Erwolf: An Erlang based Linux distribution

Mickael Remond mickael.remond@REDACTED
Tue May 7 22:30:41 CEST 2002


Hello,

I am currently building a new linux distribution based on Erlang, called
Erwolf. The name is a contraction of Erlang and Wolf, because the
ultimate goal of this distribution is to ease the construction of Erlang
cluster, based on standard computer available on a network (like a horde
of wolves). The cluster can be setup up without the need to install
anything on the host computer.

Erwolf Linux distribution characteristics are the following:

 1. CDROM based:
This distribution is provided as a bootable CDROM that contains
everything you need to work with Erlang tools.
The choice of the bootable support CDROM make it handy to have a
complete Erlang system with you everywhere you go, without the need to
install anything on the computer.

 2. Erlang based:
What I have in mind here is to provide a fullly configured Erlang
development environment that include many third parties's contributions:
Distel (Emacs levering Erlang), xmerl, and so on.

The second step is to provide as many services as possible as Erlang
service: Web: Inets, Yaws,
         Mail: epop
         Web application: BTT, Wiki, Webtool, ...
         LDAP
         ...

The third step is to add scripts to make the distribution cluster
oriented:
I am planning to make it easy to quickly built a cluster of Erlang nodes
on a given set of networked computers. 

For the moment I am only in the first step: I have a minimal development
Erlang system with few extra modules (xmerl, distel, top, documentation
and man pages)
If you want to have a look at it, you can get the ISO image at:
http://www.erlang-fr.org/erwolf-0.4.iso.bz2

This distribution is console only. I am planning to use HTTP modules and
Emacs/Distel as the two possible user interfaces, depending on the task.
to accomplish. 

Be careful. This is the very first public release. This means that it
works on my computer but might not work at all on yours. Just a quick
tip: The boot menu provide several choices: Select the position of your
CDROM drive in your IDE chain. Most of the time, secondary master is the
right choice on desktop computers and primary slave on laptop. (I
realize that I should make the boot on secondary master the option and
that I should provide a boot disk for non bootable cdrom drives, but
anyway, this first release will let you get an idea of what I have in
mind)

You might need to wait one day or two to be able to download the iso
image, because I changed the Erlang-fr hosting service to have more
storage space (and thus be able to share a CDROM image). The DNS
propagation might not be up to date everywhere.

This distribution is built on top of the Linux From Scratch
distribution.

Your comments and suggestions are welcome. In particular, what Erlang
addition would you need first and what services do you think it would be
usefull to develop.

I think that among the nearest planned feature, I will add escript,
ermacs and a preconfigured Webtool interface.

Cheers,

--
Mickael Remond
http://www.erlang-fr.org/




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