Compiling¶

What are Pony’s supported CPU platforms?¶

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 link my program to a C library?¶

Declare the library in your Pony source with a use "lib:..." statement, and ponyc links it for you. To link the library Foo:

use "lib:Foo"

If the library lives in a directory the linker doesn’t search by default, add that directory with a use "path:..." statement:

use "path:/opt/foo/lib"
use "lib:Foo"

These statements can go in any source file in your program, and they work the same on every platform.

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.