Leiningen, repl, uberjar: Unable to resolve symbol, No such var - clojure

While my lein new app project runs merrily inside the Light Table, lein uberjar won't work. Curiously, it behaves exactly like a classic Pascal compiler: it can't resolve references ahead of definitions. Another curiosity: yesterday it worked. I am not aware of fooling with anything sensitive.
Google says that the subj symptoms are quite commonplace; I tried whatever helped other people in the same (?) plight, but to no avail. By the way, usually they blame it on software bugs: "get the latest version of Leiningen and Clojure". I've got 2.5.0 and 1.6.
The project (main file) is here: https://github.com/Tyrn/pcc/blob/master/src/pcc/core.clj
As it is, parsed-args can't be resolved inside build-album; if I move the -main function to the top of the file, 'No such var' happens to cli-options inside -main. No amount of fiddling with explicit use of namespaces makes any difference.
Again, inside the Light Table everything runs fine.

Using def inside of a function is not idiomatic, especially if there is no reason to have it as a global variable. Just pass it as a function parameter:
(let [parsed-args (parse-opts ...)]
...
(build-album parsed-args))
If you really need global state, you can use e.g. a promise (alternatively, an atom):
(defonce parsed-args (promise))
...
(deliver parsed-args (parse-opts ...))
However, Clojure files are read from top to bottom, and yes, functions not having access to bindings introduced later in the file is by design. You can use declare to tell the parser what to expect:
(declare ^:dynamic *parsed-args*)
(defn build-album ...)
(def ^:dynamic *parsed-args* ...)
...
(binding [*parsed-args* (parse-opts ...)]
(build-album))
TL;DR: If not necessary, avoid global state; if necessary, minimize it.

Related

clojure.tools/namespace refresh fails with "No namespace: foo"

I'm using tools.namespace to provide smart reloading of namespaces on the REPL. However, when calling refresh or refresh-all, it throws an error.
user=> (require '[clojure.tools.namespace.repl :as tn])
user=> (tn/refresh)
:reloading (ep31.common ep31.routes ep31.config ep31.application user ep31.common-test ep31.example-test)
:error-while-loading user
java.lang.Exception: No namespace: ep31.config, compiling:(user.clj:1:1)
And it seems to end up in this weird state where (require ep31.config) works without an error, but afterwards the namespace isn't actually defined.
I kind of figured this out, this seems to be a combination of circumstances
there were AOT compiled classes left in target/classes from doing lein uberjar previously
tools.namespace doesn't function correctly when loaded namespaces are AOT compiled
target/classes is by default on the classpath
So long story short, if you did a jar/uberjar build before, then remove target/ and things should start working again.
The question I haven't been able to solve yet is why target/classes is on the classpath to begin with. I'm suspecting it's being added by Leiningen, but haven't found yet where or why it's happening.
I learned this the hard way, documentation for :target-path says (https://github.com/technomancy/leiningen/blob/master/sample.project.clj#L309-L313):
;; All generated files will be placed in :target-path. In order to avoid
;; cross-profile contamination (for instance, uberjar classes interfering
;; with development), it's recommended to include %s in in your custom
;; :target-path, which will splice in names of the currently active profiles.
:target-path "target/%s/"
I guess there has to be legacy reasons that :target-path "target/%s/" isn't the default.

a binding in a macro isn't resolved

I'm creating a library for an API server, here's a simpliefied version of I have:
(defonce ^:dynamic *my-token* nil)
(defmacro def-my-token
[token1 & body]
`(binding [*my-token* ~token1] ~#body))
And the main "post" method:
(defn my-post-request [url1]
(try
(let [res (client/post (str "api/url/base" url1)
{:body (json/write-str (:secret my-token)) ; my-token should come from the macro
;......
And here's how I want to use it:
(defn -main [& args]
(def-my-token "fdsfdsfdsfds"
; now "my-token" should be created and visible in "my-post-request", shouldn't it?
(print
(my-post-request "/some_end_point"))))
But it says "Unable to resolve symbol: my-token in this context"
I wonder why? doens't def-my-token, being a macros, define it? why not? And how to fix that?
UPDATE:
Also without (defonce ^:dynamic *token* nil) it doesn't work. Why not?
Why isn't defining the macro enough?
Answer to your UPDATE:
According to the documentation for binding, you can only override already existing vars. That's why your solution doesn't work without establishing a root binding to your dynamic var.
Sidenote:
I would recommend doing what jmargolisvt said and use a plain def instead of defonce, as I've never seen any dynamic var definition in the wild using defonce.
EDIT:
doens't def-my-token, being a macros, define it? why not? And how to fix that?
Macros by themselves don't define things, they are small programs transforming your source code in the macro-expansion step of most Lisp REPL's. It could define anything you want it to, but then you should've wrote the def special form. What you used instead was binding which deals with already existing vars.
You might get more insight by toying with it in the REPL and/or reading the answer of this stackoverflow answer.
If you need some further explanation why overriding is needed:
It's practical to conceptualize vars as stacks. The root binding that you establish with using def is the first layer. Everything in your program will see this value unless you put "something" over it. As you can imagine in your example having *my-token* seen as nil from your functions would cause issues.
binding to the resuce!
It allows you put anything "on top" of the root binding (in your case nil) thread-locally inside of the body it, like so:
you bound *my-token*, not my-token. Try:
{:body (json/write-str (:secret *my-token*))
The asterisks are just a naming convention for dynamic vars, they are still part of the actual var name.

