OCamlNat - OCaml Native Toplevel REPL - tools Cheatsheets

Understanding OCamlNat

OCamlNat is the native toplevel for OCaml, providing a powerful Read-Eval-Print Loop (REPL) environment. It enhances the interactive development experience by offering Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation, which can lead to faster execution of code snippets directly within the REPL.

Starting an OCamlNat Session

To begin an interactive OCaml session using OCamlNat, simply execute the command in your terminal:

ocamlnat

Loading Libraries and Files

You can specify directories to include libraries from or load specific OCaml files directly when starting OCamlNat. This is useful for working with existing projects or custom modules.

# Load files and libraries from specified paths
ocamlnat -I /path/to/library -I /another/path file.ml

# Include additional compiled library files (cmxa or cma)
ocamlnat -I +some_directory some_library.cmxa

Executing Initialization Scripts

OCamlNat allows you to run an initialization script before entering the REPL. This is perfect for setting up common definitions, loading essential modules, or configuring the environment automatically.

# Execute an initialization script before entering the REPL
ocamlnat -init init_script.ml

Exiting the REPL

To gracefully exit the OCamlNat REPL session, you can typically use the standard terminal exit command. While Ctrl+D is common for many REPLs, OCaml's toplevel also accepts an explicit command.

exit;;

OCamlNat - OCaml Native Toplevel REPL