#10436: Excessive numbers of packages loaded for TH -------------------------------------+------------------------------------- Reporter: duncan | Owner: Type: bug | Status: new Priority: normal | Milestone: Component: Compiler | Version: 7.10.1 Keywords: | Operating System: Unknown/Multiple Architecture: | Type of failure: Compile-time Unknown/Multiple | crash Test Case: | Blocked By: Blocking: | Related Tickets: Differential Revisions: | -------------------------------------+------------------------------------- When using Template Haskell, the behaviour of ghc with regard to loading packages differs in these two cases: {{{ ghc --make Blah.hs }}} vs {{{ ghc --make Blah.hs -package foo }}} In the first case, ghc will work out for itself which packages it needs to load to run the TH code in `Blah.hs` while in the second case, ghc will unconditionally load package `foo` in addition to anything else. Why is this a problem? Consider a real example (reported on IRC): {{{ ghc --make Main.hs [1 of 4] Compiling Uplink ( Uplink.hs, Uplink.o ) [2 of 4] Compiling FlightData ( FlightData.hs, FlightData.o ) Loading package ghc-prim ... linking ... done. Loading package integer-gmp ... linking ... done. Loading package base ... linking ... done. [3 of 4] Compiling Joystick ( Joystick.hs, Joystick.o ) [4 of 4] Compiling Main ( Main.hs, Main.o ) Linking Main.exe ... }}} This just loads `base` and its deps. Great, it works. Now the exact same `Main.hs` built by cabal (which of course uses `-package-id` flags): {{{ cabal build Building jpl-0.1.0.0... Preprocessing executable 'jpl' for jpl-0.1.0.0... [1 of 4] Compiling Uplink ( Uplink.hs, dist\build\jpl\jpl- tmp\Uplink.o ) [2 of 4] Compiling FlightData ( FlightData.hs, dist\build\jpl\jpl- tmp\FlightData.o ) Loading package ghc-prim ... linking ... done. Loading package integer-gmp ... linking ... done. Loading package base ... linking ... done. Loading package array-0.5.0.0 ... linking ... done. Loading package deepseq-1.3.0.2 ... linking ... done. Loading package bytestring-0.10.4.0 ... linking ... done. Loading package containers-0.5.5.1 ... linking ... done. Loading package binary-0.7.1.0 ... linking ... done. Loading package SHA-1.6.4.2 ... linking ... done. Loading package text-1.2.0.4 ... linking ... done. }}} ... snip a further 80, '''yes 80 packages''' ... {{{ Loading package linear-1.18.0.1 ... linking ... done. Loading package sdl2-2.0.0 ... linking ... ghc.exe: unable to load package `sdl2-2.0.0' ghc.exe: warning: WSACleanup from ws2_32 is linked instead of __imp_WSACleanup ghc.exe: warning: WSAStartup from ws2_32 is linked instead of __imp_WSAStartup ghc.exe: warning: WSACleanup from ws2_32 is linked instead of __imp_WSACleanup }}} ... snip more boring details of the linker errors ... So yes the problem is that in practice some packages (typically FFI things) just can't be loaded in GHCi/TH and then this scuppers everything else, despite the fact that these packages never needed to be loaded in the first place. So the feature request is this: always use the parsimonious demand-driven algorithm for deciding what packages to load when running TH snippets, and don't consider `-package` flags to be instructions to load these packages for running TH code. As a bonus it'll be quicker and our build output shorter. -- Ticket URL: http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/10436 GHC http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ The Glasgow Haskell Compiler