[erlang-questions] module_info and code switch

[Fred Youhanaie]

Hi

I'm playing with a simple piece of code where I switch versions via erl shell.

Curiously I noticed that as soon as I load a new version of the module, module_info/1 returns the attribute of the currently loaded version rather than the version for the running process!

Is this intentional?

Code and sample session is at the bottom.

Thanks

Fred

Here's the code:

-module(loopie).
-compile([export_all]).
start() ->
	start(5000).
start(T) ->
	register(loopie, spawn(?MODULE, loop, [T])).
loop(T) ->
	receive
		switch ->
			io:format("switched~n"),
			loopie:loop(T);
		ANY	->
			io:format("received unexpected message >~p<.~n", [ANY]),
			loop(T)
	after T	->
		io:format("v1 ~p.~n", [module_info(attributes)]),
		loop(T)
	end.

Here's a sample session:

1. initially loopie prints v1 and vsn every 5 seconds.
2. on the source "v1" is changed to "v2" and module is compiled and loaded
3. loopie is now printing v1 but with the new vsn
4. switch message is sent
5. loopie is now printing v2 and the new vsn

$ erl
Erlang R16B02 (erts-5.10.3) [source] [async-threads:10] [hipe] [kernel-poll:false]

Eshell V5.10.3  (abort with ^G)
1> l(loopie).
{module,loopie}
2> loopie:start().
true
v1 [{vsn,[102112148784636006663528886950745967476]}].
v1 [{vsn,[102112148784636006663528886950745967476]}].
3> l(loopie).
{module,loopie}
v1 [{vsn,[337256366447556252629333013282189761649]}].
v1 [{vsn,[337256366447556252629333013282189761649]}].
v1 [{vsn,[337256366447556252629333013282189761649]}].
4> loopie!switch.
switched
switch
v2 [{vsn,[337256366447556252629333013282189761649]}].
v2 [{vsn,[337256366447556252629333013282189761649]}].
5>