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NAME

       META - [File that specifies metainformation of OCaml packages]

GRAMMAR

                metafile ::= entry*
                   entry ::= assignment | addition | subpackage
              subpackage ::= "package" pkgname(metafile)assignment ::= variable_name [ formal_predicates ]=value
                addition ::= variable_name [ formal_predicates ]+=value
       formal_predicates ::=(formal_predicate {,formal_predicate })variable_name ::= name
        formal_predicate ::= name |-name
                    name ::= [A-Z’ ’a-z’ ’0-9’ ’_’ ’.]+
                 pkgname ::="(character but not.)*"value ::="character*"

DESCRIPTION

       If a package directory contains a file with the fixed name "META" it is
       interpreted as described here.  The  file  is  a  sequence  of  entries
       following  the  given  grammar;  every entry defines a variable under a
       certain condition given  by  the  list  of  formal  predicates,  or  it
       introduces a subpackage.

       There  is  a  list  of  predefined  variables  and  a  list of standard
       predicates. These variables  define:  required  packages,  description,
       version  information,  directories,  archive files, and linker options.
       The  predicates  denote  circumstances  of  the  application   of   the
       variables:  whether  the  bytecode  or  the native compiler is used, if
       there is a toploop compiled in, details of  multi-threading  execution,
       details of profiling.

DETAILS OF THE FILE FORMAT

       The  file consists of a sequence of entries which must be formed as the
       grammar  prescribes.  The  lexical  tokens  are  names,   values,   and
       interpunctuation  like  ’(’,  ’,’ and so on. Note that linefeeds do not
       play a special role, i.e. an entry definition may be given in more than
       one  line, or several definitions may occur on a single line. There may
       be comments which begin with ’#’ and run until the end of the line.

       Names are sequences of the  characters  A-Z,  a-z,  0-9,  or  _.  Names
       containing  capital letters and names beginning with digits are allowed
       but not recommended.

       Values are enclosed between  double  quotes.  Values  may  contain  any
       character. The characters " and \ must be preceded by backslashes.

       Package  names must not contain the ’.’ character because it is used as
       delimiter of compound names.

MAIN PACKAGES AND SUBPACKAGES

       The outermost variable assignments and additions  belong  to  the  main
       package. The name of the main package is not defined within META; it is
       either the name of the directory containing META or the suffix  of  the
       META file (if the name of the META file is formed like META.name).

       The  keyword  package starts the definition of a subpackage. There must
       not be two such definitions with the same name. Within the parantheses,
       the  variable  assignments and additions refer to the subpackage. It is
       allowed that a subpackage contains further subpackages.

       The package name following package is the local name  relative  to  the
       main  package,  i.e.  the name of the main package is not mentioned. At
       all other places, however, the subpackage must be prefixed by the  name
       of the containing package, separated by a ’.’.

       Subpackages  are independent of the containing package, except that the
       subpackage points to the same installation directory as the  containing
       package  (i.e.  the location of the installation directory is inherited
       from the containing package).

SEMANTICS OF VARIABLE DEFINITIONS

       In order to determine the value of a variable,  first  all  assignments
       are  inspected,  and the most specific assignment is taken (if there is
       none, the empty string will be taken as value). In a second  step,  all
       additions  are gone through one after the other in the order they occur
       in the file, and the values of all matching additions are  appended  to
       the  current  value.  In  the  following, it is further clarified which
       assignment is the most specific, which additions  actually  match,  and
       how the details of the value addition look like.

       The  most  specific  assignment  is  selected  upon  a  set  of  actual
       predicates, i.e. the set of predicates that are assumed to be true. The
       predicates occuring in the definitions of assignments and additions are
       called formal predicates. They may be positive or negative; the  latter
       are  prepended by a ’-’ sign. In order to determine the value after the
       evaluation of the assignments, the following rules apply:

           ·  An assignment can only be used if all positive formal predicates
              are  included  in  the  set  of  actual  predicates,  and if all
              negative formal predicates are not included in the set of actual
              predicates. Such an assignment is called applicable. If there is
              no such assignment, the variable will have no value.

           ·  If there is more than one applicable assignment, the  definition
              with the biggest number of formal predicates is selected.

           ·  If  there  is  still  more  than one applicable assignment, both
              applicable  and with a maximum number of formal predicates,  the
              definition that is defined first is selected.

       An  addition  is  matching  when  all  positive  formal  predicates are
       included in the set of  actual  predicates,  and  all  negative  formal
       predicates are not included.

