# Feedback on the elixir Phoenix Framework guide

**URL:** <https://discourse.flox.dev/t/feedback-on-the-elixir-phoenix-framework-guide/545>\
**Category:** Bug Reports\
**Created:** [December 5, 2022, 9:58am UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/feedback-on-the-elixir-phoenix-framework-guide/545 "2022-12-05T09:58:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tcoopman](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.flox.dev/tcoopman/32/486_2.png) [@tcoopman](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/tcoopman)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2022, 9:58am UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/feedback-on-the-elixir-phoenix-framework-guide/545/1 "2022-12-05T09:58:11Z")

</div>

I’m talking about this page: [https://beta.floxdev.com/docs/language-examples/elixir\_phoenix\_framework/](https://beta.floxdev.com/docs/language-examples/elixir_phoenix_framework/)

1. typo in docs

```auto
git clone https://github.com/flox-examples/hello-phoenix.git
cd hello-phoenix
checkout base-phx

```

last line should be `git checkout base-phx`

1. flox build fails

```auto
warning: creating lock file '/home/thomas/Workspace/github/hello-phoenix/flake.lock'
error: getting status of '/nix/store/5b62grwvcasvr19kb62ifdfig39gyg7a-source/deps.nix': No such file or directory

```

1. Flox develop

There is a missing quote in the documentation in the `pg_ctl` start command. I expect there needs to be an extra `"` at the end.

```auto
[flox] λ pg_ctl start -l $LOG_PATH -o "-p 5432 -c listen_addresses='*' -c unix_socket_directories=$PWD/postgres -c unix_socket_permissions=0700"
waiting for server to start.... stopped waiting
pg_ctl: could not start server
Examine the log output.
[flox] λ 

```

This could be a bit more helpful. I found the issue by looking around in the files and found out it failed because there was already a postgres running.

```auto
2022-12-05 10:41:06.235 CET [38777] LOG: could not bind IPv4 address "0.0.0.0": Address already in use
2022-12-05 10:41:06.235 CET [38777] HINT: Is another postmaster already running on port 5432? If not, wait a few seconds and retry.

```

I was not expecting there to be a problem with the running postgres. I guess I still need to learn more about nix to really understand what kind of things it isolates.

1. Not sure where to go from here.

In this develop shell, I tried to run `mix phx.server` but it fails because the deps are not installed.  
But running `mix deps.get` fails

If I inspect `pkgs/hello-phoenix/default.nix` it’s hinting towards `mix2nix` but I’m not sure if this should be run manually or if this something the file does.

Also `mix2nix` doesn’t seem to be available in any environment, so I guess I need to add it somewhere?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tcoopman](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.flox.dev/tcoopman/32/486_2.png) [@tcoopman](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/tcoopman)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2022, 10:00am UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/feedback-on-the-elixir-phoenix-framework-guide/545/2 "2022-12-05T10:00:49Z")

</div>

I tried to get the main branch running from hello-phoenix, but that doesn’t work either:

```auto
flox develop -A phx-shell
warning: not writing modified lock file of flake 'git+file:///home/thomas/Workspace/github/hello-phoenix':
• Updated input 'floxpkgs/nixpkgs/nixpkgs':
    'github:flox/nixpkgs/f994293d1eb8812f032e8919e10a594567cf6ef7' (2022-10-25)
  → 'github:flox/nixpkgs/2788904d26dda6cfa1921c5abb7a2466ffe3cb8c' (2022-11-22)
error: unable to download 'https://api.github.com/repos/flox/capacitor/tarball/830a026092dbed052442af65f0a5f03a458076e5': HTTP error 404

       response body:

       {
         "message": "Not Found",
         "documentation_url": "https://docs.github.com/rest/reference/repos#download-a-repository-archive"
       }
(use '--show-trace' to show detailed location information)

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ysndr](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.flox.dev/ysndr/32/340_2.png) [@ysndr](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/ysndr)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2022, 10:09am UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/feedback-on-the-elixir-phoenix-framework-guide/545/3 "2022-12-05T10:09:12Z")

</div>

Thank you @tcoopman for your reports, I’ll get back to you swiftly about the pheonix issues you experience!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tcoopman](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.flox.dev/tcoopman/32/486_2.png) [@tcoopman](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/tcoopman)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2022, 10:18am UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/feedback-on-the-elixir-phoenix-framework-guide/545/4 "2022-12-05T10:18:56Z")

</div>

I’ve made a bit of progress:

I’ve been able to create a build:

- I’ve added `pkgs.mix2nix` to the buildInputs of `phx-shell/default.nix`
- In a develop shell I’ve run: `mix2nix > deps.nix`
- I’ve uncommented the postBuild steps.

After this, `flox build -A hello-phoenix` works.

But the release **doesn’t seem to actually work:**

