supervisor
Generic supervisor behavior.
This behavior module provides a supervisor, a process that
supervises other processes called child processes. A child
process can either be another supervisor or a worker process.
Worker processes are normally implemented using one of the
gen_event
,
gen_fsm
,
gen_server
, or
gen_statem
behaviors. A supervisor implemented using this module has
a standard set of interface functions and include functionality
for tracing and error reporting. Supervisors are used to build a
hierarchical process structure called a supervision tree, a
nice way to structure a fault-tolerant application. For more
information, see
Supervisor Behaviour in OTP Design Principles.
A supervisor expects the definition of which child processes to supervise to be specified in a callback module exporting a predefined set of functions.
Unless otherwise stated, all functions in this module fail if the specified supervisor does not exist or if bad arguments are specified.
Supervision Principles
The supervisor is responsible for starting, stopping, and monitoring its child processes. The basic idea of a supervisor is that it must keep its child processes alive by restarting them when necessary.
The children of a supervisor are defined as a list of child specifications. When the supervisor is started, the child processes are started in order from left to right according to this list. When the supervisor terminates, it first terminates its child processes in reversed start order, from right to left.
The supervisor properties are defined by the supervisor flags. The type definition for the supervisor flags is as follows:
sup_flags() = #{strategy => strategy(), % optional intensity => non_neg_integer(), % optional period => pos_integer()} % optional
A supervisor can have one of the following restart strategies
specified with the strategy
key in the above map:
-
one_for_one
- If one child process terminates and is to be restarted, only that child process is affected. This is the default restart strategy. -
one_for_all
- If one child process terminates and is to be restarted, all other child processes are terminated and then all child processes are restarted. -
rest_for_one
- If one child process terminates and is to be restarted, the 'rest' of the child processes (that is, the child processes after the terminated child process in the start order) are terminated. Then the terminated child process and all child processes after it are restarted. -
simple_one_for_one
- A simplifiedone_for_one
supervisor, where all child processes are dynamically added instances of the same process type, that is, running the same code.Functions
delete_child/2
andrestart_child/2
are invalid forsimple_one_for_one
supervisors and return{error,simple_one_for_one}
if the specified supervisor uses this restart strategy.Function
terminate_child/2
can be used for children undersimple_one_for_one
supervisors by specifying the child'spid()
as the second argument. If instead the child specification identifier is used,terminate_child/2
return{error,simple_one_for_one}
.As a
simple_one_for_one
supervisor can have many children, it shuts them all down asynchronously. This means that the children do their cleanup in parallel, and therefore the order in which they are stopped is not defined.
To prevent a supervisor from getting into an infinite loop of
child process terminations and restarts, a maximum restart
intensity is defined using two integer values specified
with keys intensity
and period
in the above
map. Assuming the values MaxR
for intensity
and MaxT
for period
, then, if more than MaxR
restarts occur within MaxT
seconds, the supervisor
terminates all child processes and then itself. intensity
defaults to 1
and period
defaults to 5
.
The type definition of a child specification is as follows:
child_spec() = #{id => child_id(), % mandatory start => mfargs(), % mandatory restart => restart(), % optional shutdown => shutdown(), % optional type => worker(), % optional modules => modules()} % optional
The old tuple format is kept for backwards compatibility, see child_spec(), but the map is preferred.
-
id
is used to identify the child specification internally by the supervisor.The
id
key is mandatory.Notice that this identifier on occations has been called "name". As far as possible, the terms "identifier" or "id" are now used but to keep backward compatibility, some occurences of "name" can still be found, for example in error messages.
-
start
defines the function call used to start the child process. It must be a module-function-arguments tuple{M,F,A}
used asapply(M,F,A)
.The start function must create and link to the child process, and must return
{ok,Child}
or{ok,Child,Info}
, whereChild
is the pid of the child process andInfo
any term that is ignored by the supervisor.The start function can also return
ignore
if the child process for some reason cannot be started, in which case the child specification is kept by the supervisor (unless it is a temporary child) but the non-existing child process is ignored.If something goes wrong, the function can also return an error tuple
{error,Error}
.Notice that the
start_link
functions of the different behavior modules fulfill the above requirements.The
start
key is mandatory. -
restart
defines when a terminated child process must be restarted. Apermanent
child process is always restarted. Atemporary
child process is never restarted (even when the supervisor's restart strategy isrest_for_one
orone_for_all
and a sibling's death causes the temporary process to be terminated). Atransient
child process is restarted only if it terminates abnormally, that is, with another exit reason thannormal
,shutdown
, or{shutdown,Term}
.The
restart
key is optional. If it is not specified, it defaults topermanent
. -
shutdown
defines how a child process must be terminated.brutal_kill
means that the child process is unconditionally terminated usingexit(Child,kill)
. An integer time-out value means that the supervisor tells the child process to terminate by callingexit(Child,shutdown)
and then wait for an exit signal with reasonshutdown
back from the child process. If no exit signal is received within the specified number of milliseconds, the child process is unconditionally terminated usingexit(Child,kill)
.If the child process is another supervisor, the shutdown time is to be set to
infinity
to give the subtree ample time to shut down. It is also allowed to set it toinfinity
, if the child process is a worker.Warning!
