Installing GHCbinary installationsinstallation, of binaries
Installing from binary distributions is easiest, and recommended!
(Why binaries? Because GHC is a Haskell compiler written in Haskell,
so you've got to bootstrap it somehow. We provide machine-generated
C-files-from-Haskell for this purpose, but it's really quite a pain to
use them. If you must build GHC from its sources, using a
binary-distributed GHC to do so is a sensible way to proceed. For the
other fptools programs, many are written in
Haskell, so binary distributions allow you to install them without
having a Haskell compiler.)
This guide is in several parts: Installing on Unix-a-likes (). Installing on Windows (). The layout of installed files (). You don't need to know this to
install GHC, but it's useful if you are changing the
implementation.Installing on Unix-a-likesWhen a platform-specific package is availableFor certain platforms, we provide GHC binaries packaged
using the native package format for the platform. This is
likely to be by far the best way to install GHC for your
platform if one of these packages is available, since
dependencies will automatically be handled and the package
system normally provides a way to uninstall the package at a
later date.We generally provide the following packages:RedHat or SuSE Linux/x86RPM source & binary packages for RedHat and SuSE
Linux (x86 only) are available for most major
releases.Debian Linux/x86Debian packages for Linux (x86 only), also for most
major releases.FreeBSD/x86On FreeBSD/x86, GHC can be installed using either
the ports tree (cd /usr/ports/lang/ghc && make
install) or from a pre-compiled package
available from your local FreeBSD mirror.Other platform-specific packages may be available, check
the GHC download page for details.GHC binary distributionsbundles of binary stuff
Binary distributions come in “bundles,” one bundle per file called
bundle-platform.tar.gz. (See the building guide for the definition of a platform.) Suppose that you untar a binary-distribution bundle, thus:
% cd /your/scratch/space
% gunzip < ghc-x.xx-sun-sparc-solaris2.tar.gz | tar xvf -
Then you should find a single directory,
ghc-version, with the
following structure:
binary distribution, layoutdirectory layout (binary distributions)Makefile.in
the raw material from which the Makefile
will be made ().
configure
the configuration script ().
README
Contains this file summary.
INSTALL
Contains this description of how to install
the bundle.
ANNOUNCE
The announcement message for the bundle.
NEWS
release notes for the bundle—a longer version
of ANNOUNCE. For GHC, the release notes are contained in the User
Guide and this file isn't present.
bin/platform
contains platform-specific executable
files to be invoked directly by the user. These are the files that
must end up in your path.
lib/platform/
contains platform-specific support
files for the installation. Typically there is a subdirectory for
each fptools project, whose name is the name of the project with its
version number. For example, for GHC there would be a sub-directory
ghc-x.xx/ where x.xx is the version number of GHC in the bundle.
These sub-directories have the following general structure:
libHSstd.a etc:
supporting library archives.
ghc-iface.prl etc:
support scripts.
import/Interface files (.hi) for the prelude.
include/
A few C #include files.
share/
contains platform-independent support files
for the installation. Again, there is a sub-directory for each
fptools project.
html/
contains HTML documentation files (one
sub-directory per project).
Installing
OK, so let's assume that you have unpacked your chosen bundles. What
next? Well, you will at least need to run the
configureconfigure
script by changing directory into the top-level directory for the
bundle and typing ./configure. That should convert
Makefile.in to Makefile.
installing in-placein-place installation
You can now either start using the tools in-situ without going
through any installation process, just type make in-place to set the
tools up for this. You'll also want to add the path which make will
now echo to your PATH environment variable. This option is useful if
you simply want to try out the package and/or you don't have the
necessary privileges (or inclination) to properly install the tools
locally. Note that if you do decide to install the package `properly'
at a later date, you have to go through the installation steps that
follow.
To install a package, you'll have to do the following:
Edit the Makefile and check the settings of the following variables:
directories, installationinstallation directoriesplatform
the platform you are going to install for.
bindir
the directory in which to install user-invokable
binaries.
libdir
the directory in which to install
platform-dependent support files.
datadir
the directory in which to install
platform-independent support files.
infodir
the directory in which to install Emacs info
files.
htmldir
the directory in which to install HTML
documentation.
dvidir
the directory in which to install DVI
documentation.
The values for these variables can be set through invocation of the
configureconfigure
script that comes with the distribution, but doing an optical diff to
see if the values match your expectations is always a Good Idea.
Instead of running configure, it is
perfectly OK to copy Makefile.in to
Makefile and set all these variables directly
yourself. But do it right!
Run make install. This
should work with ordinary Unix
make—no need for fancy stuff like GNU
make.
rehash (t?csh or zsh users), so your shell will see the new
stuff in your bin directory.
Once done, test your “installation” as suggested in
. Be sure to use a -v
option, so you can see exactly what pathnames it's using.
