-spec call(Node, Fun) -> Result when Node :: node(), Fun :: function(), Result :: term().

Equivalent to call(Node, Fun, infinity).

-spec call(Node, Fun, Timeout) -> Result
              when Node :: node(), Fun :: function(), Timeout :: timeout_time(), Result :: term().

Equivalent to erpc:call(Node, erlang, apply, [Fun,[]], Timeout).

May raise all the same exceptions as call/5 plus an {erpc, badarg} error exception if Fun is not a fun of zero arity.

-spec call(Node, Module, Function, Args) -> Result
              when
                  Node :: node(),
                  Module :: atom(),
                  Function :: atom(),
                  Args :: [term()],
                  Result :: term().

Equivalent to call(Node, Module, Function, Args, infinity).

-spec call(Node, Module, Function, Args, Timeout) -> Result
              when
                  Node :: node(),
                  Module :: atom(),
                  Function :: atom(),
                  Args :: [term()],
                  Timeout :: timeout_time(),
                  Result :: term().

Evaluates apply(Module, Function, Args) on node Node and returns the corresponding value Result. Timeout sets an upper time limit for the call operation to complete.

The call() function only returns if the applied function successfully returned without raising any uncaught exceptions, the operation did not time out, and no failures occurred. In all other cases an exception is raised. The following exceptions, listed by exception class, can currently be raised by call():

• throw - The applied function called throw(Value) and did not catch this exception. The exception reason Value equals the argument passed to throw/1.

• exit - Exception reason:

  • {exception, ExitReason} - The applied function called exit(ExitReason) and did not catch this exception. The exit reason ExitReason equals the argument passed to exit/1.

  • {signal, ExitReason} - The process that applied the function received an exit signal and terminated due to this signal. The process terminated with exit reason ExitReason.

• error - Exception reason:

  • {exception, ErrorReason, StackTrace} - A runtime error occurred which raised an error exception while applying the function, and the applied function did not catch the exception. The error reason ErrorReason indicates the type of error that occurred. StackTrace is formatted as when caught in a try/catch construct. The StackTrace is limited to the applied function and functions called by it.

  • {erpc, ERpcErrorReason} - The erpc operation failed. The following ERpcErrorReasons are the most common ones:

    • badarg - If any one of these are true:

      • Node is not an atom.
      • Module is not an atom.
      • Function is not an atom.
      • Args is not a list. Note that the list is not verified to be a proper list at the client side.
      • Timeout is invalid.

    • noconnection - The connection to Node was lost or could not be established. The function may or may not be applied.

    • system_limit - The erpc operation failed due to some system limit being reached. This typically due to failure to create a process on the remote node Node, but can be other things as well.

    • timeout - The erpc operation timed out. The function may or may not be applied.

    • notsup - The remote node Node does not support this erpc operation.

If the erpc operation fails, but it is unknown if the function is/will be applied (that is, a timeout or a connection loss), the caller will not receive any further information about the result if/when the applied function completes. If the applied function explicitly communicates with the calling process, such communication may, of course, reach the calling process.

Note

You cannot make any assumptions about the process that will perform the apply(). It may be the calling process itself, a server, or a freshly spawned process.

-spec cast(Node, Fun) -> ok when Node :: node(), Fun :: function().

Equivalent to erpc:cast(Node,erlang,apply,[Fun,[]]).

cast/2 fails with an {erpc, badarg} error exception if:

• Node is not an atom.
• Fun is not a a fun of zero arity.

-spec cast(Node, Module, Function, Args) -> ok
              when Node :: node(), Module :: atom(), Function :: atom(), Args :: [term()].

Evaluates apply(Module, Function, Args) on node Node. No response is delivered to the calling process. cast() returns immediately after the cast request has been sent. Any failures beside bad arguments are silently ignored.

cast/4 fails with an {erpc, badarg} error exception if:

• Node is not an atom.
• Module is not an atom.
• Function is not an atom.
• Args is not a list. Note that the list is not verified to be a proper list at the client side.

Note

You cannot make any assumptions about the process that will perform the apply(). It may be a server, or a freshly spawned process.

