Compiles one or more files. The files must include the extension, for example, .erl for Erlang source code, or .yrl for Yecc source code. Erlc uses the extension to invoke the correct compiler.

-I <Directory>:

Instructs the compiler to search for include files in the Directory. When encountering an -include or -include_lib directive, the compiler searches for header files in the following directories:

-o <Directory>:

The directory where the compiler is to place the output files. Defaults to the current working directory.

-D<Name>:

Defines a macro.

-D<Name>=<Value>:

Defines a macro with the specified value. The value can be any Erlang term. Depending on the platform, the value may need to be quoted if the shell itself interprets certain characters. On Unix, terms containing tuples and lists must be quoted. Terms containing spaces must be quoted on all platforms.

-WError:

Makes all warnings into errors.

-W<Number>:

Sets warning level to Number. Defaults to 1. To turn off warnings, use -W0.

-W:

Same as -W1. Default.

-v:

Enables verbose output.

-b <Output_type>:

Specifies the type of output file. Output_type is the same as the file extension of the output file, but without the period. This option is ignored by compilers that have a single output format.

-smp:

Compiles using the SMP emulator. This is mainly useful for compiling native code, which must be compiled with the same runtime system that it is to be run on.

-no-server:

Do not use the compile server.

-server:

Use the compile server.

-M:

Produces a Makefile rule to track header dependencies. The rule is sent to stdout. No object file is produced.

-MMD:

Generate dependencies as a side-effect. The object file will be produced as normal. This option overrides the option -M.

-MF <Makefile>:

As option -M, except that the Makefile is written to Makefile. No object file is produced.

-MD:

Same as -M -MF <File>.Pbeam.

-MT <Target>:

In conjunction with option -M or -MF, changes the name of the rule emitted to Target.

-MQ <Target>:

As option -MT, except that characters special to make/1 are quoted.

-MP:

In conjunction with option -M or -MF, adds a phony target for each dependency.

-MG:

In conjunction with option -M or -MF, considers missing headers as generated files and adds them to the dependencies.

--:

Signals that no more options will follow. The rest of the arguments is treated as filenames, even if they start with hyphens.

+<Term>:

A flag starting with a plus (+) rather than a hyphen is converted to an Erlang term and passed unchanged to the compiler. For example, option export_all for the Erlang compiler can be specified as follows:

erlc +export_all file.erl

-pa <Directory>:

Appends Directory to the front of the code path in the invoked Erlang emulator. This can be used to invoke another compiler than the default one.

-pz <Directory>:

Appends Directory to the code path in the invoked Erlang emulator.

.erl:

Erlang source code. It generates a .beam file.

.S:

Erlang assembler source code. It generates a .beam file.

.core:

Erlang core source code. It generates a .beam file.

.yrl:

Yecc source code. It generates an .erl file.

.mib:

MIB for SNMP. It generates a .bin file.

.bin:

A compiled MIB for SNMP. It generates a .hrl file.

.rel:

Script file. It generates a boot file.

.asn1:

ASN1 file. It creates an .erl, .hrl, and .asn1db file from an .asn1 file. Also compiles the .erl using the Erlang compiler unless option +noobj is specified.

.idl:

IC file. It runs the IDL compiler.

*

erlc wants to use a different version of Erlang than the compile server is using.

*

erlc wants to use different options for erl than the compile server was started with. (A change to code path using the option -pa could cause different parse transforms to be loaded. To be safe, the compile server will be restarted when any erl option is changed.)

*

If the current working directory for erlc is different from the working directory active when the compile server was started, and if the compile server has active jobs, it will be restarted as soon as those jobs have finished. (Build systems that build files randomly across multiple directories in parallel will probably not benefit from the compile server.)

ERLC_EMULATOR:

The command for starting the emulator. Defaults to erl in the same directory as the erlc program itself, or, if it does not exist, erl in any of the directories specified in environment variable PATH.

ERLC_USE_SERVER:

Allowed values are yes or true to use the compile server, and no or false to not use the compile server. If other values are given, erlc will print a warning message and continue.

ERLC_SERVER_ID:

Tells erlc to identify the compile server by the given name, allowing a single user to run multiple unrelated builds in parallel without them affecting each other, which can be useful for shared build machines and the like. The name must be alphanumeric, and it defaults to being empty.