Elixir's use functionality

use is a way that you can inject code into your module. Elixir uses this for boilerplate in GenServer, and Phoenix uses it for metaprogramming.

defmodule Foo do
  use Bar
end

While compiling the Foo module, Elixir runs the Bar.__using__ macro, which you can define like this:

defmodule Bar do
  defmacro __using__(_args) do
    quote do
      def baz do
        :quux
      end
    end
  end
end

This injects the quoted code (the baz function) into the Foo module.

You can do something with the args. For example, in Phoenix, you invoke it like this:

use MyWeb, :controller

Phoenix uses it to call another function in the module:

defmacro __using__(which) when is_atom(which) do
  apply(__MODULE__, which, [])
end

…which, in turn, returns the quoted code:

def controller do
  quote do
    use Phoenix.Controller, namespace: MyWeb

    import Plug.Conn
    import MyWeb.Gettext
    alias MyWeb.Router.Helpers, as: Routes
  end
end

This could have been done with matching on the args. For example:

defmacro __using__(:controller) do
  quote do
    # ...
  end
end

…etc.

Important: __using__ must be a macro.