-spec check_response(Message, RequestId) -> {response, Result} | no_response
                        when Message :: term(), RequestId :: request_id(), Result :: term().

Check if a message is a response to a call request previously made by the calling process using send_request/4.

RequestId should be the value returned from the previously made send_request/4 call, and the corresponding response should not already have been received and handled to completion by check_response/2, receive_response/2, or wait_response/2. Message is the message to check.

If Message does not correspond to the response, the atom no_response is returned. If Message corresponds to the response, the call operation is completed and either the result is returned as {response, Result} where Result corresponds to the value returned from the applied function or an exception is raised. The exceptions that can be raised corresponds to the same exceptions as can be raised by call/4. That is, no {erpc, timeout} error exception can be raised. check_response() will fail with an {erpc, badarg} exception if/when an invalid RequestId is detected.

If the erpc operation fails, but it is unknown if the function is/will be applied (that is, a connection loss), the caller will not receive any further information about the result if/when the applied function completes. If the applied function explicitly communicates with the calling process, such communication may, of course, reach the calling process.

-spec check_response(Message, RequestIdCollection, Delete) ->
                        {{response, Result}, Label, NewRequestIdCollection} | no_response | no_request
                        when
                            Message :: term(),
                            RequestIdCollection :: request_id_collection(),
                            Delete :: boolean(),
                            Result :: term(),
                            Label :: term(),
                            NewRequestIdCollection :: request_id_collection().

Check if a message is a response to a call request corresponding to a request identifier saved in RequestIdCollection. All request identifiers of RequestIdCollection must correspond to requests that have been made using send_request/4 or send_request/6, and all requests must have been made by the process calling this function.

Label is the label associated with the request identifier of the request that the response corresponds to. A request identifier is associated with a label when adding a request identifier in a request identifier collection, or when sending the request using send_request/6.

Compared to check_response/2, the returned result associated with a specific request identifier or an exception associated with a specific request identifier will be wrapped in a 3-tuple. The first element of this tuple equals the value that would have been produced by check_response/2, the second element equals the Label associated with the specific request identifier, and the third element NewRequestIdCollection is a possibly modified request identifier collection. The error exception {erpc, badarg} is not associated with any specific request identifier, and will hence not be wrapped.

If RequestIdCollection is empty, the atom no_request will be returned. If Message does not correspond to any of the request identifiers in RequestIdCollection, the atom no_response is returned.

If Delete equals true, the association with Label will have been deleted from RequestIdCollection in the resulting NewRequestIdCollection. If Delete equals false, NewRequestIdCollection will equal RequestIdCollection. Note that deleting an association is not for free and that a collection containing already handled requests can still be used by subsequent calls to check_response/3, receive_response/3, and wait_response/3. However, without deleting handled associations, the above calls will not be able to detect when there are no more outstanding requests to handle, so you will have to keep track of this some other way than relying on a no_request return. Note that if you pass a collection only containing associations of already handled or abandoned requests to check_response/3, it will always return no_response.

Note that a response might have been consumed uppon an {erpc, badarg} exception and if so, will be lost for ever.

-spec multicall(Nodes, Fun) -> Result when Nodes :: [atom()], Fun :: function(), Result :: term().

Equivalent to multicall(Nodes, Fun, infinity).

-spec multicall(Nodes, Fun, Timeout) -> Result
                   when
                       Nodes :: [atom()], Fun :: function(), Timeout :: timeout_time(), Result :: term().

Equivalent to erpc:multicall(Nodes, erlang, apply, [Fun,[]], Timeout).

May raise all the same exceptions as multicall/5 plus an {erpc, badarg} error exception if Fun is not a fun of zero arity.

-spec multicall(Nodes, Module, Function, Args) -> Result
                   when
                       Nodes :: [atom()],
                       Module :: atom(),
                       Function :: atom(),
                       Args :: [term()],
                       Result :: [{ok, ReturnValue :: term()} | caught_call_exception()].

Equivalent to multicall(Nodes, Module, Function, Args, infinity).

-spec multicall(Nodes, Module, Function, Args, Timeout) -> Result
                   when
                       Nodes :: [atom()],
                       Module :: atom(),
                       Function :: atom(),
                       Args :: [term()],
                       Timeout :: timeout_time(),
                       Result :: [{ok, ReturnValue :: term()} | caught_call_exception()].

