<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <!DOCTYPE erlref SYSTEM "erlref.dtd"> <erlref> <header> <copyright> <year>1997</year><year>2013</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. You may obtain a copy of the License at http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License. </legalnotice> <title>pg2</title> <prepared>mbj@erlang.ericsson.se</prepared> <responsible>mbj@erlang.ericsson.se</responsible> <docno></docno> <approved>Bjarne Däcker</approved> <checked>mbj@erlang.ericsson.se</checked> <date>1997-08-18</date> <rev>A2</rev> <file>pg2.sgml</file> </header> <module>pg2</module> <modulesummary>Distributed Named Process Groups</modulesummary> <description> <p>This module implements process groups. Each message may be sent to one, some, or all members of the group. </p> <p>A group of processes can be accessed by a common name. For example, if there is a group named <c>foobar</c>, there can be a set of processes (which can be located on different nodes) which are all members of the group <c>foobar</c>. There are no special functions for sending a message to the group. Instead, client functions should be written with the functions <c>get_members/1</c> and <c>get_local_members/1</c> to find out which processes are members of the group. Then the message can be sent to one or more members of the group. </p> <p>If a member terminates, it is automatically removed from the group. </p> <warning> <p>This module is used by the <c>disk_log</c> module for managing distributed disk logs. The disk log names are used as group names, which means that some action may need to be taken to avoid name clashes.</p> </warning> </description> <datatypes> <datatype> <name name="name"/> <desc><p>The name of a process group.</p></desc> </datatype> </datatypes> <funcs> <func> <name name="create" arity="1"/> <fsummary>Create a new, empty process group</fsummary> <desc> <p>Creates a new, empty process group. The group is globally visible on all nodes. If the group exists, nothing happens. </p> </desc> </func> <func> <name name="delete" arity="1"/> <fsummary>Delete a process group</fsummary> <desc> <p>Deletes a process group. </p> </desc> </func> <func> <name name="get_closest_pid" arity="1"/> <fsummary>Common dispatch function</fsummary> <desc> <p>This is a useful dispatch function which can be used from client functions. It returns a process on the local node, if such a process exist. Otherwise, it chooses one randomly. </p> </desc> </func> <func> <name name="get_members" arity="1"/> <fsummary>Return all processes in a group</fsummary> <desc> <p>Returns all processes in the group <c>Name</c>. This function should be used from within a client function that accesses the group. It is therefore optimized for speed. </p> </desc> </func> <func> <name name="get_local_members" arity="1"/> <fsummary>Return all local processes in a group</fsummary> <desc> <p>Returns all processes running on the local node in the group <c>Name</c>. This function should to be used from within a client function that accesses the group. It is therefore optimized for speed. </p> </desc> </func> <func> <name name="join" arity="2"/> <fsummary>Join a process to a group</fsummary> <desc> <p>Joins the process <c>Pid</c> to the group <c>Name</c>. A process can join a group several times; it must then leave the group the same number of times. </p> </desc> </func> <func> <name name="leave" arity="2"/> <fsummary>Make a process leave a group</fsummary> <desc> <p>Makes the process <c>Pid</c> leave the group <c>Name</c>. If the process is not a member of the group, <c>ok</c> is returned. </p> </desc> </func> <func> <name name="which_groups" arity="0"/> <fsummary>Return a list of all known groups</fsummary> <desc> <p>Returns a list of all known groups. </p> </desc> </func> <func> <name name="start" arity="0"/> <name name="start_link" arity="0"/> <fsummary>Start the pg2 server</fsummary> <desc> <p>Starts the pg2 server. Normally, the server does not need to be started explicitly, as it is started dynamically if it is needed. This is useful during development, but in a target system the server should be started explicitly. Use configuration parameters for <c>kernel</c> for this. </p> </desc> </func> </funcs> <section> <title>See Also</title> <p><seealso marker="kernel_app">kernel(6)</seealso></p> </section> </erlref>