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<erlref>
  <header>
    <copyright>
      <year>1996</year><year>2016</year>
      <holder>Ericsson AB. All Rights Reserved.</holder>
    </copyright>
    <legalnotice>
      Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
      you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
      You may obtain a copy of the License at
 
          http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

      Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
      distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
      WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
      See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
      limitations under the License.
    
    </legalnotice>

    <title>slave</title>
    <prepared></prepared>
    <docno></docno>
    <date></date>
    <rev></rev>
  </header>
  <module>slave</module>
  <modulesummary>Functions for starting and controlling slave nodes.
  </modulesummary>
  <description>
    <p>This module provides functions for starting Erlang slave nodes.
      All slave nodes that are started by a master terminate
      automatically when the master terminates. All terminal output produced
      at the slave is sent back to the master node. File I/O is
      done through the master.</p>

    <p>Slave nodes on other hosts than the current one are started with
      the <c>rsh</c> program. 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 (for details, see the <c>rsh</c>
      documentation). 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, see 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
      <seealso marker="erts:erl#erl"><c>erl(1)</c></seealso> as follows:</p>

    <pre>
-rsh Program</pre>

    <p>The slave node is to use the same file system at the master. At
      least, Erlang/OTP is to be installed in the same place on both
      computers and the same version of Erlang is to be used.</p>

    <p>A node running on Windows 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>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 you 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 that does nothing
          but pass on all message to the real server that executes at a
          master node. A pseudo server is an intermediary that only has
          the same registered name as the real server.</p>
        <p>For example, if you have started a slave node <c>N</c> and
          want to execute <c>pxw</c> graphics code on this node, you can
          start server <c>pxw_server</c> as a pseudo server at
          the slave node. This is illustrated as follows:</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 that executes the function receives
          messages. All messages received are simply passed on to
          <c><anno>Pid</anno></c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>

    <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 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 becomes
          <c><anno>Name</anno>@<anno>Host</anno></c>. If no
          name is provided, the name becomes the same as the node that
          executes the call (except 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 that is produced at the slave is automatically
          relayed to the master. Also, the file process is relayed
          to the master.</p>
        <p>Argument <c><anno>Args</anno></c> 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"><c>erl(1)</c></seealso>.</p>
        <p>As an example, suppose that you want to start a slave node at
          host <c>H</c> with node name <c>Name@H</c> and
          want the slave node to have the following properties:</p>
        <list type="bulleted">
          <item>Directory <c>Dir</c> is to be added to the code path.</item>
          <item>The Mnesia directory is to be set to <c>M</c>.</item>
          <item>The Unix <c>DISPLAY</c> environment variable is to be
            set to the display of the master node.</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>The function returns <c>{ok, <anno>Node</anno>}</c>, where
          <c><anno>Node</anno></c> is the name of the new node, otherwise
          <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 occur 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 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>For a description of arguments and return values, see
          <seealso marker="#start/1"><c>start/1,2,3</c></seealso>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>

    <func>
      <name name="stop" arity="1"/>
      <fsummary>Stop (kill) a node.</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Stops (kills) a node.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
  </funcs>
</erlref>

