Assemblage

Assemblage is an artistic process. In the visual arts, it consists of making three-dimensional or two-dimensional artistic compositions by putting together found objects. wikipedia

The Assemblage toolbox provides an API and a set of binaries to setup, manage, and use OCaml projects.

Status

The library can be used to describe OCaml projects with static dependencies.

The latest public documentation is available here.

A projects description consists of a list of libraries, binaries and/or toplevels. Each containing a list of compilation units with precise (and static) dependency relationships.

Using a project description, the tools can generate:

• a .merlin to help edit the project;
• a Makefile to build the project;
• a .install to install the project; and
• a META file to use the project.

Dependency Tracking

Multiple kinds of dependencies are currently supported:

• a single directory, with a collection of files to sort to form a library (using ocamldep)
• local libraries, defined in the same project
• local syntax extensions, defined in the same project (using camlp4o)
• global ocamlfind libraries
• global ocamlfind syntax extensions (using camlp4o)

Project Flags

Every project is parametrized by a set of flags, which will determine sub-parts of the project to be built (and installed) or not. The flag can be enabled or disabled either programmatically (ie. in the project description itself) or passed on the command-line using an integrated Cmdliner interface.

Examples

The interaction with the system occurs through the assemblage tool which has the setup and describe sub-commands. setup reads a project description (usually, an assemble.ml file located at the root of the project) and generates the boilerplate files to build, install and use the project. describe simply displays a summary of the project:

thomas@piana:~/git/assemblage$ assemblage describe
==> Loading assemble.ml

==> assemblage 3b27e2
└─┬─ lib-assemblage
  ├─── [cmdliner]
  ├─ as_shell.ml      as_shell.mli
  ├─ as_git.ml        as_git.mli
  ├─ as_makefile.ml   as_makefile.mli
  ├─── Rule
  ├─── Var
  ├─ as_features.ml   as_features.mli
  ├─── Set
  ├─ as_flags.ml      as_flags.mli
  ├─── PhaseSet
  ├─ as_resolver.ml   as_resolver.mli
  ├─ as_build_env.ml  as_build_env.mli
  ├─ as_action.ml     as_action.mli
  ├─── FileSet
  ├─ as_component.ml  as_component.mli
  ├─── Bin
  ├─── Container
  ├─── Doc
  ├─── Lib
  ├─── Other
  ├─── Pkg
  ├─── Rule
  ├─── Set
  ├─── Test
  ├─── Unit
  ├─ as_project.ml    as_project.mli
  ├─ as_opam.ml       as_opam.mli
  ├─── Install
  ├─ as_merlin.ml     as_merlin.mli
  ├─── Directive
  ├─ as_ocamlfind.ml  as_ocamlfind.mli
  ├─── META
  ├─ as_project_makefile.mlas_project_makefile.mli
  ├─ as_OCaml_incl.ml
  ├─── Pparse
  ├─── StringSet
  ├─ as_OCaml.ml      as_OCaml.mli
  ├─ as_env.ml        as_env.mli
  ├─ as_tool.ml       as_tool.mli
  ├─ as_cmd.ml        as_cmd.mli
  ├─ assemblage.ml    assemblage.mli
  ├─── Action
  ├─── Build_env
  ├─── Features
  ├─── Flags
  └─── Resolver
└─┬─ bin-assemblage
  └─ tool.ml
└─┬─ bin-ctypes-gen
  └─ ctypes_gen.ml
└─┬─ bin-assemble
  └─ assemble.ml

You can find few examples in the examples/ directory, where projects are built using multiple local libraries and ocamlfind libraries and syntax extensions.