Erlang can't locate dependent applications when debugging

Question

I have an Erlang application that runs fine outside the debugger.

But when I try to debug it, it fails. It can't any dependent applications other than the ones that are "built in" to Erlang (e.g., crypto).

For example, here it can't find ranch

Error in process <0.63.0> on node 'test_node1398822489915@tppllc-Mac-Pro' with exit value: {{badmatch,{error,{"no such file or directory","ranch.app"}}},[{presence,start,0,[{file,"presence.erl"},{line,7}]}]}

When I run it not in the debugger, it can find it, and the application works. I use the same -pa paths to point to the dependent directories for both debugging and non-debugging runs.

Answer 1

This turned out to be a bug with the IntellIJ Erlang plugin. It didn't pass the same parameters to erl in debug mode vs non-debug mode.

I reported it, and it was fixed:

https://github.com/ignatov/intellij-erlang/commit/1b400063df1e6dc92fde8aa23f852710775c4460