Building Distributed Systems in Elixir - Part 4: Process Linking

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I’ve published Part 4 of my Elixir distributed systems learning series.

This part explores process linking using low-level primitives directly:

  • spawn_link/1
  • abnormal exit propagation
  • bidirectional links
  • Process.flag(:trap_exit, true)
  • {:EXIT, pid, reason} messages
  • process links vs process monitors

I’m intentionally avoiding GenServer and supervisors for now to understand how failure propagation works underneath OTP.

Building Distributed Systems in Elixir — Part 4: Process Linking

Blog: Building Distributed Systems in Elixir: Part 4 — Process Linking

GitHub: elixir-distributed-systems-lab/04-process-linking

Feedback and corrections are welcome.

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I just went through the first 4 posts, and I enjoyed your writing!

Most Elixir books skip over the reference value. Even in the docs, it’s NOT explained properly. But you did it well, and you showed how it’s used in shutdowns and terminations.

I’m now watching your repository and can’t wait for the next article in the series. Good work, kind sir, good work!

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Thank you so much! Really appreciate you taking the time to read the first four posts and leave this comment. Glad you enjoyed them, and thanks for watching the repo as well. More coming soon! :folded_hands:

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