Why doesn't my Erlang shell load rebar dependencies? - erlang

Question

I have a simple project using rebar with this config:
{sub_dirs, [
"gen",
"apps/basilisk_server",
"rel"
"apps/*"
"ebin"
"deps/*/ebin"
]}.
{erl_opts, [debug_info, fail_on_warning]}.
{
deps,
[
{ email_address, ".*", { git, "git://github.com/mswimmer/erlang-email-address.git", "master"}},
{ gen_smtp , ".*", { git, "https://github.com/Vagabond/gen_smtp.git" , "master"}},
{ pat , ".*", { git, "https://github.com/selectel/pat.git" , "master"}},
{ thrift , ".*", { git, "https://github.com/MustyMustelidae/ThriftErl.git", "master"}}
]
}.
My directory structure is:
+---.rebar
+---deps
| +---edown
| | +---.rebar
| | +---bin
| | +---doc
| | +---ebin
| | +---priv
| | | \---scripts
| | +---samples
| | \---src
| +---email_address
| | +---.rebar
| | +---ebin
| | +---src
| | \---test
| +---gen_smtp
| | +---.rebar
| | +---ebin
| | +---src
| | +---test
| | \---testdata
| +---gproc
| | +---.rebar
| | +---doc
| | +---ebin
| | +---include
| | +---patches
| | | +---gen_leader
| | | +---kernel
| | | \---stdlib
| | +---priv
| | +---reference
| | +---src
| | +---test
| | | \---eqc
| | \---tetrapak
| +---lager
| | +---.rebar
| | +---ebin
| | +---include
| | +---src
| | \---test
| +---pat
| | +---.rebar
| | +---ebin
| | +---include
| | \---src
| +---proper
| | +---.rebar
| | +---doc
| | +---ebin
| | +---examples
| | +---include
| | +---src
| | \---test
| +---tempo
| | +---.rebar
| | +---c_src
| | +---doc
| | | \---utf8
| | +---ebin
| | +---src
| | \---test
| \---thrift
| +---.rebar
| +---ebin
| +---include
| +---out
| | \---production
| | \---erl
| +---src
| \---test
+---ebin <--- My .app/.beam
\---src <--- My source files
\---gen <---More source files
(Sorry for the wall)
Each of the dependencies has a .app file in it's ebin folder, and I'm running the command erl -pa apps/*/ebin -pa ebin -pa deps/*/ebin. I expect I should be able to run application:ensure_all_started(somedep). where "somedep" is the name of a dependency with a .app defined in it's ebin folder. But when I run it for any of them I get the error {error,{somedep,{"no such file or directory","somedep.app"}}}. When I run it for my own application I get the correct response ({ok,_}). Because I can't start the dependencies' applications, my own application fails with an undef error. Am I missing some step to register my .app files with the shell?

Answer 1

The Windows command shell doesn't expand the wildcards in apps/*/ebin and deps/*/ebin, so the Erlang load path isn't getting set properly.