will succeed only if the corresponding value is 1. dtp. where possible. Pattern2 [when Guard2] -> ExpressionBody2 catch [Class1:]ExceptionPattern1 [when ExceptionGuardSeq1] -> ExceptionBody1. if you are interested in printing or returning all of the arguments. security is based on secret cookies with very few restrictions on access rights. Distribution.first. and the O’Reilly logo are registered trademarks of O’Reilly Media. 54 floating-point division operator. FileName}.. [{type. 26 . An Erlang port. 118–124 concurrent programming case study. Do not try to predict what will happen to your code after it has gone into production. loop(State) -> receive {request. Function. cabinet_open}). -export([wait/0. and Mod:typename() in another. research.erl"}]}] 8> c(db). and registration. If you are wondering what the description Applications | 281 string in the preceding example means.5}. which allows Perl code to communicate with Erlang through a port. . we feel our approach has weathered the test of time. bad_day}}). } where the field updates can occur in any order. depending on how many arguments the BIF requires. which supports indentation and syntax highlighting. terminating it once you’re done. This exception is intercepted by try . p(Item. Message}.<0. Lightweight Processes Versus Threads Erlang processes are lightweight processes whose creation. just like with UDP. Db) -> gb_trees:delete(Key. {francesco. the head obviously does not match what we are looking for.0> =ERROR REPORT==== 29-Feb-2008::21:48:29 === Error in process <0. meaning “is an element of. resulting in the variable Radius being bound to the integer 2. and add an extra function called code_upgrade/1. which should enable you to handle the vast majority of cases you come across. allowing you to read and write strings to I/O devices... that the soft real-time properties of these systems are not affected. Sender.1}.10. map(Fun. This function is partial. 362 running flag. your code will be fast enough. Now. Reason is an atom describing the error type—here it’s a badarg—whereas Stack is the function call stack. reusing variables. 264 Mnesia database.{102. each occupying a single line. the new one should also be empty.. id) of [] -> {error. 117. '_'}].55. and return values. as they affect ATM traffic. parameters.$o. B. In the following example.3]. it is much better to use a link or a monitor. Another common list operation is to filter out elements with a particular property— for example. Size is an integer denoting the size of the heap (in words) allocated when spawning the process. functions. [francesco.splits(Ps) ]. If you turn on too many trace events in a busy system. which together cover the concurrent aspects of Erlang. operations have to be fast. 9] should return [1. If the user picked an entry in one of the menus. -10 5> bnot (bnot 9). In our Mnesia version of the usr example.#Fun fun (Y) -> X*Y end. 66 | Chapter 3: Sequential Erlang This helper function takes two accumulators.e. together with diagnoses of the potential causes. because the next time you might come across them. Cleanup(X) is performed. 6 soft real-time properties. .]). if you are dealing with large data sets and memory does become an issue.{file_size. the link will be switched to the new version. If you start Mnesia without a schema. enter the releases directory. _State -> ok end. we also describe how Erlang came to be the way it is..2}. is_float.3}]}}} You can use wildcards in your try .0) ! hello. such as the Amazon.beam file. LoopData) of false -> {{error. [{caption. 413 infrastructure. checkpoints. The difference between a variable and a wildcard is that the values matched to a variable are reported in the results. it can be caught. the conclusion was that these load results might not be relevant and are certainly unfair to the C++ implementation. {caller} Returns the calling function in the format {Module. Figure 1-1. Exercise 19-5: Devising Tests for OTP Behaviors Devise EUnit tests for the solutions to the exercises in Chapter 12. are implemented in the math library module. -define(SAVE. or you might have abstracted a design pattern and implemented your own behavior. to do. fromp.[2. and you will notice a column headed Reds.d. 5 364 | Chapter 17: Trace BIFs.39.102] } Write a function that will print this in a readable form. fetch([]) -> {error. as is all file-related I/O. {ok. flags. . which also pattern-matches the message in its receive statement and binds the value of PidA to the variable Pid. . But before doing so. Act II Extracting Table Information: match Extracting Table Information: select Other Operations on Tables Records and ETS Tables Visualizing Tables Dets Tables A Mobile Subscriber Database Example The Database Backend Operations The Database Server Exercises 213 214 216 217 218 220 222 223 225 226 226 228 229 231 232 237 242 11.T1. How are they implemented in practice? Children can be started either in the initialization phase of the supervisor. Generating Specifications Using fun2ms Remember the bug we described in the beginning of the chapter? The one where we corrupted the ETS table with the tuple {error. We have put this function in a separate export clause to distinguish it from the client functions. the graphical objects. and that it might reside on a remote computer.4].inets. If the child is transient. to type case clauses directly in the Erlang shell. 284. as we are not doing anything with the values of the arguments in the conditions or body. blog entries. inet:getaddr(Host. If you know other processes will be executing destructive calls to the ETS table while you are traversing it using ets:first/1 and ets:next/2. {_.erl module. '_'. where the Options argument is a list of key value tuples. started.7. 211. C|D] = [1. if their names are different. handling their messages in the handle_info/2 callback. Remember. {ok.98}. In this chapter. {named_table. Let’s start by taking two functions from our service API.org.phone}). atom()}).{alison.30. It could be a user typing in a form or choosing a menu entry.. you should have spotted the recurring theme—processes that handle very different tasks do so in similar ways. . true -> equal end Erlang novices.?SAVE. . Next. A frequency server Figure 5-4. {shell. and Process Starvation The Process Manager Exercises 94 97 100 102 104 106 107 108 110 112 114 115 5.do_apply. 47.. } The Erlang version uses a helper function with an accumulator. In the init/0 function. 180 priv_dir function. the actions taken will differ based on the tasks the process will perform. go() -> register(echo. File: wxMenu:append(File.org/10 . you should place functions such as start and stop and init and terminate next to each other. For instance. and immediately find that the {error. In future versions. Erlang systems consist of a set of loosely coupled applications specified in a release file. mapping them to the listening port of the node that is being connected to. effectively creating a synchronous call. {destroy.116. Flag==false -> F = fun() -> case mnesia:index_read(usr.2] will be bracketed to the right: 7> [1. Reply} -> Reply end. and delete elements in it. 'Mike'. error:_ -> error. ok 9> my_db:write(bob. He described how you could abstract recursive patterns—encapsulating all of the side effects into a fun—and use a higherorder function to traverse the list. optimally using concurrency and without having to worry about the underlying operating system and hardware. <0. StartArgs) -> usr_sup:start_link(). <<5. []). 232 | Chapter 10: ETS and Dets Tables Our first development iteration of the server backend will cover the functionality for opening and closing these tables.2. You may. stop() -> gen_server:cast(?MODULE. and the Reason for its termination. 4}. To make this communication work. Release Handling From our behaviors. where we created three tables: one for the disk copy. 1). [1. it is R12B (see Figure 12-5). unknown_msg} tuple is created in the dp:handle/3 function as a result of the MsgType argument being anything other than the integer 1 or 2: handle_msg(< register(Name. Shell got {udp.ant] .Dict) -> dict(dict:fetch_keys(Dict). For every module. 'bor'. . 9 benchmarking example.three. A typical example here is a web server: if you are planning a new release of a piece of software. 257 supervisor example. 12])] (10 rem 2 == 0) even([11.5"}.228}]. {hd. Example: filter([1.eval_loop. The flag is set to false by default. Using [1. but then every function that calls convert/1 will have to handle the error. all of the new code is highlighted: -module(frequency). 365 send_event function. Suppose you want to write an echo process that indefinitely continues to send back the message it has received (or that does this until you explicitly send it a message to stop). you can forward trace outputs to a socket or a binary file. Binaries and Serialization Sometimes large amounts of structured data have to be transferred between computers or stored. and so they can be created within any text editor..[]. you might want to catch the exception and prevent the thread of execution from terminating. they will be allowed in match conditions. you can see The dbg Tracer | 367 that upon sending a ping message. . ASN. . 0:8. 199 quicksort.[{matched.55. {Id. Arguments). registering it with the name db_server. an experienced Erlang programmer with an academic background. for the result to be a proper or wellformed list.. But if your target system is a high-level. where the session with the remote IM server is being established. 'data types']. we will cover the EUnit system. use {Filename. You should assume the following: • A circle has a radius. C}) -> S = (A + B + C)/2. {pid} Returns the pid of the process executing the match specification. . 439 empty. indicated by the . Name. . do them.erl module and its associated documentation. This will unset the Flag. 44. you replace iterative constructs such as while and for loops with recursive programming techniques. From. Programming concurrent applications in Erlang requires a different strategy for processes. If the guard fails. i++) sum += i. If the function is tail-recursive. terminate(. If. we’ll show how you can write external programs in Ruby and C to communicate with Erlang through ports. sum([]) -> 0. Erlang Type Notation A number of Erlang types are predefined.3]. Pid denotes the process identifier of the top-level supervisor.ok} Within this Mnesia example.. . keeping it alive for as long as the request is being handled. 276. 2009. HandlerList can be empty at startup. calls a function from module B. Head+Sum). integers. This is a variant of the lookup_msisdn/1 call. we will use []. true -> ok end.2. making the creation of processes very efficient while at the same time minimizing their memory 89 footprint. {request.2}<{1.15. . [{harryPotter. 2 iterative versus recursive functions. Make sure you use them everywhere in your code! Global calls. where the data of the wrong type is bound to the variables that are passed to these operations. 352 file function. in a single step. . a great boon for anyone doing real number computations (e. /Users/Francesco/otp/usr. navigation through trees of commands.nonode@nohost. the call to the server can be asynchronous. a reply to send back to the client. the memory heap is divided into the new heap and the old heap. 54 integration overview. Data}. 300 Delicious social bookmarking service. the programmer has to develop the callback module (see Figure 12-2). Selective reception of multiple messages In concurrent systems. london. {ok. kill). which in turn results in the call 1 * factorial(0). ok) end. Hiding this information behind a functional interface has to be done with care. it makes sense to use catch only when you can safely ignore the return value of a function.[]) -> []. and then stays in a nest until a new infant is born. The return value of the function will be the result of the last expression in that clause.. 41 directories adding to search path. You can use the c(Module) shell command. . . 246 erlang. If you are interested in exploring match specifications. we want to store the data in RAM and on disk.0}. restart. as shown in Figure 11-2. In either case. In Mnesia. NewLoopData}.d. author. AckNumber:32. You’ll see how to define functions such as this in the next chapter: 1> lists:max([1. in fact. ~w Writes any term in standard syntax. {person. 'bar@STC'} ! {self(). . Let’s start with the case construct. we mean OTP applications. ..F. and the text control is set so that it cannot be edited directly (we’ve omitted the parts that are unchanged): setup(Frame. . [Head + 1 | Acc]). asynchronous calls commonly return the atom ok. potentially having to search through millions of lines of code.. {Reply. start() -> process_flag(trap_exit. CustId. If we Transactions | 303 distributed the table across the OM and Switch nodes. 55 record support. This results in the termination of all of its children in reverse startup order. It is available as source code from https://github. 321 wxEvtHandler class. It allows you to import functions from other modules and call them locally. Not necessary to the Inets application. such as the following: "Erlang 1-2.2. 163. argp (lines 46 and 47). ["Budapest". we can inspect how the node connectivity has spread to beta and gamma. the pattern matching is successful. if it does.all. Arguments..1]). As only two versions of a module may exist in the runtime system at any one time. If the pattern matching together with the guards uniquely identifies what clause should be selected. 'Armstrong'}. NewDouble = Double * Double Single assignment of variables might feel awkward at first. instance} end. • For this reason.5.do_apply. let alone having to find out in which module the clause receiving the messages is located. 53. You should test the example using the debugger and the process manager. mailing lists. This is implemented by writing a fixture: a test description that allows setup and cleanup. []) -> false. that is the smaller list. loop() end.0> erlang:apply/2 12 0 <0. these restrictions are easier to understand. [].do_apply. Each chapter is accompanied by a set of exercises. the compilation will succeed. 38 pattern matching. we break it up into a head and a tail. 4. . 52. {jamesBond. etc .Time. Manipulating the code search path You can add directories to the code search path by using code:add_patha(Dir) to add a directory to the beginning of the list. return a single value such as true or false. we will use the classes in the next section as well as in the RPC example.” The director of Ericsson’s Next Generation Systems program. should be an 'EXIT' message sent to the shell.102. write). 371 nesting data types.0/ebin. foldl(Fun. For all of these extensions.zebra.atom()}). NewLoopData} or {noreply.12. which offers the promise of more reliable development of linked-in drivers. one of the options we passed into the call was the tuple {index. 370 curly brackets { }. Priority). think of how you would achieve the same effect in C or Java. After being spawned. 331 recv/2 function gen_tcp module.NewAllocated}. 6. and receive. tail-call recursion. 40 462 | Index upgrading. Number} Will fragment the table accordingly. FileOptions). . 378 IT University (Sweden). Wings3D. All of the start and start_link variants return {ok. ok Play special attention to the format of the UDP messages sent to the process that owns the socket. Each of them contributes to making software development in Erlang special.:/usr/local/lib/erlang/lib/ jinterface-1. 3 visualizing tables. Exercises Exercise 2-1: The Shell Type in the following Erlang expressions in the shell and study the results. All details of private data structures should be abstracted out of the interface. which takes place in Stockholm each year (https://www. and initial arguments. protected. this function extracts all of the Upgrading Processes | 183 elements from the dictionary and inserts them in a binary tree. or upon process termination.uk. Upon receiving the stop tuple containing the Reason and LoopData. putting io:format/2 statements in the loop/0 process and sending different messages to it. However. These semantics are no different from the standard Name ! Message construct. N}}). . 355 In a huge and complex system. and memory usage. Int}}) Let’s interact with this module in the Erlang shell: 1> math:add(1.[]. You can use the variables in the fun body. Tail Recursion and Memory Leaks | 109 Replacing asynchronous calls with synchronous ones will reduce the maximum throughput of the system when running under heavy load. or composite data type. 391 duplicate bags Dets tables. 1970. You can retrieve this signal using the flush/0 command. 2) -> Accu. The following directives make this possible: -undef(Flag).sean]. Result) is bound to the return value of the receive clause. 339 overview. 421–426 process considerations. Alternatively. [{lelle.exprs.10) or foo(5. Knowing how it works. 420 regression. Arithmetic operators Type + − * / div rem + − Description Unary + Unary − Multiplication Floating-point division Integer division Integer remainder Addition Subtraction Data type Integer | Float Integer | Float Integer | Float Integer | Float Integer Integer Integer | Float Integer | Float Floats | 17 All mathematical operators are left-associative. MaxSeconds} The restart strategy determines how other children are affected if one of their siblings terminates. .[{exception. Chunk).1. 124 init function. When a process is suspended in a receive clause waiting for an event. let’s write two handlers—one that pretty-prints the events to the shell. . 378 =/= (exactly not equal to) operator. . 300 set_master_nodes function. 294 null function. In the 32-bit representation. making the turnaround time for patches very short when comparing Erlang to other programming languages. and terminates normally. Once the data has entered the runtime system. -export([init/0]).sourceforge. as it is becoming too much to digest in one go. where Pid1!Message returns the message to send to Pid2. and this: fun(X) -> Pid ! X end 192 | Chapter 9: More Data Types and High-Level Constructs is the function that sends its argument as a message to Pid. 97 throw/1 function. =:=. the Distributed Computing in Erlang: The Basics | 253 cookie is changed back to its original value. .0). event=#wxCommand{type=command_menu_selected}} -> Prompt = "Please enter text here. N} -> IndexEntry = {Word. if we were to write it in a few steps using variables. start_link/1.. we add the element to the sum accumulator. terminate(Count) -> {count. node_negative_test() -> ?assertError(badarg. compile your module and include the 'E' option. Mnesia Tables Mnesia tables contain Erlang records. variables defined in only one case or if clause and used outside that clause: unsafe(X) -> case X of one -> Y = true. Use references. In Chapter 5. [{person.org/. foldr(F. In most cases. In the real world. Str. it is best to work by table traversal using first and next. and having completed. and therefore those that are auto-imported and those that are not. this is intrinsically difficult. is bound to the Frequencies variable and passed as an argument to the receive-evaluate function. Odds and ends with fun2ms When generating match specifications using fun2ms. and is now an integral part of the standard release. which will return all the tuples containing that key. Tobias.[{matched. dialogs can also be shown nonmodally. [two. when the 5.114. Looking at our implementation and the manual page for the dict module. []. [named_table. The main differences are in how you spawn your processes. you can read about these BIFs in the documentation that comes with the Erlang distribution. In the first.2"}] The Standard Library and the Kernel are part of the basic Erlang applications and together form the minimal OTP subset when starting the runtime system. 199 pattern matching. We will traverse the mobile subscribers using the first/1 and next/2 calls on the RAM copy of the usrRam table. and the Packet is the content of the message.N-1. which is either a variable or a list of variables. even if they are rare. The status of a customer can be enabled or disabled.0}. palins([X|Xs]) -> case palin(X) of true -> [X| palins(Xs)]. and so arbitrarily large whole numbers can be used in Erlang programming. 96 470 | Index About the Authors Francesco Cesarini is the founder of Erlang Training and Consulting (https://www . which stops the child. which can be set to permanent or transient. receive {reply. Each line is split into words. If you know that the function will always be successful. Int}.[binary. %% Callback Functions init(FileName) -> usr_db:create_tables(FileName).. . it is apparent that it could be implemented by overwriting the information in the arguments—which is held in the stack frame for the original function call—and then jumping to the instructions for the tail-call function: in this case the same function. zipWith(Add. you can verify that this is the case for add_two:start/0. Knowledge of these states is imperative for these functions to be used and debugged. 14 Erlang Driver Toolkit (EDTK).. bump(_) -> {error. as no clause can be selected. where the sequence evaluates to true if any expression evaluates to true. 19 9> 2*2 + −3*3. it is important that you all know that your individual contributions had an influence in making this a better book. Other important issues to keep in mind when doing a software upgrade include nonbackward-compatible modules. as explained earlier. "mycookie". . sms allows the user to send and receive premium-rated SMSs."Mike". for example. but as there are many in the system. integer_to_list/1 Both return strings.. There is also a variant. 167 ?MODULE_STRING macro.{error. ok 2> my_db:write(bob. 337–342 nodes and mailboxes. including complex data structures. the behavior of the scheduler can be changed. ::[service()] This more clearly indicates what the elements of the usr record type should be and how they should be used by programs that manipulate them.simon. []. It has its own scheduler in the virtual machine (VM). {{[]. 271–276 start function. Any process can use this. Fd. 2. Programmers should develop and structure their code as they have always done. . 14 | Chapter 1: Introduction CHAPTER 2 Basic Erlang This chapter is where we start covering the basics of Erlang. 409 regexp module. There are two mechanisms for defining the accept process: • The first option is to spawn a new process which becomes the accept process.do_apply. This greatly helps in finding the cause of errors when the wrong tuple has been mistakenly passed as an argument or returned as a result of a function call. if at all. Note that we’ve omitted the option of passing a filename for the Dets tables. and even select and match. Selective receives with bound variables We call this a selective receive. Handler}). [{shoeSize.. 378 C C language. Start with an expression such as the following: ((2+3)-4) 4 ~((2*3)+(3*4)) which is fully bracketed and where you use a tilde (~) for unary minus. 193 lazy evaluation. To use hostnames such as server. 32 development considerations. . 1 2> 9 bor 17. however. such as a “text entry dialog. {ok. 213 colon (:). Only applications with a supervision tree appear. Type specifiers can be any of the following: A type The valid types are integer. read(Key. By now. in general. When experimenting.18. try working step by step through the following examples. []) -> false. The resources it handles could be a database. 89 distributed systems and. it sets it to passive mode so that subsequent messages have to be retrieved using the recv functions. soft real-time system that will scale in line with demand. On Mac OS X the full path is: /usr/local/lib/erlang/lib/jinterface-1.{stack_size. Note that the process stack of the shell is deeper. which will add a timestamp to all messages. This function will encapsulate the message protocol between the server and its clients. An exception is if you have code of the following form: month('January') -> 1. Sender. we use the function call: timer:tc(Module. .' 9> . The BIF will verify that Term is a tuple. 139–148 exit signals and. incidentally. Acc) -> bump_acc(T. This was. we create a new record of type name. or atoms (such as blah). giving programmers in these languages direct. The init function must initialize the LoopData of the server and has to return a tuple of the format {ok.. which draws and displays the window and its contents. {convert. 4 5 main() -> 6 register(foo. and callback functions such as init/1. which allows Scheme and Erlang programs to communicate. which runs commercial Erlang conferences and whose website. Upon launching it with the appmon:start() call. Flags:8. Your can also redirect your trace output from the window to a file. 158 supervisor specification.$r. Finally. Pid2} Figure 17-1. atom()} Documentation with EDoc | 405 Figure 18-1... The documentation of the wxErlang API in EDoc format is also in the distribution. we need to check through 50% of the elements in a collection to confirm that a given element is present. Module and registered process name conflicts are checked. The timeout mechanism was originally put in place for deadlock prevention purposes.2. the match specification can be given in primitive form. 21. With thousands of generic servers potentially being spawned and terminated every second. File = wxMenu:new(). and sms. .0 user data. 17 A abort function. ok 3> gen_udp:send(Socket.5. as listed in Chapter 2 • Arithmetic expressions built using the arithmetical operators given in Chapter 2 • Boolean expressions as described in Chapter 2 • Guard built-in functions Guard subexpressions resulting in a runtime error are treated as returning false. Håkan Mattsson. you traverse the list only twice: double([X|T]. They are constantly being improved by a competent.do/1]). so each kind of pattern match has a part to play in Erlang. including the set_on_spawn flag itself (see Figure 17-2). so make sure you spend some time getting acquainted with them as well. pop=2400000}). It is used to power services such as MochiBot and MochiAds. 361 inheritance flags. xiii Preface . you need to clean up the system to prepare for any further tests. five]]) ⇒ [1. If the order of the messages is unimportant. 2 and logical operator. MicroSec. A transaction guarantees that the database will be taken from one consistent state to another. the commands and output would look like this: 1> {ok. you never know what to expect. or because of invalid arguments used in the guard operations.1) was being traced. no matter how small. A common pitfall is to use names that are very similar. . You use a –spec statement to specify a type (or prototype) for a function in a program. loop() -> receive {From. {ok. They are mainly used when indexing or using query list comprehensions. 282 sticky. 180.NET. The details of these classes are in the JInterface documentation. double(X) -> ?FUNC?TION. It is not the best way to trace side effects using the set_on_link and set_on_spawn flags. use a list or a tuple. and within the lifetime of a node they are (almost) unique. you will learn about records. and debug. average_acc([].eval_exprs. 215 AXD301 ATM switch. but not exported to others) An internal export (used by the same module in BIFs such as apply/3 and spawn/3) A standard behavior callback function (init.6. age=21.5. Check that everything looks all right: foo@localhost 5> mnesia:info(). Unlike its sister function. loop() -> receive {Pid. R}. This clause returns 3 * factorial(2). Val} 3> catch 3> error:_ -> 43 3> end.468>. 22–27 454 | Index nesting. Once compiled. optimizations in the compiler may well permit efficient implementation of a nontail-recursive function.{abc. we have just scratched the surface of what has today become a vibrant international community spread across 2 | Chapter 1: Introduction six continents. Always ask yourself whether you can rewrite your if clause into a case clause using pattern matching and guards that will avoid pattern matching on the atoms true and false. 40 erl module. One epmd daemon process is started per machine. Lists | 27 Term Comparison Term comparisons in Erlang take two expressions on either side of the comparison operator. contact our corporate/institutional sales department: (800) 998-9938 or corporate@oreilly. . . .12. After a few years of programming in Erlang. Note how. the operators are applied to 17 = 100012 and 9 = 10012. Use record selectors to access a field and pattern matching to access values in more than one field: Stylistic Conventions | 433 Cat = #cat{name = "tobby". These upgrade tools are used in pretty much every Erlang-based system where downtime has to be reduced to a minimum.Age+1. 19 include files and. Incorporating a significant amount of example code from this book into your product’s documentation does require permission. The default unit for bits and bitstring is 1.. If your client sends a synchronous message to your server and you do not get a response within five seconds. . it can be read from a persistent storage medium and duplicated across a cluster of computers for redundancy reasons. your whole team will come to share a common programming style. Functions are grouped together and defined within modules.108.3. such as Pid1!Msg. Example 8-1. 336 library support. Guards and functions allowed in the match body will be translated as is. The sname will name a host on the local network.1145/940880. <<0:1>> = <<42:8>>. and to say in what way it is dirty so that anyone modifying your code has a clear view of the assumptions you made when writing this dirty module.erl %%% Description : API and gen_server code for cellphone user db -export([start_link/0. where you have implemented the process using plain Erlang. It covers which of your tables are stored on RAM. catch. as these flags are used to specify the name (or short name) of the node to be called. Options) In the preceding calls: ServerName Is a tuple of the format {local. we are overwriting the existing table entries. this choice is very application-dependent. Pid} tuple described in the preceding paragraph. . {style. get_request(Socket.0). The same rules as those given in the previous section apply here to variables and literals. processLines(IoDevice. or full stop. Let’s not make that assumption. Status} = get_status(BladeId). and Match Specifications We would use the preceding specification if we were tracing specific operations on boards in slot 1 placed in subrack 3. and the hi message is returned to foo. If your list is of depth one. . do_apply. 369 tracing mechanism additional information. 57. and the third is a list of features. Each graphical entity is a C++ object and belongs to a C++ class. avoid using the timer module. Not only that. The flag is released either by setting the flag back to false. print(Type. List3]) Try to traverse lists only once. Having as small an interface as possible also gives the maintainer of the application greater flexibility. resulting in the variable Board being bound to the integer 151. catch construct than to use catch and throw.32. . 231 show function.Key Field.4])]). io The io library module encapsulates the standard I/O server interface functions. The framework gives a representation of tests of a variety of different kinds. Literal term constructions are translated in order to turn them into valid match specifications.{127. The dbg tool has a small impact on system performance.2f. instance} end.modtest2} 7> modtest2:do(99). Communication between processes Erlang’s Characteristics | 5 Scalable. 144. the ms_transform manual page is probably your best bet. the third field is required to be cook.italy}].111. and it has a lot in common with similar systems such as Haddock (for Haskell). which crashed when severely overloaded. Outside the module.nonode@nohost.[]. Once decoded. .eval_loop. -export([init/1. 4 12> lists:length([1.erl module from Chapter 10 with dirty Mnesia operations.exprs. 180 round/1 function. Sequence diagram for Example 4-1 At this point. . state-of-the-art GUI programming system: wxErlang. Dir}]). 53 setopts function. an event could be a presence update. given a list of lists.2"}. which shows information about the application in a dialog box. 6 | Chapter 1: Introduction The libraries are collectively known as the OTP middleware. Message} Note how we bind the variable Ref to the reference. 0 5> <<5:4/little-signed-integer-unit:4>>. where the newly allocated frequency has been moved from the available list and stored together with the pid in the list of allocated ones. 17. we can now explain that messages in wxErlang take the following form: #wx{id=Id. _ -> Y = 196 end. In the meantime. and Common Test for system testing. a circle. Y <. 'lbs' and 'sms'. sum([Head | Tail]) -> Head + sum(Tail). but will exclude the tracer process and any process spawned after the call. Examples of socket-based communication include communication between web browsers and servers. is_integer/1.0) => sum_acc([3. If you want to generate trace events for the process calling the trace BIF. the “fully qualified” notation fun M:F/N has a special significance for software update. This is done without allocating a new stack frame. using the try . which defines the record name with fields field1. but instead of terminating the clauses with an end. the parent process calling spawn might get suspended right after spawning the process and binding the variable Pid. Testing Concurrent Programs in Erlang | 419 debugTime(Text. This variable is passed to the recursive loop call. net_adm This module contains various useful functions. "Jan-Henry". try copying the preceding code and test it or step through it with pen and paper. based on its configuration. The retrieval and manipulation of these values unfortunately introduces global variables into Erlang. They can be bound to a variable and can be treated just like any other data item: stored in a list. add your element to the end of the nonflat list by using [List. passing the new loop data as an argument. true A common pitfall for beginners is to forget to put the arguments (even if there is just one) into a list when using apply. -spec(add_usr(#usr{}) -> ok). This is useful if you are interested in side effects. 