Contents

• Part I  An introduction to OCaml
  • Chapter 1  The core language
    • 1  Basics
    • 2  Data types
    • 3  Functions as values
    • 4  Records and variants
      • 4.1  Record and variant disambiguation
    • 5  Imperative features
    • 6  Exceptions
    • 7  Lazy expressions
    • 8  Symbolic processing of expressions
    • 9  Pretty-printing
    • 10  Printf formats
    • 11  Standalone OCaml programs
  • Chapter 2  The module system
    • 1  Structures
    • 2  Signatures
    • 3  Functors
    • 4  Functors and type abstraction
    • 5  Modules and separate compilation
  • Chapter 3  Objects in OCaml
    • 1  Classes and objects
    • 2  Immediate objects
    • 3  Reference to self
    • 4  Initializers
    • 5  Virtual methods
    • 6  Private methods
    • 7  Class interfaces
    • 8  Inheritance
    • 9  Multiple inheritance
    • 10  Parameterized classes
    • 11  Polymorphic methods
    • 12  Using coercions
    • 13  Functional objects
    • 14  Cloning objects
    • 15  Recursive classes
    • 16  Binary methods
    • 17  Friends
  • Chapter 4  Labels and variants
    • 1  Labels
      • 1.1  Optional arguments
      • 1.2  Labels and type inference
      • 1.3  Suggestions for labeling
    • 2  Polymorphic variants
      • 2.1  Weaknesses of polymorphic variants
  • Chapter 5  Polymorphism and its limitations
    • 1  Weak polymorphism and mutation
      • 1.1  Weakly polymorphic types
      • 1.2  The value restriction
      • 1.3  The relaxed value restriction
      • 1.4  Variance and value restriction
      • 1.5  Abstract data types
    • 2  Polymorphic recursion
      • 2.1  Explicitly polymorphic annotations
      • 2.2  More examples
    • 3  Higher-rank polymorphic functions
  • Chapter 6  Advanced examples with classes and modules
    • 1  Extended example: bank accounts
    • 2  Simple modules as classes
      • 2.1  Strings
      • 2.2  Hashtbl
      • 2.3  Sets
    • 3  The subject/observer pattern
• Part II  The OCaml language
  • Chapter 7  The OCaml language
    • 1  Lexical conventions
    • 2  Values
      • 2.1  Base values
      • 2.2  Tuples
      • 2.3  Records
      • 2.4  Arrays
      • 2.5  Variant values
      • 2.6  Polymorphic variants
      • 2.7  Functions
      • 2.8  Objects
    • 3  Names
    • 4  Type expressions
    • 5  Constants
    • 6  Patterns
    • 7  Expressions
      • 7.1  Precedence and associativity
      • 7.2  Basic expressions
      • 7.3  Control structures
      • 7.4  Operations on data structures
      • 7.5  Operators
      • 7.6  Objects
      • 7.7  Coercions
      • 7.8  Other
    • 8  Type and exception definitions
      • 8.1  Type definitions
      • 8.2  Exception definitions
    • 9  Classes
      • 9.1  Class types
      • 9.2  Class expressions
      • 9.3  Class definitions
      • 9.4  Class specifications
      • 9.5  Class type definitions
    • 10  Module types (module specifications)
      • 10.1  Simple module types
      • 10.2  Signatures
      • 10.3  Functor types
      • 10.4  The with operator
    • 11  Module expressions (module implementations)
      • 11.1  Simple module expressions
      • 11.2  Structures
      • 11.3  Functors
    • 12  Compilation units
  • Chapter 8  Language extensions
    • 1  Recursive definitions of values
    • 2  Recursive modules
    • 3  Private types
      • 3.1  Private variant and record types
      • 3.2  Private type abbreviations
      • 3.3  Private row types
    • 4  Locally abstract types
    • 5  First-class modules
    • 6  Recovering the type of a module
    • 7  Substituting inside a signature
      • 7.1  Destructive substitutions
      • 7.2  Local substitution declarations
    • 8  Type-level module aliases
    • 9  Overriding in open statements
    • 10  Generalized algebraic datatypes
    • 11  Syntax for Bigarray access
    • 12  Attributes
      • 12.1  Built-in attributes
    • 13  Extension nodes
      • 13.1  Built-in extension nodes
    • 14  Extensible variant types
      • 14.1  Private extensible variant types
    • 15  Generative functors
    • 16  Extension-only syntax
      • 16.1  Extension operators
      • 16.2  Extension literals
    • 17  Inline records
    • 18  Documentation comments
      • 18.1  Floating comments
      • 18.2  Item comments
      • 18.3  Label comments
    • 19  Extended indexing operators
      • 19.1  Multi-index notation
    • 20  Empty variant types
    • 21  Alerts
    • 22  Generalized open statements
    • 23  Binding operators
      • 23.1  Rationale
• Part III  The OCaml tools
  • Chapter 9  Batch compilation (ocamlc)
    • 1  Overview of the compiler
    • 2  Options
    • 3  Modules and the file system
    • 4  Common errors
    • 5  Warning reference
      • 5.1  Warning 9: missing fields in a record pattern
      • 5.2  Warning 52: fragile constant pattern
      • 5.3  Warning 57: Ambiguous or-pattern variables under guard
  • Chapter 10  The toplevel system or REPL (ocaml)
    • 1  Options
    • 2  Toplevel directives
    • 3  The toplevel and the module system
    • 4  Common errors
    • 5  Building custom toplevel systems: ocamlmktop
      • 5.1  Options
    • 6  The native toplevel: ocamlnat (experimental)
  • Chapter 11  The runtime system (ocamlrun)
    • 1  Overview
    • 2  Options
    • 3  Dynamic loading of shared libraries
    • 4  Common errors
  • Chapter 12  Native-code compilation (ocamlopt)
    • 1  Overview of the compiler
    • 2  Options
    • 3  Common errors
    • 4  Running executables produced by ocamlopt
    • 5  Compatibility with the bytecode compiler
  • Chapter 13  Lexer and parser generators (ocamllex, ocamlyacc)
    • 1  Overview of ocamllex
      • 1.1  Options
    • 2  Syntax of lexer definitions
      • 2.1  Header and trailer
      • 2.2  Naming regular expressions
      • 2.3  Entry points
      • 2.4  Regular expressions
      • 2.5  Actions
      • 2.6  Variables in regular expressions
      • 2.7  Refill handlers
      • 2.8  Reserved identifiers
    • 3  Overview of ocamlyacc
    • 4  Syntax of grammar definitions
      • 4.1  Header and trailer
      • 4.2  Declarations
      • 4.3  Rules
      • 4.4  Error handling
    • 5  Options
    • 6  A complete example
    • 7  Common errors
  • Chapter 14  Dependency generator (ocamldep)
    • 1  Options
    • 2  A typical Makefile
  • Chapter 15  The browser/editor (ocamlbrowser)
  • Chapter 16  The documentation generator (ocamldoc)
    • 1  Usage
      • 1.1  Invocation
      • 1.2  Merging of module information
      • 1.3  Coding rules
    • 2  Syntax of documentation comments
      • 2.1  Placement of documentation comments
      • 2.2  The Stop special comment
      • 2.3  Syntax of documentation comments
      • 2.4  Text formatting
      • 2.5  Documentation tags (@-tags)
    • 3  Custom generators
      • 3.1  The generator modules
      • 3.2  Handling custom tags
    • 4  Adding command line options
      • 4.1  Compilation and usage
  • Chapter 17  The debugger (ocamldebug)
    • 1  Compiling for debugging
    • 2  Invocation
      • 2.1  Starting the debugger
      • 2.2  Initialization file
      • 2.3  Exiting the debugger
    • 3  Commands
      • 3.1  Getting help
      • 3.2  Accessing the debugger state
    • 4  Executing a program
      • 4.1  Events
      • 4.2  Starting the debugged program
      • 4.3  Running the program
      • 4.4  Time travel
      • 4.5  Killing the program
    • 5  Breakpoints
    • 6  The call stack
    • 7  Examining variable values
    • 8  Controlling the debugger
      • 8.1  Setting the program name and arguments
      • 8.2  How programs are loaded
      • 8.3  Search path for files
      • 8.4  Working directory
      • 8.5  Turning reverse execution on and off
      • 8.6  Behavior of the debugger with respect to fork
      • 8.7  Stopping execution when new code is loaded
      • 8.8  Communication between the debugger and the program
      • 8.9  Fine-tuning the debugger
      • 8.10  User-defined printers
    • 9  Miscellaneous commands
    • 10  Running the debugger under Emacs
  • Chapter 18  Profiling (ocamlprof)
    • 1  Compiling for profiling
    • 2  Profiling an execution
    • 3  Printing profiling information
    • 4  Time profiling
  • Chapter 19  The ocamlbuild compilation manager
  • Chapter 20  Interfacing C with OCaml
    • 1  Overview and compilation information
      • 1.1  Declaring primitives
      • 1.2  Implementing primitives
      • 1.3  Statically linking C code with OCaml code
      • 1.4  Dynamically linking C code with OCaml code
      • 1.5  Choosing between static linking and dynamic linking
      • 1.6  Building standalone custom runtime systems
    • 2  The value type
      • 2.1  Integer values
      • 2.2  Blocks
      • 2.3  Pointers outside the heap
    • 3  Representation of OCaml data types
      • 3.1  Atomic types
      • 3.2  Tuples and records
      • 3.3  Arrays
      • 3.4  Concrete data types
      • 3.5  Objects
      • 3.6  Polymorphic variants
    • 4  Operations on values
      • 4.1  Kind tests
      • 4.2  Operations on integers
      • 4.3  Accessing blocks
      • 4.4  Allocating blocks
      • 4.5  Raising exceptions
    • 5  Living in harmony with the garbage collector
      • 5.1  Simple interface
      • 5.2  Low-level interface
      • 5.3  Pending actions and asynchronous exceptions
    • 6  A complete example
    • 7  Advanced topic: callbacks from C to OCaml
      • 7.1  Applying OCaml closures from C
      • 7.2  Obtaining or registering OCaml closures for use in C functions
      • 7.3  Registering OCaml exceptions for use in C functions
      • 7.4  Main program in C
      • 7.5  Embedding the OCaml code in the C code
    • 8  Advanced example with callbacks
    • 9  Advanced topic: custom blocks
      • 9.1  The struct custom_operations
      • 9.2  Allocating custom blocks
      • 9.3  Accessing custom blocks
      • 9.4  Writing custom serialization and deserialization functions
      • 9.5  Choosing identifiers
      • 9.6  Finalized blocks
    • 10  Advanced topic: Bigarrays and the OCaml-C interface
      • 10.1  Include file
      • 10.2  Accessing an OCaml bigarray from C or Fortran
      • 10.3  Wrapping a C or Fortran array as an OCaml Bigarray
    • 11  Advanced topic: cheaper C call
      • 11.1  Passing unboxed values
      • 11.2  Direct C call
      • 11.3  Example: calling C library functions without indirection
    • 12  Advanced topic: multithreading
      • 12.1  Registering threads created from C
      • 12.2  Parallel execution of long-running C code
    • 13  Advanced topic: interfacing with Windows Unicode APIs
    • 14  Building mixed C/OCaml libraries: ocamlmklib
    • 15  Cautionary words: the internal runtime API
      • 15.1  Internal variables and CAML_INTERNALS
      • 15.2  OCaml version macros
  • Chapter 21  Optimisation with Flambda
    • 1  Overview
    • 2  Command-line flags
      • 2.1  Specification of optimisation parameters by round
    • 3  Inlining
      • 3.1  Classic inlining heuristic
      • 3.2  Overview of “Flambda” inlining heuristics
      • 3.3  Handling of specific language constructs
      • 3.4  Inlining reports
      • 3.5  Assessment of inlining benefit
      • 3.6  Control of speculation
    • 4  Specialisation
      • 4.1  Assessment of specialisation benefit
    • 5  Default settings of parameters
      • 5.1  Settings at -O2 optimisation level
      • 5.2  Settings at -O3 optimisation level
    • 6  Manual control of inlining and specialisation
    • 7  Simplification
    • 8  Other code motion transformations
      • 8.1  Lifting of constants
      • 8.2  Lifting of toplevel let bindings
    • 9  Unboxing transformations
      • 9.1  Unboxing of closure variables
      • 9.2  Unboxing of specialised arguments
      • 9.3  Unboxing of closures
    • 10  Removal of unused code and values
      • 10.1  Removal of redundant let expressions
      • 10.2  Removal of redundant program constructs
      • 10.3  Removal of unused arguments
      • 10.4  Removal of unused closure variables
    • 11  Other code transformations
      • 11.1  Transformation of non-escaping references into mutable variables
      • 11.2  Substitution of closure variables for specialised arguments
    • 12  Treatment of effects
    • 13  Compilation of statically-allocated modules
    • 14  Inhibition of optimisation
    • 15  Use of unsafe operations
    • 16  Glossary
  • Chapter 22  Memory profiling with Spacetime
    • 1  Overview
    • 2  How to use it
      • 2.1  Building
      • 2.2  Running
      • 2.3  Analysis
    • 3  Runtime overhead
    • 4  For developers
  • Chapter 23  Fuzzing with afl-fuzz
    • 1  Overview
    • 2  Generating instrumentation
      • 2.1  Advanced options
    • 3  Example
• Part IV  The OCaml library
  • Chapter 24  The core library
    • 1  Built-in types and predefined exceptions
      • 1.1  *
    • 2  Module Stdlib: the initially opened module
  • Chapter 25  The standard library
  • Chapter 26  The compiler front-end
  • Chapter 27  The unix library: Unix system calls
  • Chapter 28  The num library: arbitrary-precision rational arithmetic
  • Chapter 29  The str library: regular expressions and string processing
  • Chapter 30  The threads library
  • Chapter 31  The graphics library
  • Chapter 32  The dynlink library: dynamic loading and linking of object files
  • Chapter 33  The bigarray library
• Part V  Appendix