<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
<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
<varlistentry>
<term>Mode flags</term>
<listitem>
- <para>For example, <option>--make</option> or <option>-E</option>.
+ <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>
<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>
</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>
<varlistentry>
<term>
- <cmdsynopsis><command>ghc --make</command>
+ <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 --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-languages</option></primary></indexterm>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>––supported-extensions</option></primary><primary><option>––supported-languages</option></primary></indexterm>
</term>
<listitem>
<para>Print the supported language extensions.</para>
<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
+ <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
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
<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>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>
- <option>-n</option>
- <indexterm><primary><option>-n</option></primary></indexterm>
- </term>
- <listitem>
- <para>Does a dry-run, i.e. GHC goes through all the motions
- of compiling as normal, but does not actually run any
- external commands.</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
<option>-v</option>
<indexterm><primary><option>-v</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>, and
suspicious code. The warnings that are
<emphasis>not</emphasis> enabled by <option>-Wall</option>
are
- <option>-fwarn-simple-patterns</option>,
<option>-fwarn-tabs</option>,
+ <option>-fwarn-incomplete-uni-patterns</option>,
<option>-fwarn-incomplete-record-updates</option>,
- <option>-fwarn-monomorphism-restriction</option>, and
+ <option>-fwarn-monomorphism-restriction</option>,
+ <option>-fwarn-unrecognised-pragmas</option>,
+ <option>-fwarn-auto-orphans</option>,
<option>-fwarn-implicit-prelude</option>.</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-deprecations</option></primary>
+ <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-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 a datatype
+ <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>
</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>
<term><option>-fwarn-duplicate-exports</option>:</term>
<listitem>
<indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-duplicate-exports</option></primary></indexterm>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
+ <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>
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>-fno-implicit-prelude</option> or a
+ <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>-fno-implicit-prelude</option>
+ 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
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term><option>-fwarn-incomplete-patterns</option>:</term>
+ <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 by 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>
</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>
</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>
+
+ <varlistentry>
<term><option>-fwarn-name-shadowing</option>:</term>
<listitem>
<indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-name-shadowing</option></primary></indexterm>
typographical errors that turn into hard-to-find bugs, e.g.,
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>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term><option>-fwarn-simple-patterns</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>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
<term><option>-fwarn-tabs</option>:</term>
<listitem>
<indexterm><primary><option>-fwarn-tabs</option></primary></indexterm>
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>
</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
<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.)
<varlistentry>
<term>
- <option>-fno-state-hack</option>
- <indexterm><primary><option>-fno-state-hack</option></primary></indexterm>
+ <option>-fno-float-in</option>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-fno-float-in</option></primary></indexterm>
</term>
<listitem>
- <para>Turn off the "state hack" whereby any lambda with a
- <literal>State#</literal> token as argument is considered to be
- single-entry, hence it is considered OK to inline things inside
- it. This can improve performance of IO and ST monad code, but it
- runs the risk of reducing sharing.</para>
+ <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>-funfolding-update-in-place=<replaceable>n</replaceable></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=<replaceable>n</replaceable></option>:
<indexterm><primary><option>-funfolding-creation-threshold</option></primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>inlining, controlling</primary></indexterm>
</sect1>
&phases;
-
+
+ &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>
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 desribe the language features that affect
+ linkend="lang-parallel" /> we describe the language features that affect
parallelism.</para>
- <sect2 id="parallel-options">
- <title>Options to enable SMP parallelism</title>
+ <sect2 id="parallel-compile-options">
+ <title>Compile-time options for SMP parallelism</title>
<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" />). Then, to run a program on multiple
- CPUs, use the RTS <option>-N</option> option:</para>
+ 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>
+ 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>
+
+ <sect2 id="parallel-options">
+ <title>RTS options for SMP parallelism</title>
+
+ <para>To run a program on multiple CPUs, use the
+ RTS <option>-N</option> option:</para>
+
+ <variablelist>
<varlistentry>
- <term><option>-N<replaceable>x</replaceable></option></term>
+ <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.
- There is no means (currently) by which this value may vary after
- the program has started.</para>
-
- <para>For example, on a dual-core machine we would probably use
+ 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>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>
+ <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>The following options affect the way the runtime schedules
+ threads on CPUs:</para>
+
+ <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>-sstderr</literal> RTS option when
+ <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>GHC's parallelism support is new and experimental. It may make your
- program go faster, or it might slow it down - either way, we'd be
- interested to hear from you.</para>
-
- <para>One significant limitation with the current implementation is that
- the garbage collector is still single-threaded, and all execution must
- stop when GC takes place. This can be a significant bottleneck in a
- parallel program, especially if your program does a lot of GC. If this
- happens to you, then try reducing the cost of GC by tweaking the GC
- settings (<xref linkend="rts-options-gc" />): enlarging the heap or the
- allocation area size is a good start.</para>
+ 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>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
- <term><option>-monly-[32]-regs</option>:</term>
+ <term><option>-msse2</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>
+ <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>
+
</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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