[erlang-questions] managing OS processes

[Tim Watson]

I'm also working on very similar requirements in
https://github.com/nebularis/systest/blob/master/src/systest_cli.erl
and like you two, I have to rely on a combination of open_port with
its constituent events and os:cmd/1 in order to SIGHUP/SIGKILL which
feels rather 'hackish' to me. I've also noticed that it makes consumer
code rather timing dependent, which is frustrating.

I would be willing to participate in either

(a) improving the built in port functionality or
(b) working on erlexec

Although C I'm fairly comfortable with, but C++ (which erlexec appears
to be written in) isn't really my bag. I do have to ask though, is
erlexec in need of much additional work? I also have 'client' modules
for the OTP slave and ssh modules and don't want to invest a mountain
of time in replacing open_port, but a little TLC to bring erlexec up
to scratch would be time well spent if it would give a more consistent
interface. In particular I have some issues with open_port based code
with now such as

1. cli clients my code launches can be 'detached' (usually erlang
nodes run with -detached or scripts that launch erlang nodes using `sh
-C` or setsid/nohup and the like), which makes the port handling code
both complex and messy.
2. some client code I'm testing will execute another (different)
script/command to shut down the node and the listening port doesn't
always get the exit status properly
3. signal handling is a mess

So erlexec does sound promising, but IMO it would be *better* if the
built in open_port functionality could be extending to deal with these
situations properly.

Cheers,
Tim

On 26 May 2012 13:12, Gleb Peregud <gleber.p@REDACTED> wrote:
> On Sat, May 26, 2012 at 11:06 AM, Benoit Chesneau <bchesneau@REDACTED> wrote:
>> I'm trying to find a way to manage some os processes launched from
>> Erlang. For example I need to relaunch them when the external process
>> die for an unknown reason or send an HUP signal or just stop the
>> external process.
>
> Hello Benoit
>
> Looks like there are two of us, who needs a better mechanism to manage
> OS processes from Erlang. I need it for a CI server which I'm working
> on, so my requirements are not as high as yours, but still os:cmd
> doesn't work for me and ports are missing one feature which I need.
>
> Maybe we could reanimate erlexec together?
>
> Cheers,
> Gleb
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