[rabbitmq-discuss] rabbitMq use of the setcookie option

[Jerry Kuch]

> Cookies in Erlang are used by the distributed communication system
> between nodes; that is, in Erlang, not AMQP. If you start several
> Erlang nodes, then they can only "see" each other and send messages to
> each other if their cookies match.
>
> It is something that sits underneath RabbitMQ as part of the Erlang
> infrastructure.
>
> If you want to delve deeper, you can find more information here:
> http://www.erlang.org/doc/reference_manual/distributed.html#id80929 ,
> http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/erlang.html#set_cookie-2 .

Michael:

What Robby says is correct; I'd like to add that if you're interested
in knowing more about how some of the Erlang and OTP stuff that
underlies RabbitMQ works the following book from Manning may be useful
to you:

http://www.manning.com/logan/

In particular, chapter 8 introduces the use of Erlang in distributed
programming, including fairly careful discussion of cookies,
connecting nodes, resource discovery, etc.  Giving it a read might
dispel some of the mystery around these issues in a Rabbit context.
You might also find the treatment a bit more clear and leisurely than
some of the core Erlang documentation.

Best regards,
Jerry