IEx - How to cancel multiline command?
When I use IEx and make a typo like additional bracket or ", then most of the time I get a syntax error. But there are cases like this one:
iex(3)> Enum.each '12345', &(IO.puts(&1"))
...(3)> end
...(3)> )
...(3)> '
...(3)> end
...(3)> ""
...(3)> ... ? How to produce syntax error ?
...(3)>
BREAK: (a)bort (c)ontinue (p)roc info (i)nfo (l)oaded
(v)ersion (k)ill (D)b-tables (d)istribution
I cannot make a syntax error and continue from scratch and I have to relaunch entire IEx. Is there any keyboard shortcut or command to skip performing current iex(3) and go to next iex(4)?
Solution 1:
Start your line with #iex:break
iex(1)> Enum.each '12345', &(IO.puts(&1"))
...(1)> ...
...(1)> #iex:break
** (TokenMissingError) iex:1: incomplete expression
Solution 2:
In general, you can also press Ctrl + G, which will drop you into to the "User switch command" mode with a --->
prompt. From here, you can type i
to interrupt your IEx session, then c
to reconnect to it; IEx will then state ** (EXIT) interrupted
and return to the state it was in immediately before you got stuck. This is a feature of Erlang's shell (erl) that was inherited by IEx.
Example of this in action:
iex(3)> Enum.each '12345', &(IO.puts(&1"))
...(3)> end
...(3)> )
...(3)> '
...(3)> end
...(3)> ""
...(3)> <-- Ctrl-G goes here (not shown normally)
User switch command
--> i
--> c
** (EXIT) interrupted
iex(3)>