Re: [Caml-list] Interface(.mli) location

[moosotc@gmail.com]

David Allsopp <dra-news@metastack.com> writes:

> moosotc@gmail.com wrote:
>> moosotc@gmail.com writes:
>> 
>> > moosotc@gmail.com writes:
>> >
>> >> David Allsopp <dra-news@metastack.com> writes:
>> >>
>> > [..snip..]
>> >
>> >>>>
>> >>>> d) Make the compiler skip generation of .cmi if it sees one in the -I
>> >>>>    directories?
>> >>>
>> >>> No - I think the use-case is too niche to justify breaking backwards
>> >>> compatibility. That's potentially a very subtle way to break someone
>> >>> else's existing build system. The existing behaviour is precisely
>> >>> documented in the manual (even if it's not necessarily the best
>> >>> approach).
>> >>>
>> >>
>> >> Original post asked for either change of behavior or documentation, I
>> >> failed to find the precise documentation, care pointing out where
>> >> exactly things are described in the manual?
>
> http://caml.inria.fr/pub/docs/manual-ocaml/comp.html#sec263 describes
> how .mli and .ml are handled by the compiler (and when .cmi is
> generated or checked against) and the description of -I in
> http://caml.inria.fr/pub/docs/manual-ocaml/comp.html#sec264 explains
> that -I only adds search directories for compiled files, not source
> files.

Thanks, but the manual is completely silent on WHERE it looks for those
files. The issue is not trivial as there are 3 options I can readily
come up with:
     a. current working directory
     b. base directory of -o argument
     c. a set of -I directories
     d. directory where file to be compiled lives

It looks as if option d. is in effect, but nowhere it is spelled out.

>
>> > Also, consider this:
>> >
>> 
>> Better this (with safety nets in form of added -Is)
>> 
>> [malc@linmac2 mli]$ cat repro2.sh; sh repro2.sh
>> #!/bin/sh
>> set -x
>> rm -fr a* d o
>> 
>> mkdir -p o d
>> 
>> echo 'type a = int and b = int' >a.ml
>> echo 'type a = int' >d/a.mli
>> 
>> ocamlc -c -o o/a.cmi d/a.mli
>> md5sum o/a.cmi
>> ocamlc -I o -I d -c -o o/a.cmo a.ml
>> md5sum o/a.cmi
>> + rm -fr 'a*' d o
>> + mkdir -p o d
>> + echo 'type a = int and b = int'
>> + echo 'type a = int'
>> + ocamlc -c -o o/a.cmi d/a.mli
>> + md5sum o/a.cmi
>> dddf074fdfa94cad226485870c617116  o/a.cmi
>> + ocamlc -I o -I d -c -o o/a.cmo a.ml
>> + md5sum o/a.cmi
>> bc44d889df40c61e43dbd94535ffd614  o/a.cmi
>> 
>> [..snip..]
>
> This, again, is just the compiler acting exacting as it says it
> should! When you compile o/a.ml, ocamlc looks for ./a.mli and because
> it doesn't find it, it overwrites o/a.cmi (because of the -o switch).

But .mli does exist in -I d and .cmi in -I o...

I suppose arguing all of this is pointless, but I do stand by my
assertion that his behavior is underspecified.

-- 
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