# BoxLang Compiler

BoxLang ships with many CLI tools. The BoxLang Compiler is one of them. This tool allows you to compile a file or a directory of files into Java Bytecode. This will allow you to do sourceless deployments.

{% hint style="warning" %}
The compiler still has some issues we need to iron out, mostly around apps using mappings that provide more than one Class/CFC path to reference a single physical file on the disk.
{% endhint %}

This tool will compile and place (by default) your BoxLang files into Java bytecode so you can do sourceless deployments. When BoxLang goes to compile a file, it will check to see if the file has bytecode in it and proceed with loading the class directly, skipping the parsing and compilation step.

## Usage

Make sure you have installed the OS version of [BoxLang](https://boxlang.ortusbooks.com/getting-started/installation) so you get all the tools installed as well. Please note that the action command funnels through the `boxlang` binary, so you can use all the [CLI arguments](https://boxlang.ortusbooks.com/running-boxlang#other-command-line-args-10) for `boxlang` runner.

```bash
// Using the script
boxlang compile
    --source /path/to/webroot/index.cfm
    --target /path/to/compiled-webroot/index.cfm
    --basePath /path/to/webroot

// Using the full path to jar
java -cp boxlang-1.0.0.jar ortus.boxlang.compiler.BXCompiler
--source /path/to/webroot/index.cfm
--target /path/to/compiled-webroot/index.cfm
--basePath /path/to/webroot
```

Note, for the code to run, the compiled file needs to have the exact same path on disk as the original file. That means you’ll either need to copy the pre-compiled files back over to the original location or just point the source and target at the same place. **BE WARNED: this will overwrite the source code! So pay attention.**

### **Directory**

And an entire directory like so:

```bash
// Using the script
boxlang compile
    --source /path/to/webroot/
    --target /path/to/compiled-webroot/
    --basePath /path/to/webroot

// Using the full path to the jar
java -cp boxlang-1.0.0.jar ortus.boxlang.compiler.BXCompiler
--source /path/to/webroot/
--target /path/to/compiled-webroot/
--basePath /path/to/webroot
```

Also note, when pre-compiling an entire directory, the tool doesn’t touch non-code files, so if your target is a separate folder, that new folder won’t contain images, js files, etc. The typical use case for this would be in a CI build or similar, where you would override the code files in place.

### CLI Options

* `--basePath path` The path to use for all base operations that require relative paths.
* `--mapping dot_notation` If there is a mapping name to the source folder, then add it here
* `--source file/directory` A file or directory to compile.
* `--stopOnError` or `--stopOnError boolean` to stop execution if an error occurs. Otherwise, it ignores it, logs it, and continues compiling.
* `--target path` Optional; if not passed, it will be compiled and put in the same location as the source. This is a directory where the compiled files will be placed.