       The value of an addition is appended to the current value with implicit
       white space as separator.

VARIABLES

       There is a set of variables with predefined meaning:

           ·  The variable "directory" redefines the location of  the  package
              directory. Normally, the META file is the first file read in the
              package directory, and  before  any  other  file  is  read,  the
              "directory" variable is evaluated in order to see if the package
              directory must be changed. The value of the "directory" variable
              is  determined with an empty set of actual predicates. The value
              must  be  either:  an  absolute  path  name  of  the   alternate
              directory,  or  a  path name relative to the stdlib directory of
              OCaml (written "+path"), or a normal relative path name (without
              special  syntax). In the latter case, the interpretation depends
              on whether it is contained in a main or sub package, and whether
              the  standard  repository  layout  or the alternate layout is in
              effect (see site-lib for these terms). For  a  main  package  in
              standard  layout  the base directory is the directory physically
              containing the META file, and the relative path  is  interpreted
              for  this base directory. For a main package in alternate layout
              the base directory is the directory  physically  containing  the
              META.pkg  files.  The  base  directory  for  subpackages  is the
              package directory of the containing package. (In the case that a
              subpackage  definition  does not have a "directory" setting, the
              subpackage  simply  inherits  the  package  directory   of   the
              containing  package.  By writing a "directory" directive one can
              change this location again.)

           ·  The variable "requires" specifies the list of required packages.
              The  names  of  the  packages  must  be separated by white space
              and/or commas. The names must be fully qualified (i.e. when they
              refer to a subpackage, the names of all containing packages must
              be prepended, separated by ’.’).

           ·  The variable "description" may include a  short  description  of
              the package (displayed by ocamlfind list).

           ·  The variable "version" specifies the version string.

           ·  The  variable  "archive"  specifies  the  list of archive files.
              These files should be given either as (1)  plain  names  without
              any directory information; they are only searched in the package
              directory. (2) Or they have the form "+path" in which  case  the
              files  are  looked  up  relative to the standard library. (3) Or
              they have the form "@name/file" in  which  case  the  files  are
              looked  up  in  the package directory of another package. (4) Or
              they are given as absolute paths.

              The names of the files must be separated by white  space  and/or
              commas.  In the preprocessor stage, the archive files are passed
              as extensions to the preprocessor (camlp4) call. In  the  linker
              stage  (-linkpkg), the archive files are linked. In the compiler
              stage, the archive files are ignored.

           ·  The variable "linkopts" specifies additional linker options.

           ·  The variable "error" can be used  to  signal  error  conditions.
              When  this  variable  is  applicable,  the  ocaml  compilers are
              stopped, and an error message is printed.  The  message  is  the
              value of the variable.

           ·  The variable "exists_if" can be used to disable subpackages. The
              value of "exists_if" is a file; the subpackage is hidden if this
              file  does  not exist. You can also enumerate several files, and
              the subpackage is hidden if none of the files exist.

       It is possible to define additional variables but there is currently no
       software interpreting them.

PREDICATES

       There is a list of standard predicates:

           ·  The "byte" predicate means that the bytecode compiler is used.

           ·  The "native" predicate means that the native compiler is used.

           ·  The  "toploop"  predicate means that the toploop is available in
              the linked program. It is only set when the toploop is  running,
              not when the toploop is generated.

           ·  The  "create_toploop"  predicate means that a toploop is created
              (using ocamlmktop).

           ·  The "mt" predicate means that the program is multi-threaded.

           ·  The "mt_posix" predicate means that in the  case  "mt"  is  set,
              too, the POSIX libraries are used to implement threads.

           ·  The  "mt_vm"  predicate means that in the case "mt" is set, too,
              the VM-based libraries are used to implement threads.

           ·  The "gprof" predicate means that in the case  "native"  is  set,
              too, the program is compiled for profiling

           ·  The  "autolink"  predicate  means  that  ocamlc can/will perform
              automatic linking.

           ·  The "preprocessor" predicate means that the META  variables  are
              scanned for preprocessor options.

           ·  The  "syntax" predicate means that the -syntax option is present
              on the command line.

       In addition to these predicates, there are package predicates for every
       package  that  is  finally  selected. Of course, this kind of predicate
       must not be used to select "directory" and  "requires"  variables,  but
       for   the  other  variables  they  are  perfectly  valid.  The  package
       predicates have the form "pkg_" plus the name  of  the  package  (fully
       qualified).