Lisp file and/or ASDF dependency analysis; trying to load asdf-dependency-grovel

[Robert Dodier]

Robert, thanks for your reply. I have made some progress.

>> Just performed compiling #<INSTRUMENTED-CL-SOURCE-FILE
>> "test-serial-system" "package"> but failed to mark it done

> It would help to get a backtrace here. I can't tell from this if the error is happening in ASDF or in ASDF-DEPENDENCY-GROVEL (which probably isn't maintained).

The "failed to mark it done" is coming from ASDF. The ASDF version
(bundled with SBCL) is, I think, 3.2.something. I tried it with
Clozure CL, which has (on my system at least) ASDF 3.1.something, and
the same operation succeeds. I guess I'm not too worried about it,
since I now have a workaround, but I'm curious to know what's going on
here.

> Also whose run-tests.sh are these? ASDF's tests or ASDF-dependency-grovel's?

For the record, it's the run-tests.sh of asdf-dependency-grovel.

> Again, it would help to have a backtrace from this circular dependency to help us get started (if you can share it -- I suppose your system could be private/proprietary).

About the circular dependency, it's in Maxima's ASDF file. After
puzzling over a backtrace (thanks for the hint) I figured out it's
because :serial t is specified, and a module depends on something
later in the .asd. I moved the offending module and that resolved the
dependency error. Hurray!

> I wonder if we should adopt asdf-dependency-grovel into the ASDF group on cl.net's GitLab? There's no guarantee that would result in active maintenance, though -- it should be obvious that I don't have a lot of cycles to spare...

Well, I think that sounds like a good idea. I know developing new code
is unlikely but it would be great to at least make any updates
necessary to keep up with new ASDF versions.

asdf-dependency-grovel seems like a really great idea -- I am hoping
to use it to analyze dependencies in Maxima, which, as you may know,
is an ancient and pretty large system ... If asdf-dependency-grovel
didn't exist, I would have to reinvent some wheels.

best,

Robert