[erlang-questions] Newbie question can't explain behaviour of my program (tutorial exercise masterslave)

[Dan Gudmundsson]

What OS, windows?
Which erlang/OTP version?

If windows are you running werl or erl (if erl try running werl) ?

/Dan

Folkert Hendrix wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Thanks for your explanation of:
>>> In the process view of toolbar:start(). I only see 4 slaves created.
>>> When i give the command masterslave:to_slave(hello,2) then the rest of
>>> the slaves are created and can i see the registered master. Slave 2
>>> responds but it wasn't created yet?
>> When your master process is created it is in the init function it starts
>> executing. There it calls the init_slave function, when the counter reaches
>> 0 all slaves have been started and the master process enters the loop_master
>> function. Before this occurs the master never handles any of the messages it
>> has received. However, the message you send it by calling to_slave is still
>> in the master process message box. So after the master has created all the
>> slave processes it starts handling its messages. Therefore when the master
>> handles the message that it should forward the message to the given slave
>> process, that slave process is guaranteed to already have been started.
> 
> OK, I agree, but it doesn't explain why I only see the output of Slave
> 5 till Slave 3 (in init_slave(N, Slaves) ->) and then nothing (I can
> wait forever) . Only when  I enter a command in the console, the other
> slaves write their output. Is  the instruction io:format("Slave: ~w
> with Pid: ~w created~n",[N, Pid]),  during init_slaves blocking? If i
> remove the io:format part, the program creates all processes
> instantly. With the io:format insruction only for processes are
> created. (Computer with 4 cores)?
> 
> 
>>> this is the output i get:
>>> (erlide@REDACTED)6> masterslave:start(5).
>>> Slave: 5 with Pid: <0.97.0> created
>>> true
>>> Slave: 4 with Pid: <0.98.0> created
>>> Slave: 3 with Pid: <0.99.0> created
>>> (erlide@REDACTED)7> masterslave:to_slave(hello,2).
>>> Slave: 2 with Pid: <0.101.0> created
>>> Slave: 1 with Pid: <0.106.0> created
>>> Slave 2 recieved the message: hello
>>> {message_to_slave,{hello,2}}
>>> (erlide@REDACTED)8> masterslave:to_slave(die,1).
>>> {message_to_slave,{die,1}}
>>> Slave 1 with old PID <0.106.0> restarted with new Pid: <0.108.0>
>>> (erlide@REDACTED)9> masterslave:stop().
>>> Master going downstop
>>> (erlide@REDACTED)10>
>>>
> 
> 
>>> When the master stop, the slaves also stop, but i expected the slave
>>> received the exit signal and should write a message.
>> I believe this is because the slaves is never told to trap exit signals.
>>
>> Hope that helps!
>>   - Emil H
> 
> Yes, it works when the slaves  trap the exit signal.
> 
> Regards,
> Folkert
> 
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