A Stand-alone Library (abbreviated ‘SAL’) is a library that contains
the necessary code to elaborate the Ada units that are included in the
library. In contrast with an ordinary library, which consists of all
sources, objects and ALI files of the library, a SAL may
specify a restricted subset of compilation units to serve as a library
interface. In this case, the fully self-sufficient set of files will
normally consist of an objects archive, the sources of interface
units’ specs, and the ALI files of interface units. If an
interface spec contains a generic unit or an inlined subprogram, you
must also provide the body’s source; if the units that must be
provided in the source form depend on other units, you must also
provide the source and ALI files of those units.
The main purpose of a SAL is to minimize the recompilation overhead of client
applications when a new version of the library is installed. Specifically,
if the interface sources have not changed, client applications don’t need to
be recompiled. If, furthermore, a SAL is provided in the shared form and its
version, controlled by Library_Version attribute, is not changed,
the clients also do not need to be relinked.
SALs also allow the library providers to minimize the amount of library source text exposed to the clients. Such ‘information hiding’ might be useful or necessary for various reasons.
Stand-alone libraries are also well suited to be used in an executable whose main routine is not written in Ada.