213 handling table elements. thereby resulting in a badmatch: 1> Tuple = {1. and in the comments that follow. '_'} {'_'. it is pretty tedious to encode and decode the data yourself. you will generate more bugs than you think you are solving. 135. would include kernel and stdlib. restarting the whole subtree.N}. returning a list containing the elements of the list generators after the filters have been applied. 287 application resource file. allowing only even values for X. where we do not make the client aware that the server is a process. except that spawn_link/3 does it atomically. pick it up in the tracer fun we have defined ourselves. 378 lookup/2 function.0>.beam file in the same location where you have placed your source code. either a web browser or a word processor. as tracing the source of the error to the place where the value was bound can lead to only one place.[1. an Erlang binding of the wxWidgets system. 226. reply[1] = new OtpErlangLong(Factorial. except the expression is enclosed in a single fun . Octavio Orozio. the result of running echoFac:test() is: 1> echoFac:test(). with an arbitrary identifier (?wxID_ANY) and with the title "MicroBlog". . there is redundant information in that serial form. At the top there are links to the following: Glossary A list of the terminology in common use in the Erlang community. you can see the effect of the change in the following interaction: 1> c(modtest2). 266. The Condition further controls the tracing. We define try_return to catch the errors: try_return(X) when is_integer(X) -> try return_error(X) of Val -> {normal. {ok. Although many languages were developed before finding their niche.send(from. Design an ETS table or tables to contain messages and acknowledgments. When a message is sent. This behavior is explained by a concept called the group leader. It’s a virtual library that lets you easily search thousands of top tech books. 378 now/0 function. Exercise 5-4: Event Statistics Write a stats_handler module that takes the first and second elements of the event tuple {Type. . with the schema—the details regarding which tables the database contains—being created implicitly by subsequent table operations to create tables. we use reference data values for comparisons. 25–27 lazy evaluation and.984. You should also think about how to modify the average function so that it does not return an error on the empty list: average(List) -> average_acc(List. The condition is an orelse. Make sure that deallocating a frequency that has not been allocated does not make the server crash. let’s look at the design of an index for a text document. Repeating all of the tests in the shell every time becomes both time-consuming and error-prone. 217. Here we want to add one for each element of the list. Res} -> monitor_node(Node. 2). “Since cut-over of the first nodes in BT’s network in January 2002 only one minor fault has occurred.. it reduces and simplifies the documentation you 426 | Chapter 20: Style and Efficiency have to produce. 371 ltp function. PhoneNo}). The value. term()} . . If the socket is opened in active mode. however. lookup_id(CustId) -> {ok. return_error. it does not matter whether the values you are matching against are different.. function.. delete_disabled/0. however. even if nothing is stopping you from integrating them in your programs. searching. use references to uniquely identify responses from specific requests: call(Message) -> Ref = make_ref(). math:pi() * Radius * Radius. . Should this happen.ping}} Shell got {trace. You have to wrap it in a catch just in case the process denoted by Pid has terminated before you handle its request. We presented an optimized version of this. and cables that system administrators cannot trip over.erl. Selling or distributing a CD-ROM of examples from O’Reilly books does require permission.you need to start Mnesia on both nodes: foo@localhost 3> application:start(mnesia). Figure 5-1.{old_heap_size. If its pid is also required—perhaps by a remote Erlang node—use the self method on the mailbox: OtpErlangPid pid = mbox.cat.44}.990. Libraries should be collections of related functions. as all I/O functions (including socket operations) in Erlang accept nonflat strings such as ["Hello ". %% Service API lookup_msisdn(PhoneNo) -> usr_db:lookup_msisdn(PhoneNo). contain library modules but do not start the supervision tree. Let’s go through the features individually. 428 | Chapter 20: Style and Efficiency wait_reply(Ref) -> receive {reply.2214643}. CustId. The EUnit Infrastructure In this section. _ -> ok end. person). [f/1]). but was quickly applied in a more generic setting of socket-based communication. Working with Other Languages We cover Java. . In particular. equal to [char+deep_string()]. 202. As the variable String will always match and be bound. self(). reply[0] = ok.chris]] the match specification is a list of 3-tuples. read(Key. 59–70 testing. it is necessary to split them first. io:format("true person:~s~n". you can use size and type qualifications in pattern matching. The process manager window At the time of writing. 43 } else { 44 if (emsg. Name}. The use of FileName here is optional. Soon after Erlang was released as open source.. {named_table. 2. You do this with the ets:match/2 function and the more general ets:select function. 249 not equal to (/=) operator. . . When you compile it. a header file needs to be included: -include_lib("stdlib/include/ms_transform. and use pattern matching to deconstruct the lists you have built. When starting or restarting the system. -export([new/0. and so this value can be seen as an accumulator. timeout} end. Let your supervisor handle the exit signal and let it decide the recovery strategy consistently with all of the other processes it is supervising.12. you have all of the debug printouts on in the code. The suitability of Erlang for server-side software has its roots in the history of the language. 193 foreign function interface (FFI). the particular dependencies will be based on the nature of the application. Finite State Machines | 127 Figure 5-6. Family). as in ??Call: -define(VALUE(Call). functions that take funs as arguments and apply them to a list. C. 153 start_link/0 function.5}.. The server side has a listener process waiting for a client connection.113037538> 23> lists:foldl(Sum. . • To conclude this part of the book. Update your echo module with the changes we just discussed and try out the new BIFs you have just read about in the shell. If the client does not need a reply. use of this is supported in gen_server. too. but anywhere in a program to check the value of a Boolean expression at that point assertNot(BoolExpr) Is equivalent to assert(not(BoolExpr)) assertMatch(GuardedPattern.hrl").0>) <0. so it is already bound to this value in the pattern part of the receive clause.Error} 4> end. If Flag is set. The Debugger | 81 Figure 3-3. you use dbg:ln().4} two or more times.Y. 403.3]--[1. We mean it! Why should you never use the tuple representation of records? Using the representation breaks data abstraction. usr. it is possible to upgrade a running loop.return_error. Args) At first sight. but you can improve and extend it in a number of ways. . which is then displayed using wxFrame:show before the main processing loop is entered. get_status(BladeId)) † Perhaps even in this book! 424 | Chapter 20: Style and Efficiency Make no assumptions about what the caller will do with the result of a function. The preceding code makes it clear that the function is applied to a person record. When receiving the reply. and then can either handle the crash or choose to crash itself. 328. including a complete grammar tutorial. 13 O object identifiers. but you can easily override this recommendation by adding paths in the code search path used by the code server.4. {ok. surname}).{non_integer. and not simply the function whose call initiated the switch. 215 FSMs (finite state machines) busy state. . but its contents cannot be accessed: its values are ignored and never bound. . . {type. after clause is to suspend a process for a period in milliseconds. The trace message is the first argument and the user-defined Data is the second. we would have used the length/1 BIF rather than redefining the function for ourselves. but with the first socket opened using the following. If. including the parameter name—assuming it is chosen to reflect its purpose— improves the documentation. in mathematical logic from Oxford.99. which we cover in Chapter 13. 82 | Chapter 3: Sequential Erlang Example: sum(1.. A condition that terminates the recursive calls is referred to as a base case.2. 28. Removing the last defensive clause would instead cause a function clause error. this behavior becomes even more non-deterministic.16. 132 add_path function. the remaining ones are not executed.2. You can no longer be absolutely sure that a tail-recursive function will be the fastest in all circumstances.4}] The generators are nested so that in command 10. resulting in yet another trace message. Isn’t the following line of code: Efficiency | 439 List1 ++ List2 ++ List3 more elegant than this? lists:append([List1. giving us the following: len([_ | Tail]) -> 1 + len(Tail). _OperState) -> {error. 2 University of Kent. .?Punctuation) of {ok. Figure 6-9.org/doc/ and download to your computer when you download Erlang—can be a bit overwhelming at first.5}. 77 EDoc documentation. 23. macros. as the right subtree is given by whatever remains. request(Int) -> add_one ! {request. . . The first benchmarks on the code. Receiving Messages | 97 Figure 4-4.). What unites the two is the need for efficient filtering with low overheads that do not affect the real-time properties of the system. and Match Specifications Any respectable programming language that has deployments consisting of millions of lines of code running in thousands of installations worldwide must provide built-in low-level tracing mechanisms on which to build tools that can be used for live troubleshooting. X=/=3. 57 time module. built around behaviors. case Rec1 of {person. [. This gives the result [2. If the first element of the list is even. Contrast this with a programming language in which it is possible to process messages only in the order in which they arrive: the code for this would have to deal with the possibility of bar preceding foo and of foo preceding bar. For each call to a function. Fd} = file:open(File. 16 9> ets:insert(TabId2. 419 macro support. Length. 69 spawning processes. 101 4> c(modtest2). {size. showPerson({person. a mini tutorial (under Erlang Programming) The Erlang reference manual (under Erlang Programming) The FAQs at https://www. List) Takes a two-argument function. we have matched on byte boundaries. header. 346 code module add_path function. and System Information Input and Output Recursion Tail-Recursive Functions Tail-Call Recursion Optimization Iterations Versus Recursive Functions Runtime Errors Handling Errors Using try .do_apply. you can trace state transfers of the module. ."South Africa"]] 8> ets:match_object(countries. 180 code. the list can be represented as [1|[2. 405 fill/0 function. Erlang distribution is built into the language. Building an index What type of ETS table should you use to store the word occurrence information? • If the index is simply used to look up particular words. Second) of true -> Y = atom_to_list(First) ++ [$ |atom_to_list(Second)] ++ [$ |get_nickname(First."weds"}}. node_test() -> ?assertEqual(tree1() . the owner of the remote node gains the same user access rights as the account on which your local Erlang node is running. • The result of this call is stored in a list of the format {Handler. 1.1}.unknown_msg}}) ({dp. . 1234.ireland. Compare and contrast the two solutions. the message {nodedown. and in particular. call(Message) -> frequency ! {request.kent. Their conclusion was that although many of the languages had interesting and relevant features. Depending on the server load and the size of the database. where you can assume that the triangle is described by the lengths of its three sides. the child process responds to the message by sending a pong message back. 129 mutex semaphore. As previously shown.2. where logical checks are done in the usr module. 252 net_kernel module connect function. 206 multiple. Someone trying to understand it may at first glance believe sqrt/1 is a local function and unsuccessfully search for it in the module. 4 integration. A new listener process is spawned and waits for the next connection request. If the apply/3 call creating the child was successful and the function returned {ok. Note that the fun has to be a literal function. .Database. it does not matter whether process A linked to process B or B to A. Size is an integer between the default value of 0 and 1. The help functions for retrieving and manipulating these calls include the following: dbg:ltp() Recalls all match specifications used in the session 390 | Chapter 17: Trace BIFs. and whether a function is deprecated (@deprecated). ok (switch@Vaio)16> mnesia:transaction(fun() -> mnesia:index_read(usr.ireland. 154 MySQL database. You can use its name if it has been assigned to a variable: 1> Bump = fun(Int) -> Int + 1 end. And don’t forget. as a device driver would be. . the area is calculated using Heron’s formula where math:sqrt/1 is used to give the square root of a float. erlang:demonitor(Reference.5. 298 enumeration types (see atoms) environment variables. If you do not use it.expr. Headings can be generated automatically from ==Heading==. and call the upgrade client function. There is no need to allocate or deallocate them. Each of these can themselves be used as arguments to foreach. A Case Study on Concurrency-Oriented Programming When on consulting assignments around the world working with developers coming from a C++ and Java background who have learned Erlang on their own. try (X=3) of Val -> {normal. [[sean]. because it’s better to reuse code if you can.0>. average_acc([H | T]. 258 handle function. Message}. orelse Relational operators >. include the {tracer. 55 erl_free_term(fromp). %% Service API lookup_msisdn(PhoneNo) -> usr_db:lookup_msisdn(PhoneNo). We introduced the concept of callback modules in Chapter 5. . net_adm:ping('bar@STC'). 1 4> Tail. unknown_msg}}]) -> true end). []). true 2> frequency:allocate(). {ok.francesco]}. handle_msg/2. do not worry about references.0> Process Links and Exit Signals | 141 So far. X <. Library applications such as the Standard Library. both within the square brackets. and function patterns will result in all traced nodes being affected. Simple Macros The simplest macro can be used to define a constant. start. The following actions can be executed in the match specification body: {message. . and part of the standard Erlang distribution.Phone}. and when we do a call to module_info/1. where the description part of the documentation gives an index for the functions divided according to function. Using f() forgets all variable bindings. format. but nothing is stopping us from creating the tuple directly in the loop/1 call. . you could use an unordered structure.. and formats it accordingly. you must have picked the name of a module residing in the kernel. you might want to let it fail and for some other part of the system deal with recovery: this latter option. you call the exit BIF using exit(Pid. admin_disabled}. The implementation was done by good C++ programmers who based their development work on proprietary Motorola libraries.2). get_tracer. In the following example..0>. A2) -> foo(A1. so comparing it to the atom def will fail because the values differ. • The storing of the process state might be generic.0>. 3]) => 2 + sum([3]) sum([3]) => 3 + sum([]) sum([]) => 0 3 + 0 => 3 3 <= 2 + 3 => 5 5 <= 1 + 5 => 6 6 <= len([1. 378 comparison. The aggregation of the flags is atomic. Pay special attention to how message passing and the message protocol have been abstracted to a format independent of the action relating to the message itself.erlang. You need either to bind the process identifiers to a variable when BIFs such as self and spawn return them. Erlang allows simple logical combinations of guards to be written in a different way: • Separating individual guard expressions with a comma (. <<1. they are also allowed as arguments to conditional expressions. Functional Testing.25}]} 3> dbg:tp({io. To do so. Tinder. 106 sync function.nonode@nohost. =< (less than or equal to). You should however avoid it in your code. Mnesia events. Testing State-Based Systems To explain this topic. sending off an alarm in the form of an SMS. whereas when working with lists. and will usually have a meaning in the program that uses it.san_francisco} 10> db:read(martin.erl:200: Call to missing or unexported function re:compile/2 re. all those manipulating a particular ETS table—are contained in a single library module. These clauses are similar to case clauses.8]. and the remaining two contain expressions whose result is compared. By default.[{exception. generating the ETS and index mapping table entries which are stored in memory. and which is included in the standard Erlang distribution..3. {error.dict} 13> db:module_info(). is most important for functions that run forever: these will form the bodies of concurrent processes.age = 21. {raise_alarm. 210 EDoc support.'$1'. 196 any function. . [1. you should never allow processes that are not part of a supervision tree. . @todo Used to indicate “to do” notes.0>. and describes the module name. As gen_fsm is a standard OTP behavior. processes come and go and millions of entries are inserted and deleted from ETS tables each hour.A2) end. 12]) => [10 | even([11. based on general balanced trees. CStr = pad(integer_to_list(CInt)). Packet}} is returned. the process manager. The monitor BIF behaves differently. You should try to reduce intermodule dependencies as much as you can. You have the ability to create more disparate networks of distributed Erlang nodes using gateways. the first to be read sequentially and the second can be read concurrently (or sequentially in whatever order you like). in a small program. enabled -> disable(BladeId). -delay_accept and –delay_write Are used in testing environments to simulate busy servers and network congestion. plan = prepay.1}]} 10> ping:send(Pid)."2.. listToTree([M|Rest] = Code) -> {Code1. 255 functionality. but only once. If List does not contain a list. {const. 370 ctpg function. the internal record representation might change in future releases of Erlang. a similar lookup is required to ensure that you have a data package subscription. resulting in large mailbox queues. set_status(CustId. Test your programs with a tail-recursive function and a non-tail-recursive function. which returns the pid associated with the Alias. Look at the example in the section “Generating Specifications Using fun2ms” on page 375. These functions are all generic in that they can be used over any kind of tuple. Wednesday]. 396 floats. and you test them.exprs. country. Published by O’Reilly Media. Id. every character consists of four bytes. URG:1. loop(). that changes are persistent and atomic across all nodes. As you can see in command 4 of the preceding example. .createMbox("facserver"). but bracketing things properly in command 10. math All of the standard mathematical functions.g. Sum) -> sum_acc(Tail. but where does the atom stop come from? It is the value returned as the result of calling echo:go/0. as we will cover them in Chapter 3. {error. the OTP framework was developed and released in 1996. This is illustrated in Figure 2-1. You have to think about real-time efficiency from the start. Frequency) and the deallocate function moves the Frequency from the allocated list to the deallocated one. When changing the subscriber status or services.erl Checking whether the PLT /Users/simonthompson/. . ["rm -rf *"]) might find it funny.2. A crash or a memory leak in your linked-in driver will result in the Erlang VM crashing. Double-clicking any of the processes will open a trace output window.113037538>}] y(3) {value. Under this option. but will still be accessible on exit from the fun. ??? 12> ets:match(countries. Loading modules The dynamic loading of code in Erlang will be triggered as a result of a call to a module that is not loaded. The BIF group_leader() returns the process identifier of the group leader of the calling pid while the call group_leader(Lead erPid. and ensure that bump/1 returns a well-formed list that can be the tail of the new list we just created. [22. ..echo} 2> echo:go(). Interaction To interact with the running Java node. atom()}). 411–420 test/0 function. search. their feet are pale brown and have hairs that bristle.0>) call io:format("Hello~n". The mechanism underlying the binary communication depends on the operating 346 | Chapter 16: Interfacing Erlang with Other Programming Languages Figure 16-1. 355 Introduction The Trace BIFs Process Trace Flags Inheritance Flags Garbage Collection and Timestamps Tracing Calls with the trace_pattern BIF The dbg Tracer Getting Started with dbg Tracing and Profiling Functions Tracing Local and Global Function Calls Distributed Environments Redirecting the Output Match Specifications: The fun Syntax Generating Specifications Using fun2ms Difference Between ets and dbg Match Specifications Match Specifications: The Nuts and Bolts 355 357 358 360 361 362 365 366 369 369 371 371 374 375 382 383 Table of Contents | ix The Head Conditions The Specification Body Saving Match Specifications Further Reading Exercises 383 384 387 390 391 392 18. but you can be sure of it only when you exercise or interact with your program in some way. The case Construct The case construct relies on pattern matching to choose what code to evaluate.phone = 5697} 6> rd(name. and underground fungi. {'=:='. . 10.. []) when is_function(F. printing terms. '>='. the communication primitives are highlighted: -module(echoFac).7. we supply the original list as well as an empty list. as a constant literal. The function call ets:new(myTable. {ok. As a result.2. and IIOP. backups. [2. 375 dropwhile function. In large projects. modify.cookie file on either host. . The definition of prettyEntry is left as an exercise (see Exercise 10-1 at the end of this chapter for hints on how to do this). 1 The 1>.101. We appreciate. .tester}] 14> NewTab = ets:match_delete(countries. Making the shell crash will automatically result in a new shell process— in this example with pid <0. since the user of a module needs to understand only the exported functions. {ok. we cover a variety of different topics largely independent of each other.local)3> erlang:is_alive(). 404 fully qualified function calls. {stop. loop(Db) -> receive {write. it calls the function mutex:signal(). monitor their children. {B}} = {abc. using the same quicksort example included in this book.113037538>}] y(1) [] y(2) none 0x01473460 Return addr 0x01b0ec40 (shell:eval_exprs/6 + 80) y(0) [] y(1) [] y(2) [{'DbgFun'. 225.[1. the function returns false: -module(examples). but for those who need to harness the full power of the trace BIFs. 131–137 implementing. as shown earlier. . regardless of how they are sent. PhoneNo}).cook. We will cover abnormal process terminations in more detail in the next chapter. sum_acc(_I.status = enabled. or Berkeley DB. revisiting a similar type of problem and.2.{stack_size. Keep in mind that atoms are not garbage-collected. 370 ctpg function. . and stop.3. Problems in concurrent programs may also arise as a result of synchronous message passing.0>} 5> dbg:p(Pid.2.. yet also communicate with Erlang nodes. and inspect the event handlers. publisher. where the About menu item appears in the Help menu. but also to convert the basic types to and from a printable representation (i. where int() is replaced by an integer of the format '0' or '1'.$ .27. .fieldName where the name and fieldName cannot be variables and RecordExp is an expression denoting a record.980.. To} {trace. For example.) -> .21848437> 2> dbg:tracer(port. It stores the elements in RAM and spools them to file either when you call dets:sync(Name) or when you close the table.{2.erl. 52. if local and global function calls are made in the fun body. . among others. [debug_info]). Msg) -> Name ! {request."Welcome to wxErlang"). First. plan = prepay. A test generator returns a representation of a set of tests to be executed by EUnit. Because Erlang is a single assignment language. use_stdio. the following code compares functions to double all elements of a numeric list and to reverse every list in a list of lists: 190 | Chapter 9: More Data Types and High-Level Constructs doubleAll([]) -> []. style guidelines are often given to you.#usr{msisdn = 700000001. where the first element is one of the operators '>'. "Pretoria"). . 378 not logical operator. The client/server model When implementing client/server behavior. delete_disabled/0. Can you spot the process that is running as the error logger? 2> processes().. usr)}. references are allocated to be integers starting at 0. Now we’ll explain the software upgrade process. Let’s rewrite the factorial example from Chapter 2: factorial(0) -> 1. . setting Bool to true will trigger the repair automatically. Although this problem is not directly related to any distributed transactional database or to Mnesia in particular. We intersect them with all local function calls in the module ping. '$3. but unlike in the head. whose first argument. {trace. 146 split function. 218. in turn. requesting human intervention only if the standby link goes down as well. the name of the C node is cN. enabled | disabled %atom(). .6}. there is no need to convert your output to lists of integers. You may not use the lists library module. but this would be considered defensive programming. returned by a function.0}. when we refer to an application. Its process identifier is bound to the variable Pid.31. id. Each node can be started with an explicit cookie value. {22}} will successfully extract the first element of the tuple. it returns the atom false. as a request to add funs and list comprehensions to the language had been put on hold as a result of other priorities a few months earlier. . The general case expression has the following form: case conditional-expression of Pattern1 -> expression1.. 148–154 lazy evaluation. #usr. 362 cpu_timestamp flag.2}.erl:545: Call to missing or unexported function unicode:characters_to_binary/2 Unknown functions: compile:file/2 compile:forms/2 compile:noenv_forms/2 compile:output_generated/1 crypto:des3_cbc_decrypt/5 crypto:start/0 TypEr: Success Types and Type Inference | 401 done in 16m43. Tab} or {error. true 6> ets:lookup(countries. using Rich Text Format). 378 remote procedure call (RPC) interworking with Java. Instead. Synchronous client/server requests A Client/Server Example Enough with the theory! So that you understand what we are talking about. _ = '_'} is passed as a pattern to the match functions.OHE}} = lists:keysearch(old_heap_size. average. {set_status. Db) db:match(Element. use parentheses: (−2 + 3) * 4 will evaluate to 4.101. {expected. . stop. . Services). .0. "ABC" 5> [67. 362 processes and.{yves. The collector has two generations of data: “current” and “old. /* Result of the fac call 23 24 /* initialize erl_interface (once only) */ 25 erl_init(NULL.116. uses the Pid for the child process. Its only use is to override the message(Data | false) call. {shell. 141 guard support.1}]} 4> List = lists:seq(1. {named_table. that is. The terminating process will generate an exit signal that is sent to all the processes to which it is linked. 397 ETS tables and. . .#Port<0. • What happens if the supervisor tries to spawn a child whose module is not available? The process will crash. wrap. Arity} behaves as though no match specifications are associated with it. The destroy/1 function will delete the database.108. List) Returns true if the Predicate—which is a fun that returns a Boolean value when it is applied to one of the list elements—returns true for all the elements in the list. ISBN: 978-0-596-51818-9 [M] 1244557300 Table of Contents Foreword . "Cat" 6> [72.{'_'. error end. Db) -> gb_trees:insert(Key. This icon indicates a warning or caution. < 25> [Seq1|SeqFun1] = SeqFun0(). both workers and other supervisors. Match Specifications: The Nuts and Bolts | 383 {ok. 183 exercises. but these are calls to functions that are not defined in the ping module. as the result was worth it. which translates to '$*' in the lower-level match specification. 400 U UDP (User Datagram Protocol). PhoneNo}) of [Usr] -> {ok. As ETS tables are connected to the process that created them. and there’s a comprehensive description of those tools in the documentation that accompanies the distribution. allowing you to use this integer instead of the specification itself. and before termination ensures that it is destroyed and memory is reclaimed. the function will always be able to sort its elements.. Boundary. Upgrading the database server Interface: db:code_upgrade([RecordList]) -> gb_tree(). Socket} = gen_udp:open(1234).105. Trying to figure out which catch in which module handles a throw defined elsewhere is not for those with little patience.115.0. . {jamesBond. you would use a guard of the following form: {is_list. . 23]. so nothing is stopping you from binding the return value to a variable. you can use the index generated from the documentation. terminate() after 0 -> ok end.0 2.0> rpc:init/1 44 0 Registered Processes | 103 user <0. LoopData) -> Reply = case usr_db:lookup_id(CustId) of {ok. send_to_non_existing_process. They are implemented in library modules that are provided with the standard Erlang distribution. 168 strings and. Pattern matching [A.. do_not_exist. Act I Traversing Tables Example: Building an Index. but beware. Use the -import(mod.{98. 11 Or. . we start three nodes.9. function. -export([test/1. follow the call flow. false 6> {1. 293 member function.alison. Arguments) which executes the function on the remote node. . On the other hand. | 443 APPENDIX Using Erlang This appendix begins by helping you to get started with Erlang. it is worth trying the last command. This shows the structure of a typical EDoc page for an Erlang module.com/catalog/9780596518189 or at: https://www. 338 OtpMbox class. The following code snippet shows these types in action: 1> <<5:4.2/priv/OtpErlang. 295 create_table function. It may be that you want to use EUnit on your code—for example. deallocate({Free. but stored in a different format and using an upgraded version of the db module. Dialyzer: A DIscrepancy AnaLYZer for ERlang Programs TypEr gives an analysis of types in Erlang programs. but so far very few production systems have suffered as a result of this implementation choice. among others: 1> 9 band 17. and processing lists._. ok 2> event_manager:send_event(alarm.3]) ⇒ [3. OtpErlangChar. The local directive is another option to make_rel/2. 4 Open Telecom Platform (see OTP entries) open/2 function. run the command ulimit –n Max. We will call the functions add_usr/1 if the subscriber is being provisioned for the first time. .'$1']] This is the return expression. 186 behind the scenes. 64 } The general shape of the C code is similar to the Java node earlier. the variable X is examined to determine whether it is smaller than. '1\n2\n3\n4' 7> 'funny characters in quotes: !"£$%^&*()-='. In your code search path. it would not impact the sending of the SMS. The code server will search the directories in the code search path for a compiled version of the module. Y=4.[]}. 245–247 RPC support. all events are passed as arguments to HandlerFun. do not forget to prefix the BIF calls with the erlang module name. and the remaining words have been normalized using string:to_lower/1: processWords(Words. ok 7> ets:info(usrRam). If you type an invalid expression. as in: 4> 5-. supporting the conversion of values between the two languages. gen_fsm (supporting finite state machine behavior). 196 Dryverl toolkit. as the potential for misunderstanding or error is much greater. The code module also provides functions to delete. Db2).stockholm}. as the gen_server is an Erlang process capable of sending and receiving messages like any other process.. [usr. .1}) true Looking at the preceding trace events. . 139 Figure 6-1. 2}. Msg) to send a synchronous message to your server. Compile it and run the area function from the shell. ** exception error: no function clause matching test:factorial(-1) case_clause This is returned when none of the existing patterns in the case construct match. 90. 397 functionality. we were always running the latest version of the db module. The Erlang rewrites were implemented by Jan Henry Nyström.unknown_msg}}) ({dp. The biggest challenges in testing concurrent systems are race conditions. but subsequent messages have to be retrieved using the recv functions. In well-designed systems. which forms what we call the state or loop data. and then turning that into an index.100}. Figure 1-2 illustrates a typical supervision tree. {shell. the description is a string that is displayed as a result of calling the application:which_application/0 function.<0. In doing so. . The form of the type description was given earlier. ok) end.e.14. unknown_msg}} is missing in the case clause: -module(dp).. It is as simple as that. processors. If you don’t include it. 138 | Chapter 5: Process Design Patterns CHAPTER 6 Process Error Handling Whatever the programming language. InitData}). Don’t do this! You will make your code impossible to support and maintain. separated by semicolons. EDoc provides a number of facilities for formatting.2}.26. 2. 