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04873705 | 1 | !!! This is not a Guile release; it is a source tree retrieved via |
4b824aae | 2 | Git or as a nightly snapshot at some random time after the |
4800a61a | 3 | Guile 1.8 release. If this were a Guile release, you would not see |
04873705 | 4 | this message. !!! [fixme: zonk on release] |
c299f186 | 5 | |
0f24e75b | 6 | This is a 1.9 development version of Guile, Project GNU's extension |
f2a75d81 RB |
7 | language library. Guile is an interpreter for Scheme, packaged as a |
8 | library that you can link into your applications to give them their | |
9 | own scripting language. Guile will eventually support other languages | |
10 | as well, giving users of Guile-based applications a choice of | |
11 | languages. | |
12 | ||
0f24e75b | 13 | Guile versions with an odd middle number, i.e. 1.9.* are unstable |
f2a75d81 RB |
14 | development versions. Even middle numbers indicate stable versions. |
15 | This has been the case since the 1.3.* series. | |
16 | ||
a89cafc0 | 17 | The next stable release will likely be version 2.0.0. |
7fcc90c4 | 18 | |
1e457544 | 19 | Please send bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org. |
86f40248 | 20 | |
d165aa15 RB |
21 | See the LICENSE file for the specific terms that apply to Guile. |
22 | ||
23 | ||
24 | Additional INSTALL instructions =========================================== | |
25 | ||
26 | Generic instructions for configuring and compiling Guile can be found | |
27 | in the INSTALL file. Guile specific information and configure options | |
28 | can be found below, including instructions for installing SLIB. | |
29 | ||
a89cafc0 NJ |
30 | Guile depends on the following external libraries. |
31 | - libgmp | |
32 | - libiconv | |
33 | - libintl | |
34 | - libltdl | |
35 | - libunistring | |
cab6e6c0 | 36 | - libgc |
a89cafc0 NJ |
37 | It will also use the libreadline library if it is available. For each |
38 | of these there is a corresponding --with-XXX-prefix option that you | |
39 | can use when invoking ./configure, if you have these libraries | |
40 | installed in a location other than the standard places (/usr and | |
41 | /usr/local). | |
42 | ||
43 | These options are provided by the Gnulib `havelib' module, and details | |
44 | of how they work are documented in `Searching for Libraries' in the | |
45 | Gnulib manual (http://www.gnu.org/software/gnulib/manual). The extent | |
46 | to which they work on a given OS depends on whether that OS supports | |
47 | encoding full library path names in executables (aka `rpath'). Also | |
48 | note that using these options, and hence hardcoding full library path | |
49 | names (where that is supported), makes it impossible to later move the | |
50 | built executables and libraries to an installation location other than | |
51 | the one that was specified at build time. | |
52 | ||
53 | Another possible approach is to set CPPFLAGS and LDFLAGS before | |
54 | running configure, so that they include -I options for all the | |
55 | non-standard places where you have installed header files and -L | |
56 | options for all the non-standard places where you have installed | |
57 | libraries. This will allow configure and make to find those headers | |
58 | and libraries during the build. The locations found will not be | |
59 | hardcoded into the build executables and libraries, so with this | |
60 | approach you will probably also need to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH | |
61 | correspondingly, to allow Guile to find the necessary libraries again | |
62 | at runtime. | |
d165aa15 RB |
63 | |
64 | ||
a98dbc87 MV |
65 | Required External Packages ================================================ |
66 | ||
67 | Guile requires the following external packages: | |
68 | ||
69 | - GNU MP, at least version 4.1 | |
70 | ||
71 | GNU MP is used for bignum arithmetic. It is available from | |
cab6e6c0 | 72 | http://gmplib.org/ . |
a98dbc87 | 73 | |
cab6e6c0 | 74 | - libltdl from GNU Libtool, at least version 1.5.6 |
a98dbc87 MV |
75 | |
76 | libltdl is used for loading extensions at run-time. It is | |
cab6e6c0 | 77 | available from http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/ . |
a98dbc87 | 78 | |
1ee2c72e LC |
79 | - GNU libunistring |
80 | ||
