Provided by: ocaml-findlib_1.9.8-1_amd64 
NAME
findlib.conf - [Configuration of findlib/ocamlfind]
GENERAL
There are three possibilities to configure the findlib library:
Build time:
Before findlib is compiled, a "configure" script is invoked to figure out the settings that are
most likely to work on the system. Most settings are simply entered into text files and can
easily be changed after installation. The following properties cannot be changed later because
they are compiled into the resulting binaries:
• The default location of the configuration file findlib.conf. However, you can set a
different location by the environment variable OCAMLFIND_CONF.
• Whether the installed OCaml version supports autolinking or not.
Configuration file findlib.conf:
An initial version of this file is generated by the configure script, but you are free to modify
it later. Most important, this file contains the system-wide search path used to look up
packages, and the default location where to install new packages.
All files with the suffix ".conf" found in the directory findlib.conf.d are also scanned for
parameters.
Environment variables:
The settings of findlib.conf can be overridden by environment variables.
Last but not least, several settings can also be passed as command-line options, or by invoking the
function Findlib.init.
findlib.conf
The directory containing findlib.conf is determined at build time (by running the configure script), the
fallback default is /usr/local/etc. You can set a different location by changing the environment variable
OCAMLFIND_CONF which must contain the absolute path of findlib.conf.
The file has the same syntax as META, i.e. it consists of a number of lines with the format
variable = "value"
Here is the list of allowed variables:
path
The search path for META files/package directories. The variable enumerates directories which are
separated by colons (Windows: semicolons), and these directories are tried in turn to find a
certain package. More exactly, if d is such a directory and p the searched package, the search
algorithm will first check whether d/p/META exists. In this case, this META file is taken, and
d/p is the package directory. Second, the algorithm tries d/META.p, but the package directory
must be specified in this META.p file by a directory directive.
Note that the first found META file is taken, so the order of the directories in the search path
counts.
This variable is required.
Example:
path = "/usr/local/lib/ocaml/site-lib:/usr/lib/ocaml/site-lib"
destdir
This variable determines the location where ocamlfind install puts the packages by default: If d
is this directory, and p the package to install, a new subdirectory d/p will be created
containing all the files of the package.
Example:
destdir = "/usr/local/lib/ocaml/site-lib"
This variable is required.
metadir
If set, the command ocamlfind install will put the META files of packages into this directory
(files are named META.p where p=package name); otherwise the META files are put into the package
directories like any other file.
Example:
metadir = "/var/lib/findlib/metaregistry"
This variable is optional. It is not used by default.
ocamlc, ocamlopt, ocamlcp, ocamlmktop, ocamldoc, ocamldep, ocamlbrowser
If you want to call other executables than "ocamlc", "ocamlopt", "ocamlcp", "ocamlmktop",
"ocamldoc", "ocamldep", and "ocamlbrowser", you can set the names of the executables here. The
command ocamlfind looks into these four variables to determine the names of the compilers to
call.
Example:
ocamlc = "ocamlc.opt"
ocamlopt = "ocamlopt.opt"
ocamlcp = "ocamlcp.opt"
ocamlmktop = "ocamlmktop.opt"
This variable is optional. It is not used by default.
stdlib
This variable determines the location of the standard library. This must be the same directory
for which the OCaml compilers are configured.
This variable is optional. It is not recommend to set this variable unless you know what you are
doing!
ldconf
This variable determines the location of the ld.conf file. This must be the same file the OCaml
compilers read in; it is updated by ocamlfind when installing and removing packages. You can set
this variable to the special value "ignore" to disable the automatic modification of the ld.conf
file.
If not set, the ld.conf file is assumed to reside in the OCaml standard library directory.
This variable is optional. It is not recommended to set this variable unless you know what you
are doing!
Toolchains: It is possible to have variants of the original configuration. These variants are called
"toolchains" because they are intended to select different compilers, e.g. patched compilers. In order to
set a variable for a certain toolchain, use the syntax
variable(toolchain) = "value"
For example:
ocamlc(mypatch) = "ocamlc-mypatch"
When the toolchain "mypatch" is selected, this compiler will be used instead of the standard one.
In order to switch to a certain toolchain, use the -toolchain option of ocamlfind.
Environment
A number of environment variables modifies the behaviour of findlib/ocamlfind:
OCAMLFIND_CONF
This variable overrides the location of the configuration file findlib.conf. It must contain the
absolute path name of this file.
OCAMLFIND_TOOLCHAIN
This variable sets the currently selected toolchain when a -toolchain option is not passed on
the command line.
OCAMLPATH
This variable may contain an additional search path for package directories. It is treated as if
the directories were prepended to the configuration variable path.
OCAMLFIND_DESTDIR
This variable overrides the configuration variable destdir.
OCAMLFIND_METADIR
This variable overrides the configuration variable metadir.
OCAMLFIND_COMMANDS
This variable overrides the configuration variables ocamlc, ocamlopt, ocamlcp, ocamlmktop,
ocamldoc, ocamldep, and/or ocamlbrowser. Its value must conform to the syntax
ocamlc=name ocamlopt=name ocamlcp=name ocamlmktop=name ocamldoc=name ocamldep=name ocamlbrowser=name
Example:
ocamlc=ocamlc-3.00 ocamlopt=ocamlopt-3.00 ocamlcp=ocamlcp-3.00 ocamlmktop=ocamlmktop-3.00
CAMLLIB or OCAMLLIB
This variable overrides the configuration variable stdlib.
OCAMLFIND_LDCONF
This variable overrides the configuration variable ldconf.
OCAMLFIND_IGNORE_DUPS_IN
This variable instructs findlib not to emit warnings that packages or module occur several times.
The variable must be set to the directory where the packages reside that are to be ignored for
this warning.
User Manual The findlib package manager for OCaml findlib.conf(5)