338 Index | 463 N n function. If you are interested only in the variable bindings and you ignore the “don’t care” variables. and Match Specifications variants. When tracing is enabled. and it would not be visible: 1> c(db). The first A is unbound and gets bound to the atom abc. It could be running code.0718/ebin". it is necessary to decide how to render its objectoriented structure and event-handling mechanism within Erlang so that it fits as closely as possible with the design principles underlying the language.P. Handling Errors | 73 Type:Error _ _:_ end. The atom data confirms the user has subscribed to a data plan. 17–19 functional. _='_'}).18. • Another way to find out whether a module is loaded is to call the function code:is_loaded(Module). If you want to extract the head and tail of the list [1]. false -> {error. and Match Specifications Figure 17-3.handle_msg. stop -> true end.1.true}. list_to_binary(integer_to_list(23))}). -spec add_usr(#usr{}) -> 'ok'. 399 success types.2. -5 10> 1/2 + (2/3 + (3/4 + (4/5))) .org site had about 36. file extensions. rather than in their order in the file. Example 2-2. 367 start function.clear or any flag accepted by erlang:trace/3 ok The call dbg:p(PidSpec. the process calls a terminate function. and applications. and so on. Second)]. The expressions are valid Erlang terms or legal expressions that evaluate to terms. Process Links and Exit Signals You might have heard of the “let it crash and let someone else deal with it” and “crash early” approaches.5. [1. b_or/2. You can access it without knowing the application version by using the code:priv_dir(Application) call. stop -> db:destroy(Db) end. referring to a function within a module. which usually refers to a more complete system that solves a high-level task. [[2. [2. Move into the ebin subdirectory of the Inets application and look for the inets.spaghetti}. The Example in Full Here is the usr. When the stop function is called. You will need a process which.22. in. Now. process and clean up on termination. as the usrIndex table will not map the subscriber id to the msisdn anymore. you are not alone. -define(DBG(Str. char **argv) { 14 int fd. . . Inc. Request]) To turn on system debugging. their arity. 221 fun2ms/1 function. The return value of the expression passed to throw is returned by the try . embodied in QuickCheck. These and other features are described in more detail in the online documentation. listToTree(Code2) } end. . Data}) if the entry is in the dictionary. You can edit it to whatever value you want. _From. note the use of the “don’t care” variables. [{style.115. Time. {{slot. {ok. meaning that if you had an io:format call in a guard that fails. it can be processed one line at a time by processLines. and what libraries are built on top of them? • Erlang processes can be linked together so that if one crashes.4. returning a data structure that the gb_trees module can now use: -module(db). 45 2> {N. one for each successful match in the table. The now/1 BIF will always return a unique value in a particular Erlang node. as the separator between C and D is a comma and not the cons operator.erl" %% ------------------spec create_tables(string()) -> {'ok'. 310.[]. the documentation will be as follows: %% %% %% %% %% @doc Create the ETS and DETS tables which implement the database. Node) -> {facserver. These have no effect on the system during runtime. and in this case the ordering is VMdependent. Extracting values in composite data types through pattern matching Person = {person. The allocate function (defined shortly) will check whether there are any available frequencies: • If so. spawn_monitor(Mod.nonode@nohost}. Or. it recycles that memory when it is no longer needed (hence the term “garbage collection”). . runs Erlang code from within Emacs.do_apply. you could use the following definition: -record{data. #Fun receive {request. -ifdef(Flag). . A function definition—particularly one that uses pattern matching to select among different cases.one}} Calling the function add/2 within the scope of a catch results in the tuple {error. under which messages can be handled independently of the order in which they are received. 57–59 meta programming. 0}. <<131.'$1'. Usr#usr. both synchronously and asynchronously to a pool of nodes. 3. 115 creating processes. Supervision trees are packaged into a behavior called an application. Other functional languages. and much more. omitting it is not a problem. It is also possible to use the erl command with the flag -connect_all false to avoid nodes from globally connecting to each other. as all flags are cleared as soon as the function returns. https://www. Value} Sets the trace control word of a node. Now a person record like this one: #person{name="Fred"} will have age zero and an empty phone number.[]}] In the preceding code. four] [one.0}. Finally.. and messages from Erlang to Haskell are delivered to MVars. it is the exception rather than the rule to see a single computer performing a task of any difficulty. 42:16>>. or manage the logging of trace messages. Selective and Nonselective Receives Look at Figure 4-4. If you use them. .Zs) end end. 216 next/2 function. {ok. send_after(Time.script usrDb We can now start our system using erl –boot usr. . foreach(F. as we might be dealing with tens of millions of subscribers. or crash. make sure you have solved this exercise with pen and paper before you start coding. and how can you describe a modified record? Given the following example: Person = #person{name="Fred"} you access the fields of the record like this: Person#person. -export([create_tables/0. You can encapsulate your functionality on the list elements in a fun and choose a recursive pattern using one of the higher-order functions provided in the lists module. giving us the first call to a function in the traced module. true). unknown_msg}}. but are of only limited value. • Methods on the OtpConnection class also support control of tracing.First).4. putting a lock on the server. 98 make_ref function. For example. A case expression. Db) -> dict:store(Key. but they do occur if the concurrency is not well thought out and properly designed.0> 3> exit(whereis(add_two). For example. this will be either the return value of the reset/1 call or the tuple {error. but each field name can occur. of course.101. Finally. context switching.nonode@nohost. Finally. . where N is the size of the value.5. or would ‖ The Wrangler system can help you to find duplicate code and to factor it into a common function.unknown_msg}}]. The first one is to have a central process that sets up the ring and initiates sending the message. you must follow certain restrictions. allowing processes to stop and restart the child.. but with a focus: each feature that is to be implemented is first characterized by a set of tests. Other options include: set. Value}. Sender}}] -> ping(Sender) end. . ok (om@Vaio)8> mnesia:create_table(usr. Erlide also provides access to the refactorings in Wrangler (discussed shortly). The atom request is a tag in the tuple.. {active. To do so. and receive statements Badly typed and untagged return values Badly chosen function and variable names Unnecessary or superfluous processes Badly and unindented code Use of put and get Misuse of catch and throw Bad. . Look through the manual page of the application module and experiment with the various options for retrieving application environment variables to get a better understanding of what is available. Plan}. 38 39 if (got == ERL_TICK) { 40 /* ignore */ 41 } else if (got == ERL_ERROR) { 42 loop = 0. but remember that a case expression can be used anywhere in a function definition and not just in the head.3.5. such as Pid3!Pid2!Pid1!Message. this number had risen to 2.0/ ebin"]} to the release file: 7> systools:make_script("usr". All other elements..[]. • Finally. covered in Chapter 3. . CustId. This active mode is the default value when opening a socket. 126–131. Distributed Programming in Erlang . 378 group leaders. The most common use of UDP is in the implementation of Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). but also binds variables and pulls apart complex data structures. we spawn a process that crashes immediately.erl:226: Call to missing or unexported function unicode:characters_to_binary/2 re. it returns nocookie. and access its services through a functional interface.2. as it tends to make the code much harder to read and understand. Should you come across a parse error.3}. fun2ms returns a match specification we can use as an argument in our select call. the program would terminate abnormally. -vsn(1. The patterns contain three kinds of elements: ETS Tables | 223 • '_'. Figure 4-8. Note that we did not have any vsn attribute in the demo module. and open source projects.{protection. loop(Frame.101.[{matched. the call to apply/3 returns what examples:even(10) returns: true. 378 =:= (exactly equal to) operator. and ensure that it makes a difference. ensuring that servers that accidentally call each other are terminated after the default timeout. 312 event managers. exited({Free. as combining them will increase the complexity of your code. [send. . Tuples with one element. If we now write Int = 1 followed by Int = 1+0. -export([double/1]). The important thing to remember is that the variables are unique to every call and considered fresh in every iteration. 23 troubleshooting syntax.. 70–77 tuples disadvantages. What we have covered. At this stage. only one process may receive trace events from another process.. new() -> dict:new(). exit_status. If you have the same code in two places. {module_info.[]. 306 | Chapter 13: Introducing Mnesia Exercise 13-3: Dirty Mnesia Operations Implement the usr_db. will trigger a trace event whenever the call with those arguments is made. sqrt(S*(S-A)*(S-B)*(S-C)). The new list is constructed like this—[Head|Tail]. 362 timestamps.. In terminate/2.~n".2. add a full stop. 93 pid_to_list/1 function.2}. you build robust systems by layering. Erlang programmers were not too bothered by this. update_usr(Usr). programmers mechanically add an underscore.1}. how do you use them? In programs. In command 6. . Options) gen_server:start(CallBackModule.21}.111. This variable is passed to the db:convert/2 function.2. . In our mobile subscriber example. a number which is reduced for every operation executed. 383–391 ets module. atoms. but you can change it to whatever port you please. ctp. In the Erlang shell on Unix and in Werl on Windows. {atomic. handle(Binary. {error. the expressions in the body of the after clause are executed. _.0> with exit value: {badarith. Other external languages can be tied in more tightly using drivers that are linked into the Erlang runtime system itself. 360. . One of the prevalent myths in the community in the mid-1980s was that functional programming languages would be the only languages capable of working on the general-purpose parallel machines that were “just around the corner. {ok. before looking at a larger example. it would be heavily influenced by Erlang and its ancestors. v(−1)+v(−2) will return the sum of the previous two values Other shell commands. PidSpec defines which processes you want to trace. The stop call does not have to occur within a synchronous call. Function. BUFSIZE. but also their data types. 85 commonly used. 252 communication and security. It is also more efficient to use binaries when sending large amounts of data to ports and sockets.IndexEntry) end. By programming for the correct case and letting these libraries handle the errors. :: atom()). we need an efficient way to traverse the whole database. . a rule of thumb is that if your export clause spans more than one line. 0) initializes the erl_interface library. The information includes low-level system information. my_db:match(Element) ⇒ [Key1. If a child terminates. Erlang programmers can concentrate on programming for the correct case. and so forth. If you are looking to store your user data for the next Web 2. don’t believe for one second that you will be the last one to touch your code. If more abnormal terminations occur than are allowed. A socket being closed or a corrupt message from an external 270 | Chapter 12: OTP Behaviors port is not a reason to generate a nonnormal termination. . which is bound as a return value from the spawn BIF. comments excluded. try using the debugger. F) instead of assert(E =:= F) because assertEqual generates more informative messages when the test fails. Rec1. fallbacks. the Base#Value notation is used. You saw an example of this in the preceding Java statement: the class OtpErlangPid gives the Java representation of an Erlang pid. . The erl_format call uses a format string to construct Erlang terms in a readable way. Options will be matched to the empty binary <<>> and the Payload will be the Message. OtpErlangShort. 5040 (blah@STC2)3> fac:call(0). 125 initialize function. Executing this function in the match specification would be the equivalent of calling the function erlang:trace(self(). and not an arbitrary Erlang expression such as 2+3. followed by a pair of parentheses containing zero or more formal parameters. In our case. . Specification: the document is a text file. which we will convert to an application using behaviors later in this chapter. The list is long. Erlang also comes with very strong integration capabilities. false 7> (1 > 2) == false. giving processes with higher priority a precedence when being dispatched. Db2). 15 BEAM file extension. so this pattern match becomes a test of whether the expression is in fact [1. Usr} -> Services = lists:delete(Service. the ping is successful. this study has finally provided empirical data to support the claims. all of which can be pattern-matched or used in guards. 14. • A rectangle has a length and a width. a term that expands to all of the arguments. <<0. {error. as a typing error causing the shell process to crash would not affect the behavior. 336. . 352 interworking with Java. 99 As a final example. you can receive trace events relating to garbage collection initiation and termination. and supervisors. where the directory specified last is searched first. facLoop(). enabled} -> disable(BladeId). treeToList(tree0())).135). 147 documentation. The first elements are compared. with TCP package reception is guaranteed and packages are received in the same order they are sent. . stop} -> reply(Pid. 313 wxClass:destroy/1 function. Using the formula N * (N – 1) / 2. First. '$2']. quite a few operators and constructs are allowed. which is much more straightforward to program than the general behavior. Some wxWidgets methods take optional arguments. but only the owner process to manipulate them. Stack}}.1. or FSM for short. since commands can span multiple lines. C. 151 export directive. we summarize design guidelines and programming strategies to use when developing Erlang systems.erl module.Database].[{no_module. will return the sum of all the integers between 1 and N. Reason}. developers have been known to use the Pid ! Msg construct instead of a gen_server cast.org The website also has references to further reading as well as links to the major sites supporting the Erlang community.” 10 | Chapter 1: Introduction Experiences with the AXD301 suggest that “five nines” availability. UDP packets could take different routes. owner = Owner} = Cat. Freq}}. In the Shortcut tab. . 397 registered processes. Study the preceding functions.Phil. [{outdir.'/'. If you find you have a function doing two things. The dbg Tracer | 369 The return value of tp/2 and tpl/2 has the format {ok.1) (returns Level 3: 1 * factorial(1 . Arity}. 229 ETS tables. as shown in Figure 11-1.net. and stop. [{kernel. 208. which you can view as a simplified form of the case construct. 108 testing. and pattern matching. and Match Specifications . delete_disabled/0]). io:format("true person:~s~n". << Options:OptSize.type == ERL_REG_SEND) { 45 /* unpack message fields */ 46 fromp = erl_element(1. The env tag indicates a list of key-value tuples that can be accessed from within the application using calls to the following functions: application:get_env(Tag) application:get_all_env(). {'=:='. we’ve created a supervision tree. To switch over to the new version. "monday" 2> list_to_existing_atom("tuesday"). Read the entry in both nodes. we load the new db module. propagating the exit path through the supervision tree. When dealing with systems carrying live traffic. and so trace events for global calls such as start/0 and send/1 have become visible: 1> dbg:tracer(). 266–276 monitoring clients.Call])). describing the comparison (or pattern matching) we want to execute on the ETS table. less reliable. Just including them in the application resource files will have no effect unless these tools are used. This call results in the new process with process identifier Pid2 being created. Reply} = allocate(Frequencies. which has to be computed separately using the rem operator. the concurrency model of an Erlang program would differ from that of languages where process creation and message passing times are not as small. 314 | Chapter 14: GUI Programming with wxErlang MenuBar = wxMenuBar:new(). You can see from what we have said that pattern matching is a powerful mechanism. 1 3> ping:send(Pid). {error.39. but at the end of the day.12.5}. readable. 340 OtpErlangPid class. Pid}. This can be useful in testing and debugging. Once the supervision tree has terminated. .{127.erlang file extension. spawn_link/4 is similarly analogous to spawn_link/3. instance} -> {error. inet:gethostname().EndPos} = lastLineRange(Text). 138 client functions.'$3'}. continue end. Body]: • The head is used to bind and match variables and terms. PidSpec can be one of the following: Pid A particular process ID. the Erlang runtime system will pick up the value stored in the file .0.#usr{services=Services. The recursive definition of lists So. .6}. and wxErlang implementations of etop and erled.3. BIFs such as lists:reverse and lists:member.{francesco.0.[{crash. monitor_node/3. . The function should return either {noreply. The Small Print In this section. {protection. Start) -> {_. this is more than compensated for by the clarity of the code. 208 bitwise. we will cover case statements. the intention is for an atom in this position to represent a service of some kind. What will happen if your process gets into a cyclic restart? It crashes and is restarted. in practice. ??? You can check your answers by typing the ETS table creation commands (commands 1–5 in the earlier code) into the Erlang shell. and runtime schema configuration changes. Figure 1-1 shows an example. they either delete or manipulate it. packet-based communication protocol. 198 | Chapter 9: More Data Types and High-Level Constructs Expression The expression specifies what the elements of the result will look like. The DCC’s code base was more in line with the folklore and urban legends. 251 select function. These library modules do all of the generic process work and error handling. Number}.[chris]]. 202. Port). This tracing shows the inner workings of the input/output mechanism. written by Richard Carlsson. In January 1999. • If no frequencies are available.2. perms([X|Xs]) -> [ insert(X. Useful Modules To get an idea of what functionality and which modules are available in the Erlang distribution. It returns a tuple containing the time in microseconds it took to run the function alongside the return value of the function. The first is when you need to use the value they are bound to more than once.21. fac(. ~P Behave as ~w. len([_ | Tail]) -> 1 + len(Tail).2} 7> event_manager:delete_handler(alarm.51306786>} y(4) {eval. '_'. I would unhesitatingly choose Erlang to build it in. the differences from the definition of leaf_value_test are highlighted. you were almost certainly greeted with an error telling you that the runtime system can’t load a module that resides in the sticky directory. Using the generic code in the preceding skeleton.3}. .org/faq. a tail-recursive definition can be more efficient memory wise. or is_seq_trace. 122 call/2 function.13229925> 2> Bump(10). We take the head and create a new list whose head is the head of the old list incremented by 1: bump([Head | Tail]) -> [Head + 1 | ?]. Acc) -> Acc. For this use. and wolves.32.createMbox(). What exception monitoring and error-handling mechanisms do they contain. 46 if construct. we sometimes have to rely on lower-level mechanisms and standardized protocols.21. spawning a process never fails.hrl header file.3. embodied in message passing communication between concurrently executing processes running in separate memory spaces. 249 is_atom function.308}. 435 437 437 439 440 440 442 Appendix: Using Erlang . 3]) => bump_acc([1.3}. To ensure that the state of the handlers is maintained. All other functions should return the same values returned in the original example. This call will connect to the listener port where the trace is running and retrieve the trace events. Data}. this time implementing a mutex semaphore. [FileName. deallocate/1]). Spare a thought for the early pioneers of OTP. PhoneNo) of [Usr] -> {ok. We will refer to built-in functions as BIFs.2.BigInteger. also taken from the functional programming paradigm. delete_disabled/0. WindowSize:16. 438 | Chapter 20: Style and Efficiency Lists Always ask yourself whether you really need to work with flat lists. 146 RPC support. . it remains in the atom table regardless of whether it is referenced in the code. 346–350 io module format/1 function. Reason}. the ChildSpec will be stored by the supervisor and referenced through its Id. Match2).[{erlang. They will all send their 'DOWN' message when Pid terminates. but also offers evaluation of Erlang expressions within the IDE and automatic compilation on file save. fac(N)} 256 | Chapter 11: Distributed Programming in Erlang end. each key can occur only once. // For factorial calculations 3 4 public class ServerNode { 5 6 public static void main (String[] _args) throws Exception{ 7 8 OtpNode bar = new OtpNode("bar"). Events received by the FSM do not necessarily have to trigger state transitions. send_event(Name. As we should be hiding processes and message passing behind functional interfaces. . In the basic Erlang implementation of RPC. † TypEr is described in the papers from the Erlang Workshops in 2005 (Tallin) and 2007 (Freiburg) (https://doi . and Arity as '_'.T1.# Efficiency The Erlang virtual machine is constantly being optimized and improved.rb program. The manual page for this module lists all of the Erlang BIFs.30. .19. 204 | Chapter 9: More Data Types and High-Level Constructs Pattern-Matching Bits You can use the same syntax in pattern-matching binaries.. and contains a number of clauses.000 lines of code where you aren’t adding them. [binary. .32.116. Usr} -> Services = lists:delete(Service. kill).'$3'}}}. surname.4.server.11. whose first elements are keys used for lookup and insertion. Surname} = Var. a string) and a line number. Try viewing the default search paths of the runtime system by using the code:get_path() call. . or sending a message. the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. we can regression-test the optimized version of serialization with the same test set and see what happens: 11> serial2:test(). {erl_eval. The set_on_spawn trace flag Function calls can be traced using the call flag. use try. Msg) -> Name ! {request. [harryPotter. I did not know what I was getting into when I agreed to write this book. just add the application Name to either function call.3])). clients on other hosts send their UDP packets to a listener socket which forwards them to an Erlang process.List. and once we’re satisfied that it works. Alarm. {vsn. true 2> dp:process_msg(). where Tuple is a literal or the variable representing the tuple. 28 Lazy Evaluation and Lists From our coverage of the recursive definition of lists in Chapter 2. In some applications. However.erl usr_app. This is in contrast to ports. It will. Exercises Exercise 10-1: Pretty-Printing This exercise asks you to complete the definition of prettyEntry from the index example earlier in this chapter..2} (<0. it becomes possible to write programs that can be customized in different ways. As more complex processors emerge. the storage used for the Erlang terms and subterms is cleaned up (lines 54– 56). ['beta@STC'. Its return value will be used the next time a callback function for this handler is invoked. Message) In the preceding calls: Name Is either the local registered name of the server or the tuple {global. X rem 2 == 0].. they are not “garbage collected”). returning the updated loop data. [{disc_copies.. EDoc provides a documentation framework for Erlang that overcomes these disadvantages and generates documentation from information you have inserted in your modules: • EDoc provides a structure for comments. because a connection can be established. 2 9> setelement(3. Return Values If a function might not always succeed. %% Exported Client Functions %% Operation & Maintenence API start() -> start("usrDb").111. the ping is successful. making it appear like a distributed Erlang node to which you pass messages back and forth. 109 bound variables changing values. if synchronous. Arguments Is a valid Erlang term that is passed to the init/1 callback function when it is called. '=:='. A very detailed and well-written user guide comes with the Erlang distribution that we recommend as further reading. and the code font is LucasFont’s TheSansMonoCondensed. the environment of a running process can be retrieved using wx:get_env/0 and set in a new process using wx:set_env/1. ask yourself how to solve the preceding problem using the monitor BIF. 195 functions as arguments.0> with exit value: {undef.erl module provide the programmer with the flexibility needed to manage and configure the server to handle the system’s code base. binds it to the variable Int.Text) -> receive #wx{id=?APPEND. 411 werl shell.{cat.process. resulting in the first trace message seen as a result of the flush() in command 6. have to be handled. If you are using timeouts to deal with the case when a process might have terminated. this leads to better software being delivered. as many processes accessing the same data might corrupt it as a result of a race condition. State changes are triggered through process messages we call events. Telecom systems need to reflect all of this. binary]). 15 Integers The Erlang Shell Floats Mathematical Operators Atoms Booleans Tuples Lists Characters and Strings 15 16 17 17 19 20 21 22 22 iii Atoms and Strings Building and Processing Lists List Functions and Operations Term Comparison Variables Complex Data Structures Pattern Matching Functions Modules Compilation and the Erlang Virtual Machine Module Directives Exercises 23 24 25 28 30 32 33 38 40 40 41 43 3. 324 | Chapter 15: Socket Programming If you are trying the example on separate computers. and jobs.org/10. setup(Frame). • If there is at least one available frequency. ⇒{ok. Intermodule dependencies should form an acyclic graph. 28. In doing so. The increase in CPU usage and response time is explained by the fact that whenever a process receives a message. 167 undef exception.{read. 167 ?LINE macro.set}.. check whether the process has been restarted by calling the i() help function in the shell. the first commercial project with a small team of developers was launched.[{vsn. It was never released to the public. /* Incoming message 20 21 ETERM *fromp.W) -> true. 'gamma@STC'] Once we’ve executed all of the commands in alpha. ets:tab2list(TableId | TableName) tab2list returns a list containing all the elements of the table. Pid ! {self(). These are then sorted separately and their results merged in order. Even though every table is created with a name in the call to ets:new/2. it all seems to work. march] [123. The three type declarations define the plan. which first appeared in Chapter 10. We will recognize them through their status field. 198 gen_event module.42>> 3> < pang (foo@STC)2> true (foo@STC)3> pong (foo@STC)4> true (foo@STC)5> pong net_adm:ping('bar@STC'). which you can call from the shell. As Tim Bray. . ** exception error: no match of right hand side value [1] 6> [Head|Tail] = [1. 118–124 coding strategies. as all exceptions will be handled in the previous clauses: try_wildcard(X) when is_integer(X) -> try return_error(X) catch throw:Throw -> {throw. These systems run on small hardware clusters you can buy off eBay for a few hundred dollars.[3]. Each running process that refers to functions in module A will be linked to a version of module A. flatten(cube) -> square.. {registered. Freq}} -> NewFrequencies=deallocate(Frequencies. {1. If you do not remember the example. database updates. 224 process trace flags. as [H|T] implies that the list has at least one element..tue. Funs and Higher-Order Functions | 191 Funs such as P(X) that return true or false are called predicates. Once you found the tuple. with the Word as the key. Length) -> Sum / Length. the statements that follow are executed. 411–420 functional. the name cannot be used to access the table unless the named_table option is enabled. Message) -> Pid ! {reply.. These assist in Erlang’s growing role as the “distributed glue” joining together single-threaded legacy programs. and then flushed from the mailbox. and the bar on the left shows the load on the node under scrutiny (see Figure 12-3). init() -> process_flag(trap_exit. erlang The erlang module collects the Erlang BIFs. 3. {ok.#Port<0. Proc) a monitor is created from the calling process to the process denoted by Proc. it is best to communicate between nodes using existing secure mechanisms. their order becomes irrelevant. -port PortNumber Changes the listening port. emsg. Messages are retrieved from the process mailbox selectively. the decoding process forwarded it to the handler that processed it. it multiplies it by X. {reply. an exit signal will be sent to all the processes to which the failing process is linked. Either you can hang up and your FSM goes back to the idle state.atom()}. andalso. 278 defined.21}. ** exception exit: killed 4> frequency:allocate(). . The facilities for handling network data formats are an important part of the language and its libraries. it is possible to build or construct a list from a list and an element. after clause to behave as desired in each call (see Figure 4-11). If we were to move the server to a remote host. Ref. let’s use the self/0 BIF. This avoidance of defensive programming makes a programmer’s task much easier. 201 Chalmers University of Technology. or if the process crashes. forgetting that Erlang variables are single assignment and that the = operator is nondestructive. We establish that the element and the head are the same by matching them with a common variable. The last thing you want is for the wait_for_tables/2 call to return {timeout.K. {def. true Complex tests can be formed using the logical operators described in Table 2-2.N]. 10. who helped us not only with the undocumented and unreleased features. You can see that many of the commands are similar to the ones we used in the earlier UDP example. 203 TypEr tool additional information. timeout} says that delete_usr has one argument (which is a customer identifier).C]) when B == A -> A end). {tl. We will cover the latter mechanism here.5]). 8. .) It obviously depends on how many functions you are exporting.$o. surname}). deallocate(Freq) -> call({deallocate. 258 io module. Take the example of a simple messaging system in which each message is expected to receive a single acknowledgment. Alice. known as linked-in drivers.. What is so gratifying about this definition is that the pattern in the case statement is a readable (yet formal) definition of what a segment looks like. 359 garbage_collection flag. then "#{n}!=#{(fac n)}" will be the string "6!=720". .4.5}. and add them all together: even_multiple(List. or another mainstream language. because then the error is apparent at the point where it occurred.3}]}} You think you’ve seen it all? Try typing the following in the Erlang shell: catch exit({badarith. If we had kept the process. Hint: assume that the lists contain no duplicates.. ets:insert(indexTable. However. 250 visibility of.468>. such as {123}. unknown_msg} tuple. Args = io:format(Fd. indicating the following: ~c An ASCII code to be printed as a character.2 of the db module but before calling the upgrade/1 function. . arr[1] = erl_mk_integer(fac(ERL_INT_VALUE(argp))).[]}]} 4> flush().4]). an early version of the tool is described at https://doi. and the module in which they are defined. We covered the process stack in Chapter 3. a runtime error is generated. they send the request to the event manager process which handles them in handle_msg/2.[{recv_oct. you do want to do something with the messages. timeout} end. To change the default values. end users might * At least two. 117 event handler. . Let others review your code. Mnesia will put a write lock on all of the copies of this object (including those on remote nodes). self()}. 214. spawn(echo. 104–106 conditional evaluations case construct. When the log_handler is deleted from the event manager. provides you with unique tags across processes in distributed environments. . 206 socket programming.4} and {"refactorings". -export([test/0]). whereas chopping and changing between styles will distract a reader away from understanding what is going on. all within the same virtual machine.{Freq. . You must use this BIF in conjunction with the erlang:trace/3 BIF. . reference()} | {error.mixed. and as a result. [{description. A service can be specific.Y. 293 • • • • • • • • • • • Runtime reconfiguration of the table location and table features Support for transactions. note that it is not compiled automatically if the beam file is missing. we were actually using the software upgrade functionality."/Users/Francesco/"}]}. Plan}). {ok. expnn expn When a process reaches the receive statement and no messages pattern-match. true 11> ets:lookup(TabId2. or when data from several sources needs to be collected before it can be processed. This BIF returns the atom true or false. • Your supervisor should be able to start children even once the supervisor has started. port(). || . ([X|_]) -> X end As you can see. and send them as soon as a client connects. Args)). . Erlang Distribution and Security When a distributed node on your machine gets connected to a remote node through a shared cookie. where we’ll introduce you to concurrency in Erlang—probably the single most important feature of the language. as well as to infer the types of functions in modules without type annotations. An option might be to have a pool of processes handling specific event types or particular users. 