<indexterm><primary>using GHC</primary></indexterm>
<sect1>
+ <title>Getting started: compiling programs</title>
+
+ <para>
+ In this chapter you'll find a complete reference to the GHC
+ command-line syntax, including all 400+ flags. It's a large and
+ complex system, and there are lots of details, so it can be
+ quite hard to figure out how to get started. With that in mind,
+ this introductory section provides a quick introduction to the
+ basic usage of GHC for compiling a Haskell program, before the
+ following sections dive into the full syntax.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Let's create a Hello World program, and compile and run it.
+ First, create a file <filename>hello.hs</filename> containing
+ the Haskell code:
+ </para>
+
+<programlisting>
+main = putStrLn "Hello, World!"
+</programlisting>
+
+ <para>To compile the program, use GHC like this:</para>
+
+<screen>
+$ ghc hello.hs</screen>
+
+ <para>(where <literal>$</literal> represents the prompt: don't
+ type it). GHC will compile the source
+ file <filename>hello.hs</filename>, producing
+ an <firstterm>object
+ file</firstterm> <filename>hello.o</filename> and
+ an <firstterm>interface
+ file</firstterm> <filename>hello.hi</filename>, and then it
+ will link the object file to the libraries that come with GHC
+ to produce an executable called <filename>hello</filename> on
+ Unix/Linux/Mac, or <filename>hello.exe</filename> on
+ Windows.</para>
+
+ <para>
+ By default GHC will be very quiet about what it is doing, only
+ printing error messages. If you want to see in more detail
+ what's going on behind the scenes, add <option>-v</option> to
+ the command line.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Then we can run the program like this:
+ </para>
+
+<screen>
+$ ./hello
+Hello World!</screen>
+
+ <para>
+ If your program contains multiple modules, then you only need to
+ tell GHC the name of the source file containing
+ the <filename>Main</filename> module, and GHC will examine
+ the <literal>import</literal> declarations to find the other
+ modules that make up the program and find their source files.
+ This means that, with the exception of
+ the <literal>Main</literal> module, every source file should be
+ named after the module name that it contains (with dots replaced
+ by directory separators). For example, the
+ module <literal>Data.Person</literal> would be in the
+ file <filename>Data/Person.hs</filename> on Unix/Linux/Mac,
+ or <filename>Data\Person.hs</filename> on Windows.
+ </para>
+ </sect1>
+
+ <sect1>
<title>Options overview</title>
<para>GHC's behaviour is controlled by
Options can be specified in three ways:</para>
<sect2>
- <title>command-line arguments</title>
+ <title>Command-line arguments</title>
<indexterm><primary>structure, command-line</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>command-line</primary><secondary>arguments</secondary></indexterm>
ghc [argument...]
</screen>
- <para>command-line arguments are either options or file names.</para>
+ <para>Command-line arguments are either options or file names.</para>
- <para>command-line options begin with <literal>-</literal>.
+ <para>Command-line options begin with <literal>-</literal>.
They may <emphasis>not</emphasis> be grouped:
<option>-vO</option> is different from <option>-v -O</option>.
Options need not precede filenames: e.g., <literal>ghc *.o -o
</sect2>
<sect2 id="source-file-options">
- <title>command line options in source files</title>
+ <title>Command line options in source files</title>
<indexterm><primary>source-file options</primary></indexterm>
<para>Sometimes it is useful to make the connection between a
source file and the command-line options it requires quite
- tight. For instance, if a Haskell source file uses GHC
- extensions, it will always need to be compiled with the
- <option>-fglasgow-exts</option> option. Rather than maintaining
+ tight. For instance, if a Haskell source file deliberately
+ uses name shadowing, it should be compiled with the
+ <option>-fno-warn-name-shadowing</option> option. Rather than maintaining
the list of per-file options in a <filename>Makefile</filename>,
it is possible to do this directly in the source file using the
<literal>OPTIONS_GHC</literal> pragma <indexterm><primary>OPTIONS_GHC
pragma</primary></indexterm>:</para>
<programlisting>
-{-# OPTIONS_GHC -fglasgow-exts #-}
+{-# OPTIONS_GHC -fno-warn-name-shadowing #-}
module X where
...
</programlisting>
- <para><literal>OPTIONS_GHC</literal> pragmas are only looked for at
- the top of your source files, upto the first
- (non-literate,non-empty) line not containing
- <literal>OPTIONS_GHC</literal>. Multiple <literal>OPTIONS_GHC</literal>
- pragmas are recognised. Do not put comments before, or on the same line
- as, the <literal>OPTIONS_GHC</literal> pragma.</para>
+ <para><literal>OPTIONS_GHC</literal> is a <emphasis>file-header pragma</emphasis>
+ (see <xref linkend="pragmas"/>).</para>
+
+ <para>Only <emphasis>dynamic</emphasis> flags can be used in an <literal>OPTIONS_GHC</literal> pragma
+ (see <xref linkend="static-dynamic-flags"/>).</para>
<para>Note that your command shell does not
get to the source file options, they are just included literally
maintains internally, so you'll be desperately disappointed if
you try to glob etc. inside <literal>OPTIONS_GHC</literal>.</para>
- <para>NOTE: the contents of OPTIONS_GHC are prepended to the
- command-line options, so you <emphasis>do</emphasis> have the
- ability to override OPTIONS_GHC settings via the command
- line.</para>
+ <para>NOTE: the contents of OPTIONS_GHC are appended to the
+ command-line options, so options given in the source file
+ override those given on the command-line.</para>
<para>It is not recommended to move all the contents of your
Makefiles into your source files, but in some circumstances, the
<literal>OPTIONS_GHC</literal> pragma is the Right Thing. (If you
- use <option>-keep-hc-file-too</option> and have OPTION flags in
+ use <option>-keep-hc-file</option> and have OPTION flags in
your module, the OPTIONS_GHC will get put into the generated .hc
file).</para>
</sect2>
<indexterm><primary>mode</primary><secondary>options</secondary>
</indexterm>
- <para>Each of GHC's command line options is classified as either
- <firstterm>static</firstterm> or <firstterm>dynamic</firstterm> or
+ <para>Each of GHC's command line options is classified as
+ <firstterm>static</firstterm>, <firstterm>dynamic</firstterm> or
<firstterm>mode</firstterm>:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Mode flags</term>
<listitem>
- <para>For example, <option>--make</option> or <option>-E</option>.
- There may be only a single mode flag on the command line. The
+ <para>For example, <option>––make</option> or <option>-E</option>.
+ There may only be a single mode flag on the command line. The
available modes are listed in <xref linkend="modes"/>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<listitem>
<para>Most non-mode flags fall into this category. A dynamic flag
may be used on the command line, in a
- <literal>GHC_OPTIONS</literal> pragma in a source file, or set
+ <literal>OPTIONS_GHC</literal> pragma in a source file, or set
using <literal>:set</literal> in GHCi.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<para>The flag reference tables (<xref
linkend="flag-reference"/>) lists the status of each flag.</para>
+
+ <para>There are a few flags that are static except that they can
+ also be used with GHCi's <literal>:set</literal> command; these
+ are listed as “static/<literal>:set</literal>” in the
+ table.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="file-suffixes">
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
+ <term><filename>.ll</filename></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>An llvm-intermediate-language source file, usually
+ produced by the compiler.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><filename>.bc</filename></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>An llvm-intermediate-language bitcode file, usually
+ produced by the compiler.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
<term><filename>.s</filename></term>
<listitem>
<para>An assembly-language source file, usually produced by
<sect1 id="modes">
<title>Modes of operation</title>
- <para>GHC's behaviour is firstly controlled by a mode flag. Only
- one of these flags may be given, but it does not necessarily need
- to be the first option on the command-line. The available modes
- are:</para>
+ <para>
+ GHC's behaviour is firstly controlled by a mode flag. Only one
+ of these flags may be given, but it does not necessarily need to
+ be the first option on the command-line.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ If no mode flag is present, then GHC will enter make mode
+ (<xref linkend="make-mode" />) if there are any Haskell source
+ files given on the command line, or else it will link the
+ objects named on the command line to produce an executable.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>The available mode flags are:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>
- <cmdsynopsis><command>ghc</command>
- <arg choice='plain'>––interactive</arg>
+ <cmdsynopsis><command>ghc --interactive</command>
</cmdsynopsis>
<indexterm><primary>interactive mode</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>ghci</primary></indexterm>
<varlistentry>
<term>
- <cmdsynopsis><command>ghc</command>
- <arg choice='plain'>––make</arg>
+ <cmdsynopsis><command>ghc ––make</command>
</cmdsynopsis>
<indexterm><primary>make mode</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary><option>––make</option></primary></indexterm>
likely to be much easier, and faster, than using
<command>make</command>. Make mode is described in <xref
linkend="make-mode"/>.</para>
+
+ <para>
+ This mode is the default if there are any Haskell
+ source files mentioned on the command line, and in this case
+ the <option>––make</option> option can be omitted.
