Compiling C lib and OCaml exe using it, all using ocamlfind

Question

I'm trying to work out how to use ocamlfind to compile a C library and an OCaml executable using that C library.

I put together a set of rather silly example files.

% cat sillystubs.c
#include <stdio.h>

#include <caml/mlvalues.h>
#include <caml/memory.h>
#include <caml/alloc.h>
#include <caml/custom.h>

value
caml_silly_silly( value unit )
{
    CAMLparam1( unit );
    printf( "%s\n", __FILE__ );
    CAMLreturn( Val_unit );
}

% cat silly.mli 
external silly : unit -> unit = "silly_silly"

% cat foo.ml
open Silly
open String

let _ =
    print_string "About to call into silly";
    silly ();
    print_string "Called into silly"

I believe the following is the way to compile up the library:

% ocamlfind ocamlc -c sillystubs.c
% ar rc libsillystubs.a sillystubs.o
% ocamlfind ocamlc -c silly.mli
% ocamlfind ocamlc -a -o silly.cma -ccopt -L${PWD} -cclib -lsillystubs

Now I don't seem to be able to use the created library though:

% ocamlfind ocamlc -custom -o foo foo.cmo silly.cma
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lsillystubs
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
File "_none_", line 1, characters 0-1:
Error: Error while building custom runtime system

The OCaml tools are somewhat mysterious to me, so any pointers would be most welcome.

Answer 1

ocamlmklib to the rescue. Step by step:

$ ocamlc -verbose -c sillystubs.c
$ ocamlmklib -verbose sillystubs.o silly.mli -o silly
$ ocamlc -verbose silly.cma foo.ml -o foo
File "foo.ml", line 1, characters 0-1:
Error: Error while linking foo.cmo:
The external function `silly_silly' is not available

Oops, you defined caml_silly_silly in sillystubs.c but reference silly_silly in silly.mli (so much silly :) Repairing :

$ cat silly.mli 
external silly : unit -> unit = "caml_silly_silly"
$ ocamlmklib -verbose sillystubs.o silly.mli -o silly
$ ocamlc -custom -verbose silly.cma foo.ml -o foo
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lsilly
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
File "foo.ml", line 1, characters 0-1:
Error: Error while building custom runtime system

Still no luck? Add -I. to find needed libraries.

$ ocamlc -I . -verbose silly.cma foo.ml -o foo.byte
$ ocamlc -I . -verbose -custom silly.cma foo.ml -o foo.byte.custom
$ ocamlopt -I . -verbose silly.cmxa foo.ml -o foo.native

But in "real" setup you indeed want to install silly library with ocamlfind and then running compilation via ocamlfind will put needed command-line options in place and everything works automatically. Starting from scratch the whole procedure looks as follows :

$ ocamlc -verbose -c sillystubs.c
$ ocamlmklib -verbose sillystubs.o silly.mli -o silly
$ cat META
version="0"
description="quite silly"
archive(byte)="silly.cma"
archive(native)="silly.cmxa"
$ ocamlfind install silly META silly.cm* *.mli *.a *.so
Installed /usr/local/lib/ocaml/3.11.2/silly/silly.a
Installed /usr/local/lib/ocaml/3.11.2/silly/libsilly.a
Installed /usr/local/lib/ocaml/3.11.2/silly/silly.mli
Installed /usr/local/lib/ocaml/3.11.2/silly/silly.cmxa
Installed /usr/local/lib/ocaml/3.11.2/silly/silly.cmi
Installed /usr/local/lib/ocaml/3.11.2/silly/silly.cma
Installed /usr/local/lib/ocaml/3.11.2/silly/META
Installed /usr/local/lib/ocaml/3.11.2/stublibs/dllsilly.so
Installed /usr/local/lib/ocaml/3.11.2/stublibs/dllsilly.so.owner
$ rm *.cm* *.a *.so *.o
$ ocamlfind ocamlopt -linkpkg -package silly foo.ml -o foo.native
$ ocamlfind ocamlc -custom -linkpkg -package silly foo.ml -o foo.byte.custom
$ ocamlfind ocamlc -linkpkg -package silly foo.ml -o foo.byte

Native and byte versions are ready. BTW ocamlc -custom is deprecated.

Mystery unveiled I hope.