55. You add a few more. {source. When the binary contains fewer than 100 bytes. Common examples include –author(Name) and -date(Date). you could use the process_info/2 BIF to view the length of the message queue or to peek at the first message in the mailbox. 158 with typed fields. so it is not necessary to process messages in the order they are received. but as the syntax of sending a message within the node is the same as sending it to a remote node. ok} = mnesia:transaction(F). and even millions of processes. We obviously need to use an ETS table to guarantee a constant and fast lookup time. it has to expect a number of callback functions. which could be the old version of the module. you can access it using its name. . 148 traps. instance}. The exercise took me about 40 hours to solve. one of the VM’s maintainers. Reason}. {packet_size. The DM been written with fault tolerance and reliability in mind. 202 | Chapter 9: More Data Types and High-Level Constructs The BIFs discussed here work at the level of bytes.0>> 6> <<5:4/big-signed-integer-unit:4>>. and thus guaranteeing a constant throughput of requests in the system with no degradation of service under heavy loads.6. . where D is bound at the top Match Specifications: The fun Syntax | 381 level to all of the arguments. an operation which might take a few seconds as it will be dealing with heavy I/O when writing the Dets entries to files.[{matched.4). is_integer. As a rule of thumb. The default value is set. The functions you write should include b_not/1. In the meantime. such as the Erlang Driver Toolkit (EDTK) and Dryverl. the message is retrieved from the mailbox. Multiple nodes can run on a single host. Add a unique identifier in the child list. [1. When you terminate an expression followed by a full stop (. The tuple is written instead of a record of type countries. which by default prints an error report in the shell using the format shown earlier.15]. -export([send_after/2. . -export([add_usr/3. Selective receives often select on process identifiers. 300 receive . however. . the directories are scanned sequentially.4}. 399 Dialyzer support. the last thing you want is to miss an abnormal process termination as a result of it not being linked to a supervisor. {ok.10} 3> exit(self().1. he was not satisfied with the performance. Arity}} {trace. after construct.18. PortFun is a fun encapsulating the opened port and returned by the call dbg:trace_port(ip. where Proc can be either a process identifier or a registered name. If you try to link to a nonexistent process. Example: concatenate([[1. List comprehensions allow you to generate lists and filter elements. id=3. and so it’s worth looking back to the invention of Erlang in the 1980s. use the following: OtpNode bar = new OtpNode("bar".[].couchdb. 0:32. . 22. The first 11 chapters of the book cover the core parts of Erlang: • Chapter 1 gives a high-level introduction to the language. [{'and'. {person. We get the shivers just thinking of the task of having to go into the shell and manually find and terminate all the processes which are not linked to their parent or supervisor. and a comma means they all must succeed. return_to. A common error when dealing with sets is to delete an element before inserting an update. Types don’t tell you how a program behaves. The fun returns the new Accumulator. Writing the following would have the same effect: -spec(create_tables(string()) -> {ok. that is. Another way of doing this is to specify an option on compiling the file: c(Mod. executed after loading version 1.[]}. as a pair of lists keeping the front and rear separately.country = '_'. fetch([H|T]) -> {ok. Processes at any level will trap errors occurring at a level immediately below them. We describe the trace flags in detail in subsequent sections.4.nonode@nohost. differentiating Erlang from other concurrent programming languages. 20. and Dialyzer. An example supervision tree easily distribute your processes across a cluster of computers. [{type. Y <. instance} end. In addition. This in turn depends on the implementation of ports in port. 221 float/1 function. but because of their speed and tight connection to the internals of the Erlang runtime system. as we are comparing apples and oranges. and in the case of the trace BIFs. 77–80 recursion. still interesting to see: -file("/Users/Francesco/records1. but never as much as the penalty paid when message queues start building up.*failed* ::error:{assertEqual_failed. Figure 10-5. GbTree) -> Data = dict:fetch(Key. So. For example. 23 ( ) parentheses (see parentheses) * (multiplication) operator. The unary + and − have the highest precedence. So.102}] through a sequence of transformations. Figure 6-7.[{thomas. as an illustration. § We cover side effects and destructive operations later in the book. and we’ve made sure that we point out to you where Erlang differs from what you’re used to. Any process running what has now become the old version will continue doing so until it executes a fully qualified function call. the supervisor will receive the exit signal. Warning: use an internal message protocol to avoid stopping the process when you. What can you deduce from the incoming messages in the receive clause about Pid being already bound? The variable Pid is bound to the value passed to decode_digit when it is called. All variables in the head are of the form '$int()'. 700000003}) end). you have an inconsistent shared table (Mnesia would have been able to recover if only one node had been updated). false In command 2 note that the elements of the tuple are indexed from 1 rather than zero. 1. even if it’s hidden from you in the runtime system. Example: 1> c(db). This compared pretty favorably with the 500 he expected to get on the C++ version! Once it was released.0>. which bypasses the whole recursive call stack to become the return value of the expression. without evaluating the second Returns true if either of the arguments is true Shortcut evaluation of or: returns true if the first argument is true.0 <= * It would be better if the function were not to cause a “division by zero” error on an empty list. will start the supervision tree and all of the relevant static workers. 357 upgrading. Safe. Pid. Succeeded: 3. N). as N is already bound to 45. and Mike Williams. The integer representation of a character is given by preceding the character with the $ symbol: 22 | Chapter 2: Basic Erlang 1> $A. add(X. 6). 378 mathematical.4. To test this. 280 | Chapter 12: OTP Behaviors If you’ve been skimming through the manual page for the supervisor behavior. In this example. King. and to make the rest of the list consist of those elements in the Tail that are even: even([Head | Tail]) when Head rem 2 == 0 -> [Head | even(Tail)].0>.[].10} In this example. passing in the table identifier: 1> TabId = ets:new(myTable. . Having started them. both of which we cover in this book.2"}. Include files customarily have the suffix . it does not impact the soft real-time aspects of the system by stopping. 6 FFI (foreign function interface). . and synchronizing upgrades in distributed environments. your routines and procedures might not be as simple.acm.1}]} 6> dbg:p(all. broadband solutions. 226. Conditional macros are a more elegant and effective way to get the same effect as the earlier ?DBG example.0> supervisor:kernel/1 61 0 <0. Shell got {trace. . . and a global C Nodes | 345 naming scheme. 303 dirty_index_read function.8. The first one takes two arguments and will match if '$1' is greater than or equal to 0 and '$2' is less than or equal to 10.3. just as it does in a function definition: it allows a complex element—such as a tuple—to have its component parts matched. Corrado Santoro. 3] . and the process must retrieve them through the gen_tcp:recv/2 and gen_tcp:recv/3 calls. 146 unstick_dir function. The monitor BIFs Links are bidirectional. a static analysis tool that identifies software discrepancies such as type errors. keeping the aforementioned beginner errors in mind. Other features of the language. When calling start/1.'$1'. we have been talking about the low process creation and message passing times in Erlang.do_apply. 5 tail recursion and. Have a look at it now if you need a detailed explanation or if you are interested in the syntax and semantics of what fun2ms actually returns.hrl file.app file. you would define a record type as follows: -record(person. {data. 'missing a full stop. "Francesco" From the preceding code.1] 3> lists:sort([2. {'>='. Handling Errors In the preceding section. "999-999"}. dbg:stop/0 will not clear the trace flags. these operations are provided by the send and receive methods on a mailbox.B. Data} if it finds the entry. given a positive integer N. If instead you use the set_on_first_spawn flag. 1 million. This. other_on_hook} -> stop_ringing(). The dict:find/2 function. tstFun(Z. by default.2. as they will provide you with feedback and comments on style and optimizations. As links are bidirectional. 0) == −1) 29 erl_err_quit("erl_connect_init"). Exercise 3-7: Using Library Modules Implement the database-handling list in Exercise 3-4 using the lists module library functions. 2 I i function ets module. beware when reading about efficiency. the client needs to be aware of it and be able to cope with a delay in response time. and we’ll give an example of how to interact with Ruby. 284 | Chapter 12: OTP Behaviors The application controller loads the environment variables belonging to the application. Too many times developers have tried to convince us that their long lines were readable by widening their editor window to cover the whole screen. For instance. The trap_exit flag is set to false by default when a process is spawned. .["Concurrent "]|"World"]. Flag==false -> call({set_service. it is the responsibility of the calling function to ensure that the input data is correct.wxT("New\tCtrl-N")). Ref. . in fact. Throw}. tail) in the bodies of the clauses of f.4. allowing your two modules to be interchangeable. In the earlier example. fac(N)} back to the Pid. {event. Reply. The remainder of this section looks in more detail at the Erlang commands that control ports. From. including servers. use code:soft_purge(Module). -export([start/2. plan.0.4]]. making this kind of lower-level programming easier. {shell. so if that fails. [{file. {attributes.2. They do things that are either not programmable in Erlang itself or would be slow to execute were they to be defined by the user. The idea. disabled -> {error. stop} -> reply(From. Int}. as shown in Figure 4-17. here.marcus]}. resulting in hundreds. service() Is a synonym for atom(). You should register the server and access its services through a functional interface. say. Testing Concurrent Programs in Erlang When a program consists of a number of objects evolving concurrently. Data} -> loop(db:write(Key. I trust. will spawn the process and send messages to it. _From. . using the all or new flag.MenuBar). {ok. . Exercises Exercise 19-1: Testing Sequential Functions Revisit the exercises in Chapter 3. 1> test:factorial(-1). the current IndexEntry is output. let alone all of their variants.#Fun. instance} end. 180 collections implementing. {ip. 356 functionality. from = (OtpErlangPid)(msg. and bottlenecks. Dict). io:format(Str.:/usr/local/lib/erlang/lib/ jinterface-1. 70 underscore (_). lbs. We call these exps. A pattern match is written like this: Pattern = Expression Pattern Matching | 33 And as we said earlier. . [kernel. size/type. [send. 378 andalso logical operator. the type of a function inferred by the type checker will provide a guarantee that the function will not fail if applied to arguments of the input type.3]): bump([1. not only to ensure that everyone gets a thank you note. and is most easily included as follows: -include_lib("stdlib/include/ms_transform. Key -> case ets:lookup(msgQ. 90–92 defined. {ok. 131–134 event tables. 208 binary_to_list/1 function.true}. Other safeguards when using the gen_server:call/2 function include the case of sending a message to a nonexisting server or a server that crashes before sending its reply. lets you write concise. {ok. Combining guards. Records and Macros .1> 14> hof1:filter(Pal. {ok. with the help of his colleagues. -spec is used to specify the type of a function. . If anything fails at startup. we are tracing all function calls made within all processes. Msg) -> spawn(my_timer. Count) -> {ok. 27 concurrency BIF support. LoopData) -> Reply = usr_db:add_usr(#usr{msisdn=PhoneNo. you might receive duplicates of the same item. If this happens with a module other than lists. And. in mathematics from Cambridge and a D. In the following example. And as you may remember from the bump example. In the Erlang shell on the second node. exit_status This ensures that a message is sent to the port when the external program exits. or summarized by calling erl_call with no flags. facLoop() -> receive {Pid. [1. {children. .5. . enable(BladeId). will improve efficiency slightly. it is assigned a number of reductions† it is allowed to execute. high-level access to a state-of-the-art GUI-building toolkit. Garbage Collection and Timestamps Memory usage and the amount of time spent garbage collecting are notoriously tricky to predict. using the all or existing flag or the flag’s process identifier. it is possible to write expressions such as Result = receive Msg -> handle(Msg) end. Match Specifications: The fun Syntax | 375 fill() -> catch ets:new(msgQ. Never try to fix an error that should not have occurred and then continue. so that it will not fail if applied to a nonrecord. This was explained by the fact that 27% of the C++ code consisted of defensive programming. These take an extra argument in the data list indicating the maximum depth for printing terms. It is worth reiterating that the File variable in the preceding code is fixed: its value is a reference to an object. X} = {1. the request might take too long to be processed. 245 array module. Pid. . you need to protect the data from race conditions. person). return a new list that is the intersection of the two lists (e. Receiving Messages | 95 Take a minute to think about the restart message in the example. the next clause is selected and matched. but the difference is that although a set contains each element only once. the only practical way to do it is to restart the shell. Registered processes should. . 2]) => bump_acc([]. 192 functions as.. 264 write/1 function io module. such as wxID_OPEN and wxID_ABOUT (for a File Open menu item and an About box). Chapter 17 explains in depth how all aspects of Erlang systems can be traced without degrading their performance. The Trace BIFs The built-in function erlang:trace/3 enables and disables the low-level trace mechanisms in the Erlang runtime system. float. Other configuration parameters are described in the ets module documentation. Msg). ets:delete(subIndex). which contain the major changes you should be aware of in the libraries. ..) It’s the same for programming languages. where N is the identification number for the node. Shell got hello ok 4> <0. }). . splits([]) -> [{[]. Nodelist} Nodelist contains the nodes where you want disc-only copies of this particular table. where MaxProcesses is an integer. This gives system response times on the order of milliseconds even in the presence of garbage-collected memory. Interworking with Java | 339 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 } BigInteger OtpErlangAtom n.wine]}]} 5> People = [JoeTuple. . and this may equally well refer to a process on the local computer or a process on a system on the other side of the world. . The golden rules when working with Erlang should always be as follows: First make it work. 196 partitioned networks. but how can you actually use the functions map and filter to give you the behavior you want? To apply them. to see whether the supervisor terminates: 13> c(usr_sup). 190 fun expressions. [ {shoeSize.3. If anything is unclear. .2}. While studying computer science at Uppsala University. . Number} makes it possible to specify the number of garbage collections which should occur before the old heap is swept. but we instead could have added new functionality. and their elements are separated by commas. Messages not being handled should probably not have been sent to the process in the first place. 25 3> 9 bxor 17. or you can use it as part of a mixed Java/Erlang distributed system. To redirect messages elsewhere and pass the control to another process. each use of keysearch will need to be in the context of a try . tail) in the bodies of the clauses of f. 3}]}) You’ll get a fourth.one}} in function math:test_int/1 3> catch math:add(one. It will save you from having to reverse the list once you’re done. Second) -> case person_exists(First. such as booking a room or viewing its availability. -export([go/0. Tests are now done on the individual elements of the tuple. Client and supervisor* processes can interact with the frequency server using what we refer to as client functions. Use binaries to encode large messages. Instead of a Boolean type. Interworking with Java | 341 and to the Java system: java -classpath ". . . you can convert it into a stream of bytes in a straightforward way. In the other node. measure its performance.{'EXIT'. [{['$1'. This function does not change the user data. -name.4] = 2 + sum([3. We can now perform an upgrade from version 1. a description of which types of exceptions can be thrown (@throws). If the record does exist. Let’s call our database module usr_db.4] 3> Head. or to send messages delayed by a certain amount of time. Everywhere you call bump/1. and toggle between them. terminate([]) -> []. . . expressionn2. How does this piece of magic work? We are calling the same function. • Distribution allows transparent access to remote resources. Reason}.1235. 126–131 group leaders. but under very heavy loads. '$3'} is equal to the first argument '$1' and whose second element (the head of the tail) is equal to '$2'. we’ll look at how you can combine them in writing and use functions that have functions as their results.[{double. usr. so Erlang systems can be seamlessly incorporated into larger systems.surname = "Cesarini"} 162 | Chapter 7: Records and Macros 14> Tuple#name. {ok. 205 . 317–320 Mnesia database additional information. 277 tuple_size/1 function. given a list of integers.rb and matching in matcher.33. only if you must).4."BLOG"}]). If you want to send messages.141592653589793.. changing the order of execution. module_info(X) -> erlang:get_module_info(records1. Arguments) supervisor:start(CallBackModule. Data}|Rest]) -> [{Handler. % This is a comment. *argp.5. Include Files It is customary to put record and macro definitions into an include file so that they can be shared across multiple modules throughout a project. []) -> false. lists.108. The specifications are tuples with three elements of the format [Head. 1. Side effects include operations that might affect persistent data structures such as ETS or Dets tables. saving your list in the loop data. We break the list into a head and a tail. TableList}.{saved. . we will be monitoring the memory usage of the shell process. To ensure that the readings are not affected by previously allocated memory. A TCP Example Let’s start with a simple example of how you can use TCP sockets. Calls to behavior callback functions should originate only from the behavior library modules as a result of an event occurring in the system. . ok 3> my_db:read(baz). 285 Eötvös Loránd University.A)) of {ok. net_adm:ping('bar@STC'). 365–374 EUnit support.3/ebin". When it works. All calls with variables in Erlang are call by value: all arguments to a function call are evaluated before the body of the function is evaluated. Worker behaviors. That is because it is normally impossible to determine just by inspecting the code whether their use was intentional or an error.0. a runtime error is generated. ctpg. The listener and accept processes If you are working in passive mode. Perl. This frequency allocator example has used all of the key sequential and concurrent programming concepts we have covered so far. ['beta@STC'] (alpha@STC)4> nodes(hidden). epmd is automatically launched when you start your first distributed Erlang node. To compute the sum. length/1. . where the message can be any Erlang data value at all. If Flag is not set.5) => sum_acc([]. Mnesia takes care of the rest for you. -export([init/1]). the variables in the pattern are bound to the matching parts of the message. ok 6> event_manager:get_data(alarm. Simon Thompson is a professor of logic and computation in the computing laboratory of the University of Kent. To call methods on the object. however. Lists will consume one word for every element. The use of Erlang is expanding rapidly.13.<0.. . ... Go back to the result of the i() shell commands. 305 start function. The product was successfully launched in 1994.'$2'. but with ~w replacing ~40p in the formatting string. The Debugger The Erlang debugger is a graphical tool providing mechanisms to debug sequential code and influence program execution. If you want to send your trace events to a binary file."/Users/Francesco/patches/db. and as a result. We leave this modification of the example as an exercise for you! The inet Module The inet module contains generic functions that will work with sockets regardless of whether you are using TCP or UDP. . 25. {ok.three. You can enhance security by writing your own net_kernel process. 419 treeToList/1 function. The first part of an index for the preceding paragraph would be as follows: 218 | Chapter 10: ETS and Dets Tables appears consecutive document file form ignored index . and the O’Reilly Network. .N]) -> {leaf. and include files have to be placed. || X <. '_'. With this in mind. States are defined as callback functions that return a tuple containing the next State and the updated loop data. but for test representations rather than tests. 215 Mnesia and. Start has to return the tuple {ok. Some examples of floats include: 17. ok. It is best to code a sequence of elements in a single binary as a single list. [["Rome".6}. do not Message Passing | 93 get alarmed. If a UDP packet is sent. . the constructs are getting complex enough that it makes sense for you to try what you learn by typing trial functions in a module. In command 10. and won’t pattern-match the value of the outer Book variable as you might expect. The events produced are of the following format: {trace. not_connected} peer:stop() -> ok | {error. ok 5> io:format("the sum of ~w is ~w. WrapCount}. placing the relevant files in there: usr-1.1}. and write/3. When the message has been sent to the process. [2]) => bump_acc([3].4] -[1.7. It tries to register the database server it created with the name db_server but fails with a runtime error. disabled}) and board:action(disable. If defined in both lists. . it can be a good strategy to start small. {ok. That’s why we’ve seen Erlang used in more and more systems in recent years.HE}} = lists:keysearch(heap_size. pick ones that will provide hints regarding the variable types or function return values. {Ref. which prints the term to standard output and is mainly used for debugging purposes. The release handler uses it to determine which processes it should suspend during a software upgrade.F. Use of the behavior callbacks as library functions and invoking them from other parts of your program is an extremely bad practice. names can be resolved locally using information contained in a hosts file. do_apply. 193 lazy evaluation. The OptionList is similar to the one defined in the gen_tcp:listen/2 call. namely that it was about 70% smaller than its C++ counterpart. 2. you can use an import directive to include the tests without making any changes from the serial module: -module(serial_tests). erlang All BIFs are considered to be implemented in the erlang module. removing the child from the child list and printing an error message when this threshold is reached. ok 6> erlang:is_alive(). plan = prepay. configuration files. as in the call loop({get_frequencies().3. 265 chapter exercises. ."999-999"}. but the last expression has to be either a predefined call that is converted to an action. . What happens when they execute? What values do the expressions return. 336 getting programs to run correctly. Fd} = file:open("log_file_"++integer_to_list(Count). Buffer) -> double(T. FileName}. Test it from the shell. .goo gle. It does so by calling the client function frequency:deallocate(Frequency). naming them alpha. B. although this is probably the tool you will use. [1. give a bit-level implementation of the serialization algorithm in the section “Serialization” on page 208. As well as the About and Exit options. their schema directories Mnesia. . The Name. 196 finite state machines (see FSMs) firewalls. start_link. as coded in the callback module. which we discuss in Chapter 9.4] to the List variable: 34 | Chapter 2: Basic Erlang 2> [Head|Tail] = List. 333 setopts function. including memory management. manipulating.<0.bcd} has two elements: the integer 123 and the atom bcd. When pattern matching. Library Modules | 79 lists The lists list-manipulation module is without a doubt the most used library module in all major Erlang systems. and you saw the various types of runtime errors in the preceding section. If your start/2 function did not return any data. separated by a colon (:) as in lists:split.[{crash. For example.OHS}} = lists:keysearch(old_heap_size. jamesBond}. In command 12.dog. kill it by calling exit(Pid."") of eof -> ok.<0. When the preceding function is applied to Y. Function. The trace event is generated and any return value is ignored. do not try to type functions directly in the shell. so not only does this subscriber database need to handle millions of lookups each day. and only once this was complete would the implementation begin. a match operation on a large table can therefore stop other processes from executing until the operation has traversed the whole table. LoopData}.[2. false 9> is_binary(Bin4). and composite data types. 306 defined. contracting. the per-process garbage collection mechanisms. instance} if Handler does not exist.g. Process Trace Flags The send flag traces all messages sent by a process. the absolute limit is in the hundreds of millions. 89 dependency considerations.exprs.{usr. While the world is struggling to find methods to facilitate porting applications to multicore processors. the call to the server has to be synchronous. 279 client function. and the first thing it does is to link to a nonexistent process. Args)) The second statement spawns a child. Although rarely done. Action.5}]} 6> Pid = ping:start().[read]).{102.. Introducing Records A record is a data structure with a fixed number of fields that are accessed by name. and—once you get used to accumulators—is more readable than the original version. and D. . as in: receive after ?TIMEOUT -> ok end After macro expansion in epp. [HandlerList])). and Match Specifications new Will trace all processes spawned after the call to the debugger. the selected clause expressions are evaluated in order and the result of the case construct is the result of the last expression evaluated. are usually referred to as fully qualified function calls. Db) of none -> {error. The following example demonstrates how you can rewrite an if statement using a case expression. or objects). {active..1}. Hint: use lists:foldl and try figure out why we prefer to use foldl rather than foldr. .5>>]. #usr{}} | {error.org/download . Module. instance}. and read independently of the program text. {node.. but ensure that the loop in the module is unique. • Look at lists that are not proper. Sending messages to non-registered processes Timeouts You saw that if a process enters a receive statement and none of the messages matches.instance} 11> db:module_info(attributes). Pid. instead of the process argument we demonstrated in the previous sections. The macro is used by putting a ? in front of the macro name.instance} 8> event_manager:stop(alarm).6>> binary_to_list/1 This is the inverse of list_to_binary/1. (Remember. using XHTML markup. [{alison.0>. for example. ignoring it in the callback function. CustId. By default. [] }] 386 | Chapter 17: Trace BIFs. 159 chapter exercises. the $Character notation is used. Originally.100. how you install it. If you are curious and want to read more about them. the list is empty. Use a transaction to guarantee that there are no race conditions.{2. That’s the Erlang way! If something goes wrong. Note the slightly different syntax to what you have read so far. The epmd Process When running the distributed Erlang examples in this chapter. an untyped chunk of content stored in memory.org/10. if not hours. Supervision tree in an application OTP behaviors include worker processes. opens a socket connection on port 1234. CustId) -> dets:delete(subDisk. and are there just for convenience. . [{io_handler. where the C node is acting as a client. /* Loop flag 17 int got. the process will continue running the old version of the module. {ok. 19 binary. 214 pattern matching. port_command(Port. no_list}. Upgrading module B The case of a running process whose defining module is upgraded is more complicated. the server will not deallocate the frequency and allow other clients to reuse it. 329 get_seq_token/0 function. We want to expand its features and allow it to handle more generic functionality. Other end -> exp11. Column} tuple. Figure 5-5. which simply changes the values of the two parameters until the base case is hit.Age.1. • If you instead execute spawn and link as two separate operations.switch@Vaio include lib ok The mnesia:create_schema(Nodes) command has to be executed on one of the connected nodes only. Socket} or {error.0>) in {io. disable_trace(Pid. io:format("hello~n"). len({_ | Tail]) -> 1 + len(Tail). which here is the single expression Y*X.13} 7> frequency:allocate(). The Erlang system uses a generational garbage collection mechanism. Sequential Programming The most common misconceptions regarding efficiency concern funs and list comprehensions. listToTree(Code1). The code server’s primary task is to manage the dynamic loading and purging of modules. encapsulate information that the users of the function do not need.0 of our usr application: {release. {name. but will match successfully in the second. if the entry exists. Pid. 17 unbound variables. 79 simple lookups. a sequence of “words” such as variables.14. .2. A message is received by: OtpErlangObject o = mbox.0>} 3> dbg:tp({io. What would you expect the global calls to be. 79–80 defined. Now that we have covered the code to start and interact with the frequency server. the following function merges two lists (of the same length) by interleaving their values: merge(Xs. 4}. We look at the code. which is shorthand for the tuple {blah. Pick out the base case and understand how the lists are broken up into a head and tail using the recursive definition of lists: 1> c(recursion). support. Free text comments in program modules. This base case will return the empty list: even([]) -> [].. As arguments. "23!=25852016738884976640000" ok Linked-in Drivers and the FFI By default. Distributed systems lie at the heart of modern computing. Erlang programs should run perfectly well on any system. . The lists module has a collection of them. pop}).{'$2'. Figure 15-1. dets:insert(subDisk. The echo process -module(echo). wrap a try . The guard expressions are a subset of the Erlang Boolean expressions that can only contain calls to a restricted set of functions together with comparisons and arithmetic operations. to conventional messages that are stored in the mailbox and handled in a receive statement. the database will become corrupt. 358 receiving messages. we want it to bring down all of its children. my_db:read(Key) ⇒ {ok. in command 5 in the preceding code. 2009. 32 records with typed fields. the other nodes take over the traffic.hrl header file in the wxErlang distribution. 13 OtpErlangPid from. documented in the tools reference manual from the Erlang online documentation. is the whole of the clause—that is. [{Key.. equipment state changes.48 seconds to spawn 100. the appropriate widget would be updated. which we cover in Chapter 12. {ok. {atomic.. wrap. send. (In larger systems.3. leaving you to talk to your heart’s content. Scott Lystig.cook}).2. we create a boot file which runs with the existing code path. you can otherwise move to the directory by using the cd(Directory) command in the Erlang shell.eval_exprs. . {shell. []. In the first call. 2 4> add_one:request(one). allowing us to look up and manipulate objects using any of the secondary fields (or keys) listed in the AttributeList. you should instead be using list_to_existing_atom/1. the company has become the world leader in Erlang-based consulting. and terminate when completed? It could be for every incoming instant message (IM) or buddy update coming into your IM server.~w. . Monitoring Clients Remember the section “A Client/Server Example” on page 119 in Chapter 5? The server is unreliable! If the client crashes before it sends the frequency release message. Try it out on your computer: 1> c(myring). Common Test gives a framework for complete Erlang-based systems. This will result in the FSM going back to the idle state (and you going back to sleep). Next. Unlike UDP. During the day they rest in wellconstructed. What if you need a supervisor that dynamically creates a child whose task is to handle a specific event. 357 trace facility.$r. as shown in Figure 20-1. All attributes and other module information can be retrieved by calling Mod:module_info/0 or selectively calling the Mod:module_info/1 function. . Res} -> Res after 1000 -> {error. _ -> filter(P.] In the example. 