CCL:*UNPROCESSED-COMMAND-LINE-ARGUMENTS* is NIL when running an image

[sjl]

I'm trying to produce a stand-alone application with CCL that takes command line arguments. I know CCL doesn't have anything like SBCL's :save-runtime-options feature so I won't be able to make this work perfectly, but I can't even seem to get the workaround mentioned in that ticket working.

When I run CCL normally, ccl:*command-line-argument-list* and ccl:*unprocessed-command-line-arguments* appear to work like so:

echo '(progn (print ccl:*command-line-argument-list*)
             (print ccl:*unprocessed-command-line-arguments*)
             (values))' \
    | ./lx86cl64 -R 1000000 --quiet --batch -- foo

("./lx86cl64" "--quiet" "--" "foo")
("foo")

I'm a little confused about how ccl:*command-line-argument-list* works. At first I thought it was removing arguments that were used by CCL itself (like --batch) but that can't be it, because it passes through other things like --quiet. So I don't know exactly what this variable is supposed to contain.

But that's okay, because ccl:*unprocessed-command-line-arguments* is what the workaround says to use, and that does appear to work as described (containing all arguments after the -- terminator). Great.

Now I dump an image:

echo '(ccl:save-application "foo"
        :prepend-kernel t
        :toplevel-function (lambda ()
                             (progn (print ccl:*command-line-argument-list*)
                                    (print ccl:*unprocessed-command-line-arguments*)
                                    (values))))' \
    | ./lx86cl64 --quiet --batch

And run it with some arguments:

./foo -V --batch --quiet -- what

("./foo" "-V" "--quiet" "--" "what")
NIL

Now ccl:*unprocessed-command-line-arguments* is just completely empty, even with -- in the argument list. The same thing happens even if I create an image (without :prepend-kernel) and run CCL itself:

echo '(ccl:save-application "foo.image"
        :toplevel-function (lambda ()
                             (progn (print ccl:*command-line-argument-list*)
                                    (print ccl:*unprocessed-command-line-arguments*)
                                    (values))))' \
    | ./lx86cl64 --quiet --batch

./lx86cl64 -I foo.image -V --batch --quiet -- what

("./lx86cl64" "-V" "--quiet" "--" "what")
NIL

So now I'm just totally confused. Is this a bug in CCL, or am I not understanding what ccl:*unprocessed-command-line-arguments* is supposed to do?

I'm running CCL Version 1.11.5/v1.11.5 (LinuxX8664) on Ubuntu 18.04.

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[sjl]

Okay, I took a swim in the source and at least I see why this is happening.

The weirdness with some CCL options being missing from ccl:*command-line-argument-list* is because some options are handled by the C kernel and removed before Lisp ever has a chance to see them:

ccl/lisp-kernel/pmcl-kernel.c

Lines 1250 to 1253 in 316ff87

	The set of arguments recognized by the kernel is
	likely to remain pretty small and pretty simple.
	This removes everything it recognizes from argv;
	remaining args will be processed by lisp code.

The code that handles processing the rest of the command line arguments is called from a :before method on toplevel-function. This method is only called when you don't specify a :toplevel-function argument to save-image. So that explains why ccl:*unprocessed-command-line-arguments* is empty when I dump an image.

I don't have enough knowledge/context to know if this is all intentional, or if it's a bug that should be fixed.

[svetlyak40wt]

Hi Steve! Why don't you use (asdf:make :my-system) and (uiop:command-line-arguments)? You just need to add such lines to the asd file: :build-operation "program-op" :build-pathname "my-app" :entry-point "my-package:main"

…

On Sat, Dec 22, 2018 at 8:38 PM Steve Losh ***@***.***> wrote: Okay, I took a swim in the source and at least I see *why* this is happening. The weirdness with some CCL options being missing from ccl:*command-line-argument-list* is because some options are handled by the C kernel and removed before Lisp ever has a chance to see them: https://github.com/Clozure/ccl/blob/316ff87eddc9c4758e57bc725dee23638ed061be/lisp-kernel/pmcl-kernel.c#L1250-L1253 The code that handles processing the rest of the command line arguments is called from a :before method on toplevel-function <https://github.com/Clozure/ccl/blob/master/level-1/l1-application.lisp#L173-L185>. This method is only called when you *don't* specify a :toplevel-function argument to save-image <https://github.com/Clozure/ccl/blob/master/lib/dumplisp.lisp#L137-L159>. So that explains why ccl:*unprocessed-command-line-arguments* is empty when I dump an image. I don't have enough knowledge/context to know if this is all intentional, or if it's a bug that should be fixed. — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#177 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AABg-_5vH2XZz83hksbN289FWk50HHmEks5u7m4IgaJpZM4ZfiKm> .

-- Alexander Artemenko https://github.com/svetlyak40wt

[eugeneia]

@sjl something you might also be interested in is that save-application accepts an :application-class argument that affects which command line arguments are parsed as well. Here is an example how to disable the default handling: https://github.com/eugeneia/athens/blob/master/build/athens.lisp

I don’t think there is a way to disable the hidden kernel options, I think of it as a feature. :-)

[sjl]

@svetlyak40wt I don't want to get into a discussion about whether ASDF/UIOP are good or not here. This ticket is about a variable that CCL exports having a seemingly-buggy value is some situations. Whether UIOP works around that or not is orthogonal to CCL having/not having a bug.

@eugeneia Yeah, I see that application class is doing the same workaround as UIOP (just parsing *command-line-argument-list* instead of *unprocessed-command-line-options*). Unfortunately in my case the option I want to add to my program just happens to be named the same thing as one of the kernel options (--batch) so the "feature" isn't doing me any favors, hah.

[eugeneia]

@sjl One possible workaround might be an indirection between your app executable and the ccl binary. From ccl --help:

Any arguments following the pseudoargument "--" are
not processed and are available to the application as
the value of CCL:*UNPROCESSED-COMMAND-LINE-ARGUMENTS*.

I.e., you could have a shell script that passes its arguments to exec ccl -n -I myapp.image -- ....

[sjl]

The workaround mentioned in --help doesn't work because CCL:*UNPROCESSED-COMMAND-LINE-ARGUMENTS* is empty when you're running a dumped image. This is literally the title of this GitHub issue.

…

On Dec 25, 2018, at 16:16, Max Rottenkolber ***@***.***> wrote: @sjl One work around might be an indirection between your app executable and the ccl binary. From ccl --help: Any arguments following the pseudoargument "--" are not processed and are available to the application as the value of CCL:UNPROCESSED-COMMAND-LINE-ARGUMENTS . I.e., you could have a shell script that passes its arguments to exec ccl -n -I myapp.image -- .... — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or mute the thread.