Where to configure & start mnesia in a release?

[Igor Clark]

Hi list,

I have an OTP application which uses mnesia. It checks/ensures the
schema and table files exist and then calls application:ensure_started(
mnesia ) in its application:start/2 callback. It works fine when I run
the application on its own under rebar3 shell, but it doesn't work when
I try to run it from an OTP release:

- When I run the OTP app under rebar3 shell in its own separate
directory, with { mnesia, [ { dir, "/tmp/my_db_dir" } ] } in
priv/sys.config, it works fine and application:get_env( mnesia, dir )
returns /tmp/my_db_dir as normal/expected

- If I set { mnesia, [ { dir, "/tmp/my_db_dir" } ] } in
<release>/config/sys.config, then:

     - under rebar3 shell --name=myapp@mynode, calling
application:get_env( mnesia, dir ) succeeds (returns /tmp/my_db_dir) ,
and the app uses reads/writes mnesia tables successfully

     - under_build/<profile>/rel/<release>/bin/<release> console it
fails (returns undefined), so the app crashes on start, regardless of
whether <profile> is prod or default

How do I set mnesia application environment variables in the release
project? (Or, maybe, how do I get the OTP application to be able to
access the release project's application environment variables?)

Also, I realise I could be going about this the wrong way - maybe mnesia
should be configured inside the specific OTP app, even under a release?
Apart from the fact that that doesn't seem to work (as I have it set up,
anyway), I'm aware I should steer clear of "included applications" - not
least because I want to be able to use the OTP app in other projects -
so I guess there's a broader question of how to configure mnesia in
general, in how & when to create schema and tables, if it could be used
by multiple OTP apps in a release?

Bit puzzled, appreciate any advice!

Cheers,
Igor
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[Nuku Ameyibor]

    - under_build/<profile>/rel/<release>/bin/<release> console it fails (returns undefined), so the app crashes on start, regardless of whether <profile> is prod or default

it may or may not be crashing due the mnesia configuration .

you may have to check the the erl_crash.dump to see the cause of the crash . 

How do I set mnesia application environment variables in the release project? (Or, maybe, how do I get the OTP application to be able to access the release project's application environment variables?)

 

in the relx section of your rebar.config you can set a sys_config to be used

{relx, 

[

{sys_config,"config/sys.config"}

       ]

 

in that sys.config you can setup environmental variables to be used by your applications including an entry for mnesia.

[

{mnesia, 

[{dir,"/tmp/my_db_dir"}]

},

{app1,[{a,1},{b,2}],

{app2,[{a,3},{b,4}]

}

]

this will be used by your release system when the release is created .

check out http://www.rebar3.org/docs/releases .

 

On Sat, Apr 14, 2018 at 3:17 PM, Igor Clark <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi list,

I have an OTP application which uses mnesia. It checks/ensures the schema and table files exist and then calls application:ensure_started( mnesia ) in its application:start/2 callback. It works fine when I run the application on its own under rebar3 shell, but it doesn't work when I try to run it from an OTP release:

- When I run the OTP app under rebar3 shell in its own separate directory, with { mnesia, [ { dir, "/tmp/my_db_dir" } ] } in priv/sys.config, it works fine and application:get_env( mnesia, dir ) returns /tmp/my_db_dir as normal/expected

- If I set { mnesia, [ { dir, "/tmp/my_db_dir" } ] } in <release>/config/sys.config, then:

    - under rebar3 shell --name=myapp@mynode, calling application:get_env( mnesia, dir ) succeeds (returns /tmp/my_db_dir) , and the app uses reads/writes mnesia tables successfully

    - under_build/<profile>/rel/<release>/bin/<release> console it fails (returns undefined), so the app crashes on start, regardless of whether <profile> is prod or default

How do I set mnesia application environment variables in the release project? (Or, maybe, how do I get the OTP application to be able to access the release project's application environment variables?)