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
- <cmdsynopsis><command>ghc</command>
- <arg choice='plain'>–e</arg> <arg choice='plain'><replaceable>expr</replaceable></arg>
+ <cmdsynopsis><command>ghc -e</command>
+ <arg choice='plain'><replaceable>expr</replaceable></arg>
</cmdsynopsis>
<indexterm><primary>eval mode</primary></indexterm>
</term>
<varlistentry>
<term>
<cmdsynopsis>
- <command>ghc</command>
- <group>
- <arg>-E</arg>
- <arg>-C</arg>
- <arg>-S</arg>
- <arg>-c</arg>
- </group>
+ <command>ghc -E</command>
+ <command>ghc -c</command>
+ <command>ghc -S</command>
+ <command>ghc -c</command>
</cmdsynopsis>
<indexterm><primary><option>-E</option></primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary><option>-C</option></primary></indexterm>
<varlistentry>
<term>
<cmdsynopsis>
- <command>ghc</command>
- <arg choice='plain'>–M</arg>
+ <command>ghc -M</command>
</cmdsynopsis>
<indexterm><primary>dependency-generation mode</primary></indexterm>
</term>
<para>Dependency-generation mode. In this mode, GHC can be
used to generate dependency information suitable for use in
a <literal>Makefile</literal>. See <xref
- linkend="sec-makefile-dependencies"/>.</para>
+ linkend="makefile-dependencies"/>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
<cmdsynopsis>
- <command>ghc</command>
- <arg choice='plain'>––mk-dll</arg>
+ <command>ghc --mk-dll</command>
</cmdsynopsis>
- <indexterm><primary>dependency-generation mode</primary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>DLL-creation mode</primary></indexterm>
</term>
<listitem>
<para>DLL-creation mode (Windows only). See <xref
linkend="win32-dlls-create"/>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ <cmdsynopsis>
+ <command>ghc --help</command> <command>ghc -?</command>
+ </cmdsynopsis>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>––help</option></primary></indexterm>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Cause GHC to spew a long usage message to standard
+ output and then exit.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ <cmdsynopsis>
+ <command>ghc --show-iface <replaceable>file</replaceable></command>
+ </cmdsynopsis>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>––--show-iface</option></primary></indexterm>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Read the interface in
+ <replaceable>file</replaceable> and dump it as text to
+ <literal>stdout</literal>. For example <literal>ghc --show-iface M.hi</literal>.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ <cmdsynopsis>
+ <command>ghc --supported-extensions</command>
+ <command>ghc --supported-languages</command>
+ </cmdsynopsis>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>––supported-extensions</option></primary><primary><option>––supported-languages</option></primary></indexterm>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Print the supported language extensions.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ <cmdsynopsis>
+ <command>ghc --info</command>
+ </cmdsynopsis>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>––info</option></primary></indexterm>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Print information about the compiler.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ <cmdsynopsis>
+ <command>ghc --version</command>
+ <command>ghc -V</command>
+ </cmdsynopsis>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-V</option></primary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>––version</option></primary></indexterm>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Print a one-line string including GHC's version number.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ <cmdsynopsis>
+ <command>ghc --numeric-version</command>
+ </cmdsynopsis>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>––numeric-version</option></primary></indexterm>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Print GHC's numeric version number only.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ <cmdsynopsis>
+ <command>ghc --print-libdir</command>
+ </cmdsynopsis>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>––print-libdir</option></primary></indexterm>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Print the path to GHC's library directory. This is
+ the top of the directory tree containing GHC's libraries,
+ interfaces, and include files (usually something like
+ <literal>/usr/local/lib/ghc-5.04</literal> on Unix). This
+ is the value of
+ <literal>$libdir</literal><indexterm><primary><literal>libdir</literal></primary></indexterm>
+ in the package configuration file
+ (see <xref linkend="packages"/>).</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
</variablelist>
<sect2 id="make-mode">
<indexterm><primary><option>––make</option></primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>separate compilation</primary></indexterm>
- <para>When given the <option>––make</option> option,
- GHC will build a multi-module Haskell program by following
- dependencies from a single root module (usually
+ <para>In this mode, GHC will build a multi-module Haskell program by following
+ dependencies from one or more root modules (usually just
<literal>Main</literal>). For example, if your
<literal>Main</literal> module is in a file called
<filename>Main.hs</filename>, you could compile and link the
ghc ––make Main.hs
</screen>
- <para>The command line may contain any number of source file
- names or module names; GHC will figure out all the modules in
- the program by following the imports from these initial modules.
- It will then attempt to compile each module which is out of
- date, and finally if there is a <literal>Main</literal> module,
- the program will also be linked into an executable.</para>
+ <para>
+ In fact, GHC enters make mode automatically if there are any
+ Haskell source files on the command line and no other mode is
+ specified, so in this case we could just type
+ </para>
+
+<screen>
+ghc Main.hs
+</screen>
+
+ <para>Any number of source file names or module names may be
+ specified; GHC will figure out all the modules in the program by
+ following the imports from these initial modules. It will then
+ attempt to compile each module which is out of date, and
+ finally, if there is a <literal>Main</literal> module, the
+ program will also be linked into an executable.</para>
<para>The main advantages to using <literal>ghc
––make</literal> over traditional
<para>The first phase to run is determined by each input-file
suffix, and the last phase is determined by a flag. If no
- relevant flag is present, then go all the way through linking.
+ relevant flag is present, then go all the way through to linking.
This table summarises:</para>
<informaltable>
<para>Note: The option <option>-E</option><indexterm><primary>-E
option</primary></indexterm> runs just the pre-processing passes
- of the compiler, dumping the result in a file. Note that this
- differs from the previous behaviour of dumping the file to
- standard output.</para>
+ of the compiler, dumping the result in a file.</para>
<sect3 id="overriding-suffixes">
<title>Overriding the default behaviour for a file</title>
<para>As described above, the way in which a file is processed by GHC
- depends on its suffix. This behaviour can be overriden using the
+ depends on its suffix. This behaviour can be overridden using the
<option>-x</option> option:</para>
<variablelist>
<indexterm><primary>help options</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>verbosity options</primary></indexterm>
+ <para>See also the <option>--help</option>, <option>--version</option>, <option>--numeric-version</option>,
+ and <option>--print-libdir</option> modes in <xref linkend="modes"/>.</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>
- <option>––help</option>
- <indexterm><primary><option>––help</option></primary></indexterm>
- </term>
- <term>
- <option>-?</option>
- <indexterm><primary><option>-?</option></primary></indexterm>
- </term>
- <listitem>
- <para>Cause GHC to spew a long usage message to standard
- output and then exit.</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
<option>-v</option>
<indexterm><primary><option>-v</option></primary></indexterm>
</term>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term>
- <option>-V</option>
- <indexterm><primary><option>-V</option></primary></indexterm>
- </term>
- <term>
- <option>––version</option>
- <indexterm><primary><option>––version</option></primary></indexterm>
- </term>
- <listitem>
- <para>Print a one-line string including GHC's version number.</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- <option>––numeric-version</option>
- <indexterm><primary><option>––numeric-version</option></primary></indexterm>
- </term>
- <listitem>
- <para>Print GHC's numeric version number only.</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- <option>––print-libdir</option>
- <indexterm><primary><option>––print-libdir</option></primary></indexterm>
- </term>
- <listitem>
- <para>Print the path to GHC's library directory. This is
- the top of the directory tree containing GHC's libraries,
- interfaces, and include files (usually something like
- <literal>/usr/local/lib/ghc-5.04</literal> on Unix). This
- is the value of
- <literal>$libdir</literal><indexterm><primary><literal>libdir</literal></primary>
- </indexterm>in the package configuration file (see <xref
- linkend="packages"/>).</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
<term><option>-ferror-spans</option>
<indexterm><primary><option>-ferror-spans</option></primary>
</indexterm>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-H</option><replaceable>size</replaceable>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-H</option></primary></indexterm>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Set the minimum size of the heap to
+ <replaceable>size</replaceable>.
