[Caml-list] Support for symbolic links by compilers for OCaml?

[Caml-list] Support for symbolic links by compilers for OCaml?

[SF Markus Elfring]

Hello,

I came along the following software situation during an attempt to adjust
a few build scripts for another evolving development tool.


elfring@Sonne:~/Projekte/Bau/OCamlbuild> ocamlc.opt -for-pack Ocamlbuild_pack -w L -w R -w Z -safe-string -bin-annot -I o/bin -I +unix -c -o 'o/bin/loc.cmo' '/home/elfring/Projekte/OCaml/OCamlbuild/lokal/src/loc.ml'; ls -l x/bin/loc.cmi o/bin/loc.cmi
File "/home/elfring/Projekte/OCaml/OCamlbuild/lokal/src/loc.ml", line 1:
Error: Could not find the .cmi file for interface
       /home/elfring/Projekte/OCaml/OCamlbuild/lokal/src/loc.mli.
lrwxrwxrwx 1 elfring users  13 14. Jul 21:29 o/bin/loc.cmi -> x/bin/loc.cmi
-rw-r--r-- 1 elfring users 820 14. Jul 20:07 x/bin/loc.cmi


I wonder why the provided symbolic link is not taken into account for this
compilation try.

It seems that the following command variant succeeds with the addition of
an include parameter.


elfring@Sonne:~/Projekte/Bau/OCamlbuild> ocamlc.opt -for-pack Ocamlbuild_pack -w L -w R -w Z -safe-string -bin-annot -I o/bin -I x/bin -I +unix -c -o 'o/bin/loc.cmo' '/home/elfring/Projekte/OCaml/OCamlbuild/lokal/src/loc.ml'


I would appreciate a corresponding clarification and further advice.

Regards,
Markus

Re: [Caml-list] Support for symbolic links by compilers for OCaml?

[SF Markus Elfring]

> lrwxrwxrwx 1 elfring users  13 14. Jul 21:29 o/bin/loc.cmi -> x/bin/loc.cmi

This kind of display looked too promising for a moment.


> I wonder why the provided symbolic link is not taken into account for this
> compilation try.

How do you think about a solution with using absolute paths for the desired
link sources?
https://github.com/elfring/ocamlbuild/commit/0ae41f82882ac28e4c6b375f1e2bfcf3425c7a80#diff-b488c39ebbe2be3f6f907a6af205b431R606


> It seems that the following command variant succeeds with the addition of
> an include parameter.
> 
> 
> elfring@Sonne:~/Projekte/Bau/OCamlbuild> ocamlc.opt -for-pack Ocamlbuild_pack -w L -w R -w Z -safe-string -bin-annot -I o/bin -I x/bin -I +unix -c -o 'o/bin/loc.cmo' '/home/elfring/Projekte/OCaml/OCamlbuild/lokal/src/loc.ml'

I guess that such a build configuration approach can trigger also some
software development concerns.
How much do you try to handle output directories separately?

Regards,
Markus