A hack to try and startup an erlang application and its dependencies. Should only really be used for lazy development/fiddling as reltool/relx/rebar will handle all this for you.

module_starter_hack.erl

-module(module_starter_hack).

-export([try_force_start_application/1]).

try_force_start_application(App) ->
    start_application_process_result(App, try_start_application(App)).

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Helpers

try_start_application(App) ->
    io:format("Trying to start ~p~n", [App]),
    application:start(App).

start_application_process_result(_App, ok) ->
    ok;
start_application_process_result(_App, {error, {already_started, _Dep}}) ->
    ok;
start_application_process_result(App, {error, {not_started, Dep}}) ->
    %% try to start the dep
    start_application_process_result(App, try_start_application(Dep)),
    %% now retry starting the main app
    start_application_process_result(App, try_start_application(App)).