If things don't work as expected, check the list of known pitfalls in
the building guide.
link, installed as ghc
When installing the user-invokable binaries, this installation
procedure will install GHC as ghc-x.xx where x.xx is the version
number of GHC. It will also make a link (in the binary installation
directory) from ghc to ghc-x.xx. If you install multiple versions
of GHC then the last one “wins”, and “ghc” will invoke the last
one installed. You can change this manually if you want. But
regardless, ghc-x.xx should always invoke GHC version x.xx.
What bundles there arebundles, binary There are
plenty of “non-basic” GHC bundles. The files for them are
called
ghc-x.xx-bundle-platform.tar.gz,
where the platform is as above, and
bundle is one of these:
prof:
Profiling with cost-centres. You probably want this.
profiling bundlesbundles, profilingpar:
Parallel Haskell features (sits on top of PVM).
You'll want this if you're into that kind of thing.
parallel bundlesbundles, parallelgran:
The “GranSim” parallel-Haskell simulator
(hmm… mainly for implementors).
bundles, gransimgransim bundlesticky:
“Ticky-ticky” profiling; very detailed
information about “what happened when I ran this program”—really
for implementors.
bundles, ticky-tickyticky-ticky bundles
One likely scenario is that you will grab two
binary bundles—basic, and profiling. We don't usually make the
rest, although you can build them yourself from a source distribution.
The various GHC bundles are designed to be unpacked into the
same directory; then installing as per the directions above will
install the whole lot in one go. Note: you must
at least have the basic GHC binary distribution bundle, these extra
bundles won't install on their own.Testing that GHC seems to be working
testing a new GHC
The way to do this is, of course, to compile and run this program
(in a file Main.hs):
main = putStr "Hello, world!\n"
Compile the program, using the -v (verbose) flag to verify that
libraries, etc., are being found properly:
% ghc -v -o hello Main.hs
Now run it:
% ./hello
Hello, world!
Some simple-but-profitable tests are to compile and run the notorious
nfibnfib program, using different numeric types. Start with
nfib :: Int -> Int, and then try Integer, Float, Double,
Rational and perhaps the overloaded version. Code for this is
distributed in ghc/misc/examples/nfib/ in a source distribution.
For more information on how to “drive” GHC, read
on...Installing on Windows
Getting the Glasgow Haskell Compiler (post 5.02) to run on Windows platforms is
a snap: the Installshield does everything you need.
Installing GHC on Windows
To install GHC, use the following steps:
Download the Installshield setup.exe
from the GHC download page
haskell.org.
Run setup.exe.
On Windows, all of GHC's files are installed in a single directory.
If you choose ``Custom'' from the list of install options, you will be given a
choice about where this directory is; otherwise it will be installed
in c:/ghc/ghc-version.
The executable binary for GHC will be installed in the bin/ sub-directory
of the installation directory you choose.
(If you have already installed the same version of GHC, Installshield will offer to "modify",
or "remove" GHC. Choose "remove"; then run setup.exe a
second time. This time it should offer to install.)
When installation is complete, you should find GHCi and the GHC documentation are
available in your Start menu under "Start/Programs/Glasgow Haskell Compiler".
The final dialogue box from the install process reminds you where the GHC binary
has been installed (usually c:/ghc/ghc-version/bin/.
If you want to invoke GHC from a command line, add this
to your PATH environment variable.
GHC needs a directory in which to create, and later delete, temporary files.
It uses the standard Windows procedure GetTempPath() to
find a suitable directory. This procedure returns:
The path in environment variable TMP,
if TMP is set.Otherwise, the path in environment variable TEMP,
if TEMP is set.Otherwise, there is a per-user default which varies
between versions of Windows. On NT and XP-ish versions, it might
be:
c:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temp
The main point is that if you don't do anything GHC will work fine;
but if you want to control where the directory is, you can do so by
setting TMP or TEMP.
To test the fruits of your labour, try now to compile a simple
Haskell program:
bash$ cat main.hs
module Main(main) where
main = putStrLn "Hello, world!"
bash$ ghc -o main main.hs
..
bash$ ./main
Hello, world!
bash$
You do not need the Cygwin toolchain, or anything
else, to install and run GHC.
An installation of GHC requires about 140M of disk space.
To run GHC comfortably, your machine should have at least
64M of memory.
Moving GHC around
At the moment, GHC installs in a fixed place (c:/ghc/ghc-x.yy,
but once it is installed, you can freely move the entire GHC tree just by copying
the ghc-x.yy directory. (You may need to fix up
the links in "Start/Programs/Glasgow Haskell Compiler" if you do this.)
It is OK to put GHC tree in a directory whose path involves spaces. However,
don't do this if you use want to use GHC with the Cygwin tools,
because Cygwin can get confused when this happpens.