276 | Chapter 12: OTP Behaviors Note that the supervisor. 90–92 deadlocks. and continue assuming that the tables have been properly loaded. The date/0 function returns the current date as a tuple of {Year. -spec close_tables() -> any(). the system should handle the case where a file does not exist.com For more information about our books. Contrast this with the Windows XP version. 303 dirty_index_read function. assume that messages are timestamped with their send time so that they can be matched with their acknowledgment. which encapsulate all the ways in which a function can be applied successfully. loop(State) end. 402–410 modules. The usrRam table needs a key position specified. . expression22.” we mean a fun that is typed in and passed as a parameter. destroy(_Db) -> ok. After all. Keeping related functions close together makes your code easier to follow and inspect. ok There is nothing more to say when tests are successful. showPerson(#person{age=Age. the header. once} Will send the first message it receives to the socket. . We call them the old and the current versions. . {trace. Two Erlang rewrites were done of the DM and only one of the DCC. Applications have to follow a particular directory structure which dictates where beam. Even the most security-unconscious readers will have realized that basing your security on secret cookies alone is not very reliable.. Cmd}.{log_handler. Guardn are evaluated in turn one after another until one evaluates to true. regression tests must also pass. Do not append elements to the end of a list using ++ through List ++ [Element] or lists:append(List. we got rid of our central process altogether and used transactions. . You can deal with this in a number of different ways. the definition should be placed at the beginning of the module to stop others from using it in their modules. which formats it to the internal client/ server message format and sends it back to the client. 378 ? (question mark). When none of the clauses in a case statement match. you had to create three table entries for every user you inserted in the Transactions | 299 database? And what if you wanted to distribute this data across multiple nodes? As the usr Mnesia table contains distributed RAM and disk-based copies as well as an index. as deadlocks. (X. Sum. you need to be able to write down the funs that you pass as their arguments. In the preceding calls: SupervisorName Is either the process identifier of the supervisor or its registered name ChildSpec Is a single child specification tuple. Interworking with Java The JInterface Java package provides a high-level model of Erlang-style processes and communication in Java. Our coverage should be enough to get you started and give you the base from which to explore the library in more depth. The header has 10 mandatory fields—one of which consists of eight 1-bit flags—and an optional field. You can quickly establish that the database got corrupted and set about trying to find the ets:insert/2 call that wrote the entry into the ETS table. On the negative side. The registered echo process -module(echo).2.5}. If the process is not trapping exits and the reason is not normal. 226 information hiding. seeds. Message/binary >> = Payload. other tools we find helpful include the following: • Although EUnit provides the framework for unit testing. {ok.. have more than one generator. suggestion. Just as a list can be split in this way. For the time being. redundant power supplies. Key}. convert(dict. {shell.0. particularly when processes are distributed across different computers and the order in which messages are received will depend on ambient network conditions.0]}]}. 231– 242 operations on. 403–405. The timeout has been set to 30 seconds. and it might differ from the msisdn. WindowSize:16 This gives the DataOffset. 371 load_file function. denoted in the trace by the << symbols.17. As soon as the process enters a receive clause where none of the messages matches or its reduction count reaches zero. we removed the handling of unknown messages in the dp:handle call. Arg). We discuss these tools in Chapter 18. Arity}).[]}} ok In this example. avoid unnecessary process interaction and unnecessary concurrency. 231 socket files.{'_'. Two operations can be used as a workaround to this problem. kill). length. through triggers. #1. . we use the variable Frequencies for readability reasons. hello}. as long as they are defined in the module. You should register the server and access its services through a functional interface. and scheduled when it is moved from the suspended queue ready to execute. Socket. Recursion is the most useful and powerful of all the techniques in a functional programmer’s armory. Although another process might be allowed to execute a dirty read outside the scope of this process. By default. delete_disabled). An IM server informing the FSM that the user is logged on successfully would cause a state transition from the offline state to the online state. 200 map function. Calling erlang:trace(self(). [usr] (switch@Vaio)4> mnesia:transaction(fun() -> mnesia:read({usr. which can be split into other collections. Msg). and the fact that the frequency server is implemented as a registered Erlang process. MatchDesc} | {error. but next we match the four variables: DataOffset:4. will display the result. and finite state machines. as well as examples. make sure you know what you are doing. We now look at sizes and types in detail. This creates a named process called facserver.000 lines of code. The downside to this approach is that the application is unlikely to share the native look and feel of applications built for any one platform (and we’re sure many of you have experienced the frustration of using an application that fails to comply with the UI guidelines of your favorite platform).ireland. pong (<0. decoding. let’s look at an example module and the effect of software upgrade on it: 1 -module(modtest2). and from this the pid of the sender (line 20) and the integer being sent (line 21) can be extracted. 41 benchmarking. Even if you can execute most of your activities in parallel. Receiving the stop message results in terminate/1 traversing the list of handlers and calling Handler:terminate(Data) for every entry. Take particular note of the table properties. Software upgrade in action 1> cd("/Users/Francesco/database/"). Exercise 17-4: Who Is the Culprit? Determine which of the two authors of this book managed to single-handedly cause a nationwide outage of a mobile data network through the careless use of the dbg tracer tool. 148–154 runtime errors. true}.{badmatch. 2 2> math:add(one. using compile:file/2 with similar flags. open a UDP socket on port 1235. If your server is not expecting nonOTP-compliant messages.5). The full set is described in the manpage. nor with the help of the corporate marketing department. including functions for retrieving.. case evaluates an expression and matches the result against a list of patternmatching clauses. {protection. . and function clauses.london} 7> db_server:read(alison). these provide conversion to and from C structs similar to Erlang terms. generational garbage collector. The call: dbg:tracer(port. In command 4. we were given the same simulated world lab but had to solve it with Eiffel. Be very restrictive in trapping exits. and cd into any of the listed directories. If you open the manual page for the lists module.4. you will be able to do so with very little pain.12. . false}]). The second is 48 | Chapter 3: Sequential Erlang defined in the head of the second clause for g/1 and its scope is the entire body of this clause: f(X) g([0|Xs]) g([Y|Xs]) g([]) -> -> -> -> Y=X+1.[{vsn. With a tail-recursive function for every state. it is very hard to point to a single cause. -export([return/1]).unknown_msg}}] in function dp:process_msg/0 The error message tells us immediately that there is a case clause error in the process_msg/0 call. Rest)]. 378 >= (greater than or equal to) operator. What would be considered specific and change from process to process is how these events are handled.~w. wxWidgets has an object-oriented architecture.{badarith. Key} -> Pid ! db:read(Key. undefined 8> ets:info(usrRam). 226 ETS tables bags.3]) and foo(true.erl". receive {reply. calling the callback function Handler:handle_event(Event.. exp1n. .6}. {Module. This option. {disc_only_copies. a mobile phone application will need to access and manipulate subscriber details in handling calls as well as in billing and user support. Be kind to the others who will take over after you! 442 | Chapter 20: Style and Efficiency experienced and develop your programming style. When you execute your code.0>. Node} ! {self(). The page begins with links to its major sections. as you can see in commands 12 and 13. you have probably opened a single quote and forgotten to close it.Y) when not(X>Y) . telling the gen_server generic code that the second element of the tuple is the Reply to be sent back to the client. with the patterns of function calls mirroring the structure of the data itself. Result}. Pid). insert(X. 197 predefined in lists module. which is waiting for an incoming message.. switching between debugging and production modes or among different architectures. we will show how you can serialize binary trees in Erlang. . that the node() BIF returns the local node. . Pid) -> {{Free. you could write: 344 | Chapter 16: Interfacing Erlang with Other Programming Languages arr[0] = erl_mk_atom("ok"). if the empty list is sent to this function call. and I have never looked back. io:format("~p~n".5} Hello (<0. allowing you to identify the calling function. 206 rl command.29. loop/0]).4.100. Enough with the syntax and semantics. dict([Key|Tail]. A fun expression does the same thing. {B}} = {abc. You can use the shell command i() to find out what the currently executing processes in the runtime system are doing. {send_avg. timeout} being returned if no attempt is made to connect to that port. or 4.0}.0/src/usr. init() -> Frequencies = {get_frequencies(). with more specific details coming in subsequent sections. We will tell you how when we write these functions. The process on the receiving end will terminate with the same reason and propagate a new exit signal with its own pid to all the processes in its link set. where the order is given by the built-in order on the key field. Repeated calls to erlang:monitor(process. of these actions. isolate it in a common function. Erlang applications can be ported with virtually no changes. To create the process. Tests} Will run the tests in strict order {inparallel. The receive clause is a construct delimited by the reserved words receive and end. seg1/0 and seg2/0. 359 send flag.sos. 221. it is possible to generate different versions of code.call. The function treeToList/1 converts the tree to a list.'starting'}. It is also crucial to document dirty code. Essential Distributed Programming Modules A number of key modules support distributed programming in Erlang. and returns false otherwise. X + Y.?OPEN. concurrent. true Atoms are ordered in lexicographical order.B|C] = [1. If the code contained no errors. factorial(N) -> N * factorial(N-1). Binaries and Serialization | 207 Bitwise Operators The bit-level operators in Erlang can be applied to integers. .M1]. and in the pop-up window select the Open With option and choose “werl”. and Common Test.29. enhancing security in its distribution model has never been an issue. 180 ERLANG file extension. the next two examples illustrate the point: 8> io:format("the sum of ~W is ~.[]. dets:insert(usrDisk. The return_to event is generated when the call returns and the execution of the function is completed. The accept process continues receiving data from the client. The visibility of your systems gained through these extremely powerful BIFs greatly reduces the time spent troubleshooting.e. starts executing in the init/1 function. We will not go into the details of the various commands. used to model and texture polygon meshes.[]. There were two other processes. Until the time to start working on the next book comes.Zs) -> Zs.3.[{crash..2|[3|[]]]. This function initializes the LoopData and returns the tuple {ok. Fd) -> 136 | Chapter 5: Process Design Patterns {MegaSec. Other after Timeout -> exp1. 2}) Pattern matching will fail in the first clause. and arguments. Handlers can be implemented in separate modules and have to export a number of functions. [ClassN:]ExceptionPatternN [when ExceptionGuardSeqN] -> ExceptionBodyN end Here is an example of this in action.234E-10 is the same as writing 1. field2. possibly located on different nodes. In the example."Open saved\tCtrl-O"). {owner. the function would throw an exception. . {trace. The second argument to the trace BIF is the atom true or false.B. The major difference is the following call: gen_tcp:listen(PortNumber. You might recall from Chapter 11.nonexistent_function. it will remove that flag from the list: [{[enable. for the beginner. allocate} -> {NewFrequencies. . 1> [X+1 || X <. We don’t really need the LoopData variable in our server. disk-based tables. 223–224 math module. The Trace BIFs | 357 If you want a process other than the one calling the trace/3 BIF to receive the trace events. 369 format/2 function. true -> disabled end. we mean legal data structures. including those that the Erlang runtime system uses as well as those you have created. or services: add_usr(#usr{msisdn=PhoneNo. there was very little scientific evidence to back up these claims. . the port is opened by the call to open_port/2. {[]. the list List is examined using the member function from the lists library module to determine whether the atom foo is a member of the List. Exercises Exercise 12-1: Database Server Revisited Rewrite Exercise 5-1 in Chapter 5 using the gen_server behavior module. and Match Specifications Exercise 17-3: Tracing ETS Table Entries A crash report was logged. The database is running! Create a distributed table: foo@localhost 4> mnesia:create_table(muppet. but we often use the expression to describe arbitrarily complex data structures. 252 | Chapter 11: Distributed Programming in Erlang Figure 11-5. showPerson/1]). Getting away from writing dirty code can sometimes be hard and other times impossible. Distribution can be seen in tightly coupled parallel processors. Id) supervisor:restart_child(SupervisorName. you can return {stop.37. or with an error if the request did not succeed (see Figure 5-1). 3. init. [global]).. We used the “don’t care” variable (_) to signify that we are not interested in the value of the head of the list. ping} -> spawn(crash. and within an application. 2 16> record_info(size. receive {reply. Knowing that a socket can receive only one packet at any one time meant that we could use this socket process to handle the call. 293 wildcards don’t care variables. The Data can be either one of the arguments bound in the fun head or the return value of one of the other literal functions described in this section.tftp_lib. it was the Plain Old Telephony System (POTS) finite state machines described in this section that the development team used to test their ideas of what Erlang should look like.3]. J. 330 client/server model chapter exercises. It is needless to say that Erlang and TDD go hand in hand. {ok. wtp.Bs} <.0> 4> echo ! stop.[ Person || {Person. and using these tables write a program to do the following: • Check that each message receives a unique acknowledgment. as did the Ericsson proprietary languages EriPascal and PLEX. To decode them all. {unexpected_success. Each node has a single cookie value at any time.false). Ensure that you have a process for every concurrent activity. Running the test/0 function results in the following behavior: 1> echoFac:test(). tracing on the shell could not be enabled because the shell was itself the process receiving the trace events. 33 overview. Type} and {clear_alarm.0. Variable}? loop(State) -> receive {Mod.5. say—and then Y will run through the list [1. Message passing is often hidden in functional interfaces. {ok. In the following interaction. remember: variables can be bound only once! This might be a problem in the Erlang shell. returning ok or {error. The atom 'EXIT' is used to tag the tuple and facilitate pattern matching. As a result. 31. SYN:1. . he also started teaching undergraduate students at the IT University of Gothenburg. we’ve looked at executing sequential code in a single process. Long names: erl –name foo . Nonstandard BIFs. We will start with a simple iterative function in C that sums the integers from 1 to the boundary passed as an argument. traverses the list. as described in Chapter 9. The 'P' flag differs from the 'E' flag in that code transformations necessary for record operations are not done by 'P'. Test-Generating Functions Beyond a single test.read/2. country="South Africa". We describe the Erlang way of dealing with concurrency in Chapters 4 through 6. CustId. Finally. The reason you use atoms in Erlang. -behaviour(application). This chapter shows how you can write down the types of functions as a part of their formal documentation in Erlang. It receives the stop message sent to it by its parent. 192 overview. Erlang distribution is built on top of TCP. Parallelizing legacy C and Java code is very hard. These different kinds of events are represented by a collection of atoms. the rabbits would get fat and split in two. These are available as macro definitions in wxErlang in wx. 249 object access and evaluation. have the same name as the module in which they are implemented. These worker processes have built-in robustness. member(H.3}. 391 serialization. .6}.1. Sender. [Item]). 378 blogging applications. But you can also use Mnesia as a RAM-only database that only keeps its schema in RAM. 280 error handling. [4. the variable X is a bit variable. {ok. as these would be stack-allocated in the wxWidgets system. . that is. %% @spec create_tables(string()) -> {ok. io:format(Str. any process that attempts to wait for the semaphore after stop/0 is called will be killed unconditionally in the terminate/0 function. private A public table is readable and writable by all processes. [monday. to find out more details about any of these functions. 113 which_applications function. To conclude this section. {erl_eval. 4}} which represents ((2+3)-4). If anything other than a number is passed. Flags which can be passed to it include the following: -help Prints a list of debugging commands. 14 15 do(M) -> 16 foo ! {self().7}] prettyList/1 This function will print the output of accumulate so that on the list [{1}. {Ref. We will name the function bump/1 and divide the problems into smaller tasks that are easier to solve. 300 dirty operations. although rare. Surname. LoopData) -> {reply.{98. you have to fragment it into multiple Dets tables. lists:seq(1. which gives you a framework for unit testing in Erlang. 334 Persistent Lookup Table (PLT). -export([add_handler/3. Some of the libraries consist of what we in the Erlang world call built-in functions (BIFs). If you are using catch and throw. 1> {ok. the expression returns a tuple of the format {'EXIT'. Here is an example of their use: -ifdef(debug). . If the old list is empty. gen_fsm. • EDoc is a documentation generator: a standard style of HTML document is generated from the structured information in each module. 364 send/1 function. and then will add −2 to it. Benchmarks comparing Erlang concurrency models to their counterpart in C# or Java are magnitudes better. {ok.2|foo] are syntactically valid Erlang data structures. name="Joe". We will mention these BIFs and others in their relevant chapters throughout the book. . The fact that Erlang handles them † Or any other relative of your choice who tends to call you very early on a Saturday morning. where the time to send a message is negligible and constant. it terminates. Nationality} -> {error. The resulting code will be: bump(List) -> bump_acc(List.97. Service. available under “Open With” when you right-click an Erlang source file: Erl Opens the file in an Erlang shell from the Command Prompt program 445 Werl Opens an Erlang shell in a window supporting copy and paste operations more accessibly than the standard Command Prompt program To run Erlang with options set—for example. You can pass it as an argument to message/1. The second is to improve clarity in your code and shorten the length of a line. The reason for not having to declare variables is that Erlang has a dynamic type system. . -record(person. you can just start your system. loop(NewState). In the handle_cast/2 callback. the –smp option required to run wxErlang—you can run these commands from the Run window.. process_msg() -> case ets:first(msgQ) of '$end_of_table' -> ok. sms].4] 4> hof1:palins([[2. 371 rtp function. . .0> erl_prim_loader <0. I am sure he will be thrilled to receive your bug reports. which allows you to store. The Erlang runtime system and its tools will treat all applications equally. init. however. NewLoopData} or {stop. When a function is called.18. 25. byte. print out the time.4. script files had to be generated manually. really cool! Originally inspired by the Smalltalk language. you can choose between rounding and truncating it: atom_to_list/1. Msg) -> receive after Time -> Pid ! Msg end. fac(ERL_INT_VALUE(argp))). 290 gen_server module call/2 function. as well as ensuring that Mnesia is not started. in the example of data structure traversal.bartender}. . is to ensure that guards are free of side effects.{owner.[]. press Enter in both shells.N}. {clear_alarm. {attributes. {2. 304 indexing. 287 arguments fun expressions..[ireland. The second expression will add 1 to 0 and compare it to the contents of the variable Int. 276 processes function. Upon receiving the stop message."/home/francesco/examples/demo.3] are selected. %% File: "usr_db. . to display it in the shell instead. There are no restrictions on the other fields. EnableList} Will disable the flags defined in the DisableList while atomically enabling the ones defined in the EnableList. § https://www. OTP Behaviors . 303 dirty_read function.<0. my_db:match(Element) ⇒ [Key1. there is no risk of any other process deleting the entry between the index_read/3 and the write/1 function calls.true}. classes. To represent a tuple. 0. . Mnesia has built-in support for fragmented tables. To avoid this problem. an Erlang IDE based on NetBeans. Function. the dets module exports a function called traverse that we can use: restore_backup() -> Insert = fun(#usr{msisdn=PhoneNo. _. not only do we make the code more readable. _From. Event}).5432}. 53. A Mutex Semaphore Let’s look at another example of a finite state machine. stop/1. "/usr/local/lib/erlang/lib/typer-0.{'_'. {ok.. why not speak with Ericsson and get it over with? We quickly changed our minds when we realized the research project was being done in cooperation with Motorola Labs. which aims to be a PHP extension with a simple set of functions for turning a PHP thread into an Erlang C node. inefficiencies. But looking at the bigger picture. but will not affect your schema. . {ok. as well as concentrating on the relevant details: it is clear from the definition of birthday that it operates on the age field and leaves the others unchanged. qsort([X|Xs]) -> qsort([Y || Y<-Xs. It returns {ok. The result is always the value of Expr. and O’Reilly Media. here is a summary of the exported gen_server API. 11 kernel. After a second iteration and a bit of thinking. you can add a timeout in the client code: remote_call(Message. 101 Suppose you now upgrade the definition of a/1 in line 21 to the following: a(N) -> N. disabled}. larger than. is 10: $a $A $\n The Erlang Shell Start an Erlang shell by typing erl at the command prompt in a Unix shell. consider the following: -define(FUNC. LoopData) -> Reply = usr_db:delete_usr(CustId). where we were looking for debug messages. true (alpha@STC)2> net_kernel:connect('gamma@STC').Phone]).5600 8> 1 + 2 + 3 + 5 + 8. examples include: 'January' 'a space' 'Anything inside quotes{}#@ \n\012' 'node@ramone. ChildList). they go very. timeout} Is used to provision users. but also the names of the arguments that are automatically extracted from the source code. The arrow (->) separates the head of the clause from its body. [B|_]. it would mean closing the ETS and Dets tables. 12 Erlang comparison. the code might compile without any warnings. and arity as well as the pid of the process from when it started running (in) to when it stops running (out).. Should any of the nodes fail the load balancers will automatically redirect the traffic to the nodes that are still alive. Starting Mnesia Once your schema has been created.30. you can start to think bigger! The website for this book and the Appendix contain links about where you can go to learn more about Erlang itself. This. CustId.return_error. {ok. instance} 4> my_db:read(foo).0> erl_ddll:init/1 32 0 <0. 217. delete_disabled() -> call(delete_disabled).2."Joe".100}. Count) -> {ok. such as the storage provided by a distributed filesystem or database. Generic Servers | 271 set_status(CustId.[bag]). encapsulating it in a fun and executing it in a transaction. Each successful match reports the second and first fields. 378 supervisor behaviors and.2}.. updated. but once it’s done. {person. 125–126 process starvation. taking a leaf from the Java and C++ communities. 368 event manager. '_'} will enable the tracing of all calls of all arities defined in Module.8. Applications and Modules A collection of tightly interacting modules in Erlang is called an application. and handle_info. we assume that the child process is started using the spawn_link/3 BIFs. the dbg Tracer. 11. 33–38. Take the following simple example of a one-argument function to calculate the length of a list: listlen([]) -> 0. Data) -> Pid = spawn(generic_handler. telecoms). The literal call message(Data) sends a message with the Data to the tracer process. Note that in the construction of the text control the Frame is passed as the parent object. 184 add_pathz function.32. Going back to the function area example.. fault tolerance. true 15> ets:match_object(countries. there are mechanisms for interworking with C. . Status}). MsgId). 24 property. they prefer eucalyptus forests containing a vegetative layer of tussock grass. on termination of the spawned process.11. When they had eaten enough carrots. LNs}. library functions. while others would run in other directions. the only visible node is alpha. A process that is not trapping exit signals terminates if it receives a nonnormal exit signal. handling all the complex control logic.{error. the tools that support program development.atom()}. Spend some time making sure you understand them. Time: 18. . []). You will find the epmd command useful when troubleshooting problems relating to distribution. which will be bound only once a message has been received.id = 2.0}. Pay particular attention to the child and the supervisor specifications returned by the init/1 function: -module(usr_sup). Breakpoints can be set only in executable expressions. given by typing code:root_dir() within a running node. creating an entry in the index and ETS tables together with a backup in the Dets table. tstFun(Z. Had the sockets been running in active mode. Plan==postpay -> Rec = #usr{msisdn = PhoneNo. binary_to_term/1 This is the inverse of term_to_binary/1. os. It is possible to explicitly reclaim memory allocated to a Class widget using wxClass:destroy/1 on the object. ports. 7. . and one for the index. 230 open_file/1 function. -export([lookup_msisdn/1. if kept up-to-date. and should be used only for debugging purposes! {set_tcw. . We’ll start the supervisor using the start_link/0 call. while the handle_cast/2 and handle_call/2 are called by the behavior process.} In the preceding code. Without any @spec information.[sqrt/1]) as a directive in your module would allow you to rewrite the function clause calculating the area of a triangle call.0. _From. "1. • Ericsson uses Erlang in its support nodes. seg2() -> << 0:16.. atom()}). Pid. and so Other will be bound to any argument passed to flatten.0. spawn(frequency. 378 ordered sets building indexes. Remember. _data. this external program is spawned with the given list of Options. prepay). 152–154. The main generator runs through all the books in the database. a frame is created on the call stack with information regarding where to return. Description} occurs. Further documentation for wxWidgets is available online—linked from the wxErlang documentation—and in the book Cross-Platform GUI Programming with wxWidgets. enabling you to debug and tune systems much more effectively.0>. revAll([]) -> []. node/1.ireland. You would benefit from copying the recursive examples we went through into a module called recursion and testing them with different parameters. provides the means to start the process synchronously. but a variable one in case we need to write an entry and rehash the table as a result. . {ping. This function call will return the empty list if the object does not exist or a list of one or more records if the object exists and the table is a set or bag. albeit at a slower rate. event handlers. Exit signals When process A fails. and ctog functions. . Central to the challenges of distributed systems is robustness in the event of failure. _B. By pattern matching on the AdminState and the OperState in the function clause. but on expansion a legitimate function (or top-level form) definition is produced. 341 EPP (Erlang Preprocessor). When prototyping with the early versions of Erlang between 1987 and 1991. we used a bidirectional link instead of the unidirectional monitor. Calling factorial(2) results in the second clause matching. country="Italy". _Msg) -> {ping. measure garbage collection.hrl"). _Reason} -> NewFrequencies = exited(Frequencies. you would have to check its existence. erlang:get_cookie() This returns the current cookie for the local node if it is alive.are right-associative. receive {reply. and is given a one-sentence overview: the first sentence of its @doc tag. Sockets allow programs written in any language to exchange data on different computers by exchanging byte streams transmitted using the protocols of the Internet Protocol (IP) Suite.993. and therefore currently held in the process mailbox. as it handles the socket connections and most of the parsing. The premise behind this approach is that much of the data stored in the heap is short-lived and will not survive to the first garbage collection. ever use the tuple representations of records in your programs. This is the call you will probably be using most of the time. bump_acc([Head | Tail].1]}] In our example. 229 creating.3]. Modules Functions are grouped together in modules. ~i}". 28 Erlang type notation. .hello. "Williams". in little endian. {dict. defined. as the previous clause selects all the even numbers. or insert the tuple in a tuple (as in {{slot. The various menus allow you to manipulate the node and presentation. this is illustrated in Figure 11-5. {set_status.List.1. all built-in functions were considered to belong to the module erlang.[francesco]}. you take your phone off the hook. {_. [_|Tail]) -> keysearch(Key. 225 selective receives. When the process has finished handling the files."1. And.Age. . this time in C. actions implemented as function calls. they can be used to represent all sorts of complex data structures. When executing an expression and a runtime error occurs. and delete operations with Mnesia dirty operations. procs}]} ] The syntax of the specification body to enable and disable calls is of the form {enable_trace. ets:delete(subIndex. 300 dirty_delete function. The loop function is not called. In large Erlang systems. We want to extend the {Module.2. -export([init/0]). the message {'DOWN'. How do processes with many messages in their inbox behave? The answer is badly. . When you call the function systools:make_rel(Name. Bjarne. Pattern matching will fail in the first clause. 54 bump_reductions function. you retrieve the socket messages using calls to the functions gen_tcp:recv/1 and gen_tcp:recv/2. {pets. It also makes debugging of errors related to incorrect values easy. which inserts a Key and Element pair into the database. . processes will receive different messages and handle them in different ways. 385 list supported.47. discussed in the section “Working in Ruby: erlectricity” on page 351.$o>>.3. Figure 6-6. and loading a module during a time-critical operation. and time. <0. :: enabled | disabled). In your start script (or in the environment running the Erlang process). [francesco. You can follow this example in Figure 4-3. as doing so will enhance their reusability.15. {ok. because all calls from the shell to the library were fully qualified. 293 When to Use Mnesia Configuring Mnesia Setting Up the Schema Starting Mnesia Mnesia Tables Transactions Writing Reading and Deleting Indexing Dirty Operations Partitioned Networks Further Reading Exercises 293 295 295 296 296 299 299 300 301 302 304 305 306 14. procs}]}]). command_menu_selected). as shown in Figure 14-2. 220 | Chapter 10: ETS and Dets Tables The first key in the table is given by ets:first/1. It allows the user to step through programs while inspecting and manipulating variables. as in the following: NewPerson = Person#person{age=37} In such a case. [{add_two. the compiler will automatically pick up the version of the application pointed to by the code search path. Exercise 7-7: Counting Calls How can you use the Erlang macro facility to count the number of calls to a particular function in a particular module? 