man swipl-ld (1): Create a SWI-Prolog embedded executable

SYNOPSIS

swipl-ld options c-files o-files pl-files

DESCRIPTION

The utility swipl-ld is a front-end for the C-compiler and linker to create a stand-alone executable from a series of C/C++ and Prolog input files. It extracts information from the SWI-Prolog executable swipl, after which it scans the arguments and breaks them into several categories. It then calls the C-compiler to create an executable containing the user's C-code and the SWI-Prolog kernel. After this, it will call the development environment to create a Prolog saved state from the prolog files and finally it will create the target executable by concatenating the state to the emulator. See also qsave_program/2 from the SWI-Prolog manual.

Options

-pl prolog: Specifies the prolog version to use. The default is swipl. This flag may be used to choose between different versions installed on your system, or to specify a modified version. A modified version should understands the flags -dump-runtime-variables -f file -F file -g goal -t toplevel.
-help: Shows options briefly
-nostate: Just relinks the kernel. The newly linked kernel can only function in the presence of the development system. Any supplied prolog sourcefiles are ignored, and so are the options -goal -toplevel -initfile. -class This is the preferred way to attach external modules to Prolog if dynamic loading is not supported on your system.
-c: Compile C or C++ source-files into object files. This turns swipl-ld into a replacement for the C or C++ compiler where proper options such as the location of the include directory are passed automatically to the compiler.
-E: Invoke the C preprocessor. Used to make swipl-ld a replacement for the C or C++ compiler.
-shared: Link C, C++ or object files into a shared object (DLL) that can be loaded by the load_foreign_library/1 predicate. If used with -c it sets the proper options to compile a C or C++ file ready for linking into a shared object.
-embed-shared: Embed SWI-Prolog into a DLL/Shared object rather than an executable. See the reference manual for details.
-dll: Windows only Same as -embed-shared Backward compatibility.
-F base: By default, none is passed to the swipl command to create the saved state. Using -F xpce you can specify loading xpce.rc, making XPCE available to the saved state.
-goal goal: The goal that is initially executed when the toplevel is started using PL_toplevel(). E.i. the default. -g flag for the new executable.
-toplevel goal: The goal that is executed as the main toplevel goal. E.i. the default. -t flag for the new executable.
-initfile file: The file that is loaded by the toplevel. E.i. the default. -f flag for the new executable.
-class {runtime,kernel,development}: Set the save-class of the Prolog saved-state that is created. If runtime (default), the resulting system leave interpretation of all arguments to the application. If kernel all predicates will be locked for the tracer. Finally, if development the state is saved `as-is' and the resulting system processes options just as the basic SWI-Prolog executable does. See also qsave_program/2 in the SWI-Prolog reference manual.
-v: Verbose operation. This echos the commands before executing them. Note that some commands are printed as shell commands, but actually executed by swipl-ld itself for compatibility with the Win32 platforms.
-f: Fake operation. Together with -v this prints the commands that need to be executed without actually doing anything.
-Ecppargument ...: If the first option is -E, all subsequent options are appended and handed to the program selected by SWI-Prolog configure to run cpp.
-o file: Specifies the name of the final executable. The default is a.out.
-cc C-compiler: Specify the compiler to use for *.c files. Default is the compiler used to compile SWI-Prolog itself, as read from the feature c_cc.
-c++ C++-compiler: Specify the compiler to use for C++ input files. If the C-compiler is gcc this is g++, otherwise c++ is assumed.
-ld linker: Specifies the linker to use. Default is the C-compiler. On Win32 platforms, the default is link.exe.
-llibrary: Specifies a C-library for linking the application. By default, -lswipl as well as the libraries required by the SWI-Prolog kernel will be passed to the C-compiler.
-Llibrary-directory: Specifies an additional library directory for the C-compiler. By default, the runtime directory for the current architecture is passed.
-g|-I*|-D*|-U*|-O*|-W*: Passed to the compiler as c-flags. By default, the SWI-Prolog include directory is passed as additional include directory. The following -D flags are added by swipl-ld: -D__SWI_PROLOG__ and -D__SWI_EMBEDDED__.
-pl-options*: Specify additional options for swipl. The first character following -pl-options determines the option-separator. The remainder of the argument is split using this separator and the parts are added to the option list for Prolog. See also -cc-options and -ld-options
-ld-options*: Additional options passed to the linker. For example: -ld-options,-Bstatic
-cc-options*: Additional options passed to both C- and C++-compiler.
*.o: Passed as input files to the linker.
*.c: Compiled using the C-compiler, after which the object-file is passed to the linker. The object file is deleted at cleanup.
*.cc|*.C|*.cxx|*.cpp: Compiled using the C++-compiler, after which the object-file is passed to the linker. The object file is deleted at cleanup.
*.pl|*.qlf: Passed as Prolog input files

BUGS

Parsing the options and distributing them over the various programs is probably incomplete. Feel free to modify it and please forward generally useful modifications to [email protected].

Some care has to be taken that the state created with qsave_program/2 is self-contained (i.e. contains no references to the Prolog libraries). Also, as the state is created using the development environment rather then the user's emulator, the Prolog code cannot use directives that rely on the C-code added by the user.

COPYRIGHT

AUTHOR

Jan Wielemaker