[project @ 2005-03-01 14:32:43 by simonmar]
[ghc-hetmet.git] / ghc / docs / users_guide / phases.xml
1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
2 <sect1 id="options-phases">
3   <title>Options related to a particular phase</title>
4
5   <sect2 id="replacing-phases">
6     <title>Replacing the program for one or more phases</title>
7     <indexterm><primary>phases, changing</primary></indexterm>
8     
9     <para>You may specify that a different program be used for one
10     of the phases of the compilation system, in place of whatever
11     the <command>ghc</command> has wired into it.  For example, you
12     might want to try a different assembler.  The following options
13     allow you to change the external program used for a given
14     compilation phase:</para>
15
16     <variablelist>
17       <varlistentry>
18         <term>
19           <option>-pgmL</option> <replaceable>cmd</replaceable>
20         <indexterm><primary><option>-pgmL</option></primary></indexterm>
21         </term>
22         <listitem>
23           <para>Use <replaceable>cmd</replaceable> as the literate
24           pre-processor.</para>
25         </listitem>
26       </varlistentry>
27
28       <varlistentry>
29         <term>
30           <option>-pgmP</option> <replaceable>cmd</replaceable>
31           <indexterm><primary><option>-pgmP</option></primary></indexterm>
32         </term>
33         <listitem>
34           <para>Use <replaceable>cmd</replaceable> as the C
35           pre-processor (with <option>-cpp</option> only).</para>
36         </listitem>
37       </varlistentry>
38
39       <varlistentry>
40         <term>
41           <option>-pgmc</option> <replaceable>cmd</replaceable>
42           <indexterm><primary><option>-pgmc</option></primary></indexterm>
43         </term>
44         <listitem>
45           <para>Use <replaceable>cmd</replaceable> as the C
46           compiler.</para>
47         </listitem>
48       </varlistentry>
49
50       <varlistentry>
51         <term>
52           <option>-pgma</option> <replaceable>cmd</replaceable>
53           <indexterm><primary><option>-pgma</option></primary></indexterm>
54         </term>
55         <listitem>
56           <para>Use <replaceable>cmd</replaceable> as the
57           assembler.</para>
58         </listitem>
59       </varlistentry>
60
61       <varlistentry>
62         <term>
63           <option>-pgml</option> <replaceable>cmd</replaceable>
64           <indexterm><primary><option>-pgml</option></primary></indexterm>
65         </term>
66         <listitem>
67           <para>Use <replaceable>cmd</replaceable> as the
68           linker.</para>
69         </listitem>
70       </varlistentry>
71
72       <varlistentry>
73         <term>
74           <option>-pgmdll</option> <replaceable>cmd</replaceable>
75           <indexterm><primary><option>-pgmdll</option></primary></indexterm>
76         </term>
77         <listitem>
78           <para>Use <replaceable>cmd</replaceable> as the DLL
79           generator.</para>
80         </listitem>
81       </varlistentry>
82
83       <varlistentry>
84         <term>
85           <option>-pgmdep</option> <replaceable>cmd</replaceable>
86           <indexterm><primary><option>-pgmdep</option></primary></indexterm>
87         </term>
88         <listitem>
89           <para>Use <replaceable>cmd</replaceable> as the dependency
90           generator.</para>
91         </listitem>
92       </varlistentry>
93
94       <varlistentry>
95         <term>
96           <option>-pgmF</option> <replaceable>cmd</replaceable>
97           <indexterm><primary><option>-pgmF</option></primary></indexterm>
98         </term>
99         <listitem>
100           <para>Use <replaceable>cmd</replaceable> as the
101           pre-processor (with <option>-F</option> only).</para>
102         </listitem>
103       </varlistentry>
104
105
106     </variablelist>
107   </sect2>
108
109   <sect2 id="forcing-options-through">
110     <title>Forcing options to a particular phase</title>
111     <indexterm><primary>forcing GHC-phase options</primary></indexterm>