```auto
➜ result/bin/hello_phoenix start
cat: /nix/store/61y7dq9grvrvpgy30fqz1mxv61yhp2wx-hello-phoenix-0.0.0/releases/COOKIE: No such file or directory

```

For develop I tried to do something similar, but it doesn’t work:

```auto
mix do deps.loadpaths --no-deps-check, phx.server
Compiling 18 files (.ex)

== Compilation error in file lib/hello_phoenix_web/telemetry.ex ==
** (CompileError) lib/hello_phoenix_web/telemetry.ex:3: module Telemetry.Metrics is not loaded and could not be found. This may be happening because the module you are trying to load directly or indirectly depends on the current module

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ysndr](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.flox.dev/ysndr/32/340_2.png) [@ysndr](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/ysndr)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2022, 10:36am UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/feedback-on-the-elixir-phoenix-framework-guide/545/5 "2022-12-05T10:36:51Z")

</div>

Your approach was correct right, and we should include a default `deps.nix` as well as the `mix2nix` package!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ysndr](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.flox.dev/ysndr/32/340_2.png) [@ysndr](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/ysndr)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2022, 10:52am UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/feedback-on-the-elixir-phoenix-framework-guide/545/6 "2022-12-05T10:52:06Z")

</div>

Regarding the phoenix build / runtime errors I’ll cc @Samuel_Rose into the discussion, who is our expert for the elixir stack.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Samuel\_Rose](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.flox.dev/samuel_rose/32/515_2.png) [@Samuel\_Rose](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/Samuel_Rose)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2022, 3:06pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/feedback-on-the-elixir-phoenix-framework-guide/545/7 "2022-12-05T15:06:41Z")

</div>

Hi @tcoopman @ysndr Thanks for trying flox out!

I am going to give a few responses here to a couple of the issues you had right away. Then, I’ll follow up in a bit on the rest a little later today.  
Regarding #2  
We definitely need to update our docs to reflect that running mix2nix is needed, and we’lll do that today!

Issue #3 with `flox develop` we’ll fix the docs there again, thank you! We have a new branch that we’ll merge ASAP that runs the postgres services with a `Procfile` and `hivemind` so that when you exit the `flox develop` shell, the services will just automatically turn off.

I’ll follow up today to resolve these issues, and thanks again.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Samuel\_Rose](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.flox.dev/samuel_rose/32/515_2.png) [@Samuel\_Rose](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/Samuel_Rose)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2022, 3:25pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/feedback-on-the-elixir-phoenix-framework-guide/545/8 "2022-12-05T15:25:50Z")

</div>

@tcoopman you wrote

> But the release **doesn’t seem to actually work:**

```auto
➜ result/bin/hello_phoenix start
cat: /nix/store/61y7dq9grvrvpgy30fqz1mxv61yhp2wx-hello-phoenix-0.0.0/releases/COOKIE: No such file or directory

```

…yes we need to document how to use the release. It’s use is mostly the same as standard `mix release` without flox involved. [mix release — Mix v1.14.5](https://hexdocs.pm/mix/1.14/Mix.Tasks.Release.html)

At minimum you need to somehow set the `DATABASE_URL` `SECRET_KEY` and `RELEASE_COOKIE` env vars. Or `DATABASE_URL` and `SECRET_KEY` can be moved to `runtime.exs` as discussed at [https://elixir-lang.org/getting-started/mix-otp/config-and-releases.html](https://elixir-lang.org/getting-started/mix-otp/config-and-releases.html) and the phoenix framework example [https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/blob/master/installer/templates/phx\_single/config/runtime.exs](https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/blob/master/installer/templates/phx_single/config/runtime.exs)

However, we will document a “using the release” section this week, to give some guidance on using a release that has been built from the flox build and runtime perspective. I’ll be sure to update here when we add that section.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Samuel\_Rose](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.flox.dev/samuel_rose/32/515_2.png) [@Samuel\_Rose](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/Samuel_Rose)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2022, 3:30pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/feedback-on-the-elixir-phoenix-framework-guide/545/9 "2022-12-05T15:30:19Z")

