epmd - Erlang 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 automatically
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.
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 Environment
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 useful when
the epmd daemon is not started as a daemon.
- -daemon:
- Starts epmd detached from the controlling terminal. Logging ends up
in syslog when available and correctly configured. If the epmd
daemon 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(3erl)) 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 situations.
With relaxed command checking enabled, you can forcibly unregister
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.
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 connection
gets accepted.
- -delay_write
Seconds:
- Also a simulation of a busy server. Inserts a delay before a reply is
sent.
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-specific 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 daemon contacted. When running epmd interactively,
-relaxed_command_check has no effect.
- 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.
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.
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.