170 | Chapter 7: Records and Macros Exercise 7-8: Enumerated Types An enumerated type consists of a finite number of elements.send. but as soon as your code gets into production and the line length increases. “These are the exercises. And finally. but we also reduce the level of nested clauses to zero and reduce the overall code size: ‡ The Wrangler refactoring tool will indicate this and a number of other bad smells in Erlang code. true 4> code:get_path(). based on some preconfigured rules. a value still has to be included when returning the {ok. 392 | Chapter 17: Trace BIFs.sweden}. Timeout) The call will return a tuple of the format {ok.Pid}. update_usr(Usr). 331 open_file/1 function. Result} = mnesia:transaction(F). P. {error. embedded within comments. start() -> register(db_server. constructs a new wxMenu object and assigns a reference to this object to the File variable. []}). as it serializes all requests through a process and can become a bottleneck. ** exception exit: killed 12> usr_db:lookup_msisdn(700000001). {get_tcw} Returns the trace control word previously set. 10 C++ comparison. • If the NextWord is different.111. If you start receiving thousands of requests per second. {<<131. 117. and we forget to put the argument in a list when using apply: 5> apply(sequential. ln .2.. 10.10. You can choose your mode by starting Erlang with the erl -mode Mode directive.Arg2]). let alone obvious to understand.html and available in archived form at Nabble. PidB will receive it. First. and delete files. {Handler. as the chance that someone has written and released it under a friendly open source license is good. 56 db module code example. you would instead get a list of all nodes on which the traces were enabled. be careful of large bursts of memory usage. instance} end. 123 Amazon.[N]). a list of the form [X|Xs] can match only with a nonempty list. Msg}. returning "Hello Concurrent World". Comparisons were made of the performance. 399 supervision trees.0>> 7> Type. however. Records and ETS Tables With us having let you in on the internal implementation of Erlang records.[]. 226 info/1 function. 0) initializes the connection mechanism. binaries. the addition of hardware and nodes. Flag) when Flag==true.Element) ⇒ ok. {request. Reply. we also provide an introduction to the OTP design patterns in Chapter 12. 347–349 communicating data via. creating a fully meshed network. {error. The second handler that we implement logs all the events of the format {EventType. Let’s test the preceding example for 100. terminate(Fd) -> file:close(Fd).. 290 | Chapter 12: OTP Behaviors Event handlers and managers are another behavior implemented in the gen_event library module. 'Data' confirms the user has subscribed to a data plan. Moreover. the listener process becomes the accept process and is ready to receive binaries in passive mode. or generate a pid using the pid/3 shell function.'instance'}. are documented in the ERTS User’s Guide. 342 erl_init function. and reporting errors. https://www. the RecordType has to be a hardcoded literal giving the record type required. 254 interworking with Java.app. request({delete_usr. Shutdown. successfully pattern-matches the {Pid. the Erlang node will not start. . you use the following function: gen_udp:send(Socket.\. {'or'. 110 chapter exercises. Alas. 37 pattern matching and. 175 monitor/2 function. are environment variables. and commands 7 and 8 show that this is now successful. Guards are of the format {Guard. This will give you a complete overview of what is happening (or not happening) and should help you solve the exercise.0.jar This value is supplied thus to the compiler: javac -classpath ". the process manager deals with the concurrent ones. gives the number of bits to be matched to that variable. we need a rather more elaborate setup. Record fields can contain any valid Erlang data types. The system received a packet through a socket. The attach window Exercises Exercise 3-1: Evaluating Expressions Write a function sum/1 which. patterns. and arguments do not have to be known at compile time. normal} Terminates with reason killed Receives {'EXIT'. it returns an 'error' tuple with an atom describing the error.[{matched. Finite State Machines Erlang processes can be used to implement finite state machines. The sources are provided for compilation on Unix operating systems.$ . these play a role in pattern matching and are discussed in the section “Pattern Matching” on page 33. menu items..0 returns true. [B|_]. abc 2> 'abc_123_CDE'.[]}]} 4> flush().” notation. and then send a message to it. with Erlang greatly outperforming both languages.do_not_exist. LoopData}. In particular.[X]) end. as in live systems. The real strength of binaries lies in the fact that each expression in Bin can be qualified by a size and/or type qualification: Expr:Size/Type These qualifications allow fine control of formats of numbers. Flag) when Flag==true. the elements can be of different types. is_constant. with variations. unlink(Pid) Removes a link to Pid. Unfortunately. The empty list is denoted by []. thus avoiding intranetwork connectivity fees. this is called a linked-in driver. it is called a tag.2.) -> .#Fun application:start(usr). . #Fun From ! {self(). {name. as is all too easy in threading models. and Python. 17. start_link(Name. For asynchronous message requests. and find quick answers when you need the most accurate. stockholm. 80 quotation marks atom syntax. <0. def. float_to_list/1. This is a useful option in embedded systems where memory is limited. you will start getting serious performance problems: double([X|T]. Port = open_port({spawn. The result need not be a complete Erlang expression or a top-level form (i. 391 chapter exercises. In Example 2-1. as shown in Figure 6-8. {1. where you specify the traced process together with the c flag. EDoc supports wiki-style formatting instead of XHTML. 342 OtpErlangBoolean class. leaf_test() -> ?assertEqual(tree0() . usr_db:restore_backup().3. receive {read. set to disabled. As processes do not share memory. and end. either directly or in fully qualified form. but optimizations applied between releases 7 and 12 have meant that it’s no longer true that tail recursion will give you a more efficient program. The code server. Imagine you are tracing received messages. Message Passing Processes communicate with each other using message passing. Upgrading Processes Now that we have looked at software upgrade in more detail. to use the ?assert macro—but you don’t want to generate tests.578633. Information about nodes is. Y > X]). 28. spawn(event_manager. 2. .four. which can be called for further matches by passing it to ets:select/1. ??? 10> ets:match(countries. The concept of call by reference does not exist. but removes the {_. Do it once and you might get away with it. If the phone is in the idle state and you take it off the hook. what alias should be used."Mike". running an interpreted module and exiting. '*'. The Erlang Type System The reason for not having a more elaborate type system is that none of the Erlang inventors knew how to write one. []). ** exception error: no match of right hand side value {23. .29|. the usr entries and indexes stored in memory will be lost.Text). 3. 266–276 overview. purging old versions of code b() Prints the current variable bindings f() “Forgets” all the current variable bindings 446 | Appendix: Using Erlang f(X) “Forgets” the binding for the variable X The history of commands and their results are remembered: h() Will print the history list (which has a default length of 20. control software for wireless base stations.120858100> 19> lists:filter(Positive.[francesco]}] 9> [{Book. By making the process handling the message terminate with a case clause error the termination would affect only processes handling messages originating from hardware that should not have been connected to the system. What we would have expected is the tuple {error.fish])). the expression Int = 1 is used to compare the contents of the variable Int to the integer 1. 397 functions and operations. '$2'}. "Nystrom"}. TraceFlags) is ideal for trace and profile functions executed from the shell.eval_loop. . Suppose you want to define the birthday function. the runtime system compares an internal identifier in a single operation. Erlang is the perfect fit for these types of applications. Expr) Will evaluate the Expr. you have the flexibility to choose efficient communication protocols between your external program and an Erlang node. if you change the –spec for add_usr to the following: -spec(add_usr(#usr{}) -> integer()). instead. and. . We would instead add the calls create_tables/0 and ensure_loaded/0 and keep the entire client API: -module(usr). []}. and then to decode them separately (as in commands 6 and 7). as programs are meant to run nonstop for many years and the same shell is used to interact with them. but also in the remaining 15. 326 closures (see functions) cmd/1 function..3]} 6> {Bin4. 330 gen_udp module. message(Data) Generates a trace event with the Data. or finite list of items such as rooms. As records are valid data types.3]. we mean both supervisors and workers belonging to a particular supervisor. To delete an object. you pass the {tracer. a macro rather than a function needs to be used.com/. that depends on another module that (through a chain of dependencies) depends on module X.. NickName]). loop(). {module. https://www.debug}]). 285 mnesia module. You should always implement a process loop and its peripheral functions in one module. which you can use to lay out graphical items without explicitly setting the size of the various widgets involved. So. the underlying system needs to perform a subscriber lookup to ensure that your account is enabled to send and receive premium-rated messages. Function. and so on. {likes. you can see the fun expression exactly “wraps up” the particular behavior to be mapped or the property to be filtered. Three nodes running on two hosts Distributed Computing in Erlang: The Basics | 247 Figure 11-2. and especially old posts in newsgroups and mailing list archives. echoFac. the result is a fully meshed network of nodes. {ok. with all of the trace output being redirected to a single tracer. In a similar way.httpc_manager. you must use a GUI toolkit that will run on multiple 309 platforms. . the dbg Tracer. which in turn means reasoning in a different way to what one may be accustomed to. follow the instructions that come with the distribution. let’s go through a practical example where the format of loop data needs to be changed in a running loop. a derivative of the Mozilla Public License. this value is a function. You can choose your settings by picking options in the File menu. Erlang processes can do just that by using the receive . >.1}.[]}]} In the preceding example. Be very careful with the process dictionary. . Write a function that prints out the even integers between 1 and N. .2. and the name is apparent when viewing the table information. The flags are the same as those that can be used in the erlang:trace/3 BIF. 144. Some tools come as a part of the Erlang distribution. instance} -> {error. one of Ericsson’s competitors.2. Count) end. {error. [[2. just as though you were calling a function. 295 starting and stopping. {leaf. lbs]}) end. The same rules as earlier also apply to '$_' and '$$': namely.erl:41: Call to missing or unexported function unicode:characters_to_binary/2 re. The problem is that an erroneous linked-in driver will cause the entire Erlang runtime system to leak memory.erlangprogramming. 221 multicore processing and.. 89. Date. making them appear and behave like distributed Erlang nodes.1). it was a result of Erlang and its lightweight concurrency model being the right tool for the task. Concurrency-Related Bottlenecks Processes are said to act as bottlenecks when. but ensure that they make sense and are easy to understand. []}. using a function from the regexp module and a macro definition to hide the details of the punctuation on which words are split: -define(Punctuation. 276–280 testing. resulting in nested records.exprs.. and whereis(Alias). 367 set_on_spawn flag.PhoneNo}] -> {ok. CallBackModule. available on Sourceforge. Reason}. where Flag is set to true.Bin5} = split_binary(Bin3. the hash function will return 10 unique memory locations. Flag) when Flag==true.{'_'.2.10|<<"Hello World">>]} ok In the preceding code.” but don’t add to its expressiveness. Concurrency Operations that require a lot of memory will affect performance. The command to send the message between the two nodes has exactly the same form as in the nondistributed case: Pid!Message. Microseconds} passed since January 1. . the process itself.Field operations must contain literal atoms. . 174 writing objects. * 1: syntax error before: 'catch' 4> X = (catch 1/0).” University of Kent. 23]. or placed between their two arguments: 1> not((1<3) and (2==2)). and 3 in turn.3. Furthermore. Try to minimize their usage.. .[{options. retrieved through a call to the BIF self(). errors. exp2n.[{u. the process is spawned and linked to the parent. buf. Ref}. Introduction to OTP Behaviors OTP behaviors are a formalization of process design patterns.6. {file_size. TypEr and Dialyzer are the result of the High Performance Erlang (HiPE) team’s research at Uppsala University.msisdn}) end end. month('March') -> 3. Key}.3}} Finally. record_info(fields. If the receiving process is trapping exits.1]) = [{1}. false}]). 298 write/1 function. . examples. Sum) when Index =< Boundary -> sum_acc(Index + 1. which it applies to every element in the list. If a new element is added after you started your traversal (either by the process traversing the table or by another process).id. The specification would trigger a trace event if the call to foo(1. and as a result. At any one time. Length) -> Sum/Length. This section shows how you can incorporate this style of testing into EUnit. the second is used to interface the customer service software to provision the database with users and the services they are entitled to use. {version. It guarantees that during the traversal.~w. for dealing with audit and trace logs. Options) This starts a listener socket. the registry system for storing key-value pairs. data. {children. This is known as the tracer process. Fun. and terminate/1 functions? -module(server). They are picked up by the new call setup application running on the O&M; node. however. It can make the code hard to follow and will initially confuse the most experienced of Erlang programmers. 405–407 edoc module application/1 function. wxWidgets contains a collection of standard identifiers for various common elements. and Match Specifications section will introduce you to the way in which tracing works in Erlang. The init/1 function is the only callback function that needs to be exported. rather than raw IP addresses such as 192. Node Names and Visibility As we said before.hrl. giving us access to all of the entries we had prior to terminating the shell. The beauty of the trace BIF is that you can use it without having to trace-compile the code. and '$$' returns the list of all bound variables. If you really have to use catch and throw.. true (alpha@STC)3> nodes(). terminate(_Reason. 414 list_to_atom/1 function. packing the bits in each word with as much information as possible.{cat. '$3'}}and {'=:='. 440 recv/1 function. The cover font is Adobe ITC Garamond. 397 example. ant ] )"}. loop. sum = 0. and can be used to manipulate. Have a look at the usr.usrDisk} 14> usr_db:lookup_msisdn(700000001). If so.usrRam}. Data} end. . event(Event. When the structure is serialized. In natural languages. No beam file containing the object code is produced. %int() %term() %atom(). ok (switch@Vaio)10> usr:add_usr(700000002.[{exception."INETS CXC 138 49"}. 378 greater than or equal to (>=) operator. {reply. • RabbitMQ.3]--[1. deallocate. because it doesn’t belong to any particular module. 323–327 software development. • You have to decide whether you should register a process. it is possible to run an external program in the same thread as the Erlang system. 1. and we check whether the first element is the one we are looking for.[{['_']. Pid. You control recursion using various conditional constructs that enhance the expressive power of pattern matching. it will always use the definition in the current version of the module.[]. Rest/binary>>) -> gen_tcp:send(Socket. [{alison. Once the three nodes have been started. which selects only those Xs that pass this test. true -> disabled end.12. The purpose of listing them is twofold. or printing out internal data structures. It makes the order of clauses in the receive statement unimportant. 212 | Chapter 9: More Data Types and High-Level Constructs CHAPTER 10 ETS and Dets Tables Many practical systems need to store and retrieve large amounts of data within demanding time constraints. one way to start a werl shell in the right directory is to right-click a . Type. Starting it manually.0> otp_ring0:start/2 987 Reds Msgs 2684 0 * Partially because the return values of the operations in the shell are cached.org/workshop/). {send_event. Flow of execution through pattern matching B B 2 B C B = = = = = = 2.com.status = disabled. they tend to create one for every task.3. we tested it from the Erlang shell (see the section “A Mobile Subscriber Database Example” on page 231). wxMenu:append(File. It will speed your application by increasing the number of asynchronous threads in the virtual machine that handle file I/O. SecondaryKey. of processes will be created throughout the system’s lifetime.2. 378 libraries development considerations.. expressed in his keynote at OSCON in July 2008: If somebody came to me and wanted to pay me a lot of money to build a large scale message handling system that really had to be up all the time. the advice is to make it crash. Putting It Together: RPC Revisited The following Erlang code sets up a factorial server on the node called bar on the host STC: setup() -> spawn('bar@STC'. you have to redirect these messages to another process. There are also a number of ways to see whether a module is already loaded: • Try typing in part of the module name in the Erlang shell and pressing the Tab key. Working with the countries ETS table earlier: 16> ets:select(countries. Sum + Index). 296–298 transactions. 213.[1] returns [1]. [1] 8> Tail1. The history of Erlang is important in understanding its philosophy. more recently. we describe the main functions that read from standard input and write to standard output. Handler:handle_event(Event.† TCP segments consist of a header (with a defined structure) followed by data. these will all be on one node. treeToList({node. An OTP application is a reusable component that packages library modules together with supervisor and worker processes. The data structure returned by the dict module might appear strange at first.0 usr. and you get back the string notation containing the capital letter U. including the identification number of the node (1 here) and the cookie that it is to use. 102. 344 erl_global function.3}]}}} 8> exception:try_wildcard(0). . . 14. With distribution built into the language. its arguments. 164 reduction steps. And if you denote the integers using the ASCII integer notation $Character. new() -> gb_trees:empty(). Bernt. A resource file associated with every application not only describes it. {add_handler. your bug is not reproducible anymore. only the schema directory for the node running on that computer would have been created. discovering there is no mail.wine]}] } ] Or.119.19. Figure 10-3. . palins([]) -> []. and then for every recursive iteration. loop/0]).4}] 12> [ {X.Help. sum_acc(Index. .16. you might have several versions of the same module.'$1']]}]). do not hardcode them. The tuple contains the control atom reply. 287–290 rem operator. as we described for other programming languages in Chapter 16. '$0'}. This is memorably summarized by one of the pioneers in the field."4. monitors them. []). . [{'_'. . and you can easily reproduce your error. Our program is given in one file.person}) Records | 163 end. you might want to send an SMS or SNMP‡ trap. following the message passing protocols between the client and server and the sequential aspects of the loop function. and. and preprocessing. whereas data that survives its first collection tends to be much longer-lived. do not forget to terminate your directives with a full stop: -import(math. A sign The valid signs are signed and unsigned (the default). the end result was the same: lots of fun hours doing lots of fun stuff at a fraction of the effort it would have taken with other languages. Msg])when Id /=1. you will have to fragment your tables and possibly distribute them across many nodes. because the same queue can be represented in different ways in this new implementation. 66 or logical operator. .108.erlang File Exercise 173 176 179 180 182 182 186 186 9. italicized in the example.0> with exit value: {badarith. a few weeks programming can make a type system that handles 95% of the language. so once they have been bound. [1000000]). write a function that.3. If the tracer was unable to connect to a remote node. sleep(T) -> receive after T -> true end. init() -> free(). Remote procedure call In the following code. 299 wait_for_tables function. This is usually a backup node. NewServices = case Flag of true -> [Service|Services]. move along. delete_usr(CustId) -> gen_server:call(?MODULE. {destroy. Pid. set_service(CustId. is_record Boolean operators not.576>. Figure 11-1. and to delete the matching objects by means of match_delete: 13> ets:match_object(countries. thus: {@name} and {@name argument}. The Code Server We briefly mentioned the code server in the preceding section.. 338 OtpErlangShort class. You can stop Mnesia by calling either application:stop(mnesia) or mnesia:stop(). instance}. Trapping Exits Processes can trap exit signals by setting the process flag trap_exit. the dbg Tracer. he felt like he had hit a wall. When building from source.no_function.0>. So far. you modify the call a(N) to a fully qualified call. if the result is 0.87. 214 Dets tables.[]}} Shell got {trace. {aborted. 374–382 match specifications. Args).spawn(modtest2. As a result.<0. You could add a case statement ensuring that the error tuple is never inserted in the table. Support engineers (and one of the authors§ of this book) have caused service outages in national fixed phone and mobile data networks because of dbg. listlen.acm. it is thrown away without generating an error. The interesting conclusions of this research came with the pure Erlang implementations. abc_123_CDE 3> 'using spaces'. times(X) -> . whereas local traces both exported and nonexported calls.C} of {enabled. Hint: use the db. 132 | Chapter 5: Process Design Patterns delete_handler(Name. Can you figure out what triggers the following match specification? Try to do this before you read on: [{['$1'. which is only a small step away from C++. It is not good enough to have ideas. particularly when a larger number of data items are collected as a single object. . * 1: syntax error before: '(' 10> (hof1:times(3))(2). services = []}).org/10. the list is not empty. 186 fill/0 function. A common error when you start programming Erlang is to forget that the third argument to spawn is a list of arguments. or (on the local network) foo@STC. Figure 7-1 shows an example. -export([start/0. . Now we’ll look at the client functions used to add. add_usr/1. countries 3> ets:insert(countries. .345}<[]. provides a pseudorandom number generator. . The message received is an Erlang term. and reliability come with very little overhead and correspondingly little code. providing insight into the context in which the language was designed. person 19> record_info(fields. in general. 182 upgrading processes. is inet:i(). Tracing Calls with the trace_pattern BIF You use the erlang:trace_pattern/3 BIF to enable tracing of local and global function calls. if you have not figured it out. recType) will return the list of field names in the recType. 115 meta programming. you should not be receiving unknown messages. Ref} = dets:open_file("/Users/Francesco/food"). and. Second)]. seconds. y shows an example using the @link construct. and dedicated sites are now helping to take the community to its next level.1}]}. it is possible to ?assert a property at any point in the program. 78 Mnesia database. This contains the function t: t(From) -> From ! node().Xs) -> [ X || X <-Xs. Robust Systems | 153 terminate([{Pid. it makes sense to read the release notes. if you are writing a program that uses several chunks of code from this book you are not required to secure our permission. an exit. Exercise 14-5: Tagging Entries Provide a mechanism by which blog entries can be tagged so that those entries matching particular keywords can be shown. but they are all documented in the erlang module. With this approach. for me Erlang was just another language in the crowd. Transmission Control Protocol Transmission Control Protocol. The size of the header (in 32-bit words) is specified by the (4-bit) Data Offset field. and in the process develops more comprehensive test suites than it would with a more traditional approach. {msisdn. .{102. Should you want a callback function to be called before terminating the supervision tree.3. They queue up. and deallocated automatically by the garbage collector when the structure is no longer referenced.[].0>) call dp:handle(3. for every call. The foundation of this determinism originates in predictable and consistent results being returned by your functions. then>>{2. 395 You can take that a step further. the only possible value for this is BEAM. friday]). if not. This will unfortunately be the same in your programs. error:_ -> 678 end. '_'}. When you are sending and receiving messages. namely the telecom sector.boot is a binary file containing instructions on loading the application modules and starting the top-level supervisors. extremely powerful. [1. and delete the old ones. Reason}. as the call to init is a synchronous call that prevents all of the other serialized processes from starting until it returns. nodes()}. § We have left it as an exercise for you to figure out which one of the authors was responsible. {name. 202.. It deserves a special mention.0. %% TFTP tftp. however. Tools for Erlang If you want to get started writing programs in a new language. When doing so. {upgrade.false}. adding new fields means you would have to update the tuple everywhere. [treeToList/1. An alarm manager implemented as an event handler is lost and be cleared if it recovers. If the receiving process calls gen_udp:recv when not in passive mode.. . prettyIndexNext(Next. Table 2-1 lists the arithmetic operators. and may itself be supervised by yet another process. . given a seed. The gen_tcp:listen/2 call returns immediately. $Character returns the ASCII value of Character. CORBA. %% Francesco Cesarini and Simon Thompson. exit signals from processes you are linked to. It will first try to match 'January' or 'February' using a binary search. Another optimization is the +A Size flag passed to your erl command when starting the emulator. the atoms true and false are used together with Boolean operators. start_link(FileName). [self(). because calling monitor_node(Node. Once the dial tone has started. just start a non-distributed Erlang node. [{display. as in Figure 10-4. ** exception error: no match of right hand side value #person{name = #name{first = "Mike". we create a Dets table. [3. as local reads will be slow on these nodes. mergeL([].. Learning to write efficient and elegant Erlang code will not happen overnight. executing it atomically as a result. 144. In effect.] is 8.* Expect code reductions of up to 50% when rewriting your first major Erlang programs. you can pick the master node by calling the following function: mnesia:set_master_nodes(Table.createMbox("facserver"). This theme is irrespective of the experience level of the developers. and then reload the reference from the file after restarting the node. use_stdio. Tuple} = lists:keysearch(Key. call my_db:code_upgrade(). read(Key) -> db_server ! {read. {40572800. In our example. 3]) / len([1. . Reason} or {ok. We conclude the chapter by describing the include directive.[]. .erl:505: Call to missing or unexported function unicode:characters_to_list/2 re.) Figure 10-1. usually placed after the module and export directives: -include("File. . Most of all. For massive numbers of entries that you want to be able to access readily. ::status(). We will cover this and other errors in Chapter 3..[{matched. 356 trace flags (see process trace flags) trace/3 function. we will use Erlang without the OTP framework. Let’s see it in action: 8> Times = hof1:times(3). and most importantly. Integration and Openness You want to use the right tool for the right job.2}] and guards such as is_integer(Id) would be translated to a condition resembling [{is_integer. The information about types appears in the documentation after the general description and before the function index. A call directly to dict:fetch/2 confirms that the function returns Data (not {ok.eval_loop. create a set of integers between 1 and 10 that are divisible by three (e. as there already is a process with that name.beam suffix. The crash in the system that occurred when reading the corrupted table will then be generated by calling the dp:process_msg() function.. Using funs and higher-order functions. 39. Status}). 234 | Chapter 10: ETS and Dets Tables We also need to load the usr record definition in the shell. which is the value of the generator list when X is 1. yielding the control of the loop to the sys library module. Conventions Used in This Book The following typographical conventions are used in this book: Italic Indicates new terms. tests should be automated. false 2> net_kernel:start([foo]). In the following example. we will not touch the usr_db module. -record(Name. as it is not something that you can easily resolve later.unknown_msg}}]. A process whose only task is to supervise children—in our case the nodes of the tree—is called a supervisor. Although Erlang pioneers argued their case of shorter and more compact code based on experience. and as a result.{'$0'. Possible responses to events include logging them to file. 134 | Chapter 5: Process Design Patterns The following code. get_tcw() Returns the trace control word which was previously set using set_tcw/1. this option is turned off and data is instead aggregated and sent in larger chunks.0"}.. Trace events are sent as messages of the following format: {trace. Before reading on. Trust your input data if it originates from within the system. This command is useful for checking whether a node you think should be running actually is running. Or we might want to send an SMS with latitude and longitude only if a user has the sms and lbs flags set. The main processing loop adds a number of clauses to the receive statement: loop(Frame. 165 mailboxes interworking with Java. 9 456 | Index popular applications. 344 erl_interface library.[simon. the Pid of the terminating process.handyman} 5> code:add_patha("/home/cesarini/erlang/patches/").ac. . somewhat cryptically.981. [2. and 1 is added to each of them. cooling systems that never fail. . PhoneNo)). Let’s also add the filename for the Dets table among the environment variables: {application. 117 458 | Index chapter exercises. . If it is not.[]}]} 7> dbg:stop(). {heap_size.erlang-consulting.[Arg1. so omitting it will create a local Mnesia RAM copy. To compile this C program. enabled. It begins with two 16-bit words representing the source and destination ports that are followed by 32-bit fields for sequence and acknowledgment number. Process Error Handling . 314–320 development considerations. 80.Ys. not paid their bill. First -> case First of {Word. whereas you can process strings in a lot of different ways. but if you are running the node on your personal account. A Mobile Subscriber Database Example | 239 receive started-> ok after ?TIMEOUT -> {error. 338. Binaries larger than 64 bytes (the reference counted binaries) are passed around as pointers. 104 badarith exception. 4. But apart from being more efficient. too: index(X. set_status/2. . As a result. Process Skeletons | 107 Figure 4-12. this application will behave like any other normal application. You can use a variable safely only if it is bound in all the clauses of a case or if construct. And finally. making them a very viable option for soft real-time systems. This is especially common with programmers coming from an imperative background who still do not feel at ease with pattern matching. using debugging tools to troubleshoot your code. We will cover these data types in Chapter 9 and Chapter 15. [TraceFlag]). writing Sum = 1+2 where the variable Sum is unbound would result in the sum of 1 and 2 being calculated and compared to Sum. you execute transactions using: mnesia:transaction(Fun) where the fun contains operations such as read. In creating the Payload. 416 assertThrow macro. [{file. giving you the function where the ets:insert/2 call originated. the second argument gives the size of the shift Bit shift right. ensure that you read through the HTTP manual pages that come with the Erlang distribution. Window. the empty list [].daisy}]}. The only exceptions to this guideline are examples such as the earlier parser example. Upon receiving these events. 355 match specifications.phone = undefined} In the preceding example. and in its single action it sends a message to the process with that pid. and a call to edoc:files/1 will generate the documentation for a set of files.{1. ok 3> dets:insert(food. Once this is completed.hrl"). So: 5> [boo. delete_usr(PhoneNo. Dynamic Children So far.[{options. The function call record_info(fields. and call sum_acc on the Tail and the new “sum so far”: sum_acc([Head|Tail]. Exercise 9-5: Length Specifications in List Comprehensions Investigate the role of length specifications when making bitstrings from integers. is the function to be applied to each element in the list: map(F. {cat. 228 eunit library assert macro. send(Pid) -> Pid ! {self().11.. Db) -> case dict:fetch(Key. Bump(10). All of these calls result in the oldest version of the module (if any) being purged. listToTree(treeToList(tree1())))]. . Propagation Semantics Now that we have covered the most important terminology and BIFs. 21 type conversions.wine]}] 4> MikeTuple = {person. 