:init.restart()

[josevalim]

I am not sure this is the best way to let you know but I have just found out there is a command called :init.restart() that will restart the whole system, shutting down all applications and starting them again. For example, if you do:

$ iex -S mix test
iex> :init.restart()

It will restart everything and run the tests again. Maybe this can be used to make this project much more straight-forward. :)

[josevalim]

Related gist which may help you with further ideas: https://gist.github.com/josevalim/a5e747c90a72e40a4b52062ea6919877

[lpil]

Gosh. Suddenly all that work seems a bit pointless. :P

Thanks for the info!

[josevalim]

I think we still need the watching bit, just the restart bit that got much much easier! :D

[lpil]

The watching is easy thanks to fs. :)

One of the features I want is having IEx running at the same time so that one can type expressions in the repl while the tests are not running. If we use :init.restart/0 we'll lose the state each time the tests run. :(

[josevalim]

If we use :init.restart/0 we'll lose the state each time the tests run. :(

Yes :(

[lpil]

Perhaps we can support both once we get test modules closing after an exception is thrown when compiling them. (keen to take a stab at this myself, but have had a busy week)

There are advantages to each method. The init one wipes clean all state and works for versions of Elixir that don't have the test module closing, the other one gives us the repl and might be a touch faster (?).

[josevalim]

Yeah, it may be faster with the risk of potentially running on outdated state.

[lpil]

Yes I think people have had problems with state in Phoenix applications already. I need to find some time to read the rebar3 autotest plugin so I can see how it is managed there. It re-uses the VM and features a repl.

[lpil]

Closing as --listen-on-stdin exists now