For the record, I can reproduce the behavior noted in the comments -- (asdf:load-system "hello") succeeds if (:use :alexandria) is omitted, and fails with "Variable MAIN is unbound" otherwise. I am working with SBCL. It appears that the .lisp was successfully compiled, and the error occurs when trying to load the resulting .fasl. After some tinkering, I think the problem is that the symbols DEFUN and WRITE-LINE aren't being resolved to symbols in the symbol package COMMON-LISP. I can get the example to work, with (:use :alexandria), by either writing cl:defun and cl:write-line in the code, or saying (:use :common-lisp) in the package definition. I don't know offhand why the symbols aren't resolved in the presence of (:use :alexandria), no doubt there's a simple explanation. Hope this helps, Robert On Wed, Jan 8, 2025 at 3:58 PM Robert Goldman <rpgoldman@sift.info> wrote:
Will you please post a backtrace from SBCL for this. I'm not at all sure I understand what you mean by "this line fails."
What did you do to trigger the error?
(asdf:load-system "hello")
?
On 8 Jan 2025, at 17:37, Russell L. Carter wrote:
Greetings,
I am a common-lisp noob. I am not a programmer noob, nor a build system noob.
I have carefully studied fare's asdf manual, pages 25-26 in the pdf and backwards through the reverse dependencies of the terms used, about the package-inferred-system. I have a problem that I've whittled down to a very small snippet.
I'm using SBCL 2.4.10.117-507e7ae05 and its native ASDF, but also tested against ASDF repo head (ln -s into ~/common-lisp, verified in the repl).
My question is why this system, located in file "./hello.asd", containing:
________________________________
(asdf:defsystem "hello" :class :package-inferred-system :depends-on ("hello/src/main"))
________________________________
paired with the system/package file "./src/main.lisp", containing:
________________________________
(uiop:define-package :hello/src/main ;; (:use :alexandria) ;; XXXRLC This line fails: "The variable MAIN ;; is unbound". I have no idea why. Backtrace provides no clues ;; (to me). Load the library in the repl matters not. Elide that ;; line and (asdf:load-system "hello") => T and then CL-USER> ;; (hello/src/main:main) => urg \n "urg" as expected. (:export #:main))
(in-package :hello/src/main) (defun main () (write-line "urg"))
________________________________
fails as described in the comment. Sure I would like the answer but the more interesting question is how could I debug this failure?
I slogged through the late '90s debugging complex C++ template programming errors. Pages and pages of output. I don't mind doing it again. But I don't know where to start with this ASDF build system.
Thank you for any suggestions, obviously the answer must be trivial.
All the best, Russell L. Carter
Robert P. Goldman Research Fellow Smart Information Flow Technologies (d/b/a SIFT, LLC)
319 N. First Ave., Suite 400 Minneapolis, MN 55401
Google Voice: (612) 326-3934 Cell: (612) 384-3454 Email: rpgoldman@SIFT.net