1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
3 <title>Using GHCi</title>
4 <indexterm><primary>GHCi</primary></indexterm>
5 <indexterm><primary>interpreter</primary><see>GHCi</see></indexterm>
6 <indexterm><primary>interactive</primary><see>GHCi</see></indexterm>
9 <para>The ‘i’ stands for “Interactive”</para>
11 is GHC's interactive environment, in which Haskell expressions can
12 be interactively evaluated and programs can be interpreted. If
13 you're familiar with <ulink url="http://www.haskell.org/hugs/">Hugs</ulink><indexterm><primary>Hugs</primary>
14 </indexterm>, then you'll be right at home with GHCi. However, GHCi
15 also has support for interactively loading compiled code, as well as
16 supporting all<footnote><para>except <literal>foreign export</literal>, at the moment</para>
17 </footnote> the language extensions that GHC provides.
18 <indexterm><primary>FFI</primary><secondary>GHCi support</secondary></indexterm>
19 <indexterm><primary>Foreign Function
20 Interface</primary><secondary>GHCi support</secondary></indexterm>.
21 GHCi also includes an interactive debugger (see <xref linkend="ghci-debugger"/>)..</para>
23 <sect1 id="ghci-introduction">
24 <title>Introduction to GHCi</title>
26 <para>Let's start with an example GHCi session. You can fire up
27 GHCi with the command <literal>ghci</literal>:</para>
33 / /_\// /_/ / / | | GHC Interactive, version 6.6, for Haskell 98.
34 / /_\\/ __ / /___| | http://www.haskell.org/ghc/
35 \____/\/ /_/\____/|_| Type :? for help.
37 Loading package base ... linking ... done.
41 <para>There may be a short pause while GHCi loads the prelude and
42 standard libraries, after which the prompt is shown. If we follow
43 the instructions and type <literal>:?</literal> for help, we
47 Commands available from the prompt:
49 <stmt> evaluate/run <stmt>
50 :add <filename> ... add module(s) to the current target set
51 :browse [*]<module> display the names defined by <module>
52 :cd <dir> change directory to <dir>
53 :def <cmd> <expr> define a command :<cmd>
54 :edit <file> edit file
55 :edit edit last module
56 :help, :? display this list of commands
57 :info [<name> ...] display information about the given names
58 :load <filename> ... load module(s) and their dependents
59 :module [+/-] [*]<mod> ... set the context for expression evaluation
60 :main [<arguments> ...] run the main function with the given arguments
61 :reload reload the current module set
63 :set <option> ... set options
64 :set args <arg> ... set the arguments returned by System.getArgs
65 :set prog <progname> set the value returned by System.getProgName
66 :set prompt <prompt> set the prompt used in GHCi
67 :set editor <cmd> set the command used for :edit
69 :show modules show the currently loaded modules
70 :show bindings show the current bindings made at the prompt
72 :ctags [<file>] create tags file for Vi (default: "tags")
73 :etags [<file>] create tags file for Emacs (default: "TAGS")
74 :type <expr> show the type of <expr>
75 :kind <type> show the kind of <type>
76 :undef <cmd> undefine user-defined command :<cmd>
77 :unset <option> ... unset options
79 :!<command> run the shell command <command>
81 Options for ':set' and ':unset':
83 +r revert top-level expressions after each evaluation
84 +s print timing/memory stats after each evaluation
85 +t print type after evaluation
86 -<flags> most GHC command line flags can also be set here
87 (eg. -v2, -fglasgow-exts, etc.)
90 <para>We'll explain most of these commands as we go along. For
91 Hugs users: many things work the same as in Hugs, so you should be
92 able to get going straight away.</para>
94 <para>Haskell expressions can be typed at the prompt:</para>
95 <indexterm><primary>prompt</primary><secondary>GHCi</secondary>
101 Prelude> let x = 42 in x / 9
106 <para>GHCi interprets the whole line as an expression to evaluate.
107 The expression may not span several lines - as soon as you press
108 enter, GHCi will attempt to evaluate it.</para>
111 <sect1 id="loading-source-files">
112 <title>Loading source files</title>
114 <para>Suppose we have the following Haskell source code, which we
115 place in a file <filename>Main.hs</filename>:</para>
118 main = print (fac 20)
121 fac n = n * fac (n-1)
124 <para>You can save <filename>Main.hs</filename> anywhere you like,
125 but if you save it somewhere other than the current
126 directory<footnote><para>If you started up GHCi from the command
127 line then GHCi's current directory is the same as the current
128 directory of the shell from which it was started. If you started
129 GHCi from the “Start” menu in Windows, then the
130 current directory is probably something like
131 <filename>C:\Documents and Settings\<replaceable>user
132 name</replaceable></filename>.</para> </footnote> then we will
133 need to change to the right directory in GHCi:</para>
136 Prelude> :cd <replaceable>dir</replaceable>
139 <para>where <replaceable>dir</replaceable> is the directory (or
140 folder) in which you saved <filename>Main.hs</filename>.</para>
142 <para>To load a Haskell source file into GHCi, use the
143 <literal>:load</literal> command:</para>
144 <indexterm><primary><literal>:load</literal></primary></indexterm>
148 Compiling Main ( Main.hs, interpreted )
149 Ok, modules loaded: Main.
153 <para>GHCi has loaded the <literal>Main</literal> module, and the
154 prompt has changed to “<literal>*Main></literal>” to
155 indicate that the current context for expressions typed at the
156 prompt is the <literal>Main</literal> module we just loaded (we'll
157 explain what the <literal>*</literal> means later in <xref
158 linkend="ghci-scope"/>). So we can now type expressions involving
159 the functions from <filename>Main.hs</filename>:</para>
166 <para>Loading a multi-module program is just as straightforward;
167 just give the name of the “topmost” module to the
168 <literal>:load</literal> command (hint: <literal>:load</literal>
169 can be abbreviated to <literal>:l</literal>). The topmost module
170 will normally be <literal>Main</literal>, but it doesn't have to
171 be. GHCi will discover which modules are required, directly or
172 indirectly, by the topmost module, and load them all in dependency
175 <sect2 id="ghci-modules-filenames">
176 <title>Modules vs. filenames</title>
177 <indexterm><primary>modules</primary><secondary>and filenames</secondary></indexterm>
178 <indexterm><primary>filenames</primary><secondary>of modules</secondary></indexterm>
180 <para>Question: How does GHC find the filename which contains
181 module <replaceable>M</replaceable>? Answer: it looks for the
182 file <literal><replaceable>M</replaceable>.hs</literal>, or
183 <literal><replaceable>M</replaceable>.lhs</literal>. This means
184 that for most modules, the module name must match the filename.
185 If it doesn't, GHCi won't be able to find it.</para>
187 <para>There is one exception to this general rule: when you load
188 a program with <literal>:load</literal>, or specify it when you
189 invoke <literal>ghci</literal>, you can give a filename rather
190 than a module name. This filename is loaded if it exists, and
191 it may contain any module you like. This is particularly
192 convenient if you have several <literal>Main</literal> modules
193 in the same directory and you can't call them all
194 <filename>Main.hs</filename>.</para>
196 <para>The search path for finding source files is specified with
197 the <option>-i</option> option on the GHCi command line, like
199 <screen>ghci -i<replaceable>dir<subscript>1</subscript></replaceable>:...:<replaceable>dir<subscript>n</subscript></replaceable></screen>
201 <para>or it can be set using the <literal>:set</literal> command
202 from within GHCi (see <xref
203 linkend="ghci-cmd-line-options"/>)<footnote><para>Note that in
204 GHCi, and <option>––make</option> mode, the <option>-i</option>
205 option is used to specify the search path for
206 <emphasis>source</emphasis> files, whereas in standard
207 batch-compilation mode the <option>-i</option> option is used to
208 specify the search path for interface files, see <xref
209 linkend="search-path"/>.</para> </footnote></para>
211 <para>One consequence of the way that GHCi follows dependencies
212 to find modules to load is that every module must have a source
213 file. The only exception to the rule is modules that come from
214 a package, including the <literal>Prelude</literal> and standard
215 libraries such as <literal>IO</literal> and
216 <literal>Complex</literal>. If you attempt to load a module for
217 which GHCi can't find a source file, even if there are object
218 and interface files for the module, you'll get an error
223 <title>Making changes and recompilation</title>
224 <indexterm><primary><literal>:reload</literal></primary></indexterm>
226 <para>If you make some changes to the source code and want GHCi
227 to recompile the program, give the <literal>:reload</literal>
228 command. The program will be recompiled as necessary, with GHCi
229 doing its best to avoid actually recompiling modules if their
230 external dependencies haven't changed. This is the same
231 mechanism we use to avoid re-compiling modules in the batch
232 compilation setting (see <xref linkend="recomp"/>).</para>
236 <sect1 id="ghci-compiled">
237 <title>Loading compiled code</title>
238 <indexterm><primary>compiled code</primary><secondary>in GHCi</secondary></indexterm>
240 <para>When you load a Haskell source module into GHCi, it is
241 normally converted to byte-code and run using the interpreter.
242 However, interpreted code can also run alongside compiled code in
243 GHCi; indeed, normally when GHCi starts, it loads up a compiled
244 copy of the <literal>base</literal> package, which contains the
245 <literal>Prelude</literal>.</para>
247 <para>Why should we want to run compiled code? Well, compiled
248 code is roughly 10x faster than interpreted code, but takes about
249 2x longer to produce (perhaps longer if optimisation is on). So
250 it pays to compile the parts of a program that aren't changing
251 very often, and use the interpreter for the code being actively
254 <para>When loading up source files with <literal>:load</literal>,
255 GHCi looks for any corresponding compiled object files, and will
256 use one in preference to interpreting the source if possible. For
257 example, suppose we have a 4-module program consisting of modules
258 A, B, C, and D. Modules B and C both import D only,
259 and A imports both B & C:</para>
267 <para>We can compile D, then load the whole program, like this:</para>
269 Prelude> :! ghc -c D.hs
271 Skipping D ( D.hs, D.o )
272 Compiling C ( C.hs, interpreted )
273 Compiling B ( B.hs, interpreted )
274 Compiling A ( A.hs, interpreted )
275 Ok, modules loaded: A, B, C, D.
279 <para>In the messages from the compiler, we see that it skipped D,
280 and used the object file <filename>D.o</filename>. The message
281 <literal>Skipping</literal> <replaceable>module</replaceable>
282 indicates that compilation for <replaceable>module</replaceable>
283 isn't necessary, because the source and everything it depends on
284 is unchanged since the last compilation.</para>
286 <para>At any time you can use the command
287 <literal>:show modules</literal>
288 to get a list of the modules currently loaded
294 C ( C.hs, interpreted )
295 B ( B.hs, interpreted )
296 A ( A.hs, interpreted )
299 <para>If we now modify the source of D (or pretend to: using Unix
300 command <literal>touch</literal> on the source file is handy for
301 this), the compiler will no longer be able to use the object file,
302 because it might be out of date:</para>
307 Compiling D ( D.hs, interpreted )
308 Skipping C ( C.hs, interpreted )
309 Skipping B ( B.hs, interpreted )
310 Skipping A ( A.hs, interpreted )
311 Ok, modules loaded: A, B, C, D.
315 <para>Note that module D was compiled, but in this instance
316 because its source hadn't really changed, its interface remained
317 the same, and the recompilation checker determined that A, B and C
318 didn't need to be recompiled.</para>
320 <para>So let's try compiling one of the other modules:</para>
323 *Main> :! ghc -c C.hs
325 Compiling D ( D.hs, interpreted )
326 Compiling C ( C.hs, interpreted )
327 Compiling B ( B.hs, interpreted )
328 Compiling A ( A.hs, interpreted )
329 Ok, modules loaded: A, B, C, D.
332 <para>We didn't get the compiled version of C! What happened?
333 Well, in GHCi a compiled module may only depend on other compiled
334 modules, and in this case C depends on D, which doesn't have an
335 object file, so GHCi also rejected C's object file. Ok, so let's
336 also compile D:</para>
339 *Main> :! ghc -c D.hs
341 Ok, modules loaded: A, B, C, D.
344 <para>Nothing happened! Here's another lesson: newly compiled
345 modules aren't picked up by <literal>:reload</literal>, only
346 <literal>:load</literal>:</para>
350 Skipping D ( D.hs, D.o )
351 Skipping C ( C.hs, C.o )
352 Compiling B ( B.hs, interpreted )
353 Compiling A ( A.hs, interpreted )
354 Ok, modules loaded: A, B, C, D.
357 <para>HINT: since GHCi will only use a compiled object file if it
358 can be sure that the compiled version is up-to-date, a good technique
359 when working on a large program is to occasionally run
360 <literal>ghc ––make</literal> to compile the whole project (say
361 before you go for lunch :-), then continue working in the
362 interpreter. As you modify code, the new modules will be
363 interpreted, but the rest of the project will remain
368 <sect1 id="interactive-evaluation">
369 <title>Interactive evaluation at the prompt</title>
371 <para>When you type an expression at the prompt, GHCi immediately
372 evaluates and prints the result:
374 Prelude> reverse "hello"
381 <sect2><title>I/O actions at the prompt</title>
383 <para>GHCi does more than simple expression evaluation at the prompt.
384 If you type something of type <literal>IO a</literal> for some
385 <literal>a</literal>, then GHCi <emphasis>executes</emphasis> it
386 as an IO-computation.
390 Prelude> putStrLn "hello"
393 Furthermore, GHCi will print the result of the I/O action if (and only
396 <listitem><para>The result type is an instance of <literal>Show</literal>.</para></listitem>
397 <listitem><para>The result type is not
398 <literal>()</literal>.</para></listitem>
400 For example, remembering that <literal>putStrLn :: String -> IO ()</literal>:
402 Prelude> putStrLn "hello"
404 Prelude> do { putStrLn "hello"; return "yes" }
410 <sect2 id="ghci-stmts">
411 <title>Using <literal>do-</literal>notation at the prompt</title>
412 <indexterm><primary>do-notation</primary><secondary>in GHCi</secondary></indexterm>
413 <indexterm><primary>statements</primary><secondary>in GHCi</secondary></indexterm>
415 <para>GHCi actually accepts <firstterm>statements</firstterm>
416 rather than just expressions at the prompt. This means you can
417 bind values and functions to names, and use them in future
418 expressions or statements.</para>
420 <para>The syntax of a statement accepted at the GHCi prompt is
421 exactly the same as the syntax of a statement in a Haskell
422 <literal>do</literal> expression. However, there's no monad
423 overloading here: statements typed at the prompt must be in the
424 <literal>IO</literal> monad.
426 Prelude> x <- return 42
432 The statement <literal>x <- return 42</literal> means
433 “execute <literal>return 42</literal> in the
434 <literal>IO</literal> monad, and bind the result to
435 <literal>x</literal>”. We can then use
436 <literal>x</literal> in future statements, for example to print
437 it as we did above.</para>
439 <para>GHCi will print the result of a statement if and only if:
442 <para>The statement is not a binding, or it is a monadic binding
443 (<literal>p <- e</literal>) that binds exactly one
447 <para>The variable's type is not polymorphic, is not
448 <literal>()</literal>, and is an instance of
449 <literal>Show</literal></para>
452 The automatic printing of binding results can be supressed with
453 <option>:set -fno-print-bind-result</option> (this does not
454 supress printing the result of non-binding statements).
455 <indexterm><primary><option>-fno-print-bind-result</option></primary></indexterm><indexterm><primary><option>-fprint-bind-result</option></primary></indexterm>.
456 You might want to do this to prevent the result of binding
457 statements from being fully evaluated by the act of printing
458 them, for example.</para>
460 <para>Of course, you can also bind normal non-IO expressions
461 using the <literal>let</literal>-statement:</para>
468 <para>Another important difference between the two types of binding
469 is that the monadic bind (<literal>p <- e</literal>) is
470 <emphasis>strict</emphasis> (it evaluates <literal>e</literal>),
471 whereas with the <literal>let</literal> form, the expression
472 isn't evaluated immediately:</para>
474 Prelude> let x = error "help!"
480 <para>Note that <literal>let</literal> bindings do not automatically
481 print the value bound, unlike monadic bindings.</para>
483 <para>Any exceptions raised during the evaluation or execution
484 of the statement are caught and printed by the GHCi command line
485 interface (for more information on exceptions, see the module
486 <literal>Control.Exception</literal> in the libraries
487 documentation).</para>
489 <para>Every new binding shadows any existing bindings of the
490 same name, including entities that are in scope in the current
491 module context.</para>
493 <para>WARNING: temporary bindings introduced at the prompt only
494 last until the next <literal>:load</literal> or
495 <literal>:reload</literal> command, at which time they will be
496 simply lost. However, they do survive a change of context with
497 <literal>:module</literal>: the temporary bindings just move to
498 the new location.</para>
500 <para>HINT: To get a list of the bindings currently in scope, use the
501 <literal>:show bindings</literal> command:</para>
504 Prelude> :show bindings
508 <para>HINT: if you turn on the <literal>+t</literal> option,
509 GHCi will show the type of each variable bound by a statement.
511 <indexterm><primary><literal>+t</literal></primary></indexterm>
514 Prelude> let (x:xs) = [1..]
521 <sect2 id="ghci-scope">
522 <title>What's really in scope at the prompt?</title>
524 <para>When you type an expression at the prompt, what
525 identifiers and types are in scope? GHCi provides a flexible
526 way to control exactly how the context for an expression is
527 constructed. Let's start with the simple cases; when you start
528 GHCi the prompt looks like this:</para>
530 <screen>Prelude></screen>
532 <para>Which indicates that everything from the module
533 <literal>Prelude</literal> is currently in scope. If we now
534 load a file into GHCi, the prompt will change:</para>
537 Prelude> :load Main.hs
538 Compiling Main ( Main.hs, interpreted )
542 <para>The new prompt is <literal>*Main</literal>, which
543 indicates that we are typing expressions in the context of the
544 top-level of the <literal>Main</literal> module. Everything
545 that is in scope at the top-level in the module
546 <literal>Main</literal> we just loaded is also in scope at the
547 prompt (probably including <literal>Prelude</literal>, as long
548 as <literal>Main</literal> doesn't explicitly hide it).</para>
551 <literal>*<replaceable>module</replaceable></literal> indicates
552 that it is the full top-level scope of
553 <replaceable>module</replaceable> that is contributing to the
554 scope for expressions typed at the prompt. Without the
555 <literal>*</literal>, just the exports of the module are
558 <para>We're not limited to a single module: GHCi can combine
559 scopes from multiple modules, in any mixture of
560 <literal>*</literal> and non-<literal>*</literal> forms. GHCi
561 combines the scopes from all of these modules to form the scope
562 that is in effect at the prompt. For technical reasons, GHCi
563 can only support the <literal>*</literal>-form for modules which
564 are interpreted, so compiled modules and package modules can
565 only contribute their exports to the current scope.</para>
567 <para>The scope is manipulated using the
568 <literal>:module</literal> command. For example, if the current
569 scope is <literal>Prelude</literal>, then we can bring into
570 scope the exports from the module <literal>IO</literal> like
575 Prelude IO> hPutStrLn stdout "hello\n"
580 <para>(Note: <literal>:module</literal> can be shortened to
581 <literal>:m</literal>). The full syntax of the
582 <literal>:module</literal> command is:</para>
585 :module <optional>+|-</optional> <optional>*</optional><replaceable>mod<subscript>1</subscript></replaceable> ... <optional>*</optional><replaceable>mod<subscript>n</subscript></replaceable>
588 <para>Using the <literal>+</literal> form of the
589 <literal>module</literal> commands adds modules to the current
590 scope, and <literal>-</literal> removes them. Without either
591 <literal>+</literal> or <literal>-</literal>, the current scope
592 is replaced by the set of modules specified. Note that if you
593 use this form and leave out <literal>Prelude</literal>, GHCi
594 will assume that you really wanted the
595 <literal>Prelude</literal> and add it in for you (if you don't
596 want the <literal>Prelude</literal>, then ask to remove it with
597 <literal>:m -Prelude</literal>).</para>
599 <para>The scope is automatically set after a
600 <literal>:load</literal> command, to the most recently loaded
601 "target" module, in a <literal>*</literal>-form if possible.
602 For example, if you say <literal>:load foo.hs bar.hs</literal>
603 and <filename>bar.hs</filename> contains module
604 <literal>Bar</literal>, then the scope will be set to
605 <literal>*Bar</literal> if <literal>Bar</literal> is
606 interpreted, or if <literal>Bar</literal> is compiled it will be
607 set to <literal>Prelude Bar</literal> (GHCi automatically adds
608 <literal>Prelude</literal> if it isn't present and there aren't
609 any <literal>*</literal>-form modules).</para>
611 <para>With multiple modules in scope, especially multiple
612 <literal>*</literal>-form modules, it is likely that name
613 clashes will occur. Haskell specifies that name clashes are
614 only reported when an ambiguous identifier is used, and GHCi
615 behaves in the same way for expressions typed at the
619 Hint: GHCi will tab-complete names that are in scope; for
620 example, if you run GHCi and type <literal>J<tab></literal>
621 then GHCi will expand it to <literal>Just </literal>.
625 <title>Qualified names</title>
627 <para>To make life slightly easier, the GHCi prompt also
628 behaves as if there is an implicit <literal>import
629 qualified</literal> declaration for every module in every
630 package, and every module currently loaded into GHCi.</para>
634 <title>The <literal>:main</literal> command</title>
637 When a program is compiled and executed, it can use the
638 <literal>getArgs</literal> function to access the
639 command-line arguments.
640 However, we cannot simply pass the arguments to the
641 <literal>main</literal> function while we are testing in ghci,
642 as the <literal>main</literal> function doesn't take its
647 Instead, we can use the <literal>:main</literal> command.
648 This runs whatever <literal>main</literal> is in scope, with
649 any arguments being treated the same as command-line arguments,
654 Prelude> let main = System.Environment.getArgs >>= print
655 Prelude> :main foo bar
664 <title>The <literal>it</literal> variable</title>
665 <indexterm><primary><literal>it</literal></primary>
668 <para>Whenever an expression (or a non-binding statement, to be
669 precise) is typed at the prompt, GHCi implicitly binds its value
670 to the variable <literal>it</literal>. For example:</para>
677 <para>What actually happens is that GHCi typechecks the
678 expression, and if it doesn't have an <literal>IO</literal> type,
679 then it transforms it as follows: an expression
680 <replaceable>e</replaceable> turns into
682 let it = <replaceable>e</replaceable>;
685 which is then run as an IO-action.</para>
687 <para>Hence, the original expression must have a type which is an
688 instance of the <literal>Show</literal> class, or GHCi will
694 <interactive>:1:0:
695 No instance for (Show (a -> a))
696 arising from use of `print' at <interactive>:1:0-1
697 Possible fix: add an instance declaration for (Show (a -> a))
698 In the expression: print it
699 In a 'do' expression: print it
702 <para>The error message contains some clues as to the
703 transformation happening internally.</para>
705 <para>If the expression was instead of type <literal>IO a</literal> for
706 some <literal>a</literal>, then <literal>it</literal> will be
707 bound to the result of the <literal>IO</literal> computation,
708 which is of type <literal>a</literal>. eg.:</para>
710 Prelude> Time.getClockTime
711 Wed Mar 14 12:23:13 GMT 2001
713 Wed Mar 14 12:23:13 GMT 2001
716 <para>The corresponding translation for an IO-typed
717 <replaceable>e</replaceable> is
719 it <- <replaceable>e</replaceable>
723 <para>Note that <literal>it</literal> is shadowed by the new
724 value each time you evaluate a new expression, and the old value
725 of <literal>it</literal> is lost.</para>
729 <sect2 id="extended-default-rules">
730 <title>Type defaulting in GHCi</title>
731 <indexterm><primary>Type default</primary></indexterm>
732 <indexterm><primary><literal>Show</literal> class</primary></indexterm>
734 Consider this GHCi session:
738 What should GHCi do? Strictly speaking, the program is ambiguous. <literal>show (reverse [])</literal>
739 (which is what GHCi computes here) has type <literal>Show a => a</literal> and how that displays depends
740 on the type <literal>a</literal>. For example:
742 ghci> (reverse []) :: String
744 ghci> (reverse []) :: [Int]
747 However, it is tiresome for the user to have to specify the type, so GHCi extends Haskell's type-defaulting
748 rules (Section 4.3.4 of the Haskell 98 Report (Revised)) as follows. The
749 standard rules take each group of constraints <literal>(C1 a, C2 a, ..., Cn
750 a)</literal> for each type variable <literal>a</literal>, and defaults the
755 The type variable <literal>a</literal> appears in no
761 All the classes <literal>Ci</literal> are standard.
766 At least one of the classes <literal>Ci</literal> is
771 At the GHCi prompt, or with GHC if the
772 <literal>-fextended-default-rules</literal> flag is given,
773 the following additional differences apply:
777 Rule 2 above is relaxed thus:
778 <emphasis>All</emphasis> of the classes
779 <literal>Ci</literal> are single-parameter type classes.
784 Rule 3 above is relaxed this:
785 At least one of the classes <literal>Ci</literal> is
786 numeric, <emphasis>or is <literal>Show</literal>,
787 <literal>Eq</literal>, or
788 <literal>Ord</literal></emphasis>.
793 The unit type <literal>()</literal> is added to the
794 start of the standard list of types which are tried when
795 doing type defaulting.
799 The last point means that, for example, this program:
806 def :: (Num a, Enum a) => a
809 prints <literal>()</literal> rather than <literal>0</literal> as the
810 type is defaulted to <literal>()</literal> rather than
811 <literal>Integer</literal>.
814 The motivation for the change is that it means <literal>IO a</literal>
815 actions default to <literal>IO ()</literal>, which in turn means that
816 ghci won't try to print a result when running them. This is
817 particularly important for <literal>printf</literal>, which has an
818 instance that returns <literal>IO a</literal>.
819 However, it is only able to return
820 <literal>undefined</literal>
821 (the reason for the instance having this type is to not require
822 extensions to the class system), so if the type defaults to
823 <literal>Integer</literal> then ghci gives an error when running a
829 <sect1 id="ghci-debugger">
830 <title>The GHCi Debugger</title>
831 <indexterm><primary>debugger</primary><secondary>in GHCi</secondary>
834 <para>GHCi contains a simple imperative-style debugger in which you can
835 stop a running computation in order to examine the values of
836 variables. The debugger is integrated into GHCi, and is turned on by
837 default: no flags are required to enable the debugging facilities. There
838 is one major restriction: breakpoints and single-stepping are only
839 available in <emphasis>interpreted</emphasis> modules; compiled code is
840 invisible to the debugger.</para>
842 <para>The debugger provides the following:
845 <para>The abilty to set a <firstterm>breakpoint</firstterm> on a
846 function definition or expression in the program. When the function
847 is called, or the expression evaluated, GHCi suspends
848 execution and returns to the prompt, where you can inspect the
849 values of local variables before continuing with the
853 <para>Execution can be <firstterm>single-stepped</firstterm>: the
854 evaluator will suspend execution approximately after every
855 reduction, allowing local variables to be inspected. This is
856 equivalent to setting a breakpoint at every point in the
860 <para>Execution can take place in <firstterm>tracing
861 mode</firstterm>, in which the evaluator remembers each
862 evaluation step as it happens, but doesn't suspend execution until
863 an actual breakpoint is reached. When this happens, the history of
864 evaluation steps can be inspected.</para>
867 <para>Exceptions (e.g. pattern matching failure and
868 <literal>error</literal>) can be treated as breakpoints, to help
869 locate the source of an exception in the program.</para>
874 <para>There is currently no support for obtaining a “stack
875 trace”, but the tracing and history features provide a useful
876 second-best, which will often be enough to establish the context of an
879 <sect2 id="breakpoints">
880 <title>Breakpoints and inspecting variables</title>
882 <para>Let's use quicksort as a running example. Here's the code:</para>
886 qsort (a:as) = qsort left ++ [a] ++ qsort right
887 where (left,right) = (filter (<=a) as, filter (>a) as)
889 main = print (qsort [8, 4, 0, 3, 1, 23, 11, 18])
892 <para>First, load the module into GHCi:</para>
896 [1 of 1] Compiling Main ( qsort.hs, interpreted )
897 Ok, modules loaded: Main.
901 <para>Now, let's set a breakpoint on the right-hand-side of the second
902 equation of qsort:</para>
906 Breakpoint 0 activated at qsort.hs:2:15-46
910 <para>The command <literal>:break 2</literal> sets a breakpoint on line
911 2 of the most recently-loaded module, in this case
912 <literal>qsort.hs</literal>. Specifically, it picks the
913 leftmost complete subexpression on that line on which to set the
914 breakpoint, which in this case is the expression
915 <literal>(qsort left ++ [a] ++ qsort right)</literal>.</para>
917 <para>Now, we run the program:</para>
921 Stopped at qsort.hs:2:15-46
926 [qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main>
929 <para>Execution has stopped at the breakpoint. The prompt has changed to
930 indicate that we are currently stopped at a breakpoint, and the location:
931 <literal>[qsort.hs:2:15-46]</literal>. To further clarify the
932 location, we can use the <literal>:list</literal> command:</para>
935 [qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> :list
937 2 qsort (a:as) = qsort left ++ [a] ++ qsort right
938 3 where (left,right) = (filter (<=a) as, filter (>a) as)
941 <para>The <literal>:list</literal> command lists the source code around
942 the current breakpoint. If your output device supports it, then GHCi
943 will highlight the active subexpression in bold.</para>
945 <para>GHCi has provided bindings for the free variables<footnote><para>We
946 originally provided bindings for all variables in scope, rather
948 the free variables of the expression, but found that this affected
949 performance considerably, hence the current restriction to just the
950 free variables.</para>
951 </footnote> of the expression
953 breakpoint was placed (<literal>a</literal>, <literal>left</literal>,
954 <literal>right</literal>), and additionally a binding for the result of
955 the expression (<literal>_result</literal>). These variables are just
956 like other variables that you might define in GHCi; you
957 can use them in expressions that you type at the prompt, you can ask
958 for their types with <literal>:type</literal>, and so on. There is one
959 important difference though: these variables may only have partial
960 types. For example, if we try to display the value of
961 <literal>left</literal>:</para>
964 [qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> left
966 <interactive>:1:0:
967 Ambiguous type variable `a' in the constraint:
968 `Show a' arising from a use of `print' at <interactive>:1:0-3
969 Cannot resolve unknown runtime types: a
970 Use :print or :force to determine these types
973 <para>This is because <literal>qsort</literal> is a polymorphic function,
974 and because GHCi does not carry type information at runtime, it cannot
975 determine the runtime types of free variables that involve type
976 variables. Hence, when you ask to display <literal>left</literal> at
977 the prompt, GHCi can't figure out which instance of
978 <literal>Show</literal> to use, so it emits the type error above.</para>
980 <para>Fortunately, the debugger includes a generic printing command,
981 <literal>:print</literal>, which can inspect the actual runtime value of a
982 variable and attempt to reconstruct its type. If we try it on
983 <literal>left</literal>:</para>
986 [qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> :print left
990 <para>This isn't particularly enlightening. What happened is that
991 <literal>left</literal> is bound to an unevaluated computation (a
992 suspension, or <firstterm>thunk</firstterm>), and
993 <literal>:print</literal> does not force any evaluation. The idea is
994 that <literal>:print</literal> can be used to inspect values at a
995 breakpoint without any unfortunate side effects. It won't force any
996 evaluation, which could cause the program to give a different answer
997 than it would normally, and hence it won't cause any exceptions to be
998 raised, infinite loops, or further breakpoints to be triggered (see
999 <xref linkend="nested-breakpoints" />).
1000 Rather than forcing thunks, <literal>:print</literal>
1001 binds each thunk to a fresh variable beginning with an
1002 underscore, in this case
1003 <literal>_t1</literal>.</para>
1005 <para>If we aren't concerned about preserving the evaluatedness of a
1006 variable, we can use <literal>:force</literal> instead of
1007 <literal>:print</literal>. The <literal>:force</literal> command
1008 behaves exactly like <literal>:print</literal>, except that it forces
1009 the evaluation of any thunks it encounters:</para>
1012 [qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> :force left
1016 <para>Now, since <literal>:force</literal> has inspected the runtime
1017 value of <literal>left</literal>, it has reconstructed its type. We
1018 can see the results of this type reconstruction:</para>
1021 [qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> :show bindings
1022 _result :: [Integer]
1029 <para>Not only do we now know the type of <literal>left</literal>, but
1030 all the other partial types have also been resolved. So we can ask
1031 for the value of <literal>a</literal>, for example:</para>
1034 [qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> a
1038 <para>You might find it useful to use Haskell's
1039 <literal>seq</literal> function to evaluate individual thunks rather
1040 than evaluating the whole expression with <literal>:force</literal>.
1044 [qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> :print right
1045 right = (_t1::[Integer])
1046 [qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> seq _t1 ()
1048 [qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> :print right
1049 right = 23 : (_t2::[Integer])
1052 <para>We evaluated only the <literal>_t1</literal> thunk, revealing the
1053 head of the list, and the tail is another thunk now bound to
1054 <literal>_t2</literal>. The <literal>seq</literal> function is a
1055 little inconvenient to use here, so you might want to use
1056 <literal>:def</literal> to make a nicer interface (left as an exercise
1057 for the reader!).</para>
1059 <para>Finally, we can continue the current execution:</para>
1062 [qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> :continue
1063 Stopped at qsort.hs:2:15-46
1068 [qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main>
1071 <para>The execution continued at the point it previously stopped, and has
1072 now stopped at the breakpoint for a second time.</para>
1074 <sect3 id="setting-breakpoings">
1075 <title>Setting breakpoints</title>
1077 <para>Breakpoints can be set in various ways. Perhaps the easiest way to
1078 set a breakpoint is to name a top-level function:</para>
1081 :break <replaceable>identifier</replaceable>
1084 <para>Where <replaceable>identifier</replaceable> names any top-level
1085 function in an interpreted module currently loaded into GHCi (qualified
1086 names may be used). The breakpoint will be set on the body of the
1087 function, when it is fully applied but before any pattern matching has
1090 <para>Breakpoints can also be set by line (and optionally column)
1094 :break <replaceable>line</replaceable>
1095 :break <replaceable>line</replaceable> <replaceable>column</replaceable>
1096 :break <replaceable>module</replaceable> <replaceable>line</replaceable>
1097 :break <replaceable>module</replaceable> <replaceable>line</replaceable> <replaceable>column</replaceable>
1100 <para>When a breakpoint is set on a particular line, GHCi sets the
1102 leftmost subexpression that begins and ends on that line. If two
1103 complete subexpressions start at the same
1104 column, the longest one is picked. If there is no complete
1105 subexpression on the line, then the leftmost expression starting on
1106 the line is picked, and failing that the rightmost expression that
1107 partially or completely covers the line.</para>
1109 <para>When a breakpoint is set on a particular line and column, GHCi
1110 picks the smallest subexpression that encloses that location on which
1111 to set the breakpoint. Note: GHC considers the TAB character to have a
1112 width of 1, wherever it occurs; in other words it counts
1113 characters, rather than columns. This matches what some editors do,
1114 and doesn't match others. The best advice is to avoid tab
1115 characters in your source code altogether (see
1116 <option>-fwarn-tabs</option> in <xref linkend="options-sanity"
1119 <para>If the module is omitted, then the most recently-loaded module is
1122 <para>Not all subexpressions are potential breakpoint locations. Single
1123 variables are typically not considered to be breakpoint locations
1124 (unless the variable is the right-hand-side of a function definition,
1125 lambda, or case alternative). The rule of thumb is that all redexes
1126 are breakpoint locations, together with the bodies of functions,
1127 lambdas, case alternatives and binding statements. There is normally
1128 no breakpoint on a let expression, but there will always be a
1129 breakpoint on its body, because we are usually interested in inspecting
1130 the values of the variables bound by the let.</para>
1134 <title>Listing and deleting breakpoints</title>
1136 <para>The list of breakpoints currently enabled can be displayed using
1137 <literal>:show breaks</literal></para>:
1140 [0] Main qsort.hs:1:11-12
1141 [1] Main qsort.hs:2:15-46
1144 <para>To delete a breakpoint, use the <literal>:delete</literal>
1145 command with the number given in the output from <literal>:show breaks</literal>:</para>
1150 [1] Main qsort.hs:2:15-46
1153 <para>To delete all breakpoints at once, use <literal>:delete *</literal>.</para>
1158 <sect2 id="single-stepping">
1159 <title>Single-stepping</title>
1161 <para>Single-stepping is a great way to visualise the execution of your
1162 program, and it is also a useful tool for identifying the source of a
1163 bug. The concept is simple: single-stepping enables all the
1164 breakpoints in the program and executes until the next breakpoint is
1165 reached, at which point you can single-step again, or continue
1166 normally. For example:</para>
1170 Stopped at qsort.hs:5:7-47
1174 <para>The command <literal>:step
1175 <replaceable>expr</replaceable></literal> begins the evaluation of
1176 <replaceable>expr</replaceable> in single-stepping mode. If
1177 <replaceable>expr</replaceable> is ommitted, then it single-steps from
1178 the current breakpoint.</para>
1180 <para>The <literal>:list</literal> command is particularly useful when
1181 single-stepping, to see where you currently are:</para>
1184 [qsort.hs:5:7-47] *Main> :list
1186 5 main = print (qsort [8, 4, 0, 3, 1, 23, 11, 18])
1188 [qsort.hs:5:7-47] *Main>
1191 <para>In fact, GHCi provides a way to run a command when a breakpoint is
1192 hit, so we can make it automatically do
1193 <literal>:list</literal>:</para>
1196 [qsort.hs:5:7-47] *Main> :set stop :list
1197 [qsort.hs:5:7-47] *Main> :step
1198 Stopped at qsort.hs:5:14-46
1199 _result :: [Integer]
1201 5 main = print (qsort [8, 4, 0, 3, 1, 23, 11, 18])
1203 [qsort.hs:5:14-46] *Main>
1207 <sect2 id="nested-breakpoints">
1208 <title>Nested breakpoints</title>
1209 <para>When GHCi is stopped at a breakpoint, and an expression entered at
1210 the prompt triggers a
1211 second breakpoint, the new breakpoint becomes the “current”
1212 one, and the old one is saved on a stack. An arbitrary number of
1213 breakpoint contexts can be built up in this way. For example:</para>
1216 [qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> :st qsort [1,3]
1217 Stopped at qsort.hs:(1,0)-(3,55)
1219 ... [qsort.hs:(1,0)-(3,55)] *Main>
1222 <para>While stopped at the breakpoint on line 2 that we set earlier, we
1223 started a new evaluation with <literal>:step qsort [1,3]</literal>.
1224 This new evaluation stopped after one step (at the definition of
1225 <literal>qsort</literal>). The prompt has changed, now prefixed with
1226 <literal>...</literal>, to indicate that there are saved breakpoints
1227 beyond the current one. To see the stack of contexts, use
1228 <literal>:show context</literal>:</para>
1231 ... [qsort.hs:(1,0)-(3,55)] *Main> :show context
1233 Stopped at qsort.hs:2:15-46
1235 Stopped at qsort.hs:(1,0)-(3,55)
1236 ... [qsort.hs:(1,0)-(3,55)] *Main>
1239 <para>To abandon the current evaluation, use
1240 <literal>:abandon</literal>:</para>
1243 ... [qsort.hs:(1,0)-(3,55)] *Main> :abandon
1244 [qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> :abandon
1249 <sect2 id="ghci-debugger-result">
1250 <title>The <literal>_result</literal> variable</title>
1251 <para>When stopped at a breakpoint or single-step, GHCi binds the
1252 variable <literal>_result</literal> to the value of the currently
1253 active expression. The value of <literal>_result</literal> is
1254 presumably not available yet, because we stopped its evaluation, but it
1255 can be forced: if the type is known and showable, then just entering
1256 <literal>_result</literal> at the prompt will show it. However,
1257 there's one caveat to doing this: evaluating <literal>_result</literal>
1258 will be likely to trigger further breakpoints, starting with the
1259 breakpoint we are currently stopped at (if we stopped at a real
1260 breakpoint, rather than due to <literal>:step</literal>). So it will
1261 probably be necessary to issue a <literal>:continue</literal>
1262 immediately when evaluating <literal>_result</literal>. Alternatively,
1263 you can use <literal>:force</literal> which ignores breakpoints.</para>
1266 <sect2 id="tracing">
1267 <title>Tracing and history</title>
1269 <para>A question that we often want to ask when debugging a program is
1270 “how did I get here?”. Traditional imperative debuggers
1271 usually provide some kind of stack-tracing feature that lets you see
1272 the stack of active function calls (sometimes called the “lexical
1273 call stack”), describing a path through the code
1274 to the current location. Unfortunately this is hard to provide in
1275 Haskell, because execution proceeds on a demand-driven basis, rather
1276 than a depth-first basis as in strict languages. The
1277 “stack“ in GHC's execution engine bears little
1278 resemblance to the lexical call stack. Ideally GHCi would maintain a
1279 separate lexical call stack in addition to the dynamic call stack, and
1280 in fact this is exactly
1281 what our profiling system does (<xref linkend="profiling" />), and what
1282 some other Haskell debuggers do. For the time being, however, GHCi
1283 doesn't maintain a lexical call stack (there are some technical
1284 challenges to be overcome). Instead, we provide a way to backtrack from a
1285 breakpoint to previous evaluation steps: essentially this is like
1286 single-stepping backwards, and should in many cases provide enough
1287 information to answer the “how did I get here?”
1290 <para>To use tracing, evaluate an expression with the
1291 <literal>:trace</literal> command. For example, if we set a breakpoint
1292 on the base case of <literal>qsort</literal>:</para>
1295 *Main> :list qsort
1297 2 qsort (a:as) = qsort left ++ [a] ++ qsort right
1298 3 where (left,right) = (filter (<=a) as, filter (>a) as)
1301 Breakpoint 1 activated at qsort.hs:1:11-12
1305 <para>and then run a small <literal>qsort</literal> with
1309 *Main> :trace qsort [3,2,1]
1310 Stopped at qsort.hs:1:11-12
1312 [qsort.hs:1:11-12] *Main>
1315 <para>We can now inspect the history of evaluation steps:</para>
1318 [qsort.hs:1:11-12] *Main> :hist
1319 -1 : qsort.hs:3:24-38
1320 -2 : qsort.hs:3:23-55
1321 -3 : qsort.hs:(1,0)-(3,55)
1322 -4 : qsort.hs:2:15-24
1323 -5 : qsort.hs:2:15-46
1324 -6 : qsort.hs:3:24-38
1325 -7 : qsort.hs:3:23-55
1326 -8 : qsort.hs:(1,0)-(3,55)
1327 -9 : qsort.hs:2:15-24
1328 -10 : qsort.hs:2:15-46
1329 -11 : qsort.hs:3:24-38
1330 -12 : qsort.hs:3:23-55
1331 -13 : qsort.hs:(1,0)-(3,55)
1332 -14 : qsort.hs:2:15-24
1333 -15 : qsort.hs:2:15-46
1334 -16 : qsort.hs:(1,0)-(3,55)
1335 <end of history>
1338 <para>To examine one of the steps in the history, use
1339 <literal>:back</literal>:</para>
1342 [qsort.hs:1:11-12] *Main> :back
1343 Logged breakpoint at qsort.hs:3:24-38
1347 [-1: qsort.hs:3:24-38] *Main>
1350 <para>Note that the local variables at each step in the history have been
1351 preserved, and can be examined as usual. Also note that the prompt has
1352 changed to indicate that we're currently examining the first step in
1353 the history: <literal>-1</literal>. The command
1354 <literal>:forward</literal> can be used to traverse forward in the
1357 <para>The <literal>:trace</literal> command can be used with or without
1358 an expression. When used without an expression, tracing begins from
1359 the current breakpoint, just like <literal>:step</literal>.</para>
1361 <para>The history is only available when
1362 using <literal>:trace</literal>; the reason for this is we found that
1363 logging each breakpoint in the history cuts performance by a factor of
1364 2 or more. GHCi remembers the last 50 steps in the history (perhaps in
1365 the future we'll make this configurable).</para>
1368 <sect2 id="ghci-debugger-exceptions">
1369 <title>Debugging exceptions</title>
1370 <para>Another common question that comes up when debugging is
1371 “where did this exception come from?”. Exceptions such as
1372 those raised by <literal>error</literal> or <literal>head []</literal>
1373 have no context information attached to them. Finding which
1374 particular call to <literal>head</literal> in your program resulted in
1375 the error can be a painstaking process, usually involving
1376 <literal>Debug.Trace.trace</literal>.</para>
1378 <para>The GHCi debugger offers a way to hopefully shed some light on
1379 these errors quickly and without modifying or recompiling the source
1380 code. One way would be to set a breakpoint on the location in the
1381 source code that throws the exception, and then use
1382 <literal>:trace</literal> and <literal>:history</literal> to establish
1383 the context. However, <literal>head</literal> is in a library and
1384 we can't set a breakpoint on it directly. For this reason, GHCi
1385 provides the flag <literal>-fbreak-on-exception</literal> which causes
1386 the evaluator to stop when an exception is thrown, just as it does when
1387 a breakpoint is hit. This is only really useful in conjunction with
1388 <literal>:trace</literal>, in order to log the steps leading up to the
1389 exception. For example:</para>
1392 *Main> :set -fbreak-on-exception
1393 *Main> :trace qsort ("abc" ++ undefined)
1394 "Stopped at <exception thrown>
1396 [<exception thrown>] *Main> :hist
1397 -1 : qsort.hs:3:24-38
1398 -2 : qsort.hs:3:23-55
1399 -3 : qsort.hs:(1,0)-(3,55)
1400 -4 : qsort.hs:2:15-24
1401 -5 : qsort.hs:2:15-46
1402 -6 : qsort.hs:(1,0)-(3,55)
1403 <end of history>
1404 [<exception thrown>] *Main> :back
1405 Logged breakpoint at qsort.hs:3:24-38
1409 [-1: qsort.hs:3:24-38] *Main> :force as
1410 *** Exception: Prelude.undefined
1411 [-1: qsort.hs:3:24-38] *Main> :print as
1412 as = 'b' : 'c' : (_t1::[Char])
1415 <para>The exception itself is bound to a new variable,
1416 <literal>_exception</literal>.</para>
1418 <para>Breaking on exceptions is particularly useful for finding out what
1419 your program was doing when it was in an infinite loop. Just hit
1420 Control-C, and examine the history to find out what was going
1424 <sect2><title>Example: inspecting functions</title>
1426 It is possible to use the debugger to examine function values.
1427 When we are at a breakpoint and a function is in scope, the debugger
1429 you the source code for it; however, it is possible to get some
1430 information by applying it to some arguments and observing the result.
1434 The process is slightly complicated when the binding is polymorphic.
1435 We show the process by means of an example.
1436 To keep things simple, we will use the well known <literal>map</literal> function:
1438 import Prelude hiding (map)
1440 map :: (a->b) -> a -> b
1442 map f (x:xs) = f x : map f xs
1447 We set a breakpoint on <literal>map</literal>, and call it.
1450 Breakpoint 0 activated at map.hs:5:15-28
1451 *Main> map Just [1..5]
1452 Stopped at map.hs:(4,0)-(5,12)
1458 GHCi tells us that, among other bindings, <literal>f</literal> is in scope.
1459 However, its type is not fully known yet,
1460 and thus it is not possible to apply it to any
1461 arguments. Nevertheless, observe that the type of its first argument is the
1462 same as the type of <literal>x</literal>, and its result type is shared
1463 with <literal>_result</literal>.
1467 As we demonstrated earlier (<xref linkend="breakpoints" />), the
1468 debugger has some intelligence built-in to update the type of
1469 <literal>f</literal> whenever the types of <literal>x</literal> or
1470 <literal>_result</literal> are discovered. So what we do in this
1472 force <literal>x</literal> a bit, in order to recover both its type
1473 and the argument part of <literal>f</literal>.
1481 We can check now that as expected, the type of <literal>x</literal>
1482 has been reconstructed, and with it the
1483 type of <literal>f</literal> has been too:</para>
1491 From here, we can apply f to any argument of type Integer and observe
1499 Ambiguous type variable `b' in the constraint:
1500 `Show b' arising from a use of `print' at <interactive>:1:0
1512 f :: Integer -> Maybe Integer
1516 [Just 1, Just 2, Just 3, Just 4, Just 5]
1518 In the first application of <literal>f</literal>, we had to do
1519 some more type reconstruction
1520 in order to recover the result type of <literal>f</literal>.
1521 But after that, we are free to use
1522 <literal>f</literal> normally.
1526 <sect2><title>Limitations</title>
1529 <para>When stopped at a breakpoint, if you try to evaluate a variable
1530 that is already under evaluation, the second evaluation will hang.
1532 that GHC knows the variable is under evaluation, so the new
1533 evaluation just waits for the result before continuing, but of
1534 course this isn't going to happen because the first evaluation is
1535 stopped at a breakpoint. Control-C can interrupt the hung
1536 evaluation and return to the prompt.</para>
1537 <para>The most common way this can happen is when you're evaluating a
1538 CAF (e.g. main), stop at a breakpoint, and ask for the value of the
1539 CAF at the prompt again.</para>
1542 Implicit parameters (see <xref linkend="implicit-parameters"/>) are only available
1543 at the scope of a breakpoint if there is a explicit type signature.
1550 <sect1 id="ghci-invocation">
1551 <title>Invoking GHCi</title>
1552 <indexterm><primary>invoking</primary><secondary>GHCi</secondary></indexterm>
1553 <indexterm><primary><option>––interactive</option></primary></indexterm>
1555 <para>GHCi is invoked with the command <literal>ghci</literal> or
1556 <literal>ghc ––interactive</literal>. One or more modules or
1557 filenames can also be specified on the command line; this
1558 instructs GHCi to load the specified modules or filenames (and all
1559 the modules they depend on), just as if you had said
1560 <literal>:load <replaceable>modules</replaceable></literal> at the
1561 GHCi prompt (see <xref linkend="ghci-commands" />). For example, to
1562 start GHCi and load the program whose topmost module is in the
1563 file <literal>Main.hs</literal>, we could say:</para>
1569 <para>Most of the command-line options accepted by GHC (see <xref
1570 linkend="using-ghc"/>) also make sense in interactive mode. The ones
1571 that don't make sense are mostly obvious; for example, GHCi
1572 doesn't generate interface files, so options related to interface
1573 file generation won't have any effect.</para>
1576 <title>Packages</title>
1577 <indexterm><primary>packages</primary><secondary>with GHCi</secondary></indexterm>
1579 <para>Most packages (see <xref linkend="using-packages"/>) are
1580 available without needing to specify any extra flags at all:
1581 they will be automatically loaded the first time they are
1584 <para>For hidden packages, however, you need to request the
1585 package be loaded by using the <literal>-package</literal> flag:</para>
1588 $ ghci -package readline
1591 / /_\// /_/ / / | | GHC Interactive, version 6.6, for Haskell 98.
1592 / /_\\/ __ / /___| | http://www.haskell.org/ghc/
1593 \____/\/ /_/\____/|_| Type :? for help.
1595 Loading package base ... linking ... done.
1596 Loading package readline-1.0 ... linking ... done.
1600 <para>The following command works to load new packages into a
1601 running GHCi:</para>
1604 Prelude> :set -package <replaceable>name</replaceable>
1607 <para>But note that doing this will cause all currently loaded
1608 modules to be unloaded, and you'll be dumped back into the
1609 <literal>Prelude</literal>.</para>
1613 <title>Extra libraries</title>
1614 <indexterm><primary>libraries</primary><secondary>with GHCi</secondary></indexterm>
1616 <para>Extra libraries may be specified on the command line using
1617 the normal <literal>-l<replaceable>lib</replaceable></literal>
1618 option. (The term <emphasis>library</emphasis> here refers to
1619 libraries of foreign object code; for using libraries of Haskell
1620 source code, see <xref linkend="ghci-modules-filenames"/>.) For
1621 example, to load the “m” library:</para>
1627 <para>On systems with <literal>.so</literal>-style shared
1628 libraries, the actual library loaded will the
1629 <filename>lib<replaceable>lib</replaceable>.so</filename>. GHCi
1630 searches the following places for libraries, in this order:</para>
1634 <para>Paths specified using the
1635 <literal>-L<replaceable>path</replaceable></literal>
1636 command-line option,</para>
1639 <para>the standard library search path for your system,
1640 which on some systems may be overridden by setting the
1641 <literal>LD_LIBRARY_PATH</literal> environment
1646 <para>On systems with <literal>.dll</literal>-style shared
1647 libraries, the actual library loaded will be
1648 <filename><replaceable>lib</replaceable>.dll</filename>. Again,
1649 GHCi will signal an error if it can't find the library.</para>
1651 <para>GHCi can also load plain object files
1652 (<literal>.o</literal> or <literal>.obj</literal> depending on
1653 your platform) from the command-line. Just add the name the
1654 object file to the command line.</para>
1656 <para>Ordering of <option>-l</option> options matters: a library
1657 should be mentioned <emphasis>before</emphasis> the libraries it
1658 depends on (see <xref linkend="options-linker"/>).</para>
1663 <sect1 id="ghci-commands">
1664 <title>GHCi commands</title>
1666 <para>GHCi commands all begin with
1667 ‘<literal>:</literal>’ and consist of a single command
1668 name followed by zero or more parameters. The command name may be
1669 abbreviated, with ambiguities being resolved in favour of the more
1670 commonly used commands.</para>
1675 <literal>:add</literal> <replaceable>module</replaceable> ...
1676 <indexterm><primary><literal>:add</literal></primary></indexterm>
1679 <para>Add <replaceable>module</replaceable>(s) to the
1680 current <firstterm>target set</firstterm>, and perform a
1687 <literal>:breakpoint</literal> <replaceable>list|add|continue|del|stop|step</replaceable> ...
1688 <indexterm><primary><literal>:breakpoint</literal></primary></indexterm>
1691 <para>Permits to add, delete or list the breakpoints in a debugging session.
1698 <literal>:browse</literal> <optional><literal>*</literal></optional><replaceable>module</replaceable> ...
1699 <indexterm><primary><literal>:browse</literal></primary></indexterm>
1702 <para>Displays the identifiers defined by the module
1703 <replaceable>module</replaceable>, which must be either
1704 loaded into GHCi or be a member of a package. If the
1705 <literal>*</literal> symbol is placed before the module
1706 name, then <emphasis>all</emphasis> the identifiers defined
1707 in <replaceable>module</replaceable> are shown; otherwise
1708 the list is limited to the exports of
1709 <replaceable>module</replaceable>. The
1710 <literal>*</literal>-form is only available for modules
1711 which are interpreted; for compiled modules (including
1712 modules from packages) only the non-<literal>*</literal>
1713 form of <literal>:browse</literal> is available.</para>
1719 <literal>:cd</literal> <replaceable>dir</replaceable>
1720 <indexterm><primary><literal>:cd</literal></primary></indexterm>
1723 <para>Changes the current working directory to
1724 <replaceable>dir</replaceable>. A
1725 ‘<literal>˜</literal>’ symbol at the
1726 beginning of <replaceable>dir</replaceable> will be replaced
1727 by the contents of the environment variable
1728 <literal>HOME</literal>.</para>
1730 <para>NOTE: changing directories causes all currently loaded
1731 modules to be unloaded. This is because the search path is
1732 usually expressed using relative directories, and changing
1733 the search path in the middle of a session is not
1740 <literal>:continue</literal>
1741 <indexterm><primary><literal>:continue</literal></primary></indexterm>
1743 <listitem><para>Shortcut to <literal>:breakpoint continue</literal></para>
1749 <literal>:def</literal> <replaceable>name</replaceable> <replaceable>expr</replaceable>
1750 <indexterm><primary><literal>:def</literal></primary></indexterm>
1753 <para>The command <literal>:def</literal>
1754 <replaceable>name</replaceable>
1755 <replaceable>expr</replaceable> defines a new GHCi command
1756 <literal>:<replaceable>name</replaceable></literal>,
1757 implemented by the Haskell expression
1758 <replaceable>expr</replaceable>, which must have type
1759 <literal>String -> IO String</literal>. When
1760 <literal>:<replaceable>name</replaceable>
1761 <replaceable>args</replaceable></literal> is typed at the
1762 prompt, GHCi will run the expression
1763 <literal>(<replaceable>name</replaceable>
1764 <replaceable>args</replaceable>)</literal>, take the
1765 resulting <literal>String</literal>, and feed it back into
1766 GHCi as a new sequence of commands. Separate commands in
1767 the result must be separated by
1768 ‘<literal>\n</literal>’.</para>
1770 <para>That's all a little confusing, so here's a few
1771 examples. To start with, here's a new GHCi command which
1772 doesn't take any arguments or produce any results, it just
1773 outputs the current date & time:</para>
1776 Prelude> let date _ = Time.getClockTime >>= print >> return ""
1777 Prelude> :def date date
1779 Fri Mar 23 15:16:40 GMT 2001
1782 <para>Here's an example of a command that takes an argument.
1783 It's a re-implementation of <literal>:cd</literal>:</para>
1786 Prelude> let mycd d = Directory.setCurrentDirectory d >> return ""
1787 Prelude> :def mycd mycd
1791 <para>Or I could define a simple way to invoke
1792 “<literal>ghc ––make Main</literal>” in the
1793 current directory:</para>
1796 Prelude> :def make (\_ -> return ":! ghc ––make Main")
1799 <para>We can define a command that reads GHCi input from a
1800 file. This might be useful for creating a set of bindings
1801 that we want to repeatedly load into the GHCi session:</para>
1804 Prelude> :def . readFile
1805 Prelude> :. cmds.ghci
1808 <para>Notice that we named the command
1809 <literal>:.</literal>, by analogy with the
1810 ‘<literal>.</literal>’ Unix shell command that
1811 does the same thing.</para>
1817 <literal>:edit <optional><replaceable>file</replaceable></optional></literal>
1818 <indexterm><primary><literal>:edit</literal></primary></indexterm>
1821 <para>Opens an editor to edit the file
1822 <replaceable>file</replaceable>, or the most recently loaded
1823 module if <replaceable>file</replaceable> is omitted. The
1824 editor to invoke is taken from the <literal>EDITOR</literal>
1825 environment variable, or a default editor on your system if
1826 <literal>EDITOR</literal> is not set. You can change the
1827 editor using <literal>:set editor</literal>.</para>
1833 <literal>:help</literal>
1834 <indexterm><primary><literal>:help</literal></primary></indexterm>
1837 <literal>:?</literal>
1838 <indexterm><primary><literal>:?</literal></primary></indexterm>
1841 <para>Displays a list of the available commands.</para>
1847 <literal>:info</literal> <replaceable>name</replaceable> ...
1848 <indexterm><primary><literal>:info</literal></primary></indexterm>
1851 <para>Displays information about the given name(s). For
1852 example, if <replaceable>name</replaceable> is a class, then
1853 the class methods and their types will be printed; if
1854 <replaceable>name</replaceable> is a type constructor, then
1855 its definition will be printed; if
1856 <replaceable>name</replaceable> is a function, then its type
1857 will be printed. If <replaceable>name</replaceable> has
1858 been loaded from a source file, then GHCi will also display
1859 the location of its definition in the source.</para>
1865 <literal>:load</literal> <replaceable>module</replaceable> ...
1866 <indexterm><primary><literal>:load</literal></primary></indexterm>
1869 <para>Recursively loads the specified
1870 <replaceable>module</replaceable>s, and all the modules they
1871 depend on. Here, each <replaceable>module</replaceable>
1872 must be a module name or filename, but may not be the name
1873 of a module in a package.</para>
1875 <para>All previously loaded modules, except package modules,
1876 are forgotten. The new set of modules is known as the
1877 <firstterm>target set</firstterm>. Note that
1878 <literal>:load</literal> can be used without any arguments
1879 to unload all the currently loaded modules and
1882 <para>After a <literal>:load</literal> command, the current
1883 context is set to:</para>
1887 <para><replaceable>module</replaceable>, if it was loaded
1888 successfully, or</para>
1891 <para>the most recently successfully loaded module, if
1892 any other modules were loaded as a result of the current
1893 <literal>:load</literal>, or</para>
1896 <para><literal>Prelude</literal> otherwise.</para>
1904 <literal>:main <replaceable>arg<subscript>1</subscript></replaceable> ... <replaceable>arg<subscript>n</subscript></replaceable></literal>
1905 <indexterm><primary><literal>:main</literal></primary></indexterm>
1909 When a program is compiled and executed, it can use the
1910 <literal>getArgs</literal> function to access the
1911 command-line arguments.
1912 However, we cannot simply pass the arguments to the
1913 <literal>main</literal> function while we are testing in ghci,
1914 as the <literal>main</literal> function doesn't take its
1919 Instead, we can use the <literal>:main</literal> command.
1920 This runs whatever <literal>main</literal> is in scope, with
1921 any arguments being treated the same as command-line arguments,
1926 Prelude> let main = System.Environment.getArgs >>= print
1927 Prelude> :main foo bar
1936 <literal>:module <optional>+|-</optional> <optional>*</optional><replaceable>mod<subscript>1</subscript></replaceable> ... <optional>*</optional><replaceable>mod<subscript>n</subscript></replaceable></literal>
1937 <indexterm><primary><literal>:module</literal></primary></indexterm>
1940 <para>Sets or modifies the current context for statements
1941 typed at the prompt. See <xref linkend="ghci-scope"/> for
1942 more details.</para>
1948 <literal>:print </literal> <replaceable>names</replaceable> ...
1949 <indexterm><primary><literal>:print</literal></primary></indexterm>
1952 <para> Prints a semievaluated value without forcing its evaluation.
1953 <literal>:print </literal> works just like <literal>:sprint</literal> but additionally,
1954 <literal>:print</literal> binds the unevaluated parts -called
1955 <quote>suspensions</quote>-
1956 to names which you can play with. For example:
1958 Prelude> let li = map Just [1..5]
1962 li - (_t1::[Maybe Integer])
1968 li - Just 1 : (_t2::[Maybe Integer])
1972 li - [Just 1,_,_,_,Just 5]
1974 li - [Just 1,(_t3::Maybe Integer),(_t4::Maybe Integer),(_t5::Maybe Integer),Just 4]
1978 li - [Just 1,(_t6::Maybe Integer),Just 3,(_t7::Maybe Integer),Just 4]
1980 The example uses <literal>:print</literal> and <literal>:sprint</literal>
1981 to help us observe how the <literal>li</literal> variable is evaluated progressively as we operate
1982 with it. Note for instance how <quote>last</quote> traverses all the elements of
1983 the list to compute its result, but without evaluating the individual elements.
1990 <literal>:quit</literal>
1991 <indexterm><primary><literal>:quit</literal></primary></indexterm>
1994 <para>Quits GHCi. You can also quit by typing a control-D
1995 at the prompt.</para>
2001 <literal>:reload</literal>
2002 <indexterm><primary><literal>:reload</literal></primary></indexterm>
2005 <para>Attempts to reload the current target set (see
2006 <literal>:load</literal>) if any of the modules in the set,
2007 or any dependent module, has changed. Note that this may
2008 entail loading new modules, or dropping modules which are no
2009 longer indirectly required by the target.</para>
2015 <literal>:set</literal> <optional><replaceable>option</replaceable>...</optional>
2016 <indexterm><primary><literal>:set</literal></primary></indexterm>
2019 <para>Sets various options. See <xref linkend="ghci-set"/>
2020 for a list of available options. The
2021 <literal>:set</literal> command by itself shows which
2022 options are currently set.</para>
2028 <literal>:set</literal> <literal>args</literal> <replaceable>arg</replaceable> ...
2029 <indexterm><primary><literal>:set args</literal></primary></indexterm>
2032 <para>Sets the list of arguments which are returned when the
2033 program calls <literal>System.getArgs</literal><indexterm><primary>getArgs</primary>
2034 </indexterm>.</para>
2040 <literal>:set</literal> <literal>editor</literal> <replaceable>cmd</replaceable>
2043 <para>Sets the command used by <literal>:edit</literal> to
2044 <replaceable>cmd</replaceable>.</para>
2050 <literal>:set</literal> <literal>prog</literal> <replaceable>prog</replaceable>
2051 <indexterm><primary><literal>:set prog</literal></primary></indexterm>
2054 <para>Sets the string to be returned when the program calls
2055 <literal>System.getProgName</literal><indexterm><primary>getProgName</primary>
2056 </indexterm>.</para>
2062 <literal>:set</literal> <literal>prompt</literal> <replaceable>prompt</replaceable>
2065 <para>Sets the string to be used as the prompt in GHCi.
2066 Inside <replaceable>prompt</replaceable>, the sequence
2067 <literal>%s</literal> is replaced by the names of the
2068 modules currently in scope, and <literal>%%</literal> is
2069 replaced by <literal>%</literal>.</para>
2075 <literal>:show bindings</literal>
2076 <indexterm><primary><literal>:show bindings</literal></primary></indexterm>
2079 <para>Show the bindings made at the prompt and their
2086 <literal>:show modules</literal>
2087 <indexterm><primary><literal>:show modules</literal></primary></indexterm>
2090 <para>Show the list of modules currently load.</para>
2095 <literal>:sprint</literal>
2096 <indexterm><primary><literal>:sprint</literal></primary></indexterm>
2099 <para>Prints a semievaluated value without forcing its evaluation.
2100 <literal>:sprint</literal> and its sibling <literal>:print</literal>
2101 are very useful to observe how lazy evaluation works in your code. For example:
2103 Prelude> let li = map Just [1..5]
2113 li - [Just 1,_,_,_,Just 5]
2115 The example uses <literal>:sprint</literal> to help us observe how the <literal>li</literal> variable is evaluated progressively as we operate
2116 with it. Note for instance how <quote>last</quote> traverses all the elements of
2117 the list to compute its result, but without evaluating the individual elements.
2123 <literal>:ctags</literal> <optional><replaceable>filename</replaceable></optional>
2124 <literal>:etags</literal> <optional><replaceable>filename</replaceable></optional>
2125 <indexterm><primary><literal>:etags</literal></primary>
2127 <indexterm><primary><literal>:etags</literal></primary>
2131 <para>Generates a “tags” file for Vi-style editors
2132 (<literal>:ctags</literal>) or Emacs-style editors (<literal>etags</literal>). If
2133 no filename is specified, the defaulit <filename>tags</filename> or
2134 <filename>TAGS</filename> is
2135 used, respectively. Tags for all the functions, constructors and
2136 types in the currently loaded modules are created. All modules must
2137 be interpreted for these commands to work.</para>
2138 <para>See also <xref linkend="hasktags" />.</para>
2144 <literal>:type</literal> <replaceable>expression</replaceable>
2145 <indexterm><primary><literal>:type</literal></primary></indexterm>
2148 <para>Infers and prints the type of
2149 <replaceable>expression</replaceable>, including explicit
2150 forall quantifiers for polymorphic types. The monomorphism
2151 restriction is <emphasis>not</emphasis> applied to the
2152 expression during type inference.</para>
2158 <literal>:kind</literal> <replaceable>type</replaceable>
2159 <indexterm><primary><literal>:kind</literal></primary></indexterm>
2162 <para>Infers and prints the kind of
2163 <replaceable>type</replaceable>. The latter can be an arbitrary
2164 type expression, including a partial application of a type constructor,
2165 such as <literal>Either Int</literal>.</para>
2171 <literal>:undef</literal> <replaceable>name</replaceable>
2172 <indexterm><primary><literal>:undef</literal></primary></indexterm>
2175 <para>Undefines the user-defined command
2176 <replaceable>name</replaceable> (see <literal>:def</literal>
2183 <literal>:unset</literal> <replaceable>option</replaceable>...
2184 <indexterm><primary><literal>:unset</literal></primary></indexterm>
2187 <para>Unsets certain options. See <xref linkend="ghci-set"/>
2188 for a list of available options.</para>
2194 <literal>:!</literal> <replaceable>command</replaceable>...
2195 <indexterm><primary><literal>:!</literal></primary></indexterm>
2196 <indexterm><primary>shell commands</primary><secondary>in GHCi</secondary></indexterm>
2199 <para>Executes the shell command
2200 <replaceable>command</replaceable>.</para>
2207 <sect1 id="ghci-set">
2208 <title>The <literal>:set</literal> command</title>
2209 <indexterm><primary><literal>:set</literal></primary></indexterm>
2211 <para>The <literal>:set</literal> command sets two types of
2212 options: GHCi options, which begin with
2213 ‘<literal>+</literal>” and “command-line”
2214 options, which begin with ‘-’. </para>
2216 <para>NOTE: at the moment, the <literal>:set</literal> command
2217 doesn't support any kind of quoting in its arguments: quotes will
2218 not be removed and cannot be used to group words together. For
2219 example, <literal>:set -DFOO='BAR BAZ'</literal> will not do what
2223 <title>GHCi options</title>
2224 <indexterm><primary>options</primary><secondary>GHCi</secondary>
2227 <para>GHCi options may be set using <literal>:set</literal> and
2228 unset using <literal>:unset</literal>.</para>
2230 <para>The available GHCi options are:</para>
2235 <literal>+r</literal>
2236 <indexterm><primary><literal>+r</literal></primary></indexterm>
2237 <indexterm><primary>CAFs</primary><secondary>in GHCi</secondary></indexterm>
2238 <indexterm><primary>Constant Applicative Form</primary><see>CAFs</see></indexterm>
2241 <para>Normally, any evaluation of top-level expressions
2242 (otherwise known as CAFs or Constant Applicative Forms) in
2243 loaded modules is retained between evaluations. Turning
2244 on <literal>+r</literal> causes all evaluation of
2245 top-level expressions to be discarded after each
2246 evaluation (they are still retained
2247 <emphasis>during</emphasis> a single evaluation).</para>
2249 <para>This option may help if the evaluated top-level
2250 expressions are consuming large amounts of space, or if
2251 you need repeatable performance measurements.</para>
2257 <literal>+s</literal>
2258 <indexterm><primary><literal>+s</literal></primary></indexterm>
2261 <para>Display some stats after evaluating each expression,
2262 including the elapsed time and number of bytes allocated.
2263 NOTE: the allocation figure is only accurate to the size
2264 of the storage manager's allocation area, because it is
2265 calculated at every GC. Hence, you might see values of
2266 zero if no GC has occurred.</para>
2272 <literal>+t</literal>
2273 <indexterm><primary><literal>+t</literal></primary></indexterm>
2276 <para>Display the type of each variable bound after a
2277 statement is entered at the prompt. If the statement is a
2278 single expression, then the only variable binding will be
2280 ‘<literal>it</literal>’.</para>
2286 <sect2 id="ghci-cmd-line-options">
2287 <title>Setting GHC command-line options in GHCi</title>
2289 <para>Normal GHC command-line options may also be set using
2290 <literal>:set</literal>. For example, to turn on
2291 <option>-fglasgow-exts</option>, you would say:</para>
2294 Prelude> :set -fglasgow-exts
2297 <para>Any GHC command-line option that is designated as
2298 <firstterm>dynamic</firstterm> (see the table in <xref
2299 linkend="flag-reference"/>), may be set using
2300 <literal>:set</literal>. To unset an option, you can set the
2301 reverse option:</para>
2302 <indexterm><primary>dynamic</primary><secondary>options</secondary></indexterm>
2305 Prelude> :set -fno-glasgow-exts
2308 <para><xref linkend="flag-reference"/> lists the reverse for each
2309 option where applicable.</para>
2311 <para>Certain static options (<option>-package</option>,
2312 <option>-I</option>, <option>-i</option>, and
2313 <option>-l</option> in particular) will also work, but some may
2314 not take effect until the next reload.</para>
2315 <indexterm><primary>static</primary><secondary>options</secondary></indexterm>
2318 <sect1 id="ghci-dot-files">
2319 <title>The <filename>.ghci</filename> file</title>
2320 <indexterm><primary><filename>.ghci</filename></primary><secondary>file</secondary>
2322 <indexterm><primary>startup</primary><secondary>files, GHCi</secondary>
2325 <para>When it starts, GHCi always reads and executes commands from
2326 <filename>$HOME/.ghci</filename>, followed by
2327 <filename>./.ghci</filename>.</para>
2329 <para>The <filename>.ghci</filename> in your home directory is
2330 most useful for turning on favourite options (eg. <literal>:set
2331 +s</literal>), and defining useful macros. Placing a
2332 <filename>.ghci</filename> file in a directory with a Haskell
2333 project is a useful way to set certain project-wide options so you
2334 don't have to type them everytime you start GHCi: eg. if your
2335 project uses GHC extensions and CPP, and has source files in three
2336 subdirectories A B and C, you might put the following lines in
2337 <filename>.ghci</filename>:</para>
2340 :set -fglasgow-exts -cpp
2344 <para>(Note that strictly speaking the <option>-i</option> flag is
2345 a static one, but in fact it works to set it using
2346 <literal>:set</literal> like this. The changes won't take effect
2347 until the next <literal>:load</literal>, though.)</para>
2349 <para>Two command-line options control whether the
2350 <filename>.ghci</filename> files are read:</para>
2355 <option>-ignore-dot-ghci</option>
2356 <indexterm><primary><option>-ignore-dot-ghci</option></primary></indexterm>
2359 <para>Don't read either <filename>./.ghci</filename> or
2360 <filename>$HOME/.ghci</filename> when starting up.</para>
2365 <option>-read-dot-ghci</option>
2366 <indexterm><primary><option>-read-dot-ghci</option></primary></indexterm>
2369 <para>Read <filename>.ghci</filename> and
2370 <filename>$HOME/.ghci</filename>. This is normally the
2371 default, but the <option>-read-dot-ghci</option> option may
2372 be used to override a previous
2373 <option>-ignore-dot-ghci</option> option.</para>
2380 <sect1 id="ghci-obj">
2381 <title>Compiling to object code inside GHCi</title>
2383 <para>By default, GHCi compiles Haskell source code into byte-code
2384 that is interpreted by the runtime system. GHCi can also compile
2385 Haskell code to object code: to turn on this feature, use the
2386 <option>-fobject-code</option> flag either on the command line or
2387 with <literal>:set</literal> (the option
2388 <option>-fbyte-code</option> restores byte-code compilation
2389 again). Compiling to object code takes longer, but typically the
2390 code will execute 10-20 times faster than byte-code.</para>
2392 <para>Compiling to object code inside GHCi is particularly useful
2393 if you are developing a compiled application, because the
2394 <literal>:reload</literal> command typically runs much faster than
2395 restarting GHC with <option>--make</option> from the command-line,
2396 because all the interface files are already cached in
2399 <para>There are disadvantages to compiling to object-code: you
2400 can't set breakpoints in object-code modules, for example. Only
2401 the exports of an object-code module will be visible in GHCi,
2402 rather than all top-level bindings as in interpreted
2406 <sect1 id="ghci-faq">
2407 <title>FAQ and Things To Watch Out For</title>
2411 <term>The interpreter can't load modules with foreign export
2412 declarations!</term>
2414 <para>Unfortunately not. We haven't implemented it yet.
2415 Please compile any offending modules by hand before loading
2416 them into GHCi.</para>
2422 <literal>-O</literal> doesn't work with GHCi!
2423 <indexterm><primary><option>-O</option></primary></indexterm>
2426 <para>For technical reasons, the bytecode compiler doesn't
2427 interact well with one of the optimisation passes, so we
2428 have disabled optimisation when using the interpreter. This
2429 isn't a great loss: you'll get a much bigger win by
2430 compiling the bits of your code that need to go fast, rather
2431 than interpreting them with optimisation turned on.</para>
2436 <term>Unboxed tuples don't work with GHCi</term>
2438 <para>That's right. You can always compile a module that
2439 uses unboxed tuples and load it into GHCi, however.
2440 (Incidentally the previous point, namely that
2441 <literal>-O</literal> is incompatible with GHCi, is because
2442 the bytecode compiler can't deal with unboxed
2448 <term>Concurrent threads don't carry on running when GHCi is
2449 waiting for input.</term>
2451 <para>This should work, as long as your GHCi was built with
2452 the <option>-threaded</option> switch, which is the default.
2453 Consult whoever supplied your GHCi installation.</para>
2458 <term>After using <literal>getContents</literal>, I can't use
2459 <literal>stdin</literal> again until I do
2460 <literal>:load</literal> or <literal>:reload</literal>.</term>
2463 <para>This is the defined behaviour of
2464 <literal>getContents</literal>: it puts the stdin Handle in
2465 a state known as <firstterm>semi-closed</firstterm>, wherein
2466 any further I/O operations on it are forbidden. Because I/O
2467 state is retained between computations, the semi-closed
2468 state persists until the next <literal>:load</literal> or
2469 <literal>:reload</literal> command.</para>
2471 <para>You can make <literal>stdin</literal> reset itself
2472 after every evaluation by giving GHCi the command
2473 <literal>:set +r</literal>. This works because
2474 <literal>stdin</literal> is just a top-level expression that
2475 can be reverted to its unevaluated state in the same way as
2476 any other top-level expression (CAF).</para>
2481 <term>I can't use Control-C to interrupt computations in
2482 GHCi on Windows.</term>
2484 <para>See <xref linkend="ghci-windows"/></para>
2493 ;;; Local Variables: ***
2495 ;;; sgml-parent-document: ("users_guide.xml" "book" "chapter") ***