OCaml is a functional, statically-typed programming language from theML family, offering a powerful module system extending that ofStandard ML and a feature-rich, class-based object system.

OCaml comprises two compilers. One generates bytecode which is theninterpreted by a C program. This compiler runs quickly, generatescompact code with moderate memory requirements, and is portable tomany 32 or 64 bit platforms. Performance of generated programs isquite good for a bytecoded implementation. This compiler can be usedeither as a standalone, batch-oriented compiler that producesstandalone programs, or as an interactive REPL system.

The other compiler generates high-performance native code for a number ofprocessors. Compilation takes longer and generates bigger code, but thegenerated programs deliver excellent performance, while retaining themoderate memory requirements of the bytecode compiler. The native-codecompiler currently runs on the following platforms:

Other operating systems for the processors above have not been tested, butthe compiler may work under other operating systems with little work.

❗ From OCaml 5.0 onwards, native compilation is available only on 64-bitsystems. Native compilation on 32-bit systems is no longer available, norare there plans to bring it back.

All files marked "Copyright INRIA" in this distribution areCopyright © 1996-2023 Institut National de Recherche en Informatique eten Automatique (INRIA) and distributed under the conditions stated infile LICENSE.

See the fileINSTALL.adoc for installation instructions onmachines running Unix, Linux, macOS, WSL and Cygwin. For native MicrosoftWindows, seeREADME.win32.adoc.

The OCaml manual is distributed in HTML, PDF, and EmacsInfo files. It is available at

https://ocaml.org/manual/latest/

The complete OCaml distribution can be accessed at

https://ocaml.org/docs/install.html

More information about when and how new releases of OCaml are published isavailable atrelease-info/introduction.md, see alsorelease-info/calendar.md for a prospective calendar for future OCamlversions. For past versions,release-info/News contains a shortdescription of major changes in previous versions.

There is an active and friendly discussion forum at

https://discuss.ocaml.org/

The OCaml mailing list is the longest-running forum for OCaml users.You can email it at

caml-list@inria.fr

You can subscribe and access list archives via the Web interface at

https://sympa.inria.fr/sympa/subscribe/caml-list

There also exist other mailing lists, chat channels, and various other forumsaround the internet for getting in touch with the OCaml and ML family languagecommunity. These can be accessed at

https://ocaml.org/community/

In particular, the IRC channel#ocaml onLibera has along history and welcomes questions.

Please report bugs using the issue tracker athttps://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/issues

To be effective, bug reports should include a complete program (preferablysmall) that exhibits the unexpected behavior, and the configuration you areusing (machine type, etc).

For information on contributing to OCaml, seeHACKING.adoc andCONTRIBUTING.md.

Some libraries and tools which used to be part of the OCaml distribution arenow maintained separately and distributed as opam packages.Please use the issue trackers at their respective new homes: