Self-compiling macro

ROOT
1

Hello,
I’m trying to come up with a way to have a self-compiling macro. In other words, I’m looking for the moral equivalent of

#include <iostream>
#include "TSystem.h"

using namespace std;

void loadTest (const char prefix[] = "")
{
   gROOT->Reset();
   cout << "Hi " << prefix <<endl>ProcessLine (".L loadTest.C+");
   gROOT->ProcessLine ("other()");
}

void other()
{
   cout << "hello" << endl;
}

If I try this, I get (not surprisingly) complaints that the file is busy.

Processing loadTest.C...
Hi 
Warning in <ACLiC>: script has already been loaded in interpreted mode
Warning in <ACLiC>: unloading /mnt/autofs/cdf/home/cplager/analysis/pdf2/topToPdfWeights/pdfweights/./loadTest.C and compiling it
Function loadTest() busy. loaded after "/mnt/autofs/cdf/home/cplager/analysis/pdf2/topToPdfWeights/pdfweights/./loadTest.C"
Error: G__unloadfile() Can not unload "/mnt/autofs/cdf/home/cplager/analysis/pdf2/topToPdfWeights/pdfweights/./loadTest.C", file busy  FILE:loadTest.C LINE:12
*** Interpreter error recovered ***
hello

I’m trying this in Root 4.00.08 and above. Is this possible?

Cheers,
Charles

p.s. Is there a way to get the full name of the file in the macro? I.e.,

2

Hi,

OK, so it does work. But it needs one ugly hack, and we will fix this if we remember this issue (we == Philippe :-). If you see a TAclic showing up in ROOT, and it doesn’t have a flag “IgnoreBusy”, then please remind us.

There is one important caveat: do not create a function that is visible in both compiled and interpreted mode, or CINT’s dictionary will get utterly confused, especially after unloading either the script or the library. You have been warned :slight_smile:

The macro is attached; I hope it has a sufficient amount of comments.

Cheers, Axel.
autobuild.C (2.45 KB)

3

Boy, that is ugly! :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

I’ll try it in a bit to see if it works for me.

Thank you for the effort. It is most appreciated :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

(I can’t stop smiling after reading that code).

4

Hi Charles,

just to clarify: this is ugly because I’m hacking CINT’s perfectly reasonable protection not to load a file twice. CINT’s dictionary relies on functions being unique per process. Still, the future TAclic should probably allow users to disable this check, in some half-hidden way.

Cheers, Axel.

5

It works beautifully! :smiley:
Thanks!