October 2018 - ghc-devs

[ANNOUNCE] GHC 8.4.4 released
by Ben Gamari 27 Oct '18

27 Oct '18

Hello everyone, The GHC team is pleased to announce the availability of GHC 8.4.4, a patch-level release in the 8.4 series. The source distribution, binary distributions, and documentation for this release are available at https://downloads.haskell.org/~ghc/8.4.4 This release fixes several bugs present in 8.4.3 These include, - A bug which could result in memory unsafety with certain uses of `touch#` has been resolved. (#14346) - A compiler panic triggered by some GADT record updates has been fixed (#15499) - The `text` library has been updated, fixing several serious bugs in the version shipped with GHC 8.4.3 (see `text` issues #227, #221, and #197. - A serious code generation bug in the LLVM code generation, potentially resulting in incorrect evaluation of floating point expressions, has been fixed (#14251) As always, the full release notes can be found in the users guide, https://downloads.haskell.org/~ghc/8.4.4/docs/html/users_guide/8.4.4-notes.… Thanks to everyone who has contributed to developing, documenting, and testing this release! As always, let us know if you encounter trouble. How to get it ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The easy way is to go to the web page, which should be self-explanatory: https://www.haskell.org/ghc/ We supply binary builds in the native package format for many platforms, and the source distribution is available from the same place. Packages will appear as they are built - if the package for your system isn't available yet, please try again later. Background ~~~~~~~~~~ Haskell is a standard lazy functional programming language. GHC is a state-of-the-art programming suite for Haskell. Included is an optimising compiler generating efficient code for a variety of platforms, together with an interactive system for convenient, quick development. The distribution includes space and time profiling facilities, a large collection of libraries, and support for various language extensions, including concurrency, exceptions, and foreign language interfaces. GHC is distributed under a BSD-style open source license. A wide variety of Haskell related resources (tutorials, libraries, specifications, documentation, compilers, interpreters, references, contact information, links to research groups) are available from the Haskell home page (see below). On-line GHC-related resources ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Relevant URLs on the World-Wide Web: GHC home page https://www.haskell.org/ghc/ GHC developers' home page https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ Haskell home page https://www.haskell.org/ Supported Platforms ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The list of platforms we support, and the people responsible for them, is here: https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/Contributors Ports to other platforms are possible with varying degrees of difficulty. The Building Guide describes how to go about porting to a new platform: https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/Building Developers ~~~~~~~~~~ We welcome new contributors. Instructions on accessing our source code repository, and getting started with hacking on GHC, are available from the GHC's developer's site run by Trac: https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ Mailing lists ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We run mailing lists for GHC users and bug reports; to subscribe, use the web interfaces at https://mail.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/glasgow-haskell-users https://mail.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ghc-tickets There are several other haskell and ghc-related mailing lists on www.haskell.org; for the full list, see https://mail.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo Some GHC developers hang out on #haskell on IRC, too: https://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/IRC_channel Please report bugs using our bug tracking system. Instructions on reporting bugs can be found here:

7 9

can't get docs / sphinx building for ghc 8.4.4
by Carter Schonwald 26 Oct '18

26 Oct '18

hello all, i'm getting the following error quite consistently on OSX, for getting the docs working / built and its quite impossible to install if the docs aren't fully built i've bolded below an except how do i fix thisssss please help meeeee :) many thanks. *Extension error:* *The 'ghc-flag' directive is already registered to domain std* *docs/users_guide/ghc.mk:16 <http://ghc.mk:16>: recipe for target 'docs/users_guide/users_guide.pdf' failed* *make[1]: *** [docs/users_guide/users_guide.pdf] Error 2* *make[1]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....* *Extension error:* *The 'ghc-flag' directive is already registered to domain std* *Extension error:* *The 'ghc-flag' directive is already registered to domain std* *docs/users_guide/ghc.mk:28 <http://ghc.mk:28>: recipe for target 'docs/users_guide/build-man/ghc.1' failed* the full end of the build is as follows any /usr/local/bin/ginstall -c -m 755 utils/genapply/dist/build/tmp/genapply inplace/lib/bin/genapply cp libffi/build/inst/lib/libffi.a rts/dist/build/libCffi.a "inplace/bin/ghc-stage1" -hisuf hi -osuf o -hcsuf hc -static -H32m -O -Wall -this-unit-id ghc-prim-0.5.2.0 -hide-all-packages -i -ilibraries/ghc-prim/. -ilibraries/ghc-prim/dist-install/build -Ilibraries/ghc-prim/dist-install/build -ilibraries/ghc-prim/dist-install/build/./autogen -Ilibraries/ghc-prim/dist-install/build/./autogen -Ilibraries/ghc-prim/. -optP-include -optPlibraries/ghc-prim/dist-install/build/./autogen/cabal_macros.h -package-id rts -this-unit-id ghc-prim -XHaskell2010 -O2 -no-user-package-db -rtsopts -Wno-trustworthy-safe -Wno-deprecated-flags -Wnoncanonical-monad-instances -odir libraries/ghc-prim/dist-install/build -hidir libraries/ghc-prim/dist-install/build -stubdir libraries/ghc-prim/dist-install/build -dynamic-too -c libraries/ghc-prim/./GHC/Tuple.hs -o libraries/ghc-prim/dist-install/build/GHC/Tuple.o -dyno libraries/ghc-prim/dist-install/build/GHC/Tuple.dyn_o Running Sphinx v1.8.1 Running Sphinx v1.8.1 Running Sphinx v1.8.1 loading pickled environment... done building [mo]: targets for 0 po files that are out of date building [html]: targets for 4 source files that are out of date updating environment: 0 added, 0 changed, 0 removed looking for now-outdated files... none found pickling environment... done preparing documents... done writing output... [ 25%] index Extension error: The 'ghc-flag' directive is already registered to domain std docs/users_guide/ghc.mk:16: recipe for target 'docs/users_guide/users_guide.pdf' failed make[1]: *** [docs/users_guide/users_guide.pdf] Error 2 make[1]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs.... Extension error: The 'ghc-flag' directive is already registered to domain std Extension error: The 'ghc-flag' directive is already registered to domain std docs/users_guide/ghc.mk:28: recipe for target 'docs/users_guide/build-man/ghc.1' failed make[1]: *** [docs/users_guide/build-man/ghc.1] Error 2 docs/users_guide/ghc.mk:16: recipe for target 'docs/users_guide/build-html/users_guide/index.html' failed make[1]: *** [docs/users_guide/build-html/users_guide/index.html] Error 2 writing output... [100%] markup /Users/carter/dev-checkouts/ghc-tree/ghc-8.4.4-checkout-clang-build/utils/haddock/doc/invoking.rst:457: WARNING: unknown option: -cpp generating indices... genindex writing additional pages... search copying static files... done copying extra files... done dumping search index in English (code: en) ... done dumping object inventory... done build succeeded, 1 warning. The HTML pages are in .build-html. cp -R utils/haddock/doc/.build-html utils/haddock/doc/haddock Makefile:122: recipe for target 'all' failed make: *** [all] Error 2

1 0

Re: Suppressing False Incomplete Pattern Matching Warnings for Polymorphic Pattern Synonyms
by Ryan Scott 25 Oct '18

25 Oct '18

The fact that `LL` can't be used in a COMPLETE pragma is a consequence of its current design. Per the users' guide [1]: To make things more formal, when the pattern-match checker requests a set of constructors for some data type constructor T, the checker returns: * The original set of data constructors for T * Any COMPLETE sets of type T Note the use of the phrase *type constructor*. The return type of all constructor-like things in a COMPLETE set must all be headed by the same type constructor T. Since `LL`'s return type is simply a type variable `a`, this simply doesn't work with the design of COMPLETE sets. But to be perfectly honest, I feel that trying to put `LL` into a COMPLETE set is like putting a square peg into a round hole. The original motivation for COMPLETE sets, as given in this wiki page [2], is to support using pattern synonyms in an abstract matter—that is, to ensure that users who match on pattern synonyms don't have any internal implementation details of those pattern synonyms leak into error messages. This is well and good for many use cases, but there are also many use cases where we don't *care* about abstraction. Sometimes, we simply define a pattern synonym to be a convenient shorthand for a complicated pattern to facilitate code reuse, and nothing more. `LL` is a perfect example of this, in my opinion. `LL` is simply a thin wrapper around the use of `decomposeSrcSpan` as a view pattern. Trying to put `LL` into a COMPLETE set is silly since our intention isn't to hide the implementation details of decomposing a `SrcSpan`, but rather to avoid the need to copy-paste `(decomposeSrcSpan -> (m , s))` in a bazillion patterns. Correspondingly, any use of `LL` ought to be treated as if the `(decomposeSrcSpan -> (m , s))` pattern were inlined—and from the pattern-match coverage checker's point of view, that *is* exhaustive! What's the moral of the story here? To me, this is a sign that the design space of pattern synonym coverage checking isn't rich enough. In addition to the existing {-# COMPLETE #-} machinery that we have today, I think we need to have a separate pragma for pattern synonyms that are intended to be transparent, non-abstract wrappers around patterns ({-# TRANSPARENT #-}, perhaps). Ryan S. ----- [1] https://downloads.haskell.org/~ghc/8.6.1/docs/html/users_guide/glasgow_exts… [2] https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/PatternSynonyms/CompleteSigs

