Erlang beginnings: moving a function from an escript into OTP

Question

There is a simple implementation of the factorial function in an 'escript' in the Erlang docs. The factorial function is given as:

fac(0) -> 1;
fac(N) -> N * fac(N-1).

That's all fine, I can get this to work, no problem.

I would however like to know how I can implement this same, simple factorial function in an 'OTP way' using rebar3?

Just to be clear, my questions are:

• Where does the code go?
• How would I call it from the shell?
• Could I also run it from the command line like I do via the escript example?

FYI, I have gotten started with rebar3. Here is where I am at:

rebar3 new app factorial

creates a few files but specifically the code is in 3 files in a src directory. I can see that a supervisor is being used, seems fine.

I can interact with this project from the shell:

$ rebar3 shell

1> application:which_applications().
[{factorial,"An OTP application","0.1.0"},
 {inets,"INETS  CXC 138 49","7.0.3"},
 {ssl,"Erlang/OTP SSL application","9.1.1"},
 {public_key,"Public key infrastructure","1.6.4"},
 {asn1,"The Erlang ASN1 compiler version 5.0.8","5.0.8"},
 {crypto,"CRYPTO","4.4"},
 {stdlib,"ERTS  CXC 138 10","3.7"},
 {kernel,"ERTS  CXC 138 10","6.2"}]
2> application:stop(factorial).
=INFO REPORT==== 21-Jan-2019::12:42:07.484244 ===
    application: factorial
    exited: stopped
    type: temporary
ok
3> application:start(factorial).
ok

Answer 1

Where does the code go?

To 'call code in the OTP way', you can put it behind a gen_server.

For this simple factorial function, I added a new file factorial.erl within the src directory which is pretty much a standard gen_server skeleton with my factorial function as one of the callbacks:

% factorial.erl
-module(factorial).
-behaviour(gen_server).
-export([start_link/0, stop/0, calc/1]).

<boilerplate gen_server stuff here, like init, etc.>

calc(N) ->
  {ok, Result} = gen_server:call(?SERVER, {calc, N}),
  {ok, Result}.

handle_call({calc, N}, _From, State) ->
  Factorial = factorial(N),
  Reply = {ok, Factorial},
  {reply, Reply, State};

factorial(0) ->
  1;
factorial(N) ->
  N * factorial(N-1).

Since my rebar3 new app factorial created a supervisor, I modified the supervisor's init so that it calls my factorial module:

% factorial_sup.erl

<skeleton supervisor stuff here>

init([]) ->
  Server = {factorial, {factorial, start_link, []},
            permanent, 2000, worker, [factorial]},
  Children = [Server],
  RestartStrategy = {one_for_one, 0, 1},
  {ok, {RestartStrategy, Children}}.

How do I call it from the shell?

$ rebar3 shell
<Enter>
1> factorial:calc(5).
{ok,120}

Since this is running under a supervisor, we can still stop and restart it:

2> application:stop(factorial).
=INFO REPORT==== 22-Jan-2019::13:31:29.243520 ===
    application: factorial
    exited: stopped
    type: temporary
ok
3> factorial:calc(5).          
** exception exit: {noproc,{gen_server,call,[factorial,{calc,5}]}}
     in function  gen_server:call/2 (gen_server.erl, line 215)
     in call from factorial:calc/1 (/Users/robert/git/factorial/src/factorial.erl, line 32)
4> application:start(factorial).
ok
5> factorial:calc(5).           
{ok,120}

How do I create an executable?

Work in progress :-).