CHICKEN(1)

NAME
Chicken - A Scheme-to-C compiler

SYNOPSIS
chicken pathname [ option ... ]

DESCRIPTION
Chicken is a compiler for the programming language Scheme supporting most of the features as described in the Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme .

OPTIONS

-analyze-only
    Stop compilation after first analysis pass. -benchmark-mode Equivalent to -optimize-level 3 -fixnum-arithmetic -disable-interrupts -lambda-lift -block -debug-level 0

-block
    Enable block-compilation. When this option is specified, the compiler assumes that global variables are not modified outside this compilation-unit.

-case-insensitive
    Enables the reader to read symbols case-insensitive. The default is to read case-sensitive (in violation of R5RS). This option registers the case-insensitive feature identifier.

-check-syntax
    Aborts compilation process after macro-expansion and syntax checks.

-compress-literals threshold
    Compiles quoted literals that exceed the size threshold as strings and parse the strings at run-time. This reduces the size of the code and speeds up compile-times of the host C compiler, but has a small run-time performance penalty. The size of a literal is computed by counting recursively the objects in the literal, so a vector counts as 1 plus the count of the elements, a pair counts as the counts of the car and the cdr, respectively. All other objects count 1.

-database-size number
    Specifies the initial size of the analysis-database. Should only be used if extremely large files are to be compiled.

-debug modes
    Enables one or more debugging modes. See the User's Manual for more information.

-debug-level level
    Selects amount of debug-information. level should be an integer.

0 -no-trace
1 nothing.

-disable-c-syntax-checks
    Disable basic syntax checking of embedded C code fragments.

-disable-interrupts
    Equivalent to -prelude "(declare (interrupts-disabled))"

-disable-stack-overflow-checks
    Disables detection of stack-overflows.

-dynamic
    This option should be used when compiling files intended to be loaded dynamically into a running Scheme program.

-epilogue filename
    Includes the file named filename at the end of the compiled source file. The include-path is not searched. This option may be given multiple times.

-emit-external-prototypes-first
    Emit prototypes for callbacks defined with define-external before any other foreign declarations. This is sometimes useful, when C/C++ code embedded into the a Scheme program has to access the callbacks. By default the prototypes are emitted after foreign declarations.

-explicit-use
    Disables automatic use of the units library and eval . Use this option if compiling a library unit instead of an application unit.

-extend filename
    Loads a Scheme file before compilation commences. This feature can be used to extend the compiler.

-feature symbol
    Registers symbol to be a valid feature identifier for cond-expand

-ffi
    Parse C/C++ code and generate Scheme bindings.

-ffi-custom
    Parse C/C++ code for custom processing via the foreign-parsespec macro.

-ffi-define symbol
    Defines a macro that will be accessible in foreign-parse declarations.

-ffi-include-path path
    Set include path for "easy" FFI parser.

-ffi-parse
    Parse C/C++ code and embed as if wrapped inside a (declare (foreign-parse ...)) form.

-ffi-no-include
    Don't parse include files when encountered by the FFI parser.

-fixnum-arithmetic
    Equivalent to -prelude "(declare (fixnum))"

-heap-size number
    Sets the static heap-size of the generated executable to number bytes. The parameter may be followed by a M or K suffix which stand for mega- and kilobytes, respectively. The default heap-size is 16 megabytes.

-heap-initial-size number
    Sets the size that the heap of the compiled application should have at startup time.

-heap-growth percentage
    Sets the heap-growth rate for the compiled program at compile time.

-heap-shrinkage percentage
    Sets the heap-shrinkage rate for the compiled program at compile time.

-help
    Print a summary of available options and the format of the command-line parameters and exit the compiler.

-include-path pathname
    Specifies an additional search path for files included via the include special form. This option may be given multiple times. If the environment variable CHICKEN_INCLUDE_PATH is set, it should contain a list of alternative include pathnames separated by ; . The environment variable CHICKEN_HOME is also considered as a search path.

-inline
    Enables procedure inlining.

