REPL modes do not work after compilation

[diegozea]

REPL modes from IPython and Rcall don't work after the packages are compiled with the stable version of PackageCompiler (0.3.1). For example:

# compilation
using PackageCompiler
compile_package("RCall", force = false, reuse = false) 

# using the new image
~$ julia -J /home/zea/.julia/v0.6/PackageCompiler/sysimg/sys.so

RCall (compiled) REPL mode doesn't work, $ should show the R> prompt:

P.S.: Also, I get a lot of WARNING: redefining constant JULIA_HOME messages using the compiled image.

[SimonDanisch]

I wonder if that's expected, since they're fairly dynamic. @KristofferC, you should know REPL modes pretty well, any ideas?

[KristofferC]

In Pkg3, we set up the REPL as https://github.com/JuliaLang/Pkg3.jl/blob/bd3802f3738c834f44ccb2d354b2befb0cea4234/src/Pkg3.jl#L55-L66 in __init__. Not sure how RCall does it.

[diegozea]

I think @randy3k will have a better idea of how RCall does it.

[randy3k]

RCall uses this to setup the REPL, I got the idea from @Keno's Cxx.jl, so I assume I was correct...

[randy3k]

@diegozea how about initializing the REPL manually?

RCall.RPrompt.repl_init(Base.active_repl)

[KristofferC]

I think you need to handle the case when the REPL is not yet inited but the package gets loaded.

[randy3k]

Is there any hook we could use to load the repl code when the repl is ready?

[tkf]

@diegozea I think I solved it in IPython.jl master.

@KristofferC It would be nice if Base has afterreplinit (or something) to wrap what Pkg.jl is doing:

"""
    afterreplinit(f)

Like `atreplinit` but triggers `f` even after REPL is initialized when
it is called.  For `LineEditREPL`, it ensures that `interface` is
initialized.
"""
function afterreplinit(f)
    if isdefined(Base, :active_repl)
        f(Base.active_repl)
    else
        atreplinit() do repl
            if isinteractive() && repl isa REPL.LineEditREPL
                isdefined(repl, :interface) || (repl.interface = REPL.setup_interface(repl))
                f(repl)
            end
        end
    end
end

[KristofferC]

Not a PackageCompiler bug, the package needs to be more robust in how the REPL is started like described in #68 (comment)

[tkf]

Can julia runtime help individual packages to solve this problem? I think the way Pkg "solving" this touches too much implementation details of the julia runtime (including the REPL stdlib). I think we need an appropriate hook to cleanly solve this: JuliaLang/julia#29896

[KristofferC]

Yes, Julia could very well facilitate this. Point here is that it isn't a PackageCompiler issue.

[tkf]

I was commenting just because I was worried that #68 (comment) would be regarded as the official correct solution. I am glad that you acknowledge that there can be a better solution.