One of my library modules (for example, libmylib) has the line

immutable string jsonText = import("thing.json")

When I try to build a program with this (already installed) library I see error

ldc2 source/main.d -ofmyprogram -L-l:libmylib.so.0
Error: file "thing.json" cannot be found or not in a path specified with -J

Is the actual inclusion of the file on import deferred until the link step?
Is there a way to avoid this?
I could insert the entire json into the file, but I would hate to do that.

On Sunday, 18 July 2021 at 17:28:07 UTC, Vindex wrote:

You need to specify the path where it is found with the -J switch to the compiler. Like `ldc2 -J. yourfile.d

On Sunday, 18 July 2021 at 17:31:24 UTC, Adam D Ruppe wrote:

I understand it. But it turns out that in order to compile any programs with such a library, you need to specify the path to the resource directory of this library?

On Sunday, 18 July 2021 at 17:31:24 UTC, Adam D Ruppe wrote:

I already compiled the library itself with -Jres. It turns out that this must be done twice? Once when compiling the library, the second time when compiling the program.

On Sunday, 18 July 2021 at 17:48:53 UTC, Vindex wrote:

Is the inclusion done in a templated function, or in a global ?
If the import happens in a function that is not in a root module, it won't be necessary to use -J when linking the program:

module root;

import nonroot;
import std.stdio;

void main ()
{
    writeln(foo());
}

// Some other file:
module nonroot;

string foo ()
{
    string val = import("hello.txt");
    return foo;
}

However, if the import is in a templated function, it might need to be instantiated in the calling module:

module root;

import nonroot;
import std.stdio;

void main ()
{
    writeln(foo!"hello.txt"());
}

// Some other file:
module nonroot;

string foo (string path) ()
{
    string val = import(path);
    return foo;
}

This will error out because the foo function needs to be generated inside of the root module context:

nonroot.d(5): Error: need `-J` switch to import text file `hello.txt`
nonroot.d(6): Error: template `foo(string path)()` has no type
root.d(6): Error: template instance `nonroot.foo!"hello.txt"` error instantiating

An easy way for you to solve this might be to hide the value of your JSON file behind a simple function that returns it, so that the compiler never analyzes its body. If you use LDC and LTO, I doubt it'll make any difference.