Developing an OCaml project with Dune and Nix

In this tutorial, you will learn how to initialize an OCaml project that can be developed using dune.

Initialize a new project

Make dune executable available:
Terminal window
```
nix shell nixpkgs#dune_3
```

Scaffold a new project using dune:

dune init proj 'package_name' 'your-new-project'

Enter the project directory:
Terminal window
```
cd 'your-new-project'
```

Add flake.nix to the project

Initialize the template from the root directory of the project:
Terminal window
```
nix flake init github:akirak/flake-templates#ocaml-dune
```

Open flake.nix and set the pname and version of the package to be built, e.g.:

default = ocamlPackages.buildDunePackage {
  pname = throw "Name your OCaml package";
  pname = "hello";
  version = throw "Version your OCaml package";
  version = "0.1";
  duneVersion = "3";
  src = self.outPath;

Add .envrc:
Terminal window
```
use flake
```
Allow direnv:
Terminal window
```
direnv allow
```

Developing

Once the Nix shell is enabled, you can use dune inside the project directory, as you would do in a normal OCaml project.

Adding OCaml dependencies

To add library dependencies to your OCaml project, follow this instruction. In this example, we will be adding cmdliner as a new dependency.

Add the libraries to propagatedBuildInputs (or checkInputs if it's a test dependency) attribute to your package:

default = ocamlPackages.buildDunePackage {
  ...
  src = self.outPath;
  propagatedBuildInputs = with ocamlPackages; [
    base
    core
    core_unix
    cmdliner
  ];
};

Add them to depends field of your package in the dune-project file:

(package
 (name hello)
 (allow_empty)
 (depends
  (ocaml (>= 4.08.0))
  (dune (>= 3.16))
  (cmdliner (>= 1.3.0))
  (alcotest :with-test)))

Also add them to libraries field of a suitable stanza in the relevant dune file.

(library
 (public_name hello)
 (name hello)
 (libraries unix)
 (libraries unix cmdliner)
 )

Generating documentation for the dependencies

To generate documentation of the dependencies, use odig.

To generate a documentation, use a justfile recipe bundled in the template:
Terminal window
```
just odig-odoc
```
To search through the documentation, you can run a local instance of sherlodoc or open a generated HTML file directly.

Running sherlodoc

To run sherlodoc, follow this instruction.

Enable sherlodoc in the flake.nix:

devShells = eachSystem (
  { pkgs, ocamlPackages, ... }:
  {
    default = pkgs.mkShell {
      inputsFrom = [ self.packages.${pkgs.system}.default ];
      buildInputs = (
        with ocamlPackages;
        [
          ocaml-lsp
          ocamlformat
          ocp-indent
          ...
          # (sherlodoc.override { enableServe = true; })
          (sherlodoc.override { enableServe = true; })
        ]
      )
      # ++ lib.optional pkgs.stdenv.isLinux pkgs.inotify-tools
      ;
    };
  }
);

Run sherlodoc index on *.odocl files. The template contains a justfile recipe, so you can just run:
Terminal window
```
just sherlodoc-index
```
To browse the documentation, use a justfile recipe:
Terminal window
```
just sherlodoc-serve
```

For a detailed description, consult the documentation of sherlodoc.