MoonBit's Build System Tutorial

Moon is the build system for the MoonBit language, currently based on the n2 project. Moon supports parallel and incremental builds. Additionally, moon also supports managing and building third-party packages on mooncakes.io

Prerequisites

Before you begin with this tutorial, make sure you have installed the following:

  1. MoonBit CLI Tools: Download it from the https://www.moonbitlang.com/download/. This command line tool is needed for creating and managing MoonBit projects.

    Use moon help to view the usage instructions.

    $ moon help
The build system and package manager for MoonBit.

Usage: moon [OPTIONS] <COMMAND>

Commands:
  new                    Create a new MoonBit module
  build                  Build the current package
  check                  Check the current package, but don't build object files
  run                    Run a main package
  test                   Test the current package
  clean                  Remove the target directory
  fmt                    Format source code
  doc                    Generate documentation
  info                   Generate public interface (`.mbti`) files for all packages in the module
  add                    Add a dependency
  remove                 Remove a dependency
  install                Install dependencies
  tree                   Display the dependency tree
  login                  Log in to your account
  register               Register an account at mooncakes.io
  publish                Publish the current package
  update                 Update the package registry index
  coverage               Code coverage utilities
  generate-build-matrix  Generate build matrix for benchmarking (legacy feature)
  upgrade                Upgrade toolchains
  shell-completion       Generate shell completion for bash/elvish/fish/pwsh/zsh to stdout
  version                Print version information and exit
  help                   Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

Options:
  -h, --help  Print help

Common Options:
  -C, --directory <SOURCE_DIR>   The source code directory. Defaults to the current directory
      --target-dir <TARGET_DIR>  The target directory. Defaults to `source_dir/target`
  -q, --quiet                    Suppress output
  -v, --verbose                  Increase verbosity
      --trace                    Trace the execution of the program
      --dry-run                  Do not actually run the command
      --build-graph              Generate build graph

  2. MoonBit Language plugin in Visual Studio Code: You can install it from the VS Code marketplace. This plugin provides a rich development environment for MoonBit, including functionalities like syntax highlighting, code completion, and more.

Once you have these prerequisites fulfilled, let's start by creating a new MoonBit module.

Creating a New Module

To create a new module, enter the moon new command in the terminal, and you will see the module creation wizard. By using all the default values, you can create a new module named username/hello in the my-project directory.

$ moon new
Enter the path to create the project (. for current directory): my-project
Select the create mode: exec
Enter your username: username
Enter your project name: hello
Enter your license: Apache-2.0
Created my-project

If you want use all default values, you can use moon new my-project to create a new module named username/hello in the my-project directory.

Understanding the Module Directory Structure

After creating the new module, your directory structure should resemble the following:

my-project
├── LICENSE
├── README.md
├── moon.mod.json
└── src
    ├── lib
    │   ├── hello.mbt
    │   ├── hello_test.mbt
    │   └── moon.pkg.json
    └── main
        ├── main.mbt
        └── moon.pkg.json

Here's a brief explanation of the directory structure:

  • moon.mod.json is used to identify a directory as a MoonBit module. It contains the module's metadata, such as the module name, version, etc. source specifies the source directory of the module. The default value is src.

    {
  "name": "username/hello",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "readme": "README.md",
  "repository": "",
  "license": "Apache-2.0",
  "keywords": [],
  "description": "",
  "source": "src"
}

  • lib and main directories: These are the packages within the module. Each package can contain multiple .mbt files, which are the source code files for the MoonBit language. However, regardless of how many .mbt files a package has, they all share a common moon.pkg.json file. lib/*_test.mbt are separate test files in the lib package, these files are for blackbox test, so private members of the lib package cannot be accessed directly.

  • moon.pkg.json is package descriptor. It defines the properties of the package, such as whether it is the main package and the packages it imports.

    • main/moon.pkg.json:

      {
  "is_main": true,
  "import": [
    "username/hello/lib"
  ]
}

    Here, "is_main: true" declares that the package needs to be linked by the build system into a wasm file.

    • lib/moon.pkg.json:

      {}

    This file is empty. Its purpose is simply to inform the build system that this folder is a package.

Working with Packages

Our username/hello module contains two packages: username/hello/lib and username/hello/main.

The username/hello/lib package contains hello.mbt and hello_test.mbt files:

hello.mbt

pub fn hello() -> String {
    "Hello, world!"
}

hello_test.mbt

test "hello" {
  if @lib.hello() != "Hello, world!" {
    fail!("@lib.hello() != \"Hello, world!\"")
  }
}

The username/hello/main package contains a main.mbt file:

fn main {
  println(@lib.hello())
}

To execute the program, specify the file system's path to the username/hello/main package in the moon run command:

$ moon run ./src/main
Hello, world!