28. An Example: Records with Typed Fields We discussed record definitions earlier in the book.nonode@nohost. The export directive contains a list of exported functions of the format Function/Arity. Setup. Allocated). That is how variable assignment actually works. xx | Preface Although we will not go into detail regarding what each of you did. {HandlerFun. cookies were in fact sent across the network unencrypted! Considering the low level of security in distributed Erlang. separating side effects into atomic functions rather than combining them with functional transformations.9]). Calling them by prefixing the call with the module name will result in a runtime error.[]. At any particular time. 168 modules chapter exercises. looks at how to write programs that are elegant. is passed as an argument in the next call. where no trace event is generated for the call and return_to trace flags. Usr#usr. and as a result. A port identifier such as Port gives any Erlang process access to the port. and Match Specifications object() Returns a list with all of the arguments passed to the match specification. .do_not_exist. it would request a frequency by calling the frequency:allocate() function.. the one that calls the factorial function in its body) only if the parameter N is larger than 0.8. resulting in a reversed list. you must first load it into the system. The first item in the application tuple is the application name. What do you have to be careful about when you do this? How could you reimplement the system to include three or four store nodes? Design a system to test your answer to this exercise. format.cookie. The function prettyIndexNext will read the next record. The supervision tree Exercises | 155 • You will have to change the start function to ensure that the processes link themselves to their parent and return {ok.2.. it must be presented as a complete tuple: {Name. Here is the start of a function to decode TCP segments: decode(<< SourcePort:16. The return value of the receive clause will be the return value of the last evaluated expression in the body executed. . Trace events that are generated include the following: • Global and local function calls • Garbage collection and memory usage • Process-related activities and message passing At any one time.11} 12> frequency:stop(). you use lists in which the tail is a fun returning a new head and a recursive fun. Someone had accidentally discovered the ++ construct and was wondering whether any other “undocumented features” had found their way into the release. An event will be generated only if a traced process executes a traced function.3]. {request. or both. @type service() = atom(). it has to be entered explicitly as an argument to the call. [{Key.zebra.0). We discuss this in more detail in “Port Programs” on page 346. once to compute the sum and a second time to get the length. you use cast/2. 229 development (see software development) Dialyzer tool creating PLT. Bin:Size/binary-unit:8. Concurrency and Computation: Practice & Experience. 6. [{exports. a systems-testing framework based on the OTP Test Server application. ** exception error: undefined function demo:times/2 Module Directives Every module has a list of attributes of the format –attribute(Value).3}}) to differentiate a “real” tuple from a conditional construct and the BIF and comparison operators: [{['$1'. . whereas those coming from a C or Java background will quickly learn to appreciate it. sometimes stopping to grab a carrot en route.12. The default number is much lower. if not billions. stop/0. false | true} Is a special case where messages of the call and return_to trace flags are not sent if the flag is false.com and elsewhere.. where F is the field width of the printed argument. To avoid this. The usrIndex table will store a tuple mapping a usr id to an msisdn. email servers and clients. [[yves. here is a small Erlang program that calculates the factorial of 23 by sending the argument to Ruby and having it calculated in the Ruby program echoFac. 223. Reason} -> after 1000 -> end. 338 OtpErlangInt class. After changing the cookie for foo to cake. in this case loop/0. 80 rd command.{saved. . area(Other) -> {error. the function used to spawn the process. But the function returns false when no tuple with a matching key can be found.116. but command 5 shows that the two nodes remain connected despite the fact that the two nodes now have different cookies. RecordType. the Nutshell Handbook logo.[1. you might find it useful to define these functions: accumulate/1 This function should take a list of line numbers. Trading systems. [{memory.handle_msg. 215. In diagrams of Erlang processes. stop/0. You can see here that it is possible to add an integer to a float: this is done by first coercing the integer to a float before performing the addition. and the tail is another list that contains all the remaining elements.do_not_exist. NewGbTree). 120. and not the message flow. distributed over half a dozen computers to which requests are forwarded. you can see: 1> exception:return(-1). four|[]] [one. . or after they have been created. and it returns either the atom ok or the tuple {error. f. since the functions contain only one nondestructive read operation: lookup_id(CustId) -> case mnesia:dirty_index_read(usr. [Size1+Size2+1|TTL1++TTL2]. how can you build a secure distributed system in Erlang? There are two answers to this question: • If you are building a distributed system for scalability and robustness. So. A variant of the preceding example was taken from one of the early Erlang libraries and reported as a bug in 1996. 3. . monday}). A deterministic program is one that will always run in the same manner and provide the same result or manifest the same bug.. Interval} Sets the interval at which the table is regularly flushed.exprs. This provides some of the functionality of ETS tables and can be backed up or restored from a Mnesia table on a linked Erlang node. which will simplify an expression so that 0*e is transformed to 0. which is a variant of Example 4-1. set_on_spawn is transitive.1}]} 4> ets:new(foo. Element} | {error.4. number(_Other) -> false. specifying whether you want to enable or disable particular aspects of your tracing. Second).6. regardless of the order of execution. . no effort is required to understand the client/server protocol. . Constant}. 288 make_script/2 function. Pid. {jamesBond. is the message sent.* because in this case. 202. We will traverse a list.1}. New modules are being added in every release. Pid) BIF. except in the case of ordered sets. ?MODULE! {request. . X == 1 -> equal end This could be written equally well with a catch-all clause. let’s write down the evaluation of an example (hiding the calculation of the arithmetic): sum([2. and event handlers. taken together with the Dialyzer tool. There are some cases where it makes sense: • Common functions from the lists module. Further information can be provided for this in an overview. massively concurrent. [node()]}. as well as provide pointers to new modules.1}.'$2'|'_ ']] would match functions of arity 2 where the first argument is a tuple with two elements and the second argument is a list whose first two elements are identical to those in the tuple. . on both the client and the server side. and XXX is the version number. We do expect you to have programmed in Java. Just flush messages you do not recognize: call(Message) -> Ref = make_ref(). . take action when they terminate. <<0. You should avoid using throw. {atomic. Minute. This is when selective receive becomes crucial. allocate. 700000003}). {_. 357. 445–447 history.2}. the pattern will match only those pairs whose first element is francesco. '_'. the second case clause will fail with a case clause error.. Over recent releases. Use linked-in drivers with extreme care. Depending on its type. Erlang was developed to solve the “time-to-market” requirements of distributed. When reading the manual page for dbg. and 14-6.18.$e.expr. PhoneNo}). 214–216 sets and bags. Only then was the language deemed mature enough to use in major projects with hundreds of developers. it is not uncommon to join the supervisor and application behavior modules into one.<0. So much for workarounds. 'c1@STC2'} ! {self().[[2. {ok. however. which makes writing tools for it much more practical than for a language such as Java. These data structures may contain bound variables or the simple and composite values themselves.Y:1/bitstring>> <<"*">> 11> X. 359 proc_lib module. so any subsequent attempt to bind X to 3 will fail with a badmatch error: 1> 2 2> 2> 2> 2> 2> 43 X=2. Lists are delimited by square brackets. 6 distributed computation. but which you should have picked up when reading the Mnesia manual pages: foo@localhost 8> mnesia:dirty_all_keys(muppet). and vice versa In the following code. 12–13 c/1 shell command. This will result not only in the memory used by these deleted objects not being freed. and the variable D being bound to the tail. 435 EDoc documentation. The last pattern we will cover is the event handler. ?MODULE_STRING This expands to a string consisting of the name of the module in which it is used. P(X) ]. making it extremely hard to correctly type in the command needed to stop the tracer! How do you redirect the output? In the dbg:tracer/2 call. or you are planning to stream video of a football match in real time. get_request. Stylistic Conventions | 431 If your code is drifting across the page. service_flag(PhoneNo.* * The EDoc system described later in the chapter will automatically include parameter names in its generated type documentation even if they do not appear in the –spec statement.3>> 4> < frequency:allocate().2}]} 6> dbg:ltp(). When doing so. Pid). Exercise 5-3: Swapping Handlers What happens if you want to close and open a new file in the log_handler? You would have to call event_manager:delete_handler/2 immediately followed by event_manager:add_handler/2. "/usr/local/lib/erlang/lib/stdlib-1. If you want to read more on the trace BIFs.3. Figure 5-2. such as <. the implementation of efficient floating-point operations was a low priority for the Erlang virtual machine (VM).set}. X+Y. it is possible to break a list into a head and a tail.0> 2> Pid ! hello. started. Table 2-2. Moreover. Make mistakes on a small scale.. 331–333 overview. 352 Erlang Enhancement Proposal (EEP). there is nothing to worry about because the compiler will not let you compile modules with “unsafe” variables in them. . as in Figure 5-2. and as a result. As processes are created for every incoming message and are terminated as soon as the message has been queued. PortNo. Executing this call in a match specification is the equivalent of calling erlang:trace(self()..hrl.2 seconds to spawn 1 million processes. As well as to start and communicate with a node.. #usr{status=disabled}} -> {error. 349–350 overview. 109 client/server model. Let’s try the functions we’ve just defined in the shell and see whether they work: (switch@Vaio)9> usr:add_usr(700000001. You cannot type pids directly in a module or in the shell. if the second match specification is successful. and should not be done. You create references using the BIF make_ref(). Another use for the receive . . This group leader process is inherited. . 362 | Chapter 17: Trace BIFs.111.[X]. dets:close(usrDisk). If your function has side effects such as message passing. This server is responsible for managing radio frequencies on behalf of its clients. or three minutes). this can be done recursively.[{options. They call the call/1 function. set}. they can be the results of other functions so that the functions passed around as data can be created dynamically within the program. We will look at them in more detail in the section “Match Specifications: The fun Syntax” on page 374.0.{cat. Pay special attention to the return value of these clauses. Even if both are lists. This match specification. So historically. Arguments. especially if many of these nodes have no relation to each other. which can infer types of Erlang functions. provided that they share the same cookie information. 33–38 scope considerations.6. The newly spawned process starts executing in the init function. is as follows: average(List) -> average_acc(List. we never populated them with a RAM copy of the usr records and the usr id to msisdn mapping. Result}.$d]. [switch@Vaio] (om@Vaio)3> mnesia:create_schema([node()|nodes()]). b_and/2. the compilation will also fail. erlang:monitor(process. The garbage collection is done separately for each concurrent process: when no more memory is available for a particular process to store values. with unnecessary optimizations A programmer will be able to understand a problem in full only when he has solved it at least once. Read through the db_server code and make sure you understand it. including docs and examples. serial2:leaf_negative_test. loop(NewFrequencies). . 112–114. it will allow a function to execute in a constant amount of memory. [Blah]) The highlighted lines show the conversion in both directions. 264 background.14. Processes should have well-defined behaviors and roles in the system.return_error.0> with exit value: {undef.usr}} 4> usr:lookup_id(10). possibly just by being retrieved from the mailbox and ignored. We would thus scrap the usr_db. Nodes). The mnesia:create_schema/1 command will propagate to the other nodes automatically.7].0> with exit value: {undef. records were covered in Chapter 7. you will usually find them embedded in program code. LoopData}.. In the preceding code.21. When dealing with sequential programs. Pid2. 79. {imports. ok You should keep in mind that once you’ve opened the socket. {HandlerFun. and will typically be bound to a variable in an expression of the following format: Pid2 = spawn(Module.F. .0>. which in its first iteration will be empty.100. the second process is preempted and the first process continues where it left off. [[2. ** exception error: no such process or port in function link/1 called as link(<0. 3 multicore processing. * 1: syntax error before: '<' 5> Pid2 = pid(0. ping}. Remember.1}. which join lists and “subtract” one list from another. '-'. {usr. The default allocated heap size is 233 words. Although I enjoyed using Erlang and was positively surprised at the simplicity of its concurrency model and lack of OS threads for every process.0>. -spec delete_usr(integer()) -> 'ok' | {'error'. [call]). 392 garbage collection and. Start}. {hd. buf.Y) -> X+Y end A function to give the head of a list (and null if it is empty) is given by: fun([]) -> null. {'and'. as it can within a catch itself. Reason} -> {error. we give a set of commonly used conventions for style in writing Erlang programs. there is a standard set of editing operations on the commands typed: Up and down arrows Fetch the previous and next command line. 212 bitwise operators.123} 3> setelement(2. 447 Facebook.~n". This section should serve as only a brief introduction to the debugger. Happy Erlang programming! And Finally.58. Most systems with a GUI will be deployed on multiple platforms (multiple hardware and operating system combinations). {Pid. The newborn remains in the mother’s pouch for about 98 days. '_'} are not allowed. The call dbg:n(Node) adds a distributed Erlang node to the traced list and dbg:cn(Node) removes it from the list. 150 monitor_node function. Don’t try to write code that will be able to deal with every possible eventuality as the system evolves. and can let the process fail in any other circumstances. true 4> 1 =< 1. or it could be in a receive clause. we present a scaled-down blog example in two stages. Comments should be clear. where both clients and servers are represented as Erlang processes. . 378 nodes communication and messages. what can go wrong? start() -> case whereis(db_server) of undefined -> Pid = spawn(db_server. . executing them all. The wxErlang distribution contains a number of more substantial examples. 216 inconsistent tables. . 283 info/1 function. and persistency. 369.W.3 (foo@STC)1> (abort with ^G) Note that the prompt in the Erlang shell displays the name of the node. . The preceding example is an extreme occurrence of the misuse of the if statement. . If the remote process terminates.2. Distributed Erlang Behind Firewalls When running distributed Erlang nodes behind firewalls.0>.[]}]} The output is received by a tracer client process in a different Erlang shell: 1> Pid = dbg:trace_client(ip. ACK:1. A more fiddly exercise is to justify the resulting text: Write a function that will print this in a readable form. and control. but it is strongly recommended that instead of direct communication using Port!. soft real-time systems with high availability requirements (i. avoiding a bottleneck during heavy load and decreasing the overall response time. and ISBN.5}.11} 5> frequency:allocate(). Remember that the default key position in ETS tables is the first element of the tuple.hrl"). all that remains is our application directory structure. 23 concatenating. When running the traces in a distributed environment. all of which you can read about in the manual pages of the gen_tcp and inet modules. no error will be reported. ({trace. wxDialog:destroy(MD). 303 dirty_write function. bit syntax. . The enable_trace and disable_trace actions have the same effect of calling the following BIF: erlang:trace(self(). ::plan(). Considering that Erlang has garbage collection. wxTextCtrl:appendText(Text. Message) -> Pid ! {reply. The size of the tuple is two words plus the size of each element. All variables defined as arguments to the fun are replaced by match specification variables in the order in which they occur. as they are deprecated and are available only for backward compatibility reasons. and a new version (version 2) of module B is loaded.1. Don’t write your code to avoid these warnings.marcus. Db). 23. If you want to exit the shell. as you can see. {{data. The effect of this is to send the value of node(). It might take more time. HandlerList) Will start a generic event manager. pass the return value of OldHandler:terminate/1 to the NewHandler:init/1 call. there is a presaved match specification with the identifier exception_trace alias x. . If variable-sized packets are to be sent.39. .daVinciCode] 7> [Person || {Person. Figure 5-4 shows the message sequence diagram of this example. by way of warning that a potential security problem has occurred. 10 11 OtpErlangObject o. but there have been extreme situations in large systems where calling processes() from the shell has been known to result in the runtime system running out of memory!* Don’t forget that in industrial applications. The most commonly used commands include the following: c(File) Compiles and loads the File. {error. The preceding line of code will receive a message in the buffer buf and decode it into an Erlang term. When migrating CouchDB to Erlang.. 440 | Chapter 20: Style and Efficiency You can take this one step further and spawn a process using the following: spawn_opt(Module. . A consistent system in which modules do similar things is easier to understand and maintain than a system in which modules do similar things in quite different ways. Soft real-time aspects of telecom applications rarely rely on floats. Event Managers and Handlers | 131 Figure 5-9. 352 ERLANG file extension. and so forth. no useful information could be inferred for create_tables/1. ensuring that the run queue is no longer a bottleneck for the system. . reply(Pid.erl will not be executable on FCC unless it is there. UsrRec} = usr_db:lookup_msisdn(700000001). and if the process terminates.and Dets-based solution. • Although testing tools can check the behavior of a system under only a selection of inputs.. gc_start. Value}. and when it works. Match Specifications: The fun Syntax | 377 We can now run a trace on the handle/3 function. BinaryList. Every time your process receives a message.[]. So. we will cover all the functionality needed to encapsulate the mobile subscriber system into an OTP application.erl"}]}] 14> db_server:write(martin. we send a stop message received in the loop/1 function. If you need to store larger quantities of data. The controlling process is generally the process that established a connection through calling one of gen_tcp:accept or gen_tcp:connect. . and the loop terminates on receiving an ERL_ERROR message (line 42). As conditions and the body of match specifications consist of tuples. Leslie. you just use '_'. tpl. {ok. Timeout) where Timeout is a value in milliseconds or the atom infinity. Embedded mode enforces strict revision control. OperState) -> case AdminState of enabled -> case OperState of disabled -> enable(BladeId). [{'and'. Only one packet at a time could come through a socket. {env. you must have noticed from the examples that the return value of the calls was of the following format: {ok. 34 35 while (loop) { 36 /* message received */ 37 got = erl_receive_msg(fd. Recompiling your code or reloading the module after having set the flags will clear the trace patterns. badarg . person). event=#wxCommand{type=command_menu_selected}} -> wxTextCtrl:saveFile(Text. we need a patches directory at the top of the code search path. replace. InitData) -> call(Name. 397 Erlang type notation. Res. handle(2. A tracer client will pick up the events and process them. The processes() BIF returns a list of all of the processes running in the system. • erl_connect_init(1. We can run these two tests by calling Mod:test() or eunit:test(Mod).48. • If the process is not registered. wxWidgets is a C++ library.[]}} Shell got {trace. Exit signals sent to a process cannot be caught with a catch and will result in the process terminating. .B} <. [H | _]) -> true. disabled) -> enable(BladeId). 276 supervisor specifications.6}. and stored it in the ETS table. {ok.adder. the brushtailed rat kangaroo mates shortly after giving birth and can keep embryos in a state of dormancy until they are needed. but to programming in general: avoid cut-and-paste programming and do not comment out dead code. . . [2. 46 execution flow and.0.[]) -> [].[{matched. The advantage of the macro approach is that in using conditional macros (which we will describe in this section). 186 / (unary division) operator. emsg.11}.'$1'. This results in a new process that calls the init/1 callback function. ?_assertMatch({error. [{Handler. filling the table with data. 3}. The classes are related through multiple inheritance. 376 last/1 function. New nodes will be able to connect to each other. any two transactions on the same object cannot interfere with each other. using the --build_plt option. The choice of which table type to use depends on the particular application. The Module must be in the code search path on the remote node. As a result. The Erlang function does the same by a recursive call where the argument Sum is increased by the value of the Index argument. having compiled your code.g. . this value will override any values contained in an . supporting software upgrades in running systems: this is the topic of Chapter 8. "A long string I have split across several lines. or -sname is required.3. of any size. As we said earlier. followed by one of the release subdirectories. The first action of newly spawned processes is to initialize the process loop data. . In Erlang legacy code. . where the tuples are pairs containing a word (i. a dial tone is started. setting locks on the objects they are manipulating and ensuring that other transactions attempting to access them are kept on hold. however. false} Sets the socket to passive mode. 333 chapter exercises.. providing an Erlang API to the user A Mobile Subscriber Database Example | 231 database will further speed up the requests. 225. for example. return a set of tests. 195– 196 reverse function. =/=. the lab spent four years prototyping telecom applications with an evolving language that through trial and error became the Erlang we know today. the match is successful and the trace event is triggered. which can then be referred to by an EDoc macro. lightweight concurrency.francesco]}. . one-field tuples whose only field is itself a pair. you will reconnect the cable before the TCP/IP connection between the nodes times out. which are stable under heavy loads and recover automatically when the load drops. {send_pend.45}.1. a lower-level model allowing communication with an external program through a port. The Application Resource File The application resource file. use the shell command f() to clear all the variables associated with your table references and start again. 179 file module. It just means they are started as part of a supervision tree belonging to another application. 221 creating. Interfaces Document all your exported interfaces.000 and is reduced by one for every operation. To ensure that the receive statement always retrieves the first message in the mailbox you could use an unbound variable (such as Other in the first example) or the “don’t care” variable if you are not interested in its value. which should typically appear in a doc subdirectory where the other documentation will be placed. whereas bags and duplicate bags give two different variants of multiple occurrences of keys. Record BIFs The BIF record_info will give information about a record type and its representation. 3). Rest). plan = prepay.3. This chapter introduces Erlang Term Storage (ETS) and Disk Erlang Term Storage (Dets).38. calling the function list_to_existing_atom/1 will fail. as they can change the real-time behavior of a system. 304 pattern matching binaries and. Data} end. To use them.{already_started. the second is the first name field. usr) end. vsn.. finite state machines. {pets. https://erlang. all data that survives three shallow garbage collections will be moved to the old generation.E. which will turn an exp into a string representation • A compiler. and efficient. Boolean functions include functionality similar to the BIFs you are allowed to use in guards and in logical. Names. once you’ve bound a variable.108.[{outdir. If the list is empty. Atoms remain in the object code. 358. an exception_from message is generated. LoopData) -> Reply = case usr_db:lookup_id(CustId) of {ok. You need to be able to add and remove nodes during runtime and provide persistence to ensure a speedy recovery from all possible failure scenarios. but if you need to create a node with a given cookie. because even though we have a tuple of size 2 in the argument and parameter.0> inet_db:init/1 103 0 <0. . Result. wx strings are assumed to be encoded in UTF-32 in native architecture format.io. . and. the calling function ({dp.1235. kill).. we generate a runtime error that is printed out by the shell. scheduled. other attributes you will come across will include -behaviour(Behaviour) (U. which as a result sends messages to processes C and D. and you can see some examples in the following shell session. 4 17> record_info(fields. The philosophy behind Erlang and its concurrency model is best described by Joe Armstrong’s tenets: • • • • The world is concurrent. If the project is not properly coordinated and no templates are provided. but if a runtime error occurs.org/eeps/ 352 | Chapter 16: Interfacing Erlang with Other Programming Languages Exercises Exercise 16-1: C Factorial via a Port Write an implementation of the earlier factorial server example in C using a port. Some we have already covered. LoopData} structure. race conditions.7}] the output is 1. When doing so. and E is any Erlang expression so that f(E) successfully evaluates to V. It is this I/O which can get so intensive. their loss happens 323 “silently. removing one way in which side effects can be caused. allowing these tools to influence the actions taken based on its value. 268 Cesarini. This option was particularly useful before the introduction of bit syntax and pattern matching on binaries.name}]). In the object-oriented (OO) programming course. one function was matched. and the third is the atom g. inet_dist_listen_min. N} -> 11 Sender ! a(N) 12 end. with its roots in functional programming and Prolog. [List. . and monitoring nodes.erl EDoc generates documentation from tags of the form @tag text. In general. This is important. Even). .{size. we could have used “don’t care” variables. is used to identify the calling process and is used in the reply/2 call.‡ Now. In our case. normal. are going to be comprehensible to anyone reading your code. NewAllocated=lists:keydelete(Freq. data. we do it to demonstrate a point. with the Arguments supplied. 408 EUnit support. Examples of atoms starting with a lowercase letter include: january fooBar alfa21 start_with_lower_case node@ramone true false When using quotes.149. . This makes Erlang perfectly suited to handling protocol stacks and IP-related traffic. t then terminates. In 1991. 75 for function parameters. Throw}. inet:peername(Socket). however. [TraceFlag]). -hidden This has the effect of launching a hidden node. A last thing to note concerning the rewrite of the factorial function is that if factorial(-1) is called. elements of which are commonly known as refs.[ireland. If Last is the final entry in the table. but all they would notice are other users signing out and in.. which you process on a different machine. status = disabled}). The spawned process starts executing the exported function passed as the second argument to the BIF. . queue The queue module implements an abstract data type for FIFO queues. 27. . true 3> add_one:request(1). Here is the Ruby side of the system. and at first glance. 0:16. assignment. where for every process an underlying OS thread is created: you will get some very competitive comparisons. we will explain how to get programs using JInterface to run correctly on your computer. . or I/O. as well as to B:f.$ . in the latter case. In 32-bit systems the upper limit is 4 GB (4 * 109 bytes). with examples illustrating their use. By comparison. terminating any unfinished tests at that time The EUnit Infrastructure | 417 {inorder. loop(). {value. We see the output formatted as the tuple {erl_eval. • The standard Erlang distribution comes with a number of very useful tools. you cannot bind the fun to a variable.2] ++ [3. Erlang lists provide one way to implement a collection. where State is the return value of the init function. Accu). birthday({Name. the type ok has the element ok. 338 OtpErlangDouble class. return_error(X) when X == 0 -> 1/X. 395 usr.h> 7 8 #include "erl_interface. . In the following example. and its EXIT signal will be waiting to be retrieved from the process mailbox. If you don’t. 291 functionality. rest! Simon wants to say a huge thank you to Jane. 168–169 defined. The server handles it and responds with either a message containing an available frequency or an error if all frequencies are being used. depending on which is delivered first. this will result in the message being thrown away: 7> self(). []) => bump_acc([2. send_event/2]). the Erlang node needs to be launched first so that it is already running when the C node attempts to connect to it. 96 partition function. and close it in the terminate function. the guards would translate to a condition of the format [{'/='. we identified what we believed was a truly concurrent activity in the system. until the next tag or noncomment line.nonode@nohost. and read the manual pages for the dict library. or how the loop data is handled.3]]. The most popular open source Erlang applications include the following: • The 3D subdivision modeler Wings 3D.erl usr_db. think of modeling a fixed-line phone as a finite state machine (see Figure 5-6). producing a file called records1. handle.e. _event.Reference.[].. as we have not constructed anything: bump(L) -> bump_acc(L. 298 waterfall development model. #usr. ⇒ ok. anywhere in its code. Usr#usr.0>. Note how we have abstracted the server loop in the code. In this chapter. such as C and Java. Pid.[]. Result} -> Result after 1000 -> timeout end.0>} 12> Pid ! hello. let’s review the terminology and the most important BIFs dealing with termination: • A link is a bidirectional propagation path for exit signals set up between processes. There are two kinds of applications. Ordered sets are currently not supported in Dets tables. Pid. being consistent in the way that you write programs will help everyone. Connections are requested through the following call: gen_tcp:connect(Address.Book} <. which can be either a list of integers or a binary. ETS Tables | 215 Figure 10-2. 305 foreach statement. Hidden nodes are also commonly used for operation and maintenance. If we have opened files or sockets in the init/1 callback. Figure 4-12 shows an example skeleton.43. {shell. wxErlang: An Erlang Binding for wxWidgets In binding wxWidgets to Erlang. however. -export([init/0]). this is shown for the shell in command 4. 101.2. 300 dirty operations.0>} 3> add_two:request(6). Lines of code should not be too long. ok. Finally. . 291 systools module make_rel function. Msg} -> {Reply. In between.3. Typically. 161 ETS tables and.Y}). Cleanup.1235. as in a distributed operating system that provides all the facilities of a general-purpose OS across a network of computers. you must measure. 203–204. 281.B. Bool. you will find that many of the functions follow similar patterns. in lock step: add(X. You can then write your own higherorder functions to encapsulate these patterns. After these commands are executed. and to look up the value(s) associated with a tag. . The key to this is the fact that records provide data abstraction by which the actual representation of the data is hidden from the programs that access it. [0. it was obvious that I was not the only person Joe had been speaking to. where. we set a counter which is incremented every time an event is handled."Cesarini"}. 