Quick Start

4 Behind the Scenes

4.1 Using make

We promised to come back to make, so here we are.

Eventually, the Makefile will be replaced with a combination of rebar scripts and updates to lfetool, but for now it's what we've got.

There are some convenient targets available for you in the Makefile:

  • upload - when your project's ready for release, this will push it up to expm.co for you
  • compile - rebuilds all your .beams, including the dependencies
  • install - should you wish to install your project system-wide (we recommend against it), you could use this target to do it
  • check - run your unit tests after recompiling all *.lfe files *.beam
  • shell - start up the LFE REPL after recompiling all *.lfe files
  • get-deps - not only does this target get your deps initially, but subsequent runs of it will perform git pulls for the repos cloned in your deps dir, ensuring you have the latest code for everything

If you do not need to recompile dependencies (and most of the time, you don't), you can skip the deps with the following targets:

  • compile-no-deps
  • shell-no-deps
  • check-unit

There are other interesting make targets tucked in the Makefile, and you can learn more about how to manage LFE projects by checking them out.

One thing to keep in mind for future reference: if you add new deps to your rebar.confg file, you'll need to update the ERL_LIBS in your Makefile to include them.

Read more about setting up a development environment here.

4.2 Next Steps

This has been a quick overview of what LFE has to offer, so you might enjoy reading the User Guide next. You can see all our docs at a glance by visiting the Docs page.

There is a tutorial on light-weight Erlang processes in LFE that you may be intersted in.

If you want to develop RESTful services in LFE, you should take a look at the REST on YAWS with LFE starter project.

The LFE organization on Gitub has a large collection of LFE projects that may be of interest to you.

You should also take some time reading the examples provided in the LFE source code; studying examples is the quickest way to make progress.

If at any time you would like to provide feedback about the documentation on this site, feel free to create an issue. Be sure to give a full description so that we can best help you!