13.14 Projects

A project file specifies a set of rules for constructing a software system. A project file can be self-contained, or depend on other project files. Dependencies are expressed through a context clause that names other projects.

Syntax:

     project ::=
       context_clause project_declaration
     
     project_declaration ::=
       simple_project_declaration | project_extension
     
     simple_project_declaration ::=
       project <project_>simple_name is
         {declarative_item}
       end <project_>simple_name;
     
     context_clause ::=
       {with_clause}
     
     with_clause ::=
       [limited] with path_name { , path_name } ;
     
     path_name ::=
        string_literal

A path name denotes a project file. A path name can be absolute or relative. An absolute path name includes a sequence of directories, in the syntax of the host operating system, that identifies uniquely the project file in the file system. A relative path name identifies the directory that contains the project file, relative to the directory that contains the current project. Path names are case sensitive if file names in the host operating system are case sensitive.

A given project name can appear only once in a context_clause.

It is illegal for a project imported by a context clause to refer, directly or indirectly, to the project in which this context clause appears (the dependency graph cannot contain cycles), except when one of the with_clause in the cycle is a limited with.