3 Configuration

3.1 Configuring Liquid Common Lisp software

1. Start the base image, usually by entering its pathname as a command in a UNIX shell. The command line flag-n should be used to prevent Lisp not to load any init files when starting up. For the names and locations of Lisp images in the Liquid Common Lisp distribution, see Section 2.3.2.

2. Set the Lisp variable*lispworks-directory* if necessary. Normally, this global parameter is automatically set up as the base image starts up and attempts to configure itself. See Section 3.1.1 for a description of situations under which it does not succeed at determining this path automatically. Regardless of whether or not this part of the configuration has been taken care of automatically, you may still avail yourself of the steps outlined in Section 3.1.1 to set the path manually.

3. Call theload-patches function to load patches. See Section 3.1.2.

4. Use theload-submodule function to load any submodules you want to load into the image. For example, if you want the GUI environment and tools, you would do:

(load-submodule "common-lispworks")

See Section 3.1.3.

5. If you load Common LispWorks, use thecapi:ensure-motif-libraries function if you want to pre-link the image with necessary X-Windows and Motif library functions. If you do not pre-link with these functions before doing adisksave, then a subsequent attempt to start up the GUI environment (for example, by callingenv:start-environment) attempts to do so. See Section 3.1.4. This step is unnecessary if you do not load Common-Lispworks.

6. If you want to change the initial package of the configured image (for example, tocommon-lisp-user), usein-package to do so. See Section 3.1.5.

7. Use thedisksave function to save the configured image. This step is highly recommended. See Section 3.1.5. On the AIX platforms, it is often necessary todisksave and start up the result in order to make use of the modules loaded. This problem is due to an AIX-specific lack of ability to dynamically load in certain of the foreign run-time libraries (such as X-Windows or Motif, but also others). If this need is detected by the Lisp system while doing any foreign-loading, it prints out a warning message to this effect. For example:

;;; Reading library file "/usr/ccs/lib/libc.a"
;;; Parsing shared library member /usr/ccs/lib/libc.a[shr.] 
;;; for entry points
;;; Warning: YOU MUST DISKSAVE PRIOR TO USING CODE FROM THIS
;;; LIBRARY.

;;; If necessary, manually set or reset the Lisp global parameter ;;; *lispworks-directory*,  See Section 3.1.1.
(setq *lispworks-directory* ~installation-directory)

;;; Load patches.
;;; See Section 3.1.2.
(load-patches)

;;; Load any submodules you deem necessary or useful.
;;; See Section 3.1.3. For example, if you want the GUI
;;;environment loaded, do:
(load-submodule "common-lispworks")

;;; Perform any pre-initialization necessary for your
;;; application. For example, if you intend to use the GUI
;;; environment and have loaded common-lispworks, then you
;;; may wish to pre-link in the X and Motif libraries.
;;; See Section 3.1.4.
;;; You may wish to alter the current package from its base
;;; image default value of USER. See Section 3.1.5.
(capi:ensure-motif-libraries)
(in-package "CL-USER")

;;; Save configured image as saved-image.
;;; Note that :full-gc argument to disksave now defaults to t.
;;; See Section 3.1.5.
(disksave saved-image :verbose t)

For more information on customizing and configuring Liquid Common Lisp, see The Advanced User's Guide.

3.1.1 - Setting the *lispworks-directory* variable

3.1.2 - Loading patches

3.1.3 - Loading submodules

load-submodule

submodule-loaded-p

3.1.4 - Linking with X and Motif libraries

capi:ensure-motif-libraries

capi:*motif-libraries*

3.1.5 - Saving a configured image

Generated with Harlequin WebMaker