Performs multiple call operations in parallel on multiple nodes.

That is, evaluates apply(Module, Function, Args) on the nodes Nodes in parallel. Timeout sets an upper time limit for all call operations to complete. The result is returned as a list where the result from each node is placed at the same position as the node name is placed in Nodes. Each item in the resulting list is formatted as either:

• {ok, Result} - The call operation for this specific node returned Result.

• {Class, ExceptionReason} - The call operation for this specific node raised an exception of class Class with exception reason ExceptionReason. These correspond to the exceptions that call/5 can raise.

multicall/5 fails with an {erpc, badarg} error exception if:

• Nodes is not a proper list of atoms. Note that some requests may already have been sent when the failure occurs. That is, the function may or may not be applied on some nodes.
• Module is not an atom.
• Function is not an atom.
• Args is not a list. Note that the list is not verified to be a proper list at the client side.

The call erpc:multicall(Nodes, Module, Function, Args) is equivalent to the call erpc:multicall(Nodes, Module, Function, Args, infinity). These calls are also equivalent to calling my_multicall(Nodes, Module, Function, Args) below if one disregard performance and failure behavior. multicall() can utilize a selective receive optimization which removes the need to scan the message queue from the beginning in order to find a matching message. The send_request()/receive_response() combination can, however, not utilize this optimization.

my_multicall(Nodes, Module, Function, Args) ->
  ReqIds = lists:map(fun (Node) ->
                       erpc:send_request(Node, Module, Function, Args)
                     end,
                     Nodes),
  lists:map(fun (ReqId) ->
              try
                {ok, erpc:receive_response(ReqId, infinity)}
              catch
                Class:Reason ->
                  {Class, Reason}
              end
            end,
            ReqIds).

If an erpc operation fails, but it is unknown if the function is/will be applied (that is, a timeout, connection loss, or an improper Nodes list), the caller will not receive any further information about the result if/when the applied function completes. If the applied function communicates with the calling process, such communication may, of course, reach the calling process.

Note

You cannot make any assumptions about the process that will perform the apply(). It may be the calling process itself, a server, or a freshly spawned process.

-spec multicast(Nodes, Fun) -> ok when Nodes :: [node()], Fun :: function().

Equivalent to erpc:multicast(Nodes,erlang,apply,[Fun,[]]).

multicast/2 fails with an {erpc, badarg} error exception if:

• Nodes is not a proper list of atoms.
• Fun is not a a fun of zero arity.

-spec multicast(Nodes, Module, Function, Args) -> ok
                   when Nodes :: [node()], Module :: atom(), Function :: atom(), Args :: [term()].

Evaluates apply(Module, Function, Args) on the nodes Nodes. No response is delivered to the calling process. multicast() returns immediately after the cast requests have been sent. Any failures beside bad arguments are silently ignored.

multicast/4 fails with an {erpc, badarg} error exception if:

• Nodes is not a proper list of atoms. Note that some requests may already have been sent when the failure occurs. That is, the function may or may not be applied on some nodes.
• Module is not an atom.
• Function is not an atom.
• Args is not a list. Note that the list is not verified to be a proper list at the client side.

Note

You cannot make any assumptions about the process that will perform the apply(). It may be a server, or a freshly spawned process.

-spec receive_response(RequestId) -> Result when RequestId :: request_id(), Result :: term().

Equivalent to receive_response(RequestId, infinity).

-spec receive_response(RequestId, Timeout) -> Result
                          when RequestId :: request_id(), Timeout :: timeout_time(), Result :: term().

Receive a response to a call request previously made by the calling process using send_request/4.

RequestId should be the value returned from the previously made send_request/4 call, and the corresponding response should not already have been received and handled to completion by receive_response(), check_response/4, or wait_response/4.

