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authorJulien Lepiller <julien@lepiller.eu>2017-01-28 12:11:42 +0100
committerJulien Lepiller <julien@lepiller.eu>2017-01-29 10:11:48 +0100
commit3184f14ad45eb4bdbb6744f4335132481fab7cc1 (patch)
tree1252aa1e474e30a3a10e10bf850f62799db12fb7 /doc
parentcf95bd3a8dc1440dbb9788e96f726bcdf54f22f6 (diff)
doc: Document ocaml-build-system.
* doc/guix.texi (Build Systems) [ocaml-build-system]: New definition.
Diffstat (limited to 'doc')
-rw-r--r--doc/guix.texi43
1 files changed, 43 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/doc/guix.texi b/doc/guix.texi
index 8c4067fbd4..1fbe446327 100644
--- a/doc/guix.texi
+++ b/doc/guix.texi
@@ -3291,6 +3291,49 @@ specified with the @code{#:glib} parameter.
Both phases are executed after the @code{install} phase.
@end defvr
+@defvr {Scheme Variable} ocaml-build-system
+This variable is exported by @code{(guix build-sytem ocaml)}. It implements
+a build procedure for @uref{https://ocaml.org, OCaml} packages, which consists
+of choosing the correct set of commands to run for each package. OCaml
+packages can expect many different commands to be run. This build system will
+try some of them.
+
+When the package has a @file{setup.ml} file present at the top-level, it will
+run @code{ocaml setup.ml -configure}, @code{ocaml setup.ml -build} and
+@code{ocaml setup.ml -install}. The build system will assume that this file
+was generated by @uref{http://oasis.forge.ocamlcore.org/, OASIS} and will take
+care of setting the prefix and enabling tests if they are not disabled. You
+can pass configure and build flags with the @code{#:configure-flags} and
+@code{#:build-flags}. The @code{#:test-flags} key can be passed to change the
+set of flags used to enable tests. The @code{#:use-make?} key can be used to
+bypass this system in the build and install phases.
+
+When the package has a @file{configure} file, it is assumed that it is a
+hand-made configure script that requires a different argument format than
+in the @code{gnu-build-system}. You can add more flags with the
+@code{#:configure-flags} key.
+
+When the package has a @file{Makefile} file (or @code{#:use-make?} is
+@code{#t}), it will be used and more flags can be passed to the build and
+install phases with the @code{#:make-flags} key.
+
+Finally, some packages do not have these files and use a somewhat standard
+location for its build system. In that case, the build system will run
+@code{ocaml pkg/pkg.ml} or @code{ocaml pkg/build.ml} and take care of
+providing the path to the required findlib module. Additional flags can
+be passed via the @code{#:build-flags} key. Install is taken care of by
+@command{opam-installer}. In this case, the @code{opam} package must
+be added to the @code{native-inputs} field of the package definition.
+
+Note that most OCaml packages assume they will be installed in the same
+directory as ocaml, which is not what we want in guix. In particular, they
+will install @file{.so} files in their module's directory, which is usually
+fine because it is in the ocaml compiler directory. In guix though, these
+libraries cannot be found and we use @code{CAML_LD_LIBRARY_PATH}. This
+variable points to @file{lib/ocaml/site-lib/stubslibs} and this is where
+@file{.so} libraries should be installed.
+@end defvr
+
@defvr {Scheme Variable} python-build-system
This variable is exported by @code{(guix build-system python)}. It
implements the more or less standard build procedure used by Python