How to distribute the asdf/quicklisp dependencies along with an app compiled with Embeddable Common Lisp?

Question

I have tried this example ECL repository asdf example , it works fine but it doesn't have any asdf dependencies. If i add

:depends-on (#:inferior-shell)

to example.asd then running the compiled standalone executable gives this error :

Condition of type: SIMPLE-PACKAGE-ERROR
There exists no package with name "ASDF/DRIVER"
No restarts available.

What causes this error, and what is the idiomatic way of dealing with asdf dependencies on ECL ?

Answer 1

EDIT: this problem is fixed for ECL newer than 16.1.3 (fixed in develop branch), so no `require' trick should be needed in the upcoming release.

In general path you have taken is correct.

Make sure, that you have required the ASDF:

(require 'asdf)
(find-package "ASDF/DRIVER")

Then "ASDF/DRIVER" package is defined. On the other hand inferior-shell requires a few other libraries (alexandria for instance), so you have to put the path to them in the ASDF central registry or use the Quicklisp bundles .

More detailed info about building with ECL is available in its Documentation .

// EDIT After investigation it appears that ASDF has to be manually required at the program start. It is probably a bug. As a workaround add

:prologue-code '(require 'asdf)

to the (asdf:make-build …) for standalone executable. Everything works fine then.