summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/README.adoc
blob: 3c361cd8ceb5f64f34ae73d48e5983abe2e7837d (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
=== ⚠️ CAUTION

The developer team is currently preparing the release of OCaml 5.0. This release
sports a full rewrite of its runtime system for shared-memory parallel
programming using domains and native support for concurrent programming using
effect handlers.

Owing to the large number of changes, the initial 5.0 release will be more
experimental than usual.  It is recommended that all users wanting a stable
release use the 4.14 release which will continue to be supported and updated
while 5.0 reaches feature and stability parity. Similarly, if you need one of
the ports not yet supported in the 5.0 release you must use the 4.14 release.

The initial release of OCaml 5.0 will only support the native compiler under
ARM64 and x86-64 architectures under Linux and macOS. On Windows, only the
Mingw-w64 port is supported.  Support for other 64-bit architectures and systems
will be added back in later releases. On 32-bit systems, only the bytecode
compiler is supported.  Native-code support for these systems is under
discussion.

|=====
| Branch `trunk` | Branch `4.14` | Branch `4.13` | Branch `4.12`

| image:https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/workflows/Build/badge.svg?branch=trunk["Github CI Build Status (trunk branch)",
     link="https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/actions?query=workflow%3ABuild"]
  image:https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/workflows/Hygiene/badge.svg?branch=trunk["Github CI Hygiene Status (trunk branch)",
     link="https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/actions?query=workflow%3AHygiene"]
  image:https://ci.appveyor.com/api/projects/status/github/ocaml/ocaml?branch=trunk&svg=true["AppVeyor Build Status (trunk branch)",
     link="https://ci.appveyor.com/project/avsm/ocaml"]
| image:https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/workflows/main/badge.svg?branch=4.14["Github CI Build Status (4.14 branch)",
     link="https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/actions?query=workflow%3Amain"]
  image:https://ci.appveyor.com/api/projects/status/github/ocaml/ocaml?branch=4.14&svg=true["AppVeyor Build Status (4.14 branch)",
     link="https://ci.appveyor.com/project/avsm/ocaml"]
| image:https://travis-ci.org/ocaml/ocaml.svg?branch=4.13["TravisCI Build Status (4.13 branch)",
     link="https://travis-ci.org/ocaml/ocaml"]
  image:https://ci.appveyor.com/api/projects/status/github/ocaml/ocaml?branch=4.13&svg=true["AppVeyor Build Status (4.13 branch)",
     link="https://ci.appveyor.com/project/avsm/ocaml"]
| image:https://travis-ci.org/ocaml/ocaml.svg?branch=4.12["TravisCI Build Status (4.12 branch)",
     link="https://travis-ci.org/ocaml/ocaml"]
  image:https://ci.appveyor.com/api/projects/status/github/ocaml/ocaml?branch=4.12&svg=true["AppVeyor Build Status (4.12 branch)",
     link="https://ci.appveyor.com/project/avsm/ocaml"]
|=====

= README =

== Overview

OCaml is a functional, statically-typed programming language from the
ML family, offering a powerful module system extending that of
Standard ML and a feature-rich, class-based object system.

OCaml comprises two compilers. One generates bytecode which is then
interpreted by a C program. This compiler runs quickly, generates
compact code with moderate memory requirements, and is portable to
many 32 or 64 bit platforms. Performance of generated programs is
quite good for a bytecoded implementation.  This compiler can be used
either as a standalone, batch-oriented compiler that produces
standalone programs, or as an interactive REPL system.

The other compiler generates high-performance native code for a number of
processors. Compilation takes longer and generates bigger code, but the
generated programs deliver excellent performance, while retaining the
moderate memory requirements of the bytecode compiler. The native-code
compiler currently runs on the following platforms:

|====
|                |  Tier 1 (actively maintained)   | Tier 2 (maintained when possible)

| x86 64 bits    | Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD  |  NetBSD, OpenBSD
| x86 32 bits    | Linux, Windows                  |  FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD
| ARM 64 bits    | Linux, macOS                    |  FreeBSD
| ARM 32 bits    | Linux                           |  FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD
| Power 64 bits  | Linux                           |
| Power 32 bits  | Linux                           |
| RISC-V 64 bits | Linux                           |
| IBM Z (s390x)  | Linux                           |
|====

Other operating systems for the processors above have not been tested, but
the compiler may work under other operating systems with little work.


== Copyright

All files marked "Copyright INRIA" in this distribution are
Copyright (C) 1996-2021 Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et
en Automatique (INRIA) and distributed under the conditions stated in
file LICENSE.

== Installation

See the file link:INSTALL.adoc[] for installation instructions on
machines running Unix, Linux, macOS, WSL and Cygwin.  For native Microsoft
Windows, see link:README.win32.adoc[].

== Documentation

The OCaml manual is distributed in HTML, PDF, and Emacs
Info files.  It is available at

https://ocaml.org/releases/latest/manual.html

== Availability

The complete OCaml distribution can be accessed at

https://ocaml.org/docs/install.html

== Keeping in Touch with the Caml Community

There is an active and friendly discussion forum at

https://discuss.ocaml.org/

The OCaml mailing list is the longest-running forum for OCaml users.
You can email it at

mailto:caml-list@inria.fr[]

You can subscribe and access list archives via the Web interface at

https://sympa.inria.fr/sympa/subscribe/caml-list

An alternative archive of the mailing list is also available at

https://inbox.ocaml.org/

There also exist other mailing lists, chat channels, and various other forums
around the internet for getting in touch with the OCaml and ML family language
community. These can be accessed at

https://ocaml.org/community/

In particular, the IRC channel `#ocaml` on https://libera.chat/[Libera] has a
long history and welcomes questions.

== Bug Reports and User Feedback

Please report bugs using the issue tracker at
https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/issues

To be effective, bug reports should include a complete program (preferably
small) that exhibits the unexpected behavior, and the configuration you are
using (machine type, etc).

For information on contributing to OCaml, see link:HACKING.adoc[] and
link:CONTRIBUTING.md[].

== Separately maintained components

Some libraries and tools which used to be part of the OCaml distribution are
now maintained separately. Please use the issue trackers at their respective
new homes:

- https://github.com/ocaml/graphics/issues[The Graphics library] (removed in OCaml 4.09)
- https://github.com/ocaml/num/issues[The Num library] (removed in OCaml 4.06)
- https://github.com/ocaml/ocamlbuild/issues[The OCamlbuild tool] (removed in OCaml 4.03)
- https://github.com/camlp4/camlp4/issues[The camlp4 tool] (removed in OCaml 4.02)
- https://github.com/garrigue/labltk/issues[The LablTk library] (removed in OCaml 4.02)
- https://github.com/ocaml/dbm/issues[The CamlDBM library] (removed in OCaml 4.00)
- https://github.com/xavierleroy/ocamltopwin/issues[The OCamlWinTop Windows toplevel] (removed in OCaml 4.00)