Also, I realise I could be going about this the wrong way - maybe mnesia should be configured inside the specific OTP app, even under a release? Apart from the fact that that doesn't seem to work (as I have it set up, anyway), I'm aware I should steer clear of "included applications" - not least because I want to be able to use the OTP app in other projects - so I guess there's a broader question of how to configure mnesia in general, in how & when to create schema and tables, if it could be used by multiple OTP apps in a release?

Bit puzzled, appreciate any advice!

Cheers,
Igor
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[Igor Clark]

Thanks Nuku,

- It's definitely crashing due to the mnesia configuration - it shows a {badmatch,undefined} error on the line where I call { ok, MnesiaDir } = application:get_env( mnesia, dir ), and I've tried io:format()'ing the result of application:get_env( mnesia, dir ), which shows 'undefined' when running as a release

- relx section of rebar.config is set up exactly like that - I used rebar3 to generate the release

- sys.config has exactly that mnesia entry

It all works as expected with 'rebar3 shell', environment variable is found, mnesia starts, it all works fine - but when I run 'rebar3 release' and try to run the generated startup script, either with 'console' or with 'start' and looking in the log file, the OTP application included in the release gets 'undefined' from application:get_env( mnesia, dir ).

From your sys.config example I realise I could say for example [ { my_app, [ { mnesia_dir, "/tmp/my_db_dir" } ] } ], and use application:get_env( my_app, mnesia_dir ) to initialise; this works and returns { ok, "/tmp/my_db_dir" }, which is great, but then ok = application:ensure_started( mnesia ) fails with {{badmatch, {error,{"no such file or directory","mnesia.app"}}}. I have no idea where mnesia.app should go, and I haven't been able to find any references to this file in docs or online that explain where it should go or what should be in it, except that it exists in the mnesia package under the OTP source tree.

So still pretty unclear how to proceed, pointers welcome!

Thanks,
Igor

On 15/04/2018 16:06, Nuku Ameyibor wrote:

    - under_build/<profile>/rel/<release>/bin/<release> console it fails (returns undefined), so the app crashes on start, regardless of whether <profile> is prod or default

it may or may not be crashing due the mnesia configuration .

you may have to check the the erl_crash.dump to see the cause of the crash . 

How do I set mnesia application environment variables in the release project? (Or, maybe, how do I get the OTP application to be able to access the release project's application environment variables?)

 

in the relx section of your rebar.config you can set a sys_config to be used

{relx, 

[

{sys_config,"config/sys.config"}

       ]

 

in that sys.config you can setup environmental variables to be used by your applications including an entry for mnesia.

[

{mnesia, 

[{dir,"/tmp/my_db_dir"}]

},

{app1,[{a,1},{b,2}],

{app2,[{a,3},{b,4}]

}

]

this will be used by your release system when the release is created .

check out http://www.rebar3.org/docs/releases .

 

On Sat, Apr 14, 2018 at 3:17 PM, Igor Clark <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi list,

I have an OTP application which uses mnesia. It checks/ensures the schema and table files exist and then calls application:ensure_started( mnesia ) in its application:start/2 callback. It works fine when I run the application on its own under rebar3 shell, but it doesn't work when I try to run it from an OTP release:

- When I run the OTP app under rebar3 shell in its own separate directory, with { mnesia, [ { dir, "/tmp/my_db_dir" } ] } in priv/sys.config, it works fine and application:get_env( mnesia, dir ) returns /tmp/my_db_dir as normal/expected

- If I set { mnesia, [ { dir, "/tmp/my_db_dir" } ] } in <release>/config/sys.config, then:

    - under rebar3 shell --name=myapp@mynode, calling application:get_env( mnesia, dir ) succeeds (returns /tmp/my_db_dir) , and the app uses reads/writes mnesia tables successfully

    - under_build/<profile>/rel/<release>/bin/<release> console it fails (returns undefined), so the app crashes on start, regardless of whether <profile> is prod or default

How do I set mnesia application environment variables in the release project? (Or, maybe, how do I get the OTP application to be able to access the release project's application environment variables?)

