Basic guide to packaging OCaml code with current tools. (current ~= December 2012)

ocaml_package_helloworld

When making and publishing an OCaml programme or library, there are several 
tools you might use to compile and package and distribute your work. Building 
OCaml projects is a bit different from C or similar languages, so the usual 
"./configure && make && make test && make install" convention doesn't work.

As of December 2012, the recommended tools for building an OCaml package are
Oasis and OPAM. This document assumes you are using a UNIX-like system.
OPAM is responsible for installing new OCaml packages and libraries, such
as the dependencies of your own project. Oasis helps automate the build
system for your project.

To set up OPAM, see http://opam.ocamlpro.com/doc/Quick_Install.html

Oasis is documented at: http://oasis.forge.ocamlcore.org/quickstart.html

To install Oasis, do

    opam install oasis

Oasis will generate an editable configuration file for your package, which in
turn is used to automate the build:

    oasis quickstart

This generates an _oasis file, which you can customise. Examine similar files
in other projects and the documentation linked above to get a feel for how
it works.

Now run

    oasis setup
    ocaml setup.ml -configure
    ocaml setup.ml -build

To build your project.

There is an example of a project set up this way here: https://github.com/mk270/ocaml_skeleton