1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
2 <chapter id="installing-bin-distrib">
3 <title>Installing GHC</title>
4 <indexterm><primary>binary installations</primary></indexterm>
5 <indexterm><primary>installation, of binaries</primary></indexterm>
8 Installing from binary distributions is easiest, and recommended!
9 (Why binaries? Because GHC is a Haskell compiler written in Haskell,
10 so you've got to bootstrap it somehow. We provide machine-generated
11 C-files-from-Haskell for this purpose, but it's really quite a pain to
12 use them. If you must build GHC from its sources, using a
13 binary-distributed GHC to do so is a sensible way to proceed.)
16 <para>This guide is in several parts:</para>
20 <para> Installing on Unix-a-likes (<xref
21 linkend="unix-a-likes"/>). </para>
24 <para> Installing on Windows (<xref
25 linkend="install-windows"/>). </para>
28 <para> The layout of installed files (<xref
29 linkend="install-files"/>). You don't need to know this to
30 install GHC, but it's useful if you are changing the
31 implementation.</para>
35 <sect1 id="unix-a-likes"><title>Installing on Unix-a-likes</title>
38 <title>When a platform-specific package is available</title>
40 <para>For certain platforms, we provide GHC binaries packaged
41 using the native package format for the platform. This is
42 likely to be by far the best way to install GHC for your
43 platform if one of these packages is available, since
44 dependencies will automatically be handled and the package
45 system normally provides a way to uninstall the package at a
48 <para>We generally provide the following packages:</para>
52 <term>RedHat or SuSE Linux/x86</term>
54 <para>RPM source & binary packages for RedHat and SuSE
55 Linux (x86 only) are available for most major
61 <term>Debian Linux/x86</term>
63 <para>Debian packages for Linux (x86 only), also for most
64 major releases.</para>
69 <term>FreeBSD/x86</term>
71 <para>On FreeBSD/x86, GHC can be installed using either
72 the ports tree (<literal>cd /usr/ports/lang/ghc && make
73 install</literal>) or from a pre-compiled package
74 available from your local FreeBSD mirror.</para>
79 <para>Other platform-specific packages may be available, check
80 the GHC download page for details.</para>
84 <title>GHC binary distributions</title>
87 <indexterm><primary>bundles of binary stuff</primary></indexterm>
91 Binary distributions come in “bundles,” one bundle per file called
92 <literal><replaceable>bundle</replaceable>-<replaceable>platform</replaceable>.tar.gz</literal>. (See the <ulink url="http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/Building">building guide</ulink> for the definition of a platform.) Suppose that you untar a binary-distribution bundle, thus:
98 % cd /your/scratch/space
99 % gunzip < ghc-x.xx-sun-sparc-solaris2.tar.gz | tar xvf -</screen>
104 Then you should find a single directory,
105 <literal>ghc-<replaceable>version</replaceable></literal>, with the
110 <indexterm><primary>binary distribution, layout</primary></indexterm>
111 <indexterm><primary>directory layout (binary distributions)</primary></indexterm>
115 <term><literal>Makefile.in</literal></term>
118 the raw material from which the <literal>Makefile</literal>
119 will be made (<xref linkend="install"/>).
121 </listitem></varlistentry>
123 <term><literal>configure</literal></term>
126 the configuration script (<xref linkend="install"/>).
128 </listitem></varlistentry>
130 <term><literal>README</literal></term>
133 Contains this file summary.
135 </listitem></varlistentry>
137 <term><literal>INSTALL</literal></term>
140 Contains this description of how to install
143 </listitem></varlistentry>
145 <term><literal>ANNOUNCE</literal></term>
148 The announcement message for the bundle.
150 </listitem></varlistentry>
152 <term><literal>NEWS</literal></term>
155 release notes for the bundle—a longer version
156 of <literal>ANNOUNCE</literal>. For GHC, the release notes are contained in the User
157 Guide and this file isn't present.
159 </listitem></varlistentry>
161 <term><literal>bin/<replaceable>platform</replaceable></literal></term>
164 contains platform-specific executable
165 files to be invoked directly by the user. These are the files that
166 must end up in your path.
168 </listitem></varlistentry>
170 <term><literal>lib/<replaceable>platform</replaceable>/</literal></term>
173 contains platform-specific support
174 files for the installation. Typically there is a subdirectory for
175 each <literal>fptools</literal> project, whose name is the name of the project with its
176 version number. For example, for GHC there would be a sub-directory
177 <literal>ghc-x.xx</literal>/ where <literal>x.xx</literal> is the version number of GHC in the bundle.
