<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE cref SYSTEM "cref.dtd">
<cref>
<header>
<copyright>
<year>1996</year><year>2016</year>
<holder>Ericsson AB. All Rights Reserved.</holder>
</copyright>
<legalnotice>
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
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Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
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WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
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</legalnotice>
<title>erl_connect</title>
<prepared>Torbjörn Törnkvist</prepared>
<responsible>Torbjörn Törnkvist</responsible>
<docno></docno>
<approved>Bjarne Däcker</approved>
<checked>Torbjörn Törnkvist</checked>
<date>1998-07-03</date>
<rev>A</rev>
<file>erl_connect.xml</file>
</header>
<lib>erl_connect</lib>
<libsummary>Communicate with distributed Erlang.</libsummary>
<description>
<p>This module provides support for communication between distributed
Erlang nodes and C-nodes, in a manner that is transparent to Erlang
processes.</p>
<p>A C-node appears to Erlang as a <em>hidden node</em>.
That is, Erlang processes that know the name of the
C-node can communicate with it in a normal manner, but
the node name does not appear in the listing provided by
<seealso marker="erts:erlang#nodes/0"><c>erlang:nodes/0</c></seealso>
in <c>ERTS</c>.</p>
</description>
<funcs>
<func>
<name><ret>int</ret><nametext>erl_accept(listensock, conp)</nametext></name>
<fsummary>Accept a connection.</fsummary>
<type>
<v>int listensock;</v>
<v>ErlConnect *conp;</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>This function is used by a server process to accept a
connection from a client process.</p>
<list type="bulleted">
<item><c>listensock</c> is an open socket descriptor on
which <c>listen()</c> has previously been called.</item>
<item><c>conp</c> is a pointer to an
<c>ErlConnect</c> struct, described as follows:</item>
</list>
<code type="none"><![CDATA[
typedef struct {
char ipadr[4];
char nodename[MAXNODELEN];
} ErlConnect;
]]></code>
<p>On success, <c>conp</c> is filled in with the address and
node name of the connecting client and a file descriptor is
returned. On failure, <c>ERL_ERROR</c> is returned and
<c>erl_errno</c> is set to <c>EIO</c>.</p>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name><ret>int</ret><nametext>erl_close_connection(fd)</nametext></name>
<fsummary>Close a connection to an Erlang node.</fsummary>
<type>
<v>int fd;</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>Closes an open connection to an Erlang node.</p>
<p><c>Fd</c> is a file descriptor obtained from
<c>erl_connect()</c> or
<c>erl_xconnect()</c>.</p>
<p>Returns <c>0</c> on success. If the call fails, a non-zero value
is returned, and the reason for the error can be obtained with the
appropriate platform-dependent call.</p>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name><ret>int</ret><nametext>erl_connect(node)</nametext></name>
<name><ret>int</ret><nametext>erl_xconnect(addr, alive)</nametext></name>
<fsummary>Establish a connection to an Erlang node.</fsummary>
<type>
<v>char *node, *alive;</v>
<v>struct in_addr *addr;</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>Sets up a connection to an Erlang node.</p>
<p><c>erl_xconnect()</c> requires the IP address of the
remote host and the alivename of the remote node to be
specified. <c>erl_connect()</c> provides an alternative
interface, and determines the information from the node name
provided.</p>
<list type="bulleted">
<item><c>addr</c> is the 32-bit IP address of the remote
host.</item>
<item><c>alive</c> is the alivename of the remote node.
</item>
<item><c>node</c> is the name of the remote node.</item>
</list>
<p>Returns an open file descriptor on success, otherwise a negative
value. In the latter case <c>erl_errno</c> is set to one
of:</p>
<taglist>
<tag><c>EHOSTUNREACH</c></tag>
<item>The remote host <c>node</c> is unreachable.</item>
<tag><c>ENOMEM</c></tag>
<item>No more memory is available.</item>
<tag><c>EIO</c></tag>
<item>I/O error.</item>
</taglist>
<p>Also, <c>errno</c> values from
<c>socket</c><em>(2)</em> and
<c>connect</c><em>(2)</em>
system calls can be propagated into <c>erl_errno</c>.</p>
<p><em>Example:</em></p>
<code type="none"><![CDATA[
#define NODE "[email protected]"
#define ALIVE "madonna"
#define IP_ADDR "150.236.14.75"
/*** Variant 1 ***/
erl_connect( NODE );
/*** Variant 2 ***/
struct in_addr addr;
addr = inet_addr(IP_ADDR);
erl_xconnect( &addr , ALIVE );
]]></code>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name><ret>int</ret><nametext>erl_connect_init(number, cookie, creation)</nametext></name>
<name><ret>int</ret><nametext>erl_connect_xinit(host, alive, node, addr, cookie, creation)</nametext></name>
<fsummary>Initialize communication.</fsummary>
<type>
<v>int number;</v>
<v>char *cookie;</v>
<v>short creation;</v>
<v>char *host,*alive,*node;</v>
<v>struct in_addr *addr;</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>Initializes the <c>erl_connect</c> module.