</div>

@tcoopman you wrote

> mix do deps.loadpaths --no-deps-check, phx.server  
> Compiling 18 files (.ex)

```auto
== Compilation error in file lib/hello_phoenix_web/telemetry.ex ==
** (CompileError) lib/hello_phoenix_web/telemetry.ex:3: module Telemetry.Metrics is not loaded and could not be found. This may be happening because the module you are trying to load directly or indirectly depends on the current module

```

I don’t know which steps you followed to generate this outcome, but my guess is that after having run `flox develop` you may need to then run `mix deps.get` for the above command to work. I’ll check our docs to make sure we are making this clear

Basically, we want to orient people in how they can use flox in a development context (where you would run all the normal `mix deps.get`, `iex -S mix phx.server` etc commands just as you otherwise would), and flox will bring in an integrated development environment for you, and then when you are ready to release for production, you can `flox build -A hello-phoenix` and that package has all the settings to output the release, but built deterministically by flox, and then you can distribute it to other machines via `flox install` at minimum (and we will document other ways to do it too)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tcoopman](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.flox.dev/tcoopman/32/486_2.png) [@tcoopman](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/tcoopman)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2022, 4:54pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/feedback-on-the-elixir-phoenix-framework-guide/545/10 "2022-12-05T16:54:40Z")

</div>

Thanks, I’ll try these things tomorrow afternoon!

Also it took me a while to find what hivemind is: [GitHub - DarthSim/hivemind: Process manager for Procfile-based applications](https://github.com/DarthSim/hivemind)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tcoopman](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.flox.dev/tcoopman/32/486_2.png) [@tcoopman](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/tcoopman)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 11:38am UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/feedback-on-the-elixir-phoenix-framework-guide/545/11 "2022-12-06T11:38:46Z")

</div>

I’ve been able to get most of it working, and I think I start to understand more about how flox works (at least the develop part).

Some more questions and remarks I have:

1. If I wanted to develop would I open multiple terminals with (1) for the things that need to run (things that go in hivemind, like the database), (2) the development server (mix phx.server) and (3) the tests?
2. I’m not sure I completely understand the isolation model, if you start something in a flox shell that keeps running (for example postgres) and then exit that shell, I’d assume that postgres would stop as well, but that’s not the case.
3. Something I haven’t thought about yet, but that I would need to know if I continue using flox. How would this work together with [fly.io](http://fly.io) (`flyctl`) that creates docker images to deploy.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tcoopman](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.flox.dev/tcoopman/32/486_2.png) [@tcoopman](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/tcoopman)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 12:55pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/feedback-on-the-elixir-phoenix-framework-guide/545/12 "2022-12-06T12:55:41Z")

</div>

An other update. I wanted to do some regular elixir development and couldn’t start my server because there was still a beam and elixir piece of code running from a previous `flox develop` shell.

Is this really the expected behavior?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jurraca](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.flox.dev/jurraca/32/397_2.png) [@jurraca](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/jurraca)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 11:30pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/feedback-on-the-elixir-phoenix-framework-guide/545/13 "2022-12-06T23:30:50Z")

</div>

Hey,

1. Sure, flox doesn’t have any bearing on whether you run multiple terminals for development, just activate the shells you want in each one.
2. You are correct, and while we haven’t implemented this yet, we have it planned for Q1’23.
3. flyctl available in nixpkgs, so you can just `flox install flyctl` in any environment.

> Is this really the expected behavior?

This is not expected, and I couldn’t reproduce this behavior. Could you provide some details on the app running or logs?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tcoopman](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.flox.dev/tcoopman/32/486_2.png) [@tcoopman](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/tcoopman)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 2022, 9:20am UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/feedback-on-the-elixir-phoenix-framework-guide/545/14 "2022-12-08T09:20:37Z")

</div>

So for the building of an elixir app with flyctl, I would just install the necessary things inside the nixpkgs and change the flox build steps to deploy to flyctl?

