Question

(David James both wrote the question and an answer. I’ll edit it to conform to Stackoverflow standards.)

Using SBCL you can compile Lisp code to machine code.

Like Java, .net, C++ and even C you will need the runtime. So there are two ways to compile Common Lisp code.

First is to make huge binaries which is explained in SBCL documentation. No SBCL needed on target machine.

The other way is a more flexible one, which is to create machine code in a fasl (FASt Load) format. The SBCL runtime is needed on the target machine.

How does the second way work under a Unix-like operating system?

Answer 1

(Answer by David James:)

We are going to make two commands in our system: one for batch compiling Lisp code and the other for easily running Lisp code:

Using your favorite editor, open a file called sbcl.compile. The content should be:

    #!/bin/bash
    sbcl --noinform --eval "(compile-file \"$1\")" --eval "(quit)" > /dev/null

Now to compile Lisp files use:

    # sbcl.compile hello.lisp

This will create a hello.fasl file.

Now to easily run these files, we create a new command. Using your favorite editor open a file called sbcl.run. The content should be:

    #!/bin/bash
    sbcl --noinform --load "$1" --quit --end-toplevel-options "$@"

Now you may invoke sbcl.run hello.fasl to run the native code.

    # sbcl.run hello.fasl

Details are described in the SBCL manual: Starting SBCL