#8296: Patch: new primops for byte range copies ByteArray# <-> Addr# ------------------------------------+------------------------------------- Reporter: duncan | Owner: Type: feature request | Status: new Priority: normal | Milestone: Component: Compiler | Version: 7.6.3 Keywords: | Operating System: Unknown/Multiple Architecture: Unknown/Multiple | Type of failure: None/Unknown Difficulty: Unknown | Test Case: Blocked By: | Blocking: Related Tickets: | ------------------------------------+------------------------------------- Currently we have: * `copyByteArray#` for `ByteArray#` to `MutableByteArray#` * `copyMutableByteArray#` for `MutableByteArray#` to `MutableByteArray#` This patch adds primops for similar cases involving `Addr#`s, that is pointers to pinned or foreign memory. * `copyByteArrayToAddr#` for `ByteArray#` to `Addr#` * `copyMutableByteArrayToAddr#` for `MutableByteArray#` to `Addr#` * `copyAddrToByteArray#` for `Addr#` to `MutableByteArray#` These are not covered by the existing primops of course, and are useful because `ByteArray#`s are a bit special, sometimes being unpinned, and being aligned, and being so primitve/built-in. It's true we could use FFI import of memcpy using the GHC's FFI extension to turn `ByteArray#` into a pointer on the C side. However we don't do that for the existing primops and we're following the same pattern here. (Good reasons for them all to be primops: abstracts the backend/platform better, can take advantage of known allignment and size info). In particular, these primops would be useful in the impl of low level libs like bytestring, text, array, binary etc. -- Ticket URL: http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/8296 GHC http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ The Glasgow Haskell Compiler