How can I execute a call to the current process in a GenServer?

Question

I know I can call a GenServer like this

GenServer.call(pid, request)
# using a pid

or like this

GenServer.call(registered_name, request)
# if I registered the process with a name

But is there a way to excute the GenServer.call inside the module without knowing the pid/registered name?(ie is there something like GenServer.call(__CURRENT_PROCESS__, request)?)

Answer 1

This will simply not work. A GenServer.call is simply sending a message to the given process and then waiting for another message (the reply), blocking the current process. If you send a message to self this way the process will not be free to handle that message as it will be blocked waiting for a reply. So the call will always time out.

What I suspect you need is just to extract the functionality you want into a function and directly call that. Alternatively you can send a cast to the current process, effectively telling it to do something "later".