Also, I realise I could be going about this the wrong way - maybe mnesia should be configured inside the specific OTP app, even under a release? Apart from the fact that that doesn't seem to work (as I have it set up, anyway), I'm aware I should steer clear of "included applications" - not least because I want to be able to use the OTP app in other projects - so I guess there's a broader question of how to configure mnesia in general, in how & when to create schema and tables, if it could be used by multiple OTP apps in a release?

Bit puzzled, appreciate any advice!

Cheers,
Igor
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[Nuku Ameyibor]

 mnesia is not  included as part of the release . 

when rebar3 shell command is run  the path to mnesia is added automatically to the code paths .

in  a release environment however its not copied  over into the release libs unless specified in one of your .app.src files.

in your app.src  file check to see if mnesia is one  of the applications which has to  be started before the main application is started.

On Sun, Apr 15, 2018 at 3:50 PM, Igor Clark <[hidden email]> wrote:

Thanks Nuku,

- It's definitely crashing due to the mnesia configuration - it shows a {badmatch,undefined} error on the line where I call { ok, MnesiaDir } = application:get_env( mnesia, dir ), and I've tried io:format()'ing the result of application:get_env( mnesia, dir ), which shows 'undefined' when running as a release

- relx section of rebar.config is set up exactly like that - I used rebar3 to generate the release

- sys.config has exactly that mnesia entry

It all works as expected with 'rebar3 shell', environment variable is found, mnesia starts, it all works fine - but when I run 'rebar3 release' and try to run the generated startup script, either with 'console' or with 'start' and looking in the log file, the OTP application included in the release gets 'undefined' from application:get_env( mnesia, dir ).

From your sys.config example I realise I could say for example [ { my_app, [ { mnesia_dir, "/tmp/my_db_dir" } ] } ], and use application:get_env( my_app, mnesia_dir ) to initialise; this works and returns { ok, "/tmp/my_db_dir" }, which is great, but then ok = application:ensure_started( mnesia ) fails with {{badmatch, {error,{"no such file or directory","mnesia.app"}}}. I have no idea where mnesia.app should go, and I haven't been able to find any references to this file in docs or online that explain where it should go or what should be in it, except that it exists in the mnesia package under the OTP source tree.

So still pretty unclear how to proceed, pointers welcome!

Thanks,
Igor

On 15/04/2018 16:06, Nuku Ameyibor wrote:

    - under_build/<profile>/rel/<release>/bin/<release> console it fails (returns undefined), so the app crashes on start, regardless of whether <profile> is prod or default

it may or may not be crashing due the mnesia configuration .

you may have to check the the erl_crash.dump to see the cause of the crash . 

How do I set mnesia application environment variables in the release project? (Or, maybe, how do I get the OTP application to be able to access the release project's application environment variables?)

 

in the relx section of your rebar.config you can set a sys_config to be used

{relx, 

[

{sys_config,"config/sys.config"}

       ]

 

in that sys.config you can setup environmental variables to be used by your applications including an entry for mnesia.

[

{mnesia, 

[{dir,"/tmp/my_db_dir"}]

},

{app1,[{a,1},{b,2}],

{app2,[{a,3},{b,4}]

}

]

this will be used by your release system when the release is created .

check out http://www.rebar3.org/docs/releases .

 

On Sat, Apr 14, 2018 at 3:17 PM, Igor Clark <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi list,

I have an OTP application which uses mnesia. It checks/ensures the schema and table files exist and then calls application:ensure_started( mnesia ) in its application:start/2 callback. It works fine when I run the application on its own under rebar3 shell, but it doesn't work when I try to run it from an OTP release:

- When I run the OTP app under rebar3 shell in its own separate directory, with { mnesia, [ { dir, "/tmp/my_db_dir" } ] } in priv/sys.config, it works fine and application:get_env( mnesia, dir ) returns /tmp/my_db_dir as normal/expected

- If I set { mnesia, [ { dir, "/tmp/my_db_dir" } ] } in <release>/config/sys.config, then:

    - under rebar3 shell --name=myapp@mynode, calling application:get_env( mnesia, dir ) succeeds (returns /tmp/my_db_dir) , and the app uses reads/writes mnesia tables successfully

    - under_build/<profile>/rel/<release>/bin/<release> console it fails (returns undefined), so the app crashes on start, regardless of whether <profile> is prod or default

How do I set mnesia application environment variables in the release project? (Or, maybe, how do I get the OTP application to be able to access the release project's application environment variables?)

