Elixir, how running multiple processes under the supervision of a single Supervisor - process

Question

There is a program of three modules. The Print module receives a number from the keyboard, passes it to another module, receives the response, and displays it on the screen. The Proc1 and Proc2 modules receive a number, perform calculations, and send the result back.
defmodule Launch do
#moduledoc """
Documentation for `Launch`.
"""
#doc """
"""
def start() do
children = [
%{
id: Print,
start: {Print, :print, []}
},
%{
id: Proc1,
start: {Proc1, :proc1, []}
},
%{
id: Proc2,
start: {Proc2, :proc2, []}
}
]
Supervisor.start_link(children, strategy: :one_for_one)
end
end
defmodule Print do
def print() do
num =
IO.gets("Input number: ")
|> String.trim()
|> String.to_integer()
if num >= 0 do
send(Proc1, {self(), num})
else
send(Proc2, {self(), num})
end
receive do
num -> IO.puts(num)
after
500 ->
print()
end
print()
end
end
defmodule Proc1 do
def proc1() do
receive do
{pid, num} ->
send(pid, 100/num)
proc1()
_e ->
IO.puts("Error")
end
end
end
defmodule Proc2 do
def proc2() do
receive do
{pid, num} ->
send(pid, 1000/num)
proc2()
_e ->
IO.puts("Error")
end
end
end
I am trying to run all processes under the supervision of a single Supervisor. But there is a problem-only the first "child" is started, the other "children" are not started. In the example above, the Print process will start, but Proc1 and Proc2 will not start. How do I run all processes under one Supervisor? Important note: the Print process must get the addresses of the Proc1 and Proc2 processes for communication.

Answer 1

There are many issues with the code you’ve posted.
Registered processes
To be able to use process name as Process.dest() in a call to Kernel.send/2, one should start the named process.
Supervisor.start_link/2
Supervisor.start_link/2 expects a list of tuples, with modules and functions that immediately return, having the process started as a side effect. These functions are called, and there would not be any magic: if this is an infinitely recursive function, the execution flow would be deadlocked inside, waiting for the message in receive/1.
Supervisor performs some magic by automatically monitoring and restarting children for you, but it does nothing to spawn the separate processes. GenServer encapsulates this functionality and provides a handy way to not bother about spawning processes.
Solution
What you might do, is to spawn all three processes, manually monitor them, and react on {:DOWN, ref, :process, pid, reason} message respawning the died process. This is exactly what Supervisor effectively does under the hood for children.
Launch
defmodule Launch do
def start() do
proc1 = spawn(&Proc1.proc1/0)
proc2 = spawn(&Proc2.proc2/0)
print = spawn(fn -> Print.print(proc1, proc2) end)
Process.monitor(proc1)
Process.monitor(proc2)
Process.monitor(print)
receive do
msg -> IO.inspect(msg)
end
end
end
Print
defmodule Print do
def print(pid1, pid2) do
num =
IO.gets("Input number: ")
|> String.trim()
|> String.to_integer()
if num >= 0 do
send(pid1, {self(), num})
else
send(pid2, {self(), num})
end
receive do
num -> IO.puts(num)
end
print(pid1, pid2)
end
end
The other two modules are fine.
Here is how it will look like in iex
iex|1 ▶ c "/tmp/test.ex"
#⇒ [Launch, Print, Proc1, Proc2]
iex|2 ▶ Launch.start
Input number: 10
10.0
Input number: 1000
0.1
Input number: a
#⇒ {:DOWN, #Reference<0.3632020665.3980394506.95298>,
# :process, #PID<0.137.0>,
# {:badarg,
# [
# {:erlang, :binary_to_integer, ["a"], []},
# {Print, :print, 2, [file: '/tmp/test.ex', line: 22]}
# ]}}
Now instead of printing this out, respawn the failed process, and you will get a bare implementation of the supervised intercommunicating processes. For all_for_one strategy that could be achieved with:
receive do
{:DOWN, _, _, _, _} ->
Process.exit(print, :normal)
Process.exit(proc1, :normal)
Process.exit(proc2, :normal)
start()
end