Lake (Lean Make) is the new build system and package manager for Lean 4.
With Lake, the package's configuration is written in Lean inside a dedicated lakefile.lean
stored in the root of the package's directory.
Each lakefile.lean
includes a package
declaration (akin to main
) which defines the package's basic configuration. It also typically includes build configurations for different targets (e.g., Lean libraries and binary executables) and Lean scripts to run on the command line (via lake script run
).
This README provides information about Lake relative to the current commit. If you are looking for documentation for the Lake version shipped with a given Lean release, you should look at the README of that version.
- Getting Lake
- Creating and Building a Package
- Glossary of Terms
- Package Configuration Options
- Defining Build Targets
- Defining New Facets
- Adding Dependencies
- GitHub Release Builds
- Writing and Running Scripts
- Building and Running Lake from the Source
Lake is part of the lean4 repository and is distributed along with its official releases (e.g., as part of the elan toolchain). So if you have installed a semi-recent Lean 4 nightly, you should already have it! If you want to build the latest version from the source yourself, check out the build instructions at the bottom of this README.
To create a new package, either run lake init
to setup the package in the current directory or lake new
to create it in a new directory. For example, we could create the package hello
like so:
$ mkdir hello
$ cd hello
$ lake init hello
or like so:
$ lake new hello
$ cd hello
Either way, Lake will create the following template directory structure and initialize a Git repository for the package.
.lake/ # Lake output directory
Hello/ # library source files; accessible via `import Hello.*`
Basic.lean # an example library module file
... # additional files should be added here
Hello.lean # library root; imports standard modules from Hello
Main.lean # main file of the executable (contains `def main`)
lakefile.lean # Lake package configuration
lean-toolchain # the Lean version used by the package
.gitignore # excludes system-specific files (e.g. `build`) from Git
The example modules files contain the following dummy "Hello World" program.
Hello/Basic.lean
def hello := "world"
Hello.lean
-- This module serves as the root of the `Hello` library.
-- Import modules here that should be built as part of the library.
import «Hello».Basic
Main.lean
import «Hello»
def main : IO Unit :=
IO.println s!"Hello, {hello}!"
Lake also creates a basic lakefile.lean
for the package along with a lean-toolchain
file that contains the name of the Lean toolchain Lake belongs to, which tells elan
to use that Lean toolchain for the package.
lakefile.lean
import Lake
open Lake DSL
package «hello» where
-- add package configuration options here
lean_lib «Hello» where
-- add library configuration options here
@[default_target]
lean_exe «hello» where
root := `Main
The command lake build
is used to build the package (and its dependencies, if it has them) into a native executable. The result will be placed in .lake/build/bin
. The command lake clean
deletes build
.
$ lake build
...
$ ./.lake/build/bin/hello
Hello, world!
Examples of different package configurations can be found in the examples
folder of this repository. You can also pass a package template tp lake init
or lake new
to control what files Lake creates. For example, instead of using a Lean configuration file for this package, one could produce a TOML version via lake new hello .toml
.
lakefile.toml
name = "hello"
defaultTargets = ["hello"]
[[lean_lib]]
name = "Hello"
[[lean_exe]]
name = "hello"
root = "Main"
See lake help init
or lake help new
for more details on other template options.
Lake uses a lot of terms common in software development -- like workspace, package, library, executable, target, etc. -- and some more esoteric ones -- like facet. However, whether common or not, these terms mean different things to different people, so it is important to elucidate how Lake defines these terms:
-
A package is the fundamental unit of code distribution in Lake. Packages can be sourced from the local file system or downloaded from the web (e.g., via Git). The
package
declaration in package's lakefile names it and defines its basic properties. -
A lakefile is the Lean file that configures a package. It defines how to view, edit, build, and run the code within it, and it specifies what other packages it may require in order to do so.
-
If package
B
requires packageA
, then packageA
is a dependency of package B and packageB
is its dependent. PackageA
is upstream of packageB
and packageB
is reversely downstream of packageA
. See the Adding Dependencies section for details on how to specify dependencies. -
A workspace is the broadest organizational unit in Lake. It bundles together a package (termed the root), its transitive dependencies, and Lake's environment. Every package can operate as the root of a workspace and the workspace will derive its configuration from this root.
