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<chapter id="ghci">
  <title>Using GHCi</title>
  <indexterm><primary>GHCi</primary></indexterm>
  <indexterm><primary>interpreter</primary><see>GHCi</see></indexterm>
  <indexterm><primary>interactive</primary><see>GHCi</see></indexterm>
  
  <para>GHCi<footnote>
      <para>The &lsquo;i&rsquo; stands for &ldquo;Interactive&rdquo;</para>
    </footnote>
  is GHC's interactive environment, in which Haskell expressions can
  be interactively evaluated and programs can be interpreted.  If
  you're familiar with <ulink url="http://www.haskell.org/hugs/">Hugs</ulink><indexterm><primary>Hugs</primary>
  </indexterm>, then you'll be right at home with GHCi.  However, GHCi
  also has support for interactively loading compiled code, as well as
  supporting all<footnote><para>except <literal>foreign export</literal>, at the moment</para>
  </footnote> the language extensions that GHC provides.
  <indexterm><primary>FFI</primary><secondary>GHCi support</secondary></indexterm>
  <indexterm><primary>Foreign Function
  Interface</primary><secondary>GHCi support</secondary></indexterm>.
  GHCi also includes an interactive debugger (see <xref linkend="ghci-debugger"/>).</para>

  <sect1 id="ghci-introduction">
    <title>Introduction to GHCi</title>

    <para>Let's start with an example GHCi session.  You can fire up
    GHCi with the command <literal>ghci</literal>:</para>

<screen>
$ ghci
GHCi, version 6.8.1: http://www.haskell.org/ghc/  :? for help
Loading package base ... linking ... done.
Prelude> 
</screen>

    <para>There may be a short pause while GHCi loads the prelude and
    standard libraries, after which the prompt is shown. As the banner
    says, you can type <literal>:?</literal> to see the list of commands
    available, and a half line description of each of them.</para>

    <para>We'll explain most of these commands as we go along.  For
    Hugs users: many things work the same as in Hugs, so you should be
    able to get going straight away.</para>

    <para>Haskell expressions can be typed at the prompt:</para>
    <indexterm><primary>prompt</primary><secondary>GHCi</secondary>
  </indexterm>

<screen>
Prelude> 1+2
3
Prelude> let x = 42 in x / 9
4.666666666666667
Prelude> 
</screen>

    <para>GHCi interprets the whole line as an expression to evaluate.
    The expression may not span several lines - as soon as you press
    enter, GHCi will attempt to evaluate it.</para>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="loading-source-files">
    <title>Loading source files</title>

    <para>Suppose we have the following Haskell source code, which we
    place in a file <filename>Main.hs</filename>:</para>

<programlisting>
main = print (fac 20)

fac 0 = 1
fac n = n * fac (n-1)
</programlisting>

    <para>You can save <filename>Main.hs</filename> anywhere you like,
    but if you save it somewhere other than the current
    directory<footnote><para>If you started up GHCi from the command
    line then GHCi's current directory is the same as the current
    directory of the shell from which it was started.  If you started
    GHCi from the &ldquo;Start&rdquo; menu in Windows, then the
    current directory is probably something like
    <filename>C:\Documents and Settings\<replaceable>user
    name</replaceable></filename>.</para> </footnote> then we will
    need to change to the right directory in GHCi:</para>

<screen>
Prelude> :cd <replaceable>dir</replaceable>
</screen>

    <para>where <replaceable>dir</replaceable> is the directory (or
    folder) in which you saved <filename>Main.hs</filename>.</para>

    <para>To load a Haskell source file into GHCi, use the
    <literal>:load</literal> command:</para>
    <indexterm><primary><literal>:load</literal></primary></indexterm>

<screen>
Prelude> :load Main
Compiling Main             ( Main.hs, interpreted )
Ok, modules loaded: Main.
*Main>
</screen>

    <para>GHCi has loaded the <literal>Main</literal> module, and the
    prompt has changed to &ldquo;<literal>*Main></literal>&rdquo; to
    indicate that the current context for expressions typed at the
    prompt is the <literal>Main</literal> module we just loaded (we'll
    explain what the <literal>*</literal> means later in <xref
    linkend="ghci-scope"/>).  So we can now type expressions involving
    the functions from <filename>Main.hs</filename>:</para>

<screen>
*Main> fac 17
355687428096000
</screen>

    <para>Loading a multi-module program is just as straightforward;
    just give the name of the &ldquo;topmost&rdquo; module to the
    <literal>:load</literal> command (hint: <literal>:load</literal>
    can be abbreviated to <literal>:l</literal>).  The topmost module
    will normally be <literal>Main</literal>, but it doesn't have to
    be.  GHCi will discover which modules are required, directly or
    indirectly, by the topmost module, and load them all in dependency
    order.</para>

    <sect2 id="ghci-modules-filenames">
      <title>Modules vs. filenames</title>
      <indexterm><primary>modules</primary><secondary>and filenames</secondary></indexterm>
      <indexterm><primary>filenames</primary><secondary>of modules</secondary></indexterm>
      
      <para>Question: How does GHC find the filename which contains
      module <replaceable>M</replaceable>?  Answer: it looks for the
      file <literal><replaceable>M</replaceable>.hs</literal>, or
      <literal><replaceable>M</replaceable>.lhs</literal>.  This means
      that for most modules, the module name must match the filename.
      If it doesn't, GHCi won't be able to find it.</para>

      <para>There is one exception to this general rule: when you load
      a program with <literal>:load</literal>, or specify it when you
      invoke <literal>ghci</literal>, you can give a filename rather
      than a module name.  This filename is loaded if it exists, and
      it may contain any module you like.  This is particularly
      convenient if you have several <literal>Main</literal> modules
      in the same directory and you can't call them all
      <filename>Main.hs</filename>.</para>

      <para>The search path for finding source files is specified with
      the <option>-i</option> option on the GHCi command line, like
      so:</para>
<screen>ghci -i<replaceable>dir<subscript>1</subscript></replaceable>:...:<replaceable>dir<subscript>n</subscript></replaceable></screen>

      <para>or it can be set using the <literal>:set</literal> command
      from within GHCi (see <xref
      linkend="ghci-cmd-line-options"/>)<footnote><para>Note that in
      GHCi, and <option>&ndash;&ndash;make</option> mode, the <option>-i</option>
      option is used to specify the search path for
      <emphasis>source</emphasis> files, whereas in standard
      batch-compilation mode the <option>-i</option> option is used to
      specify the search path for interface files, see <xref
      linkend="search-path"/>.</para> </footnote></para>

      <para>One consequence of the way that GHCi follows dependencies
      to find modules to load is that every module must have a source
      file.  The only exception to the rule is modules that come from
      a package, including the <literal>Prelude</literal> and standard
      libraries such as <literal>IO</literal> and
      <literal>Complex</literal>.  If you attempt to load a module for
      which GHCi can't find a source file, even if there are object
      and interface files for the module, you'll get an error
      message.</para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2>
      <title>Making changes and recompilation</title>
      <indexterm><primary><literal>:reload</literal></primary></indexterm>

      <para>If you make some changes to the source code and want GHCi
      to recompile the program, give the <literal>:reload</literal>
      command.  The program will be recompiled as necessary, with GHCi
      doing its best to avoid actually recompiling modules if their
      external dependencies haven't changed.  This is the same
      mechanism we use to avoid re-compiling modules in the batch
      compilation setting (see <xref linkend="recomp"/>).</para>
    </sect2>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="ghci-compiled">
    <title>Loading compiled code</title>
    <indexterm><primary>compiled code</primary><secondary>in GHCi</secondary></indexterm>

    <para>When you load a Haskell source module into GHCi, it is
    normally converted to byte-code and run using the interpreter.
    However, interpreted code can also run alongside compiled code in
    GHCi; indeed, normally when GHCi starts, it loads up a compiled
    copy of the <literal>base</literal> package, which contains the
    <literal>Prelude</literal>.</para>

    <para>Why should we want to run compiled code?  Well, compiled
    code is roughly 10x faster than interpreted code, but takes about
    2x longer to produce (perhaps longer if optimisation is on).  So
    it pays to compile the parts of a program that aren't changing
    very often, and use the interpreter for the code being actively
    developed.</para>

    <para>When loading up source files with <literal>:load</literal>,
    GHCi looks for any corresponding compiled object files, and will
    use one in preference to interpreting the source if possible.  For
    example, suppose we have a 4-module program consisting of modules
    A, B, C, and D.  Modules B and C both import D only,
    and A imports both B &amp; C:</para>
<screen>
      A
     / \
    B   C
     \ /
      D
</screen>
    <para>We can compile D, then load the whole program, like this:</para>
<screen>
Prelude> :! ghc -c D.hs
Prelude> :load A
Compiling B                ( B.hs, interpreted )
Compiling C                ( C.hs, interpreted )
Compiling A                ( A.hs, interpreted )
Ok, modules loaded: A, B, C, D.
*Main>
</screen>

    <para>In the messages from the compiler, we see that there is no line
    for <literal>D</literal>. This is because
    it isn't necessary to compile <literal>D</literal>,
    because the source and everything it depends on
    is unchanged since the last compilation.</para>

    <para>At any time you can use the command 
    <literal>:show modules</literal>
    to get a list of the modules currently loaded
    into GHCi:</para>

<screen>
*Main> :show modules
D                ( D.hs, D.o )
C                ( C.hs, interpreted )
B                ( B.hs, interpreted )
A                ( A.hs, interpreted )
*Main></screen>

    <para>If we now modify the source of D (or pretend to: using the Unix
    command <literal>touch</literal> on the source file is handy for
    this), the compiler will no longer be able to use the object file,
    because it might be out of date:</para>

<screen>
*Main> :! touch D.hs
*Main> :reload
Compiling D                ( D.hs, interpreted )
Ok, modules loaded: A, B, C, D.
*Main> 
</screen>

    <para>Note that module D was compiled, but in this instance
    because its source hadn't really changed, its interface remained
    the same, and the recompilation checker determined that A, B and C
    didn't need to be recompiled.</para>

    <para>So let's try compiling one of the other modules:</para>

<screen>
*Main> :! ghc -c C.hs
*Main> :load A
Compiling D                ( D.hs, interpreted )
Compiling B                ( B.hs, interpreted )
Compiling C                ( C.hs, interpreted )
Compiling A                ( A.hs, interpreted )
Ok, modules loaded: A, B, C, D.
</screen>

    <para>We didn't get the compiled version of C!  What happened?
    Well, in GHCi a compiled module may only depend on other compiled
    modules, and in this case C depends on D, which doesn't have an
    object file, so GHCi also rejected C's object file.  Ok, so let's
    also compile D:</para>

<screen>
*Main> :! ghc -c D.hs
*Main> :reload
Ok, modules loaded: A, B, C, D.
</screen>

