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How easy it is to produce a compiled executable in 1.6? I took a cursory look at the docs but couldn't spot the steps for doing so.

dklend122 6y ago
That's coming. Pieces are there but still need polish and integration. Fib was around 44kb with no runtime required. Check out staticcompiler.jl
- superdimwit 6y ago
  In your experience, what are the current limitations?
  - eigenspace 6y ago
    There's all sorts of limitations right now. E.g. you can't allocate an array right now, dynamic dispatch is prohibited, there are some bugs too. Most of this is just a relic from StaticCompiler.jl being a very straightforward slight repurposing of GPUCompiler.jl. It will take some work to make it robust on CPU code, but the path to doing so it pretty strightforward. It just requires dedicated work, but it's not a top priority for anyone who has the know-how currently.
    - triztian 6y ago
      I'd love to be able to contribute to this, somewhat new to Julia, but I'm sure I could help with something ... Do you have any links to what has been currently done? EDIT: Found this thread so far: https://discourse.julialang.org/t/statically-compiled-and-statically-linked/12290 https://discourse.julialang.org/t/statically-compiled-and-st...
      - eigenspace 6y ago
        This is the PR to look at if you want to try and help: https://github.com/tshort/StaticCompiler.jl/pull/46 https://github.com/tshort/StaticCompiler.jl/pull/46 I think this isn't really a great place for beginners though unfortunately. This project is tightly coupled to undocumented internals of not only julia's compiler, but also LLVM.jl and GPUCompiler.jl. It'll require a lot of learning to be able to meaningfully contribute at this stage.
        patagurbon 6y ago
        Where do you recommend an experienced Julia user start working on internals/core tools?
    - Tarrosion 6y ago
      What's the difference between StaticCompiler.jl and PackageCompiler.jl? Doesn't the latter also let you build "apps"?
ced 6y ago
We did it for production code installed at client sites, and it has been very easy for us. YMMV
triztian 6y ago
I’ve also looked for this, does it mean that I have to install julia on the target machine and it’ll recompile when running? Or are there steps to produce a binary (much like Go or C or Rust)??
- cbkeller 6y ago
  Currently you can make a relocatable “bundle” / “app” with PackageCompiler.jl, but the bundle itself includes a Julia runtime. Making a nice small static binary is technically possible using an approach similar to what GPUCompiler.jl does, but the CPU equivalent of that isn’t quite ready for primetime.
  - ku-man 6y ago
    You forgot to mention that a 'Hello World' standalone file is about 0.5 GB!
    - tfehring 6y ago
      I think something to that effect was implicit in "the bundle itself includes a Julia runtime," but I vouched for this comment anyway since it's an important limitation and the parent comment evidently wasn't explicit enough to prevent confusion.
      - pansa2 6y ago
        Elsewhere someone says “Fib was around 44kb with no runtime required”. Which is correct?
        newswasboring 6y ago
        They are talking about two different systems. Static compilation is a separate project which is trying to include only those compiled code that is required. That isn't ready yet for normal people like me, but if you have the knowhow and your program meets certain requirements you can get a tiny binary. PackageCompiler.jl just compiles everything and packages it up. It generates huge files, because it doesn't discriminate on which compiled stuff to include.

dklend122 6y ago

That's coming. Pieces are there but still need polish and integration. Fib was around 44kb with no runtime required. Check out staticcompiler.jl

superdimwit 6y ago
In your experience, what are the current limitations?
- eigenspace 6y ago
  There's all sorts of limitations right now. E.g. you can't allocate an array right now, dynamic dispatch is prohibited, there are some bugs too. Most of this is just a relic from StaticCompiler.jl being a very straightforward slight repurposing of GPUCompiler.jl. It will take some work to make it robust on CPU code, but the path to doing so it pretty strightforward. It just requires dedicated work, but it's not a top priority for anyone who has the know-how currently.
  - triztian 6y ago
    I'd love to be able to contribute to this, somewhat new to Julia, but I'm sure I could help with something ... Do you have any links to what has been currently done? EDIT: Found this thread so far: https://discourse.julialang.org/t/statically-compiled-and-statically-linked/12290 https://discourse.julialang.org/t/statically-compiled-and-st...
    - eigenspace 6y ago
      This is the PR to look at if you want to try and help: https://github.com/tshort/StaticCompiler.jl/pull/46 https://github.com/tshort/StaticCompiler.jl/pull/46 I think this isn't really a great place for beginners though unfortunately. This project is tightly coupled to undocumented internals of not only julia's compiler, but also LLVM.jl and GPUCompiler.jl. It'll require a lot of learning to be able to meaningfully contribute at this stage.
      - patagurbon 6y ago
        Where do you recommend an experienced Julia user start working on internals/core tools?
  - Tarrosion 6y ago
    What's the difference between StaticCompiler.jl and PackageCompiler.jl? Doesn't the latter also let you build "apps"?

ced 6y ago

We did it for production code installed at client sites, and it has been very easy for us. YMMV

triztian 6y ago

I’ve also looked for this, does it mean that I have to install julia on the target machine and it’ll recompile when running? Or are there steps to produce a binary (much like Go or C or Rust)??

cbkeller 6y ago
Currently you can make a relocatable “bundle” / “app” with PackageCompiler.jl, but the bundle itself includes a Julia runtime. Making a nice small static binary is technically possible using an approach similar to what GPUCompiler.jl does, but the CPU equivalent of that isn’t quite ready for primetime.
- ku-man 6y ago
  You forgot to mention that a 'Hello World' standalone file is about 0.5 GB!
  - tfehring 6y ago
    I think something to that effect was implicit in "the bundle itself includes a Julia runtime," but I vouched for this comment anyway since it's an important limitation and the parent comment evidently wasn't explicit enough to prevent confusion.
    - pansa2 6y ago
      Elsewhere someone says “Fib was around 44kb with no runtime required”. Which is correct?
      - newswasboring 6y ago
        They are talking about two different systems. Static compilation is a separate project which is trying to include only those compiled code that is required. That isn't ready yet for normal people like me, but if you have the knowhow and your program meets certain requirements you can get a tiny binary. PackageCompiler.jl just compiles everything and packages it up. It generates huge files, because it doesn't discriminate on which compiled stuff to include.