</sect3>
<sect3>
- <title>The <literal>:main</literal> command</title>
+ <title>The <literal>:main</literal> and <literal>:run</literal> commands</title>
<para>
When a program is compiled and executed, it can use the
["foo","bar"]
</screen>
+ <para>
+ We can also quote arguments which contains characters like
+ spaces, and they are treated like Haskell strings, or we can
+ just use Haskell list syntax:
+ </para>
+
+<screen>
+Prelude> :main foo "bar baz"
+["foo","bar baz"]
+Prelude> :main ["foo", "bar baz"]
+["foo","bar baz"]
+</screen>
+
+ <para>
+ Finally, other functions can be called, either with the
+ <literal>-main-is</literal> flag or the <literal>:run</literal>
+ command:
+ </para>
+
+<screen>
+Prelude> let foo = putStrLn "foo" >> System.Environment.getArgs >>= print
+Prelude> let bar = putStrLn "bar" >> System.Environment.getArgs >>= print
+Prelude> :set -main-is foo
+Prelude> :main foo "bar baz"
+foo
+["foo","bar baz"]
+Prelude> :run bar ["foo", "bar baz"]
+bar
+["foo","bar baz"]
+</screen>
+
</sect3>
</sect2>
["foo","bar"]
</screen>
+ <para>
+ We can also quote arguments which contains characters like
+ spaces, and they are treated like Haskell strings, or we can
+ just use Haskell list syntax:
+ </para>
+
+<screen>
+Prelude> :main foo "bar baz"
+["foo","bar baz"]
+Prelude> :main ["foo", "bar baz"]
+["foo","bar baz"]
+</screen>
+
+ <para>
+ Finally, other functions can be called, either with the
+ <literal>-main-is</literal> flag or the <literal>:run</literal>
+ command:
+ </para>
+
+<screen>
+Prelude> let foo = putStrLn "foo" >> System.Environment.getArgs >>= print
+Prelude> let bar = putStrLn "bar" >> System.Environment.getArgs >>= print
+Prelude> :set -main-is foo
+Prelude> :main foo "bar baz"
+foo
+["foo","bar baz"]
+Prelude> :run bar ["foo", "bar baz"]
+bar
+["foo","bar baz"]
+</screen>
+
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</indexterm>
<para>When it starts, unless the <literal>-ignore-dot-ghci</literal>
- flag is given, GHCi reads and executes commands from
- <filename>./.ghci</filename>, followed by
- <filename>$HOME/.ghci</filename>.</para>
-
- <para>The <filename>.ghci</filename> in your home directory is
- most useful for turning on favourite options (eg. <literal>:set
- +s</literal>), and defining useful macros. Placing a
- <filename>.ghci</filename> file in a directory with a Haskell
- project is a useful way to set certain project-wide options so you
- don't have to type them everytime you start GHCi: eg. if your
- project uses GHC extensions and CPP, and has source files in three
- subdirectories A, B and C, you might put the following lines in
+ flag is given, GHCi reads and executes commands from the following
+ files, in this order, if they exist:</para>
+
+ <orderedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para><filename>./.ghci</filename></para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para><literal><replaceable>appdata</replaceable>/ghc/ghci.conf</literal>,
+ where <replaceable>appdata</replaceable> depends on your system,
+ but is usually something like <literal>C:/Documents and Settings/<replaceable>user</replaceable>/Application Data</literal></para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>On Unix: <literal>$HOME/.ghc/ghci.conf</literal></para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para><literal>$HOME/.ghci</literal></para>
+ </listitem>
+ </orderedlist>
+
+ <para>The <filename>ghci.conf</filename> file is most useful for
+ turning on favourite options (eg. <literal>:set +s</literal>), and
+ defining useful macros. Placing a <filename>.ghci</filename> file
+ in a directory with a Haskell project is a useful way to set
+ certain project-wide options so you don't have to type them
+ everytime you start GHCi: eg. if your project uses GHC extensions
+ and CPP, and has source files in three subdirectories A, B and C,
+ you might put the following lines in
<filename>.ghci</filename>:</para>
<screen>
until the next <literal>:load</literal>, though.)</para>
<para>Two command-line options control whether the
- <filename>.ghci</filename> files are read:</para>
+ startup files files are read:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<indexterm><primary><option>-ignore-dot-ghci</option></primary></indexterm>
</term>
<listitem>
- <para>Don't read either <filename>./.ghci</filename> or
- <filename>$HOME/.ghci</filename> when starting up.</para>
+ <para>Don't read either <filename>./.ghci</filename> or the
+ other startup files when starting up.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<indexterm><primary><option>-read-dot-ghci</option></primary></indexterm>
</term>
<listitem>
- <para>Read <filename>.ghci</filename> and
- <filename>$HOME/.ghci</filename>. This is normally the
+ <para>Read <filename>./.ghci</filename> and the other
+ startup files (see above). This is normally the
default, but the <option>-read-dot-ghci</option> option may
be used to override a previous
<option>-ignore-dot-ghci</option> option.</para>