The ASDF-JAR contrib now packages up ASDF systems in jar archives.

Comments and/or additional needs from this system are welcome.

From the documentation:

ASDF-JAR ========

Mark Evenson Created: 20-JUN-2011 Modified: 20-JUN-2011

ASDF-JAR provides a system for packaging ASDF systems into jar archives for ABCL. Given a running ABCL image with loadable ASDF systems the code in this package will recursively package all the required source and fasls in a jar archive .

To install ASDF systems, [Quicklisp]() is probably the best contemporary solution, although a version of ASDF-INSTALL is also packaged in ABCL contribs.

[Quicklisp]: http://www.quicklisp.org

Once the requisite ASDF systems have been installed, ensure that this contrib is loaded via

CL-USER) (require :abcl-contrib) CL-USER> (require :asdf-jar)

Then, to say package the Perl regular expression system ("CL-PPCRE"), one uses the ASDF-JAR:PACKAGE as follows:

CL-USER> (asdf-jar:package :cl-ppcre) ; Loading #P"/home/evenson/quicklisp/dists/quicklisp/software/cl-ppcre-2.0.3/cl-ppcre.asd" ... ; Loaded #P"/home/evenson/quicklisp/dists/quicklisp/software/cl-ppcre-2.0.3/cl-ppcre.asd" (0.029 seconds) Packaging ASDF definition of #<ASDF:SYSTEM "cl-ppcre"> as /var/tmp/cl-ppcre-all-2.0.3.jar. Packaging contents in /var/tmp/cl-ppcre-all-2.0.3.jar with recursive dependencies. #P"/var/tmp/cl-ppcre-all-2.0.3.jar"

The resulting jar contains all source and fasls required to run the ASDF system including any transitive ASDF dependencies. Each asdf system is packaged under its own top level directory within the jar archive. The jar archive itself is numbered with the version of the system that was specified in the packaging.

To load the system from the jar one needs to add the ASDF file locations to the ASDF *CENTRAL-REGISTRY*. If one wishes to load the fasls from the jar alone, one needs to tell ASDF not to override its output translation rules. The function ASDF-JAR:ADD-TO-JAR does both of these options serving as the basis for customized load strategies tailored to end-user deployment needs. So, after

CL-USER> (asdf-jar:add-to-asdf "/var/tmp/cl-ppcre-all-2.0.3.jar")

a subsequent

CL-USER> (asdf:load-system :cl-ppcre)

should load the ASDF system from the jar.

Setting CL:*LOAD-VERBOSE* will allow one to verify that the subsequent load is indeed coming from the jar.