Programming Erlang, 2nd Edition

Error Handling Primitives

The primitives for manipulating links and monitors and for trapping and sending exit signals are as follows:

-spec spawn_link(Fun) -> Pid

-spec spawn_link(Mod, Func, Args) -> Pid

This behaves like spawn(Fun) or spawn(Mod,Func,Args) and also creates a link between the parent and child processes.

-spec spawn_monitor(Fun) -> {Pid, Ref}

-spec spawn_monitor(Mod, Func, Args) -> {Pid, Ref}

This is like spawn_link, but it creates a monitor rather than a link. Pid is the process identifier of the newly created process, and Ref is a reference to the monitor. If the process dies with the reason Why, then the message {’DOWN’,Ref,process,Pid,Why} will be sent to the parent process.

-spec process_flag(trap_exit, true)

This turns ...