Also, I realise I could be going about this the wrong way - maybe mnesia should be configured inside the specific OTP app, even under a release? Apart from the fact that that doesn't seem to work (as I have it set up, anyway), I'm aware I should steer clear of "included applications" - not least because I want to be able to use the OTP app in other projects - so I guess there's a broader question of how to configure mnesia in general, in how & when to create schema and tables, if it could be used by multiple OTP apps in a release?

Bit puzzled, appreciate any advice!

Cheers,
Igor
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[hidden email]
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[Igor Clark]

Thanks very much Nuku, that's the piece of the puzzle I was missing. I hadn't understood properly about the release packaging - I thought that if I added mnesia into the relx config, it would automatically start the mnesia app too, and I wanted to do that manually in my app. But after reading your email I added it into the relx/release section, and as you said, the mnesia package is now included in the release, but I can still start it manually, and the console boots correctly and accesses the mnesia data.

Thank you!

Best,
Igor

On 15/04/2018 21:01, Nuku Ameyibor wrote:

 mnesia is not  included as part of the release . 

when rebar3 shell command is run  the path to mnesia is added automatically to the code paths .

in  a release environment however its not copied  over into the release libs unless specified in one of your .app.src files.

in your app.src  file check to see if mnesia is one  of the applications which has to  be started before the main application is started.

On Sun, Apr 15, 2018 at 3:50 PM, Igor Clark <[hidden email]> wrote:

Thanks Nuku,

- It's definitely crashing due to the mnesia configuration - it shows a {badmatch,undefined} error on the line where I call { ok, MnesiaDir } = application:get_env( mnesia, dir ), and I've tried io:format()'ing the result of application:get_env( mnesia, dir ), which shows 'undefined' when running as a release

- relx section of rebar.config is set up exactly like that - I used rebar3 to generate the release

- sys.config has exactly that mnesia entry

It all works as expected with 'rebar3 shell', environment variable is found, mnesia starts, it all works fine - but when I run 'rebar3 release' and try to run the generated startup script, either with 'console' or with 'start' and looking in the log file, the OTP application included in the release gets 'undefined' from application:get_env( mnesia, dir ).

From your sys.config example I realise I could say for example [ { my_app, [ { mnesia_dir, "/tmp/my_db_dir" } ] } ], and use application:get_env( my_app, mnesia_dir ) to initialise; this works and returns { ok, "/tmp/my_db_dir" }, which is great, but then ok = application:ensure_started( mnesia ) fails with {{badmatch, {error,{"no such file or directory","mnesia.app"}}}. I have no idea where mnesia.app should go, and I haven't been able to find any references to this file in docs or online that explain where it should go or what should be in it, except that it exists in the mnesia package under the OTP source tree.

So still pretty unclear how to proceed, pointers welcome!

Thanks,
Igor

On 15/04/2018 16:06, Nuku Ameyibor wrote:

    - under_build/<profile>/rel/<release>/bin/<release> console it fails (returns undefined), so the app crashes on start, regardless of whether <profile> is prod or default

it may or may not be crashing due the mnesia configuration .

you may have to check the the erl_crash.dump to see the cause of the crash . 

How do I set mnesia application environment variables in the release project? (Or, maybe, how do I get the OTP application to be able to access the release project's application environment variables?)

 

in the relx section of your rebar.config you can set a sys_config to be used

{relx, 

[

{sys_config,"config/sys.config"}

       ]

 

in that sys.config you can setup environmental variables to be used by your applications including an entry for mnesia.

[

{mnesia, 

[{dir,"/tmp/my_db_dir"}]

},

{app1,[{a,1},{b,2}],

{app2,[{a,3},{b,4}]

}

]

this will be used by your release system when the release is created .

check out http://www.rebar3.org/docs/releases .

