diff --git a/docs/Development.md b/docs/Development.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c3493707 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/Development.md @@ -0,0 +1,76 @@ +--- +layout: main +title: Development Guide +--- + +# Development Guide + +- [Introduction](#introduction) +- [Environment](#environment) +- [Building](#building) +- [Testing a Build](#testing-a-build) +- [Debugging the Runtime](#debugging-the-runtime) + +## Introduction + +This document provides some basic instructions for developing Cyclone itself - the compiler, interpreter, and libraries. Some of this information may also be applicable when troubleshooting problems with the runtime and/or compiled programs. + +## Environment + +During development it is a good idea to clone the `cyclone-bootstrap` repository as well as the `cyclone` one. Place both directories in the same parent directory and you can use `sync.sh` to copy individual compiled files to `cyclone-bootstrap`, or `make bootstrap` to copy everything. + +## Building + +Please use cyclone-bootstrap if you are installing Cyclone on a machine for the first time. Otherwise, if you already have a copy of Cyclone installed you can build from Scheme source. + +The following prerequisites are required: + +- libck (see install instructions) +- make +- gcc + +From the source directory, use the following commands to build and install: + + $ make + $ make test + $ sudo make install + $ cyclone + +By default everything is installed under `/usr/local`. This may be changed by passing a different `PREFIX`. For example: + + make PREFIX=/home/me install + +## Testing a Build + +`make test` may be used to perform basic testing. + +To make sure everything works, install a modified copy of Cyclone and run the following to rebuild the libraries, compiler, interpreter, and examples from source: + + $ make clean + $ make + $ make test + $ make bootstrap + +This confirms that the compiler - with any changes - can still be built from source, and syncs any changes up to `cyclone-bootstrap`. Before checking in a set of changes or releasing a build it is also a good idea to do a rebuild of the bootstrap repo also, to make sure it still works. + +## Debugging the Runtime + +Cyclone should never segfault unless there is a bug in the runtime/compiler. To debug a segfault using the C compiler's tools, first rebuilt Cyclone with debugging turned on. With GCC, you can do this by changing two lines at the top of `Makefile.config` to use the `-g` option instead of `-O2`. + +For example: + + CFLAGS ?= -g -Wall -Iinclude -L. + COMP_CFLAGS ?= -g -Wall -I$(PREFIX)/include -L$(PREFIX)/lib + +Then rebuild/reinstall everything. This may be easiest to do using the [cyclone-bootstrap](https://github.com/justinethier/cyclone-bootstrap) repository; just modify `Makefile.config` and follow the install instructions. + +Now that the C compiler is producing debugging information, you can use `gdb` to debug the segfault directly: + + $ gdb ./crashing-program + (gdb) run + +If you need to specify any command line arguments to the program: + + (gdb) run arg1 arg2 ... + +At this point when the program crashes you should be able to see exactly where it failed. If it failed in `runtime.c` or one of the native C files, it should be straightforward to figure out the problem. If the crash is in a C file generated by Cyclone, the problem will be harder to debug, because likely the compiler either generated code incorrectly or the compiler did not catch an error (such as a missing function parameter) and generated bad code as a result. diff --git a/index.md b/index.md index cf4e8a66..37e28fbb 100644 --- a/index.md +++ b/index.md @@ -50,6 +50,8 @@ Documentation - The [User Manual](docs/User-Manual) covers in detail how to use Cyclone, and provides information and API documentation on the Scheme language features implemented by Cyclone. +- There is a [Development Guide](docs/Development.md) with instructions for common tasks when hacking on the compiler itself. + - Cyclone's [Garbage Collector](docs/Garbage-Collector) is documented at a high-level. This document includes details on extending Cheney on the MTA to support multiple stacks and fusing that approach with a tri-color marking collector. - The [Benchmarks](docs/Benchmarks) page compares the performance of Cyclone with other R7RS Schemes using a common set of benchmarks.