Add Node.start/3 and Node.stop/0, closes #2406

Author: José Valim

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 
 * Enhancements
   * [ExUnit] The test process now exits with `:shutdown` reason
+  * [Node] Add `Node.start/3` and `Node.stop/0`
   * [Task] Log when tasks crash
 
 * Bug fixes

lib/elixir/lib/node.ex

@@ -10,6 +10,31 @@ defmodule Node do
 
   @type t :: node
 
+  @doc """
+  Turns a non-distributed node into a distributed node.
+
+  This functionality starts the `:net_kernel` and other
+  related processes.
+  """
+  @spec start(node, :longnames | :shortnames, non_neg_integer) ::
+             {:ok, pid} | {:error, term}
+  def start(name, type \\ :longnames, tick_time \\ 15000) do
+    :net_kernel.start([name, type, tick_time])
+  end
+
+  @doc """
+  Turns a distributed node into a non-distributed node.
+
+  For other nodes in the network, this is the same as the node going down.
+  Only possible when the node was started with `Node.start/3`, otherwise
+  returns `{:error, :not_allowed}`. Returns `{:error, :not_found}` if the
+  local node is not alive.
+  """
+  @spec stop() :: :ok | {:error, term}
+  def stop() do
+    :net_kernel.stop()
+  end
+
   @doc """
   Returns the current node.
 

lib/elixir/test/elixir/node_test.exs

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+Code.require_file "test_helper.exs", __DIR__
+
+defmodule NodeTest do
+  use ExUnit.Case
+
+  test "start/3 and stop/0" do
+    assert Node.stop == {:error, :not_found}
+    assert {:ok, _} = Node.start(:hello, :shortnames, 15000)
+    assert Node.stop() == :ok
+  end
+end