[erlang-questions] How to force kernel application will always be started before my app

[Richard Carlsson]

Vlad Dumitrescu wrote:
> <thinking loud>
> What I would like to have is a system-wide event source that would let
> interested parties know when important events in the system take
> place, like "kernel started", "code server started", "mnesia
> started/stopped", but maybe also things like "node
> connected/disconnected". This would mean that this service would need
> to be started very early and other applications could register
> themselves as event producers and/or listeners.
> 
> Quite a large mechanism to put in place, but maybe it's interesting to consider?

I recently discussed precisely such a thing with the OTP guys, and it
seems like something that could be done for R13. The main work lies in
listing the events important enough. (Presumably, it should be rather
low-traffic things, so e.g. opening/closing files might be too much.)

Do post your ideas. Here's my list so far:

  - system services (and mnesia) started/stopped
  - boot sequence completed
  - node connect/disconnect
  - module loaded
  - any info reported by erlang:system_monitor(), unless the
    user has redirected it to some other process
  - (remote)shell started/terminated

    /Richard