Consistency-Checking Modes (GNAT User’s Guide for Native Platforms)

#### 4.5.2.1 Consistency-Checking Modes ¶

As described earlier, by default `gnatbind` checks that object files are consistent with one another and are consistent with any source files it can locate. The following switches control binder access to sources.

`-s`

  Require source files to be present. In this mode, the binder must be able to locate all source files that are referenced, in order to check their consistency. In normal mode, if a source file cannot be located it is simply ignored. If you specify this switch, a missing source file is an error.

`-Wx`e'`

  Override default wide character encoding for standard Text_IO files. Normally the default wide character encoding method used for standard [Wide_[Wide_]]Text_IO files is taken from the encoding specified for the main source input (see description of switch `-gnatWx` for the compiler). The use of this switch for the binder (which has the same set of possible arguments) overrides this default as specified.

`-x`

  Exclude source files. In this mode, the binder only checks that ALI files are consistent with one another. Source files are not accessed. The binder runs faster in this mode, and there is still a guarantee that the resulting program is self-consistent. If a source file has been edited since it was last compiled, and you specify this switch, the binder will not detect that the object file is out of date with respect to the source file. Note that this is the mode that is automatically used by `gnatmake` because in this case the checking against sources has already been performed by `gnatmake` in the course of compilation (i.e., before binding).