+ This option is equivalent to
+ <literal>+RTS -H<replaceable>size</replaceable></literal>,
+ see <xref linkend="rts-options-gc" />.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
<term><option>-Rghc-timing</option>
<indexterm><primary><option>-Rghc-timing</option></primary></indexterm>
</term>
of warnings which are generally likely to indicate bugs in your
program. These are:
<option>-fwarn-overlapping-patterns</option>,
- <option>-fwarn-deprecations</option>,
+ <option>-fwarn-warnings-deprecations</option>,
+ <option>-fwarn-deprecated-flags</option>,
<option>-fwarn-duplicate-exports</option>,
- <option>-fwarn-missing-fields</option>, and
- <option>-fwarn-missing-methods</option>. The following flags are
+ <option>-fwarn-missing-fields</option>,
+ <option>-fwarn-missing-methods</option>,
+ <option>-fwarn-lazy-unlifted-bindings</option>,
+ <option>-fwarn-wrong-do-bind</option>, and
+ <option>-fwarn-dodgy-foreign-imports</option>. The following
+ flags are
simple ways to select standard “packages” of warnings:
</para>
<indexterm><primary>-W option</primary></indexterm>
<para>Provides the standard warnings plus
<option>-fwarn-incomplete-patterns</option>,
+ <option>-fwarn-dodgy-exports</option>,
+ <option>-fwarn-dodgy-imports</option>,
<option>-fwarn-unused-matches</option>,
- <option>-fwarn-unused-imports</option>,
- <option>-fwarn-misc</option>, and
+ <option>-fwarn-unused-imports</option>, and
<option>-fwarn-unused-binds</option>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term><option>-w</option>:</term>
+ <term><option>-Wall</option>:</term>
<listitem>
- <indexterm><primary><option>-w</option></primary></indexterm>
- <para>Turns off all warnings, including the standard ones.</para>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-Wall</option></primary></indexterm>
+ <para>Turns on all warning options that indicate potentially
+ suspicious code. The warnings that are
+ <emphasis>not</emphasis> enabled by <option>-Wall</option>
+ are
+ <option>-fwarn-tabs</option>,
+ <option>-fwarn-incomplete-uni-patterns</option>,
+ <option>-fwarn-incomplete-record-updates</option>,
+ <option>-fwarn-monomorphism-restriction</option>,
+ <option>-fwarn-unrecognised-pragmas</option>,
+ <option>-fwarn-auto-orphans</option>,
+ <option>-fwarn-implicit-prelude</option>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term><option>-Wall</option>:</term>
+ <term><option>-w</option>:</term>
<listitem>
- <indexterm><primary><option>-Wall</option></primary></indexterm>
- <para>Turns on all warning options.</para>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-w</option></primary></indexterm>
+ <para>Turns off all warnings, including the standard ones and
+ those that <literal>-Wall</literal> doesn't enable.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-Wwarn</option>:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-Wwarn</option></primary></indexterm>
+ <para>Warnings are treated only as warnings, not as errors. This is
+ the default, but can be useful to negate a
+ <option>-Werror</option> flag.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
</variablelist>
<para>The full set of warning options is described below. To turn
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
- <term><option>-fwarn-deprecations</option>:</term>
+ <term><option>-fwarn-unrecognised-pragmas</option>:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-unrecognised-pragmas</option></primary>
+ </indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>warnings</primary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>pragmas</primary></indexterm>
+ <para>Causes a warning to be emitted when a
+ pragma that GHC doesn't recognise is used. As well as pragmas
+ that GHC itself uses, GHC also recognises pragmas known to be used
+ by other tools, e.g. <literal>OPTIONS_HUGS</literal> and
+ <literal>DERIVE</literal>.</para>
+
+ <para>This option is on by default.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-fwarn-warnings-deprecations</option>:</term>
<listitem>
- <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-deprecations</option></primary>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-warnings-deprecations</option></primary>
</indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>warnings</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>deprecations</primary></indexterm>
+ <para>Causes a warning to be emitted when a
+ module, function or type with a WARNING or DEPRECATED pragma
+ is used. See <xref linkend="warning-deprecated-pragma"/> for more
+ details on the pragmas.</para>
+
+ <para>This option is on by default.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-fwarn-deprecated-flags</option>:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-deprecated-flags</option></primary>
+ </indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>deprecated-flags</primary></indexterm>
<para>Causes a warning to be emitted when a deprecated
- function or type is used. Entities can be marked as
- deprecated using a pragma, see <xref
- linkend="deprecated-pragma"/>.</para>
+ commandline flag is used.</para>
+
+ <para>This option is on by default.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-fwarn-dodgy-foreign-imports</option>:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-dodgy-foreign-imports</option></primary>
+ </indexterm>
+ <para>Causes a warning to be emitted for foreign imports of
+ the following form:</para>
+<programlisting>
+foreign import "f" f :: FunPtr t
+</programlisting>
+ <para>on the grounds that it probably should be</para>
+<programlisting>
+foreign import "&f" f :: FunPtr t
+</programlisting>
+ <para>The first form declares that `f` is a (pure) C
+ function that takes no arguments and returns a pointer to a
+ C function with type `t`, whereas the second form declares
+ that `f` itself is a C function with type `t`. The first
+ declaration is usually a mistake, and one that is hard to
+ debug because it results in a crash, hence this
+ warning.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-fwarn-dodgy-exports</option>:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-dodgy-exports</option></primary>
+ </indexterm>
+ <para>Causes a warning to be emitted when a datatype
+ <literal>T</literal> is exported
+ with all constructors, i.e. <literal>T(..)</literal>, but is it
+ just a type synonym.</para>
+ <para>Also causes a warning to be emitted when a module is
+ re-exported, but that module exports nothing.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-fwarn-dodgy-imports</option>:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-dodgy-imports</option></primary>
+ </indexterm>
+ <para>Causes a warning to be emitted when a datatype
+ <literal>T</literal> is imported
+ with all constructors, i.e. <literal>T(..)</literal>, but has been
+ exported abstractly, i.e. <literal>T</literal>.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-fwarn-lazy-unlifted-bindings</option>:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-lazy-unlifted-bindings</option></primary>
+ </indexterm>
+ <para>Causes a warning to be emitted when an unlifted type
+ is bound in a way that looks lazy, e.g.
+ <literal>where (I# x) = ...</literal>. Use
+ <literal>where !(I# x) = ...</literal> instead. This will be an
+ error, rather than a warning, in GHC 7.2.
