The ocaml native-code compiler
ocamlopt [ options ] filename...
ocamlopt.opt (same options)
The OCaml high-performance native-code compiler ocamlopt(1) compiles OCaml source files to native code object files and link these object files to produce standalone executables.
The ocamlopt(1) command has a command-line interface very close to that of ocamlc(1). It accepts the same types of arguments and processes them sequentially:
Arguments ending in .mli are taken to be source files for compilation unit interfaces. Interfaces specify the names exported by compilation units: they declare value names with their types, define public data types, declare abstract data types, and so on. From the file x.mli, the ocamlopt(1) compiler produces a compiled interface in the file x.cmi. The interface produced is identical to that produced by the bytecode compiler ocamlc(1).
Arguments ending in .ml are taken to be source files for compilation unit implementations. Implementations provide definitions for the names exported by the unit, and also contain expressions to be evaluated for their side-effects. From the file x.ml, the ocamlopt(1) compiler produces two files: x.o, containing native object code, and x.cmx, containing extra information for linking and optimization of the clients of the unit. The compiled implementation should always be referred to under the name x.cmx (when given a .o file, ocamlopt(1) assumes that it contains code compiled from C, not from OCaml).
The implementation is checked against the interface file x.mli (if it exists) as described in the manual for ocamlc(1).
Arguments ending in .cmx are taken to be compiled object code. These files are linked together, along with the object files obtained by compiling .ml arguments (if any), and the OCaml standard library, to produce a native-code executable program. The order in which .cmx and .ml arguments are presented on the command line is relevant: compilation units are initialized in that order at run-time, and it is a link-time error to use a component of a unit before having initialized it. Hence, a given x.cmx file must come before all .cmx files that refer to the unit x.
Arguments ending in .cmxa are taken to be libraries of object code. Such a library packs in two files lib.cmxa and lib.a a set of object files (.cmx/.o files). Libraries are build with ocamlopt -a (see the description of the -a option below). The object files contained in the library are linked as regular .cmx files (see above), in the order specified when the library was built. The only difference is that if an object file contained in a library is not referenced anywhere in the program, then it is not linked in.
Arguments ending in .c are passed to the C compiler, which generates a .o object file. This object file is linked with the program.
Arguments ending in .o or .a are assumed to be C object files and libraries. They are linked with the program.
The output of the linking phase is a regular Unix executable file. It does not need ocamlrun(1) to run.
ocamlopt.opt is the same compiler as ocamlopt, but compiled with itself instead of with the bytecode compiler ocamlc(1). Thus, it behaves exactly like ocamlopt, but compiles faster. ocamlopt.opt is not available in all installations of OCaml.
The following command-line options are recognized by ocamlopt(1).
-a
Build a library (.cmxa/.a file) with the object files (.cmx/.o files) given on the command line, instead of linking them into an executable file. The name of the library must be set with the -o option.
If -cclibor-ccopt options are passed on the command line, these options are stored in the resulting .cmxa library. Then, linking with this library automatically adds back the -ccliband-ccopt options as if they had been provided on the command line, unless the -noautolink option is given.
-absname
Show absolute filenames in error messages.
-annot
Dump detailed information about the compilation (types, bindings, tail-calls, etc). The information for file src.ml is put into file src.annot. In case of a type error, dump all the information inferred by the type-checker before the error. The src.annot file can be used with the emacs commands given in emacs/caml-types.el to display types and other annotations interactively.
-bin-annot
Dump detailed information about the compilation (types, bindings, tail-calls, etc) in binary format. The information for file src.ml is put into file src.cmt. In case of a type error, dump all the information inferred by the type-checker before the error. The annotation files produced by -bin-annot contain more information and are much more compact than the files produced by -annot.
-c
Compile only. Suppress the linking phase of the compilation. Source code files are turned into compiled files, but no executable file is produced. This option is useful to compile modules separately.
-ccccomp
Use ccomp as the C linker called to build the final executable and as the C compiler for compiling .c source files.
-cclib-llibname
Pass the -llibname option to the linker. This causes the given C library to be linked with the program.
-ccoptoption
Pass the given option to the C compiler and linker. For instance, -ccopt-Ldir causes the C linker to search for C libraries in directory dir.
-compact
Optimize the produced code for space rather than for time. This results in smaller but slightly slower programs. The default is to optimize for speed.
-config
Print the version number of ocamlopt(1) and a detailed summary of its configuration, then exit.
-for-packmodule-path
Generate an object file (.cmx and .o files) that can later be included as a sub-module (with the given access path) of a compilation unit constructed with -pack. For instance, ocamlopt -for-pack P -c A.ml will generate a.cmx and a.o files that can later be used with ocamlopt -pack -o P.cmx a.cmx.
