Invoking the Compiler
The compiler is invoked through the Prolog predicate compile:
| ?- compile(InFile [, OutFile ] [, OptionsList ]).
where optional parameters are enclosed in brackets.
InFile is the name of the input (i.e. source) file;
OutFile is the name of the output file (i.e. byte code) file;
OptionsList is a list of compiler options (see below).
The input and output file names must be Prolog atoms,
i.e. either begin with a lower case letter or dollar sign `$',
and consist only of letters, digits,
and underscores; or, be enclosed within single quotes.
If the output file name is not specified, it defaults to InFile.out.
The list of options, if specified, is a Prolog list,
i.e. a term of the form
[ option1, option2, …, optionn ].
If left unspecified, it defaults to the empty list [].
In fact, the output file name and the options list may be specified
in any order.
Thus, for example, the queries
| ?- compile('/usr/debray/foo', foo_out, [v]).
and
| ?- compile('/usr/debray/foo', [v], foo_out).
are equivalent, and specify that the Prolog source file
`/usr/debray/foo' is to be compiled in verbose mode (see ``Compiler
Options'' below), and that the byte code is to be generated into the file
foo_out.
The compile predicate may also be called with a fourth parameter:
| ?- compile(InFile, OutFile, OptionsList, PredList).
where InFile, OutFile and OptionsList are as before;
compile/4 unifies PredList with a list of terms P/N denoting the
predicates defined in InFile,
where P is a predicate name and N its arity.
PredList, if specified, is usually given as an uninstantiated variable;
its principal use is for setting trace points on the predicates in the file
(see Section ![[*]](crossref.png)
),
e.g. by executing
| ?- compile('/usr/debray/foo', foo_out, [v], L), load(foo_out), trace(L).
Notice that PredList can only appear in compile/4.