-
A module is the smallest unit of code visible to Lake's build system. It is generally represented by a Lean source file and a set of binary libraries (i.e., a Lean
olean
andilean
plus a system shared library ifprecompileModules
is turned on). Modules can import one another in order to use each other's code and Lake exists primarily to facilitate this process. -
A Lean library is a collection of modules that share a single configuration. Its configuration defines a set of module roots that determines which modules are part of the library, and a set of module globs that selects which modules to build on a
lake build
of the library. See the Lean Libraries section for more details. -
A Lean binary executable is a binary executable (i.e., a program a user can run on their computer without Lean installed) built from a Lean module termed its root (which should have a
main
definition). See the Binary Executables section for more details. -
An external library is a native (static) library built from foreign code (e.g., C) that is required by a package's Lean code in order to function (e.g., because it uses
@[extern]
to invoke code written in a foreign language). Anextern_lib
target is used to inform Lake of such a requirement and instruct Lake on how to build requisite library. Lake then automatically links the external library when appropriate to give the Lean code access to the foreign functions (or, more technically, the foreign symbols) it needs. See the External Libraries section for more details. -
A target is the fundamental build unit of Lake. A package can defining any number of targets. Each target has a name, which is used to instruct Lake to build the target (e.g., through
lake build <target>
) and to keep track internally of a target's build status. Lake defines a set of builtin target types -- Lean libraries, binary executables, and external libraries -- but a user can define their own custom targets as well. Complex types (e.g., packages, libraries, modules) have multiple facets, each of which count as separate buildable targets. See the Defining Build Targets section for more details. -
A facet is an element built from another organizational unit (e.g., a package, module, library, etc.). For instance, Lake produces
olean
,ilean
,c
, ando
files all from a single module. Each of these components are thus termed a facet of the module. Similarly, Lake can build both static and shared binaries from a library. Thus, libraries have bothstatic
andshared
facets. Lake also allows users to define their own custom facets to build from modules and packages, but this feature is currently experimental and not yet documented. -
A trace is a piece of data (generally a hash) which is used to verify whether a given target is up-to-date (i.e., does not need to be rebuilt). If the trace stored with a built target matches the trace computed during build, then a target is considered up-to-date. A target's trace is derived from its various inputs (e.g., source file, Lean toolchain, imports, etc.).
Lake provides a large assortment of configuration options for packages.
These options control the top-level directory layout of the package and its build directory. Further paths specified by libraries, executables, and targets within the package are relative to these directories.
packagesDir
: The directory to which Lake should download remote dependencies. Defaults to.lake/packages
.srcDir
: The directory containing the package's Lean source files. Defaults to the package's directory.buildDir
: The directory to which Lake should output the package's build results. Defaults tobuild
.leanLibDir
: The build subdirectory to which Lake should output the package's binary Lean libraries (e.g.,.olean
,.ilean
files). Defaults tolib
.nativeLibDir
: The build subdirectory to which Lake should output the package's native libraries (e.g.,.a
,.so
,.dll
files). Defaults tolib
.binDir
: The build subdirectory to which Lake should output the package's binary executables. Defaults tobin
.irDir
: The build subdirectory to which Lake should output the package's intermediary results (e.g.,.c
,.o
files). Defaults toir
.
These options configure how code is built and run in the package. Libraries, executables, and other targets within a package can further add to parts of this configuration.
