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Version: v1

Compact Compiler Manual Page

NAME

compactc

OVERVIEW

The Compact compiler, compactc, takes as input a Compact source program in a specified source file and translates it into several target files in a specified directory.

SYNOPSYS

compactc flag ... sourcepath targetpath

DESCRIPTION

The flags flag ... are optional. They are described under FLAGS later in this document.

sourcepath should identify a file containing a Compact source program, and targetpath should identify a target directory into which the target files are to be placed. The target directory is created if it does not already exist.

compactc compiles the source file and produces from it the following target files, where sourceroot is the name of the file identified by sourcepath without any extension.

  • a Typescript type-definition file targetdir/contract/index.d.ts

  • a Javascript source file targetdir/contract/index.js

  • a Javascript source-map file targetdir/contract/index.js.map

  • one Zk/ir circuit file for each exported circuit circuitname in targetdir/zkir/circuitname.zkir, and

  • a pair of proving keys for each exported circuit circuitname in targetdir/keys/circuitname.prover and targetdir/keys/circuitname.verifier.

Compact source files can include other Compact source files via an include form:

include 'name';

They can also import externally defined modules via an import form:

import name; import 'name';

By default, the compiler looks for include files and externally defined modules with non-absolute pathnames relative to the directory of the including or importing file under the full filename name.compact. If this fails, it looks for the file in the Compact search list. The Compact search list is

  • the value of the --compact-path command-line option, if provided,
  • otherwise the value of the COMPACT_PATH environment variable, if set,
  • otherwise empty. The search list is a colon-separated (semicolon-separated on Windows) list of directory pathnames dirpath:...:dirpath (dirpath;...;dirpath under Windows), and the compiler looks under the full pathname dirpath/name.compact for each dirpath in order until the file is found or the set of dirpath entries is exhausted.

Most Compact source programs should import the standard library CompactStandardLibrary. This is typically done by placing the following line near the top of the program:

import CompactStandardLibrary;

CompactStandardLibrary is built into the compiler, not found in the filesystem.

FLAGS

The following flags, if present, affect the compiler's behavior as follows:

--help

prints help text and exits.

--version

prints the compiler version and exits.

--language-version

prints the language version supported by the compiler and exits.

--runtime-version

prints the runtime version required by the compiler and exits.

--ledger-version

prints the ledger version required by the compiler and exits.

--vscode

causes the compiler to omit newlines from error messages, so that they are rendered properly within the VS Code extension for Compact.

--skip-zk

causes the compiler to skip the generation of proving keys. Generating proving keys can be time-consuming, so this option is useful when debugging only the Typescript output. The compiler also skips, after printing a warning message, the generation of proving keys when it cannot find zkir.

--no-communications-commitment

omits the contract communications commitment that enables data integrity for contract-to-contract calls.

--sourceRoot sourceRoot-value

overrides the compiler's setting of the sourceRoot field in the generated source-map (.js.map) file. By default, the compiler tries to determine a useful value based on the source and target-directory pathnames, but this value might not be appropriate for the deployed structure of the application.

--compact-path search list

sets the Compact search list to search list.

--trace-import

causes the compiler to print a sequence of messages saying where it is looking for each included file and imported module source file.

--trace-passes

causes the compiler to print tracing information that is generally useful only to compiler developers.

EXAMPLES

Assuming src/test.compact contains a well-formed Compact program exporting circuits foo and bar:

compactc src/test.compact obj/test

produces:

obj/test/contract/index.d.ts
obj/test/contract/index.js
obj/test/contract/index.js.map

obj/test/zkir/foo.zkir
obj/test/zkir/bar.zkir

obj/test/keys/foo.prover
obj/test/keys/foo.verifier
obj/test/keys/bar.prover
obj/test/keys/bar.verifier

compactc --skip-zk src/test.compact obj/test

produces the same, except without the keys.