Makefile and Erlang

[Sean Hinde]

> Note also that systools:make_tar is primarily intended for
> building a tar file that is used to upgrade an already
> existing system.

It is, and that is a bit of a shame. It is not at all obvious from the docs
that this is the case, and then not at all clear how to create an initial
release which works. I struggled with this for quite some time before
getting help under my commercial support agreement.

Having said that, the tar file created with

systools:make_tar("app1", [{erts, "/home/user/erl5.0.1"}]).

has all the files required for a full installation and I use it all the time
in combination with the Install script attached to my last post to build and
install new installations.

Ach, here goes:

The complete procedure I use is to put all my own apps into a dedicated
build directory like:

Build--myapp-1.0/ebin
      |
      -myapp2-1.3/ebin

In this dir I also put the sys.config I wish to use and the .rel file for
all the applications including the standard ones I wish to include.

"app1.rel" contains e.g:

{release, {"app1 initial build","app1"}, {erts, "5.0.1"},
 [{kernel,"2.6.1.6"},
  {stdlib,"1.9.3"},
  {sasl, "1.9.1"},
  {runtime_tools, "1.1.2"},
  {os_mon, "1.3.9"},
  {snmp, "3.2.1"},
  {mnesia, "3.9.3"},
  {myapp, "1.0"},
  {myapp2, "1.3"}]}.

"sys.config" usefully can have at least this (as my Install creates this dir
for sasl files):

[{sasl, [{error_logger_mf_dir, "/../target_install_dir/sasl_logfiles/"}].

In here I also have a .erlang which looks like:

Myroot = "/opt/erlang/Build/".
code:add_pathz(Myroot++"myapp-1.0/ebin").
code:add_pathz(Myroot++"myapp2-1.3/ebin").

So, after making sure that my two own apps have correct .app files in their
ebin dirs I just run up an erlang shell (the same one containing the desired
versions of the standard apps) then:

1>systoools:make_script("app1").
ok
2>
systools:make_tar("app1", [{erts, "/home/user/erl5.0.1"}]).
ok

If you copy the tar file to your host machine, untar it and run the Install
script you should have something which starts the whole app using

bin/start

run directly from the untar directory.

Then to attach to the shell for this node use:

bin/to_erl

You get some nice error info in the log directory if it fails to start up
(i.e. if there is a problem with startup of any of the included apps it
crashes)

You can also use bin/erl which will use the start.boot in the bin dir
(copied from the erts-5.0.1/bin dir by Install)

This is about as simple as I have managed to make the process and it works
every time for me in my environment (I've never tested it on open source
Erlang - the initial whereabouts of start.src files etc is quite possibly a
bit different).

- Sean



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