This appears to happen both on 1.369 and whatever is shipped with fresh SBCL. Prerequisites: ensure a setup where both MCCLIM and CL-UTILITIES are loadable after ASDF is loaded. root@auriga:/home/deepfire/source# sbcl --eval '(require :asdf)' --eval '(asdf:find-system :mcclim)' This is SBCL 1.0.33.2, an implementation of ANSI Common Lisp. More information about SBCL is available at <http://www.sbcl.org/>. SBCL is free software, provided as is, with absolutely no warranty. It is mostly in the public domain; some portions are provided under BSD-style licenses. See the CREDITS and COPYING files in the distribution for more information. * (defun asdf-hidden-system-names (name) "Find out names of ASDF systems hiding in system going by NAME. A hidden system is a system with a definition residing in a file named differently from that system's name. Warning: demo-only, trimmed-down version." (let ((asdf::*defined-systems* (make-hash-table :test 'equalp))) (handler-case (let ((*break-on-signals* nil)) (format t "about to find system ~A~%" name) (let ((system (asdf:find-system name))) (format t "finding system ~A: ~A, ~S~%" name system (asdf:system-definition-pathname system)))) (error (c) (format t "~@<; ~@;WARNING: error while querying ASDF about hidden names of system ~S: ~A~:@>~%" name c))) (hash-table-count asdf::*defined-systems*))) ASDF-HIDDEN-SYSTEM-NAMES * (asdf-hidden-system-names :cl-utilities) about to find system CL-UTILITIES ; loading system definition from /root/.sbcl/systems/esa-mcclim.asd into ; #<PACKAGE "ASDF1"> ; registering #<SYSTEM :CLIM-LISP {1003773701}> as CLIM-LISP ; registering #<SYSTEM :CLIM-BASIC {10037D4331}> as CLIM-BASIC ; registering #<SYSTEM :GOATEE-CORE {10038425B1}> as GOATEE-CORE ; registering #<SYSTEM :CLIM-POSTSCRIPT {10038A3601}> as CLIM-POSTSCRIPT ; registering #<SYSTEM :CLIM-CORE {1003904611}> as CLIM-CORE ; registering #<SYSTEM :ESA-MCCLIM {100396A641}> as ESA-MCCLIM ; loading system definition from /root/.sbcl/systems/swank.asd into ; #<PACKAGE "ASDF2"> ; registering #<SYSTEM :SWANK {1003A6F6F1}> as SWANK ; registering #<SYSTEM :DREI-MCCLIM {1002F89911}> as DREI-MCCLIM ; registering #<SYSTEM :DREI-TESTS {1003004691}> as DREI-TESTS ; registering #<SYSTEM :CLIM {100306A641}> as CLIM ; registering #<SYSTEM :CLIM-CLX {10030C5591}> as CLIM-CLX ; registering #<SYSTEM :CLIM-BEAGLE {1003129621}> as CLIM-BEAGLE ; registering #<SYSTEM :CLIM-NULL {100319F5A1}> as CLIM-NULL ; registering #<SYSTEM :CLIM-GTKAIRO {10031FD5B1}> as CLIM-GTKAIRO ; registering #<SYSTEM :CLIM-GRAPHIC-FORMS {1003261AE1}> as CLIM-GRAPHIC-FORMS ; registering #<SYSTEM :CLIM-OPENGL {10032C6631}> as CLIM-OPENGL ; registering #<SYSTEM :CLIM-LOOKS {1003322B11}> as CLIM-LOOKS ; registering #<SYSTEM :MCCLIM {1003388291}> as MCCLIM finding system CL-UTILITIES: #<SYSTEM "cl-utilities" {1002C5F2F1}>, #P"/root/.sbcl/systems/cl-utilities.asd" 20 * What happens here is that cl-utilities.asd imperatively requires sb-rotate-byte from within its supposedly declarative sysdef, loading of which, through some inexplicable twist of events, causes lookups of seemingly unrelated software. A backtrace which reveals somewhat more of what's going on: 1: (FIND-SYSTEM "esa-mcclim" NIL) 2: ((SB-PCL::FAST-METHOD FIND-COMPONENT ((EQL NIL) T)) #<unused argument> #<unused argument> #<unused argument> "esa-mcclim" NIL) 3: (ASDF::PARSE-COMPONENT-FORM NIL (:MODULE "esa-mcclim" :PATHNAME #P"/little/home/empty/desr/git/mcclim/" :DEPENDS-ON (:CLIM-CORE) :COMPONENTS ((:MODULE "ESA" :COMPONENTS ((:FILE "packages") (:FILE "utils" :DEPENDS-ON #) (:FILE "colors" :DEPENDS-ON #) (:FILE "esa" :DEPENDS-ON #) (:FILE "esa-buffer" :DEPENDS-ON #) (:FILE "esa-io" :DEPENDS-ON #) (:FILE "esa-command-parser" :DEPENDS-ON #)))))) 4: (SB-INT:SIMPLE-EVAL-IN-LEXENV (ASDF::PARSE-COMPONENT-FORM NIL (APPLY #'LIST :MODULE (ASDF::COERCE-NAME ':ESA-MCCLIM) :PATHNAME #P"/little/home/empty/desr/git/mcclim/" '(:DEPENDS-ON (:CLIM-CORE) :COMPONENTS ((:MODULE "ESA" :COMPONENTS #))))) #<NULL-LEXENV>) 5: (SB-INT:SIMPLE-EVAL-IN-LEXENV (DEFSYSTEM :ESA-MCCLIM :DEPENDS-ON (:CLIM-CORE) :COMPONENTS ((:MODULE "ESA" :COMPONENTS ((:FILE "packages") (:FILE "utils" :DEPENDS-ON #) (:FILE "colors" :DEPENDS-ON #) (:FILE "esa" :DEPENDS-ON #) (:FILE "esa-buffer" :DEPENDS-ON #) (:FILE "esa-io" :DEPENDS-ON #) (:FILE "esa-command-parser" :DEPENDS-ON #))))) #<NULL-LEXENV>) 6: (SB-FASL::LOAD-AS-SOURCE #<SB-SYS:FD-STREAM for "file /little/home/empty/desr/git/mcclim/mcclim.asd" {1002FABE21}> NIL NIL) 7: ((FLET SB-FASL::LOAD-STREAM) #<SB-SYS:FD-STREAM for "file /little/home/empty/desr/git/mcclim/mcclim.asd" {1002FABE21}> NIL) 8: (LOAD #P"/home/empty/desr/git/.asdf-registry/esa-mcclim.asd")[:EXTERNAL] 9: (FIND-SYSTEM :ESA-MCCLIM T) 10: ((SB-PCL::FAST-METHOD PERFORM :AROUND (T T)) #<unavailable argument> #S(SB-PCL::FAST-METHOD-CALL :FUNCTION #<CLOSURE # {1002F99259}> :PV NIL :NEXT-METHOD-CALL NIL :ARG-INFO (2)) #<LOAD-OP NIL {1002F6F791}> #<CL-SOURCE-FILE "package" {1002EC6341}>) 11: ((SB-PCL::FAST-METHOD PERFORM AROUND (LOAD-OP CL-SOURCE-FILE)) #<unavailable argument> #S(SB-PCL::FAST-METHOD-CALL :FUNCTION #<FUNCTION #> :PV NIL :NEXT-METHOD-CALL #S(SB-PCL::FAST-METHOD-CALL :FUNCTION # :PV NIL :NEXT-METHOD-CALL NIL :ARG-INFO (2)) :ARG-INFO (2)) #<LOAD-OP NIL {1002F6F791}> #<CL-SOURCE-FILE "package" {1002EC6341}>) 12: ((LAMBDA ())) 13: ((FLET SB-THREAD::WITH-RECURSIVE-LOCK-THUNK)) 14: ((FLET #:WITHOUT-INTERRUPTS-BODY-[CALL-WITH-RECURSIVE-LOCK]291)) 15: (SB-THREAD::CALL-WITH-RECURSIVE-LOCK #<CLOSURE (FLET SB-THREAD::WITH-RECURSIVE-LOCK-THUNK) {7FFFF519F9D9}> #S(SB-THREAD:MUTEX :NAME "World Lock" :%OWNER #<SB-THREAD:THREAD "initial thread" RUNNING {10029D7091}> :STATE 1)) 16: (SB-C::%WITH-COMPILATION-UNIT #<CLOSURE (LAMBDA #) {1002F97EB9}>)[:EXTERNAL] 17: (OPERATE LOAD-OP :SB-ROTATE-BYTE)[:EXTERNAL] 18: (ASDF::MODULE-PROVIDE-ASDF :SB-ROTATE-BYTE) 19: ((LAMBDA (#:G[REQUIRE]13)) ASDF::MODULE-PROVIDE-ASDF) 20: (SB-IMPL::%MAP-FOR-EFFECT-ARITY-1 #<CLOSURE (LAMBDA #) {10053D3949}> (ASDF::MODULE-PROVIDE-ASDF SB-IMPL::MODULE-PROVIDE-CONTRIB)) 21: (REQUIRE :SB-ROTATE-BYTE NIL) 22: ((LAMBDA ())) 23: (SB-INT:SIMPLE-EVAL-IN-LEXENV (HANDLER-CASE (PROGN (REQUIRE :SB-ROTATE-BYTE) (PUSHNEW :SBCL-USES-SB-ROTATE-BYTE *FEATURES*)) (ERROR NIL (DELETE :SBCL-USES-SB-ROTATE-BYTE *FEATURES*))) #<NULL-LEXENV>) 24: (SB-INT:SIMPLE-EVAL-IN-LEXENV (EVAL-WHEN (:COMPILE-TOPLEVEL :LOAD-TOPLEVEL :EXECUTE) (HANDLER-CASE (PROGN (REQUIRE :SB-ROTATE-BYTE) (PUSHNEW :SBCL-USES-SB-ROTATE-BYTE *FEATURES*)) (ERROR NIL (DELETE :SBCL-USES-SB-ROTATE-BYTE *FEATURES*)))) #<NULL-LEXENV>) 25: (SB-FASL::LOAD-AS-SOURCE #<SB-SYS:FD-STREAM for "file /little/home/empty/desr/git/cl-utilities/cl-utilities.asd" {10050BA141}> NIL NIL) 26: ((FLET SB-FASL::LOAD-STREAM) #<SB-SYS:FD-STREAM for "file /little/home/empty/desr/git/cl-utilities/cl-utilities.asd" {10050BA141}> NIL) 27: (LOAD #P"/home/empty/desr/git/.asdf-registry/cl-utilities.asd")[:EXTERNAL] 28: (FIND-SYSTEM "cl-utilities" T) 29: ((FLET #:FORM-FUN-[EXIT-TAG-[ASDF-HIDDEN-SYSTEM-NAMES]518]529)) 30: (DESIRE::ASDF-HIDDEN-SYSTEM-NAMES #S(CL-UTILITIES :MODULE DESIRE::CL-UTILITIES)) I find this effect too drastic for my liking. I hope I'm not alone on this :-) regards, Samium Gromoff -- _deepfire-at-feelingofgreen.ru O< ascii ribbon campaign - stop html mail - www.asciiribbon.org