.. -*- rst -*-
.. -*-  coding: utf-8 -*-

============================
A local repository for ocaml
============================

:date: 2013-05-23
:tags: ocaml
:summary: |summary|
:logo: static/images/ocaml/camel.jpg
:slug: un-depot-local-pour-ocaml
:lang: en

.. figure:: |filename|/images/ocaml/camel_medium.jpg
    :figwidth: 150
    :figclass: floatleft
    :alt: Pavement

    Image : `@Doug88888`_ (creativecommons_)

.. _@Doug88888: http://www.flickr.com/photos/doug88888/3458057235/
.. _creativecommons: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.fr

|summary|
    

.. |summary| replace::
    Today, ocaml is obsolete in the debian packages : the most of the
    librairies are still linked with Ocaml3 althought Ocaml4 is out since
    almost a year. When we need to develop with Ocaml4, we have to recompile
    all the dependencies, but this implies to install them for the whole
    system. But we can use a local repository with some findlib configuration.

Findlib is now a required tool for an Ocaml project compilation. Each
application uses now findlib for searching the dependencies, and the linking
phase.

We first need to create a local configuration in wich we write where to find
the packages :


.. code-block:: bash

    destdir="/home/chimrod/ocaml/packages/"
    path="/home/chimrod/ocaml/packages/:/usr/local/lib/ocaml/4.00.1:/usr/lib/ocaml:/usr/lib/ocaml/METAS"

:destdir:   is the path where we want to install the newly compiled packages.
:path:      is the path list where to find the packages.
            
Of course, you need to replace `/home/chimrod/` by your own installation path.
It must be an absolute path.

The path to this file can be saved with the shell environnement ; we just need
to reference it in the `.bashrc` file :

.. code-block:: bash

    export OCAMLFIND_CONF=/home/chimrod/ocaml/ocamlfind.conf

That's now : each new package will now be installed in your packages directory,
and the compilation will also look for this path for the required 
dependencies : you do not have to install the packages as root anymore.