1 .de Sp \" Vertical space (when we can't use .PP)
5 .TH mcs 1 "6 January 2001"
7 mcs \- Mono C# Compiler
10 [option] [source-files]
12 mcs is the Mono C# compiler, an implementation of the ECMA-334
13 language specification. You can pass one or more options to drive the
14 compiler, and a set of source files. Extra options or arguments can
15 be provided in a response file. Response files are referenced by
16 prepending the @ symbol to the response file name.
20 compiler is used to compile against the latest Mono Base Class Library
21 version and fully implements C# 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 specifications.
23 See the section on packages for more information.
25 The Mono C# compiler accepts the same command line options that the
26 Microsoft C# compiler does. Those options can start with a slash or a
27 dash (/checked is the same as -checked). Additionally some GNU-like
28 options are supported, those begin with "--". All MCS-specific flags
29 which are not available in the Microsoft C# compiler are available
30 only with the GNU-style options.
32 C# source files must end with a ".cs" extension. Compilation of C#
33 source code requires all the files that make up a library, module or
34 executable to be provided on the command line. There is no support
35 for partial compilation. To achieve the benefits of partial
36 compilation, you should compile programs into their own assemblies,
37 and later reference them with the "-r" flag.
39 The Mono C# compiler generates images (.exe files) that contain CIL
40 byte code that can be executed by any system that implements a Common
41 Language Infrastructure virtual machine such as the Microsoft .NET
42 runtime engine on Windows or the Mono runtime engine on Unix systems.
43 Executables are not bound to a specific CPU or operating system.
45 The Mono C# compiler by default only references three assemblies:
46 mscorlib.dll, System.dll and System.Xml.dll. If you want to
47 reference extra libraries you must manually specify them using the
48 -pkg: command line option or the -r: command line option.
49 Alternatively if you want to get all of the System libraries, you can
50 use the -pkg:dotnet command line option.
55 Displays information about the Mono C# compiler
57 .I \-\-addmodule:MODULE1[,MODULE2]
58 Includes the specified modules in the resulting assembly. Modules are
59 created by calling the compiler with the -target:module option
61 .I -checked, -checked+
62 Sets the default compilation mode to `checked'. This makes all
63 the math operations checked (the default is unchecked).
66 Sets the default compilation mode to `unchecked'. This makes all
67 the math operations unchecked (this is the default).
69 .I -clscheck-, -clscheck+
70 Disables or enables the Common Language Specification (CLS) checks (it
71 is enabled by default).
73 The Common Language Specification (CLS) defines an interoperable
74 subset of types as well as conventions that compilers (CLS producers)
75 and developers must follow to expose code to other programming
76 languages (CLS consumers).
79 Specifies the code page used to process the input files from the
80 point it is specified on. By default files will be processed in the
81 environment-dependent native code page. The compiler will also automatically
82 detect Unicode files that have an embedded byte mark at the beginning.
84 Other popular encodings are 28591 (Latin1), 1252 (iso-8859-1) and 65001 (UTF-8).
86 MCS supports a couple of shorthands: "utf8" can be used to specify utf-8 instead
87 of using the cryptic 65001 and "reset" restores the automatic handling of
88 code pages. These shorthands are not available on the Microsoft compiler.
90 .I \-define:SYMLIST, -d:SYMLIST
91 Defines the symbol listed by the semi-colon separated list SYMLIST
92 SYMBOL. This can be tested in the source code by the pre-processor,
93 or can be used by methods that have been tagged with the Conditional
97 Generate debugging information. To obtain stack traces with debugging
98 information, you need to invoke the mono runtime with the `--debug'
99 flag. This debugging information is stored inside the assembly as a
103 Do not generate debugging information.
106 Only embed the strongname public key into the assembly. The actual
107 signing must be done in a later stage using the SN tool. This is useful
108 to protect the private key during development. Note that delay signing
109 can only be done using a strongname key file (not a key container). The
110 option is equivalent to including [assembly: AssemblyDelaySign (true)]
111 in your source code. Compiler option takes precedence over the
115 Default. Strongname (sign) the assembly using the strong name key file
116 (or container). The option is equivalent to including [assembly:
117 AssemblyDelaySign (false)] in your source code. Compiler option takes
118 precedence over the attributes.
