Recompile doesn't correct typo in function call

Question

I've been seeing this a lot lately and am not sure if it is an SBCL issue, an Emacs problem, a SLIME problem, or my own understanding of what it means to "compile" a lisp file.

I will have a function, say this:

(defun some-function (x) (call-this-funcshun))

I will compile and run this, and I'll get an error that my function call-this-funcshun is not defined. Then I realize that is because there is a typo. So change it:

(defun some-function (x) (call-this-function))

In Emacs, I recompile the entire file with Control-C Control-K (Emacs saves automatically before the compile as well). Emacs then reports Compilation finished. I move to the REPL. I try it again, type (some-function whatever) and I get the same error. I search through the small lisp file and see that call-this-funcshun is clearly nowhere in it. Yet I have an error that this function is not defined.

Is there some sort of caching that Emacs or SBCL is doing that causes this to hang around? It's driving me nuts. Worth noting that if I quit SLIME and then launch it again, the issue is resolved. Also worth noting that this does not affect all my code edits, just occasionally.

Answer 1

Maybe the file is not loaded for some reason.

I would set *load-verbose* to T and watch that LOAD actually gets called. Setting *load-print* to T would then also cause the printing of information about definitions loaded.

Answer 2

I've seen two conditions that can lead to behavior that looks like what you saw:

1. When the symbol in the file is not the same as the symbol at the REPL. The symbol's name is only a shorthand for identifying the symbol, and the same shorthand can identify different symbols based on which package you use it in. There are some ways to be surprised about which symbol you are referring to, so it can be worth checking with SYMBOL-PACKAGE even when you are pretty sure that they are the same.

2. When the buffer isn't saved. I'm not sure how C-c C-k deals with this now (because I edited it to auto-save for me), but in general compiling and loading tools tend to work from the file not the buffer.