--name NAME option not working for IEx

Hey all,

Not sure what series of events happened on two separate machines trying to connect to one another with basic Node functions, although both machines receive roughly the same error now when attempting to use the --name NAME option upon starting IEx:

ccc:~ christophercrary$ iex --name :ccc@ccc
2018-09-10 01:33:53.178930 
args: []
format: "Invalid node name!\nPlease check your configuration\n"
label: {error_logger,info_msg}
2018-09-10 01:33:53.178984 crash_report        #{label=>{proc_lib,crash},report=>[[{initial_call,{net_kernel,init,['Argument__1']}},{pid,<0.58.0>},{registered_name,[]},{error_info,{exit,{error,badarg},[{gen_server,init_it,6,[{file,"gen_server.erl"},{line,358}]},{proc_lib,init_p_do_apply,3,[{file,"proc_lib.erl"},{line,249}]}]}},{ancestors,[net_sup,kernel_sup,<0.45.0>]},{message_queue_len,0},{messages,[]},{links,[<0.55.0>]},{dictionary,[{longnames,true}]},{trap_exit,true},{status,running},{heap_size,610},{stack_size,27},{reductions,445}],[]]}
2018-09-10 01:33:53.179244 supervisor_report   #{label=>{supervisor,start_error},report=>[{supervisor,{local,net_sup}},{errorContext,start_error},{reason,{'EXIT',nodistribution}},{offender,[{pid,undefined},{id,net_kernel},{mfargs,{net_kernel,start_link,[[':ccc@ccc',longnames],true]}},{restart_type,permanent},{shutdown,2000},{child_type,worker}]}]}
2018-09-10 01:33:53.180687 supervisor_report   #{label=>{supervisor,start_error},report=>[{supervisor,{local,kernel_sup}},{errorContext,start_error},{reason,{shutdown,{failed_to_start_child,net_kernel,{'EXIT',nodistribution}}}},{offender,[{pid,undefined},{id,net_sup},{mfargs,{erl_distribution,start_link,[]}},{restart_type,permanent},{shutdown,infinity},{child_type,supervisor}]}]}
2018-09-10 01:33:53.181514 crash_report        #{label=>{proc_lib,crash},report=>[[{initial_call,{application_master,init,['Argument__1','Argument__2','Argument__3','Argument__4']}},{pid,<0.44.0>},{registered_name,[]},{error_info,{exit,{{shutdown,{failed_to_start_child,net_sup,{shutdown,{failed_to_start_child,net_kernel,{'EXIT',nodistribution}}}}},{kernel,start,[normal,[]]}},[{application_master,init,4,[{file,"application_master.erl"},{line,138}]},{proc_lib,init_p_do_apply,3,[{file,"proc_lib.erl"},{line,249}]}]}},{ancestors,[<0.43.0>]},{message_queue_len,1},{messages,[{'EXIT',<0.45.0>,normal}]},{links,[<0.43.0>,<0.42.0>]},{dictionary,[]},{trap_exit,true},{status,running},{heap_size,610},{stack_size,27},{reductions,194}],[]]}
2018-09-10 01:33:53.182497 std_info            #{label=>{application_controller,exit},report=>[{application,kernel},{exited,{{shutdown,{failed_to_start_child,net_sup,{shutdown,{failed_to_start_child,net_kernel,{'EXIT',nodistribution}}}}},{kernel,start,[normal,[]]}}},{type,permanent}]}
{"Kernel pid terminated",application_controller,"{application_start_failure,kernel,{{shutdown,{failed_to_start_child,net_sup,{shutdown,{failed_to_start_child,net_kernel,{'EXIT',nodistribution}}}}},{kernel,start,[normal,[]]}}}"}
Kernel pid terminated (application_controller) ({application_start_failure,kernel,{{shutdown,{failed_to_start_child,net_sup,{shutdown,{failed_to_start_child,net_kernel,{'EXIT',nodistribution}}}}},{ker

Crash dump is being written to: erl_crash.dump...done

Earlier tonight the --name NAME option was functioning just as expected. One machine is running MacOSx (IEx 1.7.3 Erlang/OTP 21) and the other Windows 10 (IEx 1.7.3 Erlang/OTP 19). Both machines have attempted to uninstall and reinstall both Erlang and Elixir packages to no avail, however Node.start is functional on both machines.

Any thoughts? Please let me know if any more details are necessary.

Thank you very much,
-Chris

1 Like

Try again without the colon

1 Like

That was it! But it was literally not like that six hours ago (I have a witness)… Unless I’m going crazy. Any reason why there could be a change?

Best,
-Chris

It can’t have worked with the colon. The argument is passed as is to the BEAM, and that does not accept colons in the name.