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Updated: Wednesday, July 27, 2022
 
 

epmd (1)

Name

epmd - Erlang Port Mapper Daemon

Synopsis

Please see following description for synopsis

Description

epmd(1)                          User Commands                         epmd(1)



NAME
       epmd - Erlang Port Mapper Daemon

DESCRIPTION
         epmd [-d|-debug] [DbgExtra...] [-address Addresses] [-port No] [-dae-
         mon] [-relaxed_command_check]:
           Starts the port mapper daemon.

         epmd [-d|-debug] [-port No] [-names|-kill|-stop Name]:
           Communicates with a running port mapper daemon.

       This daemon acts as a name server on all hosts involved in  distributed
       Erlang  computations.  When  an Erlang node starts, the node has a name
       and it obtains an address from the host OS kernel. The name and address
       are  sent  to  the  epmd  daemon running on the local host. In a TCP/IP
       environment, the address consists of the IP address and a port  number.
       The  node name is an atom on the form of Name@Node. The job of the epmd
       daemon is to keep track of which node name listens  on  which  address.
       Hence, epmd maps symbolic node names to machine addresses.

       The  TCP/IP epmd daemon only keeps track of the Name (first) part of an
       Erlang node name. The Host part (whatever is after the @)  is  implicit
       in  the  node  name  where  the epmd daemon was contacted, as is the IP
       address where the Erlang node can be reached.  Consistent  and  correct
       TCP  naming  services  are  therefore required for an Erlang network to
       function correctly.

   Note:
       On Windows the maximum number of nodes allowed in one epmd instance  is
       60.  This  is  because of limitations in the current implementation. If
       you need more nodes, you should look into using and erlang  based  epmd
       implementation such as Erlang EPMD.


         Starting the port mapper daemon:
           The  daemon  is started automatically by command erl(1) if the node
           is to be distributed and no running instance is present.  If  auto-
           matically launched environment variables must be used to change the
           behavior of the daemon; see section Environment Variables.

           If argument -daemon is not specified, epmd runs as a normal program
           with  the controlling terminal of the shell in which it is started.
           Normally, it is to be run as a daemon.

           Regular startup options are described in section Regular Options.

           The DbgExtra options are described in section DbgExtra Options.

         Communicating with a running port mapper daemon:
           Communicating with the running epmd daemon by the epmd  program  is
           done primarily for debugging purposes.

           The different queries are described in section Interactive options.

REGULAR OPTIONS
       These  options  are  available  when starting the name server. The name
       server is normally started automatically  by  command  erl(1)  (if  not
       already available), but it can also be started at system startup.

         -address List:
           Lets  this instance of epmd listen only on the comma-separated list
           of IP addresses and on the loopback address  (which  is  implicitly
           added  to  the list if it has not been specified). This can also be
           set using environment variable ERL_EPMD_ADDRESS; see section  Envi-
           ronment Variables.

         -port No:
           Lets  this instance of epmd listen to another TCP port than default
           4369.  This  can   also   be   set   using   environment   variable
           ERL_EPMD_PORT; see section Environment Variables.

         -d | -debug:
           Enables  debug  output. The more -d flags specified, the more debug
           output you will get (to a certain limit). This option is most  use-
           ful when the epmd daemon is not started as a daemon.

         -disable_syslog:
           Disables  logging when epmd is started as a daemon. Not recommended
           for the general use and production.

         -daemon:
           Starts epmd detached from the controlling terminal. Logging ends up
           in syslog when available and correctly configured. If the epmd dae-
           mon is started at boot, this option is definitely to be used. It is
           also used when command erl automatically starts epmd.

         -relaxed_command_check:
           Starts  the  epmd program with relaxed command checking (mostly for
           backward compatibility). This affects the following:

           * With relaxed command checking, the epmd daemon can be killed from
             the  local  host  with,  for  example, command epmd -kill even if
             active nodes are registered. Normally only daemons with an  empty
             node database can be killed with epmd -kill.

           * Command  epmd  -stop  (and the corresponding messages to epmd, as
             can be specified using erl_interface:ei(3))  is  normally  always
             ignored.  This because it can cause a strange situation where two
             nodes of the same name can be alive at  the  same  time.  A  node
             unregisters  itself by only closing the connection to epmd, which
             is why command stop was only intended for use in debugging situa-
             tions.

