Migrating from kmcomp to kmc

kmcomp was the command-line compiler for Keyman Developer through version 16.0. Version 17.0 replaces kmcomp with kmc.

The lexical model command-line tooling, kmlmc, kmlmp, and kmlmi, have been removed in version 19.0; instead use kmc.

Benefits

• Unlike kmcomp, which was a Windows-only console application, kmc is a cross-platform application, running on Windows, Linux, and macOS, built in node.js.
• kmc parameters have been redesigned to be more consistent, and easily extensible for new functionality.
• kmc can run in a batch mode that is up to 100x faster than kmcomp.
• kmc can be easily integrated into GitHub Actions and other continuous integration tooling.

Compiling a project

To compile a project, kmcomp used a command line such as:

kmcomp path\to\my_keyboard.kpj

With kmc, you would use:

kmc build path/to/my_keyboard.kpj
# or you can specify just the folder:
kmc build path/to/
# If you are in the same folder as the .kpj:
kmc build .

This is the recommended way of using kmc -- always build an entire project, rather than just the keyboard.

Compiling a keyboard

To compile a keyboard, kmcomp builds used command lines such as:

# building a .kmx
kmcomp my_keyboard.kmn my_keyboard.kmx
# building a .js (for KeymanWeb)
kmcomp my_keyboard.kmn my_keyboard.js

With kmc, you would use:

# building all outputs
kmc build my_keyboard.kmn
# or to specify output files (.js inferred from .kmx, and always built)
kmc build my_keyboard.kmn -o my_keyboard.kmx

Compiling a package

To compile a package, kmcomp builds used command lines such as:

kmcomp my_keyboard.kps

With kmc, you would use:

kmc build my_keyboard.kps
# to specify output file or path
kmc build my_keyboard.kps -o path/to/my_keyboard.kmp

Map of parameters

The following table lists common parameters in kmcomp, and the corresponding parameter in kmc:

Compiling a lexical model

# recommended, build the model project:
kmc build .
# building single files:
kmc build file.model.ts
kmc build file.model.ts -o output/path/file.model.js
kmc build file.model.kps