GPRclean Reference

GPRclean removes the build artifacts produced by GPRbuild: object files, ALI files, libraries, executables, and binder-generated files. It reads the same project tree as GPRbuild so it knows exactly what was produced and where.

Command Line

Syntax

gprclean [-P<proj>.gpr] [switches] [mains]

Project file and common switches

See Common Command-Line Options for project file discovery rules, project and configuration switches, and common diagnostic switches.

Main sources

Zero or more main file names may be listed on the command line to restrict cleaning to the artifacts of those entry points only.

GPRclean applies the same source resolution rules as GPRbuild (see GPRbuild Reference): a simple name is looked up across the entire project tree, and an error is reported if it matches sources in more than one project. This ensures GPRclean removes exactly the artifacts that GPRbuild produced.

Switches

-r: Clean all projects in the project tree, not only the main project.
-c: Delete only compiler-generated files (object files, ALI files, and their associated artifacts). Skip link outputs (executables, libraries).
-p: After removing artifacts, delete any object, library, or executable directories that are now empty.
-f: Force deletion of files that are not owner-writable. GPRclean will attempt to set write permission on the file and retry the deletion.
-n: Dry-run mode. List the files that would be deleted without actually removing them.
--autoconf=file.cgpr: In addition to the common --autoconf behavior, also schedule file.cgpr itself for deletion after cleaning.
--remove-cargo-build-dir: Remove the whole Cargo target directory of each Rust project cleaned, that would be kept otherwise. For more details, see Rust projects below.

Project package

The Clean package of the main project may declare a Switches attribute whose value is a list of GPRclean switches. These are processed before command-line switches, so command-line switches take precedence. See Package Clean Attributes in the Attributes Reference for the full attribute list and descriptions.

The --autoconf switch and all switches from Common Command-Line Options must be given on the command line and are not accepted in Clean'Switches.

project My_App is
   package Clean is
      for Switches use ("-r", "-p");
   end Clean;
end My_App;

What is cleaned

For each project in scope (the main project, or all projects with -r), GPRclean deletes:

Object files and dependency files (*.o, *.d, etc.) from the object directory.
Language-specific compilation artifacts, as defined by Source_Artifact_Extensions and Object_Artifact_Extensions in the active configuration.
ALI files and other Ada-specific artifacts produced by the compiler and binder.
The persistent build database files written by GPRbuild2.
Files matching the Artifacts_In_Object_Dir and Artifacts_In_Exec_Dir project attributes.
Library files from the library directory (Library_Dir) and, for stand-alone libraries, the generated source directory (Library_Src_Dir).
Executables listed in the Main attribute (or on the command line) from the executable directory.

With --autoconf, the specified configuration project (.cgpr) file is also deleted.

Rust projects

Rust projects are built by Cargo, so GPRclean does not delete their artifacts itself: it runs cargo clean in the directory named by the Cargo.Root attribute.

By default the clean is scoped to what the build produced, naming the package, the profile (Cargo.Profile) and the target triple (Cargo.Rust_Target):

cargo clean -p <package> --profile <profile> --target=<triple>

This is deliberately conservative. One Cargo target directory may be shared by several packages of a workspace, by several target triples, and by both profiles; a clean that named none of them would delete all of it. The scoped form therefore leaves the target directory itself standing, along with its empty subdirectories.

--remove-cargo-build-dir asks for the unscoped clean instead:

cargo clean

That removes the target directory outright. Anything else built into it goes with it, including the artifacts of other workspace members, other target triples and the other profile, whether or not they belong to the project tree being cleaned. This is the only way to leave no target directory behind, which is why it is a switch and not the default.

Exit Codes

0: Success.
1: General error (invalid option, missing file, etc.).
5: Project parsing error.