Setting up SWIPL & JPL for development

The second thing to understand is that JPL is just a package on the overall SWI Prolog (SWIPL) system. So, to compile the whole JPL, one needs the core SWIPL system, as the JPL C component (libswipl.so) links against the core SWI library (e.g., libswipl.so):

Preparing

First, let us make sure we have all the necessary libraries and tools to compile the system:

sudo apt-get install \
        build-essential autoconf curl chrpath pkg-config \
        ncurses-dev libreadline-dev libedit-dev \
        libunwind-dev \
        libgmp-dev \
        libssl-dev \
        unixodbc-dev \
        zlib1g-dev libarchive-dev \
        libossp-uuid-dev \
        libxext-dev libice-dev libjpeg-dev libxinerama-dev libxft-dev \
        libxpm-dev libxt-dev \
        libdb-dev \
        libpcre2-dev \
        libyaml-dev \
        openjdk-17-jdk junit \
        make ninja-build \
        junit4 \
        cmake

Since we want to get JPL it is mandatory to have:

• openjdk-17-jdk or any package that can provide java and the compiler javac. (Run javac -version to test).
• junit4, for running Java unit testing (via ctest -V -R jpl)

As explained in fnogatz’s swivm repo, if you want to reduce resources, the following packages listed above are optional:

• libreadline-dev and libedit-devl: Without, you do not have history feature in SWIPL interpreter.
• unixodbc-dev: Without, you have no ODBC database connectivity (e.g., MySQL)
• libssl-dev: Without, you have no SSL (and HTTPS) support.
• libgmp-dev: Without, you lack unbounded integer support, rational numbers, good random number generators, etc.
• libarchive-dev: Without, you can not unpack and install add-ons.
• libpcre2-dev: Without, you have no regular expression support (library(pcre)).
• libyaml-dev: Without, you have no YAML support (library(yaml)).

Second, let us clone the complete SWIPL system:

$ git clone git@github.com:SWI-Prolog/swipl-devel.git

Next, get into the system and set-up all the packages (including JPL):

$ cd swipl-devel/
$ git submodule update --init # get sources for all modules

If you don’t want all the packages that come with SWIPL, then at least you need JPL and unit testing:

$ git submodule update --init packages/jpl        # get JPL source code
$ git submodule update --init packages/plunit     # get SWIPL unit testing

Next, make sure that any SWI Prolog system install that you may have (e.g., the one that comes with the Linux distro) does not interfere with your development install. To do so, confirm that you do not have LD_PRELOAD or LD_LIBRARY_PATH pointing to your local install version of libswipl.so (e.g., /usr/lib/libswipl.so). Otherwise, your development will use that system install, which is not what you want:

unset LD_LIBRARY_PATH LD_PRELOAD SWI_HOME_DIR   # don't use SWI installs

Also, JPL will be compiled with SWIPL only if Java and JNI are found, otherwise JPL will just be skipped by CMAKE. The latter (JNI) wil be found by CMAKE only when JAVA_HOME is set to the root of the Java to be used:

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-17-openjdk-amd64/

Compiling & Installing SWIPL with JPL

Everything is ready. Now, build the SWIPL system (SWIPL + JPL + PLUNIT) using CMAKE (with install in/usr/local/swipl-git):

$ mkdir build
$ cd build

# for make
$ cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH=/usr/local/swipl-git -DINSTALL_DOCUMENTATION=OFF ..
$ make -j 8

# for ninja
$ cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH=/usr/local/swipl-git -DINSTALL_DOCUMENTATION=OFF ..
$ ninja -v -j 8

If compiled with no errors, you can unit test as follows:

$ ctest -V -R jpl:prolog_in_java  # run test of Java calling Prolog
$ ctest -V -R jpl:java_in_prolog  # run test of SWI calling Java
$ ctest -V -R jpl # run all JPL tests

If no tests are found (message “No tests were found!!!”), it may be you are missing junit4 in the system.

Finally, to install SWIPL in the system at /usr/local/swipl-git:

$ sudo make install   # if compiled with make

$ sudo ninja install  # if compiled with ninja

If you want to have more than one SWIPL installed (your locally compiled system and the distribution one), you may want to consider fnogatz’s swivm tool to manage them.

Update & Upgrade

To update/upgrade the SWIPL framework to the latest one:

$ cd swipl-devel
$ git pull
$ git submodule update --init

$ unset LD_LIBRARY_PATH LD_PRELOAD SWI_HOME_DIR   # to make sure no use of old SWI install

$ cd build        # already exists form previous set-up
$ cmake -C packages/jpl clean ..
$ make -j 8 // or ninja
$ sudo make install