121 Extracts the C#/XML documentation from the source code and stores in in
125 This flag is ignored by Mono's C# compiler and is present only to
126 allow MCS to be used as a CSC replacement for msbuild/xbuild.
129 This is used for debugging the compiler. This makes the error emission
130 generate an exception that can be caught by a debugger.
133 This flag is ignored by Mono's C# compiler and is present only to
134 allow MCS to be used as a CSC replacement for msbuild/xbuild.
137 Any source code error or warning issued by the compiler includes file
138 name only by default. This option causes compiler to issue absolute file
142 Strongname (sign) the output assembly using the key pair present in
143 the specified strong name key file (snk). A full key pair is required
144 by default (or when using delaysign-). A file containing only the
145 public key can be used with delaysign+. The option is equivalent to
146 including [assembly: AssemblyKeyFile ("KEYFILE")] in your source code.
147 Compiler option takes precedence over the attributes.
149 .I \-keycontainer:CONTAINER
150 Strongname (sign) the output assembly using the key pair present in
151 the specified container. Note that delaysign+ is ignored when using
152 key containers. The option is equivalent to including [assembly:
153 AssemblyKeyName ("CONTAINER")] in your source code. Compiler option
154 takes precedence over the attributes.
156 .I \-langversion:TEXT
157 The option specifies the version of the language to use. The feature
158 set is different in each C# version. This switch can be used to force
159 the compiler to allow only a subset of the features.
160 The possible values are:
165 Instruct compiler to use the latest version. Equivalent is to omit the
166 switch (this currently defaults to the C# 3.0 language specification).
169 Restrict compiler to use only first ISO standardized features.
170 The usage of features such as generics, static classes, anonymous
171 methods will lead to error.
174 Restrict compiler to use only the second ISO standardized features.
175 This allows the use of generics, static classes, iterators and
176 anonymous methods for example.
179 Restrict the compiler to use only the features available in C# 3.0
180 (a superset of ISO-1 and ISO-2).
183 Enables unstable features from upcoming versions of the language.
185 Notice that this flag only restricts the language features available to
186 the programmer. A version of produced assemblies can be controled using
193 Each path specified in the comma-separated list will direct the
194 compiler to look for libraries in that specified path.
197 Directs the compiler to look for libraries in the specified path.
198 Multiple paths can be provided by using the option multiple times.
201 Tells the compiler which CLASS contains the entry point. Useful when
202 you are compiling several classes with a Main method.
204 .I \-nostdlib, -nostdlib+
205 Use this flag if you want to compile the core library. This makes the
206 compiler load its internal types from the assembly being compiled.
208 .I \-noconfig, \-noconfig+
209 Disables the default compiler configuration to be loaded. The
210 compiler by default has references to the system assemblies.
213 Makes the compiler ignore warnings specified in the comma-separated
216 .I -optimize, -optimize+, -optimize-
217 Controls whether to perform optimizations on the code. -optimize and
218 -optimize+ will turn on optimizations, -optimize- will turn it off.
219 The default in mcs is to optimize+.
221 .I -out:FNAME, -o FNAME
222 Names the output file to be generated.
225 Used for benchmarking. The compiler will only parse its input files.
227 .I \-pkg:package1[,packageN]
228 Reference assemblies for the given packages.
230 The compiler will invoke pkg-config --libs on the set of packages
231 specified on the command line to obtain libraries and directories to
234 This is typically used with third party components, like this:
237 $ mcs -pkg:gtk-sharp demo.cs
243 This will instruct the compiler to reference the System.* libraries
244 available on a typical dotnet framework installation, notice that this
245 does not include all of the Mono libraries, only the System.* ones. This
246 is a convenient shortcut for those porting code.
249 Use this to reference the "Olive" libraries (the 3.0 and 3.5 extended
253 References the assemblies for creating Moonlight/Silverlight
256 .I \-pkg:silverdesktop
257 Use this option to create Moonlight/Silverlight applications that
258 target the desktop. This option allows developers to consume the
259 Silverlight APIs with the full 2.0 profile API available to them,
262 it gives full access to all the APIs that are part of Mono. The only
263 downside is that applications created with silverdesktop will not run
264 on the browser. Typically these applications will be launched
269 For more details see the PACKAGE section in this document
274 Used to specify the target platform. The possible values are: anycpu,
275 x86, x64 or itanium. As of June 2009, the Mono runtime only have support
276 to emit anycpu and x86 assemblies.