In particular, these functions are used to identify the name of the
C-node from which they are called. One of these functions must
be called before any of the other functions in the <c>erl_connect</c>
module are used.</p>
<p><c>erl_connect_xinit()</c> stores for later use
information about:</p>
<list type="bulleted">
<item>Hostname of the node, <c>host</c></item>
<item>Alivename, <c>alive</c></item>
<item>Node name, <c>node</c></item>
<item>IP address, <c>addr</c></item>
<item>Cookie, <c>cookie</c></item>
<item>Creation number, <c>creation</c></item>
</list>
<p><c>erl_connect_init()</c>
provides an alternative interface that does not require as much
information from the caller. Instead,
<c>erl_connect_init()</c>
uses <c>gethostbyname()</c> to obtain default values.</p>
<p>If you use <c>erl_connect_init()</c>, your node will
have a short name, that is, it will not be fully qualified. If you
need to use fully qualified (long) names, use
<c>erl_connect_xinit()</c> instead.</p>
<list type="bulleted">
<item>
<p><c>host</c> is the name of the host on which the node
is running.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p><c>alive</c> is the alivename of the node.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p><c>node</c> is the node name. It is to
be of the form <em>alivename@hostname</em>.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p><c>addr</c> is the 32-bit IP address of
<c>host</c>.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p><c>cookie</c> is the authorization string required
for access to the remote node. If <c>NULL</c>, the user
<c>HOME</c> directory is searched for a cookie file
<c>.erlang.cookie</c>. The path to
the home directory is retrieved from environment variable
<c>HOME</c> on Unix and from the
<c>HOMEDRIVE</c> and
<c>HOMEPATH</c> variables on Windows. For more
details, see the <seealso marker="kernel:auth">
<c>auth</c></seealso> module in Kernel.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p><c>creation</c> helps identifying a particular
instance of a C-node. In particular, it can help prevent us from
receiving messages sent to an earlier process with the same
registered name.</p>
</item>
</list>
<p>A C-node acting as a server is assigned a creation number
when it calls <c>erl_publish()</c>.</p>
<p><c>number</c> is used by
<c>erl_connect_init()</c> to
construct the actual node name. In Example 2
below, <em>"[email protected]"</em> is the resulting node name.</p>
<p><em>Example 1:</em></p>
<code type="none"><![CDATA[
struct in_addr addr;
addr = inet_addr("150.236.14.75");
if (!erl_connect_xinit("chivas",
"madonna",
"[email protected]",
&addr;
"samplecookiestring..."),
0)
erl_err_quit("<ERROR> when initializing !");
]]></code>
<p><em>Example 2:</em></p>
<code type="none"><![CDATA[
if (!erl_connect_init(17, "samplecookiestring...", 0))
erl_err_quit("<ERROR> when initializing !");
]]></code>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name><ret>int</ret><nametext>erl_publish(port)</nametext></name>
<fsummary>Publish a node name.</fsummary>
<type>
<v>int port;</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>This function is used by a server process to register
with the local name server EPMD, thereby allowing
other processes to send messages by using the registered name.
