Include resolution
Include resolution involves recursively going through the include items in a MiniZinc model, and finding the linked
model files. There are also two 'implied' includes which make the standard library available. These are stdlib.mzn
and solver_redefinitions.mzn. While this process is described here as part of the AST module, as the include items
are extracted from the AST, it actually produces ModelRef IDs, which are part of the HIR module.
Include resolution gives a list of ModelRefs which comprises all of the model files to be lowered into
HIR. Logically these model files get concatenated together, however we don't actually do this until
the THIR stage. The list of models produced is in the order that the models appear.
Resolution rules
The resolution method used depends on the kind of path used in the include item. Note that relative includes are never
resolved relative to the process's current directory, only to the current model file (so string models without files
cannot use ./path/to/model.mzn includes).
| Include | Resolution method |
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Cyclic includes
As all models are locally concatenated together, it actually does not matter if there are includes which are cyclic. We only ever add any particular model file to the list of models once, so cycles are simply ignored.
Error handling
Errors during include resolution prevent lowering to HIR from occurring (as without having all of the included files available, it is highly likely that uninformative name resolution and type errors will occur). Note that when we fail to resolve an include, we actually don't abort include resolution. This way, we can produce errors for as many missing files as possible.