 

On Sat, Apr 14, 2018 at 3:17 PM, Igor Clark <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi list,

I have an OTP application which uses mnesia. It checks/ensures the schema and table files exist and then calls application:ensure_started( mnesia ) in its application:start/2 callback. It works fine when I run the application on its own under rebar3 shell, but it doesn't work when I try to run it from an OTP release:

- When I run the OTP app under rebar3 shell in its own separate directory, with { mnesia, [ { dir, "/tmp/my_db_dir" } ] } in priv/sys.config, it works fine and application:get_env( mnesia, dir ) returns /tmp/my_db_dir as normal/expected

- If I set { mnesia, [ { dir, "/tmp/my_db_dir" } ] } in <release>/config/sys.config, then:

    - under rebar3 shell --name=myapp@mynode, calling application:get_env( mnesia, dir ) succeeds (returns /tmp/my_db_dir) , and the app uses reads/writes mnesia tables successfully

    - under_build/<profile>/rel/<release>/bin/<release> console it fails (returns undefined), so the app crashes on start, regardless of whether <profile> is prod or default

How do I set mnesia application environment variables in the release project? (Or, maybe, how do I get the OTP application to be able to access the release project's application environment variables?)

Also, I realise I could be going about this the wrong way - maybe mnesia should be configured inside the specific OTP app, even under a release? Apart from the fact that that doesn't seem to work (as I have it set up, anyway), I'm aware I should steer clear of "included applications" - not least because I want to be able to use the OTP app in other projects - so I guess there's a broader question of how to configure mnesia in general, in how & when to create schema and tables, if it could be used by multiple OTP apps in a release?

Bit puzzled, appreciate any advice!

Cheers,
Igor
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[Nuku Ameyibor]

you are welcome iggor but i think we may be talking about two different things

the relx section like below

{release, {"app_release", "0.3.3"},[app_name,mnesia]},

would be one way to include mnesia and to have libs added as part of the release and   mnesia started when your application is started . 

another way which is  what i was talking about would be to add it in the .app.src file like this

  {applications,[kernel,stdlib,mnesia ]}

you may want mnesia to be started only when specific applications are started not when the whole release is started .

cheers!!

On Sun, Apr 15, 2018 at 9:01 PM, Igor Clark <[hidden email]> wrote:

Thanks very much Nuku, that's the piece of the puzzle I was missing. I hadn't understood properly about the release packaging - I thought that if I added mnesia into the relx config, it would automatically start the mnesia app too, and I wanted to do that manually in my app. But after reading your email I added it into the relx/release section, and as you said, the mnesia package is now included in the release, but I can still start it manually, and the console boots correctly and accesses the mnesia data.

Thank you!

Best,
Igor

On 15/04/2018 21:01, Nuku Ameyibor wrote:

 mnesia is not  included as part of the release . 

when rebar3 shell command is run  the path to mnesia is added automatically to the code paths .

in  a release environment however its not copied  over into the release libs unless specified in one of your .app.src files.

in your app.src  file check to see if mnesia is one  of the applications which has to  be started before the main application is started.

On Sun, Apr 15, 2018 at 3:50 PM, Igor Clark <[hidden email]> wrote:

Thanks Nuku,

- It's definitely crashing due to the mnesia configuration - it shows a {badmatch,undefined} error on the line where I call { ok, MnesiaDir } = application:get_env( mnesia, dir ), and I've tried io:format()'ing the result of application:get_env( mnesia, dir ), which shows 'undefined' when running as a release

- relx section of rebar.config is set up exactly like that - I used rebar3 to generate the release

- sys.config has exactly that mnesia entry

It all works as expected with 'rebar3 shell', environment variable is found, mnesia starts, it all works fine - but when I run 'rebar3 release' and try to run the generated startup script, either with 'console' or with 'start' and looking in the log file, the OTP application included in the release gets 'undefined' from application:get_env( mnesia, dir ).

