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Setting up detectEr

Downloading detectEr

detectEr can be cloned from our GitHub repository:

git clone https://github.com/duncanatt/detecter.git

You can also download detectEr in archive format by visiting https://github.com/duncanatt/detecter, or by running:

wget -O detecter.zip https://github.com/duncanatt/detecter/archive/refs/heads/master.zip
unzip detecter.zip
mv detecter-master detecter

Unzip

If the unzip utility is not installed on your Ubuntu/Debian system, you can install it via APT by running sudo apt install unzip. On macOS, unzip is pre-installed.

Both of these actions should result in the creation of the directory detecter that is structured as follows.

Directory name Description
detecter detectEr root directory
    detecter detectEr tool directory
        priv detectEr language specification and other configuration files
        src Erlang module sources
        test Unit tests
        include Supporting macros
        Makefile Makefile with targets for compiling and testing detectEr
    examples Tutorial examples
        erlang Calculator server implementation in Erlang
            src Erlang module sources
            props sHML property specifications
            Makefile Makefile with targets for compiling the example
        elixir Calculator server implementation in Elixir
            lib Elixir module sources
            props sHML property specifications
            Makefile Makefile with targets for compiling the example
        python Calculator server implementation in Python using TCP sockets
            src Python script sources
            props sHML property specifications
            Makefile Makefile with targets for compiling the example
LICENSE GPL3 license

Compiling detectEr

For this tutorial, we do not use sophisticated code building mechanisms such as rebar, but stick to the make utility to standardise our build processes.

On Ubuntu/Debian, GNU make can be installed using APT.

  1. Refresh the package manager repository cache: sudo apt update.

  2. Install make: sudo apt install make.

Alternatively, you may choose to install the full build-essential package which includes make.

macOS users need to download and install the Apple Developer Command Line Tools which includes make.

  1. Run the command: xcode-select --install.

  2. In the ensuing dialog, click Install and agree to the Terms of Service.

You can also install GNU make using Homebrew by typing: brew install make.

Windows 10 users not using WSL can install GNU make via Chocolatey by running: choco install make.

detectEr and its accompanying code examples comes bundled with the necessary makefiles to facilitate their use. To compile detectEr, navigate to the root detecter project directory.

  1. Change the current directory to the detecter tool directory: cd detecter.

  2. Execute make.

A new ebin directory is created, containing the compiled Erlang source modules as *.beam executables. The detecter directory now looks as follows:

Directory name Description
detecter detectEr tool directory
    priv detectEr language specification and other configuration files
    src Erlang module sources
    test Unit tests
    include Supporting macros
    ebin Compiled detectEr files
    Makefile Makefile with targets for compiling and testing detectEr

With detectEr compiled, let us move on to our first ‘hello world’ example!