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 or building the documentation (). 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 Linux/x86RPM source & binary packages for RedHat 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, fptools, 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).
man/
contains Unix manual pages.
Installing
OK, so let's assume that you have unpacked your chosen bundles into a
scratch directory fptools. What next? Well, you will at least need
to run the configureconfigure script by changing your
directory to fptools 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 an fptools 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 (GHC) to run on Windows platforms can
be a bit of a trying experience. It should be much easier now than in the
past, since all the software required to use GHC is included in
the InstallShield.
An installation of GHC requires about 70M of disk space.
To run GHC comfortably, your machine should have at least
64M of memory.
Installing GHC
Download the latest GHC distribution (ghc-5.02 InstallShield installer, 24M)
from haskell.org
It is packaged up using an installer that should be familiar-looking to
Windows users.
Note: GHC's support for file names containing
spaces is not 100%, so make sure that you install ghc in a directory
that has no embedded spaces (i.e., resist the temptation to put it
in /Program Files/!)
When the installer has completed, make sure you add the location of the
ghc bin/ directory to your path (e.g.
C:/ghc/ghc-5.02/bin).
You need to do this in order to bring the various GHC binaries into scope.
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$
OK, assuming that worked, you're all set. Go forth and write useful
Haskell programs :-) If not, consult the installation FAQ (); if that still doesn't help then please report the problems you're experiencing (see ).
Further information on using GHC under Windows can be found in Sigbjørn Finne's
pages. Note: ignore the installation instructions, which are rather
out of date; the Miscellaneous section at the bottom of
the page is of most interest, covering topics beyond the scope of this
manual.
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:Binary directory known as $(bindir), holds executables that
the user is expected to invoke. Notably,
ghc and ghci. On Unix, this directory
is typically something like /usr/local/bin. On Windows,
however, this directory is always $(libdir)/bin.
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.
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.]
Layout of the library directory
The layout of the library directory is almost identical on Windows and Unix,
as follows:
layout:
$(libdir)/
package.conf GHC package configuration
ghc-usage.txt Message displayed by ghc --help
bin/ [Win32 only] User-visible binaries
ghc.exe
ghci.bat
extra-bin/ Support binaries
unlit Remove literate markup
touchy.exe [Win32 only]
perl.exe [Win32 only]
gcc.exe [Win32 only]
ghc [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:On Win32, the $(libdir)/bin directory contains user-visible binaries;
add it to you PATH. The ghci executable is a .bat
file which invokes ghc. The GHC executable 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. [We assume people won't invoke ghci with very long
command lines.]On Unix, the user-invokable ghc invokes $(libdir)/extra-bin/ghc,
passing a suitable flag.
$(libdir)/extra-bin/ 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 called
$(libexecdir), but you aren't free to change it. It must
be $(libdir)/extra-bin/.
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)/extra-bin/perl 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.
Building the documentation
We use the DocBook DTD, which is widely used. Most shrink-wrapped
distributions seem to be broken in one way or another; thanks to
heroic efforts by Sven Panne and Manuel Chakravarty, we now support
most of them, plus properly installed versions.
Instructions on installing and configuring the DocBook tools follow.
Installing the DocBook tools from RPMs If you're using a system that can handle RedHat RPM packages,
you can probably use the Cygnus DocBook
tools, which is the most shrink-wrapped SGML suite that we
could find. You need all the RPMs except for psgml (i.e.
docbook, jade,
jadetex, sgmlcommon and
stylesheets). Note that most of these RPMs are
architecture neutral, so are likely to be found in a
noarch directory. The SuSE RPMs also work; the
RedHat ones don't in RedHat 6.2 (7.0 and later
should be OK), but they are easy to fix: just make a symlink from
/usr/lib/sgml/stylesheets/nwalsh-modular/lib/dblib.dsl
to /usr/lib/sgml/lib/dblib.dsl. Installing DocBook on FreeBSDOn FreeBSD systems, the easiest way to get DocBook up and
running is to install it from the ports tree or a pre-compiled
package (packages are available from your local FreeBSD mirror
site).To use the ports tree, do this:
$ cd /usr/ports/textproc/docproj
$ make install
This installs the FreeBSD documentation project tools, which
includes everything needed to format the GHC
documentation.Installing from binaries on Windows
It's a good idea to use Norman Walsh's installation
notes as a guide. You should get version 3.1 of DocBook, and note
that his file test.sgm won't work, as it needs version
3.0. You should unpack Jade into \Jade, along with the
entities, DocBook into \docbook, and the DocBook
stylesheets into \docbook\stylesheets (so they actually
end up in \docbook\stylesheets\docbook).
Installing the DocBook tools from sourceJade
Install OpenJade (Windows binaries are available as well as sources). If you want DVI, PS, or PDF then install JadeTeX from the dsssl
subdirectory. (If you get the error:
! LaTeX Error: Unknown option implicit=false' for package hyperref'.
your version of hyperref is out of date; download it from
CTAN (macros/latex/contrib/supported/hyperref), and
make it, ensuring that you have first removed or renamed your old copy. If
you start getting file not found errors when making the test for
hyperref, you can abort at that point and proceed
straight to make install, or enter them as
../filename.)
Make links from virtex to jadetex
and pdfvirtex to pdfjadetex
(otherwise DVI, PostScript and PDF output will not work). Copy
dsssl/*.{dtd,dsl} and catalog to /usr/[local/]lib/sgml.
DocBook and the DocBook stylesheets
Get a Zip of DocBook
and install the contents in /usr/[local/]/lib/sgml.
Get the DocBook
stylesheets and install in
/usr/[local/]lib/sgml/stylesheets (thereby creating a
subdirectory docbook). For indexing, copy or link collateindex.pl from the DocBook stylesheets archive in bin into a directory on your PATH.
Download the ISO
entities into /usr/[local/]lib/sgml.
Configuring the DocBook tools
Once the DocBook tools are installed, the configure script will detect them and set up the build system accordingly. If you have a system that isn't supported, let us know, and we'll try to help.
Remaining problems
If you install from source, you'll get a pile of warnings of the form
DTDDECL catalog entries are not supported
every time you build anything. These can safely be ignored, but if you find them tedious you can get rid of them by removing all the DTDDECL entries from docbook.cat.