Module Ast_mapper

A -ppx rewriter is a program that accepts a serialized abstract syntax tree and outputs another, possibly modified, abstract syntax tree. This module encapsulates the interface between the compiler and the -ppx rewriters, handling such details as the serialization format, forwarding of command-line flags, and storing state.

Ast_mapper.mapper allows to implement AST rewriting using open recursion. A typical mapper would be based on Ast_mapper.default_mapper, a deep identity mapper, and will fall back on it for handling the syntax it does not modify. For example:

open Asttypes
open Parsetree
open Ast_mapper

let test_mapper argv =
  { default_mapper with
    expr = fun mapper expr ->
      match expr with
      | { pexp_desc = Pexp_extension ({ txt = "test" }, PStr [])} ->
        Ast_helper.Exp.constant (Const_int 42)
      | other -> default_mapper.expr mapper other; }

let () =
  register "ppx_test" test_mapper

This -ppx rewriter, which replaces [%test] in expressions with the constant 42, can be compiled using ocamlc -o ppx_test -I +compiler-libs ocamlcommon.cma ppx_test.ml.