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Elixir Tooling

Elixir ships with four binaries for compilation, project building, and more.

  • iex a shell for evaluating elixir expressions and experimenting with your source code in real-time.
  • elixir executes compiled elixir files or elixir "scripts" (.exs files)
  • elixirc elixir compiler
  • mix elixir's fantastic build tool for project creation, dependency management, tasks, and more.

Interactive Elixir - The Elixir Shell

iex is an essential tool for exploring language features and quickly experimenting with code. Any valid Elixir expression can be evaluated and using the h helper function provides instant access to module documentation.

$ iex
Interactive Elixir (0.11.2) - press Ctrl+C to exit (type h() ENTER for help)
iex(1)> 1 + 1
2
iex(2)> h Enum.first

                             def first(collection)

Returns the first item in the collection or nil otherwise.

Examples

┃ iex> Enum.first([])
┃ nil
┃ iex> Enum.first([1, 2, 3])
┃ 1


iex(3)>

The c helper function compiles files and loads them into the shell.

#hello.ex
defmodule Hello do
  def world do
    IO.puts "Hello Word!"
  end
end
iex(2)> c "hello.ex"
[Hello]
iex(3)> Hello.world
Hello Word!
:ok
iex(4)>

Creating your first project with mix

$ mix new hello_elixir
  * creating README.md
  * creating .gitignore
  * creating mix.exs
  * creating lib
  * creating lib/hello_elixir.ex
  * creating lib/hello_elixir
  * creating lib/hello_elixir/supervisor.ex
  * creating test
  * creating test/test_helper.exs
  * creating test/hello_elixir_test.exs

  Your mix project was created successfully.
  You can use mix to compile it, test it, and more:

      cd hello_elixir
      mix compile
      mix test

  Run `mix help` for more information.

Mix creates a directory structure and application manifest that follows Erlang/OTP conventions and plays nicely with Erlang applications.

  • Source code lives in lib/hello_elixir/src/. Any .ex file you place in lib or subdirectories of lib will be automatically compiled and loaded by mix.
  • Test are defined as elixir scripts with .exs extensions in the src/test directory. Any .exs file loaded within test and test subdirectories will be automatically included in the test suite.
  • mix.exs contains your projects configuration and is where you define your dependencies.

Exploration

To see what mix has to offer, simply invoke mix help and start exploring. Most useful commands include:

  • mix deps.get Retrieve and compile all dependencies
  • mix run Runs your project, compiling sources where neccessary
  • mix test Runs all tests located in src/test/*/**.exs
  • mix test [test_file_path] - Runs a specific test
  • iex -S mix Loads Elixir's interactive shell with all mix dependencies and is incredibly useful for experimenting your project code