278 .I -resource:RESOURCE[,ID]
279 Embeds to the given resource file. The optional ID can be used to
280 give a different name to the resource. If not specified, the resource
281 name will be the file name.
283 .I -linkresource:RESOURCE[,ID]
284 Links to the specified RESOURCE. The optional ID can be used to give
285 a name to the linked resource.
287 .I -r:ASSEMBLY1[,ASSEMBLY2], \-reference ASSEMBLY1[,ASSEMBLY2]
288 Reference the named assemblies. Use this to use classes from the named
289 assembly in your program. The assembly will be loaded from either the
290 system directory where all the assemblies live, or from the path
291 explicitly given with the -L option.
293 You can also use a semicolon to separate the assemblies instead of a
296 .I -reference:ALIAS=ASSEMBLY
297 Extern alias reference support for C#.
299 If you have different assemblies that provide the same types, the
300 extern alias support allows you to provide names that your software
301 can use to tell those appart. The types from ASSEMBLY will be
302 exposed as ALIAS, then on the C# source code, you need to do:
307 To bring it into your namespace. For example, to cope with two
308 graphics libraries that define "Graphics.Point", one in
309 "OpenGL.dll" and one in "Postscript.dll", you would invoke the
313 mcs -r:Postscript=Postscript.dll -r:OpenGL=OpenGL.dll
316 And in your source code, you would write:
319 extern alias Postscript;
323 // This is a Graphics.Point from Postscrip.dll
324 Postscript.Point p = new Postscript.Point ();
326 // This is a Graphics.Point from OpenGL.dll
327 OpenGL.Point p = new OpenGL.Point ();
331 .I \-recurse:PATTERN, --recurse PATTERN
332 Does recursive compilation using the specified pattern. In Unix the
333 shell will perform globbing, so you might want to use it like this:
336 $ mcs -recurse:'*.cs'
340 Used to specify the version of Base Class Library assemblies used for
341 compilation. Following predefined values are valid: 2, 4 (default) as
342 well as any custom value. The predefined version number means which
343 .NET version should the produced assembly be compatible with. When
344 custom value is specified mcs will try to find Base Class Libraries
345 in the mono installed location PREFIX/lib/mono/<value>.
348 Starts up the compiler in interactive mode, providing a C# shell for
349 statements and expressions. A shortcut is to use the
354 Generates a stack trace at the time the error is reported, useful for
355 debugging the compiler.
357 .I \-target:KIND, \-t:KIND
358 Used to specify the desired target. The possible values are: exe
359 (plain executable), winexe (Windows.Forms executable), library
360 (component libraries) and module (partial library).
363 Another debugging flag. Used to display the times at various points
364 in the compilation process.
366 .I \-unsafe, -unsafe+
367 Enables compilation of unsafe code.
370 Debugging. Turns on verbose yacc parsing.
373 Shows the compiler version.
375 .I \-warnaserror, \-warnaserror+
376 All compilers warnings will be reported as errors.
378 .I \-warnaserror:W1,[Wn], -warnaserror+:W1,[Wn]
379 Treats one or more compiler warnings as errors.
381 .I \-warnaserror-:W1,[Wn]
382 Sets one or more compiler warnings to be always threated as warnings.
383 Becomes useful when used together with -warnaserror.
386 Sets the warning level. 0 is the lowest warning level, and 4 is the
387 highest. The default is 4.
390 Specifies a Win32 resource file (.res) to be bundled into the
394 Attaches the icon specified in FILE on the output into the resulting
398 Use this to stop option parsing, and allow option-looking parameters
399 to be passed on the command line.
401 .SH PACKAGES AND LIBRARIES
402 When referencing an assembly, if the name of the assembly is a path,
403 the compiler will try to load the assembly specified in the path. If
404 it does not, then the compiler will try loading the assembly from the
405 current directory, the compiler base directory and if the assembly is
406 not found in any of those places in the directories specified as
407 arguments to the -lib: command argument.