181 These sub-directories have the following general structure:
188 <term><literal>libHSstd.a</literal> etc:</term>
191 supporting library archives.
193 </listitem></varlistentry>
195 <term><literal>ghc-iface.prl</literal> etc:</term>
200 </listitem></varlistentry>
202 <term><literal>import/</literal></term>
205 <indexterm><primary>Interface files</primary></indexterm> (<literal>.hi</literal>) for the prelude.
207 </listitem></varlistentry>
209 <term><literal>include/</literal></term>
212 A few C <literal>#include</literal> files.
214 </listitem></varlistentry>
217 </listitem></varlistentry>
219 <term><literal>share/</literal></term>
222 contains platform-independent support files
223 for the installation. Again, there is a sub-directory for each
224 <literal>fptools</literal> project.
226 </listitem></varlistentry>
228 <term><literal>html/</literal></term>
231 contains HTML documentation files (one
232 sub-directory per project).
234 </listitem></varlistentry>
239 <title>Installing</title>
242 OK, so let's assume that you have unpacked your chosen bundles. What
243 next? Well, you will at least need to run the
244 <literal>configure</literal><indexterm><primary>configure</primary></indexterm>
245 script by changing directory into the top-level directory for the
246 bundle and typing <literal>./configure</literal>. That should convert
247 <literal>Makefile.in</literal> to <literal>Makefile</literal>.
251 <indexterm><primary>installing in-place</primary></indexterm>
252 <indexterm><primary>in-place installation</primary></indexterm>
253 You can now either start using the tools <emphasis>in-situ</emphasis> without going
254 through any installation process, just type <literal>make in-place</literal> to set the
255 tools up for this. You'll also want to add the path which <literal>make</literal> will
256 now echo to your <literal>PATH</literal> environment variable. This option is useful if
257 you simply want to try out the package and/or you don't have the
258 necessary privileges (or inclination) to properly install the tools
259 locally. Note that if you do decide to install the package `properly'
260 at a later date, you have to go through the installation steps that
265 To install a package, you'll have to do the following:
274 Edit the <literal>Makefile</literal> and check the settings of the following variables:
276 <indexterm><primary>directories, installation</primary></indexterm>
277 <indexterm><primary>installation directories</primary></indexterm>
282 <term><literal>platform</literal></term>
285 the platform you are going to install for.
287 </listitem></varlistentry>
289 <term><literal>bindir</literal></term>
292 the directory in which to install user-invokable
295 </listitem></varlistentry>
297 <term><literal>libdir</literal></term>
300 the directory in which to install
301 platform-dependent support files.
303 </listitem></varlistentry>
305 <term><literal>datadir</literal></term>
308 the directory in which to install
309 platform-independent support files.
311 </listitem></varlistentry>
313 <term><literal>infodir</literal></term>
316 the directory in which to install Emacs info
319 </listitem></varlistentry>
321 <term><literal>htmldir</literal></term>
324 the directory in which to install HTML
327 </listitem></varlistentry>
329 <term><literal>dvidir</literal></term>
332 the directory in which to install DVI
335 </listitem></varlistentry>
338 The values for these variables can be set through invocation of the
339 <command>configure</command><indexterm><primary>configure</primary></indexterm>
340 script that comes with the distribution, but doing an optical diff to
341 see if the values match your expectations is always a Good Idea.
345 <emphasis>Instead of running <command>configure</command>, it is
346 perfectly OK to copy <filename>Makefile.in</filename> to
347 <filename>Makefile</filename> and set all these variables directly
348 yourself. But do it right!</emphasis>
355 Run <literal>make install</literal>. This <emphasis>
356 should</emphasis> work with ordinary Unix
357 <literal>make</literal>—no need for fancy stuff like GNU
358 <literal>make</literal>.
365 <literal>rehash</literal> (t?csh or zsh users), so your shell will see the new
366 stuff in your bin directory.
373 Once done, test your “installation” as suggested in
374 <xref linkend="GHC-test"/>. Be sure to use a <literal>-v</literal>
375 option, so you can see exactly what pathnames it's using.
377 If things don't work as expected, check the list of known pitfalls in
378 the <ulink url="http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/Building">building guide</ulink>.
