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<CENTER><FONT COLOR="#FFFFFF" SIZE=+3><B>The <TT>finder</TT> Command</B></FONT></CENTER>
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<BR><BR><BR>

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<TD NOSAVE><FONT COLOR="#FFFFFF" SIZE="+2">Usage</FONT></TD>
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<P>
<TT>finder [options] [&lt;ACEfile.ace&gt;] &lt;Class&gt;</TT>
</P><P>
The <TT>finder</TT> command tells you which file is loaded when searching
for an Eiffel &lt;Class&gt;.
<BR><BR>
When an Eiffel file is found, <TT>finder</TT> prints the full path name
on standard output.
<BR><BR>
The exit status is set GENERAL.exit_success_code only when an
existing file is found (thus allowing usage of command finder
in shell scripts).
</P><P>
As for other commands, when the ACE file mode is used, only the
content of the <TT>&lt;ACEfile.ace&gt;</TT> file is used to search 
the source file.
<P>
To see the loading path used by SmartEiffel, you can for example
type the <TT>finder</TT> command using a bad (inexistent) class name.
<P>
In ACE file mode, the loading path can be updated by modifying the
ACE file itself.
In traditional mode (i.e. no ACE file), the default loading path 
may also be tailored (see <A HREF="#LOADPATH">below</A>).
</P>

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<TD NOSAVE><FONT COLOR="#FFFFFF" SIZE="+2">Options</FONT></TD>
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<P>
<DL COMPACT>

<DT>
<I>-help</I>:<BR>
<DD>
Display a brief summary of the command-line syntax and a complete
list of <TT>finder</TT> options.
<BR><BR>

<DT>
<I>-version</I>:<BR><DD>
Show the number of the version of SmartEiffel you're using.
<BR><BR>

<DT>
<I>-verbose</I>:<BR><DD>
 Print system information during the compilation (full path of 
   loaded files, type inference score, removed files, etc.).
<BR><BR>

<DT>
<I>-loadpath &lt;loadpath_file&gt;</I>:<BR><DD>
Adds a loadpath file for class lookup. See&nbsp;<A HREF="#LOADPATH">below</A> for
details on the <EM>loading path</EM> constitution.

</DL>

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<TD NOSAVE><FONT COLOR="#FFFFFF" SIZE="+2">Where Does <TT>finder</TT> Search?</FONT></TD>
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<P>
<A NAME="algorithm"></A>The algorithm used by SmartEiffel to look for 
an Eiffel source file is the following:
</P>
<P>
<FONT COLOR="#a000a0"><B>1. Lower case filenames - </B></FONT>
SmartEiffel looks all along the <EM>loading path</EM> (see&nbsp;<A HREF="#LOADPATH">below</A>) using
&lt;class&gt; name in lower case as tail. If needed, the Eiffel
suffix (".e") is added automatically. SmartEiffel only looks for
suffixed files on the disk. Only the first file encountered
according to the order of the path is taken in account.
File is always supposed to have the same name as the inside
class definition.
</P><P>
<FONT COLOR="#a000a0"><B>2. Renamed files - </B></FONT>
When the above search has failed to find a file, SmartEiffel tries 
to search for files <TT>rename.se</TT> in all directories of the path.
<BR>
A file <TT>rename.se</TT> allows the user to put in file "foo" the class
"bar" for example.
<BR>
Such renaming facilities has been added especially for DOS (file
names are limited to 8 characters).
<BR>
Each line of a <TT>rename.se</TT> file is a renaming directive containing
two names, first the full name and then the short name to use in the
directory where the <TT>rename.se</TT> file is.
File <TT>SmartEiffel/misc/rename.se</TT> is an example of such a file.
</P><P>
Thus, knowing the algorithm of SmartEiffel to find a class file, it is
better not to use the renaming facilities to speed up class loading (see&nbsp;<A HREF="#LOADPATH">below</A> for more details about the loading path algorithm).
</P><P>
<FONT COLOR="#a000a0"><B>3. Upper case filenames - </B></FONT>Finally, 
when both previous steps did not find the required Eiffel class file,
SmartEiffel looks along the <EM>loading path</EM>
(see&nbsp;<A HREF="#LOADPATH">below</A>) for a file bearing the class 
name upper in upper case letters.
If needed, the Eiffel suffix ".e" is added automatically.
<BR>
One must note that the overhead to find an upper case file name is
not negligible at all and that a lower case file name may hide some
upper case name.
</P>

<A NAME="LOADPATH"></A>
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<TD NOSAVE><FONT COLOR="#FFFFFF" SIZE="+2">How is the <EM>loading path</EM> built?</FONT></TD>
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<P>
As described above, SmartEiffel looks for classes in <TT>.e</TT> files. But
where should those files be situated? The answer is, in the <EM>loading
path</EM>. The thing is, how is the <EM>loading path</EM> built, what are the
default values, and how can it be changed?
</P><P>


There are many things that are taken into account. Let's take them in order,
from the most important to the least (i.e., in the order SmartEiffel looks in;
remember that <EM>the first filename that matches is used,</EM> thus allowing
class covering).

</P>
<OL>

<LI>The loadpath files given on the command line (using <I>-loadpath</I>)
are searched first.</LI>

<LI>If the current directory contains a file named <TT>loadpath.se</TT>, this
file is used as loadpath file; otherwise, the current directory is considered
as a path where to look for classes (this allows very simple projects to not
define any loadpath file).</LI>

<LI>At last, the loadpath files of the configuration file are used.</LI>

</OL>

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<FONT SIZE="-1"><I>
Copyright &copy; Dominique COLNET and Suzanne COLLIN -
<A HREF="mailto:SmartEiffel@loria.fr">&lt;SmartEiffel@loria.fr&gt;</A>
<BR>
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Last modified: Tue Feb 11 12:15:38 CET 2003
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