Re: How to globally replace core binding?

[Maxime Devos]

(set! copy-file improved-copy-file)

This replacement 100% functioning assumes no inlining, nobody capturing 
the old copy-file on the top-level, nobody calling the C function 
directly ...

If the original copy-file is implemented in Scheme, then to avoid 
inlining problems, the module defining copy-file should do

(set! copy-file copy-file).

That way, Guile's compiler/optimizer knows that the binding is mutable 
and should not inlined (well, Guile being Guile, every binding is 
mutable, but now it is mutable from the perspective of the inliner too).

Depending on whether 'copy-file' is just a stand-in for something else 
and depending on how the better copy-file works/how it is ‘better’, it 
might be better to eventually write a patch to replace copy-file with 
the improved better-file, as then the improved copy-file is more widely 
available. (As a long-term thing; for short-term ‘trying things out’, 
doing set! is much more practical.)

Best regards,
Maxime Devos.

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