Question

I’m working through the Erlang documentation, trying to understand the basics of setting up an OTP gen_server and supervisor. Whenever my gen_server crashes, my supervisor crashes as well. In fact, whenever I have an error on the command line, my supervisor crashes.

I expect the gen_server to be restarted when it crashes. I expect command line errors to have no bearing whatsoever on my server components. My supervisor shouldn’t be crashing at all.

The code I’m working with is a basic “echo server” that replies with whatever you send in, and a supervisor that will restart the echo_server 5 times per minute at most (one_for_one). My code:

echo_server.erl

-module(echo_server).
-behaviour(gen_server).

-export([start_link/0]).
-export([echo/1, crash/0]).
-export([init/1, handle_call/3, handle_cast/2]).

start_link() ->
    gen_server:start_link({local, echo_server}, echo_server, [], []).

%% public api
echo(Text) ->
    gen_server:call(echo_server, {echo, Text}).
crash() ->
    gen_server:call(echo_server, crash)..

%% behaviours
init(_Args) ->
    {ok, none}.
handle_call(crash, _From, State) ->
    X=1,
    {reply, X=2, State}.
handle_call({echo, Text}, _From, State) ->
    {reply, Text, State}.
handle_cast(_, State) ->
    {noreply, State}.

echo_sup.erl

-module(echo_sup).
-behaviour(supervisor).
-export([start_link/0]).
-export([init/1]).

start_link() ->
    supervisor:start_link(echo_sup, []).
init(_Args) ->
    {ok,  {{one_for_one, 5, 60},
       [{echo_server, {echo_server, start_link, []},
             permanent, brutal_kill, worker, [echo_server]}]}}.

Compiled using erlc *.erl, and here’s a sample run:

Erlang R13B01 (erts-5.7.2) [source] [smp:2:2] [rq:2] [async-threads:0] [kernel-p
oll:false]

Eshell V5.7.2  (abort with ^G)
1> echo_sup:start_link().
{ok,<0.37.0>}
2> echo_server:echo("hi").
"hi"
3> echo_server:crash().   

=ERROR REPORT==== 5-May-2010::10:05:54 ===
** Generic server echo_server terminating 
** Last message in was crash
** When Server state == none
** Reason for termination == 
** {'function not exported',
       [{echo_server,terminate,
            [{{badmatch,2},
              [{echo_server,handle_call,3},
               {gen_server,handle_msg,5},
               {proc_lib,init_p_do_apply,3}]},
             none]},
        {gen_server,terminate,6},
        {proc_lib,init_p_do_apply,3}]}

=ERROR REPORT==== 5-May-2010::10:05:54 ===
** Generic server <0.37.0> terminating 
** Last message in was {'EXIT',<0.35.0>,
                           {{{undef,
                                 [{echo_server,terminate,
                                      [{{badmatch,2},
                                        [{echo_server,handle_call,3},
                                         {gen_server,handle_msg,5},
                                         {proc_lib,init_p_do_apply,3}]},
                                       none]},
                                  {gen_server,terminate,6},
                                  {proc_lib,init_p_do_apply,3}]},
                             {gen_server,call,[echo_server,crash]}},
                            [{gen_server,call,2},
                             {erl_eval,do_apply,5},
                             {shell,exprs,6},
                             {shell,eval_exprs,6},
                             {shell,eval_loop,3}]}}
** When Server state == {state,
                            {<0.37.0>,echo_sup},
                            one_for_one,
                            [{child,<0.41.0>,echo_server,
                                 {echo_server,start_link,[]},
                                 permanent,brutal_kill,worker,
                                 [echo_server]}],
                            {dict,0,16,16,8,80,48,
                                {[],[],[],[],[],[],[],[],[],[],[],[],[],[],[],
                                 []},
                                {{[],[],[],[],[],[],[],[],[],[],[],[],[],[],
                                  [],[]}}},
                            5,60,
                            [{1273,79154,701110}],
                            echo_sup,[]}
** Reason for termination == 
** {{{undef,[{echo_server,terminate,
                          [{{badmatch,2},
                            [{echo_server,handle_call,3},
                             {gen_server,handle_msg,5},
                             {proc_lib,init_p_do_apply,3}]},
                           none]},
             {gen_server,terminate,6},
             {proc_lib,init_p_do_apply,3}]},
     {gen_server,call,[echo_server,crash]}},
    [{gen_server,call,2},
     {erl_eval,do_apply,5},
     {shell,exprs,6},
     {shell,eval_exprs,6},
     {shell,eval_loop,3}]}
** exception exit: {{undef,
                        [{echo_server,terminate,
                             [{{badmatch,2},
                               [{echo_server,handle_call,3},
                                {gen_server,handle_msg,5},
                                {proc_lib,init_p_do_apply,3}]},
                              none]},
                         {gen_server,terminate,6},
                         {proc_lib,init_p_do_apply,3}]},
                    {gen_server,call,[echo_server,crash]}}
     in function  gen_server:call/2
4> echo_server:echo("hi").
** exception exit: {noproc,{gen_server,call,[echo_server,{echo,"hi"}]}}
     in function  gen_server:call/2
5>

Answer 1

The problem testing supervisors from the shell is that the supervisor process is linked to the shell process. When gen_server process crashes the exit signal is propagated up to the shell which crashes and get restarted.

To avoid the problem add something like this to the supervisor:

start_in_shell_for_testing() ->
    {ok, Pid} = supervisor:start_link(echo_sup, []),
    unlink(Pid).