We havn't quite got to the bottom of this, but so far as we know it's not
a problem with GHC itself. Nevertheless, just to keep life simple we usually
put GHC in a place with a space-free path.
Installing ghc-win32 FAQ
I'm having trouble with symlinks.
Symlinks only work under Cygwin (), so binaries
not linked to the Cygwin DLL, in particular those built for Mingwin, will not
work with symlinks.
I'm getting “permission denied” messages from the rm or
mv.
This can have various causes: trying to rename a directory when an Explorer
window is open on it tends to fail. Closing the window generally cures the
problem, but sometimes its cause is more mysterious, and logging off and back
on or rebooting may be the quickest cure.
The layout of installed files
This section describes what files get installed where. You don't need to know it
if you are simply installing GHC, but it is vital information if you are changing
the implementation.
GHC is installed in two directory trees:Library directory, known as $(libdir), holds all the
support files needed to run GHC. On Unix, this
directory is usually something like /usr/lib/ghc/ghc-5.02. Binary directory known as $(bindir), holds executables that
the user is expected to invoke.
Notably, it contains
ghc and ghci. On Unix, this directory
can be anywhere, but is typically something like /usr/local/bin. On Windows,
however, this directory must be$(libdir)/bin.
When GHC runs, it must know where its library directory is.
It finds this out in one of two ways:
$(libdir) is passed to GHC using the flag.
On Unix (but not Windows), the installed ghc is just a one-line
shell script that invokes the real GHC, passing a suitable flag.
[All the user-supplied flags
follow, and a later flag overrides an earlier one, so a user-supplied
one wins.]
On Windows (but not Unix), if no flag is given, GHC uses a system
call to find the directory in which the running GHC executable lives, and derives
$(libdir) from that. [Unix lacks such a system call.]
That is why $(bindir) must be $(libdir)/bin.
The binary directoryThe binary directory, $(bindir) contains user-visible
executables, notably ghc and ghci.
You should add it to your $PATHOn Unix, the user-invokable ghc invokes $(libdir)/ghc-version,
passing a suitable flag to tell ghc-version where
$(libdir) is.
Similarly ghci, except the extra flag --interactive is passed.
On Win32, the user-invokable ghc binary
is the Real Thing (no intervening
shell scripts or .bat files).
Reason: we sometimes invoke GHC with very long command lines,
and cmd.exe (which executes .bat files)
truncates them. Similarly ghci is a C wrapper program that invokes ghc --interactive
(passing on all other arguments), not a .bat file.
The library directoryThe layout of the library directory, $(libdir) is almost identical on
Windows and Unix, as follows. Differences between Windows and Unix
are noted thus [Win32 only] and are commented below.
$(libdir)/
package.conf GHC package configuration
ghc-usage.txt Message displayed by ghc ––help
bin/ [Win32 only] User-visible binaries
ghc.exe
ghci.exe
unlit Remove literate markup
touchy.exe [Win32 only]
perl.exe [Win32 only]
gcc.exe [Win32 only]
ghc-x.xx GHC executable [Unix only]
ghc-split Asm code splitter
ghc-asm Asm code mangler
gcc-lib/ [Win32 only] Support files for gcc
specs gcc configuration
cpp0.exe gcc support binaries
as.exe
ld.exe
crt0.o Standard
..etc.. binaries
libmingw32.a Standard
..etc.. libraries
*.h Include files
imports/ GHC interface files
std/*.hi 'std' library
lang/*.hi 'lang' library
..etc..
include/ C header files
StgMacros.h GHC-specific
..etc... header files
mingw/*.h [Win32 only] Mingwin header files
libHSrts.a GHC library archives
libHSstd.a
libHSlang.a
..etc..
HSstd1.o GHC library linkables
HSstd2.o (used by ghci, which does
HSlang.o not grok .a files yet)
Note that:
$(libdir) also contains support
binaries. These are not expected to be
on the user's PATH, but and are invoked
directly by GHC. In the Makefile system, this directory is
also called $(libexecdir), but
you are not free to change it. It must
be the same as $(libdir).We distribute gcc with the Win32 distribution of GHC, so that users
don't need to install gcc, nor need to care about which version it is.
All gcc's support files are kept in $(libdir)/gcc-lib/.
Similarly, we distribute perl and a touch
replacement (touchy.exe)
with the Win32 distribution of GHC. The support programs ghc-split
and ghc-asm are Perl scripts. The
first line says #!/bin/perl; on Unix, the
script is indeed invoked as a shell script, which invokes
Perl; on Windows, GHC invokes
$(libdir)/perl.exe directly, which
treats the #!/bin/perl as a comment.
Reason: on Windows we want to invoke the Perl distributed
with GHC, rather than assume some installed one.