81 | libunistring is used for Unicode string operations, such as the | |
82 | `utf*->string' procedures. It is available from | |
83 | http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/ . | |
84 | ||
cab6e6c0 LC |
85 | - libgc, at least version 7.0 |
86 | ||
87 | libgc (aka. the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector) is the | |
88 | conservative garbage collector used by Guile. It is available | |
89 | from http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/ . | |
90 | ||
a98dbc87 | 91 | |
d165aa15 RB |
92 | Special Instructions For Some Systems ===================================== |
93 | ||
94 | We would like Guile to build on all systems using the simple | |
95 | instructions above, but it seems that a few systems still need special | |
96 | treatment. If you can send us fixes for these problems, we'd be | |
97 | grateful. | |
98 | ||
70bb8113 | 99 | <none yet listed> |
d165aa15 RB |
100 | |
101 | Guile specific flags Accepted by Configure ================================= | |
102 | ||
103 | If you run the configure script with no arguments, it should examine | |
104 | your system and set things up appropriately. However, there are a few | |
105 | switches specific to Guile you may find useful in some circumstances. | |
106 | ||
4f416616 | 107 | --without-threads --- Build without thread support |
d165aa15 | 108 | |
70bb8113 | 109 | Build a Guile executable and library that supports multi-threading. |
d165aa15 | 110 | |
70bb8113 MV |
111 | The default is to enable threading support when your operating |
112 | system offsers 'POSIX threads'. When you do not want threading, use | |
113 | `--without-threads'. | |
d165aa15 RB |
114 | |
115 | --enable-deprecated=LEVEL | |
116 | ||
117 | Guile may contain features that are `deprecated'. When a feature is | |
3623a170 MV |
118 | deprecated, it means that it is still there, but that there is a |
119 | better way of achieving the same thing, and we'd rather have you use | |
120 | this better way. This allows us to eventually remove the old | |
121 | implementation and helps to keep Guile reasonably clean of historic | |
122 | baggage. | |
123 | ||
124 | Deprecated features are considered harmful; using them is likely a | |
125 | bug. See below for the related notion of `discouraged' features, | |
70bb8113 | 126 | which are OK but have fallen out of favor. |
d165aa15 RB |
127 | |
128 | See the file NEWS for a list of features that are currently | |
129 | deprecated. Each entry will also tell you what you should replace | |
130 | your code with. | |
131 | ||
132 | To give you some help with this process, and to encourage (OK, | |
133 | nudge) people to switch to the newer methods, Guile can emit | |
134 | warnings or errors when you use a deprecated feature. There is | |
135 | quite a range of possibilities, from being completely silent to | |
136 | giving errors at link time. What exactly happens is determined both | |
137 | by the value of the `--enable-deprecated' configuration option when | |
138 | Guile was built, and by the GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED environment | |
139 | variable. | |
140 | ||
141 | It works like this: | |
142 | ||
143 | When Guile has been configured with `--enable-deprecated=no' (or, | |
144 | equivalently, with `--disable-deprecated') then all deprecated | |
145 | features are omitted from Guile. You will get "undefined | |
146 | reference", "variable unbound" or similar errors when you try to | |
147 | use them. | |
148 | ||
149 | When `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' has been specified (for LEVEL not | |
150 | "no"), LEVEL will be used as the default value of the environment | |
151 | variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED. A value of "yes" is changed to | |
152 | "summary" and "shutup" is changed to "no", however. | |
153 | ||
154 | When GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED has the value "no", nothing special | |
155 | will happen when a deprecated feature is used. | |
156 | ||
157 | When GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED has the value "summary", and a | |
158 | deprecated feature has been used, Guile will print this message at | |
159 | exit: | |
160 | ||
161 | Some deprecated features have been used. Set the environment | |