-inline-limitthreshold
    Sets the maximum size of potentially inlinable procedures.

-keyword-stylestyle
    Enables alternative keyword syntax, where style may be either prefix (as in Common Lisp), suffix (as in DSSSL) or none Any other value is ignored. The default is exttt{suffix}.

-lambda-lift
    Enable the optimization known as lambda-lifting.

-no-trace
    Disable generation of tracing information. If a compiled executable should halt due to a runtime error, then a file containing a stack-trace will be written to the current directory under the name STACKTRACE . Each line in the created file gives the name and the line-number (if available) of a procedure call. With this option given, the generated code is slightly faster.

-no-warnings
    Disable generation of compiler warnings.

-nursery number

-stack-size number
    Sets the size of the first heap-generation of the generated executable to number bytes. The parameter may be followed by a M or K suffix. The default stack-size depends on the target platform.

-optimize-leaf-routines
    Enable leaf routine optimization.

-optimize-level level
    Enables certain sets of optimization options. level should be an integer. Each optimization level corresponds to a certain set of optimization option as shown in the following list:

0 nothing
1 -optimize-leaf-routines
2 -optimize-leaf-routines -usual-integrations
3 -optimize-leaf-routines -usual-integrations -unsafe

-output-file filename
    Specifies the pathname of the generated C file. Default is FILENAME.c .

-postlude expressions
    Add expressions after all other toplevel expressions in the compiled file. This option may be given multiple times. Processing of this option takes place after processing of -epilogue .

-prelude expressions
    Add expressions before all other toplevel expressions in the compiled file. This option may be given multiple times. Processing of this option takes place before processing of -prologue .

-profile
    -accumulate-profile Instruments the source code to count procedure calls and execution times. After the program terminates (either via an explicit exit or implicitly), profiling statistics are written to a file named PROFILE Each line of the generated file contains a list with the procedure name, the number of calls and the time spent executing it. Use the script formatprofile to display the profiling information in a more user-friendly form.

-prologue filename
    Includes the file named filename at the start of the compiled source file. The include-path is not searched. This option may be given multiple times.

-quiet
    Disables output of compile information.

-require-extension name
    Loads the syntax-extension name before the source program is processed. This is identical to adding require-extension NAME at the start of the compiled program.

-run-time-macros
    Makes low-level macros (defined with define-macro also available at run-time. By default low-level macros are not available at run-time. Note that highlevel-macros ("syntax-case")
     defined in compiled code are never available at run-time.

-split number
    Split output into several C files. So for a source file named name the compiler will generate C files named name0 ... nameN-1

-split-level number
    Specifies how hard the partitioning algorithm should work (should be 0, 1 or 2).

-to-stdout
    Write compiled code to standard output instead of creating a .c file.

-unit name
    Compile this file as a library unit.

-unsafe
    Disable runtime safety checks.

-unsafe-libraries
    Marks the generated file for being linked with the unsafe runtime system. This should be used when generating shared object files that are to be loaded dynamically. If the marker is present, any attempt to load code compiled with this option will signal an error.

-uses name
    Use definitions in the given library unit.

-usual-integrations
    Specifies that standard procedures and certain internal procedures are never redefined, and can be inlined. This is equivalent to declaring (usual-integrations) .

-verbose
    Prints progress information to standard output during compilation.

-version
    Prints the version and some copyright information and exit the compiler.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

CHICKEN_HOME
    Should contain the pathname where support- and include-files can be found.

CHICKEN_INCLUDE_PATH
    Contains one or more pathnames where the compiler should additionally look for include-files, separated by ; characters.

CHICKEN_OPTIONS
    Holds a string of default compiler options that should apply to every invocation of chicken .

DOCUMENTATION
More information can be found in the Chicken Manual which is provided in HTML format as manual.html in the distribution.

BUGS
Submit bug reports by e-mail to felix@call-with-current-continuation.org

AUTHOR
Chicken was implemented by Felix L. Winkelmann (felix@call-with-current-continuation.org).

SEE ALSO
csc(1) chicken-config(1)