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<header>
<copyright>
<year>1996</year><year>2011</year>
<holder>Ericsson AB. All Rights Reserved.</holder>
</copyright>
<legalnotice>
The contents of this file are subject to the Erlang Public License,
Version 1.1, (the "License"); you may not use this file except in
compliance with the License. You should have received a copy of the
Erlang Public License along with this software. If not, it can be
retrieved online at http://www.erlang.org/.
Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS"
basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See
the License for the specific language governing rights and limitations
under the License.
</legalnotice>
<title>net_adm</title>
<prepared>Claes Wikstrom</prepared>
<docno>1</docno>
<date>96-09-10</date>
<rev>A</rev>
</header>
<module>net_adm</module>
<modulesummary>Various Erlang Net Administration Routines</modulesummary>
<description>
<p>This module contains various network utility functions.</p>
</description>
<funcs>
<func>
<name name="dns_hostname" arity="1"/>
<fsummary>Official name of a host</fsummary>
<desc>
<p>Returns the official name of <c><anno>Host</anno></c>, or
<c>{error, <anno>Host</anno>}</c> if no such name is found. See also
<c>inet(3)</c>.</p>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name name="host_file" arity="0"/>
<fsummary>Read the <c>.hosts.erlang</c>file</fsummary>
<desc>
<p>Reads the <c>.hosts.erlang</c> file, see the section
<em>Files</em> below. Returns the hosts in this file as a
list, or returns <c>{error, <anno>Reason</anno>}</c> if the file could not
be read or the Erlang terms on the file could not be interpreted.</p>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name name="localhost" arity="0"/>
<fsummary>Name of the local host</fsummary>
<desc>
<p>Returns the name of the local host. If Erlang was started
with the <c>-name</c> command line flag, <c><anno>Name</anno></c> is
the fully qualified name.</p>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name name="names" arity="0"/>
<name name="names" arity="1"/>
<fsummary>Names of Erlang nodes at a host</fsummary>
<desc>
<p>Similar to <c>epmd -names</c>, see <c>epmd(1)</c>.
<c><anno>Host</anno></c> defaults to the local host. Returns the names and
associated port numbers of the Erlang nodes that <c>epmd</c>
at the specified host has registered.</p>
<p>Returns <c>{error, address}</c> if <c>epmd</c> is not
running.</p>
<pre>
(arne@dunn)1> <input>net_adm:names().</input>
{ok,[{"arne",40262}]}</pre>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name name="ping" arity="1"/>
<fsummary>Set up a connection to a node</fsummary>
<desc>
<p>Tries to set up a connection to <c><anno>Node</anno></c>. Returns
<c>pang</c> if it fails, or <c>pong</c> if it is successful.</p>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name name="world" arity="0"/>
<name name="world" arity="1"/>
<type name="verbosity"/>
<fsummary>Lookup and connect to all nodes at all hosts in <c>.hosts.erlang</c></fsummary>
<desc>
<p>This function calls <c>names(Host)</c> for all hosts which
are specified in the Erlang host file <c>.hosts.erlang</c>,
collects the replies and then evaluates <c>ping(Node)</c> on
all those nodes. Returns the list of all nodes that were,
successfully pinged.</p>
<p><c><anno>Arg</anno></c> defaults to <c>silent</c>.
If <c><anno>Arg</anno> == verbose</c>, the function writes information about which
nodes it is pinging to stdout.</p>
<p>This function can be useful when a node is started, and
the names of the other nodes in the network are not initially
known.</p>
<p>Failure: <c>{error, Reason}</c> if <c>host_file()</c>
returns <c>{error, Reason}</c>.</p>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name name="world_list" arity="1"/>
<name name="world_list" arity="2"/>
<type name="verbosity"/>
<fsummary>Lookup and connect to all nodes at specified hosts</fsummary>
<desc>
<p>As <c>world/0,1</c>, but the hosts are given as argument
instead of being read from <c>.hosts.erlang</c>.</p>
</desc>
</func>
</funcs>
<section>
<title>Files</title>
<p>The <c>.hosts.erlang</c> file consists of a number of host names
written as Erlang terms. It is looked for in the current work
directory, the user's home directory, and <c>$OTP_ROOT</c>
(the root directory of Erlang/OTP), in that order.</p>
<p>The format of the <c>.hosts.erlang</c> file must be one host
name per line. The host names must be within quotes as shown in
the following example:</p>
<pre>
'super.eua.ericsson.se'.
'renat.eua.ericsson.se'.
'grouse.eua.ericsson.se'.
'gauffin1.eua.ericsson.se'.
^ (new line)</pre>
</section>
</erlref>
