1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
2 <chapter id="using-ghc">
3 <title>Using GHC</title>
5 <indexterm><primary>GHC, using</primary></indexterm>
6 <indexterm><primary>using GHC</primary></indexterm>
9 <title>Getting started: compiling programs</title>
12 In this chapter you'll find a complete reference to the GHC
13 command-line syntax, including all 400+ flags. It's a large and
14 complex system, and there are lots of details, so it can be
15 quite hard to figure out how to get started. With that in mind,
16 this introductory section provides a quick introduction to the
17 basic usage of GHC for compiling a Haskell program, before the
18 following sections dive into the full syntax.
22 Let's create a Hello World program, and compile and run it.
23 First, create a file <filename>hello.hs</filename> containing
28 main = putStrLn "Hello, World!"
31 <para>To compile the program, use GHC like this:</para>
34 $ ghc hello.hs</screen>
36 <para>(where <literal>$</literal> represents the prompt: don't
37 type it). GHC will compile the source
38 file <filename>hello.hs</filename>, producing
40 file</firstterm> <filename>hello.o</filename> and
41 an <firstterm>interface
42 file</firstterm> <filename>hello.hi</filename>, and then it
43 will link the object file to the libraries that come with GHC
44 to produce an executable called <filename>hello</filename> on
45 Unix/Linux/Mac, or <filename>hello.exe</filename> on
49 By default GHC will be very quiet about what it is doing, only
50 printing error messages. If you want to see in more detail
51 what's going on behind the scenes, add <option>-v</option> to
56 Then we can run the program like this:
64 If your program contains multiple modules, then you only need to
65 tell GHC the name of the source file containing
66 the <filename>Main</filename> module, and GHC will examine
67 the <literal>import</literal> declarations to find the other
68 modules that make up the program and find their source files.
69 This means that, with the exception of
70 the <literal>Main</literal> module, every source file should be
71 named after the module name that it contains (with dots replaced
72 by directory separators). For example, the
73 module <literal>Data.Person</literal> would be in the
74 file <filename>Data/Person.hs</filename> on Unix/Linux/Mac,
75 or <filename>Data\Person.hs</filename> on Windows.
80 <title>Options overview</title>
82 <para>GHC's behaviour is controlled by
83 <firstterm>options</firstterm>, which for historical reasons are
84 also sometimes referred to as command-line flags or arguments.
85 Options can be specified in three ways:</para>
88 <title>Command-line arguments</title>
90 <indexterm><primary>structure, command-line</primary></indexterm>
91 <indexterm><primary>command-line</primary><secondary>arguments</secondary></indexterm>
92 <indexterm><primary>arguments</primary><secondary>command-line</secondary></indexterm>
94 <para>An invocation of GHC takes the following form:</para>
100 <para>Command-line arguments are either options or file names.</para>
102 <para>Command-line options begin with <literal>-</literal>.
103 They may <emphasis>not</emphasis> be grouped:
104 <option>-vO</option> is different from <option>-v -O</option>.
105 Options need not precede filenames: e.g., <literal>ghc *.o -o
106 foo</literal>. All options are processed and then applied to
107 all files; you cannot, for example, invoke <literal>ghc -c -O1
108 Foo.hs -O2 Bar.hs</literal> to apply different optimisation
109 levels to the files <filename>Foo.hs</filename> and
110 <filename>Bar.hs</filename>.</para>
113 <sect2 id="source-file-options">
114 <title>Command line options in source files</title>
116 <indexterm><primary>source-file options</primary></indexterm>
118 <para>Sometimes it is useful to make the connection between a
119 source file and the command-line options it requires quite
120 tight. For instance, if a Haskell source file deliberately
121 uses name shadowing, it should be compiled with the
122 <option>-fno-warn-name-shadowing</option> option. Rather than maintaining
123 the list of per-file options in a <filename>Makefile</filename>,
124 it is possible to do this directly in the source file using the
125 <literal>OPTIONS_GHC</literal> pragma <indexterm><primary>OPTIONS_GHC
126 pragma</primary></indexterm>:</para>
129 {-# OPTIONS_GHC -fno-warn-name-shadowing #-}
134 <para><literal>OPTIONS_GHC</literal> is a <emphasis>file-header pragma</emphasis>
135 (see <xref linkend="pragmas"/>).</para>
137 <para>Only <emphasis>dynamic</emphasis> flags can be used in an <literal>OPTIONS_GHC</literal> pragma
138 (see <xref linkend="static-dynamic-flags"/>).</para>
140 <para>Note that your command shell does not
141 get to the source file options, they are just included literally
142 in the array of command-line arguments the compiler
143 maintains internally, so you'll be desperately disappointed if
144 you try to glob etc. inside <literal>OPTIONS_GHC</literal>.</para>
146 <para>NOTE: the contents of OPTIONS_GHC are appended to the
147 command-line options, so options given in the source file
148 override those given on the command-line.</para>
150 <para>It is not recommended to move all the contents of your
151 Makefiles into your source files, but in some circumstances, the
152 <literal>OPTIONS_GHC</literal> pragma is the Right Thing. (If you
153 use <option>-keep-hc-file</option> and have OPTION flags in
154 your module, the OPTIONS_GHC will get put into the generated .hc
159 <title>Setting options in GHCi</title>
161 <para>Options may also be modified from within GHCi, using the
162 <literal>:set</literal> command. See <xref linkend="ghci-set"/>
163 for more details.</para>
167 <sect1 id="static-dynamic-flags">
168 <title>Static, Dynamic, and Mode options</title>
169 <indexterm><primary>static</primary><secondary>options</secondary>
171 <indexterm><primary>dynamic</primary><secondary>options</secondary>
173 <indexterm><primary>mode</primary><secondary>options</secondary>
176 <para>Each of GHC's command line options is classified as
177 <firstterm>static</firstterm>, <firstterm>dynamic</firstterm> or
178 <firstterm>mode</firstterm>:</para>
182 <term>Mode flags</term>
184 <para>For example, <option>––make</option> or <option>-E</option>.
185 There may only be a single mode flag on the command line. The
186 available modes are listed in <xref linkend="modes"/>.</para>
190 <term>Dynamic Flags</term>
192 <para>Most non-mode flags fall into this category. A dynamic flag
193 may be used on the command line, in a
194 <literal>OPTIONS_GHC</literal> pragma in a source file, or set
195 using <literal>:set</literal> in GHCi.</para>
199 <term>Static Flags</term>
201 <para>A few flags are "static", which means they can only be used on
202 the command-line, and remain in force over the entire GHC/GHCi
208 <para>The flag reference tables (<xref
209 linkend="flag-reference"/>) lists the status of each flag.</para>
211 <para>There are a few flags that are static except that they can
212 also be used with GHCi's <literal>:set</literal> command; these
213 are listed as “static/<literal>:set</literal>” in the
217 <sect1 id="file-suffixes">
218 <title>Meaningful file suffixes</title>
220 <indexterm><primary>suffixes, file</primary></indexterm>
221 <indexterm><primary>file suffixes for GHC</primary></indexterm>
223 <para>File names with “meaningful” suffixes (e.g.,
224 <filename>.lhs</filename> or <filename>.o</filename>) cause the
225 “right thing” to happen to those files.</para>
230 <term><filename>.hs</filename></term>
232 <para>A Haskell module.</para>
238 <filename>.lhs</filename>
239 <indexterm><primary><literal>lhs</literal> suffix</primary></indexterm>
242 <para>A “literate Haskell” module.</para>
247 <term><filename>.hi</filename></term>
249 <para>A Haskell interface file, probably
250 compiler-generated.</para>
255 <term><filename>.hc</filename></term>
257 <para>Intermediate C file produced by the Haskell
263 <term><filename>.c</filename></term>
265 <para>A C file not produced by the Haskell
271 <term><filename>.ll</filename></term>
273 <para>An llvm-intermediate-language source file, usually
274 produced by the compiler.</para>
279 <term><filename>.bc</filename></term>
281 <para>An llvm-intermediate-language bitcode file, usually
282 produced by the compiler.</para>
287 <term><filename>.s</filename></term>
289 <para>An assembly-language source file, usually produced by
295 <term><filename>.o</filename></term>
297 <para>An object file, produced by an assembler.</para>
302 <para>Files with other suffixes (or without suffixes) are passed
303 straight to the linker.</para>
308 <title>Modes of operation</title>
311 GHC's behaviour is firstly controlled by a mode flag. Only one
312 of these flags may be given, but it does not necessarily need to
313 be the first option on the command-line.
