[erlang-questions] Autogenerating node names

[David Sveningsson]

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Hi, I am trying to autogenerate names for nodes if they aren't given one
with -sname or -name. I've got it (partial) working with the following code:

Name = foo:generate_name(),
case net_kernel:start([Name, shortnames]) of
	{ok, _Pid} ->
		init();
	{error, Reason} ->
		io:format("Node isn't alive and failed to autogenerate a name:~n~p~n",
[Reason])
end;

Now, this works as long as epmd has already been started. If not it
fails with:

{shutdown,{child,undefined,net_sup_dynamic,
                 {erl_distribution,start_link,

[['Node_B184E4E0@REDACTED',shortnames]]},
                 permanent,1000,supervisor,
                 [erl_distribution]}}

=INFO REPORT==== 4-Dec-2008::10:17:46 ===
Protocol: "inet_tcp": register error: {{badmatch,{error,econnrefused}},
                                       [{inet_tcp_dist,listen,1},
                                        {net_kernel,start_protos,4},
                                        {net_kernel,start_protos,3},
                                        {net_kernel,init_node,2},
                                        {net_kernel,init,1},
                                        {gen_server,init_it,6},
                                        {proc_lib,init_p_do_apply,3}]}


Is there a simpler way to autogenerate names or is there a way to start
epmd automatically (as it does when using -sname or -name)?
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