Installing Old Active Networking Language PLAN

Question

Can someone please help me interpret this? I am trying to install PLAN (a Packet Language for Active Networks). From my terminal on Mac OS X 10.8.4:

hntvlan569:~ Scott_Andrew_Collins$ cd OCamlPLAN
hntvlan569:OCamlPLAN Scott_Andrew_Collins$ cd plan-3.22/
hntvlan569:plan-3.22 Scott_Andrew_Collins$ make
ocamlc.opt -pp "camlp4o pa_ifdef.cmo -DPLAN_UNSAFE -DPLANPORT_TCP -DC_CRYPTO" -w s 
-thread -I basis -I interpreter -I planet -I port -I util -I RIP -I resident -I 
arp -I csum -I frag -I net -I reliable -I dns -I exp -I flow -I security -I 
crypto -I builder -I snap -I apps -I common -c common/critical.ml -o 
common/critical.cmo Camlp4: Uncaught exception: DynLoader.Error ("pa_ifdef.cmo", 
"file not found in path")

Error while running external preprocessor
Command line: camlp4o pa_ifdef.cmo -DPLAN_UNSAFE -DPLANPORT_TCP -DC_CRYPTO
'common/critical.ml' > 
/var/folders/pm/m53jrwbd10x0q701d7sw2zrw0000gp/T/ocamlpp9101d0

make: *** [common/critical.cmo] Error 2

Google PLAN. You might find it interesting. – user2581852 Sep 14 '13 at 05:51 — user2581852, Sep 14 '13 at 05:51

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 14 '13 at 15:28

You don't say the version of OCaml you're using.

The missing file pa_ifdef.cmo is (perhaps obviously) a preprocessing plugin for camlp4. Looking through the OCaml releases on my system, I see that it was present (maybe in an unsupported form) under OCaml 3.12 but is not there for OCaml 4 (unless I missed it somehow). I suspect support for this plugin has been dropped.

I've used this plugin myself; its purpose is roughly the same as cpp, the C preprocessor. I.e., it does conditional compilation based on tests of flags supplied at compile time.

In recent years I've been lucky enough to do without conditional compilation, so I don't know the latest status of this facility. But it wouldn't surprise me at all if there were a similar plugin that works with the most recent OCaml compiler. So, one solution would be to look into the recent camlp4 and find the replacement.

If the compile-time conditions aren't used widely in your sources you could also go through and remove them.

Another choice would be to compile with an older version of OCaml.

Installing Old Active Networking Language PLAN

1 Answers1