How can I pass command-line arguments to a Erlang program? - erlang

Question

I'm working on a Erlang. How can I pass command line parameters to it?
Program File-
-module(program).
-export([main/0]).
main() ->
io:fwrite("Hello, world!\n").
Compilation Command:
erlc Program.erl
Execution Command-
erl -noshell -s program main -s init stop
I need to pass arguments through execution command and want to access them inside main written in program's main.

Answer 1

$ cat program.erl
-module(program).
-export([main/1]).
main(Args) ->
io:format("Args: ~p\n", [Args]).
$ erlc program.erl
$ erl -noshell -s program main foo bar -s init stop
Args: [foo,bar]
$ erl -noshell -run program main foo bar -s init stop
Args: ["foo","bar"]
It is documented in erl man page.
I would recommend using escript for this purpose because it has a simpler invocation.

Answer 2

These are not really commandline-parameters, but if you want to use environment-variables, the os-module might help. os:getenv() gives you a list of all environment variables. os:getenv(Var) gives you the value of the variable as a string, or returns false if Var is not an environment-variable.
These env-variables should be set before you start the application.
I always use an idiom like this to start (on a bash-shell):
export PORT=8080 && erl -noshell -s program main

Answer 3

If you want "named" argument, with possible default values, you can use this command line (from a toy appli I made):
erl -pa "./ebin" -s lavie -noshell -detach -width 100 -height 80 -zoom 6
lavie:start does nothing more than starting an erlang application:
-module (lavie).
-export ([start/0]).
start() -> application:start(lavie).
which in turn start the application where I defined default value for parameters, here is the app.src (rebar build):
{application, lavie,
[
{description, "Le jeu de la vie selon Conway"},
{vsn, "1.3.0"},
{registered, [lavie_sup,lavie_wx,lavie_fsm,lavie_server,rule_wx]},
{applications, [
kernel,
stdlib
]},
{mod, { lavie_app, [200,50,2]}}, %% with default parameters
{env, []}
]}.
then, in the application code, you can use init:get_argument/1 to get the value associated to each option if it was defined in the command line.
-module(lavie_app).
-behaviour(application).
%% Application callbacks
-export([start/2, stop/1]).
%% ===================================================================
%% Application callbacks
%% ===================================================================
start(_StartType, [W1,H1,Z1]) ->
W = get(width,W1),
H = get(height,H1),
Z = get(zoom,Z1),
lavie_sup:start_link([W,H,Z]).
stop(_State) ->
% init:stop().
ok.
get(Name,Def) ->
case init:get_argument(Name) of
{ok,[[L]]} -> list_to_integer(L);
_ -> Def
end.
Definitively more complex than #Hynek proposal, but it gives you more flexibility, and I find the command line less opaque.