ANSI Common Lisp 24 System Construction 24.2 Dictionary of System Construction
|24.2.11 provide, require
module-name &optional pathname-list
- Arguments and Values:
module-name - a string designator.
pathname-list - nil, or
for a non-empty list of pathname designators.
The default is nil.
provide adds the module-name to the list held by
*modules*, if such a name is not already present.
require tests for the presence of the module-name in the
list held by *modules*.
If it is present, require immediately returns.
Otherwise, an attempt is made to load an appropriate set of files as follows:
The pathname-list argument, if non-nil,
specifies a list of pathnames to be loaded in order, from left to right.
If the pathname-list is nil,
an implementation-dependent mechanism will be invoked in an attempt
to load the module named module-name;
if no such module can be loaded, an error of type error is signaled.
Both functions use string= to test for the presence of a module-name.
;;; This illustrates a nonportable use of REQUIRE, because it
;;; depends on the implementation-dependent file-loading mechanism.
;;; This use of REQUIRE is nonportable because of the literal
;;; physical pathname.
(require "CALCULUS" "/usr/lib/lisp/calculus")
;;; One form of portable usage involves supplying a logical pathname,
;;; with appropriate translations defined elsewhere.
(require "CALCULUS" "lib:calculus")
;;; Another form of portable usage involves using a variable or
;;; table lookup function to determine the pathname, which again
;;; must be initialized elsewhere.
(require "CALCULUS" *calculus-module-pathname*)
- Side Effects:
provide modifies *modules*.
- Affected By:
The specific action taken by require is affected by calls to provide
(or, in general, any changes to the value of *modules*).
- Exceptional Situations:
Should signal an error of type type-error if module-name is not a string designator.
If require fails to perform the requested operation
due to a problem while interacting with the file system,
an error of type file-error is signaled.
An error of type file-error might be signaled if any pathname
in pathname-list is a designator for a wild pathname.
- See Also:
Section 19.1.2 Pathnames as Filenames
The functions provide and require are deprecated.
If a module consists of a single package,
it is customary for the package and module names to be the same.
- Allegro CL Implementation Details:
See cl:provide and cl:require
for information on the implementation of provide and require. Note
the links are to the documentation for the current Allegro CL
version. Replace /current/ in the URL with the Allegro CL version
number to see similar documentation is earlier releases.