From your sys.config example I realise I could say for example [ { my_app, [ { mnesia_dir, "/tmp/my_db_dir" } ] } ], and use application:get_env( my_app, mnesia_dir ) to initialise; this works and returns { ok, "/tmp/my_db_dir" }, which is great, but then ok = application:ensure_started( mnesia ) fails with {{badmatch, {error,{"no such file or directory","mnesia.app"}}}. I have no idea where mnesia.app should go, and I haven't been able to find any references to this file in docs or online that explain where it should go or what should be in it, except that it exists in the mnesia package under the OTP source tree.

So still pretty unclear how to proceed, pointers welcome!

Thanks,
Igor

On 15/04/2018 16:06, Nuku Ameyibor wrote:

    - under_build/<profile>/rel/<release>/bin/<release> console it fails (returns undefined), so the app crashes on start, regardless of whether <profile> is prod or default

it may or may not be crashing due the mnesia configuration .

you may have to check the the erl_crash.dump to see the cause of the crash . 

How do I set mnesia application environment variables in the release project? (Or, maybe, how do I get the OTP application to be able to access the release project's application environment variables?)

 

in the relx section of your rebar.config you can set a sys_config to be used

{relx, 

[

{sys_config,"config/sys.config"}

       ]

 

in that sys.config you can setup environmental variables to be used by your applications including an entry for mnesia.

[

{mnesia, 

[{dir,"/tmp/my_db_dir"}]

},

{app1,[{a,1},{b,2}],

{app2,[{a,3},{b,4}]

}

]

this will be used by your release system when the release is created .

check out http://www.rebar3.org/docs/releases .

 

On Sat, Apr 14, 2018 at 3:17 PM, Igor Clark <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi list,

I have an OTP application which uses mnesia. It checks/ensures the schema and table files exist and then calls application:ensure_started( mnesia ) in its application:start/2 callback. It works fine when I run the application on its own under rebar3 shell, but it doesn't work when I try to run it from an OTP release:

- When I run the OTP app under rebar3 shell in its own separate directory, with { mnesia, [ { dir, "/tmp/my_db_dir" } ] } in priv/sys.config, it works fine and application:get_env( mnesia, dir ) returns /tmp/my_db_dir as normal/expected

- If I set { mnesia, [ { dir, "/tmp/my_db_dir" } ] } in <release>/config/sys.config, then:

    - under rebar3 shell --name=myapp@mynode, calling application:get_env( mnesia, dir ) succeeds (returns /tmp/my_db_dir) , and the app uses reads/writes mnesia tables successfully

    - under_build/<profile>/rel/<release>/bin/<release> console it fails (returns undefined), so the app crashes on start, regardless of whether <profile> is prod or default

How do I set mnesia application environment variables in the release project? (Or, maybe, how do I get the OTP application to be able to access the release project's application environment variables?)

Also, I realise I could be going about this the wrong way - maybe mnesia should be configured inside the specific OTP app, even under a release? Apart from the fact that that doesn't seem to work (as I have it set up, anyway), I'm aware I should steer clear of "included applications" - not least because I want to be able to use the OTP app in other projects - so I guess there's a broader question of how to configure mnesia in general, in how & when to create schema and tables, if it could be used by multiple OTP apps in a release?

Bit puzzled, appreciate any advice!

Cheers,
Igor
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[Jesper Louis Andersen-2]

On Sun, Apr 15, 2018 at 1:48 PM Igor Clark <[hidden email]> wrote:

How do I set mnesia application environment variables in the release
project? (Or, maybe, how do I get the OTP application to be able to
access the release project's application environment variables?)

[..]
 

Also, I realise I could be going about this the wrong way - maybe mnesia
should be configured inside the specific OTP app, even under a release?

One way of going at it, written some time ago when I wrote the GraphQL tutorial: https://shopgun.github.io/graphql-erlang-tutorial/#_plan

[Quote]

A common problem people run into with Mnesia is how to “get started”. What people often resort to are solutions where an initial database is created if it doesn’t exist. These solutions are often brittle.

Here, we pick another solution. A helper can create a database schema for us, with all the necessary tables. The real release assumes the presence of an initial database and won’t boot without one. This means the Erlang release is simpler. There is always some database from which it can boot and operate. That database might be the empty database since we are just starting out. But in particular, the release won’t concern itself with creating an initial database. Rather it will assume one is already existing.