162 | variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED to "detailed" and rerun the | |
163 | program to get more information. Set it to "no" to suppress | |
164 | this message. | |
165 | ||
166 | When GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED has the value "detailed", a detailed | |
167 | warning is emitted immediatly for the first use of a deprecated | |
168 | feature. | |
169 | ||
170 | The default is `--enable-deprecated=yes'. | |
171 | ||
8f305401 MV |
172 | In addition to setting GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED in the environment, you |
173 | can also use (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) and (debug-disable | |
174 | 'warn-deprecated) to enable and disable the detailed messaged at run | |
175 | time. | |
176 | ||
3623a170 MV |
177 | --disable-discouraged |
178 | ||
179 | In addition to deprecated features, Guile can also contain things | |
180 | that are merely `discouraged'. It is OK to continue to use these | |
181 | features in old code, but new code should avoid them since there are | |
182 | better alternatives. | |
183 | ||
184 | There is nothing wrong with a discouraged feature per se, but they | |
185 | might have strange names, or be non-standard, for example. Avoiding | |
186 | them will make your code better. | |
187 | ||
d165aa15 RB |
188 | --disable-shared --- Do not build shared libraries. |
189 | --disable-static --- Do not build static libraries. | |
190 | ||
191 | Normally, both static and shared libraries will be built if your | |
192 | system supports them. | |
193 | ||
d165aa15 RB |
194 | --enable-debug-freelist --- Enable freelist debugging. |
195 | ||
70bb8113 MV |
196 | This enables a debugging version of scm_cell and scm_double_cell, |
197 | and also registers an extra primitive, the setter | |
d165aa15 RB |
198 | `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'. |
199 | ||
200 | Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable the | |
201 | gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use: | |
202 | ||
203 | (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist | |
204 | (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking | |
205 | ||
206 | Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and a | |
207 | garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can slow | |
208 | down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to | |
209 | turn on this extra processing only when necessary. | |
210 | ||
d165aa15 RB |
211 | --enable-debug-malloc --- Enable malloc debugging. |
212 | ||
70bb8113 | 213 | Include code for debugging of calls to scm_malloc, scm_realloc, etc. |
d165aa15 | 214 | |
70bb8113 MV |
215 | It records the number of allocated objects of each kind. This is |
216 | useful when searching for memory leaks. | |
d165aa15 RB |
217 | |
218 | A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive | |
219 | `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the | |
220 | number of objects of that kind. | |
221 | ||
d165aa15 | 222 | --enable-guile-debug --- Include internal debugging functions |
d165aa15 RB |
223 | --disable-posix --- omit posix interfaces |
224 | --disable-networking --- omit networking interfaces | |
225 | --disable-regex --- omit regular expression interfaces | |
226 | ||
227 | ||
228 | Cross building Guile ===================================================== | |
229 | ||
230 | As of guile-1.5.x, the build process uses compiled C files for | |
231 | snarfing, and (indirectly, through libtool) for linking, and uses the | |
232 | guile executable for generating documentation. | |
233 | ||
234 | When cross building guile, you first need to configure, build and | |
235 | install guile for your build host. | |
236 | ||
237 | Then, you may configure guile for cross building, eg: | |
238 | ||
239 | ./configure --host=i686-pc-cygwin --disable-shared | |
240 | ||
cd9d439e KR |
241 | A C compiler for the build system is required. The default is |
242 | "PATH=/usr/bin:$PATH cc". If that doesn't suit it can be specified | |
243 | with the CC_FOR_BUILD variable in the usual way, for instance | |
d165aa15 | 244 | |
cd9d439e KR |
245 | ./configure --host=m68k-unknown-linux-gnu CC_FOR_BUILD=/my/local/gcc |
246 | ||
1028fcb2 KR |