Be careful when setting the shutdown time to
infinity
when the child process is a worker. Because, in this situation, the termination of the supervision tree depends on the child process, it must be implemented in a safe way and its cleanup procedure must always return.Notice that all child processes implemented using the standard OTP behavior modules automatically adhere to the shutdown protocol.
The
shutdown
key is optional. If it is not specified, it defaults to5000
if the child is of typeworker
and it defaults toinfinity
if the child is of typesupervisor
. -
type
specifies if the child process is a supervisor or a worker.The
type
key is optional. If it is not specified, it defaults toworker
. -
modules
is used by the release handler during code replacement to determine which processes are using a certain module. As a rule of thumb, if the child process is asupervisor
,gen_server
,gen_statem
, orgen_fsm
, this is to be a list with one element[Module]
, whereModule
is the callback module. If the child process is an event manager (gen_event
) with a dynamic set of callback modules, valuedynamic
must be used. For more information about release handling, see Release Handling in OTP Design Principles.The
modules
key is optional. If it is not specified, it defaults to[M]
, whereM
comes from the child's start{M,F,A}
. -
Internally, the supervisor also keeps track of the pid
Child
of the child process, orundefined
if no pid exists.
Types
child() = undefined | pid()
child_id() = term()
Not a pid()
.
child_spec() =
#{id := child_id(),
start := mfargs(),
restart => restart(),
shutdown => shutdown(),
type => worker(),
modules => modules()} |
{Id :: child_id(),
StartFunc :: mfargs(),
Restart :: restart(),
Shutdown :: shutdown(),
Type :: worker(),
Modules :: modules()}
The tuple format is kept for backward compatibility only. A map is preferred; see more details above.
mfargs() =
{M :: module(), F :: atom(), A :: [term()] | undefined}
Value undefined
for
(the
argument list) is only to be used internally
in supervisor
. If the restart type of the child
is temporary
, the process is never to be
restarted and therefore there is no need to store the real
argument list. Value undefined
is then stored instead.
modules() = [module()] | dynamic
restart() = permanent | transient | temporary
shutdown() = brutal_kill | timeout()
strategy() =
one_for_all | one_for_one | rest_for_one | simple_one_for_one
sup_flags() =
#{strategy => strategy(),
intensity => integer() >= 0,
period => integer() >= 1} |
{RestartStrategy :: strategy(),
Intensity :: integer() >= 0,
Period :: integer() >= 1}
The tuple format is kept for backward compatibility only. A map is preferred; see more details above.
sup_ref() =
(Name :: atom()) |
{Name :: atom(), Node :: node()} |
{global, Name :: atom()} |
{via, Module :: module(), Name :: any()} |
pid()
worker() = worker | supervisor
Functions
check_childspecs(ChildSpecs) -> Result
ChildSpecs = [child_spec()]
Result = ok | {error, Error :: term()}
Takes a list of child specification as argument
and returns ok
if all of them are syntactically
correct, otherwise {error,
.
count_children(SupRef) -> PropListOfCounts
SupRef = sup_ref()
PropListOfCounts = [Count]
Count =
{specs, ChildSpecCount :: integer() >= 0} |
{active, ActiveProcessCount :: integer() >= 0} |
{supervisors, ChildSupervisorCount :: integer() >= 0} |
{workers, ChildWorkerCount :: integer() >= 0}
Returns a property list (see
proplists
) containing the
counts for each of the following elements of the supervisor's
child specifications and managed processes:
-
specs
- The total count of children, dead or alive. -
active
- The count of all actively running child processes managed by this supervisor. For asimple_one_for_one
supervisors, no check is done to ensure that each child process is still alive, although the result provided here is likely to be very accurate unless the supervisor is heavily overloaded. -
supervisors
- The count of all children marked aschild_type = supervisor
in the specification list, regardless if the child process is still alive. -
workers
- The count of all children marked aschild_type = worker
in the specification list, regardless if the child process is still alive.
