bruinbrown/fsharp

The F# compiler, core library and core tools (open source edition)

This is the F# compiler, core library and core tools (open source edition). It uses the Apache 2.0 license.

The master branch is for the latest version of F# (currently F# 3.0).

To bootstrap the compiler, binaries built from an earlier version of this project are used.

Requirements

Requires mono 2.9 or higher. Prefer Mono 3.0.

On OSX, requires automake 2.69. To install from homebrew:

brew install automake

Building

On Linux and other Unix systems:

The usual:

./autogen.sh
make
sudo make install

By default that makes optimized binaries. To make debug, use make CONFIG=debug

On MacOS (OSX)

Use a prefix to your version of Mono:

./autogen.sh --prefix=/Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/Current/
make
sudo make install

By default that makes optimized binaries. To make debug, use make CONFIG=debug

On Windows, using msbuild (e.g.. if .NET is installed)

If you have only VS2012 installed, and not VS2010, you'll need to install the F# 2.0 Runtime (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=13450)

cd src
msbuild fsharp-proto-build.proj
ngen install ..\lib\proto\4.0\fsc-proto.exe (optional)
msbuild fsharp-library-build.proj /p:Configuration=Release
msbuild fsharp-compiler-build.proj /p:Configuration=Release

You can also build the FSharp.Core for .NET 2.0, Mono 2.1, MonoTouch, Silverlight 5.0, Windows Phone 7.1, Portable Profile47 (net45+sl5+win8), Portable Profile88 (net4+sl4+wp71+win8) and XNA 4.0 for Xbox 360 profiles:

msbuild fsharp-library-build.proj /p:TargetFramework=net20 /p:Configuration=Release
msbuild fsharp-library-build.proj /p:TargetFramework=mono21 /p:Configuration=Release
msbuild fsharp-library-build.proj /p:TargetFramework=monotouch /p:Configuration=Release
msbuild fsharp-library-build.proj /p:TargetFramework=portable-net45+sl5+win8 /p:Configuration=Release
msbuild fsharp-library-build.proj /p:TargetFramework=portable-net4+sl4+wp71+win8 /p:Configuration=Release
msbuild fsharp-library-build.proj /p:TargetFramework=sl5 /p:Configuration=Release
msbuild fsharp-library-build.proj /p:TargetFramework=wp7 /p:Configuration=Release
msbuild fsharp-library-build.proj /p:TargetFramework=net40-xna40-xbox360 /p:Configuration=Release

You can also build the FSharp.Core and FSharp.Compiler.Silverlight.dll for Silverlight 5.0:

msbuild fsharp-library-build.proj /p:TargetFramework=sl5-compiler  /p:Configuration=Release
msbuild fsharp-compiler-build.proj /p:TargetFramework=sl5-compiler /p:Configuration=Release

Change to /p:Configuration=Debug for debug binaries.

On Windows, using xbuild (e.g. if no .NET is installed and only Mono 3.0 is installed):

cd src
xbuild fsharp-proto-build.proj
xbuild fsharp-library-build.proj
xbuild fsharp-compiler-build.proj

Building using xbuild does not yet lay down a Mono-ready distribution (see src/fsharp/targets.make), so should only be used for private development rather than preparing distributions.

Strong Names

The FSharp.Core.dll produced is only delay-signed (Mono does not require strong names). If a strong-name signed FSharp.Core.dll is needed then use the one in

   lib\bootstrap\signed\3.0\v4.0\FSharp.Core.dll

What you get

Once built the main compiler binaries go in lib/release/4.0

There are versions of FSharp.Core for .NET 2.0, MonoAndroid, MonoTouch (Mono profile 2.1) in lib/release/2.0 lib/release/2.1 lib/release/2.1monotouch

On 'make install' the binaries etc. go in the prefix, e.g.

/Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/Current/lib/mono/2.0/FSharp.Core.dll /Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/Current/lib/mono/2.1/FSharp.Core.dll /Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/Current/lib/mono/4.0/fsc.exe /Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/Current/lib/mono/4.0/FSharp.Compiler.dll ... /Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/Current/lib/mono/4.5/fsc.exe /Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/Current/lib/mono/4.5/FSharp.Compiler.dll ... /Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/Current/lib/mono/gac/.../FSharp.Compiler.dll /Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/Current/lib/mono/gac/.../FSharp.Compiler.dll ...

plus some files for xbuild support

/Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/Current/lib/mono/Microsoft\ F#/v4.0/*
/Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/Current/lib/mono/Microsoft\ SDKs/F#/3.0/Framework/*

(these names are the canonical names for Microsoft.FSharp.Targets used by project files coming from Visual Studio)

plus scripts

/usr/bin/fsharpc (F# compiler) /usr/bin/fsharpi (F# Interactive)

Development notes

###Continuous Integration Build

We have a CI build set up with the JetBrains/Teamcity server as part of the F# community projects there:

http://teamcity.codebetter.com/project.html?projectId=project61&tab=projectOverview

@forki controls access. Right now this builds both a Mono 'make' install and a Windows 'cd src; msbuild fsharp-build.proj' build. No binaries are saved from the build, it is just for sanity checking.

###Editing the Compiler with Visual Studio or MonoDevelop

Open all-vs2012.sln, and edit in modes Debug or Release. The compiler takes a good while to compile and that can be a bit invasive to the work flow, so it's normally better to do the actual compilation from the command line, see above.

The F# support in MonoDevelop uses an in-process background compiler. On the Mac this causes pausing garbage collections to kick in which makes editing the compiler in MonoDevelop awkward.

Building F# Core Unit Tests for .NET 4.x (optional)

This uses the proto compiler to build the unit tests that check some parts of FSharp.Core.dll and FSharp.Compiler.dll. There is also another set of tests under tests\fsharp.

msbuild fsharp-library-unittests-build.proj /p:TargetFramework=net40

Note: You must have NUnit installed to build the unit tests.

Validation and Use

Here are some simple tests to validate what you have built by checking fsi.exe (F# Interactive) starts up:

lib\debug\4.0\fsi.exe
1 + 1;;
\#q;;
lib\debug\4.0\fsi.exe /help
lib\debug\4.0\fsc.exe /help
echo printfn "hello world" > hello.fs
lib\debug\4.0\fsc.exe hello.fs
hello.exe

Running Compiler tests (on Windows)

There are language tests under tests\fsharp\core. The test apparatus is primitive and unfortunately uses batch files. You can run these on Windows using:

cd ..\tests\fsharp\core
..\..\build-and-run-all-installed-ilx-configs.bat results.log

The results file will contain one entry for each test directory, plus any reported errors.

tests\fsharp\core
tests\fsharp\core\queriesCustomQueryOps
tests\fsharp\core\queriesLeafExpressionConvert
tests\fsharp\core\queriesNullableOperators
tests\fsharp\core\queriesOverIEnumerable
...

Some tests for LINQ queries require SQL Server be installed. A failing test will look like this:

ERRORLEVEL=1: in tests\fsharp\core\csfromfs\build.bat

You can then go to the relevant directory and run build.bat and run.bat.

History

F# compiler sources dropped by Microsoft are available from fsharppowerpack.codeplex.com.

Uses bootstrapping libraries, tools and F# compiler. The lib/bootstrap/X.0 directories contain mono-built libraries, compiler and tools that can be used to bootstrap a build. You can also supply your own via the --with-bootstrap option.