immortal
Helper modules for building fault-tolerant OTP applications in Elixir, keeping ETS tables and processes alive during failures.
What is immortal?
Immortal is a collection of helper modules for Elixir developers building fault-tolerant OTP applications. It provides tools to manage ETS tables and processes during system failures, ensuring resources remain available when processes restart. The library addresses common challenges in creating resilient distributed systems with minimal code.
Elixir developers building OTP applications that require high availability and fault tolerance, particularly those working with supervised processes and ETS tables.
Developers choose Immortal for its concise, focused approach to solving specific fault-tolerance problems in OTP applications, reducing boilerplate code while maintaining reliability during process failures.
Overview
Helper modules for OTP applications
Use Cases
Best For
- Keeping ETS tables alive during supervised process restarts
- Creating processes that persist after target process termination
- Building fault-tolerant OTP applications with minimal boilerplate
- Managing process lifecycles in resilient Elixir systems
- Handling graceful degradation during process failures
- Simplifying supervision tree resource management
Not Ideal For
- Projects not built with Elixir and OTP supervision trees
- Systems requiring a full-featured fault-tolerance framework with built-in monitoring and recovery protocols
- Applications where minimizing process overhead is critical, as ghost processes can introduce additional runtime costs
- Teams that prefer comprehensive documentation and community support, as Immortal is a small, focused library
Pros & Cons
Pros
Immortal.ETSTableManager ensures ETS tables survive process restarts, preventing data loss during supervised failures, as highlighted in the README for simplifying resource management.
Immortal.Ghost creates processes that linger after target death, enabling clean-up and event handling, which reduces boilerplate in fault-tolerant OTP applications.
The library focuses on concise solutions to common OTP problems, reducing complexity and keeping applications lean, aligning with its philosophy of simplicity.
Installation via Hex or GitHub is straightforward with clear dependency setup, making it quick to add to Elixir projects without complex configuration.
Cons
With only two modules, Immortal addresses specific issues like ETS and ghost processes but lacks broader fault-tolerance tools, which may require additional libraries for complex systems.
Effective use depends on a solid understanding of OTP supervision and process management, posing a barrier for developers new to Elixir's concurrency model.
As a small library, it has fewer resources, tutorials, and community support compared to larger Elixir frameworks, which can slow down troubleshooting and adoption.
Frequently Asked Questions
Found a gem we're missing?
Open-Awesome is built by the community, for the community. Submit a project, suggest an awesome list, or help improve the catalog on GitHub.