The other way to do the port is to bootstrap from HC files; i.e., forget that any ghc build exists on your architecture, and start from scratch. The method is discussed briefly at
http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/latest/building/sec-booting-from-c.html
but basically involves using pre-built, non-gcc-specific C files that don't need mangling to build the first stage GHC compiler.
Well, I may be wrong, but I think booting .hc files doesn't avoid mangling step ... .hs ->| hsc |-> .hc -> |cc| -> .s -> |mangling| -> .s' -> |assembler| -> .o -> | linker | -> a.out am I right ? I tried booting from .hc files in linux, sun, and now irix... Look at the table: platform sparc-sunos sparc-sunos i386-linux i386-linuxmips-sgi-irix mips-sgi-irix gcc-version 2.7.2.3 2.95.1 2.7.2.3 2.95.1 2.95.1 2.7.2.3 ghc-3.02-booting-hcOK NOK OK NOK NOK ¿OK? We should distinguish conceptually the next "model": - compiler properly said (hsc) : .hs -> .hc ( writen in Haskell (.hs) !! , so I need to mangle !) - the run-time suport (-l<something>.a , It's almost written in C, something in Haskell .) - the mangler (ghc-asm.prl) .s -> .s' (mangles prelude functions, destroying C -stack model ) - the linker ( -lruntimea, .o -> a.out) - the driver (ghc.prl) . The master overall guide process... The key point I must concentrate is the gcc-mangler interface...That would explain the previous table. Booting .hc doesn't avoid mangling...as I understand the process.( I may be wrong ) The older mangler (ghc-3.02) seems to be dessigned closely to the gcc 2.7.2.3 output... ( The ghc-4.08 runs on gcc-2.95.1 ) That's why I'm trying to find which one was used to build and run ghc-2.10-mips-sgi-irix6.tar.gz . Any other e-mail or reference to consult MIPS-port would be acknowledged... Sorry if my previous mail was large and a bit dark...
From there, you have a Haskell compiler that can be used to compile the real GHC natively, and you can work on the mangler etc as necessary. No doubt one of the GHC Team will give more details.
In general, the GHC Team is very happy to help with this kind of thing, because they want GHC to be available on as many platforms as possible.