site-lib - Man Page

...somewhere in the filesystem hierarchy... 
   | 
   \  
     site-lib 
     | 
     +- (optional) stublibs 
     +- (optional) postinstall 
     +- (optional) postremove 
     | 
     +-  package1 
     |  | 
     |  +- META 
     |  +-  archive files 
     |  +-  interface definitions 
     | 
     +-  package2 
     + 
     : 
     : 
     \ 
         packageN

Every installation of "findlib" has a default location for package   directories, which is normally a directory called "site-lib". The   location can be set by the configuration variables   path (used to look up packages), and   destdir (used to install new packages);   see  findlib.conf.

The name of a package is the name of the package directory. For   example, if  destdir=/usr/local/lib/ocaml/site-lib, the   package p will be installed in the subdirectory   /usr/local/lib/ocaml/site-lib/p. This subdirectory   must contain the META file and all other files belonging to the package.   Package names must not contain the '.' character.

The variable  destdir specifies the directory for   new packages. You can only have one such directory at a time; but of   course you can change this directory in findlib.conf. The command   ocamlfind install puts new packages into this   directory; it is recommended to use this command for installation   because it ensures that the directory layout is right.

For searching packages, findlib uses (only) the variable   path which may name several locations to look at.

For systems with DLL support another directory may exist: stublibs.     If present, findlib will install DLLs into this directory that is   shared by all packages at the same site-lib location. Findlib remembers   which DLL belongs to which package by special files with the suffix   ".owner"; e.g. for the DLL "dllpcre.so" there is another file   "dllpcre.so.owner" containing the string "pcre", so findlib knows   that the package "pcre" owns this DLL. It is not possible that a DLL   is owned by several packages.

If the stublibs directory does not exist, DLLs are installed regularly   in the package directories like any other file.

For special needs, a postinstall and/or a postremove script may be   installed in the site-lib directory. These scripts are invoked after   installation or removal of a package, respectively.

...somewhere in the filesystem hierarchy... 
   | 
   \  
     site-lib 
     | 
     +- (optional) stublibs 
     +- (optional) postinstall 
     +- (optional) postremove 
     | 
     +-  package1 
     |  | 
     |  +-  archive files 
     |  +-  interface definitions 
     | 
     +-  package2 
     + 
     : 
     : 
     \ 
  :      packageN 
  | 
  \ 
    metaregistry 
    | 
    +- META.package1 
    +- META.package2 
    + 
    : 
    \ 
       META.packageN

This is an alternate directory layout collecting all META files in one   directory. You can configure this layout by setting   path to the absolute location of   metaregistry. Findlib recognizes that there are   META files in this directory and uses them; it is not necessary to   include  site-lib into the  path.

In order to work, the META files must contain a   directory directive pointing to the corresponding   package directory that resides below  site-lib.

The command  ocamlfind install copes with this   layout, too. The variable  destdir must contain the   absolute location of  site-lib, and the variable   metadir must contain the absolute location of   metaregistry. Note that  ocamlfind   install automatically adds a  directory   directive to the META file, so you need not do it manually.