path: root/system/doc/embedded/starting.xml

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<chapter>
  <header>
    <copyright>
      <year>1996</year><year>2009</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>Starting an Embedded System</title>
    <prepared>Martin Bj&ouml;rklund</prepared>
    <responsible>Bjarne D&auml;cker</responsible>
    <docno></docno>
    <approved>Bjarne D&auml;cker</approved>
    <checked></checked>
    <date>1997-10-17</date>
    <rev>D</rev>
    <file>starting.sgml</file>
  </header>

  <section>
    <title>Introduction</title>
    <p>This chapter describes how an embedded system is started.
      There are four programs involved, and they all normally reside
      in the directory <c><![CDATA[<ERL_INSTALL_DIR>/bin]]></c>.  The only
      exception is the program <c>start</c>, which may be located
      anywhere, and also is the only program that must be modified by
      the user.
      </p>
    <p>In an embedded system there usually is no interactive shell.
      However, it is possible for an operator to attach to the
      Erlang runtime system by giving the command <c>to_erl</c>.  He is
      then connected to the Erlang shell, and may give ordinary Erlang
      commands.  All interaction with the system through this shell is
      logged in a special directory.
      </p>
    <p>Basically, the procedure is as follows.  The program
      <c>start</c> is called when the machine is started.  It calls
      <c>run_erl</c>, which sets things up so the operator can attach
      to the system.  It calls <c>start_erl</c> which calls the
      correct version of <c>erlexec</c> (which is located in
      <c><![CDATA[<ERL_INSTALL_DIR>/erts-EVsn/bin]]></c>) with the correct
      <c>boot</c> and <c>config</c> files.
      </p>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Programs</title>

    <section>
      <title>start</title>
      <p>This program is called when the machine is started.  It may
        be modified or re-written to suit a special system.  By
        default, it must be called <c>start</c> and reside in
        <c><![CDATA[<ERL_INSTALL_DIR>/bin]]></c>.  Another start program can be
        used, by using the configuration parameter <c>start_prg</c> in
        the application <c>sasl</c>.</p>
      <p>The start program must call <c>run_erl</c> as shown below.
        It must also take an optional parameter which defaults to
        <c><![CDATA[<ERL_INSTALL_DIR>/bin/start_erl.data]]></c>.
        </p>
      <p>This program should set static parameters and environment
        variables such as <c>-sname Name</c> and <c>HEART_COMMAND</c>
        to reboot the machine.
        </p>
      <p>The <c><![CDATA[<RELDIR>]]></c> directory is where new release packets
        are installed, and where the release handler keeps information
        about releases.  See <c>release_handler(3)</c> in the
        application <c>sasl</c> for further information.
        </p>
      <p>The following script illustrates the default behaviour of the
        program.
        </p>
      <code type="none"><![CDATA[
#!/bin/sh
# Usage: start [DataFile]
#
ROOTDIR=/usr/local/otp

if [ -z "$RELDIR" ]
then
   RELDIR=$ROOTDIR/releases
fi

START_ERL_DATA=${1:-$RELDIR/start_erl.data}

$ROOTDIR/bin/run_erl /tmp/ $ROOTDIR/log "exec $ROOTDIR/bin/start_erl @@@
                     $ROOTDIR $RELDIR $START_ERL_DATA" > /dev/null 2>&1 &]]></code>
      <p>The following script illustrates a modification where the
        node is given the name <c>cp1</c>, and the environment variables
        <c>HEART_COMMAND</c> and <c>TERM</c> have been added to the
        above script.
        </p>
      <code type="none"><![CDATA[
#!/bin/sh
# Usage: start [DataFile]
#
HEART_COMMAND=/usr/sbin/reboot
TERM=sun
export HEART_COMMAND TERM