    <para>Nothing happened!  Here's another lesson: newly compiled
    modules aren't picked up by <literal>:reload</literal>, only
    <literal>:load</literal>:</para>

<screen>
*Main> :load A
Compiling B                ( B.hs, interpreted )
Compiling A                ( A.hs, interpreted )
Ok, modules loaded: A, B, C, D.
</screen>

    <para>HINT: since GHCi will only use a compiled object file if it
    can be sure that the compiled version is up-to-date, a good technique
    when working on a large program is to occasionally run
    <literal>ghc &ndash;&ndash;make</literal> to compile the whole project (say
    before you go for lunch :-), then continue working in the
    interpreter.  As you modify code, the changed modules will be
    interpreted, but the rest of the project will remain
    compiled.</para>

  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="interactive-evaluation">
    <title>Interactive evaluation at the prompt</title>

    <para>When you type an expression at the prompt, GHCi immediately
    evaluates and prints the result:
<screen>
Prelude> reverse "hello"
"olleh"
Prelude> 5+5
10
</screen>
</para>

<sect2><title>I/O actions at the prompt</title>

<para>GHCi does more than simple expression evaluation at the prompt.
If you type something of type <literal>IO a</literal> for some
    <literal>a</literal>, then GHCi <emphasis>executes</emphasis> it
    as an IO-computation.
<screen>
Prelude> "hello"
"hello"
Prelude> putStrLn "hello"
hello
</screen>
Furthermore, GHCi will print the result of the I/O action if (and only
if):
<itemizedlist>
  <listitem><para>The result type is an instance of <literal>Show</literal>.</para></listitem>
  <listitem><para>The result type is not
  <literal>()</literal>.</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
For example, remembering that <literal>putStrLn :: String -> IO ()</literal>:
<screen>
Prelude> putStrLn "hello"
hello
Prelude> do { putStrLn "hello"; return "yes" }
hello
"yes"
</screen>
</para></sect2>

    <sect2 id="ghci-stmts">
      <title>Using <literal>do-</literal>notation at the prompt</title>
      <indexterm><primary>do-notation</primary><secondary>in GHCi</secondary></indexterm>
      <indexterm><primary>statements</primary><secondary>in GHCi</secondary></indexterm>
      
      <para>GHCi actually accepts <firstterm>statements</firstterm>
      rather than just expressions at the prompt.  This means you can
      bind values and functions to names, and use them in future
      expressions or statements.</para>

      <para>The syntax of a statement accepted at the GHCi prompt is
      exactly the same as the syntax of a statement in a Haskell
      <literal>do</literal> expression.  However, there's no monad
      overloading here: statements typed at the prompt must be in the
      <literal>IO</literal> monad.
<screen>
Prelude> x &lt;- return 42
Prelude> print x
42
Prelude>
</screen>
      The statement <literal>x &lt;- return 42</literal> means
      &ldquo;execute <literal>return 42</literal> in the
      <literal>IO</literal> monad, and bind the result to
      <literal>x</literal>&rdquo;.  We can then use
      <literal>x</literal> in future statements, for example to print
      it as we did above.</para>

      <para>If <option>-fprint-bind-result</option> is set then
      GHCi will print the result of a statement if and only if: 
        <itemizedlist>
          <listitem>
            <para>The statement is not a binding, or it is a monadic binding 
              (<literal>p &lt;- e</literal>) that binds exactly one
              variable.</para>
          </listitem>
          <listitem>
            <para>The variable's type is not polymorphic, is not
              <literal>()</literal>, and is an instance of
              <literal>Show</literal></para>
          </listitem>
        </itemizedlist>
      <indexterm><primary><option>-fprint-bind-result</option></primary></indexterm><indexterm><primary><option>-fno-print-bind-result</option></primary></indexterm>.
      </para>

      <para>Of course, you can also bind normal non-IO expressions
      using the <literal>let</literal>-statement:</para>
<screen>
Prelude> let x = 42
Prelude> x
42
Prelude>
</screen>
      <para>Another important difference between the two types of binding
      is that the monadic bind (<literal>p &lt;- e</literal>) is
      <emphasis>strict</emphasis> (it evaluates <literal>e</literal>),
      whereas with the <literal>let</literal> form, the expression
      isn't evaluated immediately:</para>
<screen>
Prelude> let x = error "help!"
Prelude> print x
*** Exception: help!
Prelude>
</screen>

      <para>Note that <literal>let</literal> bindings do not automatically
        print the value bound, unlike monadic bindings.</para>

      <para>Hint: you can also use <literal>let</literal>-statements
      to define functions at the prompt:</para>
<screen>
Prelude> let add a b = a + b
Prelude> add 1 2
3
Prelude>
</screen>
        <para>However, this quickly gets tedious when defining functions 
        with multiple clauses, or groups of mutually recursive functions,
        because the complete definition has to be given on a single line, 
        using explicit braces and semicolons instead of layout:</para>
<screen>
Prelude> let { f op n [] = n ; f op n (h:t) = h `op` f op n t }
Prelude> f (+) 0 [1..3]
6
Prelude>
</screen>
      <para>To alleviate this issue, GHCi commands can be split over
      multiple lines, by wrapping them in <literal>:{</literal> and
      <literal>:}</literal> (each on a single line of its own):</para>
<screen>
Prelude> :{
Prelude| let { g op n [] = n
Prelude|     ; g op n (h:t) = h `op` g op n t
Prelude|     }
Prelude| :}
Prelude> g (*) 1 [1..3]
6
</screen>
      <para>Such multiline commands can be used with any GHCi command,
      and the lines between <literal>:{</literal> and
      <literal>:}</literal> are simply merged into a single line for 
      interpretation. That implies that each such group must form a single
      valid command when merged, and that no layout rule is used. 
      The main purpose of multiline commands is not to replace module
      loading but to make definitions in .ghci-files (see <xref
      linkend="ghci-dot-files"/>) more readable and maintainable.</para>

      <para>Any exceptions raised during the evaluation or execution
      of the statement are caught and printed by the GHCi command line
      interface (for more information on exceptions, see the module
      <literal>Control.Exception</literal> in the libraries
      documentation).</para>

      <para>Every new binding shadows any existing bindings of the
      same name, including entities that are in scope in the current
      module context.</para>

      <para>WARNING: temporary bindings introduced at the prompt only
      last until the next <literal>:load</literal> or
      <literal>:reload</literal> command, at which time they will be
      simply lost.  However, they do survive a change of context with
      <literal>:module</literal>: the temporary bindings just move to
      the new location.</para>

      <para>HINT: To get a list of the bindings currently in scope, use the
      <literal>:show bindings</literal> command:</para>

<screen>
Prelude> :show bindings
x :: Int
Prelude></screen>

      <para>HINT: if you turn on the <literal>+t</literal> option,
      GHCi will show the type of each variable bound by a statement.
      For example:</para>
      <indexterm><primary><literal>+t</literal></primary></indexterm>
<screen>
Prelude> :set +t
Prelude> let (x:xs) = [1..]
x :: Integer
xs :: [Integer]
</screen>

    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="ghci-scope">
      <title>What's really in scope at the prompt?</title> 

      <para>When you type an expression at the prompt, what
      identifiers and types are in scope?  GHCi provides a flexible
      way to control exactly how the context for an expression is
      constructed.  Let's start with the simple cases; when you start
      GHCi the prompt looks like this:</para>

<screen>Prelude></screen>

      <para>Which indicates that everything from the module
      <literal>Prelude</literal> is currently in scope.  If we now
      load a file into GHCi, the prompt will change:</para>

<screen>
Prelude> :load Main.hs
Compiling Main             ( Main.hs, interpreted )
*Main>
</screen>

      <para>The new prompt is <literal>*Main</literal>, which
      indicates that we are typing expressions in the context of the
      top-level of the <literal>Main</literal> module.  Everything
      that is in scope at the top-level in the module
      <literal>Main</literal> we just loaded is also in scope at the
      prompt (probably including <literal>Prelude</literal>, as long
      as <literal>Main</literal> doesn't explicitly hide it).</para>

      <para>The syntax
      <literal>*<replaceable>module</replaceable></literal> indicates
      that it is the full top-level scope of
      <replaceable>module</replaceable> that is contributing to the
      scope for expressions typed at the prompt.  Without the
      <literal>*</literal>, just the exports of the module are
      visible.</para>

      <para>We're not limited to a single module: GHCi can combine
      scopes from multiple modules, in any mixture of
      <literal>*</literal> and non-<literal>*</literal> forms.  GHCi
      combines the scopes from all of these modules to form the scope
      that is in effect at the prompt.  For technical reasons, GHCi
      can only support the <literal>*</literal>-form for modules which
      are interpreted, so compiled modules and package modules can
      only contribute their exports to the current scope.</para>

      <para>The scope is manipulated using the
      <literal>:module</literal> command.  For example, if the current
      scope is <literal>Prelude</literal>, then we can bring into
      scope the exports from the module <literal>IO</literal> like
      so:</para>

<screen>
Prelude> :module +IO
Prelude IO> hPutStrLn stdout "hello\n"
hello
Prelude IO>
</screen>

      <para>(Note: you can use <literal>import M</literal> as an
      alternative to <literal>:module +M</literal>, and
      <literal>:module</literal> can also be shortened to 
      <literal>:m</literal>). The full syntax of the
      <literal>:module</literal> command is:</para>

<screen>
:module <optional>+|-</optional> <optional>*</optional><replaceable>mod<subscript>1</subscript></replaceable> ... <optional>*</optional><replaceable>mod<subscript>n</subscript></replaceable>
</screen>

      <para>Using the <literal>+</literal> form of the
      <literal>module</literal> commands adds modules to the current
      scope, and <literal>-</literal> removes them.  Without either
      <literal>+</literal> or <literal>-</literal>, the current scope
      is replaced by the set of modules specified.  Note that if you
      use this form and leave out <literal>Prelude</literal>, GHCi
      will assume that you really wanted the
      <literal>Prelude</literal> and add it in for you (if you don't
      want the <literal>Prelude</literal>, then ask to remove it with
      <literal>:m -Prelude</literal>).</para>

      <para>The scope is automatically set after a
      <literal>:load</literal> command, to the most recently loaded
      "target" module, in a <literal>*</literal>-form if possible.
      For example, if you say <literal>:load foo.hs bar.hs</literal>
      and <filename>bar.hs</filename> contains module
      <literal>Bar</literal>, then the scope will be set to
      <literal>*Bar</literal> if <literal>Bar</literal> is
      interpreted, or if <literal>Bar</literal> is compiled it will be
      set to <literal>Prelude Bar</literal> (GHCi automatically adds
      <literal>Prelude</literal> if it isn't present and there aren't
      any <literal>*</literal>-form modules).</para>

