CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ocaml
Str.
Str.

Reputation: 1439

Separate compilation of OCaml modules

I have read this question and others, but my compile problem is unsolved.

I am testing separate compilation with these files:

testmoda.ml

module Testmoda = struct
  let greeter () = print_endline "greetings from module a"
end

testmodb.ml

module Testmodb = struct
  let dogreet () = print_endline "Modul B:"; Testmoda.greeter ()
end

testmod.ml

let main () =
  print_endline "Calling modules now...";
  Testmoda.greeter ();
  Testmodb.dogreet (); 
  print_endline "End."
;;
let _ = main ()

Now I generate the .mli file 

ocamlc -c -i testmoda.ml >testmoda.mli

and the testmoda.cmi is there.

Next I create the .cmo file without errors:

ocamlc -c testmoda.ml

Fine, so do the same with testmodb.ml:

strobel@s131-amd:~/Ocaml/ml/testmod> ocamlc -c -i testmodb.ml >testmodb.mli
File "testmodb.ml", line 3, characters 45-61:
Error: Unbound value Testmoda.greeter

Another try:

strobel@s131-amd:~/Ocaml/ml/testmod> ocamlc -c testmoda.cmo testmodb.ml
File "testmodb.ml", line 3, characters 45-61:
Error: Unbound value Testmoda.greeter

Other combinations failed as well.

How do I compile testmodb.ml and testmod.ml? This should be easy - without ocamlbuild / omake / oasis, I think.

Syntax errors in the files are excluded, if I cat them together to one file (with the required space between) it compiles and executes perfectly.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 440

Answers (1)

Jeffrey Scofield
Jeffrey Scofield

Reputation: 66818

OCaml gives you a module for free at the top level of each source file. So your first module is actually named Testmoda.Testmoda, the function is named Testmoda.Testmoda.greeter, and so on. Things will work better if your files just contain the function definitions.

As a side comment, if you're going to use the interface generated by ocamlc -i, you really don't need mli files. The interface in the absence of an mli file is the same as the one generated by ocamlc -i. If you don't want the default interface, using ocamlc -i gives a good starting point for your mli file. But for a simple example like this, it just makes things look a lot more complicated than they really are (IMHO).

If you modify your files as I describe (remove extra module declarations), you can compile and run from scratch as follows:

$ ls
testmod.ml  testmoda.ml testmodb.ml
$ cat testmoda.ml
let greeter () = print_endline "greetings from module a"
$ cat testmodb.ml
let dogreet () = print_endline "Modul B:"; Testmoda.greeter ()
$ ocamlc -o testmod testmoda.ml testmodb.ml testmod.ml
$ ./testmod
Calling modules now...
greetings from module a
Modul B:
greetings from module a
End.

If you have already compiled a file (with ocamlc -c file.ml) you can replace .ml with .cmo in the above command. This works even if all the filenames are .cmo files; in that case ocamlc just links them together for you.

Upvotes: 5

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