You can also omit ./

$ moon run src/main
Hello, world!

You can test using the moon test command:

$ moon test
Total tests: 1, passed: 1, failed: 0.

Package Importing

In the MoonBit's build system, a module's name is used to reference its internal packages. To import the username/hello/lib package in src/main/main.mbt, you need to specify it in src/main/moon.pkg.json:

{
  "is_main": true,
  "import": [
    "username/hello/lib"
  ]
}

Here, username/hello/lib specifies importing the username/hello/lib package from the username/hello module, so you can use @lib.hello() in main/main.mbt.

Note that the package name imported in src/main/moon.pkg.json is username/hello/lib, and @lib is used to refer to this package in src/main/main.mbt. The import here actually generates a default alias for the package name username/hello/lib. In the following sections, you will learn how to customize the alias for a package.

Creating and Using a New Package

First, create a new directory named fib under lib:

mkdir src/lib/fib

Now, you can create new files under src/lib/fib:

a.mbt:

pub fn fib(n : Int) -> Int {
  match n {
    0 => 0
    1 => 1
    _ => fib(n - 1) + fib(n - 2)
  }
}

b.mbt:

pub fn fib2(num : Int) -> Int {
  fn aux(n, acc1, acc2) {
    match n {
      0 => acc1
      1 => acc2
      _ => aux(n - 1, acc2, acc1 + acc2)
    }
  }

  aux(num, 0, 1)
}

moon.pkg.json:

{}

After creating these files, your directory structure should look like this:

my-project
├── LICENSE
├── README.md
├── moon.mod.json
└── src
    ├── lib
    │   ├── fib
    │   │   ├── a.mbt
    │   │   ├── b.mbt
    │   │   └── moon.pkg.json
    │   ├── hello.mbt
    │   ├── hello_test.mbt
    │   └── moon.pkg.json
    └── main
        ├── main.mbt
        └── moon.pkg.json

In the src/main/moon.pkg.json file, import the username/hello/lib/fib package and customize its alias to my_awesome_fibonacci:

{
  "is_main": true,
  "import": [
    "username/hello/lib",
    {
      "path": "username/hello/lib/fib",
      "alias": "my_awesome_fibonacci"
    }
  ]
}

This line imports the fib package, which is part of the lib package in the hello module. After doing this, you can use the fib package in main/main.mbt. Replace the file content of main/main.mbt to:

fn main {
  let a = @my_awesome_fibonacci.fib(10)
  let b = @my_awesome_fibonacci.fib2(11)
  println("fib(10) = \{a}, fib(11) = \{b}")

  println(@lib.hello())
}

To execute your program, specify the path to the main package:

$ moon run ./src/main
fib(10) = 55, fib(11) = 89
Hello, world!

Adding Tests

Let's add some tests to verify our fib implementation. Add the following content in src/lib/fib/a.mbt:

src/lib/fib/a.mbt

test {
  assert_eq!(fib(1), 1)
  assert_eq!(fib(2), 1)
  assert_eq!(fib(3), 2)
  assert_eq!(fib(4), 3)
  assert_eq!(fib(5), 5)
}

This code tests the first five terms of the Fibonacci sequence. test { ... } defines an inline test block. The code inside an inline test block is executed in test mode.

Inline test blocks are discarded in non-test compilation modes (moon build and moon run), so they won't cause the generated code size to bloat.

Stand-alone test files for blackbox tests

Besides inline tests, MoonBit also supports stand-alone test files. Source files ending in _test.mbt are considered test files for blackbox tests. For example, inside the src/lib/fib directory, create a file named fib_test.mbt and paste the following code:

src/lib/fib/fib_test.mbt

test {
  assert_eq!(@fib.fib(1), 1)
  assert_eq!(@fib.fib2(2), 1)
  assert_eq!(@fib.fib(3), 2)
  assert_eq!(@fib.fib2(4), 3)
  assert_eq!(@fib.fib(5), 5)
}

Notice that the test code uses @fib to refer to the username/hello/lib/fib package. The build system automatically creates a new package for blackbox tests by using the files that end with _test.mbt. This new package will import the current package automatically, allowing you to use @lib in the test code.

Finally, use the moon test command, which scans the entire project, identifies, and runs all inline tests as well as files ending with _test.mbt. If everything is normal, you will see:

$ moon test
Total tests: 3, passed: 3, failed: 0.
$ moon test -v
test username/hello/lib/hello_test.mbt::hello ok
test username/hello/lib/fib/a.mbt::0 ok
test username/hello/lib/fib/fib_test.mbt::0 ok
Total tests: 3, passed: 3, failed: 0.