3 2

Suppressing False Incomplete Pattern Matching Warnings for Polymorphic Pattern Synonyms
by Shayan Najd 25 Oct '18

25 Oct '18

Dear GHC hackers, On our work on the new front-end AST for GHC [0] based on TTG [1], we would like to use a pattern synonym like the following [2]: {{{ pattern LL :: HasSrcSpan a => SrcSpan -> SrcSpanLess a -> a pattern LL s m <- (decomposeSrcSpan -> (m , s)) where LL s m = composeSrcSpan (m , s) }}} We know that any match on `LL` patterns, makes the pattern matching total, as it uses a view pattern with a total output pattern (i.e., in `decomposeSrcSpan -> (m , s)`, the pattern `(m , s)` is total). As far as I understand, currently COMPLETE pragmas cannot be used with such a polymorphic pattern. What do you suggest us to do to avoid the false incomplete pattern matching warnings? Thanks, Shayan [0] https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/ImplementingTreesThatGrow [1] https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/ImplementingTreesThatGrow/TreesThatGr… [2] https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/ImplementingTreesThatGrow/HandlingSou…

2 1

Shall we make -dsuppress-uniques default?
by Ömer Sinan Ağacan 24 Oct '18

24 Oct '18

I asked this on IRC and didn't hear a lot of opposition, so as the next step I'd like to ask ghc-devs. I literally never need the details on uniques that we currently print by default. I either don't care about variables too much (when not comparing the output with some other output), or I need -dsuppress-uniques (when comparing outputs). The problem is I have to remember to add -dsuppress-uniques if I'm going to compare the outputs, and if I decide to compare outputs after the fact I need to re-generate them with -dsuppress-uniques. This takes time and effort. If you're also of the same opinion I suggest making -dsuppress-uniques default, and providing a -dno-suppress-uniques (if it doesn't already exist). Ömer

4 4

Why align all pinned array payloads on 16 bytes?
by Ömer Sinan Ağacan 24 Oct '18

24 Oct '18

Hi, I just found out we currently align all pinned array payloads to 16 bytes and I'm wondering why. I don't see any comments/notes on this, and it's also not part of the primop documentation. We also have another primop for aligned allocation: newAlignedPinnedByteArray#. Given that alignment behavior of newPinnedByteArray# is not documented and we have another one for aligned allocation, perhaps we can remove alignment in newPinnedByteArray#. Does anyone remember what was the motivation for always aligning pinned arrays? Thanks Ömer

5 6

Hadrian has been merged!
by Ben Gamari 23 Oct '18

23 Oct '18

Hi everyone, Hadrian is now merged into the GHC tree. For better or worse, due to the large number of merge commits in the Hadrian repository we were unable to squash the early history of the project. If you encounter trouble using the Hadrian build system please file a ticket on Trac, setting the "Component" field to "Build System (Hadrian)". I have renamed the old "Build System" component in Trac's issue tracker to "Build System (make)" to avoid confusion. Hadrian tickets opened before the merge will remain on GitHub. Likewise, if you would like to contribute to Hadrian please do so via Phabricator. The remaining pull requests against the GitHub repository will be merged in due course but further requests will be redirected to Phabricator. Cheers, - Ben