Is there a way to inject a method into clojure.core at lein repl startup?

the :injections keyword is really useful. However, I am hoping to dynamically install a couple of functions in core for debugging purposes. How can this be done?
:injections [(require 'spyscope.core)
(use '[cemerick.pomegranate :only (add-dependencies)])
(use '[clojure.tools.namespace.repl :only (refresh)])]
Ideally, I would want refresh to stay around to that I can use it everywhere
You could use intern for this purpose, although I suspect there might be a better way to have debugging functions available all the time. I've used intern with clojure.core the times that I wanted to mess around with existing functions to learn stuff, but injecting functions in other namespaces feels too hackish.
(intern 'clojure.core 'refresh (fn [] (println "refreshed!"))
(ns another-ns)
(refresh)
;=> refreshed!
And in your project.clj you can use the :repl-options key, specifically :init. This, though, depends on the workflow you have in mind, since the function will not be available in all the namespaces that already exist when the REPL fires up, because they all have already refered the public vars in clojure.core.
You could however, call (clojure.tools.namespace.repl/refresh) once, when the REPL starts, to get all namespaces reloaded and then the function should be available from then on. I just tried the following and it seems to work:
:repl-options {:init (do (require 'clojure.tools.namespace.repl)
(intern 'clojure.core 'refresh clojure.tools.namespace.repl/refresh)
(clojure.tools.namespace.repl/refresh))}

fn call doesnt execute on compile time

I have defined the following in one ns -
There is a services atom, and another function to add to that atom -
(ns ex.first)
(def services (atom []))
(defn add-service
[fns]
(swap! services conj fns))
In my code in another ns I do this -
(ns ex.second ..)
(add-service [fn1 fn2 fn3])
1) I am assuming that when I run my repl, which compiles the code, it should add the vector to the atom. However when I eval the #services it returns [].
2) The above works if I eval the (add-service [fn1 fn2 fn3]) in the repl.
3) I have also tried using converting the add-service fn to a macro. However still I find the #services to be empty.
So will appreciate if someone can help on these -
1) Why doesnt the add-service call add a vector to the atom on code compilation when -
add-service is defined as a fn.
add-service is defined as a macro.
2) How do I make it work :)
It depends on if you have set :aot to :all in project.clj or not.
If :aot is :all then the function call will execute as soon as repl is started, otherwise you will need to load the ex.second namespace (ex: using use). Loading will cause the ns to be compiled and the corresponding class to be loaded in jvm and the function call will get executed.
Also, the function call doesn't happen at the compile time, it happens when the compiled class (representing the namespace) is loaded by jvm.
UPDATED (based on comment):
If you make it a macro, then also you need to consider the aot thing.
If aot is set to compile the namespace then lein will create a jvm, load your code in it, call clojure compiler, which will read the code, execute the macro and compiles the code, at this time this jvm (which is used for compiling your code) will have services atom filled coz of macro execution, but this jvm was only for compilation. lein will then create another jvm for the run command and load the compiled class in that jvm but this jvm won't have the services filled in coz the classes doesn't have any code that fill it in.
If aot is not set then macro will work because the read,macroexpand,compile process will happen in the lein run jvm but only when you cause loading of the ns.
As far as "without loading the ns" is concern, what you can do is put the ex.second in the :aot of project.clj

Setting Clojure "constants" at runtime

I have a Clojure program that I build as a JAR file using Maven. Embedded in the JAR Manifest is a build-version number, including the build timestamp.
I can easily read this at runtime from the JAR Manifest using the following code:
(defn set-version
"Set the version variable to the build number."
[]
(def version
(-> (str "jar:" (-> my.ns.name (.getProtectionDomain)
(.getCodeSource)
(.getLocation))
"!/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF")
(URL.)
(.openStream)
(Manifest.)
(.. getMainAttributes)
(.getValue "Build-number"))))
but I've been told that it is bad karma to use def inside defn.
What is the Clojure-idiomatic way to set a constant at runtime? I obviously do not have the build-version information to embed in my code as a def, but I would like it set once (and for all) from the main function when the program starts. It should then be available as a def to the rest of the running code.
UPDATE: BTW, Clojure has to be one of the coolest languages I have come across in quite a while. Kudos to Rich Hickey!
I still think the cleanest way is to use alter-var-root in the main method of your application.
(declare version)
(defn -main
[& args]
(alter-var-root #'version (constantly (-> ...)))
(do-stuff))
It declares the Var at compile time, sets its root value at runtime once, doesn't require deref and is not bound to the main thread. You didn't respond to this suggestion in your previous question. Did you try this approach?
You could use dynamic binding.
(declare *version*)
(defn start-my-program []
(binding [*version* (read-version-from-file)]
(main))
Now main and every function it calls will see the value of *version*.
While kotarak's solution works very well, here is an alternative approach: turn your code into a memoized function that returns the version. Like so:
(def get-version
(memoize
(fn []
(-> (str "jar:" (-> my.ns.name (.getProtectionDomain)
(.getCodeSource)
(.getLocation))
"!/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF")
(URL.)
(.openStream)
(Manifest.)
(.. getMainAttributes)
(.getValue "Build-number")))))
I hope i dont miss something this time.
If version is a constant, it's going to be defined one time and is not going to be changed you can simple remove the defn and keep the (def version ... ) alone. I suppose you dont want this for some reason.
If you want to change global variables in a fn i think the more idiomatic way is to use some of concurrency constructions to store the data and access and change it in a secure way
For example:
(def *version* (atom ""))
(defn set-version! [] (swap! *version* ...))