path: root/doc/languages-frameworks/ocaml.xml

<section xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
         xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
         xml:id="sec-language-ocaml">
 <title>OCaml</title>

 <para>
   OCaml libraries should be installed in
   <literal>$(out)/lib/ocaml/${ocaml.version}/site-lib/</literal>. Such
   directories are automatically added to the <literal>$OCAMLPATH</literal>
   environment variable when building another package that depends on them
   or when opening a <literal>nix-shell</literal>.
 </para>

 <para>
   Given that most of the OCaml ecosystem is now built with dune,
   nixpkgs includes a convenience build support function called
   <literal>buildDunePackage</literal> that will build an OCaml package
   using dune, OCaml and findlib and any additional dependencies provided
   as <literal>buildInputs</literal> or <literal>propagatedBuildInputs</literal>.
 </para>

 <para>
   Here is a simple package example. It defines an (optional) attribute
   <literal>minimumOCamlVersion</literal> that will be used to throw a
   descriptive evaluation error if building with an older OCaml is attempted.
   It uses the <literal>fetchFromGitHub</literal> fetcher to get its source.
   It sets the <literal>doCheck</literal> (optional) attribute to
   <literal>true</literal> which means that tests will be run with
   <literal>dune runtest -p angstrom</literal> after the build
   (<literal>dune build -p angstrom</literal>) is complete.
   It uses <literal>alcotest</literal> as a build input (because it is needed
   to run the tests) and <literal>bigstringaf</literal> and
   <literal>result</literal> as propagated build inputs (thus they will also
   be available to libraries depending on this library).
   The library will be installed using the <literal>angstrom.install</literal>
   file that dune generates.
 </para>

 <programlisting>
{ stdenv, fetchFromGitHub, buildDunePackage, alcotest, result, bigstringaf }:

buildDunePackage rec {
  pname = "angstrom";
  version = "0.10.0";

  minimumOCamlVersion = "4.03";

  src = fetchFromGitHub {
    owner  = "inhabitedtype";
    repo   = pname;
    rev    = version;
    sha256 = "0lh6024yf9ds0nh9i93r9m6p5psi8nvrqxl5x7jwl13zb0r9xfpw";
  };

  buildInputs = [ alcotest ];
  propagatedBuildInputs = [ bigstringaf result ];
  doCheck = true;

  meta = {
    homepage = https://github.com/inhabitedtype/angstrom;
    description = "OCaml parser combinators built for speed and memory efficiency";
    license = stdenv.lib.licenses.bsd3;
    maintainers = with stdenv.lib.maintainers; [ sternenseemann ];
  };
}
 </programlisting>

 <para>
   Here is a second example, this time using a source archive generated with
   <literal>dune-release</literal>. It is a good idea to use this archive when
   it is available as it will usually contain substituted variables such as a
   <literal>%%VERSION%%</literal> field. This library does not depend
   on any other OCaml library and no tests are run after building it.
 </para>

 <programlisting>
{ stdenv, fetchurl, buildDunePackage }:

buildDunePackage rec {
  pname = "wtf8";
  version = "1.0.1";

  minimumOCamlVersion = "4.01";

  src = fetchurl {
    url = "https://github.com/flowtype/ocaml-${pname}/releases/download/v${version}/${pname}-${version}.tbz";
    sha256 = "1msg3vycd3k8qqj61sc23qks541cxpb97vrnrvrhjnqxsqnh6ygq";
  };

  meta = with stdenv.lib; {
    homepage = https://github.com/flowtype/ocaml-wtf8;
    description = "WTF-8 is a superset of UTF-8 that allows unpaired surrogates.";
    license = licenses.mit;
    maintainers = [ maintainers.eqyiel ];
  };
}
 </programlisting>

</section>