platformIndependent
: Asserts whether Lake should assume Lean modules are platform-independent. That is, whether lake should include the platform and platform-dependent elements in a module's trace. See the docstring ofLake.LeanConfig.platformIndependent
for more details. Defaults tonone
.precompileModules
: Whether to compile each module into a native shared library that is loaded whenever the module is imported. This speeds up the evaluation of metaprograms and enables the interpreter to run functions marked@[extern]
. Defaults tofalse
.moreServerOptions
: AnArray
of additional options to pass to the Lean language server (i.e.,lean --server
) launched bylake serve
.moreGlobalServerArgs
: AnArray
of additional arguments to pass tolean --server
which apply both to this package and anything else in the same server session (e.g. when browsing other packages from the same session via go-to-definition)buildType
: TheBuildType
of targets in the package (seeCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE
). One ofdebug
,relWithDebInfo
,minSizeRel
, orrelease
. Defaults torelease
.leanOptions
: Additional options to pass to both the Lean language server (i.e.,lean --server
) launched bylake serve
and tolean
while compiling Lean source files.moreLeanArgs
: AnArray
of additional arguments to pass tolean
while compiling Lean source files.weakLeanArgs
: AnArray
of additional arguments to pass tolean
while compiling Lean source files. UnlikemoreLeanArgs
, these arguments do not affect the trace of the build result, so they can be changed without triggering a rebuild. They come beforemoreLeanArgs
.moreLeancArgs
: AnArray
of additional arguments to pass toleanc
while compiling the C source files generated bylean
. Lake already passes some flags based on thebuildType
, but you can change this by, for example, adding-O0
and-UNDEBUG
.weakLeancArgs
: AnArray
of additional arguments to pass toleanc
while compiling the C source files generated bylean
. UnlikemoreLeancArgs
, these arguments do not affect the trace of the build result, so they can be changed without triggering a rebuild. They come beforemoreLeancArgs
.moreLinkArgs
: AnArray
of additional arguments to pass toleanc
when linking (e.g., binary executables or shared libraries). These will come after the paths ofextern_lib
targets.weakLinkArgs
: AnArray
of additional arguments to pass toleanc
when linking (e.g., binary executables or shared libraries) UnlikemoreLinkArgs
, these arguments do not affect the trace of the build result, so they can be changed without triggering a rebuild. They come beforemoreLinkArgs
.extraDepTargets
: AnArray
of target names that the package should always build before anything else.
The CLI commands lake test
and lake lint
use definitions configured by the workspace's root package to perform testing and linting (this referred to as the test or lint driver). In Lean configuration files, these can be specified by applying the @[test_driver]
or @[lint_driver]
to a script
, lean_exe
, or lean_lb
. They can also be configured (in Lean or TOML format) via the following options on the package.
testDriver
: The name of the script, executable, or library to drivelake test
.testDriverArgs
: AnArray
of arguments to pass to the package's test driver.lintDriver
: The name of the script or executable used bylake lint
. Libraries cannot be lint drivers.lintDriverArgs
: AnArray
of arguments to pass to the package's lint driver.
You can specify definition from a dependency as a package's test or lint driver by using the syntax <pkg>/<name>
. An executable driver will be built and then run, a script driver will just be run, and a library driver will just be built. A script or executable driver is run with any arguments configured by package (e.g., via testDriverArgs
) followed by any specified on the CLI (e.g., via lake lint -- <args>...
).
These options define a cloud release for the package. See the section on GitHub Release Builds for more information.
releaseRepo
: The URL of the GitHub repository to upload and download releases of this package. Ifnone
(the default), for downloads, Lake uses the URL the package was download from (if it is a dependency) and for uploads, usesgh
's default.buildArchive
: The name of the build archive for the GitHub cloud release. Defaults to{(pkg-)name}-{System.Platform.target}.tar.gz
.preferReleaseBuild
: Whether to prefer downloading a prebuilt release (from GitHub) rather than building this package from the source when this package is used as a dependency.
A Lake package can have many build targets, such as different Lean libraries and multiple binary executables. Any number of these declarations can be marked with the @[default_target]
attribute to tell Lake to build them on a bare lake build
of the package.
A Lean library target defines a set of Lean modules available to import
and how to build them.