247 | Guile for the build system can be specified similarly with the |
248 | GUILE_FOR_BUILD variable, it defaults to just "guile". | |
d165aa15 RB |
249 | |
250 | ||
251 | Using Guile Without Installing It ========================================= | |
252 | ||
0b6d8fdc AW |
253 | The "meta/" subdirectory of the Guile sources contains a script called |
254 | "guile" that can be used to run the Guile that has just been built. Note | |
255 | that this is not the same "guile" as the one that is installed; this | |
256 | "guile" is a wrapper script that sets up the environment appropriately, | |
257 | then invokes the Guile binary. | |
258 | ||
4ea9429e AW |
259 | You may also build external packages against an uninstalled Guile build |
260 | tree. The "uninstalled-env" script in the "meta/" subdirectory will set | |
261 | up an environment with a path including "meta/", a modified dynamic | |
262 | linker path, a modified PKG_CONFIG_PATH, etc. | |
0b6d8fdc AW |
263 | |
264 | For example, you can enter this environment via invoking | |
265 | ||
266 | meta/uninstalled-env bash | |
267 | ||
268 | Within that shell, other packages should be able to build against | |
269 | uninstalled Guile. | |
d165aa15 RB |
270 | |
271 | ||
272 | Installing SLIB =========================================================== | |
273 | ||
274 | In order to use SLIB from Guile you basically only need to put the | |
275 | `slib' directory _in_ one of the directories on Guile's load path. | |
276 | ||
277 | The standard installation is: | |
278 | ||
279 | 1. Obtain slib from http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/~jaffer/SLIB.html | |
280 | ||
281 | 2. Put it in Guile's data directory, that is the directory printed when | |
282 | you type | |
283 | ||
284 | guile-config info pkgdatadir | |
285 | ||
286 | at the shell prompt. This is normally `/usr/local/share/guile', so the | |
287 | directory will normally have full path `/usr/local/share/guile/slib'. | |
288 | ||
289 | 3. Start guile as a user with write access to the data directory and type | |
290 | ||
291 | (use-modules (ice-9 slib)) | |
292 | ||
293 | at the Guile prompt. This will generate the slibcat catalog next to | |
294 | the slib directory. | |
295 | ||
296 | SLIB's `require' is provided by the Guile module (ice-9 slib). | |
297 | ||
298 | Example: | |
299 | ||
300 | (use-modules (ice-9 slib)) | |
301 | (require 'primes) | |
302 | (prime? 7) | |
303 | ||
70bb8113 | 304 | |
394a535e MD |
305 | Guile Documentation ================================================== |
306 | ||
ea8ac9ac KR |
307 | If you've never used Scheme before, then the Guile Tutorial |
308 | (guile-tut.info) is a good starting point. The Guile Reference Manual | |
eb12b401 NJ |
309 | (guile.info) is the primary documentation for Guile. A copy of the |
310 | R5RS Scheme specification is included too (r5rs.info). | |
ea8ac9ac KR |
311 | |
312 | Info format versions of this documentation are installed as part of | |
313 | the normal build process. The texinfo sources are under the doc | |
314 | directory, and other formats like Postscript, PDF, DVI or HTML can be | |
315 | generated from them with Tex and Texinfo tools. | |
316 | ||
317 | The doc directory also includes an example-smob subdirectory which has | |
318 | the example code from the "Defining New Types (Smobs)" chapter of the | |
319 | reference manual. | |
394a535e | 320 | |
b5074b23 MD |
321 | The Guile WWW page is at |
322 | ||
323 | http://www.gnu.org/software/guile/guile.html | |
324 | ||
325 | It contains a link to the Guile FAQ. | |
326 | ||
cf78e9e8 JB |
327 | About This Distribution ============================================== |
328 | ||
f89a27fa | 329 | Interesting files include: |
ae8de16e | 330 | |
d165aa15 | 331 | - LICENSE, which contains the exact terms of the Guile license. |
53befeb7 | 332 | - COPYING.LESSER, which contains the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License. |
d165aa15 RB |
333 | - COPYING, which contains the terms of the GNU General Public License. |
334 | - INSTALL, which contains general instructions for building/installing Guile. | |
f89a27fa | 335 | - NEWS, which describes user-visible changes since the last release of Guile. |
f89a27fa | 336 | |
ae8de16e GH |
337 | Files are usually installed according to the prefix specified to |