ROOTDIR=/usr/local/otp

if [ -z "$RELDIR" ]
then
   RELDIR=$ROOTDIR/releases
fi

START_ERL_DATA=${1:-$RELDIR/start_erl.data}

$ROOTDIR/bin/run_erl /tmp/ $ROOTDIR/log "exec $ROOTDIR/bin/start_erl @@@
      $ROOTDIR $RELDIR $START_ERL_DATA -heart -sname cp1" > /dev/null 2>&1 &]]></code>
      <p>If a diskless and/or read-only client node is about to start the
        <c>start_erl.data</c> file is located in the client directory at
        the master node. Thus, the <c>START_ERL_DATA</c> line should look
        like:
        </p>
      <code type="none">
CLIENTDIR=$ROOTDIR/clients/clientname
START_ERL_DATA=${1:-$CLIENTDIR/bin/start_erl.data}</code>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>run_erl</title>
      <p>This program is used to start the emulator, but you will not
        be connected to the shell. <c>to_erl</c> is used to connect to the
        Erlang shell.
        </p>
      <code type="none">
Usage: run_erl pipe_dir/ log_dir "exec command [parameters ...]"</code>
      <p>Where <c>pipe_dir/</c> should be <c>/tmp/</c>
        (<c>to_erl</c> uses this name by default) and <c>log_dir</c> is
        where the log files are written.  <c>command [parameters]</c> is
        executed, and everything written to stdin and stdout is logged in
        the <c>log_dir</c>.
        </p>
      <p>In the <c>log_dir</c>, log files are written.  Each logfile
        has a name of the form: <c>erlang.log.N</c> where N is a
        generation number, ranging from 1 to 5. Each logfile holds up to
        100kB text. As time goes by the following logfiles will be found
        in the logfile directory</p>
      <code type="none">
erlang.log.1
erlang.log.1, erlang.log.2
erlang.log.1, erlang.log.2, erlang.log.3
erlang.log.1, erlang.log.2, erlang.log.3, erlang.log.4
erlang.log.2, erlang.log.3, erlang.log.4, erlang.log.5
erlang.log.3, erlang.log.4, erlang.log.5, erlang.log.1
...      </code>
      <p>with the most recent logfile being the right most in each row
        of the above list. That is, the most recent file is the one with
        the highest number, or if there are already four files, the one
        before the skip. 
        </p>
      <p>When a logfile is opened (for appending or created) a time
        stamp is written to the file.  If nothing has been written to
        the log files for 15 minutes, a record is inserted that says
        that we're still alive.
        </p>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>to_erl</title>
      <p>This program is used to attach to a running Erlang runtime system,
        started with <c>run_erl</c>.
        </p>
      <code type="none">
Usage: to_erl [pipe_name | pipe_dir]</code>
      <p>Where <c>pipe_name</c> defaults to <c>/tmp/erlang.pipe.N</c>.
        </p>
      <p>To disconnect from the shell without exiting the Erlang
        runtime system, type <c>Ctrl-D</c>.
        </p>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>start_erl</title>
      <p>This program starts the Erlang emulator with parameters
        <c>-boot</c> and <c>-config</c> set.  It reads data about where
        these files are located from a file called <c>start_erl.data</c>
        which is located in the <c><![CDATA[<RELDIR>]]></c>.  Each new release
        introduces a new data file.  This file is automatically
        generated by the release handler in Erlang.
        </p>
      <p>The following script illustrates the behaviour of the
        program.</p>
      <code type="none">
#!/bin/sh
#
# This program is called by run_erl.  It starts
# the Erlang emulator and sets -boot and -config parameters.
# It should only be used at an embedded target system.
#
# Usage: start_erl RootDir RelDir DataFile [ErlFlags ...]
#
ROOTDIR=$1
shift
RELDIR=$1
shift
DataFile=$1
shift

ERTS_VSN=`awk '{print $1}' $DataFile`
VSN=`awk '{print $2}' $DataFile`

BINDIR=$ROOTDIR/erts-$ERTS_VSN/bin
EMU=beam
PROGNAME=`echo $0 | sed 's/.*\///'`
export EMU
export ROOTDIR
export BINDIR
export PROGNAME
export RELDIR

exec $BINDIR/erlexec -boot $RELDIR/$VSN/start -config $RELDIR/$VSN/sys $*      </code>
      <p>If a diskless and/or read-only client node with the <c>sasl</c>
        configuration parameter <c>static_emulator</c> set to <c>true</c>
        is about to start the <c>-boot</c> and <c>-config</c> flags must be
        changed. As such a client can not read a new <c>start_erl.data</c>
        file (the file is not possible to change dynamically) the boot and
        config files is always fetched from the same place (but with a new 
        contents if a new release has been installed). The
        <c>release_handler</c> copies this files to the <c>bin</c> directory
        in the client directory at the master nodes whenever a new release
        is made permanent.
        </p>
      <p>Assuming the same <c>CLIENTDIR</c> as above the last line should
        look like:</p>
      <code type="none">
exec $BINDIR/erlexec -boot $CLIENTDIR/bin/start @@@
     -config $CLIENTDIR/bin/sys $*      </code>
    </section>
  </section>
</chapter>