Enit provides a dynamic alternative to OTP releases. It is meant to be the successor to erlrc.
Enit is provided under the MIT License. In order to build enit using tetrapak, simply execute
tetrapak build
in your working copy.
Dynamic, you say?
In the OTP release model, you write a release specification and then generate a release using reltool. OTP releases contain all applications needed to run the release and a copy of the Erlang emulator. When you want to update the release, you generate a new version of it, copy the tarball to the target system, and then upgrade it using reltool.
With enit, things are different. Enit releases do not bundle any
applications nor the Erlang VM. Instead, you're responsible to
install your applications to the target using any mechanism of
your choice (e.g. Debian packages). You define releases by simply
dropping a release specification into the definition directory,
/var/lib/enit. You start and stop your release using the enit
command line tool.
This model allows you to upgrade applications separately. If you run multiple releases on a single host, they can share the emulator installation and all applications.
Enit also handles bootstrap configuration through the OTP application environment. If your application supports the config_change/3 application callback, you'll be able to react to configuration changes while the application is running.
Current Limitations
- It only works on Linux right now.
- Only shortnames are supported. Long nodenames will not work.
- Hot Upgrades are not supported. You'll need to restart the VM to upgrade applications.
Release Specification Example
We're going to define a release called relex.
First we need to create a subdirectory of /var/lib/enit with
the same name as the release:
$ mkdir -p /var/lib/relex
We now add the release definition in /var/lib/relex/release.enit:
{release, relex, [
{vsn, "1.0"},
{applications, [
sasl,
runtime_tools,
relex_application
]}
]}.
and some configuration defaults in /var/lib/relex/defaults.config:
{node, [
{run_as_user, "relex"},
{run_as_group, "relex"},
{smp, enabled}
]}.
{kernel, [
{start_timer, true},
{start_disk_log, true}
]}.
{sasl, [
{sasl_error_logger, false},
{utc_log, true}
]}.
We also set some host-specific configuration
parameters in the user configuration file, /etc/relex/user.config:
{node, [
{cookie, "monster"}
]}.
{kernel, [
{inet_dist_use_interface, {98,77,23,2}}
]}.
{relex_application, [
{frozzle_timeout, 6000},
{kabozzle_domain, "relex.com"}
]}.
That's it. We can now start the release. The correct way to do so
is through an init script. Here's a working script for
Upstart, the init daemon used
by Ubuntu. Put this into /etc/init/relex.conf:
start on started
stop on stopping bigcouch
env HOME=/root
exec /usr/bin/enit startfg relex --syslog
respawn
respawn limit 5 10
Let's boot the release using upstart:
$ sudo initctl start relex
$ enit status relex
Release: relex
Version: 1.0
Node: relex@cluster02
Cookie: monster
This node is currently online.
OTP: R14B03
Pid: 24554
Uptime: 22sec
Connected Nodes:
Running Applications:
cowboy 0.4.0.0
crypto 2.0.3
kernel 2.14.4
public_key 0.12
relex 1.0.1
runtime_tools 1.8.5
sasl 2.1.9.4
stdlib 1.17.4
ssl 4.1.5
Memory Usage (erlang:memory/0):
Total: 17 MiB
Processes: 2 MiB
Processes (used): 2 MiB
System: 14 MiB
Atom: 1 MiB
Atom (used): 1 MiB
Binary: 79 KiB
Code: 10 MiB
ETS: 1 MiB
Dynamic Configuration Example
Suppose we want to change the value of kabozzle_domain in
relex_application to some other value.
Edit /etc/relex/user.config:
...
{relex_application, [
{frozzle_timeout, 6000},
{kabozzle_domain, "relex.changed.com"}
]}.
...
We now notify the VM that configuration has changed:
$ enit reconfigure relex
reconfigure: config changes applied
Inside the VM, enit calculates the differences between the running
configuration and the config files. It then sets all the application
parameters and calls the config_change function in all applications
whose configuration has changed (if they define the callback).
Use enit configuration from another application
You can use configuration values from enit releases without manually having to extract them from the release's config files.
enit:apply_config(RELEASE, APPLICATION, [{match, true}])
A release usually configures several applications (node, kernel, ...). Using enit:configure/3, you choose which application's configuration you want to extract from a release's configuration.
The example above adds all configuration that is done for APPLICATION in the configuration files of RELEASE.
You can then access that configuration using
``application:get_env(APPLICATION, KEY).``
where KEY is a parameter that is set in RELEASE's configuration files.
You can also add the configuration of all applications that are configured in a release's configuration by using enit:configure/2:
enit:apply_config(RELEASE, [{match, true}]).
Read the configuration:
enit:get_config(RELEASE, [{match, true}]).
enit:get_config(RELEASE, APPLICATION, [{match, true}]).
Build-in dbg support in enit
For tracing go to the node
enit remsh <release>
After you can start dbg with
enitdbg:ip(9876).
It will start a tracer for localhost on port 9876, that is possible to trace from command line interface with
enit traceip 9876
In a erlang shell, you can specify the normal dbg commands for traces. Example:
dbg:p(all, c). % trace all calls
dbg:tpl(lists, seq, [{'_',[],[{return_trace},{exception_trace}]}]).
dbg:stop_clear() % Stop tracer and clear all traces
For more commands, please refer erlang dbg documentation.
For traceing calls, there are 2 helper functions
enitdbg:mod(lists).
enitdbg:fn(lists, seq).
Release extensions
Suppose we want to extend the functionality of our release with new applications and configuration. As example we have relex_snmp application that provides optional functionality for the relex release.
Simply add /etc/enit/relex/snmp_support.config (Config files are read in alphabetical order):
{extension, 'relex-with-snmp', [
{applications, [relex_snmp]}
]}.
{relex_snmp, [
]}.
What needs to be in this config file:
- An extension with the extension name, where you can define the additional applications.
- Config sections for the applications that will additionally be (re-)configured.