We just uploaded another solution to this problem :

opam init --comp 4.01.0+bin-ocp

It is a binary distribution of OCaml 4.01.0 ("ocp" stands for OCamlPro, as
it includes a small patch for relocation of the executables), working only
on Intel Linux for now (32 and 64 bits), so you will only pay the download
cost (about 65 MB), and not the compilation cost (you will still need to
compile the next packages that you will install, as it is only the OCaml
distribution). On most of our settings, downloading is much faster than
compiling.

Once it is installed, it keeps the archive in a cache (in
~/.opam/.ocp-compiler-cache/), so that creating other aliases from this
switch will only be the cost of decompressing the archive:

opam switch 4.01.0-for-something-else --alias 4.01.0+bin-ocp

Tell us if you meet any problem using it !

--Fabrice



On Mon, Mar 24, 2014 at 2:41 AM, Francois Berenger <berenger@riken.jp>wrote:

> I'm always annoyed when I have to wait ~20mn to install OCaml on a machine.
>
> Nowadays, thanks to OPAM, I think only a compiler is needed to
> bootstrap quickly an OCaml environment for developers.
>
> --
> Best regards,
> Francois Berenger.
>
> --
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> https://sympa.inria.fr/sympa/arc/caml-list
> Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners
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>



-- 
Fabrice LE FESSANT
Chercheur en Informatique
INRIA Paris Rocquencourt -- OCamlPro
Programming Languages and Distributed Systems