From 754bbf7a25a8dda49b5d08ef0d0443bbf5af0e36 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Craig Jennings Date: Sun, 7 Apr 2024 13:41:34 -0500 Subject: new repository --- devdocs/elisp/docs-and-compilation.html | 12 ++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+) create mode 100644 devdocs/elisp/docs-and-compilation.html (limited to 'devdocs/elisp/docs-and-compilation.html') diff --git a/devdocs/elisp/docs-and-compilation.html b/devdocs/elisp/docs-and-compilation.html new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8d839e54 --- /dev/null +++ b/devdocs/elisp/docs-and-compilation.html @@ -0,0 +1,12 @@ +

Documentation Strings and Compilation

When Emacs loads functions and variables from a byte-compiled file, it normally does not load their documentation strings into memory. Each documentation string is dynamically loaded from the byte-compiled file only when needed. This saves memory, and speeds up loading by skipping the processing of the documentation strings.

This feature has a drawback: if you delete, move, or alter the compiled file (such as by compiling a new version), Emacs may no longer be able to access the documentation string of previously-loaded functions or variables. Such a problem normally only occurs if you build Emacs yourself, and happen to edit and/or recompile the Lisp source files. To solve it, just reload each file after recompilation.

Dynamic loading of documentation strings from byte-compiled files is determined, at compile time, for each byte-compiled file. It can be disabled via the option byte-compile-dynamic-docstrings.

User Option: byte-compile-dynamic-docstrings +
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If this is non-nil, the byte compiler generates compiled files that are set up for dynamic loading of documentation strings.

To disable the dynamic loading feature for a specific file, set this option to nil in its header line (see Local Variables in Files in The GNU Emacs Manual), like this: 

-*-byte-compile-dynamic-docstrings: nil;-*-
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This is useful mainly if you expect to change the file, and you want Emacs sessions that have already loaded it to keep working when the file changes.

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Internally, the dynamic loading of documentation strings is accomplished by writing compiled files with a special Lisp reader construct, ‘#@count’. This construct skips the next count characters. It also uses the ‘#$’ construct, which stands for the name of this file, as a string. Do not use these constructs in Lisp source files; they are not designed to be clear to humans reading the file.

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+ Copyright © 1990-1996, 1998-2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU GPL license.
+ https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Docs-and-Compilation.html +

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