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term><option>-fwarn-incomplete-patterns</option>:</term>
+ <term><option>-fwarn-identities</option>:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-identities</option></primary></indexterm>
+ <para>Causes the compiler to emit a warning when a Prelude numeric
+ conversion converts a type T to the same type T; such calls
+ are probably no-ops and can be omitted. The functions checked for
+ are: <literal>toInteger</literal>,
+ <literal>toRational</literal>,
+ <literal>fromIntegral</literal>,
+ and <literal>realToFrac</literal>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-fwarn-implicit-prelude</option>:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-implicit-prelude</option></primary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>implicit prelude, warning</primary></indexterm>
+ <para>Have the compiler warn if the Prelude is implicitly
+ imported. This happens unless either the Prelude module is
+ explicitly imported with an <literal>import ... Prelude ...</literal>
+ line, or this implicit import is disabled (either by
+ <option>-XNoImplicitPrelude</option> or a
+ <literal>LANGUAGE NoImplicitPrelude</literal> pragma).</para>
+
+ <para>Note that no warning is given for syntax that implicitly
+ refers to the Prelude, even if <option>-XNoImplicitPrelude</option>
+ would change whether it refers to the Prelude.
+ For example, no warning is given when
+ <literal>368</literal> means
+ <literal>Prelude.fromInteger (368::Prelude.Integer)</literal>
+ (where <literal>Prelude</literal> refers to the actual Prelude module,
+ regardless of the imports of the module being compiled).</para>
+
+ <para>This warning is off by default.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-fwarn-incomplete-patterns</option>,
+ <option>-fwarn-incomplete-uni-patterns</option>:
+ </term>
<listitem>
<indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-incomplete-patterns</option></primary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-incomplete-uni-patterns</option></primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>incomplete patterns, warning</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>patterns, incomplete</primary></indexterm>
- <para>Similarly for incomplete patterns, the function
+ <para>The option <option>-fwarn-incomplete-patterns</option> warns
+ about places where
+ a pattern-match might fail at runtime.
+ The function
<function>g</function> below will fail when applied to
non-empty lists, so the compiler will emit a warning about
this when <option>-fwarn-incomplete-patterns</option> is
- enabled.</para>
-
+ enabled.
<programlisting>
g [] = 2
</programlisting>
-
- <para>This option isn't enabled be default because it can be
+ This option isn't enabled by default because it can be
a bit noisy, and it doesn't always indicate a bug in the
program. However, it's generally considered good practice
- to cover all the cases in your functions.</para>
+ to cover all the cases in your functions, and it is switched
+ on by <option>-W</option>.</para>
+
+ <para>The flag <option>-fwarn-incomplete-uni-patterns</option> is
+ similar, except that it
+ applies only to lambda-expressions and pattern bindings, constructs
+ that only allow a single pattern:
+<programlisting>
+h = \[] -> 2
+Just k = f y
+</programlisting>
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
f foo = foo { x = 6 }
</programlisting>
- <para>This option isn't enabled be default because it can be
+ <para>This option isn't enabled by default because it can be
very noisy, and it often doesn't indicate a bug in the
program.</para>
</listitem>
<varlistentry>
<term>
- <option>-fwarn-misc</option>:
- <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-misc</option></primary></indexterm>
- </term>
- <listitem>
- <para>Turns on warnings for various harmless but untidy
- things. This currently includes: importing a type with
- <literal>(..)</literal> when the export is abstract, and
- listing duplicate class assertions in a qualified type.</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
<option>-fwarn-missing-fields</option>:
<indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-missing-fields</option></primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>missing fields, warning</primary></indexterm>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ <option>-fwarn-missing-import-lists</option>:
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-import-lists</option></primary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>missing import lists, warning</primary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>import lists, missing</primary></indexterm>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+
+ <para>This flag warns if you use an unqualified
+ <literal>import</literal> declaration
+ that does not explicitly list the entities brought into scope. For
+ example
+ </para>
+<programlisting>
+module M where
+ import X( f )
+ import Y
+ import qualified Z
+ p x = f x x
+</programlisting>
+ <para>
+ The <option>-fwarn-import-lists</option> flag will warn about the import
+ of <literal>Y</literal> but not <literal>X</literal>
+ If module <literal>Y</literal> is later changed to export (say) <literal>f</literal>,
+ then the reference to <literal>f</literal> in <literal>M</literal> will become
+ ambiguous. No warning is produced for the import of <literal>Z</literal>
+ because extending <literal>Z</literal>'s exports would be unlikely to produce
+ ambiguity in <literal>M</literal>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
<term><option>-fwarn-missing-methods</option>:</term>
<listitem>
<indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-missing-methods</option></primary></indexterm>
<para>If you would like GHC to check that every top-level
function/value has a type signature, use the
- <option>-fwarn-missing-signatures</option> option. This
+ <option>-fwarn-missing-signatures</option> option. As part of
+ the warning GHC also reports the inferred type. The
+ option is off by default.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-fwarn-missing-local-sigs</option>:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-missing-local-sigs</option></primary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>type signatures, missing</primary></indexterm>
+
+ <para>If you use the
+ <option>-fwarn-missing-local-sigs</option> flag GHC will warn
+ you about any polymorphic local bindings. As part of
+ the warning GHC also reports the inferred type. The
option is off by default.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
inner-scope value has the same name as an outer-scope value,
i.e. the inner value shadows the outer one. This can catch
typographical errors that turn into hard-to-find bugs, e.g.,
- in the inadvertent cyclic definition <literal>let x = ... x
- ... in</literal>.</para>
-
- <para>Consequently, this option does
- <emphasis>will</emphasis> complain about cyclic recursive
- definitions.</para>
+ in the inadvertent capture of what would be a recursive call in
+ <literal>f = ... let f = id in ... f ...</literal>.</para>
+ <para>The warning is suppressed for names beginning with an underscore. For example
+ <programlisting>
+ f x = do { _ignore <- this; _ignore <- that; return (the other) }
+ </programlisting>
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<para>This option causes a warning to be emitted whenever the
module contains an "orphan" instance declaration or rewrite rule.
- An instance declartion is an orphan if it appears in a module in
+ An instance declaration is an orphan if it appears in a module in
which neither the class nor the type being instanced are declared
in the same module. A rule is an orphan if it is a rule for a
function declared in another module. A module containing any
<para>The trouble with orphans is that GHC must pro-actively read the interface
files for all orphan modules, just in case their instances or rules
play a role, whether or not the module's interface would otherwise
- be of any use. Other things being equal, avoid orphan modules.</para>
+ be of any use. See <xref linkend="orphan-modules"/> for details.
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</term>
<listitem>
<para>By default, the compiler will warn you if a set of
- patterns are overlapping, i.e.,</para>
+ patterns are overlapping, e.g.,</para>
<programlisting>
f :: String -> Int
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term><option>-fwarn-simple-patterns</option>:</term>
+ <term><option>-fwarn-tabs</option>:</term>
<listitem>
- <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-simple-patterns</option></primary>
- </indexterm>
- <para>Causes the compiler to warn about lambda-bound
- patterns that can fail, eg. <literal>\(x:xs)->...</literal>.
