title: Elixir exrm console works but application does not start automatically
body: <p>I <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30721605/elixir-exrm-release-crashes-on-eredis-start-link">asked a question previously</a> about getting <a href="https://github.com/bitwalker/exrm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">exrm</a> working for my project. The answer got me to the point that I can build my release (in dev mode) and access it via the console. </p>
  
  <p>However there are a couple problems:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>When I open the console via <code>rel/my_app/bin/my_app console</code>, my application <strong>does not actually start</strong>. I have to call <code>Application.start(:my_app)</code> to get it going.</p></li>
  <li><p>Calling <code>rel/my_app/bin/my_app start</code> does not start my app. I can see that the epmd, beam.smp, and run_erl processes have started, but my own application does not appear to be running.</p></li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>Pretty sure these two problems are related.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Steps taken for console:</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>$ mix release --dev
  $ ./rel/my_app/bin/my_app console
  iex(my_app@127.0.0.1)1&gt; Application.start(:my_app)
  # at this point the app is running until I ctrl+c
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>Steps taken for start:</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>$ mix release --dev
  $ ./rel/my_app/bin/my_app start
  
  $ ps aux | grep "my_app"
  
  12235   0.0  0.0  2460212    636   ??  S    11:10am   0:00.19 /Users/me/code/my_app/rel/my_app/erts-6.3.1/bin/epmd -daemon
  
  17565   0.0  0.2  2524256  26236 s008  Ss+   4:03pm   0:00.37 /Users/me/code/my_app/rel/my_app/erts-6.3.1/bin/beam.smp -- -root /Users/me/code/my_app/rel/my_app -progname Users/me/code/my_app/rel/my_app/bin/my_app -- -home /Users/me -- -boot /Users/me/code/my_app/rel/my_app/releases/0.0.1/my_app -boot_var ERTS_LIB_DIR /Users/me/code/my_app/rel/my_app/erts-6.3.1/../lib -config /Users/me/code/my_app/rel/my_app/releases/0.0.1/sys.config -pa /Users/me/code/my_app/rel/my_app/lib/consolidated -name my_app@127.0.0.1 -setcookie my_app -user Elixir.IEx.CLI -extra --no-halt +iex -- console
  
  17562   0.0  0.0  2452008    588   ??  S     4:03pm   0:00.00 /Users/me/code/my_app/rel/my_app/erts-6.3.1/bin/run_erl -daemon /Users/me/code/my_app/rel/my_app/tmp/erl_pipes/my_app/ /Users/me/code/my_app/rel/my_app/log exec "/Users/me/code/my_app/rel/my_app/bin/my_app" "console"
  
  $ tail /var/log/system.log
  
  Jun  9 16:03:14 me.local my_app[17565][17597]: Starting up
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I can tell that my application is not running because it should consume from a queue and write to a data store. However when starting the release, the queue is never consumed. Unfortunately I can't find any more log output or errors aside from the one "Starting up" line.</p>
  
  <p>Is there an argument I need to pass to exrm's start command to get it to run my app? </p>
  
  <p>If not, is there perhaps a way to debug this via pointing the logs somewhere or inspecting internal processes?</p>