The situation is not much different than using a traditional schema-oriented database. Usually, you have to create the database first, and then populate the schema with some initial data. It is just because of Rails/Django like systems in which databases are migrate-established, we’ve started using different models.

[EndQuote]

Mnesia is part of your release and is started as part of your release, but its configuration is embedded within the release. This avoids the whole problem of creation-if-not-exist, which is probably not a good solution for a database schema, I think. It is convenient... until it accidentally the whole database you had.

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[Igor Clark]

Thanks Jesper, that makes sense. So people tend to use a helper (I guess an escript?) which sets up the database schema & tables and then they start the app.

When you say "configuration is embedded in the release", do you mean the mnesia conf goes in the config/sys.config at the top level of the release? Does that mean that all the OTP apps included in the release have to use the same mnesia conf?

Cheers,
Igor

On 16/04/2018 10:55, Jesper Louis Andersen wrote:

On Sun, Apr 15, 2018 at 1:48 PM Igor Clark <[hidden email]> wrote:

How do I set mnesia application environment variables in the release
project? (Or, maybe, how do I get the OTP application to be able to
access the release project's application environment variables?)

[..]
 

Also, I realise I could be going about this the wrong way - maybe mnesia
should be configured inside the specific OTP app, even under a release?

One way of going at it, written some time ago when I wrote the GraphQL tutorial: https://shopgun.github.io/graphql-erlang-tutorial/#_plan

[Quote]

A common problem people run into with Mnesia is how to “get started”. What people often resort to are solutions where an initial database is created if it doesn’t exist. These solutions are often brittle.

Here, we pick another solution. A helper can create a database schema for us, with all the necessary tables. The real release assumes the presence of an initial database and won’t boot without one. This means the Erlang release is simpler. There is always some database from which it can boot and operate. That database might be the empty database since we are just starting out. But in particular, the release won’t concern itself with creating an initial database. Rather it will assume one is already existing.

The situation is not much different than using a traditional schema-oriented database. Usually, you have to create the database first, and then populate the schema with some initial data. It is just because of Rails/Django like systems in which databases are migrate-established, we’ve started using different models.

[EndQuote]

Mnesia is part of your release and is started as part of your release, but its configuration is embedded within the release. This avoids the whole problem of creation-if-not-exist, which is probably not a good solution for a database schema, I think. It is convenient... until it accidentally the whole database you had.

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[Igor Clark]

Got it. Thanks Nuku.

On 15/04/2018 22:39, Nuku Ameyibor wrote:

you are welcome iggor but i think we may be talking about two different things

the relx section like below

{release, {"app_release", "0.3.3"},[app_name,mnesia]},

would be one way to include mnesia and to have libs added as part of the release and   mnesia started when your application is started . 

another way which is  what i was talking about would be to add it in the .app.src file like this

  {applications,[kernel,stdlib,mnesia ]}

you may want mnesia to be started only when specific applications are started not when the whole release is started .

cheers!!

On Sun, Apr 15, 2018 at 9:01 PM, Igor Clark <[hidden email]> wrote:

Thanks very much Nuku, that's the piece of the puzzle I was missing. I hadn't understood properly about the release packaging - I thought that if I added mnesia into the relx config, it would automatically start the mnesia app too, and I wanted to do that manually in my app. But after reading your email I added it into the relx/release section, and as you said, the mnesia package is now included in the release, but I can still start it manually, and the console boots correctly and accesses the mnesia data.

Thank you!

Best,
Igor

On 15/04/2018 21:01, Nuku Ameyibor wrote:

 mnesia is not  included as part of the release . 

when rebar3 shell command is run  the path to mnesia is added automatically to the code paths .

in  a release environment however its not copied  over into the release libs unless specified in one of your .app.src files.

in your app.src  file check to see if mnesia is one  of the applications which has to  be started before the main application is started.