Before calling this function, the process should
have called <c>bind()</c> and <c>listen()</c>
on an open socket.</p>
<p><c>port</c> is the local name to register, and is to be
the same as the port number that was previously bound to the
socket.</p>
<p>To unregister with EPMD, simply close the returned descriptor.</p>
<p>On success, a descriptor connecting the calling process to EPMD is
returned. On failure, <c>-1</c> is returned and
<c>erl_errno</c> is set to:</p>
<taglist>
<tag><c>EIO</c></tag>
<item>I/O error.</item>
</taglist>
<p>Also, <c>errno</c> values from
<c>socket</c><em>(2)</em>
and <c>connect</c><em>(2)</em> system calls can be
propagated into <c>erl_errno</c>.</p>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name><ret>int</ret><nametext>erl_receive(fd, bufp, bufsize)</nametext></name>
<fsummary>Receive a message.</fsummary>
<type>
<v>int fd;</v>
<v>char *bufp;</v>
<v>int bufsize;</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>Receives a message consisting of a sequence
of bytes in the Erlang external format.</p>
<list type="bulleted">
<item><c>fd</c> is an open descriptor to an Erlang
connection.</item>
<item><c>bufp</c> is a buffer large enough to hold the
expected message.</item>
<item><c>bufsize</c> indicates the size of
<c>bufp</c>.</item>
</list>
<p>If a <em>tick</em> occurs, that is, the Erlang node on the
other end of the connection has polled this node to see if it
is still alive, the function returns <c>ERL_TICK</c> and
no message is placed in the buffer. Also,
<c>erl_errno</c> is set to <c>EAGAIN</c>.</p>
<p>On success, the message is placed in the specified buffer
and the function returns the number of bytes actually read. On
failure, the function returns a negative value and sets
<c>erl_errno</c> to one of:</p>
<taglist>
<tag><c>EAGAIN</c></tag>
<item>Temporary error: Try again.</item>
<tag><c>EMSGSIZE</c></tag>
<item>Buffer is too small.</item>
<tag><c>EIO</c></tag>
<item>I/O error.</item>
</taglist>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name><ret>int</ret><nametext>erl_receive_msg(fd, bufp, bufsize, emsg)</nametext></name>
<fsummary>Receive and decode a message.</fsummary>
<type>
<v>int fd;</v>
<v>unsigned char *bufp;</v>
<v>int bufsize;</v>
<v>ErlMessage *emsg;</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>Receives the message into the specified buffer
and decodes into <c>(ErlMessage *) emsg</c>.</p>
<list type="bulleted">
<item><c>fd</c> is an open descriptor to an Erlang
connection.</item>
<item><c>bufp</c> is a buffer large enough to hold the
expected message.</item>
<item><c>bufsize</c> indicates the size of
<c>bufp</c>.</item>
<item>><c>emsg</c> is a pointer to an
<c>ErlMessage</c> structure
into which the message will be decoded.
<c>ErlMessage</c> is defined as follows:</item>
</list>
<code type="none"><![CDATA[
typedef struct {
int type;
ETERM *msg;
ETERM *to;
ETERM *from;
char to_name[MAXREGLEN];
} ErlMessage;
]]></code>
<note>
<p>The definition of <c>ErlMessage</c> has changed since
earlier versions of <c>Erl_Interface</c>.</p>
</note>
<p><c>type</c> identifies the type of message, one of the
following:</p>
<taglist>
<tag><c>ERL_SEND</c></tag>
<item>
<p>An ordinary send operation has occurred and
<c>emsg->to</c> contains the pid of the recipient.
The message is in <c>emsg->msg</c>.</p>
</item>
<tag><c>ERL_REG_SEND</c></tag>
<item>
<p>A registered send operation has occurred and
<c>emsg->from</c> contains the pid of the sender.
The message is in <c>emsg->msg</c>.</p>
</item>
<tag><c>ERL_LINK</c> or <c>ERL_UNLINK</c>
</tag>
<item>
<p><c>emsg->to</c> and <c>emsg->from</c>
contain the pids of the sender and recipient of the link or
unlink. <c>emsg->msg</c> is not used.</p>
</item>
<tag><c>ERL_EXIT</c></tag>
<item>
<p>A link is broken. <c>emsg->to</c> and
<c>emsg->from</c> contain the pids of the linked
processes, and <c>emsg->msg</c> contains the reason
for the exit.</p>
</item>
</taglist>
<note>
<p>It is the caller's responsibility to release the
memory pointed to by <c>emsg->msg</c>,
<c>emsg->to</c>, and
<c>emsg->from</c>.</p>
</note>
<p>If a <em>tick</em> occurs, that is, the Erlang node on the
other end of the connection has polled this node to see if it
is still alive, the function returns <c>ERL_TICK</c>
indicating that the tick has been received and responded to,
but no message is placed in the buffer. In this case you
are to call <c>erl_receive_msg()</c> again.</p>
<p>On success, the function returns <c>ERL_MSG</c> and the
