Command Line

Quick examples:

  # compile and run immediately (if no errors)
cobra myprog.cobra

  # get help
cobra -h

  # compile only
cobra -c myprog.cobra

  # with debug
cobra -d -c myprog.cobra

  # multiple source files
cobra -c foo.cobra bar.cobra

  # passing arguments
cobra foo.cobra bar.cobra -- arg1 arg2

  
  # disable all checks, contracts, asserts, etc.
  # maximum performance
cobra -turbo foo.cobra

Getting help:

cobra -h
cobra -help

will dump a page detailing all the command line options supported.

The compiler runs for each invocation in a particular mode of operation. These correspond to the 'commands on paths'

• -compile or -c - compile the provided files and bind into an executable
• -run-exe or -r - as for -compile but run the executable after successful compilation. This is the default mode if none other is given
• -test - as for -compile but run the executables test cases after successful execution
• -document - parse the provided files and generate documentation from the parse tree

In addition there are three standalone commands

• -help or -h - display the cobra commandline options and descriptions
• -about - display info about cobra
• -version - display the cobra executables version information

Commandline items that are not options ( begin with '-') are taken to be filenames. Cobra can take one or a list of commandline given files to compile and the files can be cobra code ( filename ends in '.cobra') or C# code ( filename ends in '.cs'). Filenames without any extension are assumed to be a cobra code file of the same name with a '.cobra' extension

i.e

cobra myProg.cobra 
cobra myProg

both do the same thing - compile a cobra code file myProg.cobra to an executable and run it (if compilation succeeds)

Options

options form : -option:value, synonyms

passing reference to an assembly be it .exe or .dll
is done through -ref: it can take either of the two
a) assemblyFileName.exe or assemblyFileName.dll
b) itsFullPath\assemblyFileName.exe or itsFullPath\assemblyFileName.dll

cobra -c -ref:anyAssembly.dll codeFile.cobra

or

cobra -c -ref:anyAssembly.exe codeFile.cobra

with Full Paths

cobra -c -ref:itsFullPath\anyValidAssembly.dll codeFile.cobra

or

cobra -c -ref:itsFullPath\anyValidAssembly.exe codeFile.cobra

if you are not providing paths of the referenced assemblies then you can use

-lib: option to provided additional paths for compiler to search for the referenced assemblies

this can work good for assemblies outside of the GAC i.e private assemblies
but suppose you want to include System.Speech which is found in both .net 3.5
and .net 4.0 so even if you provide additional paths through -lib: for System.Speech
if compiler is compiled on .net 4.0 it may default to using .net 4.0 version of System.Speech
so when you want to specify paths to the referenced assembly explicitly
use -ref:withFullPath\to\requiredAssembly.dll or .exe

TODO Sections

• Files:file
• Controlling type of executable built -target/-t
• Providing references and library search path -reference/-ref -library-directory/-lib -embed-run-time/-ert
• Controlling compilation -include-{asserts, nil-checks, tests}
  • -optimize/-o -debug/-d -turbo/-t
  • -keep-intermediate-files/-kif
  • -contracts -verbosity/-v
• Specifying executable and args for it -run-args/-- and -run
• Error handling -detailed-stack-trace/dst -debugging-tips -exception-report -reveal-internal-exceptions
• Development cycle - colorize -editor
• Back end -sharp-compiler -sharp-args

Examples

Working with Multiple Files

For now, see:

•  discussion: multiple files
•  discussion: Importing Cobra Files

See also: MsxBuild, LanguageTopics, LibraryTopics