286 add_patha function. . undefined A Mobile Subscriber Database Example | 233 So far. a process can be in one of three states (see Figure 17-1). . {time. thesis. the following code appeared in code that was about to be sent into production: Value = (catch get_value(Key)). The call will remove the old version of the module only if there are no processes running the code.$l. . A deterministic solution would spawn the processes one at a time.bartender}). Each concurrent activity in Erlang is called a process. 261 first/1 function. 131–137 exit signals. and must be called only once in any program. The bit syntax. Now let’s cover it in more detail. for example. services = [data. but one is commented out: %-define(DBG(Str. the subsequent messages in the mailbox are patternmatched one by one against all of the clauses until either a message matches a clause or all of the messages have failed all of the possible pattern matches. . We will cover writing. Socket} = gen_udp:open(1235). 223.3. . which is essential for them to work together effectively. Runtime Errors For you to become productive in Erlang.e]. as well as literal values (such as atoms.1]. true On the other hand. we use the dp:fill() call to create and corrupt the ETS table. • In the function that initializes the process state. . {name.[N]}. 55 microblogging application.File. Hash table An ordered set. Pid). 208. 48 conditional macros. a stop message is sent to the process. 94–97 requests supported. Poland (and soon in the U. The aim of this chapter is to introduce you to Mnesia and its capabilities without losing you in too many details. such as the days of the week or months of the year. Reason. which returns the atom undefined. -module(microblog). Also spend some time browsing through the available library modules in the documentation. 68 case_clause exception. Child specifications provide the supervisor with the properties of each of its children.9]). the records stored would need to contain a list of line numbers. Received counters are prefixed with recv_. Reason} and {'EXIT'. sooner or later you are bound to come across it. hello ok 3> lists:append([[1. loop(Frequencies) -> receive {request. 333 start function appmon module. Processes have to be spawned and their aliases registered. 123}. 410 | Chapter 18: Types and Documentation CHAPTER 19 EUnit and Test-Driven Development As you are writing a program.francesco] 8> [{Book. disabled}. 53 process dictionary.{with. As “close socket” messages can be lost. binding the variable Bump to a fun: Bump = fun(Int) -> Int + 1 end. Eclipse is the tool of choice for many Java and C++ programmers. refs. and you test them again. We just need to make sure Mnesia is started on this node as well. or have called the function without prepending the module name to the function call: 1> test:hello(). however.[]. With these companies. “Don’t care” variables behave just like normal variables—their values can be inspected. Introducing the process dictionary greatly complicates this task. _owner} = Cat If you write code such as this and then add a field to your record. • Yahoo! uses it in its social bookmarking service. 65 If you do not type a full stop at the end of your input. Cmd}. cross-referencing.30. writing the following: Double = 2. as long as the list is not empty. [1. Where those designations appear in this book. If no reply is received within one second.om@Vaio Mnesia. in fact. uses the procs flag to trace process-related events. among others. the effect of the same software upgrade will be evident after recompilation: 6> c(modtest2). whereas nodes() returns all other connected nodes. id) of [] -> {error. 219 index_read/3 function. are described in detail in the documentation for the shell module. #person is the constructor for person records. which incidentally happens to be the size of the code base of the first Erlang product Ericsson shipped. you should trust your internal interfaces. but sequence references or other identifiers are also common.14. you can see that the current working directory (. it is possible to link Erlang with a number of other programming languages. Building and Processing Lists As we said earlier. 86 | Chapter 3: Sequential Erlang When you hit a blank line. Watch out for this special case.3|. Sweden. which can be used in your programs and in the shell.age + 1}. and orelse constructs all take a tuple of size 3 or more. all features which in Erlang are part of the semantics of the language or are implemented in the OTP libraries. Instead of being sent. 299 wtp function.[Y|Zs]). this list can itself be processed further. Instead of matching actual parameters against patterns for the formal parameters to the function. . Data}} -> . • The pattern match can fail. receive {result. takes the Emacs support for Erlang to another level. kill).Xss. . the type field of the record contains the event type. His diplomatic response stated that any undocumented features in Erlang. <<1.[]. second element from type T2. You can doubleclick it.rb". the child creates a new process and waits for a message from its parent.1}. their deliberate lack of dependencies. hang. the process uses the handle_call(Message. either process works well with tasks of a similar size. Count}. but if any processes were running that code.51. . Fun. 299 create_schema function. Pid} -> exit(Pid. . each of these is negated in the output by bnot. and it terminates. hiding the fault from the end user. Other than being a good practice. in wxErlang. Functions in Erlang are uniquely identified by their name. The default setup when an empty list of options is passed to the ets:new/2 function is to create a set. Socket. you can focus on what is being done specifically in this case. Records used by many modules should be placed in an include file and properly documented. 219 unordered structure.{node. 158 Erlang shell and. You need to rerun the trace command BIFs to reenable the tracing. In line 21. Payload). send(Socket. Exercises | 353 CHAPTER 17 Trace BIFs. the Erlang shell will not evaluate what you have typed and will continue to collect input until you type a terminating full stop and press Enter: 4> 54> 4> 4. We then recommend a number of tools to help you to develop Erlang-based systems more effectively. the following ones comprise an OTP release of the application in question: src Contains the source code of all the Erlang modules in the application. Working prototypes usually cover a subset of the functionality and allow end-to-end tests of the system. such as the following: let c = ((2+3)-4) in ~((2*c)+(3*4)) Or you could add variables. When doing so. An overview is provided in RFC 4614. . of.55. You can use other tags to give information about version number (@version). . . 100 greater than (>) operator. bump up the version of this module to 1. with the data type definitions appearing after the module description. 113. For this purpose.{'$0'. as well as its host computer: foo@STC. patiently guided us through the process and provided encouragement.Job}) when Job /= cook -> [Country. CustId. '_'}]. We define test-generating functions in the section “The EUnit Infrastructure” on page 416. As conditional constructs such as case. 70 badmatch exception. xv 1. In the first command. and the selective receive facility. Result} -> {'EXIT'. [{enable_trace. If you are obsessed with saving microseconds. this is accompanied by –s.. It will also extract the first element of the list stored in the third element of the tuple and bind it to the variable B. The daemon will listen for incoming connection requests on port 4369. even if not directly related to functional programming. It differs from the ones you have solved before because you will have many processes executing the same function in the same module at the same time. [call]). [active.{node. 129 wait function. and then decoding will give unexpected results. ~B Shows an integer to base 10. . although functional programming languages may produce programs that are more readable. ghi}. In the following statement: << Options:OptSize. let’s use it: sum([Head | Tail]) -> Head + sum(Tail). programmers went from using the append function to abusing the ++ operator.Book} <.. reply(From. so if you try sending a message to a nonexistent process. tubers. appending it to a list until the socket is closed. If the process you 268 | Chapter 12: OTP Behaviors are sending a message to does not exist. Here is an example of a safe use in the preferred style. where the first argument to append is the object reference.30.Bs) -> lists:append([As. The best way to know whether you need to throttle on the TCP level and whether memory is an issue during traffic bursts is through extensive stress testing of your system. and so the TypEr tool takes a different approach. .Text). 4–9 CouchDB case study. via the Ruby implementation of the Campfire API. obj=Obj. Always try to go back and rewrite your code.{3}. Data) Will add the handler defined in the callback module Handler. Message). Also. Why do we choose to identify the child through its Id instead of the Pid when stopping it? Base your supervisor on the example in this chapter. Once it has started ringing. Alternatively. . terminate([{Handler. Trying to bind it to the integer 4 fails as it is already bound. like the words in a dictionary. self()}.#Port<0.]) because it is more efficient. {destroy..trapexit. More details about obtaining and running Erlang are given in the Appendix. . inet:gethostbyaddr(Address).exit. Case Studies | 11 but to get something working reliably ended up taking much less talent and time than any of the other languages he knew. Lookup times not only have to be constant. instance} if Handler does not exist. You start the debugger by typing debugger:start() and a monitor window appears. Exercises Exercise 7-1: Extending Records Extend the person record type to include a field for the address of the person. stop -> terminate() end. Another way to slow down message queue buildups is by suspending the processes generating the messages until they receive an acknowledgment that the message they have sent has been received and handled. concurrency.Database. will return all integers smaller than or equal to that integer. Message}. . 405 files/1 function. if the variable n has value 6. 425 overview. but with more than a small number of items in the list.000.To be clear. Handlers can be added. we can induce the runtime error directly in the shell. foreach(F. • Error trapping is the ability of a process to handle exit signals as though they were messages. we will provide the whole program later. Getting Started with Erlang This section tells you how to get started with Erlang: first. millions of calls are made to ets:insert/2 every hour. and. nodes created on the same user account will share the same cookie value by default. we start a distributed Erlang node. listToTree([1. 367 timestamp flag.[4. 125 handle/3 function. #capital{name="Pretoria". 369. C will never know. be able to take down supervision trees.14. {ok. but it would be wrong to identify the two. The text font is Linotype Birka. TTL2 = treeToList(T2). A test-generating function will. Db2). Recent interest in Erlang has been fueled by its suitability for use on multicore processors. and BIFs are executed atomically. Modules consist of files with the . You have mentioned only the field whose value is modified. 168 pattern matching. . xvi threads. [10] 4> apply(Module. Blah = binary_to_list(Text). In doing this. allocate/2 will pattern-match in the first clause. {line. pattern matching will succeed if (and only if) Sum is already bound to 3. ** exception error: bad argument in function list_to_existing_atom/1 called as list_to_existing_atom("tuesday") 3> list_to_existing_atom("monday"). Today. reverse_acc([H | T]. Just to be clear. For example. There is no need to declare functions before they are called. Our second case is that if the list contains at least one element. buttons. After matching some more fields. -spec(delete_usr(integer()) -> ok|{error. The general definition of a record name with fields named field1 to fieldn will take the following form: -record{name. do not forget to export the function you are spawning. we’ll look at the user input typed at foo@STC. and the nodes must either be connected or share the cookie. {error. 405–407 EDTK (Erlang Driver Toolkit). To begin.italy}). 1 leading to 2."#{n}!=#{(fac n)}"} Library Support for Communication | 351 In a Ruby string. It is the default value if no option is chosen. so traversing the table and deleting entries with the disabled status should result in 99.[{add_one. Most behavior implementations just pass the empty list. {34. To demonstrate them.erl:245: Call to missing or unexported function unicode:characters_to_list/2 re. as this might result in a memory leak. The next time you send the database a request. Data. . is a more realistic assessment. You might have many process instances executing the same code base. display(Data) Generates a side effect by printing the Data passed to it. Length) gen_udp:recv(Socket. A defensive programming approach with a catch-all clause would look like this: convert(Day) -> case Day of monday -> tuesday -> wednesday -> thursday -> friday -> saturday -> sunday -> Other -> end. 90 type conversion. 349 trace/3 function. 84 | Chapter 3: Sequential Erlang Exercise 3-6: Sorting Lists Implement the following sort algorithms over lists: Quicksort The head of the list is taken as the pivot. In addition to binaries. Msg) -> {event. ok.[{thomas. -ifndef(Flag). . after which it binds the argument to the variable String and evaluates the guard. Safari® Books Online When you see a Safari® Books Online icon on the cover of your favorite technology book. while the listener goes back and listens for a new connection request. Mnesia will automatically take the contents of the master node. 208 chapter exercises. or simply messages sent using the .return_error. No wonder so many software projects failed to deliver what the customer wanted! Needless to say.erlangprogramming. Socket} = gen_udp:open(1234. but it might also be the result of a function application or a field access for another record type. when integrating with an external system such as Berkeley DB. 340 OtpErlangUInt class. or {error. 0. contains a call to self/0). providing database services as a part of the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). 298 delete function. or an external process pushing data that needs to be displayed. 17 /= (not equal to) operator. as well as discuss how it supports what is known in software engineering circles as test-driven development.0}. but can occur anywhere within a file. . 268 chapter exercises. it’s also like the mathematical symbol ∈. allowing it to send and receive more than one message. Answering a question by citing this book and quoting example code does not require permission. show that segment construction mirrors the pattern matching in the decode function. The callback function handle_info/2* is called whenever the process receives a message it doesn’t recognize. The call takes the same options as the call to gen_udp:open/2 described earlier. . -compile(export_all).W) -> false. If a process p.. pydoc. g] [] [{person.2. Reply} -> Reply end. 3}. InitData}.[{thomas. it is possible to have multiple acceptors against the same listener socket. kernel and stdlib are the basic standard applications on which every other application depends. requests. Pid). You will have to take endian values only if you are transferring binaries across different CPU architectures.PhoneNo} -> lookup_msisdn(PhoneNo). They will make your functions nondeterministic and hard to debug. Let’s start with race conditions. {'=:='. The calendar module is based on the Gregorian calendar and the now/0 BIF.'$3'}. 362 create/0 function. With Erlang. A common misconception is that D can be set to the empty list and the pattern matching succeeds.a libraries are used.141592653589793 3> io:format("hello. calendar The calendar module provides functions to retrieve local and universal times as well as providing time conversions for the day of the week. we tell you where you can find out more about Erlang. and duplicate_bag. . Exercise 6-2: A Reliable Mutex Semaphore Suppose that the mutex semaphore from the section “Finite State Machines” on page 126 in Chapter 5 is unreliable. This makes the wxWidgets toolkit a perfect fit for use with the platformindependent Erlang language. From. 347 operators binary. you define the ‡ If you do not recall what we mean by the heap and the old heap.$l. the Book variable appearing in the inner generator is new. {shell. 37 dp module fill/0 function. 80 timeouts. If the stop request is received. . the pattern matching could be performed by nested case expressions. 5> [Head|Tail] = [1]. Before we look at the next behavior. move the beam files to the ebin directory.[]. but you are in fact patternmatching a record you’ve just created on the right side with the contents of the bound variable Person on the left. Byte streams. where Frequencies is the loop data containing a tuple of allocated and available frequencies. What happens when a pattern match is executed? Two results are possible: • The pattern match can succeed. 2). {ram_copies.records1} 2> rr(records1). where the function P embodies the property to be tested: P(X) will return true if X has the property and false if not: filter(P. and little in terms of heavy processing and number crunching. trace(Disable. List Comprehensions | 199 Multiple Generators A list comprehension will. The exit/1 BIF Process Links and Exit Signals | 145 If you want to send an exit signal to a particular process.[{cat. When you call the following: erlang:monitor(process.36. which are sequences of bits but which need not be bytes (nor be aligned on byte boundaries). it will instead immediately continue executing the next expression in its code. Args} tuple will instead return function arity information. we list all of the registered processes in this field. The advantage of a static type system is that errors can be predicted at compile time rather than at runtime.[]. Should one of the nodes terminate because of a software or hardware error. UDP listener sockets To open a socket. {[3. the connected process has to explicitly retrieve the packet from the socket using these function calls: gen_udp:recv(Socket. In between releases. as well as providing the control loop. you are probably better off with individual files for each item. . It is a good idea to wrap the traversal operation in a catch. {proc_lib. start_proc(0. it can. and so its contents are sent to the server. Address. where Max is the maximum number of simultaneously allowed open file descriptors. In the preceding code. . and peer-to-peer applications. Note how we have used the {const. and is not just any other process that decides to send the client a message of this format? The answer is to use references. {apply. you need to use the calls to functions supervisor:???_child/2: supervisor:start_child(SupervisorName. This causes a performance penalty that is often visible through high CPU consumption. 92–94 message/1 function. These constructs allow processes to monitor each other’s behavior and to recover from software faults.eval_exprs. described in this section. (semicolon). Erlang is a dynamically typed language. and can be used if you are not interested in matching parts of a particular argument. the transaction will first release all of its current locks and then restart. lookup_id(CustId) -> usr_db:lookup_id(CustId). In Erlang terms. For the new bump/1. erl_error For printing error messages.3. Most applications will have to be started after other applications on which they depend. and stores it in a readable logfile. If the pseudo function triggering the translation is ets:fun2ms/1. and an unbound variable is one that has not yet been bound to a value. {name. {first. {error. respectively? In OTP. [] 5> dets:insert(food. we discuss this in more detail in the section “Tracing Calls with the trace_pattern BIF” on page 362.4]}. No messages are exchanged between the client and the process.{badarith. suggests that the Erlang code was 4 to 10 times shorter than similar systems written in C/C++. 266. 310 | Chapter 14: GUI Programming with wxErlang Objects and Types In the wxErlang binding. If you are worried about Big Brother watching you. It is intended that in later releases of Erlang/OTP.9/include \ -L/usr/local/lib/erlang/lib/erl_interface-3. It is not possible to build new tokens through macro expansion.$A+51]. 10 Computer Science Laboratory. the sum of [2. Macros can be used to make programs more readable. a database process was added to the rewritten program. List2."Joe". as shown in Figure 6-9. . 5. Chapter 20.named_table]).5)? What about double(6) when omitting the module name? Create a new module called shapes and copy the area function in it. in this example. Standard Functions You can use list comprehensions to define some of the standard list processing functions found in the lists module. whereas in looking up single words in an online index. age = 30.$l. user db %int() %term() %atom(). providing encrypted communication over sockets. The Tracing Calls with the trace_pattern BIF | 363 modules we are passing to erlang:trace_pattern/3 have to be loaded before the BIF is called. [].0. keysearch(_key. . “just in case. Alarms are raised when a problem occurs and are cleared when it goes away. In doing so.0.'_'}).wait_io_mon_reply.jamesBond.francesco]}] In command 4. _ -> palins(Xs) end.chris]] This allows variables to be named and subexpressions to be written in the usual order when writing a match expression.1] -. always program with maintainability and readability in mind. <0. #Fun rd(capital. enabled. Client functions are functions called by other processes that result in a message being sent to the process defined in the module. If that command does not work. and deallocate. X+Y>4 ].. the wxErlang function call in: File = wxMenu:new(). . the following link: {@link set_status/2. Running EDoc The main EDoc functions are in the edoc module. The use of a first position tag is to differentiate between tuples used for different purposes in the code. 196 dropwhile function. {one. making it a suitable candidate for tracing large live systems. 986. the Erlang Distribution. Overview page For each project. 326 functionality. You might be tempted to write [[].0 == 1. by now you should have deduced that it is also possible to insert records into ETS tables. A process will be unconditionally killed only when exit(Pid. and binary manipulation to this extent: 1> Bin1 = term_to_binary({test. '$1'.[1. The menus and buttons allow you to manipulate the various processes. update_usr/1. modules. signal() -> mutex ! {signal. What makes a true functional programming language is the fact that functions can be handled just like any other sort of data. {packet. Pid .3. 309 wxWidgets wxErlang: An Erlang Binding for wxWidgets Objects and Types Event Handling. 285 functionality. Things communicate with messages. Client/Server Models Erlang processes can be used to implement client/server solutions. The example in this chapter includes the event handler and dialog classes as well as the wxWindow and wxObject base classes. When a process terminates it sends an exit signal to the processes in its link set. you can use this to compile and evaluate Erlang code from the command line. . Linked processes The exit signal is a tuple of the format {'EXIT'. When Björn Gustavsson. feel free to contact us as permissions@oreilly. funny characters. In the preceding code. mostly beginning with the prefix Otp. The default value is 2 million entries.1}. 34 functions and. {'=:='. there is a set of commands in the Erlang shell. 312 exactly equal to (=:=) operator. process.6. {header. Pid. Remember the –vsn(1. test_int(Int) -> throw({error. 344 erl_error function. 'foo@STC. 211. and events represented as messages. and fun clauses. however.150. F. Now we will illustrate how tests are written. Condition. 402 predefined macros. Length + 1). the first element is returned. {usr_app. The tuple as a whole is used in library functions that we will not be discussing in this chapter. In line with these quotes. 2 del_table_index function. . it calls the sqrt (square root) function from the math module. Collecting all externally exported functions into one module provides flexibility in maintaining the code base.{error. In the current implementation of the runtime system. Don’t worry about them unless you like using shortcuts. 293 Mobility Server. 125–126 close function dets module. We will limit ourselves to saying that under no circumstances should you use process priorities. 144 | Chapter 6: Process Error Handling In the following example. "Francesco". We would traverse it like this: 3> First = ets:first(indexTable). with arguments in a similar format. LoopData) callback. dial() end. all tables configured in the schema are created or opened. we got a case clause error. Pid3 will receive the message foo followed by bar regardless of the order in which they are delivered. Not only are they expensive operations.{badarith. finding the final clue to the origin of the invalid message. 19. wxDialog:showModal(MD). Pay special attention to the different recursive patterns that we covered in this chapter. however. Fun = fun() -> mnesia:write(Rec) end. {atomic. . supervisors. the alternatives are the two possible members of the type. Count+1).4]). . and this value is less than or equal to all the values in the right subtree below the node. set}. it’s time to get to work. . fun () -> create_tables("UsrTabFile") end. Returning to the earlier example: test() -> Cmd = "ruby echoFac. In fact. 287–290 supervisors. module. 94–102. 301 deleting objects in Mnesia. including his name. You can include other paths in the path list by compiling your code using the i option: c(Module. When you’re done.html or one of the many mirror sites. Note that the strings in the menu items contain a mnemonic (the letter preceded by an ampersand) and a shortcut. . If a client terminates before deallocating a frequency. . but also are a way to package reusable components. 317–320 object identifiers. making it ideal for transmissions in which you would rather drop a packet than wait for it to be re-sent.[{add_two. foo 5> ets:insert(foo. %% @copyright 2009 Francesco Cesarini and Simon Thompson The tags give information about the following: @author The author(s) of the module and optional contact information (email or HTML). instance}. [{shoeSize. . 222 chapter exercises.133). 260 new function. usually called BIFs in the Erlang community. Element. listToTree([8. add the code for triangles to your type definitions and functions. We start by introducing this higher-level approach.. unknown_msg}}]) -> message(caller()) end). Type the following assignment clause in an Erlang shell. Should the supervisor terminate. Reason} peer:send(String) -> ok | {error. If you want to send a synchronous message to the server. By enabling the running flag. Error}.io:format("~p = ~p~n". Configuring Mnesia | 295 nodes. we’ll discuss how to build nodes in Java and in C that can interoperate with Erlang.[]. When types are omitted. services = [data. 14 comparison operators. Ref. catch construct is to evaluate an expression. When the original call setup node is restarted. The function then calls loop/1 recursively. which here will be bar@STC. 314–316 miniblogging application. so it is almost identical to the sum/1 code. <0.Database]. Receiving an instant message or a status update would keep the FSM in an online state while a logout event would cause it to go from an online or busy state to the offline state. for instance. Name2 = Cat#cat. 182 overview.math:pi()].nonode@nohost. of course. [_|Xs] -> 1 + listlen(Xs) end. 11 getting started.f]. {erl_eval. Reason} -> {error.2. The BIF operations {self} and {get_tcw} return the process identifier of the calling process or the trace control word. picture a project with 50 developers spread across several geographic locations.[{matched. 27 empty. bor. but also as terms in your programs. buffer the messages. . the variable Port contains the port identifier for the spawned Ruby program. or the atom brutal_kill. As a result. Split long modules in a logically coherent way and remember that long lines will not solve your problem. Db).Tag) application:get_all_env(Name). or a term that is ignored. 4}. it was quickly overshadowed with the theory of threads. Mats-Ola. Calling the same function outside the scope of the catch results in an exception throw runtime error. we’ve used anything from ten restarts per second to one per hour. whose third argument is a limit on the number of matches. 92 event handler.{4. use the function ets:safe_fixtable/2. even(Int) when Int rem 2 == 1 -> false. which is acting as a database server.beam usr. '$1'. and replacing the if with a case statement. 230 open_port/2 command. and the third is the surname field. 106 Smart. and data is received from the Port in a receive clause matching data of the form {Port. #usr{status = enabled}} . Arity} {Module. In the following example. 335 An Overview of Interworking Erlang provides a number of mechanisms for interlanguage working: a higher-level model built on distributed Erlang nodes. Plan) when Plan==prepay. null}. Function}. In an industrial project with release handling. resulting in the first occurrence of the module being picked up. 229 sets.. By taking care in identifying truly concurrent activites in your Erlang system. all of which are also handled by the precompiler. providing information on whether memory is allocated or released. {X. the compiler needs to treat this case separately. Ref. All of these tools are part of the standard Erlang distribution. L. Length) -> average_acc(T.com' The concept of atoms in Erlang was originally inspired—as were a number of aspects of the language—by the logic programming language Prolog. When done. add the following definition to your callback module. and its exit signal propagates to process C (see Figure 6-3). This is because you are calling the function from outside the module. LoopData}. so instead of calling: printerserver ! {print. . 378 is_list function. Time = fmt(time()). a space delimiting their results is added to the result by default: double(X) -> X + X. 122 coding strategies. deallocate will remove the newly freed frequency from the list of allocated ones using the lists:keydelete/3 library function and concatenate it to the list of available frequencies. EUnit EUnit provides a framework for defining and executing unit tests. the size of a Dets file cannot exceed 2 GB. solving the race condition we just described. You would keep the Erlang process alive using a tail-recursive call to the function that contains the receive statement. window manager. calls to functions in the same module and in other modules—without having to trace-compile (i. 360 set_on_first_spawn flag. [Size1|_] = TTL1.† a model checker for Erlang written in Erlang. start() -> register(mutex. OTP puts the idea of links into a framework whereby a process supervises other workers and supervisors. month('February') -> 2. When using receive clauses. Another approach to model checking translates Erlang into μCRL and then model-checks the results. Let’s get acquainted with it through an example. 5:4>>. . spawn_link/3 on line 4. 230 gen_tcp module. In extreme cases under heavy sustained traffic. '_'. For instance. The reason is simple. [char()]. . I/O Group Leaders Try calling rpc:call(Node. nonflat data structures can be serialized and deserialized. . 25 splits function. Distributed Computing in Erlang: The Basics | 251 As a result. runs the trapexit. these processes will send M number of messages around the ring and then terminate gracefully when they receive a quit message.2. Description} in a comma-separated file. {CustId. '$0'}. Type in the following example and use it to experiment with various pattern matches of exceptions and wildcards. or collecting statistics. ChildList) -> {value. and you can install it in Ruby using: $ gem install mojombo-erlectricity -s https://gems. or more general.msg). Object Identifiers. through careful and well-thought-out design.hrl").N) -> case Words of [] -> ok. Having created a schema. and testing is one of the best ways to understand how your code will function. it is harder to see how a unit-testing framework such as EUnit can directly help. true). The compiler has a list of paths to search for include files. Tuple} or {Tuple}.8. {shell. Just to be clear. Before looking at how to do it. An example using erlectricity The erlectricity library for Ruby provides support for communication with Erlang processes through ports. through a selective receive. dets:close(subDisk). A line of code should never be more than 80 characters long. they need to terminate when the parent terminates. EDoc will still include the names of the parameters in the generated information. let’s use the module_info/0 function to get the version of the code. higher-level descriptions of the architecture of parts of Erlang/OTP. It is possible to separate the test functions from the module (mod. Shell got {udp. def. FileSuffix. It is thanks to the design of the garbage collector. which in turn is paired with the atom fac and the pair is coded as a binary.1. 311 purge function. For example. an alternative approach. [#capital{name = "Pretoria". age = 30. As Other is unbound. however. Exp2.25. {repair. two menu items %% and a status bar. CustId). Options) 296 | Chapter 13: Introducing Mnesia In this function call. insert. {ok. the current version becoming the old one. the error is typically caused by a missing pattern: test2(N) -> if N < 0 -> false. Try it for free at https://my.5 million lines of Erlang code. 226 ordered sets..3. loop. 314–316 MiniBlog example. [] 18> usr_db:lookup_msisdn(700000001). and deleted. may behave in an unexpected and unintended way. all flags are set. Bool} States whether the table should be repaired if it was not properly closed.atom()}). {CustId. anyone connected to it would be able to read and delete files. https://wxerlang. Msg:MsgLen/binary>>) -> Element = handle(MsgType.[{erlang