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mlkit(1) MLKit - a compiler for Standard ML mlkit(1)

mlkit - A fullblown Standard ML compiler

mlkit [OPTION]... [file.sml | file.sig | file.mlb]

All possible options are listed below.

--SML_LIB You_did_not_set_path_to_install_dir, -aopt on, --alloc_protect_always off, -argo off, -as as --64, -verbose off, --comments_in_asmcode off, -c off, -timings off, --contract on, -cr off, -cross_opt on, -dangle off, --dangling_pointers_statistics off, -debug off, -dcs off, --debug_linking off, --debug_man_enrich off, -Dpar off, --debug_which_at off, --delete_target_files on, --disable_atbot_analysis off, --disable_flow_var off, --disable_spurious_type_variables off, --eliminate_explicit_records on, --extra_gc_checks off, --fix_floating on, -gc on, -g off, -gengc off, --high_pointer_tagging on, -basislib on, --inline_functors off, --libs m,c,dl, -ldexe gcc13, -ldshared gcc13, -ltdce on, --log_to_file off, --maximum_inline_size 200, --maximum_specialise_size 200, --messages on, --minimize_fixs on, --namebase dummyBase, --objs off, -opt on, -o run, -j 1, -par off, -par0 off, -ptc on, --pretty_depth 5, --pretty_string_size 80, --print_K_normal_forms off, -Ppp off, --print_bit_vectors off, --print_calc_offset_program off, -Pcee off, -Pccp off, -Pceb off, --print_constraints off, -Pdre off, -Pdresm off, -Peffects off, --print_excon_name off, -Peb off, --print_fetch_and_flush_program off, --print_linearised_program off, --print_lvar_name off, --print_normalized_program off, -Pole off, -Ppse off, -Ppeast off, -Prfg off, -Prip off, -Prsp off, -Prse0 off, -Pregions on, --print_register_allocated_program off, --print_rho_levels off, -Prho_protection off, --print_rho_types off, --print_simplified_program off, -Psme off, -Ptypestamps off, -Ptypes off, -quot off, --raggedRight on, -scratch off, -ri on, -prof off, --regionvar ~1, --register_allocation on, --reml off, --report_boxities off, -sig off, -rep on, --safeLinkTimeElimination off, --specialize_recursive_functions on, --statistics_after_optimisation off, -stats_spurious off, --strip off, --tag_pairs off, -tag on, --type_check_lambda on, --unbox_function_arguments on, --unbox_reals on, -uncurry on, --values_64bit on, --warn_on_escaping_puts off, --warn_on_parallel_puts off, --warn_spurious off, -w 100.

When invoked, mlkit will compile the specified sources into an executable file run through a series of translation phases. The various options can be used to control the printing of intermediate forms and to control which optimizations are performed. If source files are organised in ML Basis Files (files with extension .mlb), the compiler will memoize symbol table information and object code in the dedicated MLB directories located relative to the source files.

If mlkit is invoked without source files, an interactive REPL is started. Type ':help;' within the REPL to learn more about its use.

To learn more about programming with MLKit, consult the MLKit web page at

http://melsman.github.io/mlkit

The MLKit implements Standard ML (Revised 1997) and has almost full support for the Standard ML Basis Library (version of 2002). See the MLKit home page for a detailed overview of the support for the Standard ML Basis Library.

For examples, consult the MLKit manual "Programming with Regions in the MLKit", which is available from the MLKit home page.