387 <indexterm><primary>link, installed as ghc</primary></indexterm>
388 When installing the user-invokable binaries, this installation
389 procedure will install GHC as <literal>ghc-x.xx</literal> where <literal>x.xx</literal> is the version
390 number of GHC. It will also make a link (in the binary installation
391 directory) from <literal>ghc</literal> to <literal>ghc-x.xx</literal>. If you install multiple versions
392 of GHC then the last one “wins”, and “<literal>ghc</literal>” will invoke the last
393 one installed. You can change this manually if you want. But
394 regardless, <literal>ghc-x.xx</literal> should always invoke GHC version <literal>x.xx</literal>.
401 <title>What bundles there are</title>
404 <indexterm><primary>bundles, binary</primary></indexterm> There are
405 plenty of “non-basic” GHC bundles. The files for them are
407 <literal>ghc-x.xx-<replaceable>bundle</replaceable>-<replaceable>platform</replaceable>.tar.gz</literal>,
408 where the <replaceable>platform</replaceable> is as above, and
409 <replaceable>bundle</replaceable> is one of these:
416 <term><literal>prof</literal>:</term>
419 Profiling with cost-centres. You probably want this.
420 <indexterm><primary>profiling bundles</primary></indexterm>
421 <indexterm><primary>bundles, profiling</primary></indexterm>
423 </listitem></varlistentry>
425 <term><literal>par</literal>:</term>
428 Parallel Haskell features (sits on top of PVM).
429 You'll want this if you're into that kind of thing.
430 <indexterm><primary>parallel bundles</primary></indexterm>
431 <indexterm><primary>bundles, parallel</primary></indexterm>
433 </listitem></varlistentry>
435 <term><literal>gran</literal>:</term>
438 The “GranSim” parallel-Haskell simulator
439 (hmm… mainly for implementors).
440 <indexterm><primary>bundles, gransim</primary></indexterm>
441 <indexterm><primary>gransim bundles</primary></indexterm>
443 </listitem></varlistentry>
445 <term><literal>ticky</literal>:</term>
448 “Ticky-ticky” profiling; very detailed
449 information about “what happened when I ran this program”—really
451 <indexterm><primary>bundles, ticky-ticky</primary></indexterm>
452 <indexterm><primary>ticky-ticky bundles</primary></indexterm>
454 </listitem></varlistentry>
459 One likely scenario is that you will grab <emphasis>two</emphasis>
460 binary bundles—basic, and profiling. We don't usually make the
461 rest, although you can build them yourself from a source distribution.
464 <para>The various GHC bundles are designed to be unpacked into the
465 same directory; then installing as per the directions above will
466 install the whole lot in one go. Note: you <emphasis>must</emphasis>
467 at least have the basic GHC binary distribution bundle, these extra
468 bundles won't install on their own.</para>
472 <sect3 id="GHC-test">
473 <title>Testing that GHC seems to be working
477 <indexterm><primary>testing a new GHC</primary></indexterm>
481 The way to do this is, of course, to compile and run <emphasis>this</emphasis> program
482 (in a file <literal>Main.hs</literal>):
488 main = putStr "Hello, world!\n"
494 Compile the program, using the <literal>-v</literal> (verbose) flag to verify that
495 libraries, etc., are being found properly:
498 % ghc -v -o hello Main.hs</screen>
507 Hello, world!</screen>
512 Some simple-but-profitable tests are to compile and run the notorious
513 <literal>nfib</literal><indexterm><primary>nfib</primary></indexterm> program, using different numeric types. Start with
514 <literal>nfib :: Int -> Int</literal>, and then try <literal>Integer</literal>, <literal>Float</literal>, <literal>Double</literal>,
515 <literal>Rational</literal> and perhaps the overloaded version. Code for this is
516 distributed in <literal>ghc/misc/examples/nfib/</literal> in a source distribution.
519 <para>For more information on how to “drive” GHC, read
529 <sect1 id="install-windows"><title>Installing on Windows</title>
532 Getting the Glasgow Haskell Compiler (post 5.02) to run on Windows platforms is
533 a snap: the installer does everything you need.
536 <sect2><title>Installing GHC on Windows</title>
539 To install GHC, use the following steps:
542 <listitem><para>Download the installer
545 url="http://www.haskell.org/ghc/download.html">GHC download page</ulink>.
