selectel / Alberto

         __
        /  \
       / ..|\
      (_\  |_)
      /  \@'    Alberto!
     /     \         0.5
_  _/  `   |
\\/  \  | _\
 \   /_ || \\_
  \____)|_) \_)

Alberto is an implementation of Erlang External Term Format, a protocol, used by Erlang nodes to communicate with so called ports. See Erlang documentation for details.

Installation

The simplest way to get alberto is to use OPAM:

opam install alberto

Example

On Erlang part we have a simple echo server, which sends <<"Hello world!">> to the port and echoes whatever comes back to stdout:

#!/usr/bin/env escript
%%! -noshell -noinput
-mode(compile).
-define(ME, filename:basename(escript:script_name())).
-define(PRINT(STR, PARAMS), io:format("~s: " ++ STR ++ "~n", [?ME | PARAMS])).


main([Bin]) ->
    Port = open_port({spawn, Bin},
                     [binary, {packet, 4}]),
    port_command(Port, term_to_binary("Hello world!")),
    receive
        {_, {data, Data}} ->
            ?PRINT("~p", [binary_to_term(Data)]),
            main([Bin])
    end;
main(_) ->
    io:format("~s", ["usage: echo.erl path/to/port"]).

OCaml part is even more consice:

Alberto.interact (fun x -> x)

Okay, let's see it in action (sources are available in examples/ directory):

$ dune build examples/port_simple.exe
$ examples/echo.erl ./_build/default/examples/port_simple.exe
echo.erl: "Hello world!"
echo.erl: "Hello world!"
echo.erl: "Hello world!"
echo.erl: "Hello world!"