<c>Emsg</c> struct is initialized as described above, or
<c>ERL_TICK</c>, in which case no message is returned. On
failure, the function returns <c>ERL_ERROR</c> and sets
<c>erl_errno</c> to one of:</p>
<taglist>
<tag><c>EMSGSIZE</c></tag>
<item>Buffer is too small.</item>
<tag><c>ENOMEM</c></tag>
<item>No more memory is available.</item>
<tag><c>EIO</c></tag>
<item>I/O error.</item>
</taglist>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name><ret>int</ret><nametext>erl_reg_send(fd, to, msg)</nametext></name>
<fsummary>Send a message to a registered name.</fsummary>
<type>
<v>int fd;</v>
<v>char *to;</v>
<v>ETERM *msg;</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>Sends an Erlang term to a registered process.</p>
<list type="bulleted">
<item><c>fd</c> is an open descriptor to an Erlang
connection.</item>
<item><c>to</c> is a string containing the registered name
of the intended recipient of the message.</item>
<item><c>msg</c> is the Erlang term to be sent.</item>
</list>
<p>Returns <c>1</c> on success, otherwise <c>0</c>. In
the latter case <c>erl_errno</c> is set to one of:</p>
<taglist>
<tag><c>ENOMEM</c></tag>
<item>No more memory is available.</item>
<tag><c>EIO</c></tag>
<item>I/O error.</item>
</taglist>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name><ret>ETERM *</ret><nametext>erl_rpc(fd, mod, fun, args)</nametext></name>
<name><ret>int</ret><nametext>erl_rpc_from(fd, timeout, emsg)</nametext></name>
<name><ret>int</ret><nametext>erl_rpc_to(fd, mod, fun, args)</nametext></name>
<fsummary>Remote Procedure Call.</fsummary>
<type>
<v>int fd, timeout;</v>
<v>char *mod, *fun;</v>
<v>ETERM *args;</v>
<v>ErlMessage *emsg;</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>Supports calling Erlang functions on remote nodes.
<c>erl_rpc_to()</c> sends an RPC request to a remote node
and <c>erl_rpc_from()</c> receives the results of such a
call. <c>erl_rpc()</c> combines the functionality of
these two functions by sending an RPC request and waiting for the
results. See also <seealso marker="kernel:rpc#call/4">
<c>rpc:call/4</c></seealso> in <c>Kernel</c>.</p>
<list type="bulleted">
<item><c>fd</c> is an open descriptor to an Erlang
connection.</item>
<item><c>timeout</c> is the maximum time (in milliseconds)
to wait for
results. To wait forever, specify <c>ERL_NO_TIMEOUT</c>.
When <c>erl_rpc()</c> calls <c>erl_rpc_from()</c>, the call will
never timeout.</item>
<item><c>mod</c> is the name of the module containing the
function to be run on the remote node.</item>
<item><c>fun</c> is the name of the function to run.
</item>
<item><c>args</c> is an Erlang list, containing the
arguments to be passed to the function.</item>
<item><c>emsg</c> is a message containing the result of
the function call.</item>
</list>
<p>The actual message returned by the RPC server
is a 2-tuple <c>{rex,Reply}</c>. If you use
<c>erl_rpc_from()</c> in your code, this is the message
you will need to parse. If you use <c>erl_rpc()</c>, the
tuple itself is parsed for you, and the message returned to your
program is the Erlang term containing <c>Reply</c> only.
Replies to RPC requests are always <c>ERL_SEND</c> messages.</p>
<note>
<p>It is the caller's responsibility to free the returned
<c>ETERM</c> structure and the memory pointed to by
<c>emsg->msg</c> and <c>emsg->to</c>.</p>
</note>
<p><c>erl_rpc()</c> returns the remote function's return
value on success, otherwise <c>NULL</c>.</p>
<p><c>erl_rpc_to()</c> returns <c>0</c> on
success, otherwise a negative number.</p>
<p><c>erl_rcp_from()</c> returns <c>ERL_MSG</c>
on success (with <c>Emsg</c> now
containing the reply tuple), otherwise one of
<c>ERL_TICK</c>, <c>ERL_TIMEOUT</c>, or
<c>ERL_ERROR</c>.</p>
<p>When failing,
all three functions set <c>erl_errno</c> to one of:</p>
<taglist>
<tag><c>ENOMEM</c></tag>
<item>No more memory is available.</item>
<tag><c>EIO</c></tag>
<item>I/O error.</item>
<tag><c>ETIMEDOUT</c></tag>
<item>Timeout has expired.</item>
<tag><c>EAGAIN</c></tag>
<item>Temporary error: Try again.</item>
</taglist>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name><ret>int</ret><nametext>erl_send(fd, to, msg)</nametext></name>
<fsummary>Send a message.</fsummary>
<type>
<v>int fd;</v>
<v>ETERM *to, *msg;</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>Sends an Erlang term to a process.</p>
<list type="bulleted">
<item><c>fd</c> is an open descriptor to an Erlang
connection.</item>
<item><c>to</c> is an Erlang term containing the pid of
