Copy the produced executable in my root dir with dune

Question

Let's say I have a simple project with the following structure:

.
├── dune-project
└── src
└── bin
    ├── dune
    └── main.ml

dune-project

(lang dune 2.7)
(name myproject)

(package
 (name myproject)
 (synopsis "myproject")
 (description "Basic project")
)

dune

(executable
 (name main)
 (public_name myproject)
)

When compiling with dune build I have a new directory _build with the following structure:

_build
├── default
│   ├── dune-project
│   ├── META.myproject
│   ├── myproject.dune-package
│   ├── myproject.install
│   └── src
│       └── bin
│           ├── dune
│           ├── main.exe
│           └── main.ml
├── install
│   └── default
│       ├── bin
│       │   └── myproject -> ../../../default/src/bin/main.exe
│       └── lib
│           └── myproject
│               ├── dune-package -> ../../../../default/myproject.dune-package
│               └── META -> ../../../../default/META.myproject
└── log

So dune is able to create a symlink from main.exe to myproject but I actually want myproject to be in . and not in _build/install/default/bin

I tried three things:

• Add the rule (promote (into ../../)) in my dune file. It actually copies main.exe and not myproject in the source directory and dune clean doesn't delete main.exe in the root dir

• Add the following rule in my dune file:

  (rule
   (target myproject)
   (deps   ../../myproject)
   (action (copy %{target} %{deps}))
  )
  

  which gives me the following error:

  ❯ dune build
  File "src/bin/dune", line 6, characters 0-88:
   6 | (rule
   7 |  (target myproject)
   8 |  (deps   ../../myproject)
   9 |  (action (copy %{target} %{deps}))
  10 | )
  Error: No rule found for myproject
  Error: Dependency cycle between the following files:
     _build/default/src/bin/myproject
  Done: 0/0 (jobs: 0)%          
  

• Add the following rule in my dune file:

  (rule
   (target main.exe)
   (deps   ../../myproject)
   (action (copy %{target} %{deps}))
  )
  

  which gives me the following error:

  ❯ dune build
  Error: Multiple rules generated for _build/default/src/bin/main.exe:
  - src/bin/dune:6
  - src/bin/dune:2
  Done: 0/0 (jobs: 0)%      
  

And honestly I don't know what else I can do. I read the manual and can't find a solution. I wouldn't mind if I could just type dune run but since dune allows to build multiple executables, I understand it's not an option. I'd like to be able to write dune run myproject since I'm using the public name of my executables but dune can't find it. So I just want to have myproject in my root directory so I can just type ./myproject and be happy.

Answer 1

Do you know about dune exec? It is what you call dune run I believe.

From the root of your project, you can do dune exec ./bin/main.exe.

Answer 2

you can also use promote. For instance,

(executable
 (name my_tool)
 (promote
  (until-clean)
  (into ../bin)))