sturmer
How to configure Elixir Mix project with Ecto SQLite3?
Hi all,
I am trying to set up an Elixir project using Mix. It’s a CLI application. I want to connect it to a local SQLite3 database. Note that for now this is not a Web application, and as such no Phoenix is involved. I build the project using mix escript.build.
I can figure out how to structure the application, including making it work with a test database (MIX_ENV=test). What I don’t manage to do is to have it working in MIX_ENV=dev, i.e., when actually issuing the commands from the shell.
A command looks like:
./eelarve add -a -13.50 -x "something" -r Rimi
where eelarve is my executable, add is a command, and the rest is switches (sorry if all of this is obvious).
I define my main function in a module called Eelarve.CLI, where I call as first statement Application.ensure_all_started(:eelarve) in the belief that it will start the DB.
My application is pretty run-of-the-mill:
application.ex:
use Application
@impl true
def start(_type, _args) do
children = [
# Start the Ecto repository
Eelarve.Repo
]
# See https://hexdocs.pm/elixir/Supervisor.html
# for other strategies and supported options
opts = [strategy: :one_for_one, name: Eelarve.Supervisor]
Supervisor.start_link(children, opts)
end
(notice I don’t know how Eelarve.Supervisor is implemented, I assume that by use Application something defines it for me).
Now my configuration:
config.exs:
...
config :eelarve,
ecto_repos: [Eelarve.Repo]
...
dev.exs:
import Config
# Configure your database
config :eelarve, Eelarve.Repo,
database: Path.expand("../eelarve_dev.db", Path.dirname(__ENV__.file)),
pool_size: 5,
stacktrace: true,
show_sensitive_data_on_connection_error: true
mix.exs:
...
def application do
[
extra_applications: [:logger, :ecto_sqlite3],
mod: {Eelarve.Application, []}
]
end
...
The problem, as you may have guessed, is that when I issue my command, the SQLite application is not running. Here’s the error:
** (exit) exited in: DBConnection.Holder.checkout(#PID<0.126.0>, [log: #Function<13.38471488/1 in Ecto.Adapters.SQL.with_log/3>, source: "transactions", cache_statement: "ecto_insert_all_transactions", cast_params: ["-13.50", "Uncategorized", :EUR, ~U[2024-06-12 15:45:13.021862Z], "varie", "Rimi"], stacktrace: [{Ecto.Repo.Supervisor, :tuplet, 2, [file: ~c"lib/ecto/repo/supervisor.ex", line: 163]}, {Eelarve.Repo, :insert_all, 3, [file: ~c"lib/eelarve/repo.ex", line: 2]}, {Eelarve.Add, :call, 1, [file: ~c"lib/eelarve/add.ex", line: 31]}, {Kernel.CLI, :"-exec_fun/2-fun-0-", 3, [file: ~c"lib/kernel/cli.ex", line: 136]}], repo: Eelarve.Repo, timeout: 15000, pool_size: 5, pool: DBConnection.ConnectionPool])
** (EXIT) no process: the process is not alive or there's no process currently associated with the given name, possibly because its application isn't started
(db_connection 2.6.0) lib/db_connection/holder.ex:97: DBConnection.Holder.checkout/3
(db_connection 2.6.0) lib/db_connection.ex:1280: DBConnection.checkout/3
(db_connection 2.6.0) lib/db_connection.ex:1605: DBConnection.run/6
(db_connection 2.6.0) lib/db_connection.ex:800: DBConnection.execute/4
(ecto_sqlite3 0.16.0) lib/ecto/adapters/sqlite3/connection.ex:89: Ecto.Adapters.SQLite3.Connection.query/4
(ecto_sql 3.11.2) lib/ecto/adapters/sql.ex:519: Ecto.Adapters.SQL.query!/4
(ecto_sql 3.11.2) lib/ecto/adapters/sql.ex:925: Ecto.Adapters.SQL.insert_all/9
(ecto 3.11.2) lib/ecto/repo/schema.ex:59: Ecto.Repo.Schema.do_insert_all/7
What am I missing?
Marked As Solved
joelpaulkoch
I followed your error message, in particular this part:
(FunctionClauseError) no function clause matching in :filename.join/2
(stdlib 5.2) filename.erl:454: :filename.join({:error, :bad_name}, ~c"sqlite3_nif")
(exqlite 0.23.0) lib/exqlite/sqlite3_nif.ex:16: Exqlite.Sqlite3NIF.load_nif/0
So in exqlite lib/exqlite/sqlite3_nix.ex line 16 is this:
path = :filename.join(:code.priv_dir(:exqlite), ~c"sqlite3_nif")
and apparently :code.priv_dir(:exqlite) gives you an error.
Looking at the documentation of escript, it says:
privdirectory support
escripts do not support projects and dependencies that need to store or read artifacts from the priv directory.
So I believe what’s happening is that exqlite wants to load the nif library from its priv directory, but that’s somehow not supported when using escript.
As a sidenote, if you just want to store some data for you CLI application and can’t make it work with SQLite, you could try cubdb.
Never used it myself but given that it doesn’t need any NIFs I guess it should work in escript.
Or, the other way around, use burrito to build your CLI application.
Also Liked
joelpaulkoch
arcanemachine
You may not be making a Phoenix project, but the Phoenix generators may be helpful for your case.
In these situations, I will commonly spin up a Phoenix project with the correct flags (see the mix phx.new docs for examples) just to see what the generators spit out. It’s surprisingly barebones if you disable all the unneeded stuff, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to check for the relevant snippets from the generated files.
sturmer
Oh, that bit of docs is quite the revelation. Thanks a lot for digging it up!
Never heard of cubdb but I’ll consider it, whereas burrito was definitely on my radar – just wanted to get there by stages, but maybe there’s no easy way to do that without reinventing the wheel.







