Erlang: calling rr(?MODULE) from beam executable?

Question

I'm not entirely sure how to define an Erlang function within an Erlang module. I'm getting the following error:

11> invoke_record:invoke().
** exception error: undefined function erlang:rr/1

From this simple code trying to invoke the rr(?MODULE). from within the beam executable in order to "initialize" records so that it doesn't need to be called from the shell every time.

-module(invoke_record).
-export([invoke/0]).
-record(process, {pid,
                reference="",
                lifetime=0
                }).
invoke() ->
    erlang:rr(?MODULE).

Answer 1

The command rr("file.hrl"). is meant to be be used only in shell for debugging purposes.

As other users highlighted in their answers, the correct way to import a record (or a function) contained in a .hrl file within your erlang code consists in using the command -include("file.hrl').

Once you have included the .hrl file in your code (and usually in a module based on OTP behaviours this is done after the -export(...) part) you can refer to the Erlang record (or function) without any problem.