Syntax
lean_lib «target-name» where
-- configuration options go here
[[lean_lib]]
name = "«target-name»"
# more configuration options go here
Configuration Options
srcDir
: The subdirectory of the package's source directory containing the library's source files. Defaults to the package'ssrcDir
. (This will be passed tolean
as the-R
option.)roots
: AnArray
of root moduleName
(s) of the library. Submodules of these roots (e.g.,Lib.Foo
ofLib
) are considered part of the library. Defaults to a single root of the target's name.globs
: AnArray
of moduleGlob
(s) to build for the library. The termglob
comes from file globs (e.g.,foo/*
) on Unix. A submodule glob builds every Lean source file within the module's directory (i.e.,Glob.submodules `Foo
is essentially equivalent to a theoreticalimport Foo.*
). Local imports of glob'ed files (i.e., fellow modules of the workspace) are also recursively built. Defaults to aGlob.one
of each of the library'sroots
.libName
: TheString
name of the library. Used as a base for the file names of its static and dynamic binaries. Defaults to the name of the target.extraDepTargets
: AnArray
of target names to build before the library's modules.defaultFacets
: AnArray
of library facets to build on a barelake build
of the library. For example, setting this to#[LeanLib.sharedLib]
will build the shared library facet.nativeFacets
: A function(shouldExport : Bool) → Array
determining the module facets to build and combine into the library's static and shared libraries. IfshouldExport
is true, the module facets should export any symbols a user may expect to lookup in the library. For example, the Lean interpreter will use exported symbols in linked libraries. Defaults to a singleton ofModule.oExportFacet
(ifshouldExport
) orModule.oFacet
. That is, the object files compiled from the Lean sources, potentially with exported Lean symbols.platformIndependent
,precompileModules
,buildType
,leanOptions
,<more|weak><Lean|Leanc|Link>Args
,moreServerOptions
: Augments the package's corresponding configuration option. The library's arguments come after, modules are precompiled if either the library or package are,platformIndependent
falls back to the package onnone
, and the build type is the minimum of the two (debug
is the lowest, andrelease
is the highest).
A Lean executable target builds a binary executable from a Lean module with a main
function.
Syntax
lean_exe «target-name» where
-- configuration options go here
[[lean_exe]]
name = "«target-name»"
# more configuration options go here
Configuration Options
srcDir
: The subdirectory of the package's source directory containing the executable's source file. Defaults to the package'ssrcDir
. (This will be passed tolean
as the-R
option.)root
: The root moduleName
of the binary executable. Should include amain
definition that will serve as the entry point of the program. The root is built by recursively building its local imports (i.e., fellow modules of the workspace). Defaults to the name of the target.exeName
: TheString
name of the binary executable. Defaults to the target name with any.
replaced with a-
.extraDepTargets
: AnArray
of target names to build before the executable's modules.nativeFacets
: A function(shouldExport : Bool) → Array
determining the module facets to build and link into the executable. IfshouldExport
is true, the module facets should export any symbols a user may expect to lookup in the library. For example, the Lean interpreter will use exported symbols in linked libraries. Defaults to a singleton ofModule.oExportFacet
(ifshouldExport
) orModule.oFacet
. That is, the object file compiled from the Lean source, potentially with exported Lean symbols.supportInterpreter
: Whether to expose symbols within the executable to the Lean interpreter. This allows the executable to interpret Lean files (e.g., viaLean.Elab.runFrontend
). Implementation-wise, on Windows, the Lean shared libraries are linked to the executable and, on other systems, the executable is linked with-rdynamic
. This increases the size of the binary on Linux and, on Windows, requireslibInit_shared.dll
andlibleanshared.dll
to be co-located with the executable or part ofPATH
(e.g., vialake exe
). Thus, this feature should only be enabled when necessary. Defaults tofalse
.platformIndependent
,precompileModules
,buildType
,leanOptions
,<more|weak><Lean|Leanc|Link>Args
,moreServerOptions
: Augments the package's corresponding configuration option. The library's arguments come after, modules are precompiled if either the library or package are,platformIndependent
falls back to the package onnone
, and the build type is the minimum of the two (debug
is the lowest, andrelease
is the highest).
A external library target is a non-Lean static library that will be linked to the binaries of the package and its dependents (e.g., their shared libraries and executables).
Important: For the external library to link properly when precompileModules
is on, the static library produced by an extern_lib
target must following the platform's naming conventions for libraries (i.e., be named foo.a
on Windows and libfoo.a
on Unix). To make this easy, there is the Lake.nameToStaticLib
utility function to convert a library name into its proper file name for the platform.
