compile-file input-file &key output-file verbose print external-format load => output-truename , warnings-p , failure-p
A pathname designator.
A pathname designator, or
:temp
.
A generalized boolean.
A generalized boolean.
An external format specification.
A generalized boolean.
compile-file
calls the compiler to translate a Lisp source file into a form that both loads and runs faster. A compiled function typically runs more than ten times faster than when interpreted (assuming that it is not spending most of its work calling already compiled functions). A source file with a
.lisp
or
.lsp
extension compiles to produce a file with a
.*fasl
extension (the actual extension depends on the host machine CPU). Subsequent use of
load
loads the compiled version (which is in LispWorks's FASL or Fast Load format) in preference to the source.
In compiling a file the compiler has to both compile each function and top level form in the file, and to produce the appropriate FASL directives so that load ing has the desired effect. In particular objects need to have space allocated for them, and top level forms are called as they are loaded.
output-file
specifies the location of the output file. This argument is useful if you are using a non-default file extension for binary files. If you use a non-default file extensions for binary files, you must inform LispWorks of this by pushing the file extension string onto the variable
sys::*binary-file-types*
. If you fail to do this, LispWorks assumes that these files are text rather than compiled files. See the example below.
The special value
output-file
:temp
offers a convenient way to specify that the output file is a temporary file in a location that is likely to be writable.
verbose
controls the printing of messages describing the file being compiled, the current optimization settings, and other information. If
verbose
is
nil
, there are no messages. If
verbose
is
0
, only the "Compiling file..." message is printed. For all other true values of
verbose
, messages are also printed about:
The default value is the value of
*compile-verbose*
, which defaults to
t
.
print
controls the printing of information about the compilation. It can have the following values. If
print
is
nil
, no information is printed. If
print
is a non-positive number, then only warnings are printed. If
print
is a positive number no greater than 1, or if
print
is any non-number object, then the information printed consists of all warning messages and one line of information per function that is compiled. If
print
is a number greater than 1, then full information is printed. The default value of
print
is the value of
*compile-print*
, which has the default value 1.
external-format
is interpreted as for open. The default value is
:default
.
If load is true, then the file is loaded after compilation.
output-truename
is the
truename
of the output file, or
nil
if that cannot be created.
warnings-p
is
nil
if no conditions of type
error
or
warning
were detected during compilation. Otherwise
warnings-p
is a list containing the conditions.
failure-p
is
nil
if no conditions of type
error
or
warning
(other than
style-warning
) were detected by the compiler, and
t
otherwise.
(compile-file "devel/fred.lisp")
;; compile fred.lisp to fred.fasl
(compile-file "devel/fred")
;; does the same thing
(compile-file "test" :load t)
;; compile test.lisp, then load if successful
(compile-file "program" :output-file "program.abc")
;; compile "program.lisp" to "program.abc"
(push "abc" sys::*binary-file-types*)
;; tells LispWorks that files with extension
;; ".abc" are binaries
See declare for a list of the declarations that alter the behavior of the compiler.
The act of compiling a file should have no side effects, other than the creation of symbols and packages as the input file is read by the reader.
By default a form is skipped if an error occurs during compilation. If you need to debug an error during compilation by
compile-file
, set *compiler-break-on-error*.
During compilation of a file
foo.lisp
(on an Intel Macintosh, for example) a temporary output file named
t_foo.xfasl
is used, so that an unsuccessful compile does not overwrite an existing
foo.xfasl
.
LispWorks uses the following naming conventions for fasl files, and it is recommended that you should use them too, to ensure correct operation of
load
and so on.
You can find the fasl file extension appropriate for your machine by looking at the variable
system:*binary-file-type*
. The variable
system::*binary-file-types*
contains a list of all the file extensions currently recognized by
load
and load-data-file.
In LispWorks for Windows 4.4 and previous, the fasl file extension is
.fsl
. This changed in LispWorks 5.0.
In LispWorks for Linux 4.4 and previous, the fasl file extension is
.ufsl
. This changed in LispWorks 5.0.
