A module for working with applications and defining application callbacks.

Applications are the idiomatic way to package software in Erlang/OTP. To get the idea, they are similar to the "library" concept common in other programming languages, but with some additional characteristics.

An application is a component implementing some specific functionality, with a standardized directory structure, configuration, and lifecycle. Applications are loaded, started, and stopped.

The application resource file

Applications are specified in their resource file, which is a file called APP.app, where APP is the application name. For example, the application resource file of the OTP application ex_unit is called ex_unit.app.

You'll find the resource file of an application in its ebin directory, it is generated automatically by Mix. Some of its keys are taken from the keyword lists returned by the project/0 and application/0 functions defined in mix.exs, and others are generated by Mix itself.

You can learn more about the generation of application resource files in the documentation of Mix.Tasks.Compile.App, available as well by running mix help compile.app.

The application environment

The key env of an application resource file has a list of tuples that map atoms to terms, and its contents are known as the application environment. Note that this environment is unrelated to the operating system environment.

By default, the environment of an application is an empty list. In a Mix project you can set that key in application/0:

def application do
  [env: [redis_host: "localhost"]]
end

and the generated application resource file is going to have it included.

The environment is available after loading the application, which is a process explained later:

Application.load(:APP_NAME)
#=> :ok

Application.get_env(:APP_NAME, :redis_host)
#=> "localhost"

In Mix projects, the environment of the application and its dependencies can be overridden via the config/config.exs file. If you start the application with Mix, that configuration is available at compile time, and at runtime too, but take into account it is not included in the generated application resource file, and it is not available if you start the application without Mix.

For example, someone using your application can override its :redis_host environment variable as follows:

config :APP_NAME, redis_host: "redis.local"

The function put_env/3 allows dynamic configuration of the application environment, but as a rule of thumb each application is responsible for its own environment. Please do not use the functions in this module for directly accessing or modifying the environment of other applications.

The application environment can be overridden via the -config option of erl, as well as command-line options, as we are going to see below.

The application callback module

The mod key of an application resource file configures an application callback module and start argument:

def application do
  [mod: {MyApp, []}]
end

This key is optional, only needed for applications that start a supervision tree.

The MyApp module given to :mod needs to implement the Application behaviour. This can be done by putting use Application in that module and implementing the start/2 callback, for example:

defmodule MyApp do
  use Application

  def start(_type, _args) do
    children = []
    Supervisor.start_link(children, strategy: :one_for_one)
  end
end

The start/2 callback has to spawn and link a supervisor and return {:ok, pid} or {:ok, pid, state}, where pid is the PID of the supervisor, and state is an optional application state. args is the second element of the tuple given to the :mod option.

The type argument passed to start/2 is usually :normal unless in a distributed setup where application takeovers and failovers are configured. Distributed applications are beyond the scope of this documentation.

When an application is shutting down, its stop/1 callback is called after the supervision tree has been stopped by the runtime. This callback allows the application to do any final cleanup. The argument is the state returned by start/2, if it did, or [] otherwise. The return value of stop/1 is ignored.

By using Application, modules get a default implementation of stop/1 that ignores its argument and returns :ok, but it can be overridden.

Application callback modules may also implement the optional callback prep_stop/1. If present, prep_stop/1 is invoked before the supervision tree is terminated. Its argument is the state returned by start/2, if it did, or [] otherwise, and its return value is passed to stop/1.

The application lifecycle

Loading applications

Applications are loaded, which means that the runtime finds and processes their resource files:

Application.load(:ex_unit)
#=> :ok

If an application has included applications, they are also loaded. And the procedure recurses if they in turn have included applications. Included applications are unrelated to applications in Mix umbrella projects, they are an Erlang/OTP concept that has to do with coordinated starts.

When an application is loaded, the environment specified in its resource file is merged with any overrides from config files passed to erl via the -config option. It is worth highlighting that releases pass sys.config this way. The resulting environment can still be overridden again via specific -Application options passed to erl.

Loading an application does not load its modules.

In practice, you rarely load applications by hand because that is part of the start process, explained next.

Starting applications

Applications are also started:

Application.start(:ex_unit)
#=> :ok

Once your application is compiled, running your system is a matter of starting your current application and its dependencies. Differently from other languages, Elixir does not have a main procedure that is responsible for starting your system. Instead, you start one or more applications, each with their own initialization and termination logic.

When an application is started, the runtime loads it if it hasn't been loaded yet (in the technical sense described above). Then, it checks if the dependencies listed in the applications key of the resource file are already started. Having at least one dependency not started is an error condition, but when you start an application with mix run, Mix takes care of starting all the dependencies for you, so in practice you don't need to worry about it unless you are starting applications manually with the API provided by this module.

If the application does not have a callback module configured, starting is done at this point. Otherwise, its start/2 callback if invoked. The PID of the top-level supervisor returned by this function is stored by the runtime for later use, and the returned application state is saved too, if any.

Stopping applications

Started applications are, finally, stopped:

Application.stop(:ex_unit)
#=> :ok

Stopping an application without a callback module is defined, but except for some system tracing, it is in practice a no-op.

Stopping an application with a callback module has three steps:

1. If present, invoke the optional callback prep_stop/1.
2. Terminate the top-level supervisor.
3. Invoke the required callback stop/1.

The arguments passed to the callbacks are related to the state optionally returned by start/2, and are documented in the section about the callback module above.

It is important to highlight that step 2 is a blocking one. Termination of a supervisor triggers a recursive chain of children terminations, therefore orderly shutting down all descendant processes. The stop/1 callback is invoked only after termination of the whole supervision tree.

Shutting down a live system cleanly can be done by calling System.stop/1. It will shut down every application in the opposite order they had been started.

By default, a SIGTERM from the operating system will automatically translate to System.stop/0. You can also have more explicit control over operating system signals via the :os.set_signal/2 function.

Tooling

The Mix build tool can also be used to start your applications. For example, mix test automatically starts your application dependencies and your application itself before your test runs. mix run --no-halt boots your current project and can be used to start a long running system. See mix help run.

Developers can also use tools like Distillery that build releases. Releases are able to package all of your source code as well as the Erlang VM into a single directory. Releases also give you explicit control over how each application is started and in which order. They also provide a more streamlined mechanism for starting and stopping systems, debugging, logging, as well as system monitoring.

Finally, Elixir provides tools such as escripts and archives, which are different mechanisms for packaging your application. Those are typically used when tools must be shared between developers and not as deployment options. See mix help archive.build and mix help escript.build for more detail.

Further information

For further details on applications please check the documentation of the application Erlang module, and the Applications section of the OTP Design Principles User's Guide.