Tooling

Compiler Commands

Run a Single File

Compile and execute a single .anc file:

ancc run file.anc

The file must contain a func main(): int entry point. The process exit code is the return value of main.

Build a Package

Build a multi-file project from a directory containing an anchor manifest:

ancc build path/to/project

If no path is given, the current directory is used.

Debug: Print Tokens

ancc lexer file.anc

Debug: Print AST

ancc ast file.anc

Project Structure

A package project has this layout:

myproject/
    anchor              # manifest file
    src/
        main.anc        # entry module
        utils.anc       # other modules
        core/
            math.anc    # nested module (imported as core.math)

Manifest Format

The anchor file is plain text with key-value pairs:

name myproject
entry main

Generated Output

The compiler generates C99 source files and invokes gcc -std=c99 to compile them.

For a package named basic with modules main, utils, and core.math, the generated files are:

build/
    anc__basic__main.c
    anc__basic__main.h
    anc__basic__utils.c
    anc__basic__utils.h
    anc__basic__core_math.c
    anc__basic__core_math.h

Symbol names are mangled as anc__{package}__{module}__{identifier}. Methods include the type name: anc__{package}__{module}__{Type}__{method}.