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Partially resolves https://github.com/apple/swift/issues/49997.
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# Modules User Model
A `module` is the primary unit of code
sharing in Swift. This document describes the experience of using
modules in Swift: what they are and what they provide for the user.
> *Warning:* This document was used in planning Swift 1.0; it has not been kept up to
date.
## High-Level Overview
### A module contains declarations
The primary purpose of a module is to provide declarations of types,
functions, and global variables that are present in a library[^library].
Importing[^import] the module gives
access to these declarations and allows them to be used in your code.
```swift
import Chess
import Foundation
```
You can also selectively import certain declarations from a module:
```swift
import func Chess.createGreedyPlayer
import class Foundation.NSRegularExpression
```
#### Comparison with Other Languages
Importing a module is much like importing a library in Ruby, Python, or
Perl, importing a class in Java, or including a header file in a
C-family language. However, unlike C, module files are not textually
included and must be valid programs on their own, and may not be in a
textual format at all. Unlike Java, declarations in a module are not
visible at all until imported. And unlike the dynamic languages
mentioned, importing a module cannot automatically cause any code to be
run.
### Imported declarations can be accessed with qualified or unqualified lookup
Once a module has been imported, its declarations are available for use
within the current source file. These declarations can be referred to by
name, or by qualifying[^qualified-name] them with the name of the module:
```swift
func playChess(_ blackPlayer : Chess.Player, whitePlayer : Chess.Player) {
var board = Board() // refers to Chess.Board
}
```
### Modules provide a unique context for declarations
A declaration in a module is unique; it is never the same as a
declaration with the same name in another module (with one caveat
described below). This means that two types `Chess.Board` and
`Xiangqi.Board` can exist in the same program, and each can be referred
to as `Board` as long as the other is not visible. If more than one
imported module declares the same name, the full qualified name[^qualified-name]
can be used for disambiguation.
> *Note:* This is accomplished by including the module name in the
mangled name[^mangled-name] of a declaration.
Therefore, it is an ABI-breaking change to change the name of a module
containing a public declaration.
> *Warning:* The one exception to this rule is declarations that must be compatible
with Objective-C. Such declarations follow the usual Objective-C rules
for name conflicts: all classes must have unique names, all protocols
must have unique names, and all constructors, methods, and properties
must have unique names within their class (including inherited methods
and properties).
### Modules may contain code
In addition to declarations, modules may contain implementations of the
functions they define. The compiler may choose to use this information
when optimizing a user's program, usually by inlining the module code
into a caller. In some cases[^1], the compiler may even use a module's
function implementations to produce more effective diagnostics.
Modules can also contain autolinking[^autolinking] information, which
the compiler passes on to the linker. This can be used to specify which
library implements the declarations in the module.
### Modules can "re-export" other modules
> *Warning:* This feature is likely to be modified in the future.
Like any other body of code, a module may depend on other modules in its
implementation. The module implementer may also choose to
re-export[^re-export] these modules, meaning that
anyone who imports the first module will also have access to the
declarations in the re-exported modules.
```swift
@exported import AmericanCheckers
```
As an example, the "Cocoa" framework[^framework] on macOS exists only
to re-export three other frameworks: AppKit, Foundation, and CoreData.
Just as certain declarations can be selectively imported from a module,
so too can they be selectively re-exported, using the same syntax:
```swift
@exported import class AmericanCheckers.Board
```
### Modules are uniquely identified by their name
Module names exist in a global namespace and must be unique. Like type
names, module names are conventionally capitalized.
> *TODO:* While this matches the general convention for Clang, there are
advantages to being able to rename a module for lookup purposes, even if
the ABI name stays the same. It would also be nice to avoid having
people stick prefixes on their module names the way they currently do
for Objective-C classes.
> *Note:* Because access into a module and access into a type look the same, it is
bad style to declare a type with the same name as a top-level module
used in your program:
```swift
// Example 1:
import Foundation
import struct BuildingConstruction.Foundation
var firstSupport = Foundation.SupportType() // from the struct or from the module?
// Example 2:
import Foundation
import BuildingConstruction
Foundation.SupportType() // from the class or from the module?
```
In both cases, the type takes priority over the module, but this should
still be avoided.
