Port

Functions related to Erlang ports.

Summary

Types

name()

Functions

call(port, operation, data)

Makes a synchronous call to the port and returns its reply as a term

close(port)

Closes the port

command(port, data, options \\ [])

Sends data to the port driver port

connect(port, pid)

Associates the port identifier with a pid

control(port, operation, data)

Sends a synchronous control command to the port and returns its reply as a binary

info(port)

Returns information about the port or nil if the port is closed

info(port, spec)

Returns information about the port or nil if the port is closed

list()

Returns a list of the ports for the current node

open(name, settings)

Opens an Erlang port given a tuple name and a list of settings

Types

name()

name ::
  {:spawn, charlist | binary} |
  {:spawn_driver, charlist | binary} |
  {:spawn_executable, charlist | atom} |
  {:fd, non_neg_integer, non_neg_integer}

Functions

call(port, operation, data)

call(port, integer, term) :: term

Makes a synchronous call to the port and returns its reply as a term.

Not all port drivers support this control feature.

For more information, see :erlang.port_call/3.

Inlined by the compiler.

close(port)

close(port) :: true

Closes the port.

For more information, see :erlang.port_close/1.

Inlined by the compiler.

command(port, data, options \\ [])

command(port, iodata, [:force | :nosuspend]) :: boolean

Sends data to the port driver port.

For more information, see :erlang.port_command/2.

Inlined by the compiler.

connect(port, pid)

connect(port, pid) :: true

Associates the port identifier with a pid.

For more information, see :erlang.port_connect/2.

Inlined by the compiler.

control(port, operation, data)

control(port, integer, iodata) :: iodata | binary

Sends a synchronous control command to the port and returns its reply as a binary.

Not all port drivers support this feature.

For more information, see :erlang.port_control/3.

Inlined by the compiler.

info(port)

Returns information about the port or nil if the port is closed.

For more information, see :erlang.port_info/1.

info(port, spec)

info(port, atom) :: {atom, term} | nil

Returns information about the port or nil if the port is closed.

For more information, see :erlang.port_info/2.

list()

list() :: [port]

Returns a list of the ports for the current node.

For more information, see :erlang.ports/0.

Inlined by the compiler.

open(name, settings)

open(name, list) :: port

Opens an Erlang port given a tuple name and a list of settings.

Name

The supported values for name are:

• {:spawn, command} - to run an external program. The first space separated word of command will be considered as the name of the program to run, so use {:spawn_executable, command} to run a program having spaces in its name.
• {:spawn_driver, command} - similar to {:spawn, command}, but to run a loaded driver.
• {:spawn_executable, filename} - similar to {:spawn, filename}, but to run an external executable. With this option, filename in its whole is considered the name of the program to execute.
• {:fd, fd_in, fd_out} - to access file descriptors used by Erlang, fd_in being used for standard input, fd_out for standard output.

For more information, see :erlang.open_port/2.

Inlined by the compiler.