Little intro step-by-step to the ocaml-erlang message exchange mechanism offered by ocamerl (a lib of erlocaml).

Subject of the following code is a wonderfull application … named “echo server”!

  1. In the interpretor shell of ocaml, we create a hidden erlang node and an activity to echo all received message (both on console as well as in respond to the caller).
  2. In the erlang interpretor shell, we send few message and compare them to the received ones.

The following assumes code is running on machine “comp1″.

Ocaml shell:

(* getting Ocamerl available in toplevel *)
ocaml> #use "topfind";; (* ocamerl used findlib for install *)
ocaml> #thread;; (* ocamerl is multithreaded app *)
ocaml> #require "ocamerl";;

(* creating/declaring a node, assuming epmd is running *)
ocaml> let o1 = Ocamerl.Enode.run "o1" ~cookie:"cookie";;
val o1 : Ocamerl.Enode.t = <abstr>

(* creating/declaring a mbox, equivalent of erlang process *)
ocaml> let m = Ocamerl.Enode.create_mbox o1;;
val m : Ocamerl.Enode.Mbox.t = <abstr>
ocaml> Ocamerl.Enode.register_mbox o1 m "echoer";; (* give it a name *)
- : unit = ()

ocaml> Ocamerl.Enode.Mbox.create_activity m (fun msg -> match msg with
    | Ocamerl.Eterm.ET_tuple [|pid; any;|] ->
        Printf.eprintf "MSG:%s\n%!" (Ocamerl.Eterm.to_string msg);
        Ocamerl.Enode.send o1 pid any
    | _ ->
        () (* drop unexpected msg *)
);;
- : unit = ()

Erlang shell:

# starting erlang node with same cookie
erl -sname e1 -setcookie cookie

% check connection
erl> pong = net_adm:ping(o1@comp1).
pong

% utility to print whatever is in message queue
erl> F = fun() -> receive W -> io:format("got back: ~w~n", [W]) after 1 -> error end end.
#Fun<erl_eval.20.67289768>

% some tests ... send data, received it back
erl> {echo1, o1@comp1} ! {self(), {1,2,"test"}}.
{<0.37.0>,{1,2,"test"}}
erl> F().
got back: {1,2,[116,101,115,116]}
ok
% in the mean time, ocaml shell also display the data

That’s it! A wonderfull echo server :)

Amongst things on the to-do list:

  • Should not have to create a mbox and set its activity separately (need some wrapper)
  • Could have an onode ocaml toplevel which run one node by default and offer direct interface (e.g. “send”).