338 | configure, /usr/local by default. Building and installing gives you: | |
339 | ||
340 | Executables, in ${prefix}/bin: | |
341 | ||
04873705 TTN |
342 | guile --- a stand-alone interpreter for Guile. With no arguments, this |
343 | is a simple interactive Scheme interpreter. It can also be used | |
344 | as an interpreter for script files; see the NEWS file for details. | |
345 | guile-config --- a Guile script which provides the information necessary | |
346 | to link your programs against the Guile library. | |
347 | guile-snarf --- a script to parse declarations in your C code for | |
348 | Scheme-visible C functions, Scheme objects to be used by C code, | |
349 | etc. | |
ae8de16e GH |
350 | |
351 | Libraries, in ${prefix}/lib. Depending on the platform and options | |
352 | given to configure, you may get shared libraries in addition | |
353 | to or instead of these static libraries: | |
0a7fcdbc | 354 | |
04873705 TTN |
355 | libguile.a --- an object library containing the Guile interpreter, |
356 | You can use Guile in your own programs by linking against this. | |
04873705 | 357 | libguilereadline.a --- an object library containing glue code for the |
70bb8113 MV |
358 | GNU readline library. |
359 | ||
04873705 | 360 | libguile-srfi-*.a --- various SRFI support libraries |
ae8de16e GH |
361 | |
362 | Header files, in ${prefix}/include: | |
363 | ||
04873705 TTN |
364 | libguile.h, guile/gh.h, libguile/*.h --- for libguile. |
365 | guile-readline/readline.h --- for guile-readline. | |
ae8de16e GH |
366 | |
367 | Support files, in ${prefix}/share/guile/<version>: | |
368 | ||
04873705 TTN |
369 | ice-9/* --- run-time support for Guile: the module system, |
370 | read-eval-print loop, some R4RS code and other infrastructure. | |
371 | oop/* --- the Guile Object-Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) | |
372 | scripts/* --- executable modules, i.e., scheme programs that can be both | |
373 | called as an executable from the shell, and loaded and used as a | |
374 | module from scheme code. See scripts/README for more info. | |
375 | srfi/* --- SRFI support modules. See srfi/README for more info. | |
ae8de16e GH |
376 | |
377 | Automake macros, in ${prefix}/share/aclocal: | |
378 | ||
04873705 | 379 | guile.m4 |
ae8de16e GH |
380 | |
381 | Documentation in Info format, in ${prefix}/info: | |
382 | ||
c08a1190 GH |
383 | guile --- Guile reference manual. |
384 | ||
385 | guile-tut --- Guile tutorial. | |
386 | ||
387 | GOOPS --- GOOPS reference manual. | |
388 | ||
389 | r5rs --- Revised(5) Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme. | |
390 | ||
0196b30a | 391 | |
5c54da76 JB |
392 | The Guile source tree is laid out as follows: |
393 | ||
1325feea | 394 | libguile: |
cf78e9e8 JB |
395 | The Guile Scheme interpreter --- both the object library |
396 | for you to link with your programs, and the executable you can run. | |
1325feea | 397 | ice-9: Guile's module system, initialization code, and other infrastructure. |
17f8d40c JB |
398 | guile-config: |
399 | Source for the guile-config script. | |
621e8324 MV |
400 | guile-readline: |
401 | The glue code for using GNU readline with Guile. This | |
402 | will be build when configure can find a recent enough readline | |
403 | library on your system. | |
ae8de16e | 404 | doc: Documentation (see above). |
4c8980a2 | 405 | |
4b824aae | 406 | Git Repository Access ================================================ |
c11f9405 | 407 | |
4b824aae LC |
408 | Guile's source code is stored in a Git repository at Savannah. Anyone |
409 | can access it using `git-clone' from one of the following URLs: | |
c11f9405 | 410 | |
4b824aae LC |
411 | git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git |
412 | http://git.sv.gnu.org/r/guile.git | |
349d9c1f | 413 | |
4b824aae LC |
414 | Developers with a Savannah SSH account can also access it from: |
415 | ||
416 | ssh://git.sv.gnu.org/srv/git/guile.git | |
417 | ||
418 | The repository can also be browsed on-line at the following address: | |
419 | ||
420 | http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git | |
421 | ||
422 | For more information on Git, please see: | |
423 | ||
424 | http://git.or.cz/ | |
425 | ||
426 | Please send problem reports to <bug-guile@gnu.org>. |