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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="latin1" ?>
<!DOCTYPE erlref SYSTEM "erlref.dtd">
<erlref>
<header>
<copyright>
<year>1997</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>pg2</title>
<prepared>[email protected]</prepared>
<responsible>[email protected]</responsible>
<docno></docno>
<approved>Bjarne Däcker</approved>
<checked>[email protected]</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. The groups in this
module differ from the groups in the module <c>pg</c> in several
ways. In <c>pg</c>, each message is sent to all members in the
group. In this module, each message may be sent to one, some, or
all members.
</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>,
<seealso marker="stdlib:pg">pg(3)</seealso></p>
</section>
</erlref>
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