Erlang Programming Quick-Start with Hello-World on GNU/Linux

Erlang Getting-Started for Linux

You are Welcome! The Tutorial shows you Step-by-Step How to Install and Getting-Started with the Erlang Programming Language with an Hello World Example on several GNU/Linux Distributions.

Open Source Erlang is a Functional Programming Language designed at the Ericsson Computer Science Laboratory.

Some of Erlang main Features are:

• Clear declarative syntax and is largely free from side-effects
• Built-in support for real-time, concurrent and distributed programming
• Designed for development of robust and continuously operated programs
• Dynamic code replacement at runtime

The Erlang distribution also includes OTP (Open Telecom Platform) which provides a rich set of libraries and applications.

1. How to Install Erlang on Linux Distros

   Erlang SetUp for Linux

   Erlang Installation on Linux

2. Open a Shell Terminal emulator window
   (Press “Enter” to Execute Commands)

   

   Create an Erlang Hello World
   Here for simplicity I’ll make use of the nano editor..

   mkdir ~/Documents/erlang

   To put stuff into order an erlang directory is created with the above command

   cd ~/Documents/erlang

   We change to the target directory

   nano helloworld.erl

   And Append this Erlang content:

   -module(helloworld).
   -export([start/0]).
   
   start() -> io:format("Hello world~n").
   

   Ctrl+x to Save & Exit from nano editor

3. Executing the Erlang Hello World.

   chmod +x ~/Documents/erlang/helloworld.erl

   This to give Execution Permissions

   erl

   Then we start the Erlang Shell to Compile and Run the example

   1> c(helloworld).
   {ok, helloworld}
   

   To compile the Erlang helloworld Module

   2> helloworld:start().
   Hello world
   ok
   

   To Run

   3> halt().
   

   To Stop the program
   In the end to Quit the Erlang shell hits Ctrl+c twice…

4. OnLine Erlang Tutorials and Documents

   Erlang Docs

   Erlang Documents