112
113     <para>Options can be forced through to a particlar compilation
114     phase, using the following flags:</para>
115
116     <variablelist>
117       <varlistentry>
118         <term>
119           <option>-optL</option> <replaceable>option</replaceable>
120           <indexterm><primary><option>-optL</option></primary></indexterm>
121         </term>
122         <listitem>
123           <para>Pass <replaceable>option</replaceable> to the
124           literate pre-processor</para>
125         </listitem>
126       </varlistentry>
127       <varlistentry>
128         <term>
129           <option>-optP</option>  <replaceable>option</replaceable>
130           <indexterm><primary><option>-optP</option></primary></indexterm>
131         </term>
132         <listitem>
133           <para>Pass <replaceable>option</replaceable> to CPP (makes
134           sense only if <option>-cpp</option> is also on).</para>
135         </listitem>
136       </varlistentry>
137       <varlistentry>
138         <term>
139           <option>-optF</option> <replaceable>option</replaceable>
140           <indexterm><primary><option>-optF</option></primary></indexterm>
141         </term>
142         <listitem>
143           <para>Pass <replaceable>option</replaceable> to the
144           custom pre-processor (see <xref linkend="pre-processor"/>).</para>
145         </listitem>
146       </varlistentry>
147       <varlistentry>
148         <term>
149           <option>-optc</option> <replaceable>option</replaceable>
150           <indexterm><primary><option>-optc</option></primary></indexterm>
151         </term>
152         <listitem>
153           <para>Pass <replaceable>option</replaceable> to the C compiler.</para>
154         </listitem>
155       </varlistentry>
156       <varlistentry>
157         <term>
158           <option>-opta</option>  <replaceable>option</replaceable>
159           <indexterm><primary><option>-opta</option></primary></indexterm>
160         </term>
161         <listitem>
162           <para>Pass <replaceable>option</replaceable> to the assembler.</para>
163         </listitem>
164       </varlistentry>
165       <varlistentry>
166         <term>
167           <option>-optl</option> <replaceable>option</replaceable>
168           <indexterm><primary><option>-optl</option></primary></indexterm>
169         </term>
170         <listitem>
171           <para>Pass <replaceable>option</replaceable> to the linker.</para>
172         </listitem>
173       </varlistentry>
174       <varlistentry>
175         <term>
176           <option>-optdll</option>  <replaceable>option</replaceable>
177           <indexterm><primary><option>-optdll</option></primary></indexterm>
178         </term>
179         <listitem>
180           <para>Pass <replaceable>option</replaceable> to the DLL generator.</para>
181         </listitem>
182       </varlistentry>
183       <varlistentry>
184         <term>
185           <option>-optdep</option>  <replaceable>option</replaceable>
186           <indexterm><primary><option>-optdep</option></primary></indexterm>
187         </term>
188         <listitem>
189           <para>Pass <replaceable>option</replaceable> to the
190           dependency generator.</para>
191         </listitem>
192       </varlistentry>
193     </variablelist>
194
195     <para>So, for example, to force an <option>-Ewurble</option>
196     option to the assembler, you would tell the driver
197     <option>-opta-Ewurble</option> (the dash before the E is
198     required).</para>
199
200     <para>GHC is itself a Haskell program, so if you need to pass
201     options directly to GHC's runtime system you can enclose them in
202     <literal>+RTS ... -RTS</literal> (see <xref
203     linkend="runtime-control"/>).</para>
204
205   </sect2>
206
207   <sect2 id="c-pre-processor">
208     <title>Options affecting the C pre-processor</title>
209
210     <indexterm><primary>pre-processing: cpp</primary></indexterm>
211     <indexterm><primary>C pre-processor options</primary></indexterm>
212     <indexterm><primary>cpp, pre-processing with</primary></indexterm>
