spinup

spinup is a command-line tool that generates starter boilerplate for an OCaml project. It is:

• intended to work with the least possible amount of configuration
• opinionated about what goes in an OCaml project
• configurable mainly via changes to its templates

Features

• simple syntax
• config file in GNU Refer format
• all default configuration packed directly into the binary using ocaml-crunch
• customizable templates which use TINT as a template engine

Quickstart

First, install opam through your OS’s package manager.

Install

Arch Linux:

$ sudo pacman -S opam

macOS:

$ brew install opam

Once opam is installed, install spinup:

$ opam repository add dldc https://dldc.lib.uchicago.edu/opam
$ opam install spinup

Run

$ spinup your_project

Enjoy

$ eval $(opam env)
$ cd /path/to/your_project
$ dune exec your_project
$ dune build
$ dune utop
$ dune exec lib/repl.exe
$ dune runtest
$ dune install

Enjoy on someone else’s machine

$ cd /path/to/your_project
$ docker image build -t your/project .
$ docker container run your/project
$ docker container run your/project opam exec dune exec your_project
$ docker container run your/project opam exec dune build
$ docker container run -it your/project opam exec dune utop
$ docker container run -it your/project opam exec dune exec lib/repl.exe
$ docker container run your/project opam exec dune runtest

Assumptions

spinup’s defaults reflect the needs of the author’s typical code projects:

• library-executable design
• dune as a build tool
• opam as a package manager
• Prelude (with Etude) as a standard library
• alcotest as a unit-testing framework
• cram tests powered by dune
• TINT as a template engine
• Dockerfile for reproducible builds
• code formatting using ocamlformat, run automatically in a git pre-commit hook