Dependency generator (ocamldep)

The ocamldep command scans a set of Objective Caml source files (.ml and .mli files) for references to external compilation units, and outputs dependency lines in a format suitable for the make utility. This ensures that make will compile the source files in the correct order, and recompile those files that need to when a source file is modified.

The typical usage is:

        ocamldep options *.mli *.ml > .depend

where *.mli *.ml expands to all source files in the current directory and .depend is the file that should contain the dependencies. (See below for a typical Makefile.)

Dependencies are generated both for compiling with the bytecode compiler ocamlc and with the native-code compiler ocamlopt.

Options

The following command-line option is recognized by ocamldep.

-I directory: Add the given directory to the list of directories searched for source files. If a source file foo.ml mentions an external compilation unit Bar, a dependency on that unit's interface bar.cmi is generated only if the source for bar is found in the current directory or in one of the directories specified with -I. Otherwise, Bar is assumed to be a module form the standard library, and no dependencies are generated. For programs that span multiple directories, it is recommended to pass ocamldep the same -I options that are passed to the compiler.

A typical Makefile

Here is a template Makefile for a Objective Caml program.

CSLC=ocamlc
CSLOPT=ocamlopt
CSLDEP=ocamldep
INCLUDES=               #all relevant -I options here
CSLFLAGS=$(INCLUDES)    #add other options for ocamlc here
CSLOPTFLAGS=$(INCLUDES) #add other options for ocamlopt here

# prog1 should be compiled to bytecode, and is composed of three
# units: mod1, mod2 and mod3.

# The list of object files for prog1
PROG1_OBJS=mod1.cmo mod2.cmo mod3.cmo

prog1: $(PROG1_OBJS)
	$(CSLC) -o prog1 $(CSLFLAGS) $(PROG1_OBJS)

# prog2 should be compiled to native-code, and is composed of two
# units: mod4 and mod5.

# The list of object files for prog2
PROG2_OBJS=mod4.cmx mod5.cmx

prog2: $(PROG2_OBJS)
	$(CSLOPT) -o prog2 $(CSLFLAGS) $(PROG2_OBJS)

# Common rules
.SUFFIXES: .ml .mli .cmo .cmi .cmx

.ml.cmo:
	$(CSLC) $(CSLFLAGS) -c $<

.mli.cmi:
	$(CSLC) $(CSLFLAGS) -c $<

.ml.cmx:
	$(CSLOPT) $(CSLOPTFLAGS) -c $<

# Clean up
clean:
	rm -f prog1 prog2
	rm -f *.cm[iox]

# Dependencies
depend:
        $(CSLDEP) $(INCLUDES) *.mli *.ml > .depend

include .depend