- Normally, these aren't treated as incomplete patterns by
- <option>-fwarn-incomplete-patterns</option>.</para>
- <para>``Lambda-bound patterns'' includes all places where there is a single pattern,
- including list comprehensions and do-notation. In these cases, a pattern-match
- failure is quite legitimate, and triggers filtering (list comprehensions) or
- the monad <literal>fail</literal> operation (monads). For example:
- <programlisting>
- f :: [Maybe a] -> [a]
- f xs = [y | Just y <- xs]
- </programlisting>
- Switching on <option>-fwarn-simple-patterns</option> will elicit warnings about
- these probably-innocent cases, which is why the flag is off by default. </para>
- <para> The <literal>deriving( Read )</literal> mechanism produces monadic code with
- pattern matches, so you will also get misleading warnings about the compiler-generated
- code. (This is arguably a Bad Thing, but it's awkward to fix.)</para>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-tabs</option></primary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>tabs, warning</primary></indexterm>
+ <para>Have the compiler warn if there are tabs in your source
+ file.</para>
+ <para>This warning is off by default.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
the Haskell defaulting mechanism for numeric types kicks
in. This is useful information when converting code from a
context that assumed one default into one with another,
- e.g., the `default default' for Haskell 1.4 caused the
+ e.g., the ‘default default’ for Haskell 1.4 caused the
otherwise unconstrained value <constant>1</constant> to be
given the type <literal>Int</literal>, whereas Haskell 98
+ and later
defaults it to <literal>Integer</literal>. This may lead to
differences in performance and behaviour, hence the
usefulness of being non-silent about this.</para>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-fwarn-monomorphism-restriction</option>:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-monomorphism-restriction</option></primary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>monomorphism restriction, warning</primary></indexterm>
+ <para>Have the compiler warn/inform you where in your source
+ the Haskell Monomorphism Restriction is applied. If applied silently
+ the MR can give rise to unexpected behaviour, so it can be helpful
+ to have an explicit warning that it is being applied.</para>
+
+ <para>This warning is off by default.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
<term><option>-fwarn-unused-binds</option>:</term>
<listitem>
<indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-unused-binds</option></primary></indexterm>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-fwarn-unused-do-bind</option>:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-unused-do-bind</option></primary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>unused do binding, warning</primary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>do binding, unused</primary></indexterm>
+
+ <para>Report expressions occuring in <literal>do</literal> and <literal>mdo</literal> blocks
+ that appear to silently throw information away.
+ For instance <literal>do { mapM popInt xs ; return 10 }</literal> would report
+ the first statement in the <literal>do</literal> block as suspicious,
+ as it has the type <literal>StackM [Int]</literal> and not <literal>StackM ()</literal>, but that
+ <literal>[Int]</literal> value is not bound to anything. The warning is suppressed by
+ explicitly mentioning in the source code that your program is throwing something away:
+ <programlisting>
+ do { _ <- mapM popInt xs ; return 10 }
+ </programlisting>
+ Of course, in this particular situation you can do even better:
+ <programlisting>
+ do { mapM_ popInt xs ; return 10 }
+ </programlisting>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-fwarn-wrong-do-bind</option>:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-wrong-do-bind</option></primary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>apparently erroneous do binding, warning</primary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>do binding, apparently erroneous</primary></indexterm>
+
+ <para>Report expressions occuring in <literal>do</literal> and <literal>mdo</literal> blocks
+ that appear to lack a binding.
+ For instance <literal>do { return (popInt 10) ; return 10 }</literal> would report
+ the first statement in the <literal>do</literal> block as suspicious,
+ as it has the type <literal>StackM (StackM Int)</literal> (which consists of two nested applications
+ of the same monad constructor), but which is not then "unpacked" by binding the result.
+ The warning is suppressed by explicitly mentioning in the source code that your program is throwing something away:
+ <programlisting>
+ do { _ <- return (popInt 10) ; return 10 }
+ </programlisting>
+ For almost all sensible programs this will indicate a bug, and you probably intended to write:
+ <programlisting>
+ do { popInt 10 ; return 10 }
+ </programlisting>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
</variablelist>
<para>If you're feeling really paranoid, the
<para>Note that higher optimisation levels cause more
cross-module optimisation to be performed, which can have an
impact on how much of your program needs to be recompiled when
- you change something. This is one reaosn to stick to
+ you change something. This is one reason to stick to
no-optimisation when developing code.</para>
<variablelist>
<para>Means: “Generate good-quality code without
taking too long about it.” Thus, for example:
<command>ghc -c -O Main.lhs</command></para>
-
- <para><option>-O</option> currently also implies
- <option>-fvia-C</option>. This may change in the
- future.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<option>-O</option>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- <option>-Ofile <file></option>:
- <indexterm><primary>-Ofile <file> option</primary></indexterm>
- <indexterm><primary>optimising, customised</primary></indexterm>
- </term>
- <listitem>
- <para>(NOTE: not supported since GHC 4.x. Please ask if
- you're interested in this.)</para>
-
- <para>For those who need <emphasis>absolute</emphasis>
- control over <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> what options are
- used (e.g., compiler writers, sometimes :-), a list of
- options can be put in a file and then slurped in with
- <option>-Ofile</option>.</para>
-
- <para>In that file, comments are of the
- <literal>#</literal>-to-end-of-line variety; blank
- lines and most whitespace is ignored.</para>
-
- <para>Please ask if you are baffled and would like an
- example of <option>-Ofile</option>!</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>We don't use a <option>-O*</option> flag for day-to-day
work. We use <option>-O</option> to get respectable speed;
e.g., when we want to measure something. When we want to go for
- broke, we tend to use <option>-O2 -fvia-C</option> (and we go for
+ broke, we tend to use <option>-O2</option> (and we go for
lots of coffee breaks).</para>
<para>The easiest way to see what <option>-O</option> (etc.)
<literal>Exception.assert</literal> in source code (in
other words, rewriting <literal>Exception.assert p
e</literal> to <literal>e</literal> (see <xref
- linkend="sec-assertions"/>). This flag is turned on by
+ linkend="assertions"/>). This flag is turned on by
<option>-O</option>.
</para>
</listitem>
<para>Turns off the full laziness optimisation (also known as
let-floating). Full laziness increases sharing, which can lead
to increased memory residency.</para>
+
+ <para>NOTE: GHC doesn't implement complete full-laziness.
+ When optimisation in on, and
+ <option>-fno-full-laziness</option> is not given, some
+ transformations that increase sharing are performed, such
+ as extracting repeated computations from a loop. These
+ are the same transformations that a fully lazy
+ implementation would do, the difference is that GHC
+ doesn't consistently apply full-laziness, so don't rely on
+ it.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ <option>-fno-float-in</option>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fno-float-in</option></primary></indexterm>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Turns off the float-in transformation.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ <option>-fno-specialise</option>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fno-specialise</option></primary></indexterm>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Turns off the automatic specialisation of overloaded functions.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ <option>-fspec-constr</option>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fspec-constr</option></primary></indexterm>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Turn on call-pattern specialisation.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ <option>-fliberate-case</option>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fliberate-case</option></primary></indexterm>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Turn on the liberate-case transformation.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ <option>-fstatic-argument-transformation</option>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fstatic-argument-transformation</option></primary></indexterm>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Turn on the static argument transformation.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
+ <option>-fomit-interface-pragmas</option>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fomit-interface-pragmas</option></primary></indexterm>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Tells GHC to omit all inessential information from the interface file
+ generated for the module being compiled (say M). This means that a module
+ importing M will see only the <emphasis>types</emphasis> of the functions that M exports, but not
+ their unfoldings, strictness info, etc. Hence, for example,
+ no function exported by M will be inlined
+ into an importing module. The benefit is that modules that import M will
+ need to be recompiled less often (only when M's exports change their type,
+ not when they change their implementation).
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
+ <option>-fignore-interface-pragmas</option>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fignore-interface-pragmas</option></primary></indexterm>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Tells GHC to ignore all inessential information when reading interface files.
+ That is, even if <filename>M.hi</filename> contains unfolding or strictness information
+ for a function, GHC will ignore that information.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>
<option>-funbox-strict-fields</option>:
<indexterm><primary><option>-funbox-strict-fields</option></primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>strict constructor fields</primary></indexterm>
<varlistentry>
<term>
- <option>-funfolding-update-in-place<n></option>
- <indexterm><primary><option>-funfolding-update-in-place</option></primary></indexterm>
- </term>
- <listitem>
- <para>Switches on an experimental "optimisation".
- Switching it on makes the compiler a little keener to
- inline a function that returns a constructor, if the
- context is that of a thunk.
