Hey, 

On Wed, Mar 1, 2017 at 8:00 AM, Mirko Vukovic <mirko.vukovic@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello,

This is with asdf 3.1.7.27,
Armed Bear Common Lisp 1.4.0
Java 1.6.0_41 Sun Microsystems Inc.
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM,

Emacs & Slime

The following example code from the ASDF manual

The manual,  https://common-lisp.net/project/asdf/asdf.html#The-defsystem-form,  just before the code, states : 

<< Let’s look at a simple system. This is a complete file that should be saved as hello-lisp.asd (in order that ASDF can find it when ordered to operate on the system named "hello-lisp") >>

This is important, as without a pathname where the system definition resides, how can it know where "packages.lisp" resides?

(asdf:defsystem "hello-lisp"
  :description "hello-lisp: a sample Lisp system."
  :version "0.0.1"
  :author "Joe User <joe@example.com>"
  :licence "Public Domain"
  :depends-on ("optima.ppcre" "command-line-arguments")
  :components ((:file "packages")
               (:file "macros" :depends-on ("packages"))
               (:file "hello" :depends-on ("macros"))))

when executed via the ABCL command line gives a relative path error

Because it is looking for  #P"packages.lisp", but does not know where it resides. 

Have a look at https://github.com/fare/asdf/blob/90502898375fe183d96cb03cd333d8b3ec09c0ba/parse-defsystem.lisp#L21

;; The defsystem macro calls this function to determine the pathname of a system as follows:

    ;; 1. If the pathname argument is an pathname object (NOT a namestring),

    ;;    that is already an absolute pathname, return it.

    ;; 2. Otherwise, the directory containing the LOAD-PATHNAME

    ;;    is considered (as deduced from e.g. *LOAD-PATHNAME*), and

    ;;    if it is indeed available and an absolute pathname, then

    ;;    the PATHNAME argument is normalized to a relative pathname

    ;;    as per PARSE-UNIX-NAMESTRING (with ENSURE-DIRECTORY T)

    ;;    and merged into that DIRECTORY as per SUBPATHNAME.

    ;;    Note: avoid *COMPILE-FILE-PATHNAME* because the .asd is loaded as source,

    ;;    but may be from within the EVAL-WHEN of a file compilation.

    ;; If no absolute pathname was found, we return NIL.

  Invalid relative pathname #P"packages.lisp" for component ("hello-lisp" "packages")
Restarts:
  0: RETRY                         Retry ASDF operation.
  1: CLEAR-CONFIGURATION-AND-RETRY Retry ASDF operation after resetting the configuration.
  2: TOP-LEVEL                     Return to top level.

If that code is in a file, then the file compiles cleanly:

As it should. It now knows where the files are located, because you have it in the .asd file which is LOAD'ed. 

 

CL-USER(6): (load (compile-file "test.asd"))
; Compiling /home/mv/projects/poi+excel/test.asd ...
; (IN-PACKAGE :CL-USER)
; (ASDF/PARSE-DEFSYSTEM:DEFSYSTEM "hello-lisp" ...)
; Wrote /home/mv/projects/poi+excel/test.abcl (0.021 seconds)
T
CL-USER(7):

I am looking for confirmation of this and second opinions before taking up at the ASDF mailing list.

Confirmed, the second option is what should be used most of the time. Othewrwise, the source location (:pathname) can be used to tell it where the source code lies without it 'guessing'. Does that all make sense?

Cheers, 

Drew Crampsie

Thanks,

Mirko