Question

Let’s say I have a node called “server”, which spawns a process named “server1” like this:

register(server1,spawn(module, generate_new_server, []))

how can I send a message to “server1” from a different node named “user”?

Using net_adm I am only able to ping the node “server”, but not the generated node “server1”. I guess there is a problem in how I launch the server, i.e.

erl -sname server

now if on another machine I do

erl -sname user
net_adm:ping('server@pc')

from “user@pc” I can connect to it, but if I do

erl -sname user
net_adm:ping('server1@pc')

it tells me that the node cannot be reached. Is there a different syntax to use to connect to “server1”?

Answer 1

net_adm:ping is used to ping remote erlang node, not the process running on that node.
In order to send messages to remote process, you can register it globally instead of locally:

On server node:

 global:register_name(server1,spawn(fun() -> receive X -> io:format("Received ~p~n", [X]) end end)).

Then on user node:

global:send(server1, test).

Output on server node:

Received test