      <para>With multiple modules in scope, especially multiple
      <literal>*</literal>-form modules, it is likely that name
      clashes will occur.  Haskell specifies that name clashes are
      only reported when an ambiguous identifier is used, and GHCi
      behaves in the same way for expressions typed at the
      prompt.</para>

      <para>
        Hint: GHCi will tab-complete names that are in scope; for
        example, if you run GHCi and type <literal>J&lt;tab&gt;</literal>
        then GHCi will expand it to &ldquo;<literal>Just </literal>&rdquo;.
      </para>

      <sect3>
        <title>Qualified names</title>

        <para>To make life slightly easier, the GHCi prompt also
        behaves as if there is an implicit <literal>import
        qualified</literal> declaration for every module in every
        package, and every module currently loaded into GHCi.</para>
      </sect3>

      <sect3>
        <title>The <literal>:main</literal> and <literal>:run</literal> commands</title>

        <para>
          When a program is compiled and executed, it can use the
          <literal>getArgs</literal> function to access the
          command-line arguments.
          However, we cannot simply pass the arguments to the
          <literal>main</literal> function while we are testing in ghci,
          as the <literal>main</literal> function doesn't take its
          directly.
        </para>

        <para>
          Instead, we can use the <literal>:main</literal> command.
          This runs whatever <literal>main</literal> is in scope, with
          any arguments being treated the same as command-line arguments,
          e.g.:
        </para>

<screen>
Prelude> let main = System.Environment.getArgs >>= print
Prelude> :main foo bar
["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>
  

    <sect2>
      <title>The <literal>it</literal> variable</title>
      <indexterm><primary><literal>it</literal></primary>
      </indexterm>
      
      <para>Whenever an expression (or a non-binding statement, to be
      precise) is typed at the prompt, GHCi implicitly binds its value
      to the variable <literal>it</literal>.  For example:</para>
<screen>
Prelude> 1+2
3
Prelude> it * 2
6
</screen>
    <para>What actually happens is that GHCi typechecks the
    expression, and if it doesn't have an <literal>IO</literal> type,
    then it transforms it as follows: an expression
    <replaceable>e</replaceable> turns into 
<screen>
let it = <replaceable>e</replaceable>;
print it
</screen>
    which is then run as an IO-action.</para>

    <para>Hence, the original expression must have a type which is an
    instance of the <literal>Show</literal> class, or GHCi will
    complain:</para>

<screen>
Prelude&gt; id

&lt;interactive&gt;:1:0:
    No instance for (Show (a -&gt; a))
      arising from use of `print' at &lt;interactive&gt;:1:0-1
    Possible fix: add an instance declaration for (Show (a -> a))
    In the expression: print it
    In a 'do' expression: print it
</screen>

    <para>The error message contains some clues as to the
    transformation happening internally.</para>

      <para>If the expression was instead of type <literal>IO a</literal> for
      some <literal>a</literal>, then <literal>it</literal> will be
      bound to the result of the <literal>IO</literal> computation,
      which is of type <literal>a</literal>.  eg.:</para>
<screen>
Prelude> Time.getClockTime
Wed Mar 14 12:23:13 GMT 2001
Prelude> print it
Wed Mar 14 12:23:13 GMT 2001
</screen>

      <para>The corresponding translation for an IO-typed
      <replaceable>e</replaceable> is
<screen>
it &lt;- <replaceable>e</replaceable>
</screen>
      </para>

      <para>Note that <literal>it</literal> is shadowed by the new
      value each time you evaluate a new expression, and the old value
      of <literal>it</literal> is lost.</para>

    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="extended-default-rules">
      <title>Type defaulting in GHCi</title>
    <indexterm><primary>Type default</primary></indexterm>
    <indexterm><primary><literal>Show</literal> class</primary></indexterm>
      <para>
      Consider this GHCi session:
<programlisting>
  ghci> reverse []
</programlisting>
      What should GHCi do?  Strictly speaking, the program is ambiguous.  <literal>show (reverse [])</literal>
      (which is what GHCi computes here) has type <literal>Show a => a</literal> and how that displays depends 
      on the type <literal>a</literal>.  For example:
<programlisting>
  ghci> (reverse []) :: String
  ""
  ghci> (reverse []) :: [Int]
  []
</programlisting>
    However, it is tiresome for the user to have to specify the type, so GHCi extends Haskell's type-defaulting
    rules (Section 4.3.4 of the Haskell 98 Report (Revised)) as follows.  The
    standard rules take each group of constraints <literal>(C1 a, C2 a, ..., Cn
    a)</literal> for each type variable <literal>a</literal>, and defaults the
    type variable if 
    <orderedlist>
        <listitem>
            <para>
                The type variable <literal>a</literal> appears in no
                other constraints
            </para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
            <para>
                All the classes <literal>Ci</literal> are standard.
            </para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
            <para>
                At least one of the classes <literal>Ci</literal> is
                numeric.
            </para>
        </listitem>
    </orderedlist>
    At the GHCi prompt, or with GHC if the
    <literal>-XExtendedDefaultRules</literal> flag is given,
    the following additional differences apply:
    <itemizedlist>
        <listitem>
            <para>
                Rule 2 above is relaxed thus:
                <emphasis>All</emphasis> of the classes
                <literal>Ci</literal> are single-parameter type classes.
            </para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
            <para>
                Rule 3 above is relaxed this:
                At least one of the classes <literal>Ci</literal> is
                numeric, <emphasis>or is <literal>Show</literal>,
                <literal>Eq</literal>, or
                <literal>Ord</literal></emphasis>.
            </para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
            <para>
                The unit type <literal>()</literal> is added to the
                start of the standard list of types which are tried when
                doing type defaulting.
            </para>
        </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>
    The last point means that, for example, this program:
<programlisting>
main :: IO ()
main = print def

instance Num ()

def :: (Num a, Enum a) => a
def = toEnum 0
</programlisting>
    prints <literal>()</literal> rather than <literal>0</literal> as the
    type is defaulted to <literal>()</literal> rather than
    <literal>Integer</literal>.
   </para>
   <para>
    The motivation for the change is that it means <literal>IO a</literal>
    actions default to <literal>IO ()</literal>, which in turn means that
    ghci won't try to print a result when running them. This is
    particularly important for <literal>printf</literal>, which has an
    instance that returns <literal>IO a</literal>.
    However, it is only able to return
    <literal>undefined</literal>
    (the reason for the instance having this type is so that printf
    doesn't require extensions to the class system), so if the type defaults to
    <literal>Integer</literal> then ghci gives an error when running a
    printf.
   </para>
    </sect2>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="ghci-debugger">
    <title>The GHCi Debugger</title>
    <indexterm><primary>debugger</primary><secondary>in GHCi</secondary>
    </indexterm>

    <para>GHCi contains a simple imperative-style debugger in which you can
      stop a running computation in order to examine the values of
      variables.  The debugger is integrated into GHCi, and is turned on by
      default: no flags are required to enable the debugging facilities.  There
      is one major restriction: breakpoints and single-stepping are only
      available in <emphasis>interpreted</emphasis> modules; compiled code is
      invisible to the debugger.</para>

    <para>The debugger provides the following:
    <itemizedlist>
        <listitem>
          <para>The ability to set a <firstterm>breakpoint</firstterm> on a
            function definition or expression in the program.  When the function
            is called, or the expression evaluated, GHCi suspends 
            execution and returns to the prompt, where you can inspect the
            values of local variables before continuing with the
            execution.</para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
          <para>Execution can be <firstterm>single-stepped</firstterm>: the
            evaluator will suspend execution approximately after every
            reduction, allowing local variables to be inspected.  This is
            equivalent to setting a breakpoint at every point in the
            program.</para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
          <para>Execution can take place in <firstterm>tracing
              mode</firstterm>, in which the evaluator remembers each
            evaluation step as it happens, but doesn't suspend execution until
            an actual breakpoint is reached.  When this happens, the history of
            evaluation steps can be inspected.</para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
          <para>Exceptions (e.g. pattern matching failure and
            <literal>error</literal>) can be treated as breakpoints, to help
            locate the source of an exception in the program.</para>
        </listitem>
      </itemizedlist>
    </para>
      
    <para>There is currently no support for obtaining a &ldquo;stack
      trace&rdquo;, but the tracing and history features provide a useful
      second-best, which will often be enough to establish the context of an
      error.</para>
      
    <sect2 id="breakpoints">
      <title>Breakpoints and inspecting variables</title>
      
      <para>Let's use quicksort as a running example.  Here's the code:</para>

<programlisting>
qsort [] = [] 
qsort (a:as) = qsort left ++ [a] ++ qsort right
  where (left,right) = (filter (&lt;=a) as, filter (&gt;a) as)

main = print (qsort [8, 4, 0, 3, 1, 23, 11, 18])
</programlisting>

      <para>First, load the module into GHCi:</para>

<screen>
Prelude> :l qsort.hs
[1 of 1] Compiling Main             ( qsort.hs, interpreted )
Ok, modules loaded: Main.
*Main>
      </screen>       

      <para>Now, let's set a breakpoint on the right-hand-side of the second
        equation of qsort:</para>

<programlisting>
*Main> :break 2
Breakpoint 0 activated at qsort.hs:2:15-46
*Main>
</programlisting>
      
      <para>The command <literal>:break 2</literal> sets a breakpoint on line
        2 of the most recently-loaded module, in this case
        <literal>qsort.hs</literal>.   Specifically, it picks the
        leftmost complete subexpression on that line on which to set the
        breakpoint, which in this case is the expression 
        <literal>(qsort left ++ [a] ++ qsort right)</literal>.</para>

      <para>Now, we run the program:</para>

<programlisting>
*Main> main
Stopped at qsort.hs:2:15-46
_result :: [a]
a :: a
left :: [a]
right :: [a]
[qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main>
</programlisting>

      <para>Execution has stopped at the breakpoint.  The prompt has changed to
        indicate that we are currently stopped at a breakpoint, and the location:
        <literal>[qsort.hs:2:15-46]</literal>.  To further clarify the
        location, we can use the <literal>:list</literal> command:</para>

<programlisting>
[qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> :list 
1  qsort [] = [] 
2  qsort (a:as) = qsort left ++ [a] ++ qsort right
3    where (left,right) = (filter (&lt;=a) as, filter (&gt;a) as)
</programlisting>

      <para>The <literal>:list</literal> command lists the source code around
        the current breakpoint.  If your output device supports it, then GHCi
        will highlight the active subexpression in bold.</para>