548 <listitem><para>Run the installer.
549 On Windows, all of GHC's files are installed in a single directory.
550 You can override it, but by default this directory is
551 <filename>c:/ghc/<replaceable>ghc-version</replaceable></filename>.
552 The executable binary for GHC will be installed in the
553 <filename>bin/</filename> sub-directory of the installation directory.
554 If you want to invoke GHC from a command line, add this
555 to your PATH environment variable.
558 When installation is complete, you should find GHCi and the GHC
559 documentation are available in your Start menu under
560 "Start/All Programs/GHC/<replaceable>ghc-version</replaceable>".
565 GHC needs a directory in which to create, and later delete, temporary files.
566 It uses the standard Windows procedure <literal>GetTempPath()</literal> to
567 find a suitable directory. This procedure returns:
569 <listitem><para>The path in environment variable TMP,
570 if TMP is set.</para></listitem>
571 <listitem><para>Otherwise, the path in environment variable TEMP,
572 if TEMP is set.</para></listitem>
573 <listitem><para>Otherwise, there is a per-user default which varies
574 between versions of Windows. On NT and XP-ish versions, it might
576 <filename>c:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temp</filename>
579 The main point is that if you don't do anything GHC will work fine;
580 but if you want to control where the directory is, you can do so by
586 To test the fruits of your labour, try now to compile a simple
592 module Main(main) where
594 main = putStrLn "Hello, world!"
595 bash$ ghc -o main main.hs
604 You do <emphasis>not</emphasis> need the Cygwin toolchain, or anything
605 else, to install and run GHC.
608 An installation of GHC requires about 340M of disk space.
609 To run GHC comfortably, your machine should have at least
614 <sect2><title>Moving GHC around</title>
616 Once GHC is installed, you can freely move the entire GHC tree just by copying
617 the <filename>c:/ghc/<replaceable>ghc-version</replaceable></filename>
618 directory. (You will need to fix up
619 the links in "Start/All Programs/GHC/<replaceable>ghc-version</replaceable>"
623 It is OK to put GHC tree in a directory whose path involves spaces. However,
624 don't do this if you use want to use GHC with the Cygwin tools,
625 because Cygwin can get confused when this happens.
626 We havn't quite got to the bottom of this, but so far as we know it's not
627 a problem with GHC itself. Nevertheless, just to keep life simple we usually
628 put GHC in a place with a space-free path.
633 <title>Installing ghc-win32 FAQ</title>
637 <term>I'm having trouble with symlinks.</term>
639 <para>Symlinks only work under Cygwin (<xref linkend="install" />),
640 so binaries not linked to the Cygwin
641 DLL, in particular those built for Mingwin, will not work with
647 <term>I'm getting “permission denied” messages from the
648 <command>rm</command> or <command>mv</command>.</term>
650 <para>This can have various causes: trying to rename a directory
651 when an Explorer window is open on it tends to fail. Closing the
652 window generally cures the problem, but sometimes its cause is
653 more mysterious, and logging off and back on or rebooting may be
654 the quickest cure.</para>
663 <sect1 id="install-files"><title>The layout of installed files</title>
666 This section describes what files get installed where. You don't need to know it
667 if you are simply installing GHC, but it is vital information if you are changing
670 <para> GHC is installed in two directory trees:</para>
673 <term>Library directory,</term>
674 <listitem> <para> known as <filename>$(libdir)</filename>, holds all the
675 support files needed to run GHC. On Unix, this
676 directory is usually something like <filename>/usr/lib/ghc/ghc-5.02</filename>. </para>
680 <term>Binary directory</term>
681 <listitem> <para> known as <filename>$(bindir)</filename>, holds executables that
682 the user is expected to invoke.
684 <filename>ghc</filename> and <filename>ghci</filename>. On Unix, this directory
685 can be anywhere, but is typically something like <filename>/usr/local/bin</filename>. On Windows,
686 however, this directory <emphasis>must be</emphasis> <filename>$(libdir)/bin</filename>.
693 When GHC runs, it must know where its library directory is.
694 It finds this out in one of two ways:
699 <filename>$(libdir)</filename> is passed to GHC using the <option>-B</option> flag.
700 On Unix (but not Windows), the installed <filename>ghc</filename> is just a one-line
701 shell script that invokes the real GHC, passing a suitable <option>-B</option> flag.
702 [All the user-supplied flags
703 follow, and a later <option>-B</option> flag overrides an earlier one, so a user-supplied
708 <para> On Windows (but not Unix), if no <option>-B</option> flag is given, GHC uses a system
709 call to find the directory in which the running GHC executable lives, and derives
710 <filename>$(libdir)</filename> from that. [Unix lacks such a system call.]
711 That is why <filename>$(bindir)</filename> must be <filename>$(libdir)/bin</filename>.
716 <sect2> <title>The binary directory</title>
718 <para>The binary directory, <filename>$(bindir)</filename> contains user-visible
719 executables, notably <filename>ghc</filename> and <filename>ghci</filename>.
720 You should add it to your <literal>$PATH</literal>
723 <para>On Unix, the user-invokable <filename>ghc</filename> invokes <filename>$(libdir)/ghc-<replaceable>version</replaceable></filename>,
724 passing a suitable <option>-B</option> flag to tell <filename>ghc-<replaceable>version</replaceable></filename> where
725 <filename>$(libdir)</filename> is.
726 Similarly <filename>ghci</filename>, except the extra flag <literal>--interactive</literal> is passed.
729 <para>On Win32, the user-invokable <filename>ghc</filename> binary
730 is the Real Thing (no intervening
731 shell scripts or <filename>.bat</filename> files).
732 Reason: we sometimes invoke GHC with very long command lines,
733 and <filename>cmd.exe</filename> (which executes <filename>.bat</filename> files)
734 truncates them. Similarly <filename>ghci</filename> is a C wrapper program that invokes <filename>ghc --interactive</filename>
735 (passing on all other arguments), not a <filename>.bat</filename> file.
741 <sect2> <title>The library directory</title>
743 <para>The layout of the library directory, <filename>$(libdir)</filename> is almost identical on
744 Windows and Unix, as follows. Differences between Windows and Unix
745 are noted thus <literal>[Win32 only]</literal> and are commented below.</para>
749 package.conf GHC package configuration
750 ghc-usage.txt Message displayed by ghc ––help
752 bin/ [Win32 only] User-visible binaries
756 unlit Remove literate markup
758 touchy.exe [Win32 only]
759 perl.exe [Win32 only]
762 ghc-x.xx GHC executable [Unix only]
764 ghc-split Asm code splitter
765 ghc-asm Asm code mangler
767 gcc-lib/ [Win32 only] Support files for gcc
768 specs gcc configuration
770 cpp0.exe gcc support binaries
777 libmingw32.a Standard
782 imports/ GHC interface files
783 std/*.hi 'std' library
784 lang/*.hi 'lang' library
787 include/ C header files
788 StgMacros.h GHC-specific
789 ..etc... header files
791 mingw/*.h [Win32 only] Mingwin header files
793 libHSrts.a GHC library archives
798 HSstd1.o GHC library linkables
799 HSstd2.o (used by ghci, which does
800 HSlang.o not grok .a files yet)
807 <para><filename>$(libdir)</filename> also contains support
808 binaries. These are <emphasis>not</emphasis> expected to be
809 on the user's <filename>PATH</filename>, but and are invoked
810 directly by GHC. In the Makefile system, this directory is
811 also called <filename>$(libexecdir)</filename>, but
812 <emphasis>you are not free to change it</emphasis>. It must
813 be the same as <filename>$(libdir)</filename>.</para>
817 <para>We distribute <filename>gcc</filename> with the Win32 distribution of GHC, so that users
818 don't need to install <filename>gcc</filename>, nor need to care about which version it is.
819 All <filename>gcc</filename>'s support files are kept in <filename>$(libdir)/gcc-lib/</filename>.
824 <para>Similarly, we distribute <filename>perl</filename> and a <filename>touch</filename>
825 replacement (<filename>touchy.exe</filename>)
826 with the Win32 distribution of GHC. </para>
830 <para>The support programs <filename>ghc-split</filename>
831 and <filename>ghc-asm</filename> are Perl scripts. The
832 first line says <literal>#!/bin/perl</literal>; on Unix, the
833 script is indeed invoked as a shell script, which invokes
834 Perl; on Windows, GHC invokes
835 <filename>$(libdir)/perl.exe</filename> directly, which
836 treats the <literal>#!/bin/perl</literal> as a comment.
837 Reason: on Windows we want to invoke the Perl distributed
838 with GHC, rather than assume some installed one. </para>
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