2.3 Packages

When CMU Common Lisp is first started up, the default package is the user package. The user package uses the common-lisp, extensions, and pcl packages. The symbols exported from these three packages can be referenced without package qualifiers. This section describes packages which have exported interfaces that may concern users. The numerous internal packages which implement parts of the system are not described here. Package nicknames are in parenthesis after the full name.

alien, c-call

Export the features of the Alien foreign data structure facility (see section 8.)

pcl

This package contains PCL (Portable CommonLoops), which is a portable implementation of CLOS (the Common Lisp Object System.) This implements most (but not all) of the features in the CLOS chapter of Common Lisp: The Language 2.

debug

The debug package contains the command-line oriented debugger. It exports utility various functions and switches.

debug-internals

The debug-internals package exports the primitives used to write debuggers. See section 10.

extensions (ext)

The extensions packages exports local extensions to Common Lisp that are documented in this manual. Examples include the save-lisp function and time parsing.

hemlock (ed)

The hemlock package contains all the code to implement Hemlock commands. The hemlock package currently exports no symbols.

hemlock-internals (hi)

The hemlock-internals package contains code that implements low level primitives and exports those symbols used to write Hemlock commands.

keyword

The keyword package contains keywords (e.g., :start). All symbols in the keyword package are exported and evaluate to themselves (i.e., the value of the symbol is the symbol itself).

profile

The profile package exports a simple run-time profiling facility (see section 5.14).

common-lisp (cl lisp)

The common-lisp package exports all the symbols defined by ıCommon Lisp: the Language and only those symbols. Strictly portable Lisp code will depend only on the symbols exported from the lisp package.

unix, mach

These packages export system call interfaces to generic BSD Unix and Mach (see section 6).

system (sys)

The system package contains functions and information necessary for system interfacing. This package is used by the lisp package and exports several symbols that are necessary to interface to system code.

common-lisp-user (user cl-user)

The common-lisp-user package is the default package and is where a user's code and data is placed unless otherwise specified. This package exports no symbols.

xlib

The xlib package contains the Common Lisp X interface (CLX) to the X11 protocol. This is mostly Lisp code with a couple of functions that are defined in C to connect to the server.

wire

The wire package exports a remote procedure call facility (see section 9).