ensure_started

[Kent Boortz]

Ulf Wiger <etxuwig@REDACTED> writes:
> I posted the following suggestion a few weeks ago, now
> slightly modified:
> 
> ensure_started() ->
>    Id = {{?MODULE,ensure_started}, self()},
>    global:trans(
>        Id, fun() ->
>                case whereis(?MODULE) of
>                   undefined ->
>                      Pid = proc_lib:spawn(?MODULE,init,[]),
>                      register(?MODULE, Pid),
>                      {ok, Pid};
>                   Pid when pid(Pid) ->
>                      {ok, Pid}
>                end
>            end, [node()]).
> 
> 
> Since you know that the ensure_started() call is always
> local you can use global:trans(Id, Fun, [node()]) which will
> cut it down to two gen_server calls to the nearest global
> name server.

As an experiment I wrote a new bif that could simplify coding of
things like this. The bif will as an "atomic operation" start and
register a process if a process with that name doesn't exist.
If it does exist the pid of the existing process will be returned.
If 'link' is in SpawnOpts a link is created to the started/existing
process.

Haven't implemented the user API but it should look something like

  erlang:ensure_started(RegisteredName, FunToRun, SpawnOpts)

and maybe a version for remote start

  erlang:ensure_started(RegisteredName, Node, FunToRun, SpawnOpts)

With these functions it should be easy to implement a new function
proc_lib:ensure_started(...) that should cover what the code above
try to do.

Any thoughts?

kent