Starts the node in distributed mode with a numbered node name schema.

Every node has a number started from 0. The name of the nodes gonna be just simply :node0, :node1, etc.

It also tries to connect to other nodes that are already alive. For instance, if you start :node4 with the node task, it will try to connect to :node0, :node1, :node2, :node3 and also some nodes like :node5, :node6, :node7 and so on. That means starting :nodeN will try to connect to the previous N nodes and the next N nodes. Starting :node0 does not trigger any connections. The node task uses long names.

In production you must have a more sophisticated clustering strategy, like libcluster, but for development and testing the node task will help you simplify your daily tasks.

Usage:

Start an IEx shell in distributed mode with the name node4:

  $ iex -S mix node 4

Start node number 3 without the IEx shell:

  $ mix node 3

It is also possible to start nodes without manually entering numbers for them. Use an underscore _ in place of the node number and the node task will find you the first available node number starting from 1:

  $ iex -S mix node _

You can use an underscore to start a node without specifying the node number. In that case the task is going to figure out the smallest available node number and use that number.

It is also possible to add further Mix tasks to the command line.