rebar3_lfe

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A modern rebar3 plugin for LFE projects

⚠️ IMPORTANT! ⚠️

rebar3_lfe is currently getting a 100% re-write, from scratch! - if you want to experiment with this bleeding edge, use the latest of the 0.5.x release.
If "Danger" is not your middle name, then continue using the latest 0.4.x release

✨ Why rebar3_lfe?

🚀 Fast: Incremental compilation is 10-30x faster than full rebuilds
🎯 Correct: Header changes automatically trigger recompilation
🛡️ Reliable: >90% test coverage, tested on Erlang/OTP 24-28
📦 Powerful: Nested module packages with proper cleanup
💬 Clear: Professional error messages that help you fix issues
🔧 Modern: Uses rebar3's latest compiler infrastructure

Quick Start

%% rebar.config
{plugins, [
    {rebar3_lfe, "0.5.x"}
]}.

{deps, [
    {lfe, "2.2.0"}
]}.

rebar3 lfe compile    # Compile your code
rebar3 lfe repl       # Start REPL
rebar3 lfe eval '(+ 1 2 3)'  # Evaluate LFE expressions
rebar3 lfe ltest      # Run tests

See Full Quick Start →

Features

🔥 Smart Compilation

$ rebar3 lfe compile
Compiling 10 LFE files...
Progress: 10/10 (100%)
Compiled 10 files in 1.25s

$ touch include/records.lfe
$ rebar3 lfe compile
Compiling 3 LFE files...  # Only files using the header
Compiled 3 files in 0.3s

🤖 Updated REPL

REPL support in rebar3_lfe has changed slightly in 0.5.0:

Easier support for customising the LFE REPL prompt
rlwrap for more consistent experience with readline support (dedicated LFE history file, etc.)

There is a new Makefile target that is included with all generated projects (rebar3 new lfe-*) which makes it easier for projects to use rlwrap and prompt customisations:

make repl

Autocompletion support is currently in progress; when complete, example usage will be shown here.

📦 Package System

Optional!

Organize your code by directories:

src/
├── myapp.lfe           → myapp module
└── myapp/
    ├── core.lfe        → myapp.core module
    └── utils/
        └── helpers.lfe → myapp.utils.helpers module

🎨 Great Errors

src/myapp.lfe:10: error: undefined function foo/1
  Did you mean: bar/1?

⚡ All the Commands

Core:

compile - Smart, incremental compilation
clean - Remove build artifacts
repl - Interactive LFE shell
eval - Evaluate LFE expressions
ltest - Run tests
versions - Version information

Scripts & Escripts:

run - Execute LFE scripts (main/1)
escriptize - Build standalone executables
run-escript - Execute built escripts

Releases:

release - Build OTP releases
run-release - Manage releases (start/stop/console/etc)

Utilities:

confabulate - Convert LFE data to Erlang format

See All Commands →

Documentation

Quick Start - Get started in 5 minutes
Commands - Complete command reference
Troubleshooting - Common issues
Migration Guide - Upgrade from 0.4.x

Examples

Simple Library - Basic LFE library

Compatibility

Erlang/OTP	rebar3	r3lfe	Status
28	3.25	0.5.0	✅ Tested
27	3.25	0.5.0	✅ Tested
26	3.25	0.5.0	✅ Tested
25	3.22	0.5.0	✅ Tested
24	3.22	0.5.0	✅ Tested

Breaking Changes from 0.4.x

Version 0.5.0 is a complete rewrite with breaking changes:

Module prefix: rebar3_lfe_* → r3lfe_*
Faster, more reliable compilation
Better error messages

Migration Guide →

Contributing

See contributing.

git clone https://github.com/lfe/rebar3.git rebar3_lfe
cd rebar3_lfe
rebar3 compile
make check

Support

Documentation: lfe.github.io/rebar3
Issues: GitHub Issues
Discussions: GitHub Discussions
Chat: #tooling in LFE Discord

License

Apache 2.0 - See LICENSE