Concurrency
Elixir Spawning Processes
Spawning Processes
Elixir spawning processes uses spawn for isolated tasks.
Understanding Processes in Elixir
In Elixir, processes are lightweight, isolated, and run concurrently. Each process has its own memory space, ensuring that processes do not share state and communicate only via message passing. This model helps build robust and fault-tolerant applications.
Using the spawn Function
The spawn function is used to create new processes in Elixir. It takes a function as an argument and executes it in a new process. This allows you to run tasks concurrently, improving the efficiency of your program.
Anonymous Functions with spawn
You can also use anonymous functions with spawn to create processes. This is useful for simple one-off tasks that do not require a named function.
Handling Process IDs
When you spawn a process, it returns a process identifier (PID) which can be used to interact with the process. You can monitor, send messages, or terminate the process using its PID.
Error Handling in Processes
Elixir processes are isolated, meaning that an error in one process does not affect others. Yet, you can link processes to handle errors gracefully. If a linked process crashes, it sends an exit signal to its linked process, allowing you to manage failures effectively.
In this example, an exception within the spawned process will send an exit signal to the spawning process, allowing you to potentially handle the error.
Concurrency
- Processes
- Spawning Processes
- Message Passing
- GenServer
- Supervisors
- Tasks
- Agents
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