SWI(1)

💖 NAME 💖

swipl-ld — bestie, this one creates a SWI-Prolog embedded executable. That is literally the entire job description. Iconic behaviour, honestly. 👑

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

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

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Okay so swipl-ld is a front-end for the C-compiler and linker, and its whole thing is building a stand-alone executable out of a lil pile of C/C++ and Prolog input files. No cap.

Here's the lore, step by step:

1. It extracts information from the SWI-Prolog executable swipl.
2. Then it scans the arguments and breaks them into several categories. Categorising. Organising. Main character energy. 💅
3. Then it calls the C-compiler to create an executable containing the user's C-code and the SWI-Prolog kernel.
4. After that, if there are any Prolog files on the command line, it calls the development environment to create a Prolog saved state from the prolog files, and finally it creates the target executable by concatenating the state to the emulator.
5. Otherwise (no Prolog files, no problem), it creates a normal executable — see also the option -nostate.

Also see qsave_program/2 from the SWI-Prolog manual, bestie. 🫶

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🌸 Options 🌸

• -pl prolog — Specifies the prolog version to use. Default is swipl. Use this flag to pick 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. Short king. 🙈
• -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.

💀 Not me just passing that stray -class token along exactly where the page puts it — that's genuinely how it's written, I don't make the rules.

• -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. It's giving glow-up era. ✨
• -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. This option implies -nostate. 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. (A legacy icon, we respect her.)
• -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(). The default is the same as the -g flag for the swipl command, that is: version/0 (you can avoid printing the header by -goal goal). This option has no effect if there are no Prolog files in the 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. She's chatty. We love her for it. 🗣️
• -f — Fake operation. Together with -v this prints the commands that need to be executed without actually doing anything. Manifesting without the doing, honestly a mood. 🌈
• -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.

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💀 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 bugs@swi-prolog.org. (Fixing open source and emailing the maintainers? That's the vibe. 🔥)

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. Big caveat, do not skip it, bestie. 😭

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

• swipl(1)
• SWI-Prolog Reference Manual
• http://www.swi-prolog.org

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🎀 COPYRIGHT 🎀

Copyright (C) 1991-2010, University of Amsterdam, VU University, Amsterdam. This program may be used under the terms of the BSD-2 license. 💜

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Jan Wielemaker

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And that's the whole page, bestie — a General Commands Manual classic, dated Feb 8, 2006, and no cap, she still ate. Now go build yourself an embedded executable. Slay. 💅✨