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Add gen_server timeout example #14530

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35 changes: 35 additions & 0 deletions lib/elixir/lib/gen_server.ex
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -349,6 +349,41 @@ defmodule GenServer do
message arriving, `handle_info/2` is called with `:timeout` as the first
argument.

For example:

defmodule Counter do
use GenServer

@timeout to_timeout(second: 5)

@impl true
def init(count) do
{:ok, count, @timeout}
end

@impl true
def handle_call(:succ, _from, count) do
new_count = count + 1
{:reply, new_count, new_count, @timeout}
end

@impl true
def handle_info(:timeout, count) do
{:stop, :normal, count}
end
end

A `Counter` server will exit with `:normal` if there are no messages in 5 seconds
after the initialization or after the last `succ` call:
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I didn't understand what succ stands for, how about naming this :incr since this is a counter?

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@dmitrykleymenov dmitrykleymenov May 25, 2025

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Successor_function
I thought succ better explains what is going on, initial thought was to useincr :-)
Should we change it?


{:ok, counter_pid} = GenServer.start(Counter, 50)
GenServer.call(counter_pid, :succ)
#=> 51

# After 5 secs
Process.alive?(counter_pid)
#=> false

## When (not) to use a GenServer

So far, we have learned that a `GenServer` can be used as a supervised process
Expand Down