#9656: Process and thread init/deinit hooks for C libraries -------------------------------------+------------------------------------- Reporter: 3noch | Owner: Type: feature | Status: closed request | Milestone: Priority: normal | Version: 7.8.3 Component: Compiler | Keywords: FFI Resolution: invalid | Architecture: Unknown/Multiple Operating System: | Difficulty: Unknown Unknown/Multiple | Blocked By: Type of failure: | Related Tickets: None/Unknown | Test Case: | Blocking: | Differential Revisions: | -------------------------------------+------------------------------------- Comment (by 3noch): The mysql package punts on this issue because it uses the single-threaded lib, so it can get away without calling most of the init/deinit functions manually. One issue is that the main library init function is not thread safe so must be called before any threads are created (or mutex protected). In a C program, this is easily done by adding a few calls in main. The trouble when connecting Haskell apps to these libraries is that we don't have that kind of access to "main" and thus have to come up with awkward APIs and monads, etc. to make sure everything happens properly. Of course, as I said, it's possible to do this in user-land, its just painful and makes Haskell less friendly in real-world scenarios where you want to interop with stuff like this. -- Ticket URL: http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/9656#comment:2 GHC http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ The Glasgow Haskell Compiler