409 The compiler uses the library path to locate libraries, and is able to
410 reference libraries from a particular package if that directory is
411 used. To simplify the use of packages, the C# compiler includes the
412 -pkg: command line option that is used to load specific collections of
415 Libraries visible to the compiler are stored relative to the
416 installation prefix under PREFIX/lib/mono/ called the PACKAGEBASE and the
417 defaults for mcs, gmcs and smcs are as follows:
420 References the PACKAGEBASE/1.0 directory
423 References the PACKAGEBASE/2.0 directory
426 References the PACKAGEBASE/2.1 directory
428 Those are the only runtime profiles that exist. Although other
429 directories exist (like 3.0 and 3.5) those are not really runtime
430 profiles, they are merely placeholders for extra libraries that build
431 on the 2.0 foundation.
433 Software providers will distribute software that is installed relative
434 to the PACKAGEBASE directory. This is integrated into the
436 tool that not only installs public assemblies into the Global Assembly
437 Cache (GAC) but also installs them into the PACKAGEBASE/PKG directory
438 (where PKG is the name passed to the -package flag to gacutil).
440 As a developer, if you want to consume the Gtk# libraries, you would
441 invoke the compiler like this:
444 $ mcs -pkg:gtk-sharp-2.0 main.cs
447 The -pkg: option instructs the compiler to fetch the definitions for
448 gtk-sharp-2.0 from pkg-config, this is equivalent to passing to the C#
449 compiler the output of:
452 $ pkg-config --libs gtk-sharp-2.0
455 Usually this merely references the libraries from PACKAGEBASE/PKG.
457 Although there are directory names for 3.0 and 3.5, that does not mean
458 that there are 3.0 and 3.5 compiler editions or profiles. Those are
459 merely new libraries that must be manually referenced either with the
460 proper -pkg: invocation, or by referencing the libraries directly.
467 defines have a special meaning to the compiler.
469 By default calls to methods and properties in the
470 System.Diagnostics.Trace class are not generated unless the TRACE
471 symbol is defined (either through a "#define TRACE") in your source
472 code, or by using the
476 By default calls to methods and properties in the
477 System.Diagnostics.Debug class are not generated unless the DEBUG
478 symbol is defined (either through a "#define DEBUG") in your source
479 code, or by using the
483 Note that the effect of defining TRACE and DEBUG is a global setting,
484 even if they are only defined in a single file.
486 .SH DEBUGGING SUPPORT
487 When using the "-debug" flag, MCS will generate a file with the
488 extension .mdb that contains the debugging information for the
489 generated assembly. This file is consumed by the Mono debugger (mdb).
490 .SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
493 If this variable is set, it contains a string in the form
494 "foreground,background" that specifies which color to use to display
495 errors on some terminals.
497 The background is optional and defaults to your terminal current
498 background. The possible colors for foreground are:
499 .B black, red, brightred, green, brightgreen, yellow, brightyellow,
500 blue, brightblue, magenta, brightmagenta, cyan, brightcyan, grey,
501 white and brightwhite.
503 The possible colors for background are: black, red, green, yellow,
504 blue, magenta, cyan, grey and white.
506 For example, you could set these variable from your shell:
509 MCS_COLORS=errors=brightwhite,red
512 You can disable the built-in color scheme by setting this variable to
515 During compilation the MCS compiler defines the __MonoCS__ symbol,
516 this can be used by pre-processor instructions to compile Mono C#
517 compiler specific code. Please note that this symbol is only to test
518 for the compiler, and is not useful to distinguish compilation or
519 deployment platforms.
521 The Mono C# Compiler was written by Miguel de Icaza, Ravi Pratap,
522 Martin Baulig, Marek Safar and Raja Harinath. The development was
523 funded by Ximian, Novell and Marek Safar.
526 The Mono Compiler Suite is released under the terms of the GNU GPL or
527 the MIT X11. Please read the accompanying `COPYING' file for details.
528 Alternative licensing for the compiler is available from Novell.
531 csharp(1), mdb(1), mono(1), mopen(1), pkg-config(1), sn(1)
534 To report bugs in the compiler, you must file them on our bug tracking
536 http://www.mono-project.com/Bugs
538 The Mono Mailing lists are listed at http://www.mono-project.com/Mailing_Lists
540 The Mono C# compiler was developed by Novell, Inc
541 (http://www.novell.com, http) and is based on the
542 ECMA C# language standard available here:
543 http://www.ecma.ch/ecma1/STAND/ecma-334.htm
545 The home page for the Mono C# compiler is at http://www.mono-project.com/CSharp_Compiler
projects / mono.git / blob