-<programlisting>
- x = plusInt a b
-</programlisting>
- If we inlined plusInt we might get an opportunity to use
- update-in-place for the thunk 'x'.</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- <option>-funfolding-creation-threshold<n></option>:
+ <option>-funfolding-creation-threshold=<replaceable>n</replaceable></option>:
<indexterm><primary><option>-funfolding-creation-threshold</option></primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>inlining, controlling</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>unfolding, controlling</primary></indexterm>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term><option>-funfolding-use-threshold<n></option>:</term>
+ <term><option>-funfolding-use-threshold=<replaceable>n</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem>
<indexterm><primary><option>-funfolding-use-threshold</option></primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>inlining, controlling</primary></indexterm>
</sect1>
&phases;
-
- <sect1 id="sec-using-concurrent">
+
+ &shared_libs;
+
+ <sect1 id="using-concurrent">
<title>Using Concurrent Haskell</title>
<indexterm><primary>Concurrent Haskell</primary><secondary>using</secondary></indexterm>
special option or libraries compiled in a certain way. To get access to
the support libraries for Concurrent Haskell, just import
<ulink
- url="../libraries/base/Control-Concurrent.html"><literal>Control.Concurrent</literal></ulink>. More information on Concurrent Haskell is provided in the documentation for that module.</para>
+ url="&libraryBaseLocation;/Control-Concurrent.html"><literal>Control.Concurrent</literal></ulink>. More information on Concurrent Haskell is provided in the documentation for that module.</para>
<para>The following RTS option(s) affect the behaviour of Concurrent
Haskell programs:<indexterm><primary>RTS options, concurrent</primary></indexterm></para>
every 4k of allocation). With <option>-C0</option> or
<option>-C</option>, context switches will occur as often as
possible (at every heap block allocation). By default, context
- switches occur every 20ms. Note that GHC's internal timer ticks
- every 20ms, and the context switch timer is always a multiple of
- this timer, so 20ms is the maximum granularity available for timed
- context switches.</para>
+ switches occur every 20ms.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect1>
-<sect1 id="sec-using-parallel">
-<title>Using parallel Haskell</title>
-
-<para>
-<indexterm><primary>Parallel Haskell</primary><secondary>using</secondary></indexterm>
-[NOTE: GHC does not support Parallel Haskell by default, you need to
- obtain a special version of GHC from the <ulink
- url="http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~dsg/gph/">GPH</ulink> site. Also,
-you won't be able to execute parallel Haskell programs unless PVM3
-(parallel Virtual Machine, version 3) is installed at your site.]
-</para>
-
-<para>
-To compile a Haskell program for parallel execution under PVM, use the
-<option>-parallel</option> option,<indexterm><primary>-parallel
-option</primary></indexterm> both when compiling <emphasis>and
-linking</emphasis>. You will probably want to <literal>import
-Control.Parallel</literal> into your Haskell modules.
-</para>
-
-<para>
-To run your parallel program, once PVM is going, just invoke it
-“as normal”. The main extra RTS option is
-<option>-qp<n></option>, to say how many PVM
-“processors” your program to run on. (For more details of
-all relevant RTS options, please see <xref
-linkend="parallel-rts-opts"/>.)
-</para>
-
-<para>
-In truth, running parallel Haskell programs and getting information
-out of them (e.g., parallelism profiles) is a battle with the vagaries of
-PVM, detailed in the following sections.
-</para>
-
-<sect2 id="pvm-dummies">
-<title>Dummy's guide to using PVM</title>
-
-<para>
-<indexterm><primary>PVM, how to use</primary></indexterm>
-<indexterm><primary>parallel Haskell—PVM use</primary></indexterm>
-Before you can run a parallel program under PVM, you must set the
-required environment variables (PVM's idea, not ours); something like,
-probably in your <filename>.cshrc</filename> or equivalent:
-
-<programlisting>
-setenv PVM_ROOT /wherever/you/put/it
-setenv PVM_ARCH `$PVM_ROOT/lib/pvmgetarch`
-setenv PVM_DPATH $PVM_ROOT/lib/pvmd
-</programlisting>
+ <sect1 id="using-smp">
+ <title>Using SMP parallelism</title>
+ <indexterm><primary>parallelism</primary>
+ </indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary>SMP</primary>
+ </indexterm>
-</para>
+ <para>GHC supports running Haskell programs in parallel on an SMP
+ (symmetric multiprocessor).</para>
+
+ <para>There's a fine distinction between
+ <emphasis>concurrency</emphasis> and <emphasis>parallelism</emphasis>:
+ parallelism is all about making your program run
+ <emphasis>faster</emphasis> by making use of multiple processors
+ simultaneously. Concurrency, on the other hand, is a means of
+ abstraction: it is a convenient way to structure a program that must
+ respond to multiple asynchronous events.</para>
+
+ <para>However, the two terms are certainly related. By making use of
+ multiple CPUs it is possible to run concurrent threads in parallel,
+ and this is exactly what GHC's SMP parallelism support does. But it
+ is also possible to obtain performance improvements with parallelism
+ on programs that do not use concurrency. This section describes how to
+ use GHC to compile and run parallel programs, in <xref
+ linkend="lang-parallel" /> we describe the language features that affect
+ parallelism.</para>
+
+ <sect2 id="parallel-compile-options">
+ <title>Compile-time options for SMP parallelism</title>
-<para>
-Creating and/or controlling your “parallel machine” is a purely-PVM
-business; nothing specific to parallel Haskell. The following paragraphs
-describe how to configure your parallel machine interactively.
-</para>
+ <para>In order to make use of multiple CPUs, your program must be
+ linked with the <option>-threaded</option> option (see <xref
+ linkend="options-linker" />). Additionally, the following
+ compiler options affect parallelism:</para>
+
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-feager-blackholing</option></term>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-feager-blackholing</option></primary></indexterm>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Blackholing is the act of marking a thunk (lazy
+ computuation) as being under evaluation. It is useful for
+ three reasons: firstly it lets us detect certain kinds of
+ infinite loop (the <literal>NonTermination</literal>
+ exception), secondly it avoids certain kinds of space
+ leak, and thirdly it avoids repeating a computation in a
+ parallel program, because we can tell when a computation
+ is already in progress.</para>
+
+ <para>
+ The option <option>-feager-blackholing</option> causes
+ each thunk to be blackholed as soon as evaluation begins.
+ The default is "lazy blackholing", whereby thunks are only
+ marked as being under evaluation when a thread is paused
+ for some reason. Lazy blackholing is typically more
+ efficient (by 1-2% or so), because most thunks don't
+ need to be blackholed. However, eager blackholing can
+ avoid more repeated computation in a parallel program, and
+ this often turns out to be important for parallelism.
+ </para>
-<para>
-If you use parallel Haskell regularly on the same machine configuration it
-is a good idea to maintain a file with all machine names and to make the
-environment variable PVM_HOST_FILE point to this file. Then you can avoid
-the interactive operations described below by just saying
-</para>
+ <para>
+ We recommend compiling any code that is intended to be run
+ in parallel with the <option>-feager-blackholing</option>
+ flag.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
+ </sect2>
-<programlisting>
-pvm $PVM_HOST_FILE
-</programlisting>
+ <sect2 id="parallel-options">
+ <title>RTS options for SMP parallelism</title>
-<para>
-You use the <command>pvm</command><indexterm><primary>pvm command</primary></indexterm> command to start PVM on your
-machine. You can then do various things to control/monitor your
-“parallel machine;” the most useful being:
-</para>
-
-<para>
-<informaltable>
-<tgroup cols="2">
-<colspec align="left"/>
-<tbody>
-
-<row>
-<entry><keycombo><keycap>Control</keycap><keycap>D</keycap></keycombo></entry>
-<entry>exit <command>pvm</command>, leaving it running</entry>
-</row>
-
-<row>
-<entry><command>halt</command></entry>
-<entry>kill off this “parallel machine” & exit</entry>
-</row>
-
-<row>
-<entry><command>add <host></command></entry>
-<entry>add <command><host></command> as a processor</entry>
-</row>
-
-<row>
-<entry><command>delete <host></command></entry>
-<entry>delete <command><host></command></entry>
-</row>
-
-<row>
-<entry><command>reset</command></entry>
-<entry>kill what's going, but leave PVM up</entry>
-</row>
-
-<row>
-<entry><command>conf</command></entry>
-<entry>list the current configuration</entry>
-</row>
-
-<row>
-<entry><command>ps</command></entry>
-<entry>report processes' status</entry>
-</row>
-
-<row>
-<entry><command>pstat <pid></command></entry>
-<entry>status of a particular process</entry>
-</row>
-
-</tbody>
-</tgroup>
-</informaltable>
-</para>
-
-<para>
-The PVM documentation can tell you much, much more about <command>pvm</command>!
-</para>
-
-</sect2>
-
-<sect2 id="par-profiles">
-<title>parallelism profiles</title>
-
-<para>
-<indexterm><primary>parallelism profiles</primary></indexterm>
-<indexterm><primary>profiles, parallelism</primary></indexterm>
-<indexterm><primary>visualisation tools</primary></indexterm>
-</para>
-
-<para>
-With parallel Haskell programs, we usually don't care about the
-results—only with “how parallel” it was! We want pretty pictures.
-</para>
-
-<para>
-parallelism profiles (à la <command>hbcpp</command>) can be generated with the
-<option>-qP</option><indexterm><primary>-qP RTS option</primary></indexterm> RTS option. The
-per-processor profiling info is dumped into files named
-<filename><full-path><program>.gr</filename>. These are then munged into a PostScript picture,
-which you can then display. For example, to run your program
-<filename>a.out</filename> on 8 processors, then view the parallelism profile, do:
-</para>
-
-<para>
+ <para>To run a program on multiple CPUs, use the
+ RTS <option>-N</option> option:</para>
-<screen>
-<prompt>$</prompt> ./a.out +RTS -qP -qp8
-<prompt>$</prompt> grs2gr *.???.gr > temp.gr # combine the 8 .gr files into one
-<prompt>$</prompt> gr2ps -O temp.gr # cvt to .ps; output in temp.ps
-<prompt>$</prompt> ghostview -seascape temp.ps # look at it!
-</screen>
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-N<optional><replaceable>x</replaceable></optional></option></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para><indexterm><primary><option>-N<replaceable>x</replaceable></option></primary><secondary>RTS option</secondary></indexterm>
+ Use <replaceable>x</replaceable> simultaneous threads when
+ running the program. Normally <replaceable>x</replaceable>
+ should be chosen to match the number of CPU cores on the
+ machine<footnote><para>Whether hyperthreading cores should be counted or not is an
+ open question; please feel free to experiment and let us know what
+ results you find.</para></footnote>. For example,
+ on a dual-core machine we would probably use
+ <literal>+RTS -N2 -RTS</literal>.</para>
+
+ <para>Omitting <replaceable>x</replaceable>,
+ i.e. <literal>+RTS -N -RTS</literal>, lets the runtime
+ choose the value of <replaceable>x</replaceable> itself
+ based on how many processors are in your machine.</para>
+
+ <para>Be careful when using all the processors in your
+ machine: if some of your processors are in use by other
+ programs, this can actually harm performance rather than
+ improve it.</para>
+
+ <para>Setting <option>-N</option> also has the effect of
+ enabling the parallel garbage collector (see
+ <xref linkend="rts-options-gc" />).</para>
+
+ <para>There is no means (currently) by which this value
+ may vary after the program has started.</para>
+
+ <para>The current value of the <option>-N</option> option
+ is available to the Haskell program
+ via <literal>GHC.Conc.numCapabilities</literal>.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
-</para>
-
-<para>
-The scripts for processing the parallelism profiles are distributed
-in <filename>ghc/utils/parallel/</filename>.
-</para>
-
-</sect2>
-
-<sect2>
-<title>Other useful info about running parallel programs</title>
-
-<para>
-The “garbage-collection statistics” RTS options can be useful for
-seeing what parallel programs are doing. If you do either
-<option>+RTS -Sstderr</option><indexterm><primary>-Sstderr RTS option</primary></indexterm> or <option>+RTS -sstderr</option>, then
-you'll get mutator, garbage-collection, etc., times on standard
-error. The standard error of all PE's other than the `main thread'
-appears in <filename>/tmp/pvml.nnn</filename>, courtesy of PVM.
-</para>
-
-<para>
-Whether doing <option>+RTS -Sstderr</option> or not, a handy way to watch
-what's happening overall is: <command>tail -f /tmp/pvml.nnn</command>.
-</para>
-
-</sect2>
-
-<sect2 id="parallel-rts-opts">
-<title>RTS options for Parallel Haskell
-</title>
-
-<para>
-<indexterm><primary>RTS options, parallel</primary></indexterm>
-<indexterm><primary>parallel Haskell—RTS options</primary></indexterm>
-</para>
-
-<para>
-Besides the usual runtime system (RTS) options
-(<xref linkend="runtime-control"/>), there are a few options particularly
-for parallel execution.
-</para>
-
-<para>
-<variablelist>
-
-<varlistentry>
-<term><option>-qp<N></option>:</term>
-<listitem>
-<para>
-<indexterm><primary>-qp<N> RTS option</primary></indexterm>
-(paraLLEL ONLY) Use <literal><N></literal> PVM processors to run this program;
-the default is 2.
-</para>
-</listitem>
-</varlistentry>
-<varlistentry>
-<term><option>-C[<s>]</option>:</term>
-<listitem>
-<para>
-<indexterm><primary>-C<s> RTS option</primary></indexterm> Sets
-the context switch interval to <literal><s></literal> seconds.
-A context switch will occur at the next heap block allocation after
-the timer expires (a heap block allocation occurs every 4k of
-allocation). With <option>-C0</option> or <option>-C</option>,
-context switches will occur as often as possible (at every heap block
-allocation). By default, context switches occur every 20ms. Note that GHC's internal timer ticks every 20ms, and
-the context switch timer is always a multiple of this timer, so 20ms
-is the maximum granularity available for timed context switches.
-</para>
-</listitem>
-</varlistentry>
-<varlistentry>
-<term><option>-q[v]</option>:</term>
-<listitem>
-<para>
-<indexterm><primary>-q RTS option</primary></indexterm>
-(paraLLEL ONLY) Produce a quasi-parallel profile of thread activity,
-in the file <filename><program>.qp</filename>. In the style of <command>hbcpp</command>, this profile
-records the movement of threads between the green (runnable) and red
-(blocked) queues. If you specify the verbose suboption (<option>-qv</option>), the
-green queue is split into green (for the currently running thread
-only) and amber (for other runnable threads). We do not recommend
-that you use the verbose suboption if you are planning to use the
-<command>hbcpp</command> profiling tools or if you are context switching at every heap
-check (with <option>-C</option>).
--->
-</para>
-</listitem>
-</varlistentry>
-<varlistentry>
-<term><option>-qt<num></option>:</term>
-<listitem>
-<para>
-<indexterm><primary>-qt<num> RTS option</primary></indexterm>
-(paraLLEL ONLY) Limit the thread pool size, i.e. the number of
-threads per processor to <literal><num></literal>. The default is
-32. Each thread requires slightly over 1K <emphasis>words</emphasis> in
-the heap for thread state and stack objects. (For 32-bit machines, this
-translates to 4K bytes, and for 64-bit machines, 8K bytes.)
-</para>
-</listitem>
-</varlistentry>
-<!-- no more -HWL
-<varlistentry>
-<term><option>-d</option>:</term>
-<listitem>
-<para>
-<indexterm><primary>-d RTS option (parallel)</primary></indexterm>
-(paraLLEL ONLY) Turn on debugging. It pops up one xterm (or GDB, or
-something…) per PVM processor. We use the standard <command>debugger</command>
-script that comes with PVM3, but we sometimes meddle with the
-<command>debugger2</command> script. We include ours in the GHC distribution,
-in <filename>ghc/utils/pvm/</filename>.