             With  relaxed command checking enabled, you can forcibly unregis-
             ter live nodes.

           Relaxed command checking can also be enabled by setting environment
           variable ERL_EPMD_RELAXED_COMMAND_CHECK before starting epmd.

           Use  relaxed  command  checking  only  on systems with very limited
           interactive usage.

DBGEXTRA OPTIONS
   Note:
       These options are only for debugging and testing epmd clients. They are
       not to be used in normal operation.


         -packet_timeout Seconds:
           Sets the number of seconds a connection can be inactive before epmd
           times out and closes the connection. Defaults to 60.

         -delay_accept Seconds:
           To simulate a busy server, you can insert a delay between when epmd
           gets  notified that a new connection is requested and when the con-
           nection gets accepted.

         -delay_write Seconds:
           Also a simulation of a busy server. Inserts a delay before a  reply
           is sent.

INTERACTIVE OPTIONS
       These  options  make epmd run as an interactive command, displaying the
       results of sending queries to an already running instance of epmd.  The
       epmd  contacted  is  always  on the local node, but option -port can be
       used to select between instances if several are running using different
       ports on the host.

         -port No:
           Contacts  the  epmd  listening  on  the  specified  TCP port number
           (default 4369). This can also be  set  using  environment  variable
           ERL_EPMD_PORT; see section Environment Variables.

         -names:
           Lists names registered with the currently running epmd.

         -kill:
           Kills the currently running epmd.

           Killing  the  running  epmd is only allowed if epmd -names shows an
           empty database or if -relaxed_command_check was specified when  the
           running instance of epmd was started.

           Notice  that  -relaxed_command_check is specified when starting the
           daemon that is to accept killing when it has live nodes registered.
           When  running  epmd  interactively,  -relaxed_command_check  has no
           effect. A daemon that is started without relaxed  command  checking
           must  be  killed  using, for example, signals or some other OS-spe-
           cific method if it has active clients registered.

         -stop Name:
           Forcibly unregisters a live node from the epmd database.

           This command can  only  be  used  when  contacting  epmd  instances
           started with flag -relaxed_command_check.

           Notice that relaxed command checking must enabled for the epmd dae-
           mon  contacted.  When  running  epmd  interactively,  -relaxed_com-
           mand_check has no effect.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
         ERL_EPMD_ADDRESS:
           Can be set to a comma-separated list of IP addresses, in which case
           the epmd daemon will listen only on the specified  address(es)  and
           on  the  loopback address (which is implicitly added to the list if
           it has not been specified). The default behavior is  to  listen  on
           all available IP addresses.

         ERL_EPMD_PORT:
           Can  contain  the  port number epmd will use. The default port will
           work fine in most cases. A different port can be specified to allow
           several  instances  of  epmd,  representing independent clusters of
           nodes, to co-exist on the same host. All nodes in  a  cluster  must
           use the same epmd port number.

         ERL_EPMD_RELAXED_COMMAND_CHECK:
           If  set  before  start,  the  epmd  daemon  behaves  as  if  option
           -relaxed_command_check was specified at startup.  Consequently,  if
           this  option is set before starting the Erlang virtual machine, the
           automatically started epmd accepts the  -kill  and  -stop  commands
           without restrictions.

LOGGING
       On  some operating systems syslog will be used for error reporting when
       epmd runs as a daemon. To enable the error logging, you must  edit  the
       /etc/syslog.conf file and add an entry:

         !epmd
         *.*<TABs>/var/log/epmd.log


       where  <TABs>  are at least one real tab character. Spaces are silently
       ignored.

ACCESS RESTRICTIONS
       The epmd daemon accepts messages from both the local  host  and  remote
       hosts.  However,  only the query commands are answered (and acted upon)
       if the query comes from a remote host. It is always an error to try  to
       register a node name if the client is not a process on the same host as
       the epmd instance is running on. Such requests are  considered  hostile
       and the connection is closed immediately.

       The following queries are accepted from remote nodes:

         * Port queries, that is, on which port the node with a specified name
           listens

         * Name listing, that is, gives a list of all names registered on  the
           host

       To restrict access further, firewall software must be used.



Ericsson AB                        erts 12.2                           epmd(1)