kokolegorille

kokolegorille

Hello everyone,

Here is some erlang code I wanted to translate to Elixir… here is a simple example in the console.

$ erl
Erlang/OTP 22 [erts-10.4.4] [source] [64-bit] [smp:8:8] [ds:8:8:10] [async-threads:1] [hipe]

Eshell V10.4.4  (abort with ^G)
1> Pid=self().                            
<0.82.0>
2> Ref = monitor(process, Pid).              
#Ref<0.2147538226.2721841158.105393>
3> receive                                
3> {'DOWN', Ref, process, Pid, Why} -> Why
3> end.

and here is the Elixir version I came up with…

$ iex
Erlang/OTP 22 [erts-10.4.4] [source] [64-bit] [smp:8:8] [ds:8:8:10] [async-threads:1] [hipe]

Interactive Elixir (1.9.1) - press Ctrl+C to exit (type h() ENTER for help)
iex(1)> pid = self()
#PID<0.108.0>
iex(2)> ref = Process.monitor(pid)
#Reference<0.417878796.1379926020.235519>
iex(3)> receive do
...(3)> {:DOWN, ref, :process, pid, why} -> why            
...(3)> end
warning: variable "pid" is unused (if the variable is not meant to be used, prefix it with an underscore)
  iex:4

warning: variable "ref" is unused (if the variable is not meant to be used, prefix it with an underscore)
  iex:4

Code is quite similar, but in the Elixir version, ref and pid are not seen by the receive block, while the Erlang version will match on a ‘DOWN’ message where Ref and Pid are set.

Why is that different?

Thanks for taking time

Showing Posts 1 to 4

hauleth

hauleth

Elixir allows to rebind the variables, so this is perfectly possible to do:

a = 1
a = 2

Which will then be translated to Erlang as a something like:

A@1 = 1
A@2 = 2

To have the same behaviour as in Erlang, you need to use pin operator (^):

a = 1
^a = 2 # will fail with no match

So in your case you need to write it as:

receive do
  {:DOWN, ^ref, :process, ^pid, why} -> why
end

To “pin down” the variables to their current binding instead of creating new ones.

kokolegorille

kokolegorille OP

Thanks, I forgot the pin :slight_smile:

al2o3cr

al2o3cr

Erlang doesn’t distinguish between binding a value and pattern-matching on an already-bound value (part of its Prolog heritage IIRC). Elixir disambiguates between these two cases with the ^ operator, referred to as the “pin operator”:

So this (from your example) binds new values to ref and pid:

receive do
  {:DOWN, ref, :process, pid, why} -> why
end

while this pins them to their already-bound values:

receive do
  {:DOWN, ^ref, :process, ^pid, why} -> why
end
kokolegorille

kokolegorille OP

Thanks, I need a :coffee: :slight_smile:

This is the full function

  def on_exit(pid, fun) do
    spawn(fn ->
      ref = Process.monitor(pid)
      receive do
        {:DOWN, ^ref, :process, ^pid, reason} -> fun.(reason)
      end
    end)
  end
— All posts loaded —

Where Next? Top

Trending in Questions Top

stjefim
Hello! Suppose you are building workflow (order / task / payment) processing system with the following requirements: Each workflow con...
New
water
I’m aware of 2 such projects, are there others? git: GitHub - team-alembic/realworld: A fullstack Phoenix LiveView application with back...
New
itzmidinesh
Hi all, I’m working on a Phoenix project where I need to make external HTTP requests and I’m trying to choose between Req and HTTPoison....
New
pragdave
How do I tell Hologram not to escape HTML when substituting into templates? {Textile.render(@product.long_description)} escapes the HTM...
New
leoschweizer
Hi, we run different LLM models across a cluster, with each node loading a configurable subset. Model-specific queues let nodes consume ...
New
Stef-Verniers
Hello I’ve been coding in Elixir for almost two years now because of my current job where we implemented Elixir in our application. But ...
New
csmr
Hi all, I’m new here and would like to hear peoples views on my Elixir/Phoenix based game-engine! :smiley: Mutonex gamedesign was finish...
New

Other Trending Topics Top

dominicletz
Hey there, I haven’t seen a list of useful Elixir specific skills for the popular AI tools yet so I’m starting one here with my first. ...
New
raa-ziq
Hi everyone :waving_hand: I wanted to share something I’ve been building — NowBlind, a random chat app designed to help people discover ...
New
mudasobwa
I fully migrated to my own harness from Anthropic/Gemini and I think it’s time to share it. Welcome DSH, the DeepSeek Harness, fully writ...
New
KristerV
Hey. Is there anyone here who creates agents in their apps? Not talking about using agents, but creating them. I’m finding it pretty diff...
New
kip
Localize is the next generation localisation library for Elixir. Think of it as ex_cldr version 3.0. The first version will be released ...
New
OndrejValenta
(I just needed to vent somewhere and LinkedIn is full of hope, or hype, I’m not sure which exactly) AI dream has many faces, but general...
New

We're in Beta

About us Mission Statement

Options

Thread Display Mode




Thread Preview

Skip Thread Previews