OCAMLDEP(1)

💖 OCAMLDEP(1) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the OCAMLDEP(1) page, straight outta the General Commands Manual ✨ this is your girl's guide to the dependency generator for OCaml, and yes we're gonna make make behave. sit down, grab a boba 🧋

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🌸 NAME 🌸

ocamldep — the Dependency generator for OCaml. that's it, that's the whole vibe. she scans your code and tells make what depends on what 🫶

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

ocamldep [ options ] filename ...

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so the ocamldep(1) command scans a whole set of OCaml source files (that's your .ml and .mli files, mwah) looking for references to external compilation units, and then it spits out dependency lines in a format that the make(1) utility can actually eat for breakfast. 🍓

and why do we care, you ask? because this is literally what ensures make compiles your source files in the correct order, and recompiles the files that need it when a source file gets modified. no cap. 🔥

the typical usage is giving:

ocamldep options *.mli *.ml > .depend

where .depend is the file that should contain the dependencies. iconic behavior honestly 💅

and here's the tea: dependencies are generated both for compiling with the bytecode compiler ocamlc(1) and with the native-code compiler ocamlopt(1). equal opportunity dependency generation, we love to see it. 🌈

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

the following command-line options are recognized by ocamldep(1). yes, there are a lot. we're going through all of them. hydration check, then let's go 🧚

• -absname — show absolute filenames in error messages. no more mystery relative paths bestie.
• -no-absname — do not try to show absolute filenames in error messages. this is the default, btw.
• -all — generate dependencies on all required files, rather than assuming implicit dependencies. give me everything, thank you.
• -allow-approx — allow falling back on a lexer-based approximation when parsing fails. it's giving "plan B but make it ✨work✨".
• -as-map — for the following files, do not include delayed dependencies for module aliases. this option assumes that they are compiled using options -no-alias-deps -w -49, and that those files or their interface are passed with the -map option when computing dependencies for other files. note also that for dependencies to be correct in the implementation of a map file, its interface should not coerce any of the aliases it contains. okay that was a lot, but every word matters, periodt.
• -debug-map — dump the delayed dependency map for each map file. detective mode activated 🔍
• -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 from the standard library, and no dependencies are generated. for programs that span multiple directories, it is recommended to pass ocamldep(1) the same -I options that are passed to the compiler. (yes, the compiler. match her energy 💖)
• -nocwd — do not add the current working directory to the list of include directories.
• -impl file — process file as a .ml file. treat it like the implementation file it is.
• -intf file — process file as a .mli file. interface girlies rise 👑
• -keywords version+list — set keywords according to the version+list specification.
• -map file — read and propagate the delayed dependencies for module aliases in file, so that the following files will depend on the exported aliased modules if they use them.
• -ml-synonym .ext — consider the given extension (with leading dot) to be a synonym for .ml.
• -mli-synonym .ext — consider the given extension (with leading dot) to be a synonym for .mli.
• -modules — output raw dependencies of the form filename: Module1 Module2 ... ModuleN where Module1, ..., ModuleN are the names of the compilation units referenced within the file filename, but these names are not resolved to source file names. such raw dependencies cannot be used by make(1), but can be post-processed by other tools such as Omake(1). so like, raw and unfiltered, iykyk.
• -native — generate dependencies for a pure native-code program (no bytecode version). when an implementation file (.ml file) has no explicit interface file (.mli file), ocamldep(1) generates dependencies on the bytecode compiled file (.cmo file) to reflect interface changes. this can cause unnecessary bytecode recompilations for programs that are compiled to native-code only. the flag -native causes dependencies on native compiled files (.cmx) to be generated instead of on .cmo files. (this flag makes no difference if all source files have explicit .mli interface files.) slay, no wasted recompiles 🎀
• -one-line — output one line per file, regardless of the length. short king energy.
• -open module — assume that module module is opened before parsing each of the following files.
• -pp command — cause ocamldep(1) to call the given command as a preprocessor for each source file.
• -ppx command — pipe abstract syntax tree through preprocessor command.
• -shared — generate dependencies for native plugin files (.cmxs) in addition to native compiled files (.cmx).
• -slash — (Windows) use forward slash / instead of backslash \ in file paths. under Unix, this option does nothing. (yes, literally nothing, she's just vibing there 🌸)
• -no-slash — (Windows) preserve any backslash \ in file paths. under Unix, this option does nothing. same deal, unbothered, unphased.
• -sort — sort files according to their dependencies. putting things in order is so main character.
• -version — print version string and exit.
• -vnum — print short version number and exit.
• -args file — read additional newline separated command line arguments from file.
• -args0 file — read additional NUL separated command line arguments from file. (NUL separated, not newline. do not mix these up bestie 😭)
• -help or --help — display a short usage summary and exit. when in doubt, ask for help. always valid 💜

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• ocamlc(1), ocamlopt(1).
• The OCaml user's manual, chapter "Dependency generator".

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and that's the whole page, bestie 🫶 go forth and let make know exactly what's up. this was OCAMLDEP(1) from the General Commands Manual — the footer of the page just says OCAMLDEP(1) right back at ya, so consider this your cute little sign-off. mwah 💋✨