317 If no mode flag is present, then GHC will enter make mode
318 (<xref linkend="make-mode" />) if there are any Haskell source
319 files given on the command line, or else it will link the
320 objects named on the command line to produce an executable.
323 <para>The available mode flags are:</para>
328 <cmdsynopsis><command>ghc --interactive</command>
330 <indexterm><primary>interactive mode</primary></indexterm>
331 <indexterm><primary>ghci</primary></indexterm>
334 <para>Interactive mode, which is also available as
335 <command>ghci</command>. Interactive mode is described in
336 more detail in <xref linkend="ghci"/>.</para>
342 <cmdsynopsis><command>ghc ––make</command>
344 <indexterm><primary>make mode</primary></indexterm>
345 <indexterm><primary><option>––make</option></primary></indexterm>
348 <para>In this mode, GHC will build a multi-module Haskell
349 program automatically, figuring out dependencies for itself.
350 If you have a straightforward Haskell program, this is
351 likely to be much easier, and faster, than using
352 <command>make</command>. Make mode is described in <xref
353 linkend="make-mode"/>.</para>
356 This mode is the default if there are any Haskell
357 source files mentioned on the command line, and in this case
358 the <option>––make</option> option can be omitted.
365 <cmdsynopsis><command>ghc -e</command>
366 <arg choice='plain'><replaceable>expr</replaceable></arg>
368 <indexterm><primary>eval mode</primary></indexterm>
371 <para>Expression-evaluation mode. This is very similar to
372 interactive mode, except that there is a single expression
373 to evaluate (<replaceable>expr</replaceable>) which is given
374 on the command line. See <xref linkend="eval-mode"/> for
382 <command>ghc -E</command>
383 <command>ghc -c</command>
384 <command>ghc -S</command>
385 <command>ghc -c</command>
387 <indexterm><primary><option>-E</option></primary></indexterm>
388 <indexterm><primary><option>-C</option></primary></indexterm>
389 <indexterm><primary><option>-S</option></primary></indexterm>
390 <indexterm><primary><option>-c</option></primary></indexterm>
393 <para>This is the traditional batch-compiler mode, in which
394 GHC can compile source files one at a time, or link objects
395 together into an executable. This mode also applies if
396 there is no other mode flag specified on the command line,
397 in which case it means that the specified files should be
398 compiled and then linked to form a program. See <xref
399 linkend="options-order"/>.</para>
406 <command>ghc -M</command>
408 <indexterm><primary>dependency-generation mode</primary></indexterm>
411 <para>Dependency-generation mode. In this mode, GHC can be
412 used to generate dependency information suitable for use in
413 a <literal>Makefile</literal>. See <xref
414 linkend="makefile-dependencies"/>.</para>
421 <command>ghc --mk-dll</command>
423 <indexterm><primary>DLL-creation mode</primary></indexterm>
426 <para>DLL-creation mode (Windows only). See <xref
427 linkend="win32-dlls-create"/>.</para>
434 <command>ghc --help</command> <command>ghc -?</command>
436 <indexterm><primary><option>––help</option></primary></indexterm>
439 <para>Cause GHC to spew a long usage message to standard
440 output and then exit.</para>
447 <command>ghc --show-iface <replaceable>file</replaceable></command>
449 <indexterm><primary><option>––--show-iface</option></primary></indexterm>
452 <para>Read the interface in
453 <replaceable>file</replaceable> and dump it as text to
454 <literal>stdout</literal>. For example <literal>ghc --show-iface M.hi</literal>.</para>
461 <command>ghc --supported-extensions</command>
462 <command>ghc --supported-languages</command>
464 <indexterm><primary><option>––supported-extensions</option></primary><primary><option>––supported-languages</option></primary></indexterm>
467 <para>Print the supported language extensions.</para>
474 <command>ghc --info</command>
476 <indexterm><primary><option>––info</option></primary></indexterm>
479 <para>Print information about the compiler.</para>
486 <command>ghc --version</command>
487 <command>ghc -V</command>
489 <indexterm><primary><option>-V</option></primary></indexterm>
490 <indexterm><primary><option>––version</option></primary></indexterm>
493 <para>Print a one-line string including GHC's version number.</para>
500 <command>ghc --numeric-version</command>
502 <indexterm><primary><option>––numeric-version</option></primary></indexterm>
505 <para>Print GHC's numeric version number only.</para>
512 <command>ghc --print-libdir</command>
514 <indexterm><primary><option>––print-libdir</option></primary></indexterm>
517 <para>Print the path to GHC's library directory. This is
518 the top of the directory tree containing GHC's libraries,
519 interfaces, and include files (usually something like
520 <literal>/usr/local/lib/ghc-5.04</literal> on Unix). This
522 <literal>$libdir</literal><indexterm><primary><literal>libdir</literal></primary></indexterm>
523 in the package configuration file
524 (see <xref linkend="packages"/>).</para>
530 <sect2 id="make-mode">
531 <title>Using <command>ghc</command> <option>––make</option></title>
532 <indexterm><primary><option>––make</option></primary></indexterm>
533 <indexterm><primary>separate compilation</primary></indexterm>
535 <para>In this mode, GHC will build a multi-module Haskell program by following
536 dependencies from one or more root modules (usually just
537 <literal>Main</literal>). For example, if your
538 <literal>Main</literal> module is in a file called
539 <filename>Main.hs</filename>, you could compile and link the
540 program like this:</para>
543 ghc ––make Main.hs
547 In fact, GHC enters make mode automatically if there are any
548 Haskell source files on the command line and no other mode is
549 specified, so in this case we could just type
556 <para>Any number of source file names or module names may be
557 specified; GHC will figure out all the modules in the program by
558 following the imports from these initial modules. It will then
559 attempt to compile each module which is out of date, and
560 finally, if there is a <literal>Main</literal> module, the
561 program will also be linked into an executable.</para>
563 <para>The main advantages to using <literal>ghc
564 ––make</literal> over traditional
565 <literal>Makefile</literal>s are:</para>
569 <para>GHC doesn't have to be restarted for each compilation,
570 which means it can cache information between compilations.
571 Compiling a multi-module program with <literal>ghc
572 ––make</literal> can be up to twice as fast as
573 running <literal>ghc</literal> individually on each source
577 <para>You don't have to write a <literal>Makefile</literal>.</para>
578 <indexterm><primary><literal>Makefile</literal>s</primary><secondary>avoiding</secondary></indexterm>
581 <para>GHC re-calculates the dependencies each time it is
582 invoked, so the dependencies never get out of sync with the
587 <para>Any of the command-line options described in the rest of
588 this chapter can be used with
589 <option>––make</option>, but note that any options
590 you give on the command line will apply to all the source files
591 compiled, so if you want any options to apply to a single source
592 file only, you'll need to use an <literal>OPTIONS_GHC</literal>
593 pragma (see <xref linkend="source-file-options"/>).</para>
595 <para>If the program needs to be linked with additional objects
596 (say, some auxiliary C code), then the object files can be
597 given on the command line and GHC will include them when linking
598 the executable.</para>
600 <para>Note that GHC can only follow dependencies if it has the
601 source file available, so if your program includes a module for
602 which there is no source file, even if you have an object and an
603 interface file for the module, then GHC will complain. The
604 exception to this rule is for package modules, which may or may
605 not have source files.</para>
607 <para>The source files for the program don't all need to be in
608 the same directory; the <option>-i</option> option can be used
609 to add directories to the search path (see <xref
610 linkend="search-path"/>).</para>
613 <sect2 id="eval-mode">
614 <title>Expression evaluation mode</title>
616 <para>This mode is very similar to interactive mode, except that
617 there is a single expression to evaluate which is specified on
618 the command line as an argument to the <option>-e</option>
622 ghc -e <replaceable>expr</replaceable>
625 <para>Haskell source files may be named on the command line, and
626 they will be loaded exactly as in interactive mode. The
627 expression is evaluated in the context of the loaded
630 <para>For example, to load and run a Haskell program containing
631 a module <literal>Main</literal>, we might say</para>
634 ghc -e Main.main Main.hs
637 <para>or we can just use this mode to evaluate expressions in
638 the context of the <literal>Prelude</literal>:</para>
641 $ ghc -e "interact (unlines.map reverse.lines)"
647 <sect2 id="options-order">
648 <title>Batch compiler mode</title>
650 <para>In <emphasis>batch mode</emphasis>, GHC will compile one or more source files
651 given on the command line.</para>
653 <para>The first phase to run is determined by each input-file
654 suffix, and the last phase is determined by a flag. If no
655 relevant flag is present, then go all the way through to linking.
656 This table summarises:</para>
660 <colspec align="left"/>
661 <colspec align="left"/>
662 <colspec align="left"/>
663 <colspec align="left"/>
667 <entry>Phase of the compilation system</entry>
668 <entry>Suffix saying “start here”</entry>
669 <entry>Flag saying “stop after”</entry>
670 <entry>(suffix of) output file</entry>
675 <entry>literate pre-processor</entry>
676 <entry><literal>.lhs</literal></entry>
678 <entry><literal>.hs</literal></entry>
682 <entry>C pre-processor (opt.) </entry>
683 <entry><literal>.hs</literal> (with
684 <option>-cpp</option>)</entry>
685 <entry><option>-E</option></entry>
686 <entry><literal>.hspp</literal></entry>
690 <entry>Haskell compiler</entry>
691 <entry><literal>.hs</literal></entry>
692 <entry><option>-C</option>, <option>-S</option></entry>
693 <entry><literal>.hc</literal>, <literal>.s</literal></entry>
697 <entry>C compiler (opt.)</entry>
698 <entry><literal>.hc</literal> or <literal>.c</literal></entry>
699 <entry><option>-S</option></entry>
700 <entry><literal>.s</literal></entry>
704 <entry>assembler</entry>
705 <entry><literal>.s</literal></entry>
706 <entry><option>-c</option></entry>
707 <entry><literal>.o</literal></entry>
711 <entry>linker</entry>
712 <entry><replaceable>other</replaceable></entry>
714 <entry><filename>a.out</filename></entry>
720 <indexterm><primary><option>-C</option></primary></indexterm>
721 <indexterm><primary><option>-E</option></primary></indexterm>
722 <indexterm><primary><option>-S</option></primary></indexterm>
723 <indexterm><primary><option>-c</option></primary></indexterm>
725 <para>Thus, a common invocation would be: </para>
728 ghc -c Foo.hs</screen>
730 <para>to compile the Haskell source file
731 <filename>Foo.hs</filename> to an object file
732 <filename>Foo.o</filename>.</para>
734 <para>Note: What the Haskell compiler proper produces depends on
735 whether a native-code generator<indexterm><primary>native-code
736 generator</primary></indexterm> is used (producing assembly
737 language) or not (producing C). See <xref
738 linkend="options-codegen"/> for more details.</para>
740 <para>Note: C pre-processing is optional, the
741 <option>-cpp</option><indexterm><primary><option>-cpp</option></primary></indexterm>
742 flag turns it on. See <xref linkend="c-pre-processor"/> for more
745 <para>Note: The option <option>-E</option><indexterm><primary>-E
746 option</primary></indexterm> runs just the pre-processing passes
747 of the compiler, dumping the result in a file.</para>
749 <sect3 id="overriding-suffixes">
750 <title>Overriding the default behaviour for a file</title>
752 <para>As described above, the way in which a file is processed by GHC
753 depends on its suffix. This behaviour can be overridden using the
754 <option>-x</option> option:</para>
758 <term><option>-x</option> <replaceable>suffix</replaceable>
759 <indexterm><primary><option>-x</option></primary>
762 <para>Causes all files following this option on the command
763 line to be processed as if they had the suffix
764 <replaceable>suffix</replaceable>. For example, to compile a
765 Haskell module in the file <literal>M.my-hs</literal>,
766 use <literal>ghc -c -x hs M.my-hs</literal>.</para>
775 <sect1 id="options-help">
776 <title>Help and verbosity options</title>
778 <indexterm><primary>help options</primary></indexterm>
779 <indexterm><primary>verbosity options</primary></indexterm>
781 <para>See also the <option>--help</option>, <option>--version</option>, <option>--numeric-version</option>,
782 and <option>--print-libdir</option> modes in <xref linkend="modes"/>.</para>
787 <indexterm><primary><option>-n</option></primary></indexterm>
790 <para>Does a dry-run, i.e. GHC goes through all the motions
791 of compiling as normal, but does not actually run any
792 external commands.</para>
799 <indexterm><primary><option>-v</option></primary></indexterm>
802 <para>The <option>-v</option> option makes GHC
803 <emphasis>verbose</emphasis>: it reports its version number
804 and shows (on stderr) exactly how it invokes each phase of
805 the compilation system. Moreover, it passes the
806 <option>-v</option> flag to most phases; each reports its
807 version number (and possibly some other information).</para>
809 <para>Please, oh please, use the <option>-v</option> option
810 when reporting bugs! Knowing that you ran the right bits in
811 the right order is always the first thing we want to
818 <option>-v</option><replaceable>n</replaceable>
819 <indexterm><primary><option>-v</option></primary></indexterm>
822 <para>To provide more control over the compiler's verbosity,
823 the <option>-v</option> flag takes an optional numeric
824 argument. Specifying <option>-v</option> on its own is
825 equivalent to <option>-v3</option>, and the other levels
826 have the following meanings:</para>
830 <term><option>-v0</option></term>
832 <para>Disable all non-essential messages (this is the
838 <term><option>-v1</option></term>
840 <para>Minimal verbosity: print one line per
841 compilation (this is the default when
842 <option>––make</option> or
843 <option>––interactive</option> is on).</para>
848 <term><option>-v2</option></term>
850 <para>Print the name of each compilation phase as it
851 is executed. (equivalent to
852 <option>-dshow-passes</option>).</para>
857 <term><option>-v3</option></term>
859 <para>The same as <option>-v2</option>, except that in
860 addition the full command line (if appropriate) for
861 each compilation phase is also printed.</para>
866 <term><option>-v4</option></term>
868 <para>The same as <option>-v3</option> except that the
869 intermediate program representation after each
870 compilation phase is also printed (excluding
871 preprocessed and C/assembly files).</para>
879 <term><option>-ferror-spans</option>
880 <indexterm><primary><option>-ferror-spans</option></primary>
884 <para>Causes GHC to emit the full source span of the
885 syntactic entity relating to an error message. Normally, GHC
886 emits the source location of the start of the syntactic
889 <para>For example:</para>
891 <screen>test.hs:3:6: parse error on input `where'</screen>
893 <para>becomes:</para>
895 <screen>test296.hs:3:6-10: parse error on input `where'</screen>
897 <para>And multi-line spans are possible too:</para>
899 <screen>test.hs:(5,4)-(6,7):
900 Conflicting definitions for `a'
901 Bound at: test.hs:5:4
903 In the binding group for: a, b, a</screen>
905 <para>Note that line numbers start counting at one, but
906 column numbers start at zero. This choice was made to
907 follow existing convention (i.e. this is how Emacs does
913 <term><option>-H</option><replaceable>size</replaceable>
914 <indexterm><primary><option>-H</option></primary></indexterm>
917 <para>Set the minimum size of the heap to
918 <replaceable>size</replaceable>.
919 This option is equivalent to
920 <literal>+RTS -H<replaceable>size</replaceable></literal>,
921 see <xref linkend="rts-options-gc" />.
927 <term><option>-Rghc-timing</option>
928 <indexterm><primary><option>-Rghc-timing</option></primary></indexterm>
931 <para>Prints a one-line summary of timing statistics for the
932 GHC run. This option is equivalent to
933 <literal>+RTS -tstderr</literal>, see <xref
934 linkend="rts-options-gc" />.
943 <sect1 id="options-sanity">
944 <title>Warnings and sanity-checking</title>
946 <indexterm><primary>sanity-checking options</primary></indexterm>
947 <indexterm><primary>warnings</primary></indexterm>
950 <para>GHC has a number of options that select which types of
951 non-fatal error messages, otherwise known as warnings, can be
952 generated during compilation. By default, you get a standard set
953 of warnings which are generally likely to indicate bugs in your
955 <option>-fwarn-overlapping-patterns</option>,
956 <option>-fwarn-warnings-deprecations</option>,
957 <option>-fwarn-deprecated-flags</option>,
958 <option>-fwarn-duplicate-exports</option>,
959 <option>-fwarn-missing-fields</option>,
960 <option>-fwarn-missing-methods</option>,
961 <option>-fwarn-lazy-unlifted-bindings</option>,
962 <option>-fwarn-wrong-do-bind</option>, and
963 <option>-fwarn-dodgy-foreign-imports</option>. The following
965 simple ways to select standard “packages” of warnings:
971 <term><option>-W</option>:</term>
973 <indexterm><primary>-W option</primary></indexterm>
974 <para>Provides the standard warnings plus
975 <option>-fwarn-incomplete-patterns</option>,
976 <option>-fwarn-dodgy-exports</option>,
977 <option>-fwarn-dodgy-imports</option>,
978 <option>-fwarn-unused-matches</option>,
979 <option>-fwarn-unused-imports</option>, and
980 <option>-fwarn-unused-binds</option>.</para>
985 <term><option>-Wall</option>:</term>
987 <indexterm><primary><option>-Wall</option></primary></indexterm>
988 <para>Turns on all warning options that indicate potentially
989 suspicious code. The warnings that are
990 <emphasis>not</emphasis> enabled by <option>-Wall</option>
992 <option>-fwarn-tabs</option>,
993 <option>-fwarn-incomplete-record-updates</option>,
994 <option>-fwarn-monomorphism-restriction</option>,
995 <option>-fwarn-unused-do-bind</option>, and
996 <option>-fwarn-implicit-prelude</option>.</para>
1001 <term><option>-w</option>:</term>
1003 <indexterm><primary><option>-w</option></primary></indexterm>
1004 <para>Turns off all warnings, including the standard ones and
1005 those that <literal>-Wall</literal> doesn't enable.</para>
1010 <term><option>-Werror</option>:</term>
1012 <indexterm><primary><option>-Werror</option></primary></indexterm>
1013 <para>Makes any warning into a fatal error. Useful so that you don't
1014 miss warnings when doing batch compilation. </para>
1019 <term><option>-Wwarn</option>:</term>
1021 <indexterm><primary><option>-Wwarn</option></primary></indexterm>
1022 <para>Warnings are treated only as warnings, not as errors. This is
1023 the default, but can be useful to negate a
1024 <option>-Werror</option> flag.</para>
1030 <para>The full set of warning options is described below. To turn
1031 off any warning, simply give the corresponding
1032 <option>-fno-warn-...</option> option on the command line.</para>
1037 <term><option>-fwarn-unrecognised-pragmas</option>:</term>
1039 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-unrecognised-pragmas</option></primary>
1041 <indexterm><primary>warnings</primary></indexterm>
1042 <indexterm><primary>pragmas</primary></indexterm>
1043 <para>Causes a warning to be emitted when a
1044 pragma that GHC doesn't recognise is used. As well as pragmas
1045 that GHC itself uses, GHC also recognises pragmas known to be used
1046 by other tools, e.g. <literal>OPTIONS_HUGS</literal> and
1047 <literal>DERIVE</literal>.</para>
1049 <para>This option is on by default.</para>
1054 <term><option>-fwarn-warnings-deprecations</option>:</term>
1056 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-warnings-deprecations</option></primary>
1058 <indexterm><primary>warnings</primary></indexterm>
1059 <indexterm><primary>deprecations</primary></indexterm>
1060 <para>Causes a warning to be emitted when a
1061 module, function or type with a WARNING or DEPRECATED pragma
1062 is used. See <xref linkend="warning-deprecated-pragma"/> for more
1063 details on the pragmas.</para>
1065 <para>This option is on by default.</para>
1070 <term><option>-fwarn-deprecated-flags</option>:</term>
1072 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-deprecated-flags</option></primary>
1074 <indexterm><primary>deprecated-flags</primary></indexterm>
1075 <para>Causes a warning to be emitted when a deprecated
1076 commandline flag is used.</para>
1078 <para>This option is on by default.</para>
1083 <term><option>-fwarn-dodgy-foreign-imports</option>:</term>
1085 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-dodgy-foreign-imports</option></primary>
1087 <para>Causes a warning to be emitted for foreign imports of
1088 the following form:</para>
1090 foreign import "f" f :: FunPtr t
1092 <para>on the grounds that it probably should be</para>
1094 foreign import "&f" f :: FunPtr t
1096 <para>The first form declares that `f` is a (pure) C
1097 function that takes no arguments and returns a pointer to a
1098 C function with type `t`, whereas the second form declares
1099 that `f` itself is a C function with type `t`. The first
1100 declaration is usually a mistake, and one that is hard to
1101 debug because it results in a crash, hence this
1107 <term><option>-fwarn-dodgy-exports</option>:</term>
1109 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-dodgy-exports</option></primary>
1111 <para>Causes a warning to be emitted when a datatype
1112 <literal>T</literal> is exported
1113 with all constructors, i.e. <literal>T(..)</literal>, but is it
1114 just a type synonym.</para>
1115 <para>Also causes a warning to be emitted when a module is
1116 re-exported, but that module exports nothing.</para>
1121 <term><option>-fwarn-dodgy-imports</option>:</term>
1123 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-dodgy-imports</option></primary>
1125 <para>Causes a warning to be emitted when a datatype
1126 <literal>T</literal> is imported
1127 with all constructors, i.e. <literal>T(..)</literal>, but has been
1128 exported abstractly, i.e. <literal>T</literal>.</para>
1133 <term><option>-fwarn-lazy-unlifted-bindings</option>:</term>
1135 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-lazy-unlifted-bindings</option></primary>
1137 <para>Causes a warning to be emitted when an unlifted type
1138 is bound in a way that looks lazy, e.g.
1139 <literal>where (I# x) = ...</literal>. Use
1140 <literal>where !(I# x) = ...</literal> instead. This will be an
1141 error, rather than a warning, in GHC 7.2.
1147 <term><option>-fwarn-duplicate-exports</option>:</term>
1149 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-duplicate-exports</option></primary></indexterm>
1150 <indexterm><primary>duplicate exports, warning</primary></indexterm>
1151 <indexterm><primary>export lists, duplicates</primary></indexterm>
1153 <para>Have the compiler warn about duplicate entries in
1154 export lists. This is useful information if you maintain
1155 large export lists, and want to avoid the continued export
1156 of a definition after you've deleted (one) mention of it in
1157 the export list.</para>
1159 <para>This option is on by default.</para>
1164 <term><option>-fwarn-hi-shadowing</option>:</term>
1166 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-hi-shadowing</option></primary></indexterm>
1167 <indexterm><primary>shadowing</primary>
1168 <secondary>interface files</secondary></indexterm>
1170 <para>Causes the compiler to emit a warning when a module or
1171 interface file in the current directory is shadowing one
1172 with the same module name in a library or other
1178 <term><option>-fwarn-implicit-prelude</option>:</term>
1180 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-implicit-prelude</option></primary></indexterm>
1181 <indexterm><primary>implicit prelude, warning</primary></indexterm>
1182 <para>Have the compiler warn if the Prelude is implicitly
1183 imported. This happens unless either the Prelude module is
1184 explicitly imported with an <literal>import ... Prelude ...</literal>
1185 line, or this implicit import is disabled (either by
1186 <option>-XNoImplicitPrelude</option> or a
1187 <literal>LANGUAGE NoImplicitPrelude</literal> pragma).</para>
1189 <para>Note that no warning is given for syntax that implicitly
1190 refers to the Prelude, even if <option>-XNoImplicitPrelude</option>
1191 would change whether it refers to the Prelude.
1192 For example, no warning is given when
1193 <literal>368</literal> means
1194 <literal>Prelude.fromInteger (368::Prelude.Integer)</literal>
1195 (where <literal>Prelude</literal> refers to the actual Prelude module,
1196 regardless of the imports of the module being compiled).</para>
1198 <para>This warning is off by default.</para>
1203 <term><option>-fwarn-incomplete-patterns</option>:</term>
1205 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-incomplete-patterns</option></primary></indexterm>
1206 <indexterm><primary>incomplete patterns, warning</primary></indexterm>
1207 <indexterm><primary>patterns, incomplete</primary></indexterm>
1209 <para>Similarly for incomplete patterns, the function
1210 <function>g</function> below will fail when applied to
1211 non-empty lists, so the compiler will emit a warning about
1212 this when <option>-fwarn-incomplete-patterns</option> is
1219 <para>This option isn't enabled by default because it can be
1220 a bit noisy, and it doesn't always indicate a bug in the
1221 program. However, it's generally considered good practice
1222 to cover all the cases in your functions.</para>
1227 <term><option>-fwarn-incomplete-record-updates</option>:</term>
1229 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-incomplete-record-updates</option></primary></indexterm>
1230 <indexterm><primary>incomplete record updates, warning</primary></indexterm>
1231 <indexterm><primary>record updates, incomplete</primary></indexterm>
1234 <function>f</function> below will fail when applied to
1235 <literal>Bar</literal>, so the compiler will emit a warning about
1236 this when <option>-fwarn-incomplete-record-updates</option> is
1240 data Foo = Foo { x :: Int }
1244 f foo = foo { x = 6 }
1247 <para>This option isn't enabled by default because it can be
1248 very noisy, and it often doesn't indicate a bug in the
1255 <option>-fwarn-missing-fields</option>:
1256 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-missing-fields</option></primary></indexterm>
1257 <indexterm><primary>missing fields, warning</primary></indexterm>
1258 <indexterm><primary>fields, missing</primary></indexterm>
1262 <para>This option is on by default, and warns you whenever
1263 the construction of a labelled field constructor isn't
1264 complete, missing initializers for one or more fields. While
1265 not an error (the missing fields are initialised with
1266 bottoms), it is often an indication of a programmer error.</para>
1271 <term><option>-fwarn-missing-methods</option>:</term>
1273 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-missing-methods</option></primary></indexterm>
1274 <indexterm><primary>missing methods, warning</primary></indexterm>
1275 <indexterm><primary>methods, missing</primary></indexterm>
1277 <para>This option is on by default, and warns you whenever
1278 an instance declaration is missing one or more methods, and
1279 the corresponding class declaration has no default
1280 declaration for them.</para>
1281 <para>The warning is suppressed if the method name
1282 begins with an underscore. Here's an example where this is useful:
1285 _simpleFn :: a -> String
1286 complexFn :: a -> a -> String
1287 complexFn x y = ... _simpleFn ...
1289 The idea is that: (a) users of the class will only call <literal>complexFn</literal>;
1290 never <literal>_simpleFn</literal>; and (b)
1291 instance declarations can define either <literal>complexFn</literal> or <literal>_simpleFn</literal>.
1297 <term><option>-fwarn-missing-signatures</option>:</term>
1299 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-missing-signatures</option></primary></indexterm>
1300 <indexterm><primary>type signatures, missing</primary></indexterm>
1302 <para>If you would like GHC to check that every top-level
1303 function/value has a type signature, use the
1304 <option>-fwarn-missing-signatures</option> option. As part of
1305 the warning GHC also reports the inferred type. The
1306 option is off by default.</para>
1311 <term><option>-fwarn-name-shadowing</option>:</term>
1313 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-name-shadowing</option></primary></indexterm>
1314 <indexterm><primary>shadowing, warning</primary></indexterm>
1316 <para>This option causes a warning to be emitted whenever an
1317 inner-scope value has the same name as an outer-scope value,
1318 i.e. the inner value shadows the outer one. This can catch
1319 typographical errors that turn into hard-to-find bugs, e.g.,
1320 in the inadvertent capture of what would be a recursive call in
1321 <literal>f = ... let f = id in ... f ...</literal>.</para>
1322 <para>The warning is suppressed for names beginning with an underscore. For example
1324 f x = do { _ignore <- this; _ignore <- that; return (the other) }
1331 <term><option>-fwarn-orphans</option>:</term>
1333 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-orphans</option></primary></indexterm>
1334 <indexterm><primary>orphan instances, warning</primary></indexterm>
1335 <indexterm><primary>orphan rules, warning</primary></indexterm>
1337 <para>This option causes a warning to be emitted whenever the
1338 module contains an "orphan" instance declaration or rewrite rule.
1339 An instance declaration is an orphan if it appears in a module in
1340 which neither the class nor the type being instanced are declared
1341 in the same module. A rule is an orphan if it is a rule for a
1342 function declared in another module. A module containing any
1343 orphans is called an orphan module.</para>
1344 <para>The trouble with orphans is that GHC must pro-actively read the interface
1345 files for all orphan modules, just in case their instances or rules
1346 play a role, whether or not the module's interface would otherwise
1347 be of any use. See <xref linkend="orphan-modules"/> for details.
1354 <option>-fwarn-overlapping-patterns</option>:
1355 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-overlapping-patterns</option></primary></indexterm>
1356 <indexterm><primary>overlapping patterns, warning</primary></indexterm>
1357 <indexterm><primary>patterns, overlapping</primary></indexterm>
1360 <para>By default, the compiler will warn you if a set of
1361 patterns are overlapping, e.g.,</para>
1364 f :: String -> Int
1370 <para>where the last pattern match in <function>f</function>
1371 won't ever be reached, as the second pattern overlaps
1372 it. More often than not, redundant patterns is a programmer
1373 mistake/error, so this option is enabled by default.</para>
1378 <term><option>-fwarn-tabs</option>:</term>
1380 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-tabs</option></primary></indexterm>
1381 <indexterm><primary>tabs, warning</primary></indexterm>
1382 <para>Have the compiler warn if there are tabs in your source
1385 <para>This warning is off by default.</para>
1390 <term><option>-fwarn-type-defaults</option>:</term>
1392 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-type-defaults</option></primary></indexterm>
1393 <indexterm><primary>defaulting mechanism, warning</primary></indexterm>
1394 <para>Have the compiler warn/inform you where in your source
1395 the Haskell defaulting mechanism for numeric types kicks
1396 in. This is useful information when converting code from a
1397 context that assumed one default into one with another,
1398 e.g., the ‘default default’ for Haskell 1.4 caused the
1399 otherwise unconstrained value <constant>1</constant> to be
1400 given the type <literal>Int</literal>, whereas Haskell 98
1401 defaults it to <literal>Integer</literal>. This may lead to
1402 differences in performance and behaviour, hence the
1403 usefulness of being non-silent about this.</para>
1405 <para>This warning is off by default.</para>
1410 <term><option>-fwarn-monomorphism-restriction</option>:</term>
1412 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-monomorphism-restriction</option></primary></indexterm>
1413 <indexterm><primary>monomorphism restriction, warning</primary></indexterm>
1414 <para>Have the compiler warn/inform you where in your source
1415 the Haskell Monomorphism Restriction is applied. If applied silently
1416 the MR can give rise to unexpected behaviour, so it can be helpful
1417 to have an explicit warning that it is being applied.</para>
1419 <para>This warning is off by default.</para>
1424 <term><option>-fwarn-unused-binds</option>:</term>
1426 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-unused-binds</option></primary></indexterm>
1427 <indexterm><primary>unused binds, warning</primary></indexterm>
1428 <indexterm><primary>binds, unused</primary></indexterm>
1429 <para>Report any function definitions (and local bindings)
1430 which are unused. For top-level functions, the warning is
1431 only given if the binding is not exported.</para>
1432 <para>A definition is regarded as "used" if (a) it is exported, or (b) it is
1433 mentioned in the right hand side of another definition that is used, or (c) the
1434 function it defines begins with an underscore. The last case provides a
1435 way to suppress unused-binding warnings selectively. </para>
1436 <para> Notice that a variable
1437 is reported as unused even if it appears in the right-hand side of another
1438 unused binding. </para>
1443 <term><option>-fwarn-unused-imports</option>:</term>
1445 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-unused-imports</option></primary></indexterm>
1446 <indexterm><primary>unused imports, warning</primary></indexterm>
1447 <indexterm><primary>imports, unused</primary></indexterm>
1449 <para>Report any modules that are explicitly imported but
1450 never used. However, the form <literal>import M()</literal> is
1451 never reported as an unused import, because it is a useful idiom
1452 for importing instance declarations, which are anonymous in Haskell.</para>
1457 <term><option>-fwarn-unused-matches</option>:</term>
1459 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-unused-matches</option></primary></indexterm>
1460 <indexterm><primary>unused matches, warning</primary></indexterm>
1461 <indexterm><primary>matches, unused</primary></indexterm>
1463 <para>Report all unused variables which arise from pattern
1464 matches, including patterns consisting of a single variable.
1465 For instance <literal>f x y = []</literal> would report
1466 <varname>x</varname> and <varname>y</varname> as unused. The
1467 warning is suppressed if the variable name begins with an underscore, thus:
1476 <term><option>-fwarn-unused-do-bind</option>:</term>
1478 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-unused-do-bind</option></primary></indexterm>
1479 <indexterm><primary>unused do binding, warning</primary></indexterm>
1480 <indexterm><primary>do binding, unused</primary></indexterm>
1482 <para>Report expressions occuring in <literal>do</literal> and <literal>mdo</literal> blocks
1483 that appear to silently throw information away.
1484 For instance <literal>do { mapM popInt xs ; return 10 }</literal> would report
1485 the first statement in the <literal>do</literal> block as suspicious,
1486 as it has the type <literal>StackM [Int]</literal> and not <literal>StackM ()</literal>, but that
1487 <literal>[Int]</literal> value is not bound to anything. The warning is suppressed by
1488 explicitly mentioning in the source code that your program is throwing something away:
1490 do { _ <- mapM popInt xs ; return 10 }
1492 Of course, in this particular situation you can do even better:
1494 do { mapM_ popInt xs ; return 10 }
1501 <term><option>-fwarn-wrong-do-bind</option>:</term>
1503 <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-wrong-do-bind</option></primary></indexterm>
1504 <indexterm><primary>apparently erroneous do binding, warning</primary></indexterm>
1505 <indexterm><primary>do binding, apparently erroneous</primary></indexterm>
1507 <para>Report expressions occuring in <literal>do</literal> and <literal>mdo</literal> blocks
1508 that appear to lack a binding.
1509 For instance <literal>do { return (popInt 10) ; return 10 }</literal> would report
1510 the first statement in the <literal>do</literal> block as suspicious,
1511 as it has the type <literal>StackM (StackM Int)</literal> (which consists of two nested applications
1512 of the same monad constructor), but which is not then "unpacked" by binding the result.
1513 The warning is suppressed by explicitly mentioning in the source code that your program is throwing something away:
1515 do { _ <- return (popInt 10) ; return 10 }
1517 For almost all sensible programs this will indicate a bug, and you probably intended to write:
1519 do { popInt 10 ; return 10 }
1527 <para>If you're feeling really paranoid, the
1528 <option>-dcore-lint</option>
1529 option<indexterm><primary><option>-dcore-lint</option></primary></indexterm>
1530 is a good choice. It turns on heavyweight intra-pass
1531 sanity-checking within GHC. (It checks GHC's sanity, not
1538 <sect1 id="options-optimise">
1539 <title>Optimisation (code improvement)</title>
1541 <indexterm><primary>optimisation</primary></indexterm>
1542 <indexterm><primary>improvement, code</primary></indexterm>
1544 <para>The <option>-O*</option> options specify convenient
1545 “packages” of optimisation flags; the
1546 <option>-f*</option> options described later on specify
1547 <emphasis>individual</emphasis> optimisations to be turned on/off;
1548 the <option>-m*</option> options specify
1549 <emphasis>machine-specific</emphasis> optimisations to be turned
1552 <sect2 id="optimise-pkgs">
1553 <title><option>-O*</option>: convenient “packages” of optimisation flags.</title>
1555 <para>There are <emphasis>many</emphasis> options that affect
1556 the quality of code produced by GHC. Most people only have a
1557 general goal, something like “Compile quickly” or
1558 “Make my program run like greased lightning.” The
1559 following “packages” of optimisations (or lack
1560 thereof) should suffice.</para>
1562 <para>Note that higher optimisation levels cause more
1563 cross-module optimisation to be performed, which can have an
1564 impact on how much of your program needs to be recompiled when
1565 you change something. This is one reason to stick to
1566 no-optimisation when developing code.</para>
1572 No <option>-O*</option>-type option specified:
1573 <indexterm><primary>-O* not specified</primary></indexterm>
1576 <para>This is taken to mean: “Please compile
1577 quickly; I'm not over-bothered about compiled-code
1578 quality.” So, for example: <command>ghc -c
1579 Foo.hs</command></para>
1585 <option>-O0</option>:
1586 <indexterm><primary><option>-O0</option></primary></indexterm>
1589 <para>Means “turn off all optimisation”,
1590 reverting to the same settings as if no
1591 <option>-O</option> options had been specified. Saying
1592 <option>-O0</option> can be useful if
1593 eg. <command>make</command> has inserted a
1594 <option>-O</option> on the command line already.</para>
1600 <option>-O</option> or <option>-O1</option>:
1601 <indexterm><primary>-O option</primary></indexterm>
1602 <indexterm><primary>-O1 option</primary></indexterm>
1603 <indexterm><primary>optimise</primary><secondary>normally</secondary></indexterm>
1606 <para>Means: “Generate good-quality code without
1607 taking too long about it.” Thus, for example:
1608 <command>ghc -c -O Main.lhs</command></para>
1614 <option>-O2</option>:
1615 <indexterm><primary>-O2 option</primary></indexterm>
1616 <indexterm><primary>optimise</primary><secondary>aggressively</secondary></indexterm>
1619 <para>Means: “Apply every non-dangerous
1620 optimisation, even if it means significantly longer
1621 compile times.”</para>
1623 <para>The avoided “dangerous” optimisations
1624 are those that can make runtime or space
1625 <emphasis>worse</emphasis> if you're unlucky. They are
1626 normally turned on or off individually.</para>
1628 <para>At the moment, <option>-O2</option> is
1629 <emphasis>unlikely</emphasis> to produce better code than
1630 <option>-O</option>.</para>
1636 <option>-Ofile <file></option>:
1637 <indexterm><primary>-Ofile <file> option</primary></indexterm>
1638 <indexterm><primary>optimising, customised</primary></indexterm>
1641 <para>(NOTE: not supported since GHC 4.x. Please ask if
1642 you're interested in this.)</para>
1644 <para>For those who need <emphasis>absolute</emphasis>
1645 control over <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> what options are
1646 used (e.g., compiler writers, sometimes :-), a list of
1647 options can be put in a file and then slurped in with
1648 <option>-Ofile</option>.</para>
1650 <para>In that file, comments are of the
1651 <literal>#</literal>-to-end-of-line variety; blank
1652 lines and most whitespace is ignored.</para>
1654 <para>Please ask if you are baffled and would like an
1655 example of <option>-Ofile</option>!</para>
1660 <para>We don't use a <option>-O*</option> flag for day-to-day
1661 work. We use <option>-O</option> to get respectable speed;
1662 e.g., when we want to measure something. When we want to go for
1663 broke, we tend to use <option>-O2 -fvia-C</option> (and we go for
1664 lots of coffee breaks).</para>
1666 <para>The easiest way to see what <option>-O</option> (etc.)
1667 “really mean” is to run with <option>-v</option>,
1668 then stand back in amazement.</para>
1671 <sect2 id="options-f">
1672 <title><option>-f*</option>: platform-independent flags</title>
1674 <indexterm><primary>-f* options (GHC)</primary></indexterm>
1675 <indexterm><primary>-fno-* options (GHC)</primary></indexterm>
1677 <para>These flags turn on and off individual optimisations.
1678 They are normally set via the <option>-O</option> options
1679 described above, and as such, you shouldn't need to set any of
1680 them explicitly (indeed, doing so could lead to unexpected
1681 results). However, there are one or two that may be of
1686 <term><option>-fexcess-precision</option>:</term>
1688 <indexterm><primary><option>-fexcess-precision</option></primary></indexterm>
1689 <para>When this option is given, intermediate floating
1690 point values can have a <emphasis>greater</emphasis>
1691 precision/range than the final type. Generally this is a
1692 good thing, but some programs may rely on the exact
1694 <literal>Float</literal>/<literal>Double</literal> values
1695 and should not use this option for their compilation.</para>
1700 <term><option>-fignore-asserts</option>:</term>
1702 <indexterm><primary><option>-fignore-asserts</option></primary></indexterm>
1703 <para>Causes GHC to ignore uses of the function
1704 <literal>Exception.assert</literal> in source code (in
1705 other words, rewriting <literal>Exception.assert p
1706 e</literal> to <literal>e</literal> (see <xref
1707 linkend="assertions"/>). This flag is turned on by
1708 <option>-O</option>.
1715 <option>-fno-cse</option>
1716 <indexterm><primary><option>-fno-cse</option></primary></indexterm>
1719 <para>Turns off the common-sub-expression elimination optimisation.
1720 Can be useful if you have some <literal>unsafePerformIO</literal>
1721 expressions that you don't want commoned-up.</para>
1727 <option>-fno-strictness</option>
1728 <indexterm><primary><option>-fno-strictness</option></primary></indexterm>
1731 <para>Turns off the strictness analyser; sometimes it eats
1732 too many cycles.</para>
1738 <option>-fno-full-laziness</option>
1739 <indexterm><primary><option>-fno-full-laziness</option></primary></indexterm>
1742 <para>Turns off the full laziness optimisation (also known as
1743 let-floating). Full laziness increases sharing, which can lead
1744 to increased memory residency.</para>
1746 <para>NOTE: GHC doesn't implement complete full-laziness.
1747 When optimisation in on, and
1748 <option>-fno-full-laziness</option> is not given, some
1749 transformations that increase sharing are performed, such
1750 as extracting repeated computations from a loop. These
1751 are the same transformations that a fully lazy
1752 implementation would do, the difference is that GHC
1753 doesn't consistently apply full-laziness, so don't rely on
1760 <option>-fno-float-in</option>
1761 <indexterm><primary><option>-fno-float-in</option></primary></indexterm>
1764 <para>Turns off the float-in transformation.</para>
1770 <option>-fno-specialise</option>
1771 <indexterm><primary><option>-fno-specialise</option></primary></indexterm>
1774 <para>Turns off the automatic specialisation of overloaded functions.</para>
1780 <option>-fspec-constr</option>
1781 <indexterm><primary><option>-fspec-constr</option></primary></indexterm>
1784 <para>Turn on call-pattern specialisation.</para>
1790 <option>-fliberate-case</option>
1791 <indexterm><primary><option>-fliberate-case</option></primary></indexterm>
1794 <para>Turn on the liberate-case transformation.</para>
1800 <option>-fstatic-argument-transformation</option>
1801 <indexterm><primary><option>-fstatic-argument-transformation</option></primary></indexterm>
1804 <para>Turn on the static argument transformation.</para>
1810 <option>-fno-state-hack</option>
1811 <indexterm><primary><option>-fno-state-hack</option></primary></indexterm>
1814 <para>Turn off the "state hack" whereby any lambda with a
1815 <literal>State#</literal> token as argument is considered to be
1816 single-entry, hence it is considered OK to inline things inside
1817 it. This can improve performance of IO and ST monad code, but it
1818 runs the risk of reducing sharing.</para>
1824 <option>-fomit-interface-pragmas</option>
1825 <indexterm><primary><option>-fomit-interface-pragmas</option></primary></indexterm>
1828 <para>Tells GHC to omit all inessential information from the interface file
1829 generated for the module being compiled (say M). This means that a module
1830 importing M will see only the <emphasis>types</emphasis> of the functions that M exports, but not
1831 their unfoldings, strictness info, etc. Hence, for example,
1832 no function exported by M will be inlined
1833 into an importing module. The benefit is that modules that import M will
1834 need to be recompiled less often (only when M's exports change their type,
1835 not when they change their implementation).
1842 <option>-fignore-interface-pragmas</option>
1843 <indexterm><primary><option>-fignore-interface-pragmas</option></primary></indexterm>
1846 <para>Tells GHC to ignore all inessential information when reading interface files.
1847 That is, even if <filename>M.hi</filename> contains unfolding or strictness information
1848 for a function, GHC will ignore that information.</para>
1854 <option>-funbox-strict-fields</option>:
1855 <indexterm><primary><option>-funbox-strict-fields</option></primary></indexterm>
1856 <indexterm><primary>strict constructor fields</primary></indexterm>
1857 <indexterm><primary>constructor fields, strict</primary></indexterm>
1860 <para>This option causes all constructor fields which are
1861 marked strict (i.e. “!”) to be unboxed or
1862 unpacked if possible. It is equivalent to adding an
1863 <literal>UNPACK</literal> pragma to every strict
1864 constructor field (see <xref
1865 linkend="unpack-pragma"/>).</para>
1867 <para>This option is a bit of a sledgehammer: it might
1868 sometimes make things worse. Selectively unboxing fields
1869 by using <literal>UNPACK</literal> pragmas might be
1876 <option>-funfolding-creation-threshold=<replaceable>n</replaceable></option>:
1877 <indexterm><primary><option>-funfolding-creation-threshold</option></primary></indexterm>
1878 <indexterm><primary>inlining, controlling</primary></indexterm>
1879 <indexterm><primary>unfolding, controlling</primary></indexterm>
1882 <para>(Default: 45) Governs the maximum size that GHC will
1883 allow a function unfolding to be. (An unfolding has a
1884 “size” that reflects the cost in terms of
1885 “code bloat” of expanding that unfolding at
1886 at a call site. A bigger function would be assigned a
1887 bigger cost.) </para>
1889 <para> Consequences: (a) nothing larger than this will be
1890 inlined (unless it has an INLINE pragma); (b) nothing
1891 larger than this will be spewed into an interface
1895 <para> Increasing this figure is more likely to result in longer
1896 compile times than faster code. The next option is more
1902 <term><option>-funfolding-use-threshold=<replaceable>n</replaceable></option></term>
1904 <indexterm><primary><option>-funfolding-use-threshold</option></primary></indexterm>
1905 <indexterm><primary>inlining, controlling</primary></indexterm>
1906 <indexterm><primary>unfolding, controlling</primary></indexterm>
1908 <para>(Default: 8) This is the magic cut-off figure for
1909 unfolding: below this size, a function definition will be
1910 unfolded at the call-site, any bigger and it won't. The
1911 size computed for a function depends on two things: the
1912 actual size of the expression minus any discounts that
1913 apply (see <option>-funfolding-con-discount</option>).</para>
1926 <sect1 id="using-concurrent">
1927 <title>Using Concurrent Haskell</title>
1928 <indexterm><primary>Concurrent Haskell</primary><secondary>using</secondary></indexterm>
1930 <para>GHC supports Concurrent Haskell by default, without requiring a
1931 special option or libraries compiled in a certain way. To get access to
1932 the support libraries for Concurrent Haskell, just import
1934 url="&libraryBaseLocation;/Control-Concurrent.html"><literal>Control.Concurrent</literal></ulink>. More information on Concurrent Haskell is provided in the documentation for that module.</para>
1936 <para>The following RTS option(s) affect the behaviour of Concurrent
1937 Haskell programs:<indexterm><primary>RTS options, concurrent</primary></indexterm></para>
1941 <term><option>-C<replaceable>s</replaceable></option></term>
1943 <para><indexterm><primary><option>-C<replaceable>s</replaceable></option></primary><secondary>RTS option</secondary></indexterm>
1944 Sets the context switch interval to <replaceable>s</replaceable>
1945 seconds. A context switch will occur at the next heap block
1946 allocation after the timer expires (a heap block allocation occurs
1947 every 4k of allocation). With <option>-C0</option> or
1948 <option>-C</option>, context switches will occur as often as
1949 possible (at every heap block allocation). By default, context
1950 switches occur every 20ms.</para>
1956 <sect1 id="using-smp">
1957 <title>Using SMP parallelism</title>
1958 <indexterm><primary>parallelism</primary>
1960 <indexterm><primary>SMP</primary>
1963 <para>GHC supports running Haskell programs in parallel on an SMP
1964 (symmetric multiprocessor).</para>
1966 <para>There's a fine distinction between
1967 <emphasis>concurrency</emphasis> and <emphasis>parallelism</emphasis>:
1968 parallelism is all about making your program run
1969 <emphasis>faster</emphasis> by making use of multiple processors
1970 simultaneously. Concurrency, on the other hand, is a means of
1971 abstraction: it is a convenient way to structure a program that must
1972 respond to multiple asynchronous events.</para>
1974 <para>However, the two terms are certainly related. By making use of
1975 multiple CPUs it is possible to run concurrent threads in parallel,
1976 and this is exactly what GHC's SMP parallelism support does. But it
1977 is also possible to obtain performance improvements with parallelism
1978 on programs that do not use concurrency. This section describes how to
1979 use GHC to compile and run parallel programs, in <xref
1980 linkend="lang-parallel" /> we describe the language features that affect
1983 <sect2 id="parallel-compile-options">
1984 <title>Compile-time options for SMP parallelism</title>
1986 <para>In order to make use of multiple CPUs, your program must be
1987 linked with the <option>-threaded</option> option (see <xref
1988 linkend="options-linker" />). Additionally, the following
1989 compiler options affect parallelism:</para>
1993 <term><option>-feager-blackholing</option></term>
1994 <indexterm><primary><option>-feager-blackholing</option></primary></indexterm>
1997 Blackholing is the act of marking a thunk (lazy
1998 computuation) as being under evaluation. It is useful for
1999 three reasons: firstly it lets us detect certain kinds of
2000 infinite loop (the <literal>NonTermination</literal>
2001 exception), secondly it avoids certain kinds of space
2002 leak, and thirdly it avoids repeating a computation in a
2003 parallel program, because we can tell when a computation
2004 is already in progress.</para>
2007 The option <option>-feager-blackholing</option> causes
2008 each thunk to be blackholed as soon as evaluation begins.