Installation directory for the MLKit standard library. For normal execution you should not modify this value. However, if you wish to use the MLKit with an altered runtime system you can update this setting and the system will try to link to a runtime system found in the specified install directory.
Enable aggressive optimisations, including constant folding and aggressive inlining. These optimisations are not guaranteed to be region safe. Turning off garbage collection automatically turns off this option.
Always protect allocation when parallelism is enabled. That is, disregard the result of protection inference.
When enabled, executables link with the Argobots lightweight thread library.
This option specifies the assembler used. On Linux the default is 'as --64'. On macOS, the default is 'as -q'.
Print a message for each compilation step in the compiler.
Insert comments in assembler code.
Compile only. Suppresses generation of executable
Show compiler timings for each compilation phase.
Contract is responsible for inlining, specialization, elimination of dead code, and much else (Lambda Expression Optimiser).
When this option is enabled, identically typed regions bound by the same letregion construct are unified. Moreover, region parameters to non-exported functions are trimmed whenever possible.
Enable cross-module optimisation including inlining of small functions and specialisation of small recursive functions. Which optimisations are performed across modules is controlled by individual optimisation flags.
When this option is disabled, dangling pointers are avoided by forcing values captured in closures to live at-least as long as the closure itself. So as to make garbage collection sound, this option is disabled by default when garbage collection is enabled.
When enabled, the compiler prints statistics about the number of times strengthening of the region typing rules (to avoid dangling pointers during evaluation) effects the target program. This flag is useful only when the flag -gc or -no_dangle is enabled.
Print intermediate forms of a program during compilation.
Debug ReML constraint solving.
Debug linking of target code by showing which object files are linked together.
Show information about why a program unit need be recompiled. A program unit (or a functor body) is recompiled if either (a) the program unit is modified, or (b) information about an identifier for which the program unit depends upon has changed.
Debug parallelism, including protection inference.
Debug storage mode analysis.
Delete assembler files produced by the compiler. If you disable this flag, you can inspect the assembler code produced by the compiler.
Disable storage mode analysis. That is, turn all allocation directives into attop.
Disable optimised compilation of control-flow code, such as conditional expressions.
Disable inference of spurious type variables. This option may crash the reference tracing garbage collector as it may result in dangling pointers. This flag is relevant only when garbage collection is enabled.
Eliminate bindings of explicit records only used for selections. Transform
let r = (e1,...,en) in ... #i r .. #j r ... into
let x1=e1 in ... let xn=en in ... xi .. xj ... (Lambda Expression Optimiser).
Insert check for GC even in functions that do not allocate.
Float fix-bindings into immediate let-bindings when possible to help tail-calls not be captured in let- region bindings.
Enable garbage collection. When enabled, regions are garbage collected during execution of the program. When garbage collection is enabled, all values are tagged. Due to region inference, for most programs, the garbage collector is invoked less often than for systems based only on garbage collection. When garbage collection is enabled, introduction of dangling pointers are avoided by forcing values captured in closures to live at-least as long as the closure. Moreover, enabling garbage collection implicitly enables the preservation of tail calls (see the option ``preserve_tail_calls''.)
When enabled, the compiler passes the option --gstabs to `as' (The GNU Assembler) and preserves the generated assembler files (.s files). Passing the --gstabs option to `as' makes it possible to step through the generated program using gdb (The GNU Debugger).
Enable generational garbage collection. Same as option garbage collection except that two generations are used for each region.
Print extended help information and exit.
Print help information about an option and exit.
When enabled, the 16 most-significant bits in pointers may be used for tagging.
Import Basis Library automatically in your projects. If you wish to make use of the Standard ML Basis Library in your projects, this option should be turned on, unless you wish to import the Basis Library manually in your projects.
Inline functors during static interpretation instead of generating separate target code blocks for functor bodies and arguments. With the flag enabled, performance may increase with the cost of larger (re)compilation times. The flag may be controlled in mlb-files using mlb- annotations.
