RustySnek
I’m working on a project that awaits an :ok signal while also trapping and awaiting any exits that happen midway. Looks something like this:
Process.flag(:trap_exit, true)
# Call a process that will send() back :ok after some time
receive do
:ok -> :nice
{:EXIT, pid, reason} -> :bad
{:EXIT, reason} -> :bad
after
10_000 ->
:timeout
end
The issue is that if there is an :EXIT that happened prior to running this function, it will instantly return :bad. So I was thinking about adding something like :c.flush() to clear out the mailbox before we start the receive, however I’m not really sure if this is really a good idea. Or perhaps I’m going down some dark path that I shouldn’t go into…
Would love to hear your opinion 
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zachallaun
Do you want to ignore the first exit signal if it comes before entering the receive block, or do you want to ensure that you don’t miss the ok that’s already in the mailbox but after the exit?
RustySnek
I want to ignore whatever exit signals came in before the receive block, whatever exits happen whenever the receive block is running should prioritize exit. However I’m not sure if clearing our whole mailbox is a good thing
zachallaun
You can write a
flush_exitslike so:This will selectively remove exits from the mailbox, returning when there are none left.
RustySnek
Oh right, this way just exits get cleared out, should be less destructive…
I guess that’s solved, thank you very much.