-g
Add debugging information while compiling and linking. This option is required in order to produce stack backtraces when the program terminates on an uncaught exception (see ocamlrun(1)).
-i
Cause the compiler to print all defined names (with their inferred types or their definitions) when compiling an implementation (.ml file). No compiled files (.cmo and .cmi files) are produced. This can be useful to check the types inferred by the compiler. Also, since the output follows the syntax of interfaces, it can help in writing an explicit interface (.mli file) for a file: just redirect the standard output of the compiler to a .mli file, and edit that file to remove all declarations of unexported names.
-Idirectory
Add the given directory to the list of directories searched for compiled interface files (.cmi) and compiled object code files (.cmo). By default, the current directory is searched first, then the standard library directory. Directories added with -I are searched after the current directory, in the order in which they were given on the command line, but before the standard library directory.
If the given directory starts with +, it is taken relative to the standard library directory. For instance, -I +labltk adds the subdirectory labltk of the standard library to the search path.
-implfilename
Compile the file filename as an implementation file, even if its extension is not .ml.
-inlinen
Set aggressiveness of inlining to n, where n is a positive integer. Specifying -inline 0 prevents all functions from being inlined, except those whose body is smaller than the call site. Thus, inlining causes no expansion in code size. The default aggressiveness, -inline1, allows slightly larger functions to be inlined, resulting in a slight expansion in code size. Higher values for the -inline option cause larger and larger functions to become candidate for inlining, but can result in a serious increase in code size.
-intffilename
Compile the file filename as an interface file, even if its extension is not .mli.
-intf-suffixstring
Recognize file names ending with string as interface files (instead of the default .mli).
-labels
Labels are not ignored in types, labels may be used in applications, and labelled parameters can be given in any order. This is the default.
-linkall
Force all modules contained in libraries to be linked in. If this flag is not given, unreferenced modules are not linked in. When building a library (-a flag), setting the -linkall flag forces all subsequent links of programs involving that library to link all the modules contained in the library.
-no-app-funct
Deactivates the applicative behaviour of functors. With this option, each functor application generates new types in its result and applying the same functor twice to the same argument yields two incompatible structures.
-noassert
Do not compile assertion checks. Note that the special form assert false is always compiled because it is typed specially. This flag has no effect when linking already-compiled files.
-noautolink
When linking .cmxa libraries, ignore -ccliband-ccopt options potentially contained in the libraries (if these options were given when building the libraries). This can be useful if a library contains incorrect specifications of C libraries or C options; in this case, during linking, set -noautolink and pass the correct C libraries and options on the command line.
-nodynlink
Allow the compiler to use some optimizations that are valid only for code that is never dynlinked.
-nolabels
Ignore non-optional labels in types. Labels cannot be used in applications, and parameter order becomes strict.
-oexec-file
Specify the name of the output file produced by the linker. The default output name is a.out, in keeping with the Unix tradition. If the -a option is given, specify the name of the library produced. If the -pack option is given, specify the name of the packed object file produced. If the -output-obj option is given, specify the name of the output file produced. If the -shared option is given, specify the name of plugin file produced.
-output-obj
Cause the linker to produce a C object file instead of an executable file. This is useful to wrap OCaml code as a C library, callable from any C program. The name of the output object file must be set with the -o option. This option can also be used to produce a compiled shared/dynamic library (.so extension).
-p
Generate extra code to write profile information when the program is executed. The profile information can then be examined with the analysis program gprof(1). The -p option must be given both at compile-time and at link-time. Linking object files not compiled with -p is possible, but results in less precise profiling.
See the gprof(1) man page for more information about the profiles.
Full support for gprof(1) is only available for certain platforms (currently: Intel x86/Linux and Alpha/Digital Unix). On other platforms, the -p option will result in a less precise profile (no call graph information, only a time profile).
-pack
Build an object file (.cmx and .o files) and its associated compiled interface (.cmi) that combines the .cmx object files given on the command line, making them appear as sub-modules of the output .cmx file. The name of the output .cmx file must be given with the -o option. For instance, ocamlopt -pack -o P.cmx A.cmx B.cmx C.cmx generates compiled files P.cmx, P.o and P.cmi describing a compilation unit having three sub-modules A, B and C, corresponding to the contents of the object files A.cmx, B.cmx and C.cmx. These contents can be referenced as P.A, P.B and P.C in the remainder of the program.
The .cmx object files being combined must have been compiled with the appropriate -for-pack option. In the example above, A.cmx, B.cmx and C.cmx must have been compiled with ocamlopt-for-packP.
