[erlang-questions] Frequency of module reloading and the constant pool

[Edmond Begumisa]

Hello all,

(Not new here--just haven't posted in a while!)

I'm using merl to dynamically generate and regenerate modules at runtime  
that make use of the ERTS constant pool in order to efficiently avail data  
to all processes. I'm aware that this technique is known amongst more  
experienced Erlangers for situations where the data is updated  
infrequently (e.g. sharing global configuration parameters).

The question I'm investigating is how frequent is "infrequent" w.r.t  
reloading of modules[1]? I'm not entirely sure about the costs involved  
when (re)loading a module so I've got no idea where to start in order to  
measure the impact on the emulator. Could anybody with sufficient  
knowledge of emulator internals point me in the right direction?

Thanks in advance.

- Edmond -

[1] The more exotic use-cases for use/abuse of the constant pool and  
module reloading I'm looking into are to do with caching and incremental  
computation.

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