[project @ 2002-09-10 09:26:24 by simonmar]

Add notes on how to build a .a file to the docs, as requested by Koen
Claessen.

diff --git a/ghc/docs/users_guide/packages.sgml b/ghc/docs/users_guide/packages.sgml
index 6faac0a..769a7cd 100644 (file)
--- a/ghc/docs/users_guide/packages.sgml
+++ b/ghc/docs/users_guide/packages.sgml
@@ -101,31 +101,45 @@
 
        <listitem>
          <para>A package has a name
-         (e.g. <filename>std</filename>)</para>
+         (e.g. <filename>base</filename>)</para>
        </listitem>
 
        <listitem>
          <para>The Haskell code in a package may be built into one or
-         more archive libraries (e.g. <filename>libHSfoo.a</filename>),
-         or a single DLL on Windows
-         (e.g. <filename>HSfoo.dll</filename>).  The restriction to a
-         single DLL on Windows is that the package system is used to
-         tell the compiler when it should make an inter-DLL call
-         rather than an intra-DLL call (inter-DLL calls require an
-         extra indirection). <emphasis>Building packages as DLLs
-         doesn't work at the moment; see <XRef
-         LinkEnd="win32-dlls-create"> for the gory details.</emphasis>
+         more archive libraries
+         (e.g. <filename>libHSfoo.a</filename>), or a single DLL on
+         Windows (e.g. <filename>HSfoo.dll</filename>).  The
+         restriction to a single DLL on Windows is because the
+         package system is used to tell the compiler when it should
+         make an inter-DLL call rather than an intra-DLL call
+         (inter-DLL calls require an extra
+         indirection). <emphasis>Building packages as DLLs doesn't
+         work at the moment; see <XRef LinkEnd="win32-dlls-create">
+         for the gory details.</emphasis>
          </para>
 
+         <para>Building a static library is done by using the
+         <literal>ar</literal> tool, like so:</para>
+
+<screen>ar cqs libHSfoo.a A.o B.o C.o ...</screen>
+
+         <para>where <filename>A.o</filename>,
+         <filename>B.o</filename> and so on are the compiled Haskell
+         modules, and <filename>libHSfoo.a</filename> is the library
+         you wish to create.  The syntax may differ slightly on your
+         system, so check the documentation if you run into
+         difficulties.</para>
+
          <para>Versions of the Haskell libraries for use with GHCi
          may also be included: GHCi cannot load <literal>.a</literal>
          files directly, instead it will look for an object file
-         called <filename>HSfoo.o</filename> and load that.  The
-         <literal>ghc-pkg</literal> tool can automatically build the
-         GHCi version of each library, see <xref
-         linkend="package-management">.  To build these libraries by
-         hand from the <literal>.a</literal> archive, it is possible
-         to use GNU <command>ld</command> as follows:</para>
+         called <filename>HSfoo.o</filename> and load that.  On some
+         systems, the <literal>ghc-pkg</literal> tool can
+         automatically build the GHCi version of each library, see
+         <xref linkend="package-management">.  To build these
+         libraries by hand from the <literal>.a</literal> archive, it
+         is possible to use GNU <command>ld</command> as
+         follows:</para>
 
 <screen>ld -r &ndash;&ndash;whole-archive -o HSfoo.o libHSfoo.a</screen>
        </listitem>
@@ -408,7 +422,9 @@
              <varlistentry>
                <term><filename>libHSfoo.a</filename></term>
                <listitem>
-                 <para>The name of the library on Unix
+                 <para>The name of the library on Unix and Windows
+                 (mingw) systems.  Note that we don't support
+                 building dynamic libraries of Haskell code on Unix
                  systems.</para>
                </listitem>
              </varlistentry>
@@ -416,7 +432,7 @@
                <term><filename>HSfoo.dll</filename></term>
                <listitem>
                  <para>The name of the dynamic library on Windows
-                 systems.</para>
+                 systems (optional).</para>
                </listitem>
              </varlistentry>
              <varlistentry>
@@ -452,6 +468,12 @@
            for libraries in
            <literal>extra_libraries</literal>.</para>
 
+           <para>The libraries listed in
+           <literal>extra_libraries</literal> may be any libraries
+           supported by your system's linker, including dynamic
+           libraries (<literal>.so</literal> on Unix,
+           <literal>.DLL</literal> on Windows).</para>
+
            <para>Also, <literal>extra_libraries</literal> are placed
            on the linker command line after the
            <literal>hs_libraries</literal> for the same package.  If