      <para>GHCi has provided bindings for the free variables<footnote><para>We
            originally provided bindings for all variables in scope, rather
            than just
            the free variables of the expression, but found that this affected
            performance considerably, hence the current restriction to just the
            free variables.</para>
        </footnote> of the expression
        on which the
        breakpoint was placed (<literal>a</literal>, <literal>left</literal>,
        <literal>right</literal>), and additionally a binding for the result of
        the expression (<literal>_result</literal>).  These variables are just
        like other variables that you might define in GHCi; you
        can use them in expressions that you type at the prompt, you can ask
        for their types with <literal>:type</literal>, and so on.  There is one
        important difference though: these variables may only have partial
        types.  For example, if we try to display the value of
        <literal>left</literal>:</para>

<screen>
[qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> left

&lt;interactive&gt;:1:0:
    Ambiguous type variable `a' in the constraint:
      `Show a' arising from a use of `print' at &lt;interactive&gt;:1:0-3
    Cannot resolve unknown runtime types: a
    Use :print or :force to determine these types
</screen>

      <para>This is because <literal>qsort</literal> is a polymorphic function,
        and because GHCi does not carry type information at runtime, it cannot
        determine the runtime types of free variables that involve type
        variables.  Hence, when you ask to display <literal>left</literal> at
        the prompt, GHCi can't figure out which instance of
        <literal>Show</literal> to use, so it emits the type error above.</para>

      <para>Fortunately, the debugger includes a generic printing command,
        <literal>:print</literal>, which can inspect the actual runtime value of a
        variable and attempt to reconstruct its type.  If we try it on
        <literal>left</literal>:</para>

<screen>
[qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> :set -fprint-evld-with-show
[qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> :print left
left = (_t1::[a])
</screen>

      <para>This isn't particularly enlightening.  What happened is that
        <literal>left</literal> is bound to an unevaluated computation (a
        suspension, or <firstterm>thunk</firstterm>), and
        <literal>:print</literal> does not force any evaluation.  The idea is
        that <literal>:print</literal> can be used to inspect values at a
        breakpoint without any unfortunate side effects.  It won't force any
        evaluation, which could cause the program to give a different answer
        than it would normally, and hence it won't cause any exceptions to be
        raised, infinite loops, or further breakpoints to be triggered (see
        <xref linkend="nested-breakpoints" />).
        Rather than forcing thunks, <literal>:print</literal>
        binds each thunk to a fresh variable beginning with an
        underscore, in this case
        <literal>_t1</literal>.</para>

      <para>The flag <literal>-fprint-evld-with-show</literal> instructs
      <literal>:print</literal> to reuse
      available <literal>Show</literal> instances when possible. This happens
      only when the contents of the variable being inspected 
      are completely evaluated.</para>


      <para>If we aren't concerned about preserving the evaluatedness of a
        variable, we can use <literal>:force</literal> instead of
        <literal>:print</literal>.  The <literal>:force</literal> command
        behaves exactly like <literal>:print</literal>, except that it forces
        the evaluation of any thunks it encounters:</para>

<screen>
[qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> :force left
left = [4,0,3,1]
</screen>

      <para>Now, since <literal>:force</literal> has inspected the runtime
        value of <literal>left</literal>, it has reconstructed its type.  We
        can see the results of this type reconstruction:</para>

<screen>
[qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> :show bindings
_result :: [Integer]
a :: Integer
left :: [Integer]
right :: [Integer]
_t1 :: [Integer]
</screen>

      <para>Not only do we now know the type of <literal>left</literal>, but
        all the other partial types have also been resolved.  So we can ask
        for the value of <literal>a</literal>, for example:</para>

<screen>
[qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> a
8
</screen>
      
      <para>You might find it useful to use Haskell's
        <literal>seq</literal> function to evaluate individual thunks rather
        than evaluating the whole expression with <literal>:force</literal>.
        For example:</para>

<screen>
[qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> :print right
right = (_t1::[Integer])
[qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> seq _t1 ()
()
[qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> :print right
right = 23 : (_t2::[Integer])
</screen>

      <para>We evaluated only the <literal>_t1</literal> thunk, revealing the
        head of the list, and the tail is another thunk now bound to
        <literal>_t2</literal>.  The <literal>seq</literal> function is a
        little inconvenient to use here, so you might want to use
        <literal>:def</literal> to make a nicer interface (left as an exercise
        for the reader!).</para>

      <para>Finally, we can continue the current execution:</para>

<screen>
[qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> :continue
Stopped at qsort.hs:2:15-46
_result :: [a]
a :: a
left :: [a]
right :: [a]
[qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> 
</screen>

      <para>The execution continued at the point it previously stopped, and has
        now stopped at the breakpoint for a second time.</para>


      <sect3 id="setting-breakpoints">
        <title>Setting breakpoints</title>

        <para>Breakpoints can be set in various ways.  Perhaps the easiest way to
          set a breakpoint is to name a top-level function:</para>

<screen>
   :break <replaceable>identifier</replaceable>
</screen>

      <para>Where <replaceable>identifier</replaceable> names any top-level
        function in an interpreted module currently loaded into GHCi (qualified
        names may be used).  The breakpoint will be set on the body of the
        function, when it is fully applied but before any pattern matching has
        taken place.</para>

      <para>Breakpoints can also be set by line (and optionally column)
        number:</para>

<screen>
   :break <replaceable>line</replaceable>
   :break <replaceable>line</replaceable> <replaceable>column</replaceable>
   :break <replaceable>module</replaceable> <replaceable>line</replaceable>
   :break <replaceable>module</replaceable> <replaceable>line</replaceable> <replaceable>column</replaceable> 
</screen>

      <para>When a breakpoint is set on a particular line, GHCi sets the
        breakpoint on the
        leftmost subexpression that begins and ends on that line.  If two
        complete subexpressions start at the same 
        column, the longest one is picked.  If there is no complete
        subexpression on the line, then the leftmost expression starting on
        the line is picked, and failing that the rightmost expression that
        partially or completely covers the line.</para>

      <para>When a breakpoint is set on a particular line and column, GHCi
        picks the smallest subexpression that encloses that location on which
        to set the breakpoint.  Note: GHC considers the TAB character to have a
        width of 1, wherever it occurs; in other words it counts
          characters, rather than columns.  This matches what some editors do,
          and doesn't match others.  The best advice is to avoid tab
          characters in your source code altogether (see
          <option>-fwarn-tabs</option> in <xref linkend="options-sanity"
            />).</para> 

      <para>If the module is omitted, then the most recently-loaded module is
        used.</para>

      <para>Not all subexpressions are potential breakpoint locations.  Single
        variables are typically not considered to be breakpoint locations
        (unless the variable is the right-hand-side of a function definition,
        lambda, or case alternative).  The rule of thumb is that all redexes
        are breakpoint locations, together with the bodies of functions,
        lambdas, case alternatives and binding statements.  There is normally
        no breakpoint on a let expression, but there will always be a
        breakpoint on its body, because we are usually interested in inspecting
        the values of the variables bound by the let.</para>

      </sect3>
      <sect3>
        <title>Listing and deleting breakpoints</title>

        <para>The list of breakpoints currently enabled can be displayed using
          <literal>:show&nbsp;breaks</literal>:</para>
<screen>
*Main> :show breaks
[0] Main qsort.hs:1:11-12
[1] Main qsort.hs:2:15-46
</screen>

        <para>To delete a breakpoint, use the <literal>:delete</literal>
          command with the number given in the output from <literal>:show&nbsp;breaks</literal>:</para>

<screen>
*Main> :delete 0
*Main> :show breaks
[1] Main qsort.hs:2:15-46
</screen>        

        <para>To delete all breakpoints at once, use <literal>:delete *</literal>.</para>

    </sect3>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="single-stepping">
      <title>Single-stepping</title>

      <para>Single-stepping is a great way to visualise the execution of your
        program, and it is also a useful tool for identifying the source of a
        bug. GHCi offers two variants of stepping. Use 
        <literal>:step</literal>  to enable all the
        breakpoints in the program, and execute until the next breakpoint is
        reached. Use <literal>:steplocal</literal> to limit the set
        of enabled breakpoints to those in the current top level function.
        Similarly, use <literal>:stepmodule</literal> to single step only on
        breakpoints contained in the current module.
        For example:</para>

<screen>
*Main> :step main
Stopped at qsort.hs:5:7-47
_result :: IO ()
</screen>

      <para>The command <literal>:step
        <replaceable>expr</replaceable></literal> begins the evaluation of
        <replaceable>expr</replaceable> in single-stepping mode.  If
        <replaceable>expr</replaceable> is omitted, then it single-steps from
        the current breakpoint. <literal>:stepover</literal> 
        works similarly.</para>

      <para>The <literal>:list</literal> command is particularly useful when
        single-stepping, to see where you currently are:</para>

<screen>
[qsort.hs:5:7-47] *Main> :list
4  
5  main = print (qsort [8, 4, 0, 3, 1, 23, 11, 18])
6  
[qsort.hs:5:7-47] *Main>
</screen>

      <para>In fact, GHCi provides a way to run a command when a breakpoint is
        hit, so we can make it automatically do
        <literal>:list</literal>:</para>

<screen>
[qsort.hs:5:7-47] *Main> :set stop :list
[qsort.hs:5:7-47] *Main> :step
Stopped at qsort.hs:5:14-46
_result :: [Integer]
4  
5  main = print (qsort [8, 4, 0, 3, 1, 23, 11, 18])
6  
[qsort.hs:5:14-46] *Main>
</screen>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="nested-breakpoints">
      <title>Nested breakpoints</title>
      <para>When GHCi is stopped at a breakpoint, and an expression entered at
        the prompt triggers a
        second breakpoint, the new breakpoint becomes the &ldquo;current&rdquo;
      one, and the old one is saved on a stack.  An arbitrary number of
        breakpoint contexts can be built up in this way.  For example:</para>

<screen>
[qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> :st qsort [1,3]
Stopped at qsort.hs:(1,0)-(3,55)
_result :: [a]
... [qsort.hs:(1,0)-(3,55)] *Main>
</screen>

      <para>While stopped at the breakpoint on line 2 that we set earlier, we
        started a new evaluation with <literal>:step qsort [1,3]</literal>.
        This new evaluation stopped after one step (at the definition of
        <literal>qsort</literal>).  The prompt has changed, now prefixed with
        <literal>...</literal>, to indicate that there are saved breakpoints
        beyond the current one.  To see the stack of contexts, use
        <literal>:show context</literal>:</para>

<screen>
... [qsort.hs:(1,0)-(3,55)] *Main> :show context
--> main
  Stopped at qsort.hs:2:15-46
--> qsort [1,3]
  Stopped at qsort.hs:(1,0)-(3,55)
... [qsort.hs:(1,0)-(3,55)] *Main>
</screen>

        <para>To abandon the current evaluation, use
        <literal>:abandon</literal>:</para>

<screen>
... [qsort.hs:(1,0)-(3,55)] *Main> :abandon
[qsort.hs:2:15-46] *Main> :abandon
*Main>
</screen>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="ghci-debugger-result">
      <title>The <literal>_result</literal> variable</title>
      <para>When stopped at a breakpoint or single-step, GHCi binds the
        variable <literal>_result</literal> to the value of the currently
        active expression.  The value of <literal>_result</literal> is
        presumably not available yet, because we stopped its evaluation, but it
        can be forced: if the type is known and showable, then just entering
        <literal>_result</literal> at the prompt will show it.  However,
        there's one caveat to doing this: evaluating <literal>_result</literal>
        will be likely to trigger further breakpoints, starting with the
        breakpoint we are currently stopped at (if we stopped at a real
        breakpoint, rather than due to <literal>:step</literal>).  So it will
        probably be necessary to issue a <literal>:continue</literal>
        immediately when evaluating <literal>_result</literal>.  Alternatively,
        you can use <literal>:force</literal> which ignores breakpoints.</para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="tracing">
      <title>Tracing and history</title>

      <para>A question that we often want to ask when debugging a program is
        &ldquo;how did I get here?&rdquo;.  Traditional imperative debuggers
        usually provide some kind of stack-tracing feature that lets you see
        the stack of active function calls (sometimes called the &ldquo;lexical
        call stack&rdquo;), describing a path through the code
        to the current location.  Unfortunately this is hard to provide in
        Haskell, because execution proceeds on a demand-driven basis, rather
        than a depth-first basis as in strict languages.  The
        &ldquo;stack&ldquo; in GHC's execution engine bears little
        resemblance to the lexical call stack.  Ideally GHCi would maintain a
        separate lexical call stack in addition to the dynamic call stack, and
        in fact this is exactly
        what our profiling system does (<xref linkend="profiling" />), and what
        some other Haskell debuggers do.  For the time being, however, GHCi
        doesn't maintain a lexical call stack (there are some technical
        challenges to be overcome).  Instead, we provide a way to backtrack from a
        breakpoint to previous evaluation steps: essentially this is like
        single-stepping backwards, and should in many cases provide enough
        information to answer the &ldquo;how did I get here?&rdquo;
        question.</para>

      <para>To use tracing, evaluate an expression with the
        <literal>:trace</literal> command.  For example, if we set a breakpoint
        on the base case of <literal>qsort</literal>:</para>

<screen>
*Main&gt; :list qsort
1  qsort [] = [] 
2  qsort (a:as) = qsort left ++ [a] ++ qsort right
3    where (left,right) = (filter (&lt;=a) as, filter (&gt;a) as)
4  
*Main&gt; :b 1
Breakpoint 1 activated at qsort.hs:1:11-12
*Main&gt; 
</screen>

      <para>and then run a small <literal>qsort</literal> with
        tracing:</para>

<screen>
*Main> :trace qsort [3,2,1]
Stopped at qsort.hs:1:11-12
_result :: [a]
[qsort.hs:1:11-12] *Main>
</screen>

      <para>We can now inspect the history of evaluation steps:</para>

<screen>
[qsort.hs:1:11-12] *Main> :hist
-1  : qsort.hs:3:24-38
-2  : qsort.hs:3:23-55
-3  : qsort.hs:(1,0)-(3,55)
-4  : qsort.hs:2:15-24
-5  : qsort.hs:2:15-46
-6  : qsort.hs:3:24-38
-7  : qsort.hs:3:23-55
-8  : qsort.hs:(1,0)-(3,55)
-9  : qsort.hs:2:15-24
-10 : qsort.hs:2:15-46
-11 : qsort.hs:3:24-38
-12 : qsort.hs:3:23-55
-13 : qsort.hs:(1,0)-(3,55)
-14 : qsort.hs:2:15-24
-15 : qsort.hs:2:15-46
-16 : qsort.hs:(1,0)-(3,55)
&lt;end of history&gt;
</screen>

      <para>To examine one of the steps in the history, use
        <literal>:back</literal>:</para>

<screen>
[qsort.hs:1:11-12] *Main> :back
Logged breakpoint at qsort.hs:3:24-38
_result :: [a]
as :: [a]
a :: a
[-1: qsort.hs:3:24-38] *Main> 
</screen>

      <para>Note that the local variables at each step in the history have been
        preserved, and can be examined as usual.  Also note that the prompt has
        changed to indicate that we're currently examining the first step in
        the history: <literal>-1</literal>.  The command
        <literal>:forward</literal> can be used to traverse forward in the
        history.</para>

      <para>The <literal>:trace</literal> command can be used with or without
        an expression.  When used without an expression, tracing begins from
        the current breakpoint, just like <literal>:step</literal>.</para>

      <para>The history is only available when
        using <literal>:trace</literal>; the reason for this is we found that
        logging each breakpoint in the history cuts performance by a factor of
        2 or more.  GHCi remembers the last 50 steps in the history (perhaps in
        the future we'll make this configurable).</para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="ghci-debugger-exceptions">
      <title>Debugging exceptions</title>
      <para>Another common question that comes up when debugging is
        &ldquo;where did this exception come from?&rdquo;.  Exceptions such as
        those raised by <literal>error</literal> or <literal>head []</literal>
        have no context information attached to them.  Finding which
        particular call to <literal>head</literal> in your program resulted in
        the error can be a painstaking process, usually involving
        <literal>Debug.Trace.trace</literal>, or compiling with
        profiling and using <literal>+RTS -xc</literal> (see <xref
          linkend="prof-time-options" />).</para>

      <para>The GHCi debugger offers a way to hopefully shed some light on
        these errors quickly and without modifying or recompiling the source
        code.  One way would be to set a breakpoint on the location in the
        source code that throws the exception, and then use
        <literal>:trace</literal> and <literal>:history</literal> to establish
        the context.  However, <literal>head</literal> is in a library and
        we can't set a breakpoint on it directly.  For this reason, GHCi
        provides the flags <literal>-fbreak-on-exception</literal> which causes
        the evaluator to stop when an exception is thrown, and <literal>
        -fbreak-on-error</literal>, which works similarly but stops only on 
        uncaught exceptions. When stopping at an exception, GHCi will act 
        just as it does when a breakpoint is hit, with the deviation that it
        will not show you any source code location. Due to this, these 
        commands are only really useful in conjunction with
        <literal>:trace</literal>, in order to log the steps leading up to the
        exception.  For example:</para>

<screen>
*Main> :set -fbreak-on-exception
*Main> :trace qsort ("abc" ++ undefined)
"Stopped at &lt;exception thrown&gt;
_exception :: e
[&lt;exception thrown&gt;] *Main&gt; :hist
-1  : qsort.hs:3:24-38
-2  : qsort.hs:3:23-55
-3  : qsort.hs:(1,0)-(3,55)
-4  : qsort.hs:2:15-24
-5  : qsort.hs:2:15-46
-6  : qsort.hs:(1,0)-(3,55)
&lt;end of history&gt;
[&lt;exception thrown&gt;] *Main&gt; :back
Logged breakpoint at qsort.hs:3:24-38
_result :: [a]
as :: [a]
a :: a
[-1: qsort.hs:3:24-38] *Main&gt; :force as
*** Exception: Prelude.undefined
[-1: qsort.hs:3:24-38] *Main&gt; :print as
as = 'b' : 'c' : (_t1::[Char])
</screen>

      <para>The exception itself is bound to a new variable,
        <literal>_exception</literal>.</para>

      <para>Breaking on exceptions is particularly useful for finding out what
        your program was doing when it was in an infinite loop.  Just hit
        Control-C, and examine the history to find out what was going
        on.</para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2><title>Example: inspecting functions</title>
      <para>
        It is possible to use the debugger to examine function values. 
        When we are at a breakpoint and a function is in scope, the debugger
        cannot show 
        you the source code for it; however, it is possible to get some 
        information by applying it to some arguments and  observing the result. 
      </para>

      <para>
        The process is slightly complicated when the binding is polymorphic. 
        We show the process by means of an example.
        To keep things simple, we will use the well known <literal>map</literal> function:
<programlisting>
import Prelude hiding (map)

map :: (a->b) -> [a] -> [b]
map f [] = []
map f (x:xs) = f x : map f xs
</programlisting>
      </para>

      <para>
        We set a breakpoint on <literal>map</literal>, and call it.
<screen>
*Main> :break 5
Breakpoint 0 activated at  map.hs:5:15-28
*Main> map Just [1..5]
Stopped at map.hs:(4,0)-(5,12)
_result :: [b]
x :: a
f :: a -> b
xs :: [a]
</screen>
      GHCi tells us that, among other bindings, <literal>f</literal> is in scope. 
      However, its type is not fully known yet,  
      and thus it is not possible to apply it to any 
      arguments. Nevertheless, observe that the type of its first argument is the
      same as the type of <literal>x</literal>, and its result type is shared
        with <literal>_result</literal>.
      </para>

      <para>
        As we demonstrated earlier (<xref linkend="breakpoints" />),  the
        debugger has some intelligence built-in to update the type of 
        <literal>f</literal> whenever the types of <literal>x</literal> or 
        <literal>_result</literal> are discovered.  So what we do in this
        scenario is
        force <literal>x</literal> a bit, in order to recover both its type 
      and the argument part of <literal>f</literal>.  
<screen>
*Main> seq x ()
*Main> :print x
x = 1
</screen>
      </para>
      <para>
        We can check now that as expected, the type of <literal>x</literal>
        has been reconstructed, and with it the 
        type of <literal>f</literal> has been too:</para>
<screen>
*Main> :t x
x :: Integer
*Main> :t f
f :: Integer -> b
</screen>
      <para>
        From here, we can apply f to any argument of type Integer and observe
        the results. 
<screen><![CDATA[
*Main> let b = f 10
*Main> :t b
b :: b
*Main> b
<interactive>:1:0:
    Ambiguous type variable `b' in the constraint:
      `Show b' arising from a use of `print' at <interactive>:1:0
*Main> :p b
b = (_t2::a)
*Main> seq b ()
()
*Main> :t b
b :: a
*Main> :p b
b = Just 10
*Main> :t b
b :: Maybe Integer
*Main> :t f
f :: Integer -> Maybe Integer
*Main> f 20
Just 20
*Main> map f [1..5]
[Just 1, Just 2, Just 3, Just 4, Just 5]
]]></screen>
      In the first application of <literal>f</literal>, we had to do 
      some more type reconstruction
      in order to recover the result type of <literal>f</literal>. 
      But after that, we are free to use 
      <literal>f</literal> normally.
     </para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2><title>Limitations</title>
      <itemizedlist>
        <listitem>
          <para>When stopped at a breakpoint, if you try to evaluate a variable
            that is already under evaluation, the second evaluation will hang.
            The reason is
            that GHC knows the variable is under evaluation, so the new
            evaluation just waits for the result before continuing, but of
            course this isn't going to happen because the first evaluation is
            stopped at a breakpoint. Control-C can interrupt the hung
            evaluation and return to the prompt.</para>
          <para>The most common way this can happen is when you're evaluating a
            CAF (e.g. main), stop at a breakpoint, and ask for the value of the
            CAF at the prompt again.</para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem><para>
          Implicit parameters (see <xref linkend="implicit-parameters"/>) are only available 
          at the scope of a breakpoint if there is an explicit type signature.
        </para>
        </listitem>
      </itemizedlist>
    </sect2>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="ghci-invocation">
    <title>Invoking GHCi</title>
    <indexterm><primary>invoking</primary><secondary>GHCi</secondary></indexterm>
    <indexterm><primary><option>&ndash;&ndash;interactive</option></primary></indexterm>

    <para>GHCi is invoked with the command <literal>ghci</literal> or
    <literal>ghc &ndash;&ndash;interactive</literal>.  One or more modules or
    filenames can also be specified on the command line; this
    instructs GHCi to load the specified modules or filenames (and all
    the modules they depend on), just as if you had said
    <literal>:load <replaceable>modules</replaceable></literal> at the
    GHCi prompt (see <xref linkend="ghci-commands" />).  For example, to
    start GHCi and load the program whose topmost module is in the
    file <literal>Main.hs</literal>, we could say:</para>

<screen>
$ ghci Main.hs
</screen>

    <para>Most of the command-line options accepted by GHC (see <xref
    linkend="using-ghc"/>) also make sense in interactive mode.  The ones
    that don't make sense are mostly obvious.</para>

    <sect2>
      <title>Packages</title>
      <indexterm><primary>packages</primary><secondary>with GHCi</secondary></indexterm>

      <para>Most packages (see <xref linkend="using-packages"/>) are
      available without needing to specify any extra flags at all:
      they will be automatically loaded the first time they are
      needed.</para>

      <para>For hidden packages, however, you need to request the
      package be loaded by using the <literal>-package</literal> flag:</para>

<screen>
$ ghci -package readline
GHCi, version 6.8.1: http://www.haskell.org/ghc/  :? for help
Loading package base ... linking ... done.
Loading package readline-1.0 ... linking ... done.
Prelude> 
</screen>

      <para>The following command works to load new packages into a
      running GHCi:</para>

<screen>
Prelude> :set -package <replaceable>name</replaceable>
</screen>

      <para>But note that doing this will cause all currently loaded
      modules to be unloaded, and you'll be dumped back into the
      <literal>Prelude</literal>.</para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2>
      <title>Extra libraries</title>
      <indexterm><primary>libraries</primary><secondary>with GHCi</secondary></indexterm>
      
      <para>Extra libraries may be specified on the command line using
      the normal <literal>-l<replaceable>lib</replaceable></literal>
      option.  (The term <emphasis>library</emphasis> here refers to
      libraries of foreign object code; for using libraries of Haskell
      source code, see <xref linkend="ghci-modules-filenames"/>.) For
      example, to load the &ldquo;m&rdquo; library:</para>

<screen>
$ ghci -lm
</screen>

      <para>On systems with <literal>.so</literal>-style shared
      libraries, the actual library loaded will the
      <filename>lib<replaceable>lib</replaceable>.so</filename>.  GHCi
      searches the following places for libraries, in this order:</para>

      <itemizedlist>
        <listitem>
          <para>Paths specified using the
          <literal>-L<replaceable>path</replaceable></literal>
          command-line option,</para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
          <para>the standard library search path for your system,
          which on some systems may be overridden by setting the
          <literal>LD_LIBRARY_PATH</literal> environment
          variable.</para>
        </listitem>
      </itemizedlist>

      <para>On systems with <literal>.dll</literal>-style shared
      libraries, the actual library loaded will be
      <filename><replaceable>lib</replaceable>.dll</filename>.  Again,
      GHCi will signal an error if it can't find the library.</para>

      <para>GHCi can also load plain object files
      (<literal>.o</literal> or <literal>.obj</literal> depending on
      your platform) from the command-line.  Just add the name the
      object file to the command line.</para>

      <para>Ordering of <option>-l</option> options matters: a library
      should be mentioned <emphasis>before</emphasis> the libraries it
      depends on (see <xref linkend="options-linker"/>).</para>
    </sect2>

  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="ghci-commands">
    <title>GHCi commands</title>

    <para>GHCi commands all begin with
    &lsquo;<literal>:</literal>&rsquo; and consist of a single command
    name followed by zero or more parameters.  The command name may be
    abbreviated, with ambiguities being resolved in favour of the more
    commonly used commands.</para>

    <variablelist>
      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:abandon</literal>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:abandon</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Abandons the current evaluation (only available when stopped at
          a breakpoint).</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:add</literal> <replaceable>module</replaceable> ...
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:add</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Add <replaceable>module</replaceable>(s) to the
          current <firstterm>target set</firstterm>, and perform a
          reload.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:back</literal>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:back</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Travel back one step in the history.  See <xref
              linkend="tracing" />.  See also:
            <literal>:trace</literal>, <literal>:history</literal>,
            <literal>:forward</literal>.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:break [<replaceable>identifier</replaceable> |
            [<replaceable>module</replaceable>] <replaceable>line</replaceable>
            [<replaceable>column</replaceable>]]</literal>
        </term>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:break</literal></primary></indexterm>
        <listitem>
          <para>Set a breakpoint on the specified function or line and
              column.  See <xref linkend="setting-breakpoints" />.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:browse</literal><optional><literal>!</literal></optional> <optional><optional><literal>*</literal></optional><replaceable>module</replaceable></optional> ...
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:browse</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Displays the identifiers defined by the module
          <replaceable>module</replaceable>, which must be either
          loaded into GHCi or be a member of a package.  If
          <replaceable>module</replaceable> is omitted, the most
          recently-loaded module is used.</para>

          <para>If the <literal>*</literal> symbol is placed before
          the module name, then <emphasis>all</emphasis> the
          identifiers in scope in <replaceable>module</replaceable> are
          shown; otherwise the list is limited to the exports of
          <replaceable>module</replaceable>.  The
          <literal>*</literal>-form is only available for modules
          which are interpreted; for compiled modules (including
          modules from packages) only the non-<literal>*</literal>
    form of <literal>:browse</literal> is available.
    If the <literal>!</literal> symbol is appended to the
    command, data constructors and class methods will be 
    listed individually, otherwise, they will only be listed
    in the context of their data type or class declaration. 
    The <literal>!</literal>-form also annotates the listing 
    with comments giving possible imports for each group of 
    entries.</para>
<screen>
Prelude> :browse! Data.Maybe
-- not currently imported
Data.Maybe.catMaybes :: [Maybe a] -> [a]
Data.Maybe.fromJust :: Maybe a -> a
Data.Maybe.fromMaybe :: a -> Maybe a -> a
Data.Maybe.isJust :: Maybe a -> Bool
Data.Maybe.isNothing :: Maybe a -> Bool
Data.Maybe.listToMaybe :: [a] -> Maybe a
Data.Maybe.mapMaybe :: (a -> Maybe b) -> [a] -> [b]
Data.Maybe.maybeToList :: Maybe a -> [a]
-- imported via Prelude
Just :: a -> Maybe a
data Maybe a = Nothing | Just a
Nothing :: Maybe a
maybe :: b -> (a -> b) -> Maybe a -> b
</screen>
  <para>
    This output shows that, in the context of the current session, in the scope
    of <literal>Prelude</literal>, the first group of items from
    <literal>Data.Maybe</literal> have not been imported (but are available in
    fully qualified form in the GHCi session - see <xref
      linkend="ghci-scope"/>), whereas the second group of items have been
    imported via <literal>Prelude</literal> and are therefore available either
    unqualified, or with a <literal>Prelude.</literal> qualifier.
  </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:cd</literal> <replaceable>dir</replaceable>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:cd</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Changes the current working directory to
          <replaceable>dir</replaceable>.  A
          &lsquo;<literal>&tilde;</literal>&rsquo; symbol at the
          beginning of <replaceable>dir</replaceable> will be replaced
          by the contents of the environment variable
          <literal>HOME</literal>.</para>

          <para>NOTE: changing directories causes all currently loaded
          modules to be unloaded.  This is because the search path is
          usually expressed using relative directories, and changing
          the search path in the middle of a session is not
          supported.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:cmd</literal> <replaceable>expr</replaceable>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:cmd</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Executes <replaceable>expr</replaceable> as a computation of
            type <literal>IO String</literal>, and then executes the resulting
            string as a list of GHCi commands.  Multiple commands are separated
            by newlines.  The <literal>:cmd</literal> command is useful with
            <literal>:def</literal> and <literal>:set stop</literal>.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:continue</literal> 
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:continue</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem><para>Continue the current evaluation, when stopped at a
            breakpoint.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:ctags</literal> <optional><replaceable>filename</replaceable></optional>
          <literal>:etags</literal> <optional><replaceable>filename</replaceable></optional>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:etags</literal></primary>
          </indexterm>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:etags</literal></primary>
          </indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Generates a &ldquo;tags&rdquo; file for Vi-style editors
            (<literal>:ctags</literal>) or
        Emacs-style editors (<literal>:etags</literal>).  If
            no filename is specified, the default <filename>tags</filename> or
            <filename>TAGS</filename> is
            used, respectively.  Tags for all the functions, constructors and
            types in the currently loaded modules are created.  All modules must
            be interpreted for these commands to work.</para>
          <para>See also <xref linkend="hasktags" />.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:def<optional>!</optional> <optional><replaceable>name</replaceable> <replaceable>expr</replaceable></optional></literal>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:def</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para><literal>:def</literal> is used to define new
          commands, or macros, in GHCi.  The command
          <literal>:def</literal> <replaceable>name</replaceable>
          <replaceable>expr</replaceable> defines a new GHCi command
          <literal>:<replaceable>name</replaceable></literal>,
          implemented by the Haskell expression
          <replaceable>expr</replaceable>, which must have type
          <literal>String -> IO String</literal>.  When
          <literal>:<replaceable>name</replaceable>
          <replaceable>args</replaceable></literal> is typed at the
          prompt, GHCi will run the expression
          <literal>(<replaceable>name</replaceable>
          <replaceable>args</replaceable>)</literal>, take the
          resulting <literal>String</literal>, and feed it back into
          GHCi as a new sequence of commands.  Separate commands in
          the result must be separated by
          &lsquo;<literal>\n</literal>&rsquo;.</para>

          <para>That's all a little confusing, so here's a few
          examples.  To start with, here's a new GHCi command which
          doesn't take any arguments or produce any results, it just
          outputs the current date &amp; time:</para>

<screen>
Prelude> let date _ = Time.getClockTime >>= print >> return ""
Prelude> :def date date
Prelude> :date
Fri Mar 23 15:16:40 GMT 2001
</screen>

          <para>Here's an example of a command that takes an argument.
          It's a re-implementation of <literal>:cd</literal>:</para>

<screen>
Prelude> let mycd d = Directory.setCurrentDirectory d >> return ""
Prelude> :def mycd mycd
Prelude> :mycd ..
</screen>

          <para>Or I could define a simple way to invoke
          &ldquo;<literal>ghc &ndash;&ndash;make Main</literal>&rdquo; in the
          current directory:</para>

<screen>
Prelude> :def make (\_ -> return ":! ghc &ndash;&ndash;make Main")
</screen>

          <para>We can define a command that reads GHCi input from a
          file.  This might be useful for creating a set of bindings
          that we want to repeatedly load into the GHCi session:</para>

<screen>
Prelude> :def . readFile
Prelude> :. cmds.ghci
</screen>

          <para>Notice that we named the command
          <literal>:.</literal>, by analogy with the
          &lsquo;<literal>.</literal>&rsquo; Unix shell command that
          does the same thing.</para>

          <para>Typing <literal>:def</literal> on its own lists the
          currently-defined macros.  Attempting to redefine an
          existing command name results in an error unless the
          <literal>:def!</literal> form is used, in which case the old
          command with that name is silently overwritten.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:delete * | <replaceable>num</replaceable> ...</literal> 
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:delete</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Delete one or more breakpoints by number (use <literal>:show
              breaks</literal> to see the number of each breakpoint).  The
            <literal>*</literal> form deletes all the breakpoints.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:edit <optional><replaceable>file</replaceable></optional></literal>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:edit</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Opens an editor to edit the file
          <replaceable>file</replaceable>, or the most recently loaded
          module if <replaceable>file</replaceable> is omitted.  The
          editor to invoke is taken from the <literal>EDITOR</literal>
          environment variable, or a default editor on your system if
          <literal>EDITOR</literal> is not set.  You can change the
          editor using <literal>:set editor</literal>.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:etags</literal> 
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>See <literal>:ctags</literal>.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:force <replaceable>identifier</replaceable> ...</literal>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:force</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Prints the value of <replaceable>identifier</replaceable> in
            the same way as <literal>:print</literal>.   Unlike
            <literal>:print</literal>, <literal>:force</literal> evaluates each
            thunk that it encounters while traversing the value.  This may
            cause exceptions or infinite loops, or further breakpoints (which
            are ignored, but displayed).</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:forward</literal>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:forward</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Move forward in the history.   See <xref
              linkend="tracing" />.  See also:
            <literal>:trace</literal>, <literal>:history</literal>,
            <literal>:back</literal>.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:help</literal>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:help</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <term>
          <literal>:?</literal>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:?</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Displays a list of the available commands.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
       <term>
          <literal>:</literal>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
       <listitem>
         <para>Repeat the previous command.</para>
       </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>

        <term>
          <literal>:history [<replaceable>num</replaceable>]</literal>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:history</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Display the history of evaluation steps.  With a number,
            displays that many steps (default: 20).  For use with
            <literal>:trace</literal>; see <xref
              linkend="tracing" />.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:info</literal> <replaceable>name</replaceable> ...
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:info</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Displays information about the given name(s).  For
          example, if <replaceable>name</replaceable> is a class, then
          the class methods and their types will be printed;  if
          <replaceable>name</replaceable> is a type constructor, then
          its definition will be printed;  if
          <replaceable>name</replaceable> is a function, then its type
          will be printed.  If <replaceable>name</replaceable> has
          been loaded from a source file, then GHCi will also display
          the location of its definition in the source.</para>
          <para>For types and classes, GHCi also summarises instances that
          mention them.  To avoid showing irrelevant information, an instance
          is shown only if (a) its head mentions <replaceable>name</replaceable>, 
          and (b) all the other things mentioned in the instance
          are in scope (either qualified or otherwise) as a result of 
          a <literal>:load</literal> or <literal>:module</literal> commands. </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:kind</literal> <replaceable>type</replaceable>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:kind</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Infers and prints the kind of
          <replaceable>type</replaceable>. The latter can be an arbitrary
            type expression, including a partial application of a type constructor,
            such as <literal>Either Int</literal>.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:load</literal> <replaceable>module</replaceable> ...
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:load</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Recursively loads the specified
          <replaceable>module</replaceable>s, and all the modules they
          depend on.  Here, each <replaceable>module</replaceable>
          must be a module name or filename, but may not be the name
          of a module in a package.</para>

          <para>All previously loaded modules, except package modules,
          are forgotten.  The new set of modules is known as the
          <firstterm>target set</firstterm>.  Note that
          <literal>:load</literal> can be used without any arguments
          to unload all the currently loaded modules and
          bindings.</para>

          <para>After a <literal>:load</literal> command, the current
          context is set to:</para>

          <itemizedlist>
            <listitem>
              <para><replaceable>module</replaceable>, if it was loaded
              successfully, or</para>
            </listitem>
            <listitem>
              <para>the most recently successfully loaded module, if
              any other modules were loaded as a result of the current
              <literal>:load</literal>, or</para>
            </listitem>
            <listitem>
              <para><literal>Prelude</literal> otherwise.</para>
            </listitem>
          </itemizedlist>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:main <replaceable>arg<subscript>1</subscript></replaceable> ... <replaceable>arg<subscript>n</subscript></replaceable></literal>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:main</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            When a program is compiled and executed, it can use the
            <literal>getArgs</literal> function to access the
            command-line arguments.
            However, we cannot simply pass the arguments to the
            <literal>main</literal> function while we are testing in ghci,
            as the <literal>main</literal> function doesn't take its
            arguments directly.
          </para>

          <para>
            Instead, we can use the <literal>:main</literal> command.
            This runs whatever <literal>main</literal> is in scope, with
            any arguments being treated the same as command-line arguments,
            e.g.:
          </para>

<screen>
Prelude> let main = System.Environment.getArgs >>= print
Prelude> :main foo bar
["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>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:module <optional>+|-</optional> <optional>*</optional><replaceable>mod<subscript>1</subscript></replaceable> ... <optional>*</optional><replaceable>mod<subscript>n</subscript></replaceable></literal>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:module</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <term>
          <literal>import <replaceable>mod</replaceable></literal>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Sets or modifies the current context for statements
          typed at the prompt.  The form <literal>import
          <replaceable>mod</replaceable></literal> is equivalent to
          <literal>:module +<replaceable>mod</replaceable></literal>.
          See <xref linkend="ghci-scope"/> for
          more details.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:print </literal> <replaceable>names</replaceable> ...
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:print</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Prints a value without forcing its evaluation.
            <literal>:print</literal> may be used on values whose types are
            unknown or partially known, which might be the case for local
            variables with polymorphic types at a breakpoint.  While inspecting
            the runtime value, <literal>:print</literal> attempts to
            reconstruct the type of the value, and will elaborate the type in
            GHCi's environment if possible.  If any unevaluated components
            (thunks) are encountered, then <literal>:print</literal> binds
            a fresh variable with a name beginning with <literal>_t</literal>
            to each thunk.  See <xref linkend="breakpoints" /> for more
            information.  See also the <literal>:sprint</literal> command,
            which works like <literal>:print</literal> but does not bind new
            variables.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:quit</literal>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:quit</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Quits GHCi.  You can also quit by typing control-D
          at the prompt.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:reload</literal>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:reload</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Attempts to reload the current target set (see
          <literal>:load</literal>) if any of the modules in the set,
          or any dependent module, has changed.  Note that this may
          entail loading new modules, or dropping modules which are no
          longer indirectly required by the target.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:set</literal> <optional><replaceable>option</replaceable>...</optional>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:set</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
    <para>Sets various options.  See <xref linkend="ghci-set"/> for a list of
      available options and <xref linkend="interactive-mode-options"/> for a
      list of GHCi-specific flags.  The <literal>:set</literal> command by
      itself shows which options are currently set. It also lists the current
      dynamic flag settings, with GHCi-specific flags listed separately.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:set</literal> <literal>args</literal> <replaceable>arg</replaceable> ...
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:set args</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Sets the list of arguments which are returned when the
          program calls <literal>System.getArgs</literal><indexterm><primary>getArgs</primary>
            </indexterm>.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
           <literal>:set</literal> <literal>editor</literal> <replaceable>cmd</replaceable>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Sets the command used by <literal>:edit</literal> to
          <replaceable>cmd</replaceable>.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
           <literal>:set</literal> <literal>prog</literal> <replaceable>prog</replaceable>
           <indexterm><primary><literal>:set prog</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Sets the string to be returned when the program calls
          <literal>System.getProgName</literal><indexterm><primary>getProgName</primary>
            </indexterm>.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
           <literal>:set</literal> <literal>prompt</literal> <replaceable>prompt</replaceable>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Sets the string to be used as the prompt in GHCi.
          Inside <replaceable>prompt</replaceable>, the sequence
          <literal>%s</literal> is replaced by the names of the
          modules currently in scope, and <literal>%%</literal> is
          replaced by <literal>%</literal>.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
           <literal>:set</literal> <literal>stop</literal>
          [<replaceable>num</replaceable>] <replaceable>cmd</replaceable>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Set a command to be executed when a breakpoint is hit, or a new
          item in the history is selected.  The most common use of
            <literal>:set stop</literal> is to display the source code at the
            current location, e.g. <literal>:set stop :list</literal>.</para>

          <para>If a number is given before the command, then the commands are
            run when the specified breakpoint (only) is hit.  This can be quite
            useful: for example, <literal>:set stop 1 :continue</literal>
            effectively disables breakpoint 1, by running
            <literal>:continue</literal> whenever it is hit (although GHCi will
            still emit a message to say the breakpoint was hit).  What's more,
            with cunning use of <literal>:def</literal> and
            <literal>:cmd</literal> you can use <literal>:set stop</literal> to
            implement conditional breakpoints:</para>
<screen>
*Main> :def cond \expr -> return (":cmd if (" ++ expr ++ ") then return \"\" else return \":continue\"")
*Main> :set stop 0 :cond (x &lt; 3)
</screen>
          <para>Ignoring breakpoints for a specified number of iterations is
            also possible using similar techniques.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:show bindings</literal>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:show bindings</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Show the bindings made at the prompt and their
          types.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:show breaks</literal>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:show breaks</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>List the active breakpoints.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:show context</literal>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:show context</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>List the active evaluations that are stopped at breakpoints.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:show modules</literal>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:show modules</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Show the list of modules currently loaded.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:show packages</literal>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:show packages</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
    <para>Show the currently active package flags, as well as the list of
      packages currently loaded.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:show languages</literal>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:show languages</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
    <para>Show the currently active language flags.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>


      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:show [args|prog|prompt|editor|stop]</literal>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:show</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Displays the specified setting (see
            <literal>:set</literal>).</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:sprint</literal>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:sprint</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Prints a value without forcing its evaluation.
            <literal>:sprint</literal> is similar to <literal>:print</literal>,
            with the difference that unevaluated subterms are not bound to new
            variables, they are simply denoted by &lsquo;_&rsquo;.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:step [<replaceable>expr</replaceable>]</literal> 
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:step</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Single-step from the last breakpoint.  With an expression
            argument, begins evaluation of the expression with a
            single-step.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:trace [<replaceable>expr</replaceable>]</literal>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:trace</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Evaluates the given expression (or from the last breakpoint if
            no expression is given), and additionally logs the evaluation
            steps for later inspection using <literal>:history</literal>.  See
            <xref linkend="tracing" />.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
         <literal>:type</literal> <replaceable>expression</replaceable>
         <indexterm><primary><literal>:type</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Infers and prints the type of
          <replaceable>expression</replaceable>, including explicit
          forall quantifiers for polymorphic types.  The monomorphism
          restriction is <emphasis>not</emphasis> applied to the
          expression during type inference.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:undef</literal> <replaceable>name</replaceable>
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:undef</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Undefines the user-defined command
          <replaceable>name</replaceable> (see <literal>:def</literal>
          above).</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:unset</literal> <replaceable>option</replaceable>...
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:unset</literal></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Unsets certain options.  See <xref linkend="ghci-set"/>
          for a list of available options.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>:!</literal> <replaceable>command</replaceable>...
          <indexterm><primary><literal>:!</literal></primary></indexterm>
          <indexterm><primary>shell commands</primary><secondary>in GHCi</secondary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Executes the shell command
          <replaceable>command</replaceable>.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

    </variablelist>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="ghci-set">
    <title>The <literal>:set</literal> command</title>
    <indexterm><primary><literal>:set</literal></primary></indexterm>

    <para>The <literal>:set</literal> command sets two types of
    options: GHCi options, which begin with
    &lsquo;<literal>+</literal>&rsquo;, and &ldquo;command-line&rdquo;
    options, which begin with &lsquo;-&rsquo;.  </para>

    <para>NOTE: at the moment, the <literal>:set</literal> command
    doesn't support any kind of quoting in its arguments: quotes will
    not be removed and cannot be used to group words together.  For
    example, <literal>:set -DFOO='BAR BAZ'</literal> will not do what
    you expect.</para>

    <sect2>
      <title>GHCi options</title>
      <indexterm><primary>options</primary><secondary>GHCi</secondary>
      </indexterm>

      <para>GHCi options may be set using <literal>:set</literal> and
      unset using <literal>:unset</literal>.</para>

      <para>The available GHCi options are:</para>

      <variablelist>
        <varlistentry>
          <term>
            <literal>+r</literal>
            <indexterm><primary><literal>+r</literal></primary></indexterm>
            <indexterm><primary>CAFs</primary><secondary>in GHCi</secondary></indexterm>
            <indexterm><primary>Constant Applicative Form</primary><see>CAFs</see></indexterm>
          </term>
          <listitem>
            <para>Normally, any evaluation of top-level expressions
            (otherwise known as CAFs or Constant Applicative Forms) in
            loaded modules is retained between evaluations.  Turning
            on <literal>+r</literal> causes all evaluation of
            top-level expressions to be discarded after each
            evaluation (they are still retained
            <emphasis>during</emphasis> a single evaluation).</para>
          
            <para>This option may help if the evaluated top-level
            expressions are consuming large amounts of space, or if
            you need repeatable performance measurements.</para>
          </listitem>
        </varlistentry>

        <varlistentry>
          <term>
            <literal>+s</literal>
            <indexterm><primary><literal>+s</literal></primary></indexterm>
          </term>
          <listitem>
            <para>Display some stats after evaluating each expression,
            including the elapsed time and number of bytes allocated.
            NOTE: the allocation figure is only accurate to the size
            of the storage manager's allocation area, because it is
            calculated at every GC.  Hence, you might see values of
            zero if no GC has occurred.</para>
          </listitem>
        </varlistentry>

        <varlistentry>
          <term>
            <literal>+t</literal>
            <indexterm><primary><literal>+t</literal></primary></indexterm>
          </term>
          <listitem>
            <para>Display the type of each variable bound after a
            statement is entered at the prompt.  If the statement is a
            single expression, then the only variable binding will be
            for the variable
            &lsquo;<literal>it</literal>&rsquo;.</para>
          </listitem>
        </varlistentry>
      </variablelist>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="ghci-cmd-line-options">
      <title>Setting GHC command-line options in GHCi</title>

      <para>Normal GHC command-line options may also be set using
      <literal>:set</literal>.  For example, to turn on
      <option>-fglasgow-exts</option>, you would say:</para>

<screen>
Prelude> :set -fglasgow-exts
</screen>
      
      <para>Any GHC command-line option that is designated as
      <firstterm>dynamic</firstterm> (see the table in <xref
      linkend="flag-reference"/>), may be set using
      <literal>:set</literal>.  To unset an option, you can set the
      reverse option:</para>
      <indexterm><primary>dynamic</primary><secondary>options</secondary></indexterm>

<screen>
Prelude> :set -fno-glasgow-exts
</screen>

      <para><xref linkend="flag-reference"/> lists the reverse for each
      option where applicable.</para>

      <para>Certain static options (<option>-package</option>,
      <option>-I</option>, <option>-i</option>, and
      <option>-l</option> in particular) will also work, but some may
      not take effect until the next reload.</para>
      <indexterm><primary>static</primary><secondary>options</secondary></indexterm>
    </sect2>
  </sect1>
  <sect1 id="ghci-dot-files">
    <title>The <filename>.ghci</filename> file</title>
    <indexterm><primary><filename>.ghci</filename></primary><secondary>file</secondary>
    </indexterm>
    <indexterm><primary>startup</primary><secondary>files, GHCi</secondary>
    </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
    <filename>.ghci</filename>:</para>

<screen>
:set -fglasgow-exts -cpp
:set -iA:B:C
</screen>

    <para>(Note that strictly speaking the <option>-i</option> flag is
    a static one, but in fact it works to set it using
    <literal>:set</literal> like this.  The changes won't take effect
    until the next <literal>:load</literal>, though.)</para>

    <para>Two command-line options control whether the
    <filename>.ghci</filename> files are read:</para>

    <variablelist>
      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <option>-ignore-dot-ghci</option>
          <indexterm><primary><option>-ignore-dot-ghci</option></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Don't read either <filename>./.ghci</filename> or
          <filename>$HOME/.ghci</filename> when starting up.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <option>-read-dot-ghci</option>
          <indexterm><primary><option>-read-dot-ghci</option></primary></indexterm>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Read <filename>.ghci</filename> and
          <filename>$HOME/.ghci</filename>.  This is normally the
          default, but the <option>-read-dot-ghci</option> option may
          be used to override a previous
          <option>-ignore-dot-ghci</option> option.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
    </variablelist>

  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="ghci-obj">
    <title>Compiling to object code inside GHCi</title>

    <para>By default, GHCi compiles Haskell source code into byte-code
    that is interpreted by the runtime system.  GHCi can also compile
    Haskell code to object code: to turn on this feature, use the
    <option>-fobject-code</option> flag either on the command line or
    with <literal>:set</literal> (the option
    <option>-fbyte-code</option> restores byte-code compilation
    again).  Compiling to object code takes longer, but typically the
    code will execute 10-20 times faster than byte-code.</para>

    <para>Compiling to object code inside GHCi is particularly useful
    if you are developing a compiled application, because the
    <literal>:reload</literal> command typically runs much faster than
    restarting GHC with <option>--make</option> from the command-line,
    because all the interface files are already cached in
    memory.</para>

    <para>There are disadvantages to compiling to object-code: you
    can't set breakpoints in object-code modules, for example.  Only
    the exports of an object-code module will be visible in GHCi,
    rather than all top-level bindings as in interpreted
    modules.</para>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="ghci-faq">
    <title>FAQ and Things To Watch Out For</title>
    
    <variablelist>
      <varlistentry>
        <term>The interpreter can't load modules with foreign export
        declarations!</term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Unfortunately not.  We haven't implemented it yet.
          Please compile any offending modules by hand before loading
          them into GHCi.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <literal>-O</literal> doesn't work with GHCi!
          <indexterm><primary><option>-O</option></primary></indexterm>
         </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>For technical reasons, the bytecode compiler doesn't
          interact well with one of the optimisation passes, so we
          have disabled optimisation when using the interpreter.  This
          isn't a great loss: you'll get a much bigger win by
          compiling the bits of your code that need to go fast, rather
          than interpreting them with optimisation turned on.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>Unboxed tuples don't work with GHCi</term>
        <listitem>
          <para>That's right.  You can always compile a module that
          uses unboxed tuples and load it into GHCi, however.
          (Incidentally the previous point, namely that
          <literal>-O</literal> is incompatible with GHCi, is because
          the bytecode compiler can't deal with unboxed
          tuples).</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>Concurrent threads don't carry on running when GHCi is
        waiting for input.</term>
        <listitem>
          <para>This should work, as long as your GHCi was built with
          the <option>-threaded</option> switch, which is the default.
          Consult whoever supplied your GHCi installation.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>After using <literal>getContents</literal>, I can't use
        <literal>stdin</literal> again until I do
        <literal>:load</literal> or <literal>:reload</literal>.</term>

        <listitem>
          <para>This is the defined behaviour of
          <literal>getContents</literal>: it puts the stdin Handle in
          a state known as <firstterm>semi-closed</firstterm>, wherein
          any further I/O operations on it are forbidden.  Because I/O
          state is retained between computations, the semi-closed
          state persists until the next <literal>:load</literal> or
          <literal>:reload</literal> command.</para>

          <para>You can make <literal>stdin</literal> reset itself
          after every evaluation by giving GHCi the command
          <literal>:set +r</literal>.  This works because
          <literal>stdin</literal> is just a top-level expression that
          can be reverted to its unevaluated state in the same way as
          any other top-level expression (CAF).</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>I can't use Control-C to interrupt computations in
          GHCi on Windows.</term>
        <listitem>
          <para>See <xref linkend="ghci-windows"/>.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>The default buffering mode is different in GHCi to GHC.</term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            In GHC, the stdout handle is line-buffered by default.
            However, in GHCi we turn off the buffering on stdout,
            because this is normally what you want in an interpreter:
            output appears as it is generated.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
    </variablelist>
  </sect1>

</chapter>

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