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  <header>
    <copyright>
      <year>1997</year><year>2009</year>
      <holder>Ericsson AB. All Rights Reserved.</holder>
    </copyright>
    <legalnotice>
      The contents of this file are subject to the Erlang Public License,
      Version 1.1, (the "License"); you may not use this file except in
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    <title>app</title>
    <prepared></prepared>
    <docno></docno>
    <date></date>
    <rev></rev>
  </header>
  <file>app</file>
  <filesummary>Application resource file.</filesummary>
  <description>
    <p>The <em>application resource file</em> specifies the resources an
      application uses, and how the application is started. There must
      always be one application resource file called
      <c>Application.app</c> for each application <c>Application</c> in
      the system.</p>
    <p>The file is read by the application controller when an
      application is loaded/started. It is also used by the functions in
      <c>systools</c>, for example when generating start scripts.</p>
  </description>

  <section>
    <title>FILE SYNTAX</title>
    <p>The application resource file should be called
      <c>Application.app</c> where <c>Application</c> is the name of
      the application. The file should be located in the <c>ebin</c>
      directory for the application.</p>
    <p>It must contain one single Erlang term, which is called an
      <em>application specification</em>:</p>
    <code type="none">
{application, Application,
  [{description,  Description},
   {id,           Id},
   {vsn,          Vsn},
   {modules,      Modules},
   {maxP,         MaxP},
   {maxT,         MaxT},
   {registered,   Names},
   {included_applications, Apps},
   {applications, Apps},
   {env,          Env},
   {mod,          Start},
   {start_phases, Phases}]}.

             Value                Default
             -----                -------
Application  atom()               -
Description  string()             ""
Id           string()             ""
Vsn          string()             ""
Modules      [Module]             []
MaxP         int()                infinity
MaxT         int()                infinity
Names        [Name]               []
Apps         [App]                []
Env          [{Par,Val}]          []
Start        {Module,StartArgs}   undefined
Phases       [{Phase,PhaseArgs}]  undefined
  Module = Name = App = Par = Phase = atom()
  Val = StartArgs = PhaseArgs = term()</code>
    <p><c>Application</c> is the name of the application.</p>
    <p>For the application controller, all keys are optional.
      The respective default values are used for any omitted keys.</p>
    <p>The functions in <c>systools</c> require more information. If
      they are used, the following keys are mandatory:
      <c>description</c>, <c>vsn</c>, <c>modules</c>, <c>registered</c>
      and <c>applications</c>. The other keys are ignored by
      <c>systools</c>.</p>
    <taglist>
      <tag><c>description</c></tag>
      <item>
        <p>A one-line description of the application.</p>
      </item>
      <tag><c>id</c></tag>
      <item>
        <p>Product identification, or similar.</p>
      </item>
      <tag><c>vsn</c></tag>
      <item>
        <p>The version of the application.</p>
      </item>
      <tag><c>modules</c></tag>
      <item>
        <p>All modules introduced by this application. <c>systools</c>
          uses this list when generating start scripts and tar files. A
          module can only be defined in one application.</p>
      </item>
      <tag><c>maxP</c></tag>
      <item>
        <p><em>Deprecated - will be ignored</em>          <br></br>

          The maximum number of processes allowed in the application.</p>
      </item>
      <tag><c>maxT</c></tag>
      <item>
        <p>The maximum time in milliseconds that the application is
          allowed to run. After the specified time the application will
          automatically terminate.</p>
      </item>
      <tag><c>registered</c></tag>
      <item>
        <p>All names of registered processes started in this
          application. <c>systools</c> uses this list to detect name
          clashes between different applications.</p>
      </item>
      <tag><c>included_applications</c></tag>
      <item>
        <p>All applications which are included by this application.
          When this application is started, all included application
          will automatically be loaded, but not started, by
          the application controller. It is assumed that the topmost
          supervisor of the included application is started by a
          supervisor of this application.</p>
      </item>
      <tag><c>applications</c></tag>
      <item>
        <p>All applications which must be started before this
          application is allowed to be started. <c>systools</c> uses
          this list to generate correct start scripts. Defaults to
          the empty list, but note that all applications have
          dependencies to (at least) <c>kernel</c> and <c>stdlib</c>.</p>
      </item>
      <tag><c>env</c></tag>
      <item>
        <p>Configuration parameters used by the application. The value
          of a configuration parameter is retrieved by calling
          <c>application:get_env/1,2</c>. The values in the application
          resource file can be overridden by values in a configuration
          file (see <c>config(4)</c>) or by command line flags (see
          <c>erl(1)</c>).</p>
      </item>
      <tag><c>mod</c></tag>
      <item>
        <p>Specifies the application callback module and a start
          argument, see <c>application(3)</c>.</p>
        <p>The <c>mod</c> key is necessary for an application
          implemented as a supervision tree, or the application
          controller will not know how to start it. The <c>mod</c> key
          can be omitted for applications without processes, typically
          code libraries such as the application STDLIB.</p>
      </item>
      <tag><c>start_phases</c></tag>
      <item>
        <p>A list of start phases and corresponding start arguments for
          the application. If this key is present, the application
          master will - in addition to the usual call to
          <c>Module:start/2</c> - also call
          <c>Module:start_phase(Phase,Type,PhaseArgs)</c> for each
          start phase defined by the <c>start_phases</c> key, and only
          after this extended start procedure will
          <c>application:start(Application)</c> return.</p>
        <p></p>
        <p>Start phases may be used to synchronize startup of an
          application and its included applications. In this case,
          the <c>mod</c> key must be specified as:</p>
        <code type="none">
{mod, {application_starter,[Module,StartArgs]}}</code>
        <p>The application master will then call <c>Module:start/2</c>
          for the primary application, followed by calls to
          <c>Module:start_phase/3</c> for each start phase (as defined
          for the primary application) both for the primary application
          and for each of its included application, for which the start
          phase is defined.</p>
        <p></p>
        <p>This implies that for an included application, the set of
          start phases must be a subset of the set of phases defined
          for the primary application. Refer to <em>OTP Design Principles</em> for more information.</p>
      </item>
    </taglist>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>SEE ALSO</title>
    <p><seealso marker="application">application(3)</seealso>,
      systools(3)</p>
  </section>
</fileref>

