[asdf-devel] ASDF:OOS LOAD-OP :FORCE T and SBCL contribs

[Nikodemus Siivola]

LOAD-OP :FORCE T propagates to depended-on systems -- meaning they
will be recompiled as well.

This is nasty when depending on an SBCL contributed module or anything
else likely to be installed in directory with no write-permissions for
the user.

The easiest way to deal with this would be to add

  ;; Prevent :FORCE T from trying to recompile contribs.
  (defclass sb-contrib-system (system) ())
  (defmethod traverse :before ((o compile-op) (c sb-contrib-system))
    (when (operation-forced o)
      (warn "Ignoring :FORCE T for COMPILE-OP of SBCL contributed
module ~:@(~A~)."
            (component-name c))
      (setf (operation-forced o) nil)))

under #+sbcl in asdf.lisp, and make SBCL defsystems use :class
asdf::sb-contrib-system.

However, presumably there are other cases where systems may be
installed without write-permissions, so recompilation is not going to
work.

Perhaps a better solution would be to export OPERATION-FORCED and
TRAVERSE, so that this could be deal with where-ever is needed --
especially in local initialization files for systems installed in
read-only locations. The SBCL solution would look about the same -- it
just would not reside inside asdf.lisp.

Am I on the wrong track?

Cheers,

 -- Nikodemus