Compiler's source code

Chat / Discussions
1

Hi,

I have a question where I could check how the Elixir / Erlang compiler works? Is there any public source code or is it top secret? :wink:

1 Like
2

Ok so you have to be level over 9000 to see the source code of either
 nope :wink:

All is on Github. Elixir’s public repo is here:

and Erlang’s:

Both repositories contain compiler as well as some core tools + standard libraries.

2 Likes
3

Hehe I saw the repos :slight_smile: I just expected something more than I found :smiley: Anyway, thanks :slight_smile:

1 Like
4

oh well. In Erlang peek into lib/compiler. Elixir hasn’t got dedicated directory I think but you can follow the “mix compile” task execution from https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir/blob/master/lib/mix/lib/mix/compilers/elixir.ex to locate relevant code. Most of the compiler compiler thing is in written in Erlang I believe: https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir/tree/master/lib/elixir/src

2 Likes
5

You are correct. Elixir is parsed using the Leex Lexical Analizer Generator and the Yecc Parser Generator.

The grammar file that Yecc will use to parse Elixir code is elixir/lib/elixir/src/elixir_parser.yrl at main · elixir-lang/elixir · GitHub. This is the place where things like operator precedence are stated, and is probably what you were looking for. :slight_smile:

It’s interesting to note that Elixir’s grammar is quite small, as nearly everything that seems a ‘keyword’ in Elixir is actually just a macro or a function. The only things that are bootstrapped in Erlang to allow the Kernel elixir module to compile are found in the elixir_bootstrap.erl module: elixir/lib/elixir/src/elixir_bootstrap.erl at main · elixir-lang/elixir · GitHub

It’s quite interesting to see how e.g. defmodule is implemented in the Kernel module itself.

1 Like