Timeout sets an upper time limit on how long to wait for a response. If the operation times out, the request identified by RequestId will be abandoned, then an {erpc, timeout} error exception will be raised. That is, no response corresponding to the request will ever be received after a timeout. If a response is received, the call operation is completed and either the result is returned or an exception is raised. The exceptions that can be raised corresponds to the same exceptions as can be raised by call/5. receive_response/2 will fail with an {erpc, badarg} exception if/when an invalid RequestId is detected or if an invalid Timeout is passed.

A call to the function my_call(Node, Module, Function, Args, Timeout) below is equivalent to the call erpc:call(Node, Module, Function, Args, Timeout) if one disregards performance. call() can utilize a selective receive optimization which removes the need to scan the message queue from the beginning in order to find a matching message. The send_request()/receive_response() combination can, however, not utilize this optimization.

my_call(Node, Module, Function, Args, Timeout) ->
  RequestId = erpc:send_request(Node, Module, Function, Args),
  erpc:receive_response(RequestId, Timeout).

If the erpc operation fails, but it is unknown if the function is/will be applied (that is, a timeout, or a connection loss), the caller will not receive any further information about the result if/when the applied function completes. If the applied function explicitly communicates with the calling process, such communication may, of course, reach the calling process.

-spec receive_response(RequestIdCollection, Timeout, Delete) ->
                          {Result, Label, NewRequestIdCollection} | no_request
                          when
                              RequestIdCollection :: request_id_collection(),
                              Timeout :: timeout_time(),
                              Delete :: boolean(),
                              Result :: term(),
                              Label :: term(),
                              NewRequestIdCollection :: request_id_collection().

Receive a response to a call request corresponding to a request identifier saved in RequestIdCollection. All request identifiers of RequestIdCollection must correspond to requests that have been made using send_request/4 or send_request/6, and all requests must have been made by the process calling this function.

Label is the label associated with the request identifier of the request that the response corresponds to. A request identifier is associated with a label when adding a request identifier in a request identifier collection, or when sending the request using send_request/6.

Compared to receive_response/2, the returned result associated with a specific request identifier or an exception associated with a specific request identifier will be wrapped in a 3-tuple. The first element of this tuple equals the value that would have been produced by receive_response/2, the second element equals the Label associated with the specific request identifier, and the third element NewRequestIdCollection is a possibly modified request identifier collection. The error exceptions {erpc, badarg} and {erpc, timeout} are not associated with any specific request identifiers, and will hence not be wrapped.

If RequestIdCollection is empty, the atom no_request will be returned.

If the operation times out, all requests identified by RequestIdCollection will be abandoned, then an {erpc, timeout} error exception will be raised. That is, no responses corresponding to any of the request identifiers in RequestIdCollection will ever be received after a timeout. The difference between receive_response/3 and wait_response/3 is that receive_response/3 abandons the requests at timeout so that any potential future responses are ignored, while wait_response/3 does not.

If Delete equals true, the association with Label will have been deleted from RequestIdCollection in the resulting NewRequestIdCollection. If Delete equals false, NewRequestIdCollection will equal RequestIdCollection. Note that deleting an association is not for free and that a collection containing already handled requests can still be used by subsequent calls to receive_response/3, check_response/3, and wait_response/3. However, without deleting handled associations, the above calls will not be able to detect when there are no more outstanding requests to handle, so you will have to keep track of this some other way than relying on a no_request return. Note that if you pass a collection only containing associations of already handled or abandoned requests to receive_response/3, it will always block until a timeout determined by Timeout is triggered.

Note that a response might have been consumed uppon an {erpc, badarg} exception and if so, will be lost for ever.

-spec reqids_add(RequestId :: request_id(),
                 Label :: term(),
                 RequestIdCollection :: request_id_collection()) ->
                    NewRequestIdCollection :: request_id_collection().

Saves RequestId and associates a Label with the request identifier by adding this information to RequestIdCollection and returning the resulting request identifier collection.

-spec reqids_new() -> NewRequestIdCollection :: request_id_collection().

Returns a new empty request identifier collection. A request identifier collection can be utilized in order the handle multiple outstanding requests.

Request identifiers of requests made by send_request/4 can be saved in a request identifier collection using reqids_add/3. Such a collection of request identifiers can later be used in order to get one response corresponding to a request in the collection by passing the collection as argument to check_response/3, receive_response/3, and wait_response/3.

reqids_size/1 can be used to determine the amount of request identifiers in a request identifier collection.