the intended recipient of the message.</item>
<item>><c>msg</c> is the Erlang term to be sent.</item>
</list>
<p>Returns <c>1</c> on success, otherwise <c>0</c>. In
the latter case <c>erl_errno</c> is set to one of:</p>
<taglist>
<tag><c>EINVAL</c></tag>
<item>Invalid argument: <c>to</c> is not a valid Erlang
pid.</item>
<tag><c>ENOMEM</c></tag>
<item>No more memory is available.</item>
<tag><c>EIO</c></tag>
<item>I/O error.</item>
</taglist>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name><ret>const char *</ret><nametext>erl_thisalivename()</nametext></name>
<name><ret>const char *</ret><nametext>erl_thiscookie()</nametext></name>
<name><ret>short</ret><nametext>erl_thiscreation()</nametext></name>
<name><ret>const char *</ret><nametext>erl_thishostname()</nametext></name>
<name><ret>const char *</ret><nametext>erl_thisnodename()</nametext></name>
<fsummary>Retrieve some values.</fsummary>
<desc>
<p>Retrieves information about
the C-node. These values are initially set with
<c>erl_connect_init()</c> or
<c>erl_connect_xinit()</c>.</p>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name><ret>int</ret><nametext>erl_unpublish(alive)</nametext></name>
<fsummary>Forcefully unpublish a node name.</fsummary>
<type>
<v>char *alive;</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>This function can be called by a process to unregister a
specified node from EPMD on the local host. This is, however, usually
not allowed, unless EPMD was started with flag
<c>-relaxed_command_check</c>, which it normally is not.</p>
<p>To unregister a node you have published, you should instead
close the descriptor that was returned by
<c>ei_publish()</c>.</p>
<warning>
<p>This function is deprecated and will be removed in a future
release.</p>
</warning>
<p><c>alive</c> is the name of the node to unregister, that
is, the first component of the node name, without
<c>@hostname</c>.</p>
<p>If the node was successfully unregistered from EPMD, <c>0</c> is
returned, otherwise <c>-1</c> is returned and
<c>erl_errno</c> is set to <c>EIO</c>.</p>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name><ret>int</ret><nametext>erl_xreceive_msg(fd, bufpp, bufsizep, emsg)</nametext></name>
<fsummary>Receive and decode a message.</fsummary>
<type>
<v>int fd;</v>
<v>unsigned char **bufpp;</v>
<v>int *bufsizep;</v>
<v>ErlMessage *emsg;</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>Similar to <c>erl_receive_msg</c>. The difference is
that <c>erl_xreceive_msg</c> expects the buffer to
have been allocated by <c>malloc</c>, and reallocates it
if the received
message does not fit into the original buffer. Therefore
both buffer and buffer length are given as pointers; their values
can change by the call.</p>
<p>On success, the function returns <c>ERL_MSG</c> and the
<c>Emsg</c> struct is initialized as described above, or
<c>ERL_TICK</c>, in which case no message is returned. On
failure, the function returns <c>ERL_ERROR</c> and sets
<c>erl_errno</c> to one of:</p>
<taglist>
<tag><c>EMSGSIZE</c></tag>
<item>Buffer is too small.</item>
<tag><c>ENOMEM</c></tag>
<item>No more memory is available.</item>
<tag><c>EIO</c></tag>
<item>I/O error.</item>
</taglist>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name><ret>struct hostent *</ret><nametext>erl_gethostbyaddr(addr, length, type)</nametext></name>
<name><ret>struct hostent *</ret><nametext>erl_gethostbyaddr_r(addr, length, type, hostp, buffer, buflen, h_errnop)</nametext></name>
<name><ret>struct hostent *</ret><nametext>erl_gethostbyname(name)</nametext></name>
<name><ret>struct hostent *</ret><nametext>erl_gethostbyname_r(name, hostp, buffer, buflen, h_errnop)</nametext></name>
<fsummary>Name lookup functions.</fsummary>
<type>
<v>const char *name;</v>
<v>const char *addr;</v>
<v>int length;</v>
<v>int type;</v>
<v>struct hostent *hostp;</v>
<v>char *buffer;</v>
<v>int buflen;</v>
<v>int *h_errnop;</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>Convenience functions for some common name lookup functions.</p>
</desc>
</func>
</funcs>
<section>
<title>Debug Information</title>
<p>If a connection attempt fails, the following can be checked:</p>
<list type="bulleted">
<item><c>erl_errno</c></item>
<item>That the correct cookie was used</item>
<item>That EPMD is running</item>
<item>That the remote Erlang node on the other side is running the same
version of Erlang as the <c>erl_interface</c> library</item>
</list>
</section>
</cref>