<?xml version="1.0" encoding="latin1" ?>
<!DOCTYPE erlref SYSTEM "erlref.dtd">

<erlref>
  <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>slave</title>
    <prepared></prepared>
    <docno></docno>
    <date></date>
    <rev></rev>
  </header>
  <module>slave</module>
  <modulesummary>Functions to Starting and Controlling Slave Nodes</modulesummary>
  <description>
    <p>This module provides functions for starting Erlang slave nodes.
      All slave nodes which are started by a master will terminate
      automatically when the master terminates. All TTY output produced
      at the slave will be sent back to the master node. File I/O is
      done via the master.</p>
    <p>Slave nodes on other hosts than the current one are started with
      the program <c>rsh</c>. The user must be allowed to <c>rsh</c> to
      the remote hosts without being prompted for a password. This can
      be arranged in a number of ways (refer to the <c>rsh</c>
      documentation for details). A slave node started on the same host
      as the master inherits certain environment values from the master,
      such as the current directory and the environment variables. For
      what can be assumed about the environment when a slave is started
      on another host, read the documentation for the <c>rsh</c>
      program.</p>
    <p>An alternative to the <c>rsh</c> program can be specified on
      the command line to <c>erl</c> as follows: <c>-rsh Program</c>.</p>
    <p>The slave node should use the same file system at the master. At
      least, Erlang/OTP should be installed in the same place on both
      computers and the same version of Erlang should be used.</p>
    <p>Currently, a node running on Windows NT can only start slave
      nodes on the host on which it is running.</p>
    <p>The master node must be alive.</p>
  </description>
  <funcs>
    <func>
      <name name="start" arity="1"/>
      <name name="start" arity="2"/>
      <name name="start" arity="3"/>
      <fsummary>Start a slave node on a host</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Starts a slave node on the host <c><anno>Host</anno></c>. Host names need
          not necessarily be specified as fully qualified names; short
          names can also be used. This is the same condition that
          applies to names of distributed Erlang nodes.</p>
        <p>The name of the started node will be <c><anno>Name</anno>@<anno>Host</anno></c>. If no
          name is provided, the name will be the same as the node which
          executes the call (with the exception of the host name part of
          the node name).</p>
        <p>The slave node resets its <c>user</c> process so that all
          terminal I/O which is produced at the slave is automatically 
          relayed to the master. Also, the file process will be relayed
          to the master.</p>
        <p>The <c><anno>Args</anno></c> argument is used to set <c>erl</c> command
          line arguments. If provided, it is passed to the new node and
          can be used for a variety of purposes. See
          <seealso marker="erts:erl#erl">erl(1)</seealso></p>
        <p>As an example, suppose that we want to start a slave node at
          host <c>H</c> with the node name <c>Name@H</c>, and we also
          want the slave node to have the following properties:</p>
        <list type="bulleted">
          <item>
            <p>directory <c>Dir</c> should be added to the code path;</p>
          </item>
          <item>
            <p>the Mnesia directory should be set to <c>M</c>;</p>
          </item>
          <item>
            <p>the unix <c>DISPLAY</c> environment variable should be
              set to the display of the master node.</p>
          </item>
        </list>
        <p>The following code is executed to achieve this:</p>
        <code type="none">
E = " -env DISPLAY " ++ net_adm:localhost() ++ ":0 ",
Arg = "-mnesia_dir " ++ M ++ " -pa " ++ Dir ++ E,
slave:start(H, Name, Arg).</code>
        <p>If successful, the function returns <c>{ok, <anno>Node</anno>}</c>,
          where <c><anno>Node</anno></c> is the name of the new node. Otherwise it
          returns <c>{error, <anno>Reason</anno>}</c>, where <c><anno>Reason</anno></c> can be
          one of:</p>
        <taglist>
          <tag><c>timeout</c></tag>
          <item>
            <p>The master node failed to get in contact with the slave
              node. This can happen in a number of circumstances:</p>
            <list type="bulleted">
              <item>Erlang/OTP is not installed on the remote host</item>
              <item>the file system on the other host has a different
               structure to the the master</item>
              <item>the Erlang nodes have different cookies.</item>
            </list>
          </item>
          <tag><c>no_rsh</c></tag>
          <item>
            <p>There is no <c>rsh</c> program on the computer.</p>
          </item>
          <tag><c>{already_running, <anno>Node</anno>}</c></tag>
          <item>
            <p>A node with the name <c><anno>Name</anno>@<anno>Host</anno></c> already exists.</p>
          </item>
        </taglist>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="start_link" arity="1"/>
      <name name="start_link" arity="2"/>
      <name name="start_link" arity="3"/>
      <fsummary>Start and link to a slave node on a host</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Starts a slave node in the same way as <c>start/1,2,3</c>,
          except that the slave node is linked to the currently
          executing process. If that process terminates, the slave node
          also terminates.</p>
        <p>See <c>start/1,2,3</c> for a description of arguments and
          return values.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="stop" arity="1"/>
      <fsummary>Stop (kill) a node</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Stops (kills) a node.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>pseudo([Master | ServerList]) -> ok</name>
      <fsummary>Start a number of pseudo servers</fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Master = node()</v>
        <v>ServerList = [atom()]</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Calls <c>pseudo(Master, ServerList)</c>. If we want to start
          a node from the command line and set up a number of pseudo
          servers, an Erlang runtime system can be started as
          follows:</p>
        <pre>
% erl -name abc -s slave pseudo klacke@super x --</pre>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="pseudo" arity="2"/>
      <fsummary>Start a number of pseudo servers</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Starts a number of pseudo servers. A pseudo server is a
          server with a registered name which does absolutely nothing
          but pass on all message to the real server which executes at a
          master node. A pseudo server is an intermediary which only has
          the same registered name as the real server.</p>
        <p>For example, if we have started a slave node <c>N</c> and
          want to execute <c>pxw</c> graphics code on this node, we can
          start the server <c>pxw_server</c> as a pseudo server at
          the slave node. The following code illustrates:</p>
        <code type="none">
rpc:call(N, slave, pseudo, [node(), [pxw_server]]).</code>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="relay" arity="1"/>
      <fsummary>Run a pseudo server</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Runs a pseudo server. This function never returns any value
          and the process which executes the function will receive
          messages. All messages received will simply be passed on to
          <c><anno>Pid</anno></c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
  </funcs>
</erlref>