-spec reqids_size(RequestIdCollection :: request_id_collection()) -> non_neg_integer().

Returns the amount of request identifiers saved in RequestIdCollection.

-spec reqids_to_list(RequestIdCollection :: request_id_collection()) ->
                        [{RequestId :: request_id(), Label :: term()}].

Returns a list of {RequestId, Label} tuples which corresponds to all request identifiers with their associated labels present in the RequestIdCollection collection.

-spec send_request(Node, Fun) -> RequestId
                      when Node :: node(), Fun :: function(), RequestId :: request_id().

Equivalent to erpc:send_request(Node, erlang, apply, [Fun, []]).

Fails with an {erpc, badarg} error exception if:

• Node is not an atom.
• Fun is not a fun of zero arity.

Note

You cannot make any assumptions about the process that will perform the apply(). It may be a server, or a freshly spawned process.

-spec send_request(Node, Module, Function, Args) -> RequestId
                      when
                          Node :: node(),
                          Module :: atom(),
                          Function :: atom(),
                          Args :: [term()],
                          RequestId :: request_id();
                  (Node, Fun, Label, RequestIdCollection) -> NewRequestIdCollection
                      when
                          Node :: node(),
                          Fun :: function(),
                          Label :: term(),
                          RequestIdCollection :: request_id_collection(),
                          NewRequestIdCollection :: request_id_collection().

Send an asynchronous call request to the node Node.

send_request/4 returns a request identifier that later is to be passed to either receive_response/2, wait_response/2, or, check_response/2 in order to get the response of the call request. Besides passing the request identifier directly to these functions, it can also be added in a request identifier collection using reqids_add/3. Such a collection of request identifiers can later be used in order to get one response corresponding to a request in the collection by passing the collection as argument to receive_response/3, wait_response/3, or, check_response/3. If you are about to save the request identifier in a request identifier collection, you may want to consider using send_request/6 instead.

A call to the function my_call(Node, Module, Function, Args, Timeout) below is equivalent to the call erpc:call(Node, Module, Function, Args, Timeout) if one disregards performance. call() can utilize a selective receive optimization which removes the need to scan the message queue from the beginning in order to find a matching message. The send_request()/receive_response() combination can, however, not utilize this optimization.

my_call(Node, Module, Function, Args, Timeout) ->
  RequestId = erpc:send_request(Node, Module, Function, Args),
  erpc:receive_response(RequestId, Timeout).

Fails with an {erpc, badarg} error exception if:

• Node is not an atom.
• Module is not an atom.
• Function is not an atom.
• Args is not a list. Note that the list is not verified to be a proper list at the client side.

Note

You cannot make any assumptions about the process that will perform the apply(). It may be a server, or a freshly spawned process.

Equivalent to erpc:send_request(Node, erlang, apply, [Fun,[]]), Label, RequestIdCollection).

Fails with an {erpc, badarg} error exception if:

• Node is not an atom.
• Fun is not a fun of zero arity.
• RequestIdCollection is detected not to be request identifier collection.

Note

You cannot make any assumptions about the process that will perform the apply(). It may be a server, or a freshly spawned process.

-spec send_request(Node, Module, Function, Args, Label, RequestIdCollection) -> NewRequestIdCollection
                      when
                          Node :: node(),
                          Module :: atom(),
                          Function :: atom(),
                          Args :: [term()],
                          Label :: term(),
                          RequestIdCollection :: request_id_collection(),
                          NewRequestIdCollection :: request_id_collection().

Send an asynchronous call request to the node Node. The Label will be associated with the request identifier of the operation and added to the returned request identifier collection NewRequestIdCollection. The collection can later be used in order to get one response corresponding to a request in the collection by passing the collection as argument to receive_response/3, wait_response/3, or, check_response/3.

Equivalent to erpc:reqids_add(erpc:send_request(Node, Module, Function, Args), Label, RequestIdCollection), but calling send_request/6 is slightly more efficient.

