producer123
Hi all.
I just started a full-time job as a Elixir developer 
.
Previously I worked mostly with Ruby stack and we used a lot Procfile with foreman 5 to start complex applications (e.g. I need to start one job worker, front-end server and the application itself).
Didn’t find anything like this for Elixir projects. Maybe you have tips and/or suggestions how you solve?
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NobbZ
I have no clue what a Procfile is, but usually I’d start services via systemd and let it handle dependencies as well.
In development its of course a bit different, there I’d have a script which kicks off and shuts down a bunch of docker containers for external services.
Also as long as your other stuff is running on the BEAM itself, you can add them as dependency and they will be started by the BEAM during your Apps start up process.
If I actually got your question wrong, please refine
Qqwy
I do the same thing: systemd to start the BEAM, and all other things are applications included in the BEAM so they don’t need to be started themselves.
If you have a lot of dependencies outside of Elixir (i.e. you do have to use Redis, an NPM server to serve a web-application that includes server-side rendering, and you have an SQL database) then I think any existing tooling should work well; what would an elixir-specific tool for something like this add?
OvermindDL1
I use a PIDFile with systemd to handle the server personally. I have full handling, restarting, etc… working well.
NobbZ
Okay, I now had some time to spare and google, and I learned that a
procfileis specific to heroku, so if you want to stick to heroku, you’ll have no other option than to continue using this procfile…OvermindDL1
Heh, explains why I’ve not heard of it then… ^.^;
Is it anything like a pidfile or is it something else?
NobbZ
Dunno, haven’t continue reading after reaching the word “heroku” in googles definition box, which said this:
and linked to:
OvermindDL1
Ah, so not related to a PIDFile at all, it is more like a systemd file, except with almost none of the capabilitites (???).
NobbZ
On a quick glance, it seems to be a flat yaml (only one level) where the keys are your node/dyno names and the values are a single command to run to start your server on that node/dyno.
hassan
Not remotely true. At the very least, it’s used by
GitHub - ddollar/foreman: Manage Procfile-based applications · GitHub
and its ports in various languages.
NobbZ
As I said, I never used one before. but on a quick google it looked like it were like described.