Multiple levels of packing can be achieved by combining -pack with -for-pack. See The OCaml user's manual, chapter "Native-code compilation" for more details.
-ppcommand
Cause the compiler to call the given command as a preprocessor for each source file. The output of command is redirected to an intermediate file, which is compiled. If there are no compilation errors, the intermediate file is deleted afterwards.
-ppxcommand
After parsing, pipe the abstract syntax tree through the preprocessor command. The format of the input and output of the preprocessor are not yet documented.
-principal
Check information path during type-checking, to make sure that all types are derived in a principal way. All programs accepted in -principal mode are also accepted in default mode with equivalent types, but different binary signatures.
-rectypes
Allow arbitrary recursive types during type-checking. By default, only recursive types where the recursion goes through an object type are supported. Note that once you have created an interface using this flag, you must use it again for all dependencies.
-runtime-variantsuffix
Add suffix to the name of the runtime library that will be used by the program. If OCaml was configured with option -with-debug-runtime, then the d suffix is supported and gives a debug version of the runtime.
-S
Keep the assembly code produced during the compilation. The assembly code for the source file x.ml is saved in the file x.s.
-shared
Build a plugin (usually .cmxs) that can be dynamically loaded with the Dynlink module. The name of the plugin must be set with the -o option. A plugin can include a number of OCaml modules and libraries, and extra native objects (.o, .a files). Building native plugins is only supported for some operating system. Under some systems (currently, only Linux AMD 64), all the OCaml code linked in a plugin must have been compiled without the -nodynlink flag. Some constraints might also apply to the way the extra native objects have been compiled (under Linux AMD 64, they must contain only position-independent code).
-short-paths
When a type is visible under several module-paths, use the shortest one when printing the type's name in inferred interfaces and error and warning messages.
-strict-sequence
The left-hand part of a sequence must have type unit.
-thread
Compile or link multithreaded programs, in combination with the system threads library described in The OCaml user's manual.
-unsafe
Turn bound checking off for array and string accesses (the v.(i)ands.[i] constructs). Programs compiled with -unsafe are therefore faster, but unsafe: anything can happen if the program accesses an array or string outside of its bounds. Additionally, turn off the check for zero divisor in integer division and modulus operations. With -unsafe, an integer division (or modulus) by zero can halt the program or continue with an unspecified result instead of raising a Division_by_zero exception.
-v
Print the version number of the compiler and the location of the standard library directory, then exit.
-verbose
Print all external commands before they are executed, in particular invocations of the assembler, C compiler, and linker.
-vnumor-version
Print the version number of the compiler in short form (e.g. "3.11.0"), then exit.
-wwarning-list
Enable, disable, or mark as fatal the warnings specified by the argument warning-list. See ocamlc(1) for the syntax of warning-list.
-warn-errorwarning-list
Mark as fatal the warnings specified in the argument warning-list. The compiler will stop with an error when one of these warnings is emitted. The warning-list has the same meaning as for the -w option: a + sign (or an uppercase letter) marks the corresponding warnings as fatal, a - sign (or a lowercase letter) turns them back into non-fatal warnings, and a @ sign both enables and marks as fatal the corresponding warnings.
Note: it is not recommended to use the -warn-error option in production code, because it will almost certainly prevent compiling your program with later versions of OCaml when they add new warnings.
The default setting is -warn-error -a (all warnings are non-fatal).
-warn-help
Show the description of all available warning numbers.
-where
Print the location of the standard library, then exit.
-file
Process file as a file name, even if it starts with a dash (-) character.
-helpor--help
Display a short usage summary and exit.
The IA32 code generator (Intel Pentium, AMD Athlon) supports the following additional option:
-ffast-math
Use the IA32 instructions to compute trigonometric and exponential functions, instead of calling the corresponding library routines. The functions affected are: atan, atan2, cos, log, log10, sin, sqrt and tan. The resulting code runs faster, but the range of supported arguments and the precision of the result can be reduced. In particular, trigonometric operations cos, sin, tan have their range reduced to [-2^64, 2^64].
The AMD64 code generator (64-bit versions of Intel Pentium and AMD Athlon) supports the following additional options:
-fPIC
Generate position-independent machine code. This is the default.
-fno-PIC
Generate position-dependent machine code.
The Sparc code generator supports the following additional options:
-march=v8
Generate SPARC version 8 code.
-march=v9
Generate SPARC version 9 code.
The default is to generate code for SPARC version 7, which runs on all SPARC processors.
The OCaml user's manual, chapter "Native-code compilation".