Names of functions that should always be inlined if possible, no matter the setting of the flag --maximum_inline_size.
This option controls where ld looks for archives. The format is a comma-separated list of directories; see the -libs entry. The default is the empty list; thus 'ld' will look for libraries in only the system specific default directores. The directories are passed to 'ld' using the -L option.
For accessing a foreign function residing in an archive named libNAME.a from Standard ML code (using prim), you need to add 'NAME' to this comma-separated list. Notice that an object file (with extension '.o') is an archive if it is renamed to have extension '.a'. You may need to use the -libdirs option for specifying directories for which ld should look for library archives. The libraries are passed to 'ld' using the -l option.
Link-files to be linked together to form an executable.
This option specifies the command used for linking an executable. The standard is to use 'gcc' for linking. When linking with c++ libraries, 'g++' is the linker you want. On Linux the default is 'gcc13', whereas on newer macOS systems (Darwin > 23.1), the default is 'gcc13 -Wl,-ld_classic,-stack_size,0x10000000' and on older macOS systems, the default is
This option specifies the command used for linking a shared object file. The standard is to use 'gcc' for linking.
Link time dead code elimination.
Basis files to be loaded before compilation proper.
Log to files instead of stdout.
Print man-page and exit.
Functions smaller than this size (counted in abstract syntax tree nodes) are inlined, even if they are used more than once. Functions that are used only once are always inlined.
Curried functions smaller than this size (counted in abstract syntax tree nodes) are specialised if all applications of the function within its own body are applied to its formal argument, even if they are used more than once. Functions that are used only once are specialised no matter their size. See also the option --specialize_recursive_functions.
Print messages about reading source files and generating target files.
Minimize fix constructs (Lambda Expression Optimiser).
For ensuring that the smart recompilation scheme is not reusing target-code compiled with different settings, a string provided with the mlb-subdir option can ensure the use of consistently generated code. This option is Useful, in particular, when performing benchmarking.
ML Basis path map files to be used.
Name base to enforce unique names when compiling mlb-files.
Opposite of --aggresive_opt, -aopt.
Opposite of --contract.
Opposite of --cross_module_opt, -cross_opt.
Opposite of --dangling_pointers, -dangle.
Opposite of --delete_target_files.
Opposite of --eliminate_explicit_records.
Opposite of --fix_floating.
Opposite of --garbage_collection, -gc.
Opposite of --generational_garbage_collection, -gengc.
Opposite of --high_pointer_tagging.
Opposite of --import_basislib, -basislib.
Opposite of --link_time_dead_code_elimination, -ltdce.
Opposite of --messages.
Opposite of --minimize_fixs.
Opposite of --optimiser, -opt.
Opposite of --preserve_tail_calls, -ptc.
Opposite of --print_regions, -Pregions.
Opposite of --raggedRight.
Opposite of --region_inference, -ri.
Opposite of --register_allocation.
Opposite of --repository, -rep.
Opposite of --specialize_recursive_functions.
Opposite of --type_check_lambda.
Opposite of --unbox_function_arguments.
Opposite of --unbox_reals.
Opposite of --uncurrying, -uncurry.
If enabled, MLKit writes object-file paths to the file run or the file specified by -output. The path to the runtime system (archive file) is included. The option is best used together with the option -no_delete_target_files.
Enable optimisation of intermediate language code (Lambda Expressions). Which optimisations are performed is controlled by individual flags. The optimisations include function inlining, function specialisation, fix-minimization, unboxing of function arguments, and elimination of unnecessary record constructions.
The name of the executable file generated by the Kit.
The maximum number of parallel processes used for compilation.
When enabled, the runtime system supports parallel threads.
When enabled, allocation into a region is not guaranteed to be atomic.
Avoid the wrapping of letregion constructs around tail calls. Turning on garbage collection automatically turns on this option.
This flag controls the pretty-printing depth of values printed in the REPL. The value must be an integer larger than zero.
This flag controls the pretty-printing size of strings printed in the REPL. The value must be an integer larger than zero.
Print Region Expressions in K-Normal Form. Applicable, only after storage mode analysis has been applied.
Print all program points when printing physical size inference expressions.

