[erlang-questions] process restarts and dropped messages

[Chris Pacejo]

Hi list,

Consider the case of a gen_server which crashes and is restarted by
its supervisor.  If the gen_server had outstanding casts in its
mailbox, it will lose them.  If the server is restarted quickly
enough, any clients communicating with it will be unaware of this
crash, and thus unaware that these messages were dropped.

What is the standard way of avoiding this issue (assuming crashing the
client is acceptable)?  Favor calls over casts?  Link to servers you
need reliable communication with?  Use a reliable message broker?

Thanks.