Compiling¶

What are Pony’s supported CPU platforms?¶

See supported platforms in the ponyc README.

I get a “requires dynamic” error when compiling, how do I solve it?¶

/usr/bin/ld.gold: error: ./fb.o: requires dynamic R_X86_64_32
  reloc against 'Array_String_val_Trace' which may
  overflow at runtime; recompile with -fPIC

try running ponyc with the --pic flag.

For example:

ponyc --pic examples/helloworld

As of Pony 0.17.0, if you are building ponyc from source, you can have --pic automatically set for you. When building ponyc, run the following make command and your generated ponyc binary will always supply --pic without you having to set it.

make default_pic=true

On Windows I get `fatal error LNK1112: module machine type 'x86' conflicts with target machine type 'x64'`¶

Only 64-bit Windows is supported.

Make sure you’re running a cmd.exe/powershell.exe that does not include 32-bit VS environment variables.

This error occurs when ponyc is compiled in a 32-bit Visual Studio Developer Command Prompt.

How can I supply custom linker parameters?¶

So, you need to link your program to a custom library or otherwise pass a particular linker option? You can accomplish your goal using the ponyc --linker option.

You’ll need to know what your current linker is. To get it, compile a pony program and pass --verbose 3.

On Linux, MacOS or other Unix-like¶

Then examine the output. You should see something like:

ld -execute -no_pie -dead_strip -arch x86_64 -macosx_version_min 10.8
  -o ./timer ./timer.o -L"/usr/local/lib/pony/0.9.0-e64bff88c/bin/"
  -L"/usr/local/lib/pony/0.9.0-e64bff88c/bin/../lib"
  -L"/usr/local/lib/pony/0.9.0-e64bff88c/bin/../packages"
  -L"/usr/local/lib" -lponyrt -lSystem

The ld is the linker command that is usually used on MacOS or Linux. If I wanted to link in the library Foo and needed to pass -lFoo then I would compile my program as:

ponyc --linker="ld -lFoo"

That would change the linker command that ponyc runs to:

ld -lFoo -execute -no_pie -dead_strip -arch x86_64 -macosx_version_min 10.8
  -o ./timer ./timer.o -L"/usr/local/lib/pony/0.9.0-e64bff88c/bin/"
  -L"/usr/local/lib/pony/0.9.0-e64bff88c/bin/../lib"
  -L"/usr/local/lib/pony/0.9.0-e64bff88c/bin/../packages"
  -L"/usr/local/lib" -lponyrt -lSystem

On Windows¶

Compiling a pony program with --verbose 3 will produce something like:

cmd /C ""C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.11.25503\bin\HostX64\x64\link.exe"
  /DEBUG /NOLOGO /MACHINE:X64 /OUT:.\helloworld.exe .\helloworld.obj
  /LIBPATH:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Lib\10.0.15063.0\ucrt\x64"
  /LIBPATH:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Lib\10.0.15063.0\um\x64"
  /LIBPATH:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.11.25503\lib\x64"
  /LIBPATH:"C:\pony\ponyc\build\release-llvm-3.9.1"
  /LIBPATH:"C:\pony\ponyc\build\release-llvm-3.9.1\..\..\packages"
  kernel32.lib msvcrt.lib Ws2_32.lib advapi32.lib vcruntime.lib legacy_stdio_definitions.lib dbghelp.lib ucrt.lib libponyrt.lib "

The path ending in link.exe is the linker that the pony compiler is currently using.

To add options to the link command, I would compile my program as something like:

ponyc --linker="C:\OtherPath\link.exe /LIBPATH:C:\Foo"

Does Pony support WebAssembly?¶

Not in any practical sense. Very simple programs have been compiled to WASM via emscripten, but no one is actively working on full support. Significant blockers remain around the runtime’s IO subsystem, memory allocation, and browser interaction.

If you’re interested in pushing this forward, come talk to us on the Zulip. We’d welcome the help.

Does Pony do incremental compilation?¶

No. Pony does whole-program compilation. The compiler analyzes your entire program together, which is what allows it to guarantee data-race freedom and other safety properties. The tradeoff is that compile times grow with program size.