> *TODO:* Can we enforce this in the compiler? It seems like there's no way around
Example 2, and indeed Example 2 is probably doing the wrong thing.
## `import`
As shown above, a module is imported using the `import` keyword,
followed by the name of the module:
```swift
import AppKit
```
To import only a certain declaration from the module, you use the
appropriate declaration keyword:
```swift
import class AppKit.NSWindow
import func AppKit.NSApplicationMain
import var AppKit.NSAppKitVersionNumber
import typealias AppKit.NSApplicationPresentationOptions
```
- `import typealias` has slightly special behavior: it will match any
type other than a protocol, regardless of how the type is declared
in the imported module.
- `import class`, `struct`, and `enum` will succeed even if the name
given is a typealias for a type of the appropriate kind.
- `import func` will bring in all overloads of the named function.
- Using a keyword that doesn't match the named declaration is an
error.
> *TODO:* There is currently no way to selectively import extensions or operators.
### Multiple source files
Most programs are broken up into multiple source files, and these files
may depend on each other. To facilitate this design, declarations in
*all* source files in a module (including the "main module" for an
executable) are implicitly visible in each file's context. It is almost
as if all these files had been loaded with `import`, but with a few
important differences:
- The declarations in other files belong to the module being built,
just like those in the current file. Therefore, if you need to refer
to them by qualified name, you need to use the name of the module
being built.
- A module is a fully-contained entity: it may depend on other
modules, but those other modules can't depend on it. Source files
within a module may have mutual dependencies.
> FIXME: This wouldn't belong in the user model at all except for the implicit
visibility thing. Is there a better way to talk about this?
### Ambiguity
Because two different modules can declare the same name, it is sometimes
necessary to use a qualified name[^qualified-name] to
refer to a particular declaration:
```swift
import Chess
import Xiangqi
if userGame == "chess" {
Chess.playGame()
} else if userGame == "xiangqi" {
Xiangqi.playGame()
}
```
Here, both modules declare a function named `playGame` that takes no
arguments, so we have to disambiguate by "qualifying" the function name
with the appropriate module.
These are the rules for resolving name lookup ambiguities:
1. Declarations in the current source file are best.
2. Declarations from other files in the same module are better than
declarations from imports.
3. Declarations from selective imports are better than declarations
from non-selective imports. (This may be used to give priority to a
particular module for a given name.)
4. Every source file implicitly imports the core standard library as a
non-selective import.
5. If the name refers to a function, normal overload resolution may
resolve ambiguities.
### Submodules
> *Warning:* This feature was never implemented, or even fully designed.
For large projects, it is usually desirable to break a single
application or framework into subsystems, which Swift calls
"submodules". A submodule is a development-time construct used for
grouping within a module. By default, declarations within a submodule
are considered "submodule-private", which means they are only visible
within that submodule (rather than across the entire module). These
declarations will not conflict with declarations in other submodules
that may have the same name.
Declarations explicitly marked "whole-module" or "API" are still visible
across the entire module (even if declared within a submodule), and must
have a unique name within that space.
The qualified name of a declaration within a submodule consists of the
top-level module name, followed by the submodule name, followed by thez
declaration.
> *TODO:* We need to decide once and for all whether implicit visibility applies
across submodule boundaries, i.e. "can I access the public
Swift.AST.Module from Swift.Sema without an import, or do I have to say
`import Swift.AST`?"
Advantages of module-wide implicit visibility:
- Better name conflict checking. (The alternative is a linker error,
or worse *no* linker error if the names have different manglings.)
- Less work if things move around.
- Build time performance is consistent whether or not you use this
feature.
Advantages of submodule-only implicit visibility:
- Code completion will include names of public things you don't care
about.
- We haven't actually tested the build time performance of any large
Swift projects, so we don't know if we can actually handle targets
that contain hundreds of files.
- Could be considered desirable to force declaring your internal
dependencies explicitly.
- In this mode, we could allow two "whole-module" declarations to have
the same name, since they won't. (We could allow this in the other
mode too but then the qualified name would always be required.)
Both cases still use "submodule-only" as the default access control, so
this only affects the implicit visibility of whole-module and public
declarations.
### Import Search Paths
> *FIXME:* Write this section. Can source files be self-contained modules?