For a description of
, see
start_child/2
.
delete_child(SupRef, Id) -> Result
SupRef = sup_ref()
Id = child_id()
Result = ok | {error, Error}
Error = running | restarting | not_found | simple_one_for_one
Tells supervisor
to delete the child
specification identified by
. The corresponding
child process must not be running. Use
terminate_child/2
to terminate it.
For a description of
, see
start_child/2
.
If successful, the function returns ok
. If the child
specification identified by
exists but the
corresponding child process is running or is about to be restarted,
the function returns {error,running}
or
{error,restarting}
, respectively. If the child specification
identified by
does not exist, the function
returns {error,not_found}
.
get_childspec(SupRef, Id) -> Result
SupRef = sup_ref()
Id = pid() | child_id()
Result = {ok, child_spec()} | {error, Error}
Error = not_found
Returns the child specification map for the child identified
by Id
under supervisor SupRef
. The returned
map contains all keys, both mandatory and optional.
For a description of
, see
start_child/2
.
restart_child(SupRef, Id) -> Result
SupRef = sup_ref()
Id = child_id()
Result =
{ok, Child :: child()} |
{ok, Child :: child(), Info :: term()} |
{error, Error}Error =
running | restarting | not_found | simple_one_for_one | term()
Tells supervisor
to restart
a child process corresponding to the child specification
identified by
. The child
specification must exist, and the corresponding child process
must not be running.
Notice that for temporary children, the child specification is automatically deleted when the child terminates; thus, it is not possible to restart such children.
For a description of
, see
start_child/2
.
If the child specification identified
by
does not exist, the function
returns {error,not_found}
. If the child specification
exists but the corresponding process is already running, the
function returns {error,running}
.
If the child process start function
returns {ok,
or {ok,
, the pid
is added to the supervisor and the function returns the same
value.
If the child process start function returns ignore
,
the pid remains set to undefined
and the function
returns {ok,undefined}
.
If the child process start function returns an error tuple
or an erroneous value, or if it fails, the function returns
{error,
,
where
is a term containing
information about the error.
start_child(SupRef, ChildSpec) -> startchild_ret()
SupRef = sup_ref()
ChildSpec = child_spec() | (List :: [term()])
startchild_ret() =
{ok, Child :: child()} |
{ok, Child :: child(), Info :: term()} |
{error, startchild_err()}
startchild_err() =
already_present | {already_started, Child :: child()} | term()
Dynamically adds a child specification to supervisor
, which starts the corresponding child
process.
can be any of the
following:
- The pid
Name
, if the supervisor is locally registered{Name,Node}
, if the supervisor is locally registered at another node{global,Name}
, if the supervisor is globally registered{via,Module,Name}
, if the supervisor is registered through an alternative process registry
must be a valid child specification
(unless the supervisor is a simple_one_for_one
supervisor; see below). The child process is started by
using the start function as defined in the child specification.
For a simple_one_for_one
supervisor,
the child specification defined in Module:init/1
is used,
and
must instead be an arbitrary
list of terms
. The child process is then
started by appending
to the existing start
function arguments, that is, by calling
apply(M, F, A++
, where {M,F,A}
is the
start function defined in the child specification.
-
If there already exists a child specification with the specified identifier,
is discarded, and the function returnsChildSpec {error,already_present}
or{error,{already_started,
, depending on if the corresponding child process is running or not.Child }} -
If the child process start function returns
{ok,
orChild }{ok,
, the child specification and pid are added to the supervisor and the function returns the same value.Child ,Info } -
If the child process start function returns
ignore
, the child specification is added to the supervisor (unless the supervisor is asimple_one_for_one
supervisor, see below), the pid is set toundefined
, and the function returns{ok,undefined}
.
For a simple_one_for_one
supervisor, when a child
process start function returns ignore
, the functions returns
{ok,undefined}
and no child is added to the supervisor.
If the child process start function returns an error tuple or
an erroneous value, or if it fails, the child specification is
discarded, and the function returns {error,Error}
, where
Error
is a term containing information about the error
and child specification.
start_link(Module, Args) -> startlink_ret()
Module = module()
Args = term()
start_link(SupName, Module, Args) -> startlink_ret()
SupName = sup_name()
Module = module()
Args = term()
startlink_ret() =
{ok, pid()} | ignore | {error, startlink_err()}
startlink_err() =
{already_started, pid()} | {shutdown, term()} | term()
sup_name() =
{local, Name :: atom()} |
{global, Name :: atom()} |
{via, Module :: module(), Name :: any()}
Creates a supervisor process as part of a supervision tree. For example, the function ensures that the supervisor is linked to the calling process (its supervisor).
The created supervisor process calls
to
find out about restart strategy, maximum restart intensity,
and child processes. To ensure a synchronized startup
procedure, start_link/2,3
does not return until
has returned and all child
processes have been started.
-
If
, the supervisor is registered locally asSupName ={local,Name}Name
usingregister/2
. -
If
, the supervisor is registered globally asSupName ={global,Name}Name
usingglobal:register_name/2
. -
If
, the supervisor is registered asSupName ={via,Module ,Name }Name
using the registry represented byModule
. TheModule
callback must export the functionsregister_name/2
,unregister_name/1
, andsend/2
, which must behave like the corresponding functions inglobal
. Thus,{via,global,
is a valid reference.Name }
If no name is provided, the supervisor is not registered.
is the name of the callback module.
is any term that is passed as
the argument to
.
-
If the supervisor and its child processes are successfully created (that is, if all child process start functions return
{ok,Child}
,{ok,Child,Info}
, orignore
), the function returns{ok,Pid}
, wherePid
is the pid of the supervisor. -
If there already exists a process with the specified
, the function returnsSupName {error,{already_started,Pid}}
, wherePid
is the pid of that process. -
If
returnsModule :init/1ignore
, this function returnsignore
as well, and the supervisor terminates with reasonnormal
. -
If
fails or returns an incorrect value, this function returnsModule :init/1{error,Term}
, whereTerm
is a term with information about the error, and the supervisor terminates with reasonTerm
. -
If any child process start function fails or returns an error tuple or an erroneous value, the supervisor first terminates all already started child processes with reason
shutdown
and then terminate itself and returns{error, {shutdown, Reason}}
.
terminate_child(SupRef, Id) -> Result
SupRef = sup_ref()
Id = pid() | child_id()
Result = ok | {error, Error}
Error = not_found | simple_one_for_one
Tells supervisor
to terminate the
specified child.
If the supervisor is not simple_one_for_one
,
must be the child specification
identifier. The process, if any, is terminated and,
unless it is a temporary child, the child specification is
kept by the supervisor. The child process can later be
restarted by the supervisor. The child process can also be
restarted explicitly by calling
restart_child/2
.
Use
delete_child/2
to remove the child specification.
If the child is temporary, the child specification is deleted as
soon as the process terminates. This means
that delete_child/2
has no meaning
and restart_child/2
cannot be used for these children.
If the supervisor is simple_one_for_one
,
must be the pid()
of the child process. If the specified
process is alive, but is not a child of the specified
supervisor, the function returns
{error,not_found}
. If the child specification
identifier is specified instead of a pid()
, the
function returns {error,simple_one_for_one}
.
If successful, the function returns ok
. If there is
no child specification with the specified
, the
function returns {error,not_found}
.
For a description of
, see
start_child/2
.
which_children(SupRef) -> [{Id, Child, Type, Modules}]
SupRef = sup_ref()
Id = child_id() | undefined
Child = child() | restarting
Type = worker()
Modules = modules()
Returns a newly created list with information about all child
specifications and child processes belonging to
supervisor
.
Notice that calling this function when supervising many childrens under low memory conditions can cause an out of memory exception.
For a description of
, see
start_child/2
.
The following information is given for each child specification/process:
-
- As defined in the child specification orId undefined
for asimple_one_for_one
supervisor. -
- The pid of the corresponding child process, the atomChild restarting
if the process is about to be restarted, orundefined
if there is no such process. -
- As defined in the child specification.Type -
- As defined in the child specification.Modules
Callback Functions
The following function must be exported from a
supervisor
callback module.
Functions
Module:init(Args) -> Result
Args = term()
Result = {ok,{SupFlags,[ChildSpec]}} | ignore
SupFlags =
sup_flags()
ChildSpec =
child_spec()
Whenever a supervisor is started using
start_link/2,3
,
this function is called by
the new process to find out about restart strategy, maximum
restart intensity, and child specifications.
Args
is the Args
argument provided to the start
function.
SupFlags
is the supervisor flags defining the
restart strategy and maximum restart intensity for the
supervisor. [ChildSpec]
is a list of valid child
specifications defining which child processes the supervisor
must start and monitor. See the discussion in section
Supervision Principles
earlier.
Notice that when the restart strategy is
simple_one_for_one
, the list of child specifications
must be a list with one child specification only.
(The child specification identifier is ignored.)
No child process is then started
during the initialization phase, but all children are assumed
to be started dynamically using
start_child/2
.
The function can also return ignore
.
Notice that this function can also be called as a part of a code upgrade procedure. Therefore, the function is not to have any side effects. For more information about code upgrade of supervisors, see section Changing a Supervisor in OTP Design Principles.
See Also
gen_event(3)
,
gen_fsm(3)
,
gen_statem(3)
,
gen_server(3)
,
sys(3)