Fails with an {erpc, badarg} error exception if:

• Node is not an atom.
• Module is not an atom.
• Function is not an atom.
• Args is not a list. Note that the list is not verified to be a proper list at the client side.
• RequestIdCollection is detected not to be request identifier collection.

Note

You cannot make any assumptions about the process that will perform the apply(). It may be a server, or a freshly spawned process.

-spec wait_response(RequestId) -> {response, Result} | no_response
                       when RequestId :: request_id(), Result :: term().

Equivalent to erpc:wait_response(RequestId, 0). That is, poll for a response message to a call request previously made by the calling process.

-spec wait_response(RequestId, WaitTime) -> {response, Result} | no_response
                       when RequestId :: request_id(), WaitTime :: timeout_time(), Result :: term().

Wait or poll for a response message to a call request previously made by the calling process using send_request/4.

RequestId should be the value returned from the previously made send_request() call, and the corresponding response should not already have been received and handled to completion by check_response/2, receive_response/2, or wait_response().

WaitTime sets an upper time limit on how long to wait for a response. If no response is received before the WaitTime timeout has triggered, the atom no_response is returned. It is valid to continue waiting for a response as many times as needed up until a response has been received and completed by check_response(), receive_response(), or wait_response(). If a response is received, the call operation is completed and either the result is returned as {response, Result} where Result corresponds to the value returned from the applied function or an exception is raised. The exceptions that can be raised corresponds to the same exceptions as can be raised by call/4. That is, no {erpc, timeout} error exception can be raised. wait_response/2 will fail with an {erpc, badarg} exception if/when an invalid RequestId is detected or if an invalid WaitTime is passed.

If the erpc operation fails, but it is unknown if the function is/will be applied (that is, a too large wait time value, or a connection loss), the caller will not receive any further information about the result if/when the applied function completes. If the applied function explicitly communicates with the calling process, such communication may, of course, reach the calling process.

-spec wait_response(RequestIdCollection, WaitTime, Delete) ->
                       {{response, Result}, Label, NewRequestIdCollection} | no_response | no_request
                       when
                           RequestIdCollection :: request_id_collection(),
                           WaitTime :: timeout_time(),
                           Delete :: boolean(),
                           Label :: term(),
                           NewRequestIdCollection :: request_id_collection(),
                           Result :: term().

Wait or poll for a response to a call request corresponding to a request identifier saved in RequestIdCollection. All request identifiers of RequestIdCollection must correspond to requests that have been made using send_request/4 or send_request/6, and all requests must have been made by the process calling this function.

Label is the label associated with the request identifier of the request that the response corresponds to. A request identifier is associated with a label when adding a request identifier in a request identifier collection, or when sending the request using send_request/6.

Compared to wait_response/2, the returned result associated with a specific request identifier or an exception associated with a specific request identifier will be wrapped in a 3-tuple. The first element of this tuple equals the value that would have been produced by wait_response/2, the second element equals the Label associated with the specific request identifier, and the third element NewRequestIdCollection is a possibly modified request identifier collection. The error exception {erpc, badarg} is not associated with any specific request identifier, and will hence not be wrapped.

If RequestIdCollection is empty, no_request will be returned. If no response is received before the WaitTime timeout has triggered, the atom no_response is returned. It is valid to continue waiting for a response as many times as needed up until a response has been received and completed by check_response(), receive_response(), or wait_response(). The difference between receive_response/3 and wait_response/3 is that receive_response/3 abandons requests at timeout so that any potential future responses are ignored, while wait_response/3 does not.

If Delete equals true, the association with Label will have been deleted from RequestIdCollection in the resulting NewRequestIdCollection. If Delete equals false, NewRequestIdCollection will equal RequestIdCollection. Note that deleting an association is not for free and that a collection containing already handled requests can still be used by subsequent calls to wait_response/3, check_response/3, and receive_response/3. However, without deleting handled associations, the above calls will not be able to detect when there are no more outstanding requests to handle, so you will have to keep track of this some other way than relying on a no_request return. Note that if you pass a collection only containing associations of already handled or abandoned requests to wait_response/3, it will always block until a timeout determined by WaitTime is triggered and then return no_response.

Note that a response might have been consumed uppon an {erpc, badarg} exception and if so, will be lost for ever.