Regarding the things that keep running, I’ve been able to reproduce:

1. run hivemind
2. kill the terminal without killing hivemind first

Now all the process that hivemind started are still running ☹

Expected behaviour: killing the terminal should kill all applications that hivemind runs as well.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![robinbrantley](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.flox.dev/robinbrantley/32/39_2.png) [@robinbrantley](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/robinbrantley)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 2022, 11:56am UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/feedback-on-the-elixir-phoenix-framework-guide/545/15 "2022-12-08T11:56:53Z")

</div>

Thank you for this additional info. We agree this isn’t ideal and I can confirm I have now logged an issue for it to be addressed. In the meantime, I’ll see if we can find a workaround for you.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![robinbrantley](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.flox.dev/robinbrantley/32/39_2.png) [@robinbrantley](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/robinbrantley)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2022, 4:03pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/feedback-on-the-elixir-phoenix-framework-guide/545/16 "2022-12-17T16:03:04Z")

</div>

quick update - unfortunately we haven’t found a workaround for you for the short term but we are hoping to get this addressed in the next few weeks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Samuel\_Rose](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.flox.dev/samuel_rose/32/515_2.png) [@Samuel\_Rose](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/Samuel_Rose)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2022, 7:25pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/feedback-on-the-elixir-phoenix-framework-guide/545/17 "2022-12-22T19:25:50Z")

</div>

I just also want to follow up: we have it on our early 2023 list to document deployment to [fly.io](http://fly.io) I’ll be sure to ping this thread when we do so.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Samuel\_Rose](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.flox.dev/samuel_rose/32/515_2.png) [@Samuel\_Rose](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/Samuel_Rose)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2022, 7:32pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/feedback-on-the-elixir-phoenix-framework-guide/545/18 "2022-12-22T19:32:42Z")

</div>

Following up on this:

What I have been doing in practice is to run all companion services in hivemind, for development. These can be services like postgres, redis, etc

However, for elixir itself, when in `flox develop` shell mode, I just run elixir or phoenix like usual (eg `iex -S mix phx.server`) you are still using all of the the underlying dependencies like postgres etc that are brought in by flox this way.

I only run the `mix release` version of the app in production environments, after merging and testing etc and that usually has a bit different set up and management than the dev env. Although when the release is built with `flox build`, it will be deterministic and use the same dependencies etc.

It sounds like possibly you are running the release of the app you are developing, and yes this can leave orphaned beam processes running on the machine. In general, in `flox develop` with hivemind and iex, you should not see services continuing to run if you exit the terminal they are running in. So, it would be good to know more about your configurations, and how you are running apps etc to help you better if you keep seeing those issues.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tcoopman](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.flox.dev/tcoopman/32/486_2.png) [@tcoopman](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/tcoopman)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 10:24am UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/feedback-on-the-elixir-phoenix-framework-guide/545/19 "2022-12-23T10:24:31Z")

</div>

> [@Samuel\_Rose](#):
>
> In general, in `flox develop` with hivemind

As far as I can see, if hivemind is killed, it doesn’t kill the processes it manages: [Sub-processes aren't in the same process group · Issue #8 · DarthSim/hivemind · GitHub](https://github.com/DarthSim/hivemind/issues/8)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Samuel\_Rose](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.flox.dev/samuel_rose/32/515_2.png) [@Samuel\_Rose](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/Samuel_Rose)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2022, 7:07pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/feedback-on-the-elixir-phoenix-framework-guide/545/20 "2022-12-27T19:07:58Z")

</div>

@tcoopman just some follow up: I will say that in practice on an ubuntu machine, when I use hivemind to run these processes with a procfile that is formatted like [hello-phoenix/Procfile at procfile-hivemind · flox-examples/hello-phoenix · GitHub](https://github.com/flox-examples/hello-phoenix/blob/procfile-hivemind/Procfile) when I `ctrl+C` on the running processes, they stop and are not orphaned.

We offer hivemind and Procfile as a suggestion, but when it comes to this area of using flox, it ultimately up to you as to how you decide to run these services in development or production. Any conventional approach per operating system should work as expected (systemd, initd, hivemind, foreman, custom bash scripts, etc).

It could be that your issue is indeed related to [Sub-processes aren't in the same process group · Issue #8 · DarthSim/hivemind · GitHub](https://github.com/DarthSim/hivemind/issues/8) however that appears to be beyond that scope of issue we can support and fix directly. We definitely thank you for sharing that information as it may help others. It is usually the case with all of these services, there is not much special about how you run elixir, postgres, or other services, other than changing the paths where they are run from.

All that said, if you run into specific problems running specific code, likely we can help you if you post those here along with the code you are trying to run, the specifics about the operating system. Sorry to report that I have not been able to recreate the problems you see with hivemind.

[Next page](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/feedback-on-the-elixir-phoenix-framework-guide/545.md?page=2)