Startup phase design

[Gerd Flaig]

Hi,

the service module foo in my application is implemented as a set of
functions calling a gen_server, like this:

frob() ->
       gen_server:call(frobserv, frobnicate).

Frobserv is started during node startup via an application
supervisor. Java nodes regularly connect and call foo:frob(). The
problem is, those Java nodes also connect when the gen_server is not
yet fully started, causing noproc crashes.

Three solutions come to my mind:

  1. Don't use Erlang distribution between the Java and Erlang
     nodes. Communicate over a specialized protocol over TCP, open the
     listening port only when the application is ready. This solution
     seems to be the most clean one to me but would require the most
     effort.

  2. Signal a temporary failure to the caller but don't crash.

  3. Block calls until frobserv is up.

What do you think? Is there another, maybe better way? I am not sure
what would be the best way to implement 2. or 3. if I don't get
permission to implement solution 1.

       Goodbyte, Gerd.
-- 
Gerd Flaig                     Technik                gerd@REDACTED
Bei Schlund + Partner AG       Brauerstraße 48      D-76135 Karlsruhe
 Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results,
 but that's not why we do it. -- Richard Feynman