213
214     <variablelist>
215
216       <varlistentry>
217         <term>
218           <option>-cpp</option>
219           <indexterm><primary><option>-cpp</option></primary></indexterm>
220         </term>
221         <listitem>
222           <para>The C pre-processor <command>cpp</command> is run
223           over your Haskell code only if the <option>-cpp</option>
224           option <indexterm><primary>-cpp
225           option</primary></indexterm> is given.  Unless you are
226           building a large system with significant doses of
227           conditional compilation, you really shouldn't need
228           it.</para>
229         </listitem>
230       </varlistentry>
231
232       <varlistentry>
233         <term>
234           <option>-D</option><replaceable>symbol</replaceable><optional>=<replaceable>value</replaceable></optional>
235           <indexterm><primary><option>-D</option></primary></indexterm>
236         </term>
237         <listitem>
238           <para>Define macro <replaceable>symbol</replaceable> in the
239           usual way.  NB: does <emphasis>not</emphasis> affect
240           <option>-D</option> macros passed to the C&nbsp;compiler
241           when compiling via C!  For those, use the
242           <option>-optc-Dfoo</option> hack&hellip; (see <xref
243           linkend="forcing-options-through"/>).</para>
244         </listitem>
245       </varlistentry>
246
247       <varlistentry>
248         <term>
249           <option>-U</option><replaceable>symbol</replaceable>
250           <indexterm><primary><option>-U</option></primary></indexterm>
251         </term>
252         <listitem>
253           <para> Undefine macro <replaceable>symbol</replaceable> in the
254           usual way.</para>
255         </listitem>
256       </varlistentry>
257
258       <varlistentry>
259         <term>
260           <option>-I</option><replaceable>dir</replaceable>
261           <indexterm><primary><option>-I</option></primary></indexterm>
262         </term>
263         <listitem>
264           <para> Specify a directory in which to look for
265           <literal>&num;include</literal> files, in the usual C
266           way.</para>
267         </listitem>
268       </varlistentry>
269     </variablelist>
270
271     <para>The GHC driver pre-defines several macros when processing
272     Haskell source code (<filename>.hs</filename> or
273     <filename>.lhs</filename> files).</para>
274
275     <para>The symbols defined by GHC are listed below.  To check which
276     symbols are defined by your local GHC installation, the following
277     trick is useful:</para>
278
279 <screen>$ ghc -E -optP-dM -cpp foo.hs
280 $ cat foo.hspp</screen>
281
282     <para>(you need a file <filename>foo.hs</filename>, but it isn't
283     actually used).</para>
284
285     <variablelist>
286       <varlistentry>
287         <term>
288           <constant>&lowbar;&lowbar;HASKELL98&lowbar;&lowbar;</constant>
289           <indexterm><primary><literal>&lowbar;&lowbar;HASKELL98&lowbar;&lowbar;</literal></primary></indexterm>
290         </term>
291         <listitem>
292           <para>If defined, this means that GHC supports the
293           language defined by the Haskell 98 report.</para>
294         </listitem>
295       </varlistentry>
296
297       <varlistentry>
298         <term>
299           <constant>&lowbar;&lowbar;HASKELL&lowbar;&lowbar;=98</constant>
300           <indexterm><primary><constant>&lowbar;&lowbar;HASKELL&lowbar;&lowbar;=98</constant></primary></indexterm>
301         </term>
302         <listitem>
303           <para>In GHC 4.04 and later, the
304           <constant>&lowbar;&lowbar;HASKELL&lowbar;&lowbar;</constant>
305           macro is defined as having the value
306           <constant>98</constant>.</para>
307         </listitem>
308       </varlistentry>
309
310       <varlistentry>
311         <term>
312           <constant>&lowbar;&lowbar;HASKELL1&lowbar;&lowbar;</constant>
313           <indexterm><primary><constant>&lowbar;&lowbar;HASKELL1&lowbar;&lowbar;</constant></primary></indexterm>
314         </term>
315         <listitem>
316           <para>If defined to <replaceable>n</replaceable>, that
317           means GHC supports the Haskell language defined in the
318           Haskell report version <emphasis>1.n</emphasis>.
319           Currently 5.  This macro is deprecated, and will probably
320           disappear in future versions.</para>
321         </listitem>
322       </varlistentry>
323
324       <varlistentry>
325         <term>
326           <constant>&lowbar;&lowbar;GLASGOW&lowbar;HASKELL&lowbar;&lowbar;</constant>
327           <indexterm><primary><constant>&lowbar;&lowbar;GLASGOW&lowbar;HASKELL&lowbar;&lowbar;</constant></primary></indexterm>
328         </term>
329         <listitem>
330           <para>For version
331           <literal><replaceable>x</replaceable>.<replaceable>y</replaceable>.<replaceable>z</replaceable></literal>
332           of GHC, the value of
333           <constant>&lowbar;&lowbar;GLASGOW&lowbar;HASKELL&lowbar;&lowbar;</constant>
334           is the integer <replaceable>xyy</replaceable> (if
335         <replaceable>y</replaceable> is a single digit, then a leading zero
336         is added, so for example in version 6.2 of GHC,
337         <literal>__GLASGOW_HASKELL__==602</literal>).  More
338           information in <xref linkend="version-numbering"/>.</para>
339
340           <para>With any luck,
341           <constant>&lowbar;&lowbar;GLASGOW&lowbar;HASKELL&lowbar;&lowbar;</constant>
342           will be undefined in all other implementations that
343           support C-style pre-processing.</para>
344
345           <para>(For reference: the comparable symbols for other
346           systems are:
347           <constant>&lowbar;&lowbar;HUGS&lowbar;&lowbar;</constant>
348           for Hugs,
349           <constant>&lowbar;&lowbar;NHC&lowbar;&lowbar;</constant>
350           for nhc98, and
351           <constant>&lowbar;&lowbar;HBC&lowbar;&lowbar;</constant>
352           for hbc.)</para>
353
354           <para>NB. This macro is set when pre-processing both
355           Haskell source and C source, including the C source
356           generated from a Haskell module
357           (i.e. <filename>.hs</filename>, <filename>.lhs</filename>,
358           <filename>.c</filename> and <filename>.hc</filename>
359           files).</para>
360         </listitem>
361       </varlistentry>
362
363       <varlistentry>
364       <term>
365           <constant>&lowbar;&lowbar;CONCURRENT&lowbar;HASKELL&lowbar;&lowbar;</constant>
366           <indexterm><primary><constant>&lowbar;&lowbar;CONCURRENT&lowbar;HASKELL&lowbar;&lowbar;</constant></primary></indexterm>
367         </term>
368       <listitem>
369         <para>This symbol is defined when pre-processing Haskell
370           (input) and pre-processing C (GHC output).  Since GHC from
371           verion 4.00 now supports concurrent haskell by default,
372           this symbol is always defined.</para>
373         </listitem>
374       </varlistentry>
375       
376       <varlistentry>
377         <term>
378           <constant>&lowbar;&lowbar;PARALLEL&lowbar;HASKELL&lowbar;&lowbar;</constant>
379           <indexterm><primary><constant>&lowbar;&lowbar;PARALLEL&lowbar;HASKELL&lowbar;&lowbar;</constant></primary></indexterm>
380         </term>
381         <listitem>
382           <para>Only defined when <option>-parallel</option> is in
383           use!  This symbol is defined when pre-processing Haskell
384           (input) and pre-processing C (GHC output).</para>
385         </listitem>
386       </varlistentry>
387
388       <varlistentry>
389         <term>
390           <constant><replaceable>os</replaceable>_OS=1</constant>
391         </term>
392         <listitem>
393           <para>This define allows conditional compilation based on
394           the Operating System, where<replaceable>os</replaceable> is
395           the name of the current Operating System
396           (eg. <literal>linux</literal>, <literal>mingw32</literal>
397           for Windows, <literal>solaris</literal>, etc.).</para>
398         </listitem>
399       </varlistentry>
400         
401       <varlistentry>
402         <term>
403           <constant><replaceable>arch</replaceable>_ARCH=1</constant>
404         </term>
405         <listitem>
406           <para>This define allows conditional compilation based on
407           the host architecture, where<replaceable>arch</replaceable>
408           is the name of the current architecture
409           (eg. <literal>i386</literal>, <literal>x86_64</literal>,
410           <literal>powerpc</literal>, <literal>sparc</literal>,
411           etc.).</para>
412         </listitem>
413       </varlistentry>
414     </variablelist>
415
416     <sect3 id="cpp-string-gaps">
417       <title>CPP and string gaps</title>
418
419       <para>A small word of warning: <option>-cpp</option> is not
420       friendly to &ldquo;string gaps&rdquo;.<indexterm><primary>-cpp
421       vs string gaps</primary></indexterm><indexterm><primary>string
422       gaps vs -cpp</primary></indexterm>.  In other words, strings
423       such as the following:</para>
424
425 <programlisting>strmod = "\
426 \ p \
427 \ "</programlisting>
428       
429       <para>don't work with <option>-cpp</option>;
430       <filename>/usr/bin/cpp</filename> elides the backslash-newline
431       pairs.</para>
432
433       <para>However, it appears that if you add a space at the end
434       of the line, then <command>cpp</command> (at least GNU
435       <command>cpp</command> and possibly other
436       <command>cpp</command>s) leaves the backslash-space pairs
437       alone and the string gap works as expected.</para>
438     </sect3>
439   </sect2>
440
441   <sect2 id="pre-processor">
442     <title>Options affecting a Haskell pre-processor</title>
443     
444     <indexterm><primary>pre-processing: custom</primary></indexterm>
445     <indexterm><primary>Pre-processor options</primary></indexterm>
446
447     <variablelist>
448       <varlistentry>
449         <term>
450           <option>-F</option>
451           <indexterm><primary><option>-F</option></primary></indexterm>
452         </term>
453         <listitem>
454           <para>A custom pre-processor is run over your Haskell
455           source file only if the <option>-F</option> option
456           <indexterm><primary>-F</primary></indexterm> is
457           given.</para>
458
459           <para>Running a custom pre-processor at compile-time is in
460           some settings appropriate and useful. The
461           <option>-F</option> option lets you run a pre-processor as
462           part of the overall GHC compilation pipeline, which has
463           the advantage over running a Haskell pre-processor
464           separately in that it works in interpreted mode and you
465           can continue to take reap the benefits of GHC's
466           recompilation checker.</para>
467
468           <para>The pre-processor is run just before the Haskell
469           compiler proper processes the Haskell input, but after the
470           literate markup has been stripped away and (possibly) the
471           C pre-processor has washed the Haskell input.</para>
472
473           <para>Use
474           <option>-pgmF&nbsp;<replaceable>cmd</replaceable></option>
475           to select the program to use as the preprocessor.  When
476           invoked, the <replaceable>cmd</replaceable> pre-processor
477           is given at least three arguments on its command-line: the
478           first argument is the name of the original source file,
479           the second is the name of the file holding the input, and
480           the third is the name of the file where
481           <replaceable>cmd</replaceable> should write its output
482           to.</para>
483
484           <para>Additional arguments to the pre-processor can be
485           passed in using the <option>-optF</option> option. These
486           are fed to <replaceable>cmd</replaceable> on the command
487           line after the three standard input and output
488           arguments.</para>
489         </listitem>
490       </varlistentry>
491     </variablelist>
492   </sect2>
493
494   <sect2 id="options-C-compiler">
495     <title>Options affecting the C compiler (if applicable)</title>
496
497     <indexterm><primary>include-file options</primary></indexterm>
498     <indexterm><primary>C compiler options</primary></indexterm>
499     <indexterm><primary>GCC options</primary></indexterm>
500
501     <para>If you are compiling with lots of foreign calls, you may
502     need to tell the C&nbsp;compiler about some
503     <literal>&num;include</literal> files.  The Right Way to do this is to
504       add an <literal>INCLUDE</literal> pragma to the top of your source file
505       (<xref linkend="include-pragma" />):</para>
506
507 <programlisting>{-# INCLUDE &lt;X/Xlib.h&gt; #-}</programlisting>
508       
509     <para>Sometimes this isn't convenient.  In those cases there's an
510       equivalent command-line option:</para>
511
512 <screen>% ghc -c '-#include &lt;X/Xlib.h&gt;' Xstuff.lhs</screen>
513
514     <indexterm><primary><option>-#include</option></primary>
515     </indexterm>
516
517   </sect2>
518
519   <sect2 id="options-codegen">
520     <title>Options affecting code generation</title>
521
522     <variablelist>
523       <varlistentry>
524         <term>
525           <option>-fasm</option>
526           <indexterm><primary><option>-fasm</option></primary></indexterm>
527         </term>
528         <listitem>
529           <para>Use GHC's native code generator rather than
530           compiling via C.  This will compile faster (up to twice as
531           fast), but may produce code that is slightly slower than
532           compiling via C.  <option>-fasm</option> is the default
533           when optimisation is off (see <xref
534           linkend="options-optimise"/>).</para>
535         </listitem>
536       </varlistentry>
537
538       <varlistentry>
539         <term>
540           <option>-fvia-C</option>
541           <indexterm><primary><option>-fvia-C</option></primary></indexterm>
542         </term>
543         <listitem>
544           <para>Compile via C instead of using the native code
545           generator.  This is default for optimised compilations,
546           and on architectures for which GHC doesn't have a native
547           code generator.</para>
548         </listitem>
549       </varlistentry>
550
551       <varlistentry>
552         <term>
553           <option>-fno-code</option>
554           <indexterm><primary><option>-fno-code</option></primary></indexterm>
555         </term>
556         <listitem>
557           <para>Omit code generation (and all later phases)
558           altogether.  Might be of some use if you just want to see
559           dumps of the intermediate compilation phases.</para>
560         </listitem>
561       </varlistentry>
562     </variablelist>
563   </sect2>
564
565   <sect2 id="options-linker">
566     <title>Options affecting linking</title>
567
568     <indexterm><primary>linker options</primary></indexterm>
569     <indexterm><primary>ld options</primary></indexterm>
570
571
572     <para>GHC has to link your code with various libraries, possibly
573     including: user-supplied, GHC-supplied, and system-supplied
574     (<option>-lm</option> math library, for example).</para>
575
576     <variablelist>
577
578       <varlistentry>
579         <term>
580           <option>-l</option><replaceable>lib</replaceable>
581           <indexterm><primary><option>-l</option></primary></indexterm>
582         </term>
583         <listitem>
584           <para>Link in the <replaceable>lib</replaceable> library.
585           On Unix systems, this will be in a file called
586           <filename>lib<replaceable>lib</replaceable>.a</filename>
587           or
588           <filename>lib<replaceable>lib</replaceable>.so</filename>
589           which resides somewhere on the library directories path.</para>
590
591           <para>Because of the sad state of most UNIX linkers, the
592           order of such options does matter.  If library
593           <replaceable>foo</replaceable> requires library
594           <replaceable>bar</replaceable>, then in general
595           <option>-l</option><replaceable>foo</replaceable> should
596           come <emphasis>before</emphasis>
597           <option>-l</option><replaceable>bar</replaceable> on the
598           command line.</para>
599
600           <para>There's one other gotcha to bear in mind when using
601           external libraries: if the library contains a
602           <literal>main()</literal> function, then this will be
603           linked in preference to GHC's own
604           <literal>main()</literal> function
605           (eg. <literal>libf2c</literal> and <literal>libl</literal>
606           have their own <literal>main()</literal>s).  This is
607           because GHC's <literal>main()</literal> comes from the
608           <literal>HSrts</literal> library, which is normally
609           included <emphasis>after</emphasis> all the other
610           libraries on the linker's command line.  To force GHC's
611           <literal>main()</literal> to be used in preference to any
612           other <literal>main()</literal>s from external libraries,
613           just add the option <option>-lHSrts</option> before any
614           other libraries on the command line.</para>
615         </listitem>
616       </varlistentry>
617
618       <varlistentry>
619         <term>
620           <option>-c</option>
621           <indexterm><primary><option>-c</option></primary></indexterm>
622         </term>
623         <listitem>
624           <para>Omits the link step.  This option can be used with
625             <option>&ndash;&ndash;make</option> to avoid the automatic linking
626             that takes place if the program contains a <literal>Main</literal>
627             module.</para>
628         </listitem>
629       </varlistentry>
630
631       <varlistentry>
632         <term>
633           <option>-package</option> <replaceable>name</replaceable>
634           <indexterm><primary><option>-package</option></primary></indexterm>
635         </term>
636         <listitem>
637           <para>If you are using a Haskell &ldquo;package&rdquo;
638           (see <xref linkend="packages"/>), don't forget to add the
639           relevant <option>-package</option> option when linking the
640           program too: it will cause the appropriate libraries to be
641           linked in with the program.  Forgetting the
642           <option>-package</option> option will likely result in
643           several pages of link errors.</para>
644         </listitem>
645       </varlistentry>
646
647       <varlistentry>
648         <term>
649           <option>-framework</option> <replaceable>name</replaceable>
650           <indexterm><primary><option>-framework</option></primary></indexterm>
651         </term>
652         <listitem>
653           <para>On Darwin/MacOS X only, link in the framework <replaceable>name</replaceable>.
654           This option corresponds to the <option>-framework</option> option for Apple's Linker.
655           Please note that frameworks and packages are two different things - frameworks don't
656           contain any haskell code. Rather, they are Apple's way of packaging shared libraries.
657           To link to Apple's &ldquo;Carbon&rdquo; API, for example, you'd use
658           <option>-framework Carbon</option>.
659           </para>
660         </listitem>
661       </varlistentry>
662
663       <varlistentry>
664         <term>
665           <option>-L</option><replaceable>dir</replaceable>
666           <indexterm><primary><option>-L</option></primary></indexterm>
667         </term>
668         <listitem>
669           <para>Where to find user-supplied libraries&hellip;
670           Prepend the directory <replaceable>dir</replaceable> to
671           the library directories path.</para>
672         </listitem>
673       </varlistentry>
674
675       <varlistentry>
676         <term>
677           <option>-framework-path</option><replaceable>dir</replaceable>
678           <indexterm><primary><option>-framework-path</option></primary></indexterm>
679         </term>
680         <listitem>
681           <para>On Darwin/MacOS X only, prepend the directory <replaceable>dir</replaceable> to
682           the framework directories path. This option corresponds to the <option>-F</option>
683           option for Apple's Linker (<option>-F</option> already means something else for GHC).</para>
684         </listitem>
685       </varlistentry>
686
687       <varlistentry>
688         <term>
689           <option>-split-objs</option>
690           <indexterm><primary><option>-split-objs</option></primary></indexterm>
691         </term>
692         <listitem>
693           <para>Tell the linker to split the single object file that
694           would normally be generated into multiple object files,
695           one per top-level Haskell function or type in the module.
696           We use this feature for building GHC's libraries libraries
697           (warning: don't use it unless you know what you're
698           doing!).</para>
699         </listitem>
700       </varlistentry>
701
702       <varlistentry>
703         <term>
704           <option>-static</option>
705           <indexterm><primary><option>-static</option></primary></indexterm>
706         </term>
707         <listitem>
708           <para>Tell the linker to avoid shared Haskell libraries,
709           if possible.  This is the default.</para>
710         </listitem>
711       </varlistentry>
712
713       <varlistentry>
714         <term>
715           <option>-dynamic</option>
716           <indexterm><primary><option>-dynamic</option></primary></indexterm>
717         </term>
718         <listitem>
719           <para>Tell the linker to use shared Haskell libraries, if
720           available (this option is only supported on Windows at the
721           moment, and also note that your distribution of GHC may
722           not have been supplied with shared libraries).</para>
723         </listitem>
724       </varlistentry>
725
726       <varlistentry>
727         <term>
728           <option>-main-is <replaceable>thing</replaceable></option>
729           <indexterm><primary><option>-main-is</option></primary></indexterm>
730           <indexterm><primary>specifying your own main function</primary></indexterm>
731         </term>
732         <listitem>
733           <para> The normal rule in Haskell is that your program must supply a <literal>main</literal>
734             function in module <literal>Main</literal>.  When testing, it is often convenient
735             to change which function is the "main" one, and the <option>-main-is</option> flag
736             allows you to do so.  The  <replaceable>thing</replaceable> can be one of:
737             <itemizedlist>
738         <listitem><para>A lower-case identifier <literal>foo</literal>.  GHC assumes that the main function is <literal>Main.foo</literal>.</para></listitem>
739         <listitem><para>An module name <literal>A</literal>.  GHC assumes that the main function is <literal>A.main</literal>.</para></listitem>
740         <listitem><para>An qualified name <literal>A.foo</literal>.  GHC assumes that the main function is <literal>A.foo</literal>.</para></listitem>
741         </itemizedlist>
742             Strictly speaking, <option>-main-is</option> is not a link-phase flag at all; it has no effect on the link step.
743             The flag must be specified when compiling the module containing the specified main function (e.g. module <literal>A</literal>
744             in the latter two items above.  It has no effect for other modules (and hence can safely be given to <literal>ghc --make</literal>).
745             </para> 
746         </listitem>
747       </varlistentry>
748
749       <varlistentry>
750         <term>
751           <option>-no-hs-main</option>
752           <indexterm><primary><option>-no-hs-main</option></primary></indexterm>
753           <indexterm><primary>linking Haskell libraries with foreign code</primary></indexterm>
754         </term>
755         <listitem>
756           <para>In the event you want to include ghc-compiled code
757           as part of another (non-Haskell) program, the RTS will not
758           be supplying its definition of <function>main()</function>
759           at link-time, you will have to. To signal that to the
760           compiler when linking, use
761           <option>-no-hs-main</option>. See also <xref linkend="using-own-main"/>.</para>
762
763           <para>Notice that since the command-line passed to the
764           linker is rather involved, you probably want to use
765           <command>ghc</command> to do the final link of your
766           `mixed-language' application. This is not a requirement
767           though, just try linking once with <option>-v</option> on
768           to see what options the driver passes through to the
769           linker.</para>
770
771           <para>The <option>-no-hs-main</option> flag can also be
772           used to persuade the compiler to do the link step in
773           <option>--make</option> mode when there is no Haskell
774           <literal>Main</literal> module present (normally the
775           compiler will not attempt linking when there is no
776           <literal>Main</literal>).</para>
777         </listitem>
778       </varlistentry>
779
780       <varlistentry>
781         <term>
782           <option>-debug</option>
783           <indexterm><primary><option>-debug</option></primary></indexterm>
784         </term>
785         <listitem>
786           <para>Link the program with a debugging version of the
787           runtime system.  The debugging runtime turns on numerous
788           assertions and sanity checks, and provides extra options
789           for producing debugging output at runtime (run the program
790           with <literal>+RTS&nbsp;-?</literal> to see a list).</para>
791         </listitem>
792       </varlistentry>
793
794       <varlistentry>
795         <term>
796           <option>-threaded</option>
797           <indexterm><primary><option>-threaded</option></primary></indexterm>
798         </term>
799         <listitem>
800           <para>Link the program with the "threaded" runtime system.
801           This version of the runtime is designed to be used in
802           programs that use multiple operating-system threads.  It
803           supports calls to foreign-exported functions from multiple
804           OS threads.  Calls to foreign functions are made using the
805           same OS thread that created the Haskell thread (if it was
806           created by a call-in), or an arbitrary OS thread otherwise
807           (if the Haskell thread was created by
808           <literal>forkIO</literal>).</para>
809
810           <para>More details on the use of "bound threads" in the
811           threaded runtime can be found in the <ulink
812           url="../libraries/base/Control.Concurrent.html"><literal>Control.Concurrent</literal></ulink> module.</para>
813
814           <para>The threaded RTS does <emphasis>not</emphasis>
815           support using multiple CPUs to speed up execution of a
816           multi-threaded Haskell program.  The GHC runtime platform
817           is still single-threaded, but using the
818           <option>-threaded</option> option it can be used safely in
819           a multi-threaded environment.</para>
820         </listitem>
821       </varlistentry>
822     </variablelist>
823   </sect2>
824
825 </sect1>
826
827 <!-- Emacs stuff:
828      ;;; Local Variables: ***
829      ;;; mode: xml ***
830      ;;; sgml-parent-document: ("users_guide.xml" "book" "chapter" "sect1") ***
831      ;;; End: ***
832  -->