On Sun, Apr 15, 2018 at 3:50 PM, Igor Clark <[hidden email]> wrote:

Thanks Nuku,

- It's definitely crashing due to the mnesia configuration - it shows a {badmatch,undefined} error on the line where I call { ok, MnesiaDir } = application:get_env( mnesia, dir ), and I've tried io:format()'ing the result of application:get_env( mnesia, dir ), which shows 'undefined' when running as a release

- relx section of rebar.config is set up exactly like that - I used rebar3 to generate the release

- sys.config has exactly that mnesia entry

It all works as expected with 'rebar3 shell', environment variable is found, mnesia starts, it all works fine - but when I run 'rebar3 release' and try to run the generated startup script, either with 'console' or with 'start' and looking in the log file, the OTP application included in the release gets 'undefined' from application:get_env( mnesia, dir ).

From your sys.config example I realise I could say for example [ { my_app, [ { mnesia_dir, "/tmp/my_db_dir" } ] } ], and use application:get_env( my_app, mnesia_dir ) to initialise; this works and returns { ok, "/tmp/my_db_dir" }, which is great, but then ok = application:ensure_started( mnesia ) fails with {{badmatch, {error,{"no such file or directory","mnesia.app"}}}. I have no idea where mnesia.app should go, and I haven't been able to find any references to this file in docs or online that explain where it should go or what should be in it, except that it exists in the mnesia package under the OTP source tree.

So still pretty unclear how to proceed, pointers welcome!

Thanks,
Igor

On 15/04/2018 16:06, Nuku Ameyibor wrote:

    - under_build/<profile>/rel/<release>/bin/<release> console it fails (returns undefined), so the app crashes on start, regardless of whether <profile> is prod or default

it may or may not be crashing due the mnesia configuration .

you may have to check the the erl_crash.dump to see the cause of the crash . 

How do I set mnesia application environment variables in the release project? (Or, maybe, how do I get the OTP application to be able to access the release project's application environment variables?)

 

in the relx section of your rebar.config you can set a sys_config to be used

{relx, 

[

{sys_config,"config/sys.config"}

       ]

 

in that sys.config you can setup environmental variables to be used by your applications including an entry for mnesia.

[

{mnesia, 

[{dir,"/tmp/my_db_dir"}]

},

{app1,[{a,1},{b,2}],

{app2,[{a,3},{b,4}]

}

]

this will be used by your release system when the release is created .

check out http://www.rebar3.org/docs/releases .

 

On Sat, Apr 14, 2018 at 3:17 PM, Igor Clark <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi list,

I have an OTP application which uses mnesia. It checks/ensures the schema and table files exist and then calls application:ensure_started( mnesia ) in its application:start/2 callback. It works fine when I run the application on its own under rebar3 shell, but it doesn't work when I try to run it from an OTP release:

- When I run the OTP app under rebar3 shell in its own separate directory, with { mnesia, [ { dir, "/tmp/my_db_dir" } ] } in priv/sys.config, it works fine and application:get_env( mnesia, dir ) returns /tmp/my_db_dir as normal/expected

- If I set { mnesia, [ { dir, "/tmp/my_db_dir" } ] } in <release>/config/sys.config, then:

    - under rebar3 shell --name=myapp@mynode, calling application:get_env( mnesia, dir ) succeeds (returns /tmp/my_db_dir) , and the app uses reads/writes mnesia tables successfully

    - under_build/<profile>/rel/<release>/bin/<release> console it fails (returns undefined), so the app crashes on start, regardless of whether <profile> is prod or default

How do I set mnesia application environment variables in the release project? (Or, maybe, how do I get the OTP application to be able to access the release project's application environment variables?)

Also, I realise I could be going about this the wrong way - maybe mnesia should be configured inside the specific OTP app, even under a release? Apart from the fact that that doesn't seem to work (as I have it set up, anyway), I'm aware I should steer clear of "included applications" - not least because I want to be able to use the OTP app in other projects - so I guess there's a broader question of how to configure mnesia in general, in how & when to create schema and tables, if it could be used by multiple OTP apps in a release?

Bit puzzled, appreciate any advice!

Cheers,
Igor
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