Erlang Process doesn't receive messages

[Vladimir Sekissov]

Good day,

4> receive Msg -> Msg after 3000 -> timeout end.
1
5> Msg.
1
6> 

You exported Msg declaration from `receive' and in second `receive'
tried to compare with pattern Msg=1.

Compiler warns you in such cases.

Best Regards,
Vladimir Sekissov

serge> During the following test, I discovered a non-intuitive behavior that 
serge> I'd appreciate to receive some help with.
serge> 
serge> Given two processes: client (shown as a Erlang shell process), and 
serge> server.  The server implements the following loop in a process separate 
serge> from client:
serge> 
serge> loop() ->
serge>      receive
serge>          stop ->
serge>              stopped;
serge>          {test, From, Arg} ->
serge>              timer:sleep(3000),
serge>              From ! Arg,
serge>              loop()
serge>      end.
serge> 
serge> Perform the commands below from the client process shell.  What is not 
serge> clear in this code is that despite the fact that the client has messages 
serge> in its mailbox, the receive command times out without removing messages 
serge> from the mailbox.
serge> 
serge> Can anyone explain this?
serge> 
serge> Thanks,
serge> 
serge> Serge
serge> 
serge> 94> Pid = server:start().
serge> <0.139.0>
serge> 95> process_info(self(), messages).
serge> {messages,[]}
serge> 96> Pid ! {test, self(), 1}.
serge> {test,<0.142.0>,1}
serge> 97> process_info(self(), messages).
serge> {messages,[]}
serge> 98> process_info(self(), messages).
serge> {messages,[1]}
serge> 99> receive Msg -> Msg after 3000 -> timeout end.
serge> 1
serge> 100> Pid ! {test, self(), 1}.
serge> {test,<0.142.0>,1}
serge> 101> Pid ! {test, self(), 2}.
serge> {test,<0.142.0>,2}
serge> 102> process_info(self(), messages).
serge> {messages,[1]}
serge> 103> process_info(self(), messages).
serge> {messages,[1]}
serge> 104> process_info(self(), messages).
serge> {messages,[1,2]}
serge> 105> receive Msg -> Msg after 3000 -> timeout end.
serge> 1
serge> 106> receive Msg -> Msg after 3000 -> timeout end.
serge> timeout
serge> 107> receive Msg -> Msg after 3000 -> timeout end.
serge> timeout
serge> 108> process_info(self(), messages).
serge> {messages,[2]}
serge> 109> os:type().
serge> {win32,nt}
serge> ------------------------