www.digitalmars.com         C & C++   DMDScript  

digitalmars.D - Tip: Use -i to modify druntime/phobos without rebuilding them

reply Jonathan Marler <johnnymarler gmail.com> writes:
Yesterday I wanted to test out some small changes to phobos.  
Rather than building and installing my own version of the 
compiler and libraries, I used a quick hack that allowed me to 
directly change the druntime/phobos source files from my current 
installation and see the results immediately.

In this case I was playing with the "std.process" module in 
phobos.  I created a backup of src/phobos/std/process.d and 
started making changes.  All I needed to do in order to see these 
changes in my program was to include the "-i=std.process" option 
like this:

dmd -i=std.process myapp.d

A quick and dirty way to selectively change and test changes to 
phobos/druntime on any installed compiler.

For those not familair with -i, the reason this works is that the 
"-i" flag causes all imports to be compiled, except for those 
under the "core", "std" and "etc" module namespaces.  However, 
you can override this by explicitly including any one of those 
namespaces.
Feb 09 2020
next sibling parent Manu <turkeyman gmail.com> writes:
On Sun, Feb 9, 2020 at 10:20 PM Jonathan Marler via Digitalmars-d
<digitalmars-d puremagic.com> wrote:
 Yesterday I wanted to test out some small changes to phobos.
 Rather than building and installing my own version of the
 compiler and libraries, I used a quick hack that allowed me to
 directly change the druntime/phobos source files from my current
 installation and see the results immediately.

 In this case I was playing with the "std.process" module in
 phobos.  I created a backup of src/phobos/std/process.d and
 started making changes.  All I needed to do in order to see these
 changes in my program was to include the "-i=std.process" option
 like this:

 dmd -i=std.process myapp.d

 A quick and dirty way to selectively change and test changes to
 phobos/druntime on any installed compiler.

 For those not familair with -i, the reason this works is that the
 "-i" flag causes all imports to be compiled, except for those
 under the "core", "std" and "etc" module namespaces.  However,
 you can override this by explicitly including any one of those
 namespaces.
Oh wow, cool tip! I never thought of that!
Feb 09 2020
prev sibling next sibling parent reply Mathias Lang <pro.mathias.lang gmail.com> writes:
On Monday, 10 February 2020 at 06:19:44 UTC, Jonathan Marler 
wrote:
 Yesterday I wanted to test out some small changes to phobos.  
 Rather than building and installing my own version of the 
 compiler and libraries, I used a quick hack that allowed me to 
 directly change the druntime/phobos source files from my 
 current installation and see the results immediately.

 In this case I was playing with the "std.process" module in 
 phobos.  I created a backup of src/phobos/std/process.d and 
 started making changes.  All I needed to do in order to see 
 these changes in my program was to include the "-i=std.process" 
 option like this:

 dmd -i=std.process myapp.d

 A quick and dirty way to selectively change and test changes to 
 phobos/druntime on any installed compiler.

 For those not familair with -i, the reason this works is that 
 the "-i" flag causes all imports to be compiled, except for 
 those under the "core", "std" and "etc" module namespaces.  
 However, you can override this by explicitly including any one 
 of those namespaces.
Doesn't that only work for specific cases involving templates though ? If you don't recompile Phobos, anything you'll link will still link the old binaries. So it's akin to compiling C(++) code but having the headers not match the `.c(pp)`.
Feb 09 2020
parent reply rikki cattermole <rikki cattermole.co.nz> writes:
On 10/02/2020 8:03 PM, Mathias Lang wrote:
 On Monday, 10 February 2020 at 06:19:44 UTC, Jonathan Marler wrote:
 Yesterday I wanted to test out some small changes to phobos. Rather 
 than building and installing my own version of the compiler and 
 libraries, I used a quick hack that allowed me to directly change the 
 druntime/phobos source files from my current installation and see the 
 results immediately.

 In this case I was playing with the "std.process" module in phobos.  I 
 created a backup of src/phobos/std/process.d and started making 
 changes.  All I needed to do in order to see these changes in my 
 program was to include the "-i=std.process" option like this:

 dmd -i=std.process myapp.d

 A quick and dirty way to selectively change and test changes to 
 phobos/druntime on any installed compiler.

 For those not familair with -i, the reason this works is that the "-i" 
 flag causes all imports to be compiled, except for those under the 
 "core", "std" and "etc" module namespaces. However, you can override 
 this by explicitly including any one of those namespaces.
Doesn't that only work for specific cases involving templates though ? If you don't recompile Phobos, anything you'll link will still link the old binaries. So it's akin to compiling C(++) code but having the headers not match the `.c(pp)`.
-i != -I
Feb 09 2020
parent Jonathan Marler <johnnymarler gmail.com> writes:
On Monday, 10 February 2020 at 07:17:11 UTC, rikki cattermole 
wrote:
 On 10/02/2020 8:03 PM, Mathias Lang wrote:
 On Monday, 10 February 2020 at 06:19:44 UTC, Jonathan Marler 
 wrote:
 [...]
Doesn't that only work for specific cases involving templates though ? If you don't recompile Phobos, anything you'll link will still link the old binaries. So it's akin to compiling C(++) code but having the headers not match the `.c(pp)`.
-i != -I
In C++ it would be akin to re-compiling all the source files that match your "-i" pattern, not just changing the header files. The case you're thinking of is the behavior you get when you don't specify -i.
Feb 09 2020
prev sibling parent Adam D. Ruppe <destructionator gmail.com> writes:
On Monday, 10 February 2020 at 06:19:44 UTC, Jonathan Marler 
wrote:
 dmd -i=std.process myapp.d
If you're doing an individual file too, you can specify it dmd myapp.d /pat/to/modified/phobos/file.d just specify it on the command line and it gets recompiled in. That's what -i is doing on the inside of course just it might be easier to specify the one file in certain cases.
Feb 10 2020