Hi, I've noticed that if macros are ever used in the process of auto-compilation, the dependency is forgotten, so even if a module that contains the definition of a macro gets recompiled, the module that uses the macro remains unchanged.
For example, consider the following situation. I have two modules and a program that uses one of them. The directory tree looks like this: . |-- module | |-- master.scm | `-- slave.scm `-- program.scm The module/master.scm contains the following code: --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- (define-module (module master) #:export (macro function)) (define-syntax-rule (macro) (display "macro expanded")) (define (function) (display "function called")) --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- The module/slave.scm uses the master module: --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- (define-module (module slave) #:use-module (module master) #:export (f)) (define (f) (macro)) --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- But the program.scm uses only the slave module: --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- (use-modules (module slave)) (f) --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- If I run the program, I get the following result: user cwd $ GUILE_LOAD_PATH=. guile -s program.scm ;;; <auto-compilation of program.scm> ;;; <auto-compilation of module/slave.scm> ;;; <auto-compilation of module/master.scm> macro expandeduser cwd $ Oops, I forgot to add a trailing newline. But that's no problem! I edit the body of module/master.scm: - (display "macro expanded")) + (display "macro expanded!\n")) and then run the program once again: user cwd $ GUILE_LOAD_PATH=. guile -s program.scm ;;; <auto-compilation of module/master.scm> macro expandeduser cwd $ Damn! That didn't work. See the problem? If I modify a module that exports any syntax definition, it should force all the modules that use it be recompiled -- otherwise the auto-compilation feature is only a potential source of confusion, and forcing recompilation of all user modules if at least one of them has been modified seems to be a less confusing default strategy, if a more fine-grained dependency tracking is too difficult to implement. I've tested that behaviour under guile 2.0.5, guile-2.0.9, guile-2.0.9.98-36c40 from hydra and guile-2.1.0.545-61989 from git, and everywhere it worked the same. Regards, M.
