I just cut & paste what I submitted to the appropriate record in launchpad https://bugs.launchpad.net/asdf/+bug/542583 where the port can be downloaded and given a try.
I attach a straightforward port of two operations that ECL supports:
- Building a unified FASL file that contains either a system, or a system plus all its dependencies. - Building an ASDF system that, using the previous feature, can replace an existing one (this include *.asd file)
The implementation tries to be done with future extensions in mind, such as bundling all executables plus resources into an application, dumping images, etc, but all is constrained into new files that are not required for booting -- should simplify the process of reloading ASDF.
The patch need not be accepted as is. I will submit it for discussion at the mailing list.