nativity

A small script for turning babashka scripts into native binaries

Requirements

• JVM (because it depends on clj.native-image)
• babashka
• GraalVM

Usage

From the nativity directory: bb nativity.clj path/to/script or even just ./nativity.clj path/to/script

Modes

you can specify which mode to run on by using the ./nativity.clj path/to/script -m implicit it will default to "untouched"

Untouched

Untouched will leave the file completely alone, make a copy into the src directory and create the deps.edn file for example:

#!/usr/bin/env bb
(ns which
  (:require [clojure.java.io :as io])
  (:gen-class))

(defn where [executable]
  (let [path (System/getenv "PATH")
        paths (.split path (System/getProperty "path.separator"))]
    (loop [paths paths]
      (when-first [p paths]
        (let [f (io/file p executable)]
          (if (and (.isFile f)
                   (.canExecute f))
            (.getCanonicalPath f)
            (recur (rest paths))))))))

(defn -main [& args]
  (when-first [executable args]
    (println (where executable))))

(when-not (System/getProperty "babashka.main")
  (when (find-ns 'babashka.classpath) (apply -main *command-line-args*)))

This can compile as is because it has:

• Ns form with :gen-class and explicit requires ((ns which (:require [clojure.java.io :as io]) (:gen-class)))
• an entry point (defn -main [& args])
• no in-line require forms ((require ....))

Directed

This mode cuts out parts of your script and puts it into a main function for you: for example assume you have this script:

#!/usr/bin/env bb
(ns which
  (:require [clojure.java.io :as io])
  (:gen-class))

(defn where [executable]
  (let [path (System/getenv "PATH")
        paths (.split path (System/getProperty "path.separator"))]
    (loop [paths paths]
      (when-first [p paths]
        (let [f (io/file p executable)]
          (if (and (.isFile f)
                   (.canExecute f))
            (.getCanonicalPath f)
            (recur (rest paths))))))))

 (when-first [executable *command-line-args*]
   (println (where executable)))

and you run ./nativity.clj which.clj -m directed -w 17-18 it will wrap lines 17 to 18 in the main entry point (in this case those lines would be the last 2 at the end), making a compilable script.

Implicit

This mode is for when you made a script using the implicit requires that babashka has for one-liners. Be warned that this mode is very inefficient in so many ways. for example:

#!/usr/bin/env bb
(defn where [executable]
  (let [path (System/getenv "PATH")
        paths (.split path (System/getProperty "path.separator"))]
    (loop [paths paths]
      (when-first [p paths]
        (let [f (io/file p executable)]
          (if (and (.isFile f)
                   (.canExecute f))
            (.getCanonicalPath f)
            (recur (rest paths))))))))
(when-let [executable (first *command-line-args*)]
  (println (where executable)))

This one will require implicit mode and so it should be run ./nativity which.clj -m implicit -d io (look below to understand the -d flag)

Other Options

Short     Long                    Default               Description
 -d,   --deps LIST                  []         Specify the dependency list for implicit mode (comma separated values, example: "io,str,json,edn")
 -n,   --name FILENAME                         Override default file name for the binary (will default to the input file name )
 -c,   --clean                                 Clean up the src and deps.edn files
 -m,   --mode MODE               untouched     Choose the processing mode. Currently available: implicit, untouched
       --no-compile                            Don't run binary compilation step
       --namespace NAMESPACE-NAME              If your main function is in a namespace different from your file name you can override with this. It will also use this to name the namespace in implicit mode
 -w,   --wrap RANGE                [0 0]       Determine the lines you want to want to wrap with main (Only directed mode)

Require specific things for implicit mode

You can specify which of the built in bb dependencies to require by using the ./nativity.clj path/to/script -d io,str,json. If you use -d all it will include all of them.

Rename binary

if you want your binary to have a different name: ./nativity.clj path/to/script -n name-of-binary

Clean files

With this flag you can make it automatically remove the generated src and deps.edn files:

./nativity.clj path/to/script -c