Syntax
extern_lib «target-name» (pkg : NPackage _package.name) :=
-- a build function that produces its static library
The declaration is essentially a wrapper around a System.FilePath
target. Like such a target, the pkg
parameter and its type specifier are optional and body should be a term of type FetchM (BuildJob System.FilePath)
function that builds the static library. The pkg
parameter is of type NPackage _package.name
to provably demonstrate that it is the package in which the external library is defined.
A arbitrary target that can be built via lake build <target-name>
.
Syntax
target «target-name» (pkg : NPackage _package.name) : α :=
-- a build function that produces a `BuildJob α`
The pkg
parameter and its type specifier are optional and the body should be a term of type FetchM (BuildJob α)
. The pkg
parameter is of type NPackage _package.name
to provably demonstrate that it is the package in which the target is defined.
A Lake package can also define new facets for packages, modules, and libraries. Once defined, the new facet (e.g., facet
) can be built on any current or future object of its type (e.g., through lake build pkg:facet
for a package facet). Module facets can also be provided to LeanLib.nativeFacets
to have Lake build and use them automatically when producing shared libraries.
Syntax
package_facet «facet-name» (pkg : Package) : α :=
-- a build function that produces a `BuildJob α`
module_facet «facet-name» (mod : Module) : α :=
-- a build function that produces a `BuildJob α`
library_facet «facet-name» (lib : LeanLib) : α :=
-- a build function that produces a `BuildJob α`
In all of these, the object parameter and its type specifier are optional and the body should be a term of type FetchM (BuildJob α)
.
Lake packages can have dependencies. Dependencies are other Lake packages the current package needs in order to function. They can be sourced directly from a local folder (e.g., a subdirectory of the package) or come from remote Git repositories. For example, one can depend on mathlib like so:
package hello
require "leanprover-community" / "mathlib"
The next run of lake build
(or refreshing dependencies in an editor like VSCode) will clone the mathlib repository and build it. Information on the specific revision cloned will then be saved to lake-manifest.json
to enable reproducibility (i.e., ensure the same version of mathlib is used by future builds). To update mathlib
after this, you will need to run lake update
-- other commands do not update resolved dependencies.
For theorem proving packages which depend on mathlib
, you can also run lake new <package-name> math
to generate a package configuration file that already has the mathlib
dependency (and no binary executable target).
NOTE: For mathlib in particular, you should run lake exe cache get
prior to a lake build
after adding or updating a mathlib dependency. Otherwise, it will be rebuilt from scratch (which can take hours). For more information, see mathlib's wiki page on using it as a dependency.
The require
command in Lean Lake configuration follows the general syntax:
require ["<scope>" /] <pkg-name> [@ <version>]
[from <source>] [with <options>]
The from
clause tells Lake where to locate the dependency.
Without a from
clause, Lake will lookup the package in the default registry (i.e., Reservoir) and use the information there to download the package at the specified version
. The optional scope
is used to disambiguate which package with pkg-name
to lookup. In Reservoir, this scope is the package owner (e.g., leanprover
of @leanprover/doc-gen4).
The with
clause specifies a NameMap String
of Lake options used to configure the dependency. This is equivalent to passing -K
options to the dependency on the command line.
Lake supports the following types of dependencies as sources in a from
clause.
from <path>
Lake loads the package located a fixed path
relative to the requiring package's directory.
from git <url> [@ <rev>] [/ <subDir>]
Lake clones the Git repository available at the specified fixed Git url
, and checks out the specified revision rev
. The revision can be a commit hash, branch, or tag. If none is provided, Lake defaults to master
. After checkout, Lake loads the package located in subDir
(or the repository root if no subdirectory is specified).
To require
a package in a TOML configuration, the parallel syntax for the above examples is:
# A Reservoir dependency
[[require]]
name = "<pkg-name>"
scope = "<scope>"
version = "<version>"
options = {<options>}
# A path dependency
[[require]]
name = "<pkg-name>"
path = "<path>"
# A Git dependency
[[require]]
name = "<pkg-name>"
git = "<url>"
rev = "<rev>"
subDir = "<subDir>"
Lake supports uploading and downloading build artifacts (i.e., the archived build directory) to/from the GitHub releases of packages. This enables end users to fetch pre-built artifacts from the cloud without needed to rebuild the package from the source themselves.
