This is a unix wrapper around the erlang vm.

my_app.sh

#!/bin/bash

# This is a unix wrapper around the erlang vm. It provides the following functionality:
#
# * Spawns in foreground
# * Handle SIGHUP and call RELOADFUNC
# * Handle SIGTERM SIGQUIT and SIGINT telling to the vm to quit
# * Dies if the vm dies (for example kernel killing because out of memory)
#
# Forks and improvements are welcome.
#

export APPNAME=my_app
export BASEDIR=`readlink -f $(dirname $0)/..`
export HOME=$BASEDIR
export APPDIR=$BASEDIR/apps/$APPNAME
export ENV=production
export PORT=18080
export SERVICE=my_service_name
export NODE="$SERVICE@`hostname -f`"
export CONFIG_FILE=$APPDIR/priv/$ENV.config
export COOKIE=sbs
export RELOAD="my_module my_func [my_args]"

cd $BASEDIR

reload(){
	echo Reloading the app..
	erl_call -c $COOKIE -a "$RELOAD" -n ${NODE}
}
trap reload SIGHUP

stop(){
        echo Stopping the app
        erl_call -c $COOKIE -q -n ${NODE}
}
trap stop SIGQUIT SIGINT SIGTERM


# Maybe you should adapt this to your needs.
exec erl -pa deps/*/ebin apps/*/ebin \
        -boot start_sasl \
        -sasl sasl_error_logger '{file, "./log/sasl.log"}' \
        -s ${APPNAME}_app \
        -noinput \
        +K true \
        +A 4 \
        +swt very_low \
        -$APPNAME environment $ENV \
        -$APPNAME port $PORT \
        -config "${CONFIG_FILE}" \
        -setcookie $COOKIE \
        -name $NODE $* &
pid=$!
sleep 0


echo Controlling the erlang VM $NODE running in $pid from $$. Waiting...
while kill -0 $pid ; do wait $pid ; done