Distributed Coding Prefunc: Up and Running With Erlang

Before diving into architecture, coding, descriptions and other things related to distributed computing over the coming months. It helps to become familiar with a language like Erlang. I’m going to dive immediately into getting Erlang up and running before any theory, description or otherwise, so following the most direct installation…

Installing Erlang

This is easy on OS-X. Pending of course you have the XCode and Developer Tools installed.

[sourcecode language=”bash”]
curl -O http://erlang.org/download/otp_src_R15B01.tar.gz
tar zxvf otp_src_R15B01.tar.gz
cd otp_src_R15B01
[/sourcecode]

Then compile the latest XCode and tools you can use the LLVM Compiler.

[sourcecode language=”bash”]
CFLAGS=-O0 ./configure –disable-hipe –enable-smp-support –enable-threads \
–enable-kernel-poll –enable-darwin-64bit
[/sourcecode]
[sourcecode language=”bash”]
make
sudo make install
[/sourcecode]

For more information on building Erlang you can also check out the Erlang Organization Site. It’s that simple, so now that it is up and running you should be able to check that all is right with the install by pulling a version.

[sourcecode language=”bash”]
erl -version
[/sourcecode]

In my follow up blog entry I’m going to take you through the Rebar Riak Core Templates. This will get you up and running with an Erlang Application. This application can then be used either as a stand alone Erlang App for whatever you want to build with it or as a great starting point to build against Riak.