2009 The default is "lazy blackholing", whereby thunks are only
2010 marked as being under evaluation when a thread is paused
2011 for some reason. Lazy blackholing is typically more
2012 efficient (by 1-2% or so), because most thunks don't
2013 need to be blackholed. However, eager blackholing can
2014 avoid more repeated computation in a parallel program, and
2015 this often turns out to be important for parallelism.
2019 We recommend compiling any code that is intended to be run
2020 in parallel with the <option>-feager-blackholing</option>
2028 <sect2 id="parallel-options">
2029 <title>RTS options for SMP parallelism</title>
2031 <para>To run a program on multiple CPUs, use the
2032 RTS <option>-N</option> option:</para>
2036 <term><option>-N<optional><replaceable>x</replaceable></optional></option></term>
2038 <para><indexterm><primary><option>-N<replaceable>x</replaceable></option></primary><secondary>RTS option</secondary></indexterm>
2039 Use <replaceable>x</replaceable> simultaneous threads when
2040 running the program. Normally <replaceable>x</replaceable>
2041 should be chosen to match the number of CPU cores on the
2042 machine<footnote><para>Whether hyperthreading cores should be counted or not is an
2043 open question; please feel free to experiment and let us know what
2044 results you find.</para></footnote>. For example,
2045 on a dual-core machine we would probably use
2046 <literal>+RTS -N2 -RTS</literal>.</para>
2048 <para>Omitting <replaceable>x</replaceable>,
2049 i.e. <literal>+RTS -N -RTS</literal>, lets the runtime
2050 choose the value of <replaceable>x</replaceable> itself
2051 based on how many processors are in your machine.</para>
2053 <para>Be careful when using all the processors in your
2054 machine: if some of your processors are in use by other
2055 programs, this can actually harm performance rather than
2058 <para>Setting <option>-N</option> also has the effect of
2059 enabling the parallel garbage collector (see
2060 <xref linkend="rts-options-gc" />).</para>
2062 <para>There is no means (currently) by which this value
2063 may vary after the program has started.</para>
2065 <para>The current value of the <option>-N</option> option
2066 is available to the Haskell program
2067 via <literal>GHC.Conc.numCapabilities</literal>.</para>
2072 <para>The following options affect the way the runtime schedules
2073 threads on CPUs:</para>
2077 <term><option>-qa</option></term>
2078 <indexterm><primary><option>-qa</option></primary><secondary>RTS
2079 option</secondary></indexterm>
2081 <para>Use the OS's affinity facilities to try to pin OS
2082 threads to CPU cores. This is an experimental feature,
2083 and may or may not be useful. Please let us know
2084 whether it helps for you!</para>
2088 <term><option>-qm</option></term>
2089 <indexterm><primary><option>-qm</option></primary><secondary>RTS
2090 option</secondary></indexterm>
2092 <para>Disable automatic migration for load balancing.
2093 Normally the runtime will automatically try to schedule
2094 threads across the available CPUs to make use of idle
2095 CPUs; this option disables that behaviour. Note that
2096 migration only applies to threads; sparks created
2097 by <literal>par</literal> are load-balanced separately
2098 by work-stealing.</para>
2101 This option is probably only of use for concurrent
2102 programs that explicitly schedule threads onto CPUs
2103 with <literal>GHC.Conc.forkOnIO</literal>.
2108 <term><option>-qw</option></term>
2109 <indexterm><primary><option>-qw</option></primary><secondary>RTS
2110 option</secondary></indexterm>
2112 <para>Migrate a thread to the current CPU when it is woken
2113 up. Normally when a thread is woken up after being
2114 blocked it will be scheduled on the CPU it was running on
2115 last; this option allows the thread to immediately migrate
2116 to the CPU that unblocked it.</para>
2118 <para>The rationale for allowing this eager migration is
2119 that it tends to move threads that are communicating with
2120 each other onto the same CPU; however there are
2121 pathalogical situations where it turns out to be a poor
2122 strategy. Depending on the communication pattern in your
2123 program, it may or may not be a good idea.</para>
2130 <title>Hints for using SMP parallelism</title>
2132 <para>Add the <literal>-s</literal> RTS option when
2133 running the program to see timing stats, which will help to tell you
2134 whether your program got faster by using more CPUs or not. If the user
2135 time is greater than
2136 the elapsed time, then the program used more than one CPU. You should
2137 also run the program without <literal>-N</literal> for
2140 <para>The output of <literal>+RTS -s</literal> tells you how
2141 many “sparks” were created and executed during the
2142 run of the program (see <xref linkend="rts-options-gc" />), which
2143 will give you an idea how well your <literal>par</literal>
2144 annotations are working.</para>
2146 <para>GHC's parallelism support has improved in 6.12.1 as a
2147 result of much experimentation and tuning in the runtime
2148 system. We'd still be interested to hear how well it works
2149 for you, and we're also interested in collecting parallel
2150 programs to add to our benchmarking suite.</para>
2154 <sect1 id="options-platform">
2155 <title>Platform-specific Flags</title>
2157 <indexterm><primary>-m* options</primary></indexterm>
2158 <indexterm><primary>platform-specific options</primary></indexterm>
2159 <indexterm><primary>machine-specific options</primary></indexterm>
2161 <para>Some flags only make sense for particular target
2167 <term><option>-msse2</option>:</term>
2170 (x86 only, added in GHC 7.0.1) Use the SSE2 registers and
2171 instruction set to implement floating point operations
2172 when using the native code generator. This gives a
2173 substantial performance improvement for floating point,
2174 but the resulting compiled code will only run on
2175 processors that support SSE2 (Intel Pentium 4 and later,
2176 or AMD Athlon 64 and later).
2179 SSE2 is unconditionally used on x86-64 platforms.
2185 <term><option>-monly-[32]-regs</option>:</term>
2187 <para>(x86 only)<indexterm><primary>-monly-N-regs
2188 option (iX86 only)</primary></indexterm> GHC tries to
2189 “steal” four registers from GCC, for performance
2190 reasons; it almost always works. However, when GCC is
2191 compiling some modules with four stolen registers, it will
2192 crash, probably saying:
2195 Foo.hc:533: fixed or forbidden register was spilled.
2196 This may be due to a compiler bug or to impossible asm
2197 statements or clauses.
2200 Just give some registers back with
2201 <option>-monly-N-regs</option>. Try `3' first, then `2'.
2202 If `2' doesn't work, please report the bug to us.</para>
2211 <sect1 id="ext-core">
2212 <title>Generating and compiling External Core Files</title>
2214 <indexterm><primary>intermediate code generation</primary></indexterm>
2216 <para>GHC can dump its optimized intermediate code (said to be in “Core” format)
2217 to a file as a side-effect of compilation. Non-GHC back-end tools can read and process Core files; these files have the suffix
2218 <filename>.hcr</filename>. The Core format is described in <ulink url="../../core.pdf">
2219 <citetitle>An External Representation for the GHC Core Language</citetitle></ulink>,
2221 for manipulating Core files (in Haskell) are in the GHC source distribution
2222 directory under <literal>utils/ext-core</literal>.
2223 Note that the format of <literal>.hcr</literal>
2224 files is <emphasis>different</emphasis> from the Core output format that GHC generates
2225 for debugging purposes (<xref linkend="options-debugging"/>), though the two formats appear somewhat similar.</para>
2227 <para>The Core format natively supports notes which you can add to
2228 your source code using the <literal>CORE</literal> pragma (see <xref
2229 linkend="pragmas"/>).</para>
2235 <option>-fext-core</option>
2236 <indexterm><primary><option>-fext-core</option></primary></indexterm>
2239 <para>Generate <literal>.hcr</literal> files.</para>
2245 <para>Currently (as of version 6.8.2), GHC does not have the ability to read in External Core files as source. If you would like GHC to have this ability, please <ulink url="http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/MailingListsAndIRC">make your wishes known to the GHC Team</ulink>.</para>
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