findlib.conf(5) File Formats Manual findlib.conf(5)
NAME
findlib.conf - [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 proper-
ties cannot be changed later because they are compiled into the
resulting binaries:
• The default location of the configuration file find-
lib.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 pack-
ages.
All files with the suffix ".conf" found in the directory find-
lib.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 con-
taining 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 "ocaml-
browser", 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 vari-
able 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 up-
dated 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 configura-
tion. 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 find-
lib/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 pack-
ages 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.
User Manual The findlib package manager for OCaml findlib.conf(5)
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