trap_exit cannot trap signal when exit/1 doesn't called explicitly

lang er erlangist@REDACTED
Wed Aug 23 09:33:12 CEST 2006


Thank your detailed explanation.
You do explain this old shell behavior in the book.

Best Regards!
James
2006/8/23, Joe Armstrong (TN/EAB) <joe.armstrong@REDACTED>:
>
>  Very good question!
>
> Why the program in the book works and why your program does not, depends
> upon the behaviour
> of the Erlang shell.
>
> The Erlang shell used when the book was written and the Erlang shell in
> the current Erlang distribution
> work differently - this difference invalidates the example in the book.
>
> When the book was written the Erlang shell evaluated each new command in a
> fresh
> process. Today the shell appears to evaluate all commands in a single
> evaluator process
> and only restart the evaluator if it fails.
>
> When you evaluate
>
>               link_demo:demonstrate_normal()
>
> in the shell it merely creates a link to the demo process and do nothing
> else
> so there is no exit.
>
> In the old Erlang shell (the one used when we wrote the book)
> link_demo:demonstrate_normal()
> was evaluated within a process (ie we spawn one process per shell command)
> - this process
> did two things, it first evaluated the link(whereis(demo)) command linking
> itself to demo
> then it died - that is where the exit comes from.
>
> To emulate the old behaviour you can try this:
>
>     > link_demo:start()
>
> Then
>
>     > spawn(fun() -> link_demo:demonstrate_normal() end)
>
> In this case you *will* get the behaviour you expect.
>
> /Joe
>
>
>  ------------------------------
> *From:* owner-erlang-questions@REDACTED [mailto:
> owner-erlang-questions@REDACTED] *On Behalf Of *lang er
> *Sent:* den 22 augusti 2006 18:22
> *To:* erlang-questions@REDACTED
> *Subject:* trap_exit cannot trap signal when exit/1 doesn't called
> explicitly
>
> I run the example  link_demo(page 103) in Erlang book:
>
>
> -module(link_demo).
>
> %%
> %% Include files
> %%
>
> %%
> %% Exported Functions
> %%
> -export([start/0,demo/0,demonstrate_normal/0,
>                          demonstrate_exit/1,
> demonstrate_error/0,demonstrate_message/1]).
>
> %%
> %% API Functions
> %%
>
> start() ->
>     register(demo, spawn(link_demo, demo,  [])).
>
> demo() ->
>     process_flag(trap_exit, true),
>     demo1().
>
> demo1() ->
>     receive
>         {'EXIT', From, normal} ->
>             io:format("Demo process received normal exit from ~w~n",
> [From]),
>             demo1();
>         {'EXIT', From, Reason} ->
>             io:format("Demo process received exit signal ~w from ~w~n",
> [Reason, From]),
>             demo1();
>         finished_demo ->
>             io:format("Demo finished ~n", []);
>         Other ->
>             io:format("Demo process message ~w~n", [Other]),
>             demo1()
>     end.
>
>
> %%
> %% Local Functions
> %%
>
> demonstrate_normal() ->
>     link(whereis(demo)).
>
> demonstrate_exit(What) ->
>     link(whereis(demo)),
>     exit(What).
> demonstrate_message(What) ->
>     demo ! What.
> demonstrate_error()->
>     link(whereis(demo)),
>     1 = 2.
>
> -----------
> After start(), I call  demonstrate_normal(), demo process should trap the
> exit(normal) signal, but it doesn't,
>  and if  I call  demonstrate_exit(normal) , demo do trap the exit(normal).
>
> The only difference between theses two situations is the exiting process
> call exit/1 explicitly.
>
> Must I call exit before existing ?
>
> My environment: MacBook(Intel)
> Erlang (BEAM) emulator version 5.5 [source] [async-threads:0]
>
> Eshell V5.5  (abort with ^G)
> 1>
>
> Thanks!
> Best Regards
> James
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://erlang.org/pipermail/erlang-questions/attachments/20060823/04667e31/attachment.htm>


More information about the erlang-questions mailing list