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new opam features: more expressive dependencies

This blog will cover yet another aspect of the improvements opam 2.0 has over opam 1.2. I may be a little more technical than previous issues, as it covers a feature directed specifically at packagers and repository maintainers, and regarding the package definition format.

Specifying dependencies in opam 1.2

Opam 1.2 already has an advanced way of specifying package dependencies, using formulas on packages and versions, with the following syntax:

depends: [
  "foo" {>= "3.0" & < "4.0~"}
  ( "bar" | "baz" {>= "1.0"} )
]

meaning that the package being defined depends on both package foo, within the 3.x series, and one of bar or baz, the latter with version at least 1.0. See here for a complete documentation.

This only allows, however, dependencies that are static for a given package.

Opam 1.2 introduced build, test and doc "dependency flags" that could provide some specifics for dependencies (e.g. test dependencies would only be needed when tests were requested for the package). These were constrained to appear before the version constraints, e.g. "foo" {build & doc & >= "3.0"}.

Extensions in opam 2.0

Opam 2.0 generalises the dependency flags, and makes the dependencies specification more expressive by allowing to mix filters, i.e. formulas based on opam variables, with the version constraints. If that formula holds, the dependency is enforced, if not, it is discarded.

This is documented in more detail in the opam 2.0 manual.

Note also that, since the compilers are now packages, the required OCaml version is now expressed using this mechanism as well, through a dependency to the (virtual) package ocaml, e.g. depends: [ "ocaml" {>= "4.03.0"} ]. This replaces uses of the available: field and ocaml-version switch variable.

Conditional dependencies

This makes it trivial to add, for example, a condition on the OS to a given dependency, using the built-in variable os:

depends: [ "foo" {>= "3.0" & < "4.0~" & os = "linux"} ]

here, foo is simply not needed if the OS isn't Linux. We could also be more specific about other OSes using more complex formulas:

depends: [
  "foo" { "1.0+linux" & os = "linux" |
          "1.0+osx" & os = "darwin" }
  "bar" { os != "osx" & os != "darwin" }
]

Meaning that Linux and OSX require foo, respectively versions 1.0+linux and 1.0+osx, while other systems require bar, any version.

Dependency flags

Dependency flags, as used in 1.2, are no longer needed, and are replaced by variables that can appear anywhere in the version specification. The following variables are typically useful there:

  • with-test, with-doc: replace the test and doc dependency flags, and are true when the package's tests or documentation have been requested
  • likewise, build behaves similarly as before, limiting the dependency to a "build-dependency", implying that the package won't need to be rebuilt if the dependency changes
  • dev: this boolean variable holds true on "development" packages, that is, packages that are bound to a non-stable source (a version control system, or if the package is pinned to an archive without known checksum). dev sources often happen to need an additional preliminary step (e.g. autoconf), which may have its own dependencies.

Use opam config list for a list of pre-defined variables. Note that the with-test, with-doc and build variables are not available everywhere: the first two are allowed only in the depends:, depopts:, build: and install: fields, and the latter is specific to the depends: and depopts: fields.

For example, the datakit.0.9.0 package has:

depends: [
  ...
  "datakit-server" {>= "0.9.0"}
  "datakit-client" {with-test & >= "0.9.0"}
  "datakit-github" {with-test & >= "0.9.0"}
  "alcotest" {with-test & >= "0.7.0"}
]

When running opam install datakit.0.9.0, the with-test variable is set to false, and the datakit-client, datakit-github and alcotest dependencies are filtered out: they won't be required. With opam install datakit.0.9.0 --with-test, the with-test variable is true (for that package only, tests on packages not listed on the command-line are not enabled!). In this case, the dependencies resolve to:

depends: [
  ...
  "datakit-server" {>= "0.9.0"}
  "datakit-client" {>= "0.9.0"}
  "datakit-github" {>= "0.9.0"}
  "alcotest" {>= "0.7.0"}
]

which is treated normally.

Computed versions

It is also possible to use variables, not only as conditions, but to compute the version values: "foo" {= var} is allowed and will require the version of package foo corresponding to the value of variable var.

This is useful, for example, to define a family of packages, which are released together with the same version number: instead of having to update the dependencies of each package to match the common version at each release, you can leverage the version package-variable to mean "that other package, at the same version as current package". For example, foo-client could have the following:

depends: [ "foo-core" {= version} ]

It is even possible to use variable interpolations within versions, e.g. specifying an os-specific version differently than above:

depends: [ "foo" {= "1.0+%{os}%"} ]

this will expand the os variable, resolving to 1.0+linux, 1.0+darwin, etc.

Getting back to our datakit example, we could leverage this and rewrite it to the more generic:

depends: [
  ...
  "datakit-server" {>= version}
  "datakit-client" {with-test & >= version}
  "datakit-github" {with-test & >= version}
  "alcotest" {with-test & >= "0.7.0"}
]

Since the datakit-* packages follow the same versioning, this avoids having to rewrite the opam file on every new version, with a risk of error each time.

As a side note, these variables are consistent with what is now used in the build: field, and the build-test: field is now deprecated. So this other part of the same datakit opam file:

build:
  ["ocaml" "pkg/pkg.ml" "build" "--pinned" "%{pinned}%" "--tests" "false"]
build-test: [
  ["ocaml" "pkg/pkg.ml" "build" "--pinned" "%{pinned}%" "--tests" "true"]
  ["ocaml" "pkg/pkg.ml" "test"]
]

would now be preferably written as:

build: ["ocaml" "pkg/pkg.ml" "build" "--pinned" "%{pinned}%" "--tests" "%{with-test}%"]
run-test: ["ocaml" "pkg/pkg.ml" "test"]

which avoids building twice just to change the options.

Conclusion

Hopefully this extension to expressivity in dependencies will make the life of packagers easier; feedback is welcome on your personal use-cases.

Note that the official repository is still in 1.2 format (served as 2.0 at https://opam.ocaml.org/2.0, through automatic conversion), and will only be migrated a little while after opam 2.0 is finally released. You are welcome to experiment on custom repositories or pinned packages already, but will need a little more patience before you can contribute package definitions making use of the above to the official repository.

NOTE: this article is cross-posted on opam.ocaml.org and ocamlpro.com. Please head to the latter for the comments!