On Thu, 8 Mar 2007, Alain Frisch wrote:

> Jakob Lichtenberg wrote:
>> If I change the body of functions in a base library, but not the
>> externally visible signature, I still have to recompile the consumers of
>> the base library prior to linking the main application.  While this is
>> not a problem in the trivial case I'll show beneath, it may be a concern
>> from a componentization and scalability point of view.  Regular C code
>> does not have this limitation.  This e-mail to request why the design is
>> as it is?
>
> A .cmx file basically contains information:
> - for the linker, most importantly dependencies information (md5 of .cmi
> and .cmx used to compile them);
> - for the compilation of other units which refer to this unit:
> cross-module optimization information (linker symbols for direct
> function calls, inlining).

That's not all, there's also information embedded to make direct calling
possible: http://groups.google.com/group/fa.caml/msg/52264cef8f6da97f

[..snip..]

-- 
vale