Print Region Expression with call annotations.
Print Region Expression after closure conversion.
Controls printing of closed export bases.
Print ReML effect constraints when printing region and effect variables.
Print Region Expression after dropping word regions and region arguments with only get-effects.
Print Region Expression after dropping word regions and region arguments with only get-effects. Also print atbot and attop annotations resulting from storage mode analysis.
Print effects in region types.
Print underlying unique name when printing excons.
Controls printing of export bases.
Print program with instructions for activation record fetching and flushing.
Print a linearlised representation of the program unit.
Print underlying unique name when printing lvars.
Print Region Expression after K-normalisation.
Print Lambda Expression after optimisation.
Print Region Expression after physical size inference.
Print ast after elaboration.
Print a region flow graph for the program fragment and generate a .vcg-file, which can be viewed using the xvcg program.
Print region-inferred program.
Print region-spreaded program.
Print imported region static environment prior to region inference.
Print region variables in types and expressions.

Print levels of region and effect variables in types and intermediate forms. Levels control quantification of region and effect variables.
Print protectedness of region variables if set (P or U).
Print region types of region variables in types and intermediate forms. Possible region types are:
p Type of regions containing pairs.
a Type of regions containing arrays.
r Type of regions containing references.
t Type of regions containing triples.
s Type of regions containing strings.
T Type of regions containing other than the above
kinds of values.
Print simplified program after register allocation.
Print Region Expression after storage mode analysis
Print type name stamps and their attributes in types and expressions.
Print types when printing intermediate forms. For Lambda Expressions, ordinary ML types are printed, whereas for Region Expressions, region types are printed.
Enable support for quotations and anti-quotations. When enabled, the datatype
datatype 'a frag = QUOTE of string
| ANTIQUOTE 'a is available in the initial environment. Moreover, values of this datatype may be constructed using the quotation/antiquotation syntax:
val s = "world"
val a : string frag list = `hello ^s - goodbye`
Use ragged right margin in pretty-printing of expressions and types.
Recompile basis library from scratch. This option is useful together with other options that control code generation.
With this flag disabled, all values are allocated in global regions.
Enable region profiling. Object code stemming from compiling a program with region profiling enabled is instrumented with profiling information. When a program compiled with region profiling enabled is run, the program produces a profile file run.rp, which can then be read by the profiling tool rp2ps that comes with the MLKit to produce profiling graphs of various forms.
Uses the provided number as the id of the first generated region variable. When this option is provided together with the -c option, a file f.rv is written in the MLB/ directory with two numbers in it: the id for the first region variable generated and the id for the last region variable generated. The number given must be greater than any id for a top-level region/effect variable (>9).
Perform register allocation. Without register allocation enabled, programs run somewhat slower--but they run and you save about 15 percent on compile time.
ReML is Standard ML with support for programming with explicit regions, explicit effects, and effect constraints. With ReML, atomic effects also include mutation effects. Whereas ReML include parallel thread support, ReML does not support integration with reference-tracing garbage collection.
Report for every datatype declaration the inferred boxity (representation) of its value constructors.
Report signatures for each file read.
Use in-memory repository to avoid unnecessary recompilation. This flag should be disabled when compiling mlb-files, which make use of the file system as a repository.
Treat this module as a library in the sense that the code can be eliminated if it is not used, even if the code has side effects.
Specialise recursive functions. Use the option maximum_specialise_size to control which functions are specialised. If this flag is on, functions that are applied only once are specialised, no matter the setting of maximum_specialise_size (Lambda Expression Optimiser).
Report optimisation statistics after optimisation of Lambda Expression.
Report statistics on spurious functions and instantiations of spurious type variable. This flag is relevant only when garbage collection is enabled.
If enabled, MLKit strips the generated executable.
Use a tagged representation of pairs for garbage collection. Garbage collection works fine with a tag-free representation of pairs, so this option is here for measurement purposes.
Enable tagging of values as used when garbage collection is enabled for implementing pointer traversal.
Type check lambda expression prior to performing region inference. Type checking is very fast and for normal use you should not disable this option. Type checking intermediate forms is very powerful for eliminating bugs in the compiler.
Unbox arguments to fix-bound functions, for which the argument `a' is used only in contexts `#i a'. All call sites are transformed to match the new function (Lambda Expression Optimiser).
Unbox real values and computations on real values inside functions. Real values stored in data structures and passed to functions are still boxed.
Enable uncurrying of curried functions. The uncurried function takes its arguments unboxed in registers or on the stack. For partial applications and non- application uses of the function, appropriate eta- expansions are applied.
Support 64-bit values. Should be enabled for backends supporting 64-bit integers and words.
Print version information and exit.
Enable the compiler to issue a warning whenever a region type scheme contains a put effect on a region that is not quantified.
Enable the compiler to issue a warning whenever a par-construct is passed functions with intersecting put effects.
Warn on the presence of a spurious type variable. This flag is relevant only when garbage collection is enabled.
Column width used when pretty printing intermediate code.

Exits with status 0 on success and -1 on failure.

A library install directory must be provided in an environment variable SML_LIB or as a path-definition in either the system wide path-map /etc/mlkit/mlb-path-map or in the user's personal path-map ~/.mlkit/mlb-path-map.

/etc/mlkit/mlb-path-map
System-wide configuration of library and runtime system locations
~/.mlkit/mlb-path-map
User specific configuration of library and runtime system locations

The MLKit (version 2 and beyond) was developed by Lars Birkedal, Martin Elsman, Niels Hallenberg, Tommy H. Olesen, Mads Tofte, and Carsten Varming. People who have contributed with bug-fixes and improvements include Peter Bertelsen, Vesa Karvonen, Ken Friis Larsen, Henning Niss, Peter Sestoft, and Troels Henriksen. Nick Rothwell and David N. Turner took part in the development of the MLKit version 1.

See the MLKit manual "Programming with Regions in the MLKit", available from the MLKit home page

http://melsman.github.io/mlkit

for an in-depth introduction to programming with regions in the MLKit.

The home page also provides an overview of which parts of the Standard ML Basis Library the MLKit implements, along with download and installation instructions.

2024-11-27 version v4.7.13
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