Standalone binaries

clove bundle compiles a script and the interpreter into one executable. It needs no clove installed and no files beside it, and it comes out around 500 KB.

clove bundle wordcount.clj wordcount
./wordcount README.md

The bundle includes everything the script requires or load-files, batteries and vendored libraries too. It isn't compiled to native code: the script still runs on the interpreter inside. Arguments arrive in *args*, and if the script defines -main, the bundle calls it with them. clove bundle -m my.app out bundles a namespace and uses its -main.

Other machines

A bundle is a native program for the machine that built it. To hand one to someone else, match their platform:

for	command	needs
your own Linux	`clove bundle app.clj app`
any Linux on your architecture	`clove bundle --static app.clj app`	a static libc (glibc's works, musl is better)
Linux on ARM64	`clove bundle --cc=aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc --static app.clj app`	`gcc-aarch64-linux-gnu`
Windows	`clove bundle --windows app.clj app.exe`	`x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc`

--static avoids the "GLIBC_2.38 not found" error on older systems. --cc=, --cflags= and --libs= hand anything else to the compiler, so zig cc works as a cross compiler too.

Shared libraries

--library goes the other way, building your script into a .so, .dylib or .dll that any language with a C FFI can load:

clove bundle --library greet.clj libgreet.so   # also writes libgreet.so.h
cc -O2 host.c ./libgreet.so -o host

The library exports three functions:

int         clove_lib_init(void);              /* runs greet.clj; 0 on success */
const char *clove_lib_eval(const char *src);   /* pr-str of the result, or NULL */
const char *clove_lib_last_error(void);

State persists between calls, and an error leaves the interpreter usable. A returned string is valid until the next call. The rules from Embedding in C apply: one interpreter per process, used from one thread. examples/libhost.c in the repo is a working host.