-</para>
-</listitem>
-</varlistentry>
--->
-<varlistentry>
-<term><option>-qe<num></option>:</term>
-<listitem>
-<para>
-<indexterm><primary>-qe<num> RTS option
-(parallel)</primary></indexterm> (paraLLEL ONLY) Limit the spark pool size
-i.e. the number of pending sparks per processor to
-<literal><num></literal>. The default is 100. A larger number may be
-appropriate if your program generates large amounts of parallelism
-initially.
-</para>
-</listitem>
-</varlistentry>
-<varlistentry>
-<term><option>-qQ<num></option>:</term>
-<listitem>
-<para>
-<indexterm><primary>-qQ<num> RTS option (parallel)</primary></indexterm>
-(paraLLEL ONLY) Set the size of packets transmitted between processors
-to <literal><num></literal>. The default is 1024 words. A larger number may be
-appropriate if your machine has a high communication cost relative to
-computation speed.
-</para>
-</listitem>
-</varlistentry>
-<varlistentry>
-<term><option>-qh<num></option>:</term>
-<listitem>
-<para>
-<indexterm><primary>-qh<num> RTS option (parallel)</primary></indexterm>
-(paraLLEL ONLY) Select a packing scheme. Set the number of non-root thunks to pack in one packet to
-<num>-1 (0 means infinity). By default GUM uses full-subgraph
-packing, i.e. the entire subgraph with the requested closure as root is
-transmitted (provided it fits into one packet). Choosing a smaller value
-reduces the amount of pre-fetching of work done in GUM. This can be
-advantageous for improving data locality but it can also worsen the balance
-of the load in the system.
-</para>
-</listitem>
-</varlistentry>
-<varlistentry>
-<term><option>-qg<num></option>:</term>
-<listitem>
-<para>
-<indexterm><primary>-qg<num> RTS option
-(parallel)</primary></indexterm> (paraLLEL ONLY) Select a globalisation
-scheme. This option affects the
-generation of global addresses when transferring data. Global addresses are
-globally unique identifiers required to maintain sharing in the distributed
-graph structure. Currently this is a binary option. With <num>=0 full globalisation is used
-(default). This means a global address is generated for every closure that
-is transmitted. With <num>=1 a thunk-only globalisation scheme is
-used, which generated global address only for thunks. The latter case may
-lose sharing of data but has a reduced overhead in packing graph structures
-and maintaining internal tables of global addresses.
-</para>
-</listitem>
-</varlistentry>
-</variablelist>
-</para>
-
-</sect2>
+ <para>The following options affect the way the runtime schedules
+ threads on CPUs:</para>
-</sect1>
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-qa</option></term>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-qa</option></primary><secondary>RTS
+ option</secondary></indexterm>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Use the OS's affinity facilities to try to pin OS
+ threads to CPU cores. This is an experimental feature,
+ and may or may not be useful. Please let us know
+ whether it helps for you!</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-qm</option></term>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-qm</option></primary><secondary>RTS
+ option</secondary></indexterm>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Disable automatic migration for load balancing.
+ Normally the runtime will automatically try to schedule
+ threads across the available CPUs to make use of idle
+ CPUs; this option disables that behaviour. Note that
+ migration only applies to threads; sparks created
+ by <literal>par</literal> are load-balanced separately
+ by work-stealing.</para>
+
+ <para>
+ This option is probably only of use for concurrent
+ programs that explicitly schedule threads onto CPUs
+ with <literal>GHC.Conc.forkOnIO</literal>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Hints for using SMP parallelism</title>
+
+ <para>Add the <literal>-s</literal> RTS option when
+ running the program to see timing stats, which will help to tell you
+ whether your program got faster by using more CPUs or not. If the user
+ time is greater than
+ the elapsed time, then the program used more than one CPU. You should
+ also run the program without <literal>-N</literal> for
+ comparison.</para>
+
+ <para>The output of <literal>+RTS -s</literal> tells you how
+ many “sparks” were created and executed during the
+ run of the program (see <xref linkend="rts-options-gc" />), which
+ will give you an idea how well your <literal>par</literal>
+ annotations are working.</para>
+
+ <para>GHC's parallelism support has improved in 6.12.1 as a
+ result of much experimentation and tuning in the runtime
+ system. We'd still be interested to hear how well it works
+ for you, and we're also interested in collecting parallel
+ programs to add to our benchmarking suite.</para>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
<sect1 id="options-platform">
<title>Platform-specific Flags</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
- <term><option>-mv8</option>:</term>
+ <term><option>-msse2</option>:</term>
<listitem>
- <para>(SPARC machines)<indexterm><primary>-mv8 option (SPARC
- only)</primary></indexterm> Means to pass the like-named
- option to GCC; it says to use the Version 8 SPARC
- instructions, notably integer multiply and divide. The
- similar <option>-m*</option> GCC options for SPARC also
- work, actually.</para>
- </listitem>
+ <para>
+ (x86 only, added in GHC 7.0.1) Use the SSE2 registers and
+ instruction set to implement floating point operations
+ when using the native code generator. This gives a
+ substantial performance improvement for floating point,
+ but the resulting compiled code will only run on
+ processors that support SSE2 (Intel Pentium 4 and later,
+ or AMD Athlon 64 and later).
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ SSE2 is unconditionally used on x86-64 platforms.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
</varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term><option>-monly-[32]-regs</option>:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>(iX86 machines)<indexterm><primary>-monly-N-regs
- option (iX86 only)</primary></indexterm> GHC tries to
- “steal” four registers from GCC, for performance
- reasons; it almost always works. However, when GCC is
- compiling some modules with four stolen registers, it will
- crash, probably saying:
-
-<screen>
-Foo.hc:533: fixed or forbidden register was spilled.
-This may be due to a compiler bug or to impossible asm
-statements or clauses.
-</screen>
-
- Just give some registers back with
- <option>-monly-N-regs</option>. Try `3' first, then `2'.
- If `2' doesn't work, please report the bug to us.</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect1>
<indexterm><primary>intermediate code generation</primary></indexterm>
<para>GHC can dump its optimized intermediate code (said to be in “Core” format)
- to a file as a side-effect of compilation. Core files, which are given the suffix
- <filename>.hcr</filename>, can be read and processed by non-GHC back-end
- tools. The Core format is formally described in <ulink url="http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/papers/core.ps.gz">
+ to a file as a side-effect of compilation. Non-GHC back-end tools can read and process Core files; these files have the suffix
+ <filename>.hcr</filename>. The Core format is described in <ulink url="../../core.pdf">
<citetitle>An External Representation for the GHC Core Language</citetitle></ulink>,
- and sample tools (in Haskell)
- for manipulating Core files are available in the GHC source distribution
- directory <literal>/fptools/ghc/utils/ext-core</literal>.
- Note that the format of <literal>.hcr</literal>
- files is <emphasis>different</emphasis> (though similar) to the Core output format generated
- for debugging purposes (<xref linkend="options-debugging"/>).</para>
+ and sample tools
+ for manipulating Core files (in Haskell) are available in the
+ <ulink url="http://hackage.haskell.org/package/extcore">extcore package on Hackage</ulink>. Note that the format of <literal>.hcr</literal>
+ files is <emphasis>different</emphasis> from the Core output format that GHC generates
+ for debugging purposes (<xref linkend="options-debugging"/>), though the two formats appear somewhat similar.</para>
<para>The Core format natively supports notes which you can add to
your source code using the <literal>CORE</literal> pragma (see <xref
</variablelist>
-<para>GHC can also read in External Core files as source; just give the <literal>.hcr</literal> file on
-the command line, instead of the <literal>.hs</literal> or <literal>.lhs</literal> Haskell source.
-A current infelicity is that you need to give the <literal>-fglasgow-exts</literal> flag too, because
-ordinary Haskell 98, when translated to External Core, uses things like rank-2 types.</para>
+<para>Currently (as of version 6.8.2), GHC does not have the ability to read in External Core files as source. If you would like GHC to have this ability, please <ulink url="http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/MailingListsAndIRC">make your wishes known to the GHC Team</ulink>.</para>
+
</sect1>
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