Link Processes

The way to get processes to know when other processes crash is to link them. That’s what we explore next.

New IEx session

First, let’s alias the DemoProc module:

alias IslandsEngine.DemoProc 
linked = spawn(DemoProc, :loop, [])
Process.link(linked) 
Process.alive?(linked) 
send(linked, "Hello Process!") 

Use spawn_link to avoid race conditions

When we spawn a process first, then link to it, there’s a small window of time where either process might terminate before the link is complete. Kernel.spawn_link/3 eliminates this race condition. It’s like spawning a process and then linking, except that it’s an atomic action. There’s no time ...