= cl-package-locks overview = This library aims to provide a uniform way of dealing with package-locks across those common lisp implementations that provide them. If a given implementation does not provide a package-lock mechanism then no action will be taken by the use of this library. = Motivation = In loading LISA I noticed a package lock violation during compilation. I was interested in correcting the violation since I assume it's the reason the package isn't included in quicklisp, etc. I found the package lock violation was due to a class reader function being named CLASS-NAME, which would add a method to the package-lock protected CLASS-NAME generic-function. I thought about modifing the name of the function, but then realized that the LISA has been around a while and how altering the name might cause compatability issues (however small). So I decided I'd hack in some code to disable the package-lock and after dealing with sbcl, cmucl, AllegroCL.. I realized this might be better suited for a general purpose library, so I created this small lib to accomplish the task. In doing some early research to see if others had delt with this issue I discovered this thread: http://coding.derkeiler.com/Archive/Lisp/comp.lang.lisp/2009-02/msg01372.html This library distinguishes itself from the above by not trying to eleminiate redefinition warnings or use the native without-package-locks macro's provided by most package-locking implementations. It also provides some general use functions and macros that might be useful in dealing with package locking. I find this library to satisfy my needs with loading LISA and I hope it suits others in their moments of package-lock violation need :) = Status = Barely coded and tested using sbcl. Needs more testing on AllegroCL, clisp, and cmucl. I'm also interested in creating a uniform way of dealing with package-lock errors and providing implementation agnostic restarts. Another important piece is looking at how the various implementations implement without-package-locks to see if I'm missing anything important . = A Brief HowTo = (in-package :cl-package-locks) ; Testing if packages are locked (package-locked-p :cl-user) ; Locking a package (lock-package (find-package :cl-user)) ; Unlocking a package, notice that packages can be described ; in several different ways (currently symbol & package). (unlock-package 'cl-user) ; Working on lists of packages. The RESOLVE-PACKAGES function ; converts a list of package descriptors to packages or errors. (let ((pkgs (resolve-packages '(:cl-package-locks :swank)))) (lock-packages pkgs) ; your code here (unlock-packages)) ; Temporarily unlocking a list of packages (with-packages-unlocked (cl mop) ; something dangerous t) ; Temporarily unlock all packages (without-package-locks ; something dangerous nil) ; List all unlocked packages (all-unlocked-packages) ; List all locked packages (all-locked-packages)