IDLdep

IDLdep is a package that attempts to find all of the IDL source code files needed to run another piece of IDL software. It does this by recursively parsing source code files, looking for calls to procedures and functions.

Installation

To install, simply place these files in your IDL path. In addition, you will need two external libraries:

The Beaumont IDL library http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/users/beaumont/code/

The Markwardt IDL library http://www.physics.wisc.edu/~craigm/idl/idl.html

Use

Lets consider the test file test.pro:

 pro test
   print, 'This is a test'
   x = arrgen(1., 10., nstep = 10)
   y = this_function_doesnt_exist(5)
 end

We can find all the dependencies needed to run this file with finddep_all:

 IDL> print, finddep_all('test.pro')

 { abs }{ alog }{ arrgen /Users/beaumont/idl/pro/local/documented/arrgen.pro}{
 ceil }{ findgen }{ keyword_set }{ lindgen }{ message }{ n_elements }{ n_params }
 { on_error }{ print }{ return }{ round }{ test test.pro}{
 this_function_doesnt_exist }

finddep_all returns an array of structures, one for each dependency. The first entry in the structure (tag name = func) contains the name of a function or procedure. The second entry (tag name = source) lists the file name that contains the source code for that function, if one was found.

Many entries correspond to built in IDL routines (abs, alog, etc). You can filter these out by specifying the /no_builtin flag:

 IDL> print, finddep_all('test.pro', /no_builtin)
 { arrgen /Users/beaumont/idl/pro/local/documented/arrgen.pro}{ test test.pro}{
 this_function_doesnt_exist }

There are just 3 dependencies beyond calls to IDL builtins: arrgen, test, and this_function_doesnt_exist. Note that the last function doesn't have any source file associated with it. This is likely a missing dependency. You can look at only the missing dependencies:

 IDL> print, finddep_all('test.pro', /no_source, /no_builtin)
 { this_function_doesnt_exist }

Or instead filter them out:

 IDL> print, finddep_all('test.pro', /only_source)
 { arrgen /Users/beaumont/idl/pro/local/documented/arrgen.pro}{ test test.pro}

The other useful function in this library is bundle_dep. This routine will copy all of the dependencies for a given file into a new directory. This can be helpful when distributing your code to others::

IDL> bundle_dep, 'test.pro', 'test_directory'
IDL> exit
bash> ls test_directory
arrgen.pro test.pro

Limitations

IDLdep is not perfect. In particular, you should be aware of the following limitations.

• IDLdep assumes that all code follows the modern convention that parenthesis are used for function calls, and not array subscripting. Thus, it will occasionally misinterpret a variable as a function name.
• IDLdep does not understand function calls within quotation marks, and thus cannot propery parse the inputs to commands like EXECUTE, CALL_FUNCTION, etc. For example, IDLdep will not find the call to 'testing' in the following line of code: result = call_function('testing', 5)
• IDLdep does not parse calls to object methods like stack->push.