How does `-i` mode work? Can the "wrong" module be found when looking for a
dependency (i.e. can I substitute my own Foundation and expect AppKit to
work)? How are modules stored on disk? How do hierarchical module names
work?
## Interoperability with Objective-C via Clang
The compiler has the ability to interoperate with C and Objective-C by
importing Clang modules[^clang-module]. This feature of the Clang compiler
was developed to provide a "semantic import" extension to the C family of
languages. The Swift compiler uses this to expose declarations from C and
Objective-C as if they used native Swift types.
In all the examples above, `import AppKit` has been using this
mechanism: the module found with the name "AppKit" is generated from the
Objective-C AppKit framework.
### Clang Submodules
Clang also has a concept of "submodules", which are essentially
hierarchically-named modules. Unlike Swift's [submodules](#submodules),
Clang submodules are visible from outside the module. It is conventional
for a top-level Clang module to re-export all of its submodules, but
sometimes certain submodules are specified to require an explicit import:
```swift
import OpenGL.GL3
```
### Module Overlays
> *Warning:* This feature has mostly been removed from Swift; it's only
in use in the "overlay" libraries bundled with Swift itself.
If a source file in module A includes `import A`, this indicates that
the source file is providing a replacement or overlay for an external
module. In most cases, the source file will
`re-export`{.interpreted-text role="term"} the underlying module, but
add some convenience APIs to make the existing interface more
Swift-friendly.
This replacement syntax (using the current module name in an import)
cannot be used to overlay a Swift module, because
`module-naming`{.interpreted-text role="ref"}.
## Multiple source files, part 2
In migrating from Objective-C to Swift, it is expected that a single
program will contain a mix of sources. The compiler therefore allows
importing a single Objective-C header, exposing its declarations to the
main source file by constructing a sort of "ad hoc" module. These can
then be used like any other declarations imported from C or Objective-C.
> *Note:* This is describing the feature that eventually became "bridging headers"
for app targets.
### Accessing Swift declarations from Objective-C
> *Warning: This never actually happened; instead, we went with "generated headers"
output by the Swift compiler.
Using the new `@import` syntax, Objective-C translation units can import
Swift modules as well. Swift declarations will be mirrored into
Objective-C and can be called natively, just as Objective-C declarations
are mirrored into Swift for Clang modules[^clang-module]. In this
case, only the declarations compatible with Objective-C will be visible.
> TODO: We need to actually do this, but it requires working on a branch of
Clang, so we're pushing it back in the schedule as far as possible. The
workaround is to manually write header files for imported Swift classes.
> TODO: Importing Swift sources from within the same target is a goal, but there
are many difficulties. How do you name a file to be imported? What if
the file itself depends on another Objective-C header? What if there's a
mutual dependency across the language boundary? (That's a problem in
both directions, since both Clang modules and Swift modules are only
supposed to be exposed once they've been type-checked.)
[^1]: Specifically, code marked with the ``@_transparent`` attribute is
required to be "transparent" to the compiler: it *must* be inlined and
will affect diagnostics.
[^autolinking]: A technique where linking information is included in compiled object
files, so that external dependencies can be recorded without having
to explicitly specify them at link time.
[^clang-module]: A module whose contents are generated from a C-family header or set
of headers. See [Clang's Modules](http://clang.llvm.org/docs/Modules.html) documentation for more
information.
[^framework]: A mechanism for library distribution on OS X. Traditionally
frameworks contain header files describing the library's API, a binary file containing
the implementation, and a directory containing any resources the
library may need. Frameworks are also used on iOS, but as of iOS 7 custom frameworks
cannot be created by users.
[^import]: To locate and read a module, then make its declarations available in the current context.
[^library]: Abstractly, a collection of APIs for a programmer to use, usually
with a common theme. Concretely, the file containing the
implementation of these APIs.
[^mangled-name]: A unique, internal name for a type or value. The term is most
commonly used in C++; [see Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_mangling#C.2B.2B)
for some examples. Swift's name mangling scheme is not the same as C++'s but serves a similar
purpose.
[^qualified-name]: A multi-piece name like `Foundation.NSWindow`, which names an entity
within a particular context. This document is concerned with the
case where the context is the name of an imported module.
[^re-export]: To directly expose the API of one module through another module.
Including the latter module in a source file will behave as if the
user had also included the former module.