To download artifacts, one should configure the package options releaseRepo?
and buildArchive?
as necessary to point to the GitHub repository hosting the release and the correct artifact name within it (if the defaults are not sufficient). Then, set preferReleaseBuild := true
to tell Lake to fetch and unpack it as an extra package dependency.
Lake will only fetch release builds as part of its standard build process if the package wanting it is a dependency (as the root package is expected to modified and thus not often compatible with this scheme). However, should one wish to fetch a release for a root package (e.g., after cloning the release's source but before editing), one can manually do so via lake build :release
.
Lake internally uses curl
to download the release and tar
to unpack it, so the end user must have both tools installed to use this feature. If Lake fails to fetch a release for any reason, it will move on to building from the source. Also note that this mechanism is not technically limited to GitHub, any Git host that uses the same URL scheme works as well.
To upload a built package as an artifact to a GitHub release, Lake provides the lake upload <tag>
command as a convenient shorthand. This command uses tar
to pack the package's build directory into an archive and uses gh release upload
to attach it to a pre-existing GitHub release for tag
. Thus, in order to use it, the package uploader (but not the downloader) needs to have gh
, the GitHub CLI, installed and in PATH
.
A configuration file can also contain a number of scripts
declaration. A script is an arbitrary (args : List String) → ScriptM UInt32
definition that can be run by lake script run
. For example, given the following lakefile.lean
:
import Lake
open Lake DSL
package scripts
/--
Display a greeting
USAGE:
lake run greet [name]
Greet the entity with the given name. Otherwise, greet the whole world.
-/
script greet (args) do
if h : 0 < args.length then
IO.println s!"Hello, {args[0]'h}!"
else
IO.println "Hello, world!"
return 0
The script greet
can be run like so:
$ lake script run greet
Hello, world!
$ lake script run greet me
Hello, me!
You can print the docstring of a script with lake script doc
:
$ lake script doc greet
Display a greeting
USAGE:
lake run greet [name]
Greet the entity with the given name. Otherwise, greet the whole world.
If you already have a Lean installation with lake
packaged with it, you can build a new lake
by just running lake build
.
Otherwise, there is a pre-packaged build.sh
shell script that can be used to build Lake. It passes it arguments down to a make
command. So, if you have more than one core, you will probably want to use a -jX
option to specify how many build tasks you want it to run in parallel. For example:
$ ./build.sh -j4
After building, the lake
binary will be located at .lake/build/bin/lake
and the library's .olean
files will be located in .lake/build/lib
.
Lake is built as part of the main Lean 4 flake at the repository root.
The lake
executable needs to know where to find the Lean library files (e.g., .olean
, .ilean
) for the modules used in the package configuration file (and their source files for go-to-definition support in the editor). Lake will intelligently setup an initial search path based on the location of its own executable and lean
.
Specifically, if Lake is co-located with lean
(i.e., there is lean
executable in the same directory as itself), it will assume it was installed with Lean and that both Lean and Lake are located under their shared sysroot. In particular, their binaries are located in <sysroot>/bin
, their Lean libraries in <sysroot>/lib/lean
, Lean's source files in <sysroot>/src/lean
, and Lake's source files in <sysroot>/src/lean/lake
. Otherwise, it will run lean --print-prefix
to find Lean's sysroot and assume that Lean's files are located as aforementioned, but that lake
is at <lake-home>/.lake/build/bin/lake
with its Lean libraries at <lake-home>/.lake/build/lib
and its sources directly in <lake-home>
.
This search path can be augmented by including other directories of Lean libraries in the LEAN_PATH
environment variable (and their sources in LEAN_SRC_PATH
). This can allow the user to correct Lake's search when the files for Lean (or Lake itself) are in non-standard locations. However, such directories will not take precedence over the initial search path. This is important during development, as this prevents the Lake version used to build Lake from using the Lake version being built's Lean libraries (instead of its own) to elaborate Lake's lakefile.lean
(which can lead to all kinds of errors).