3.8 Pid
- 3.8 Pid

3.8 Pid

A process identifier, pid, identifies a process.

The following BIFs, which are used to create processes, return values of this data type:

spawn/1,2,3,4
spawn_link/1,2,3,4
spawn_opt/4Example:

1> spawn(m, f, []).
<0.51.0>

In the following example, the BIF self() returns the pid of the calling process:

-module(m).
-export([loop/0]).

loop() ->
    receive
        who_are_you ->
            io:format("I am ~p~n", [self()]),
            loop()
    end.

1> P = spawn(m, loop, []).
<0.58.0>
2> P ! who_are_you.
I am <0.58.0>
who_are_you