1 0

[ANNOUNCE] GHC 8.6.1 released
by Ben Gamari 22 Oct '18

22 Oct '18

Hello everyone, The GHC team is pleased to announce the availability of GHC 8.6.1, the fourth major release in the GHC 8 series. The source distribution, binary distributions, and documentation for this release are available at https://downloads.haskell.org/~ghc/8.6.1 The 8.6 release fixes over 400 bugs from the 8.4 series and introduces a number of exciting features. These most notably include: * A new deriving mechanism, `deriving via`, providing a convenient way for users to extend Haskell's typeclass deriving mechanism * Quantified constraints, allowing forall quantification in constraint contexts * An early version of the GHCi `:doc` command * The `ghc-heap-view` package, allowing introspection into the structure of GHC's heap * Valid hole fit hints, helping the user to find terms to fill typed holes in their programs * The BlockArguments extension, allowing the `$` operator to be omitted in some unambiguous contexts * An exciting new plugin mechanism, source plugins, allowing plugins to inspect and modify a wide variety of compiler representations. * Improved recompilation checking when plugins are used * Significantly better handling of macOS linker command size limits, avoiding linker errors while linking large projects * The next phase of the MonadFail proposal, enabling -XMonadFailDesugaring by default A full list of the changes in this release can be found in the release notes: https://downloads.haskell.org/~ghc/8.6.1/docs/html/users_guide/8.6.1-notes.… Perhaps of equal importance, GHC 8.6 is the second major release made under GHC's accelerated six-month release schedule and the first set of binary distributions built primarily using our new continuous integration scheme. While the final 8.6 release is around three weeks later than initially scheduled due to late-breaking bug reports, we expect that the 8.8 release schedule shouldn't be affected. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to developing, documenting, and testing this release! As always, let us know if you encounter trouble. How to get it ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The easy way is to go to the web page, which should be self-explanatory: https://www.haskell.org/ghc/ We supply binary builds in the native package format for many platforms, and the source distribution is available from the same place. Packages will appear as they are built - if the package for your system isn't available yet, please try again later. Background ~~~~~~~~~~ Haskell is a standard lazy functional programming language. GHC is a state-of-the-art programming suite for Haskell. Included is an optimising compiler generating efficient code for a variety of platforms, together with an interactive system for convenient, quick development. The distribution includes space and time profiling facilities, a large collection of libraries, and support for various language extensions, including concurrency, exceptions, and foreign language interfaces. GHC is distributed under a BSD-style open source license. A wide variety of Haskell related resources (tutorials, libraries, specifications, documentation, compilers, interpreters, references, contact information, links to research groups) are available from the Haskell home page (see below). On-line GHC-related resources ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Relevant URLs on the World-Wide Web: GHC home page https://www.haskell.org/ghc/ GHC developers' home page https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ Haskell home page https://www.haskell.org/ Supported Platforms ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The list of platforms we support, and the people responsible for them, is here: https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/Contributors Ports to other platforms are possible with varying degrees of difficulty. The Building Guide describes how to go about porting to a new platform: https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/Building Developers ~~~~~~~~~~ We welcome new contributors. Instructions on accessing our source code repository, and getting started with hacking on GHC, are available from the GHC's developer's site run by Trac: https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ Mailing lists ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We run mailing lists for GHC users and bug reports; to subscribe, use the web interfaces at https://mail.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/glasgow-haskell-users https://mail.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ghc-tickets There are several other haskell and ghc-related mailing lists on www.haskell.org; for the full list, see https://mail.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo Some GHC developers hang out on #haskell on IRC, too: https://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/IRC_channel Please report bugs using our bug tracking system. Instructions on reporting bugs can be found here: https://www.haskell.org/ghc/reportabug

9 12

Building on windows
by Yotam Ohad 21 Oct '18

21 Oct '18

Hi, I've tried to build ghc on windows 10 with msys. I've installed it with stack as said on the guide. In the msys shell, after updating and installing everything I've tried to run `./configure --enable-tarballs-autodownload` and got the following error: configure: loading site script /mingw64/etc/config.site checking for gfind... no checking for find... /usr/bin/find checking for sort... /usr/bin/sort checking for GHC version date... inferred 8.7.20181017 checking for GHC Git commit id... inferred 46f2906d1c6e1fb732a90882487479a2ebf19ca1 checking for ghc... no configure: error: GHC is required. I have the haskell platform installed (8.4.3), yet it can't find GHC and I'm not sure if I missed something from the guide Yotam

2 3

Help inform GHC's development priorities
by Ben Gamari 18 Oct '18

18 Oct '18

tl;dr. Please a take a minute to express your thoughts on GHC's development priorities via this survey [1]. Hello everyone, The GHC developers want to ensure that we are working on problems that of most importance to you, the Haskell community. To this end we are surveying the community [1], asking how our users interact with GHC and which problems need to be addressed most urgently. We hope you will take a few minutes to give us your thoughts [1]. Thanks in advance for your time and, finally, thanks to the financial supporters that make our work GHC possible. Cheers, - Ben and the rest of the GHC developers [1] https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdh7sf2MqHoEmjt38r1cxCF-tV76OFCJqU…

1 0