findlib.conf - Man Page

[Configuration of findlib/ocamlfind]

General

There are three possibilities to configure the findlib library:    

Build time:

Before findlib is compiled, a "configure" script is invoked to figure   out the settings that are most likely to work on the system. Most   settings are simply entered into text files and can easily be changed   after installation. The following properties cannot be changed later   because they are compiled into the resulting binaries:      

· The default location of the configuration file findlib.conf. However,   you can set a different location by the environment variable     OCAMLFIND_CONF.    

· Whether the installed OCaml version supports autolinking or not.    

Configuration file findlib.conf:

An initial version of this file is generated by the configure script,   but you are free to modify it later. Most important, this file   contains the system-wide search path used to look up packages, and the   default location where to install new packages.    

All files with the suffix ".conf" found in the directory   findlib.conf.d are also scanned for parameters.    

Environment variables:

The settings of findlib.conf can be overridden by environment variables.    

Last but not least, several settings can also be passed as   command-line options, or by invoking the function   Findlib.init.

findlib.conf

The directory containing findlib.conf is determined at build time (by   running the configure script), the fallback default is   /usr/local/etc. You can set a different location by   changing the environment variable  OCAMLFIND_CONF   which must contain the absolute path of findlib.conf.

The file has the same syntax as  META, i.e. it consists of a   number of lines with the format    

variable  = " value "

Here is the list of allowed variables:    

path

The search path for META files/package directories. The variable   enumerates directories which are separated by colons (Windows:   semicolons), and these directories are tried in turn to find a certain   package. More exactly, if d is such a directory and p the searched   package, the search algorithm will first check whether d/p/META   exists. In this case, this META file is taken, and d/p is the package   directory. Second, the algorithm tries d/META.p, but the package   directory must be specified in this META.p file by a     directory directive.    

Note that the first found META file is taken, so the order of the   directories in the search path counts.    

This variable is required.    

Example:      

path = "/usr/local/lib/ocaml/site-lib:/usr/lib/ocaml/site-lib"

   

destdir

This variable determines the location where  ocamlfind   install puts the packages by default: If d is this   directory, and p the package to install, a new subdirectory d/p will   be created containing all the files of the package.    

Example:    

destdir = "/usr/local/lib/ocaml/site-lib"

   

This variable is required.    

metadir

If set, the command  ocamlfind install will put the   META files of packages into this directory (files are named META.p   where p=package name); otherwise the META files are put into the   package directories like any other file.    

Example:    

metadir = "/var/lib/findlib/metaregistry"

   

This variable is optional. It is not used by default.    

ocamlc,     ocamlopt,     ocamlcp,     ocamlmktop,     ocamldoc,     ocamldep,     ocamlbrowser    

If you want to call other executables than "ocamlc", "ocamlopt",   "ocamlcp", "ocamlmktop", "ocamldoc", "ocamldep", and   "ocamlbrowser", you can   set the names of   the executables here. The command  ocamlfind looks   into these four variables to determine the names of the compilers to   call.    

Example:    

ocamlc     = "ocamlc.opt" 
ocamlopt   = "ocamlopt.opt" 
ocamlcp    = "ocamlcp.opt" 
ocamlmktop = "ocamlmktop.opt"

   

This variable is optional. It is not used by default.    

stdlib

This variable determines the location of the standard library. This must   be the same directory for which the OCaml compilers are configured.    

This variable is optional. It is not recommend to set this variable   unless you know what you are doing!    

ldconf

This variable determines the location of the ld.conf file. This must   be the same file the OCaml compilers read in; it is updated by     ocamlfind when installing and removing packages. You can set this   variable to the special value "ignore" to disable   the automatic modification of the ld.conf file.    

If not set, the ld.conf file is assumed to reside in the OCaml   standard library directory.    

This variable is optional. It is not recommended to set this variable   unless you know what you are doing!    

Toolchains: It is possible to have variants of the original configuration.   These variants are called "toolchains" because they are intended to   select different compilers, e.g. patched compilers. In order to   set a variable for a certain toolchain, use the syntax    

variable ( toolchain ) = " value "

    For example:    

ocamlc(mypatch) = "ocamlc-mypatch"

    When the toolchain "mypatch" is selected, this compiler will be used instead   of the standard one.

In order to switch to a certain toolchain, use the -toolchain   option of  ocamlfind.

Environment

A number of environment variables modifies the behaviour of   findlib/ocamlfind:    

OCAMLFIND_CONF

This variable overrides the location of the configuration file   findlib.conf. It must contain the absolute path name of this file.    

OCAMLFIND_TOOLCHAIN

This variable sets the currently selected toolchain when   a  -toolchain option is not passed   on the command line.    

OCAMLPATH

This variable may contain an additional search path for package   directories. It is treated as if the directories were prepended to   the configuration variable  path.    

OCAMLFIND_DESTDIR

This variable overrides the configuration variable     destdir.      

OCAMLFIND_METADIR

This variable overrides the configuration variable     metadir.      

OCAMLFIND_COMMANDS

This variable overrides the configuration variables     ocamlc,  ocamlopt,     ocamlcp,  ocamlmktop,     ocamldoc,  ocamldep, and/or     ocamlbrowser.     Its value must conform to the syntax      

ocamlc= name  ocamlopt= name  ocamlcp= name  ocamlmktop= name  ocamldoc= name  ocamldep= name  ocamlbrowser= name

   

Example:    

ocamlc=ocamlc-3.00 ocamlopt=ocamlopt-3.00 ocamlcp=ocamlcp-3.00 ocamlmktop=ocamlmktop-3.00

   

CAMLLIB or  OCAMLLIB

This variable overrides the configuration variable     stdlib.      

OCAMLFIND_LDCONF

This variable overrides the configuration variable     ldconf.      

OCAMLFIND_IGNORE_DUPS_IN

This variable instructs findlib not to emit warnings that packages   or module occur several times. The variable must be set to the   directory where the packages reside that are to be ignored for this   warning.    

Info

The findlib package manager for OCaml User Manual