i guess am missing something: $ cat ./test.hs {-# LANGUAGE TemplateHaskell#-} module Main where import Language.Haskell.TH import qualified Data.ByteString as BS embedFile :: FilePath -> Q BS.ByteString embedFile ff = runIO $ BS.readFile ff main = do me <- runQ $ embedFile "./test.hs" print me $ ghc --make test.hs [1 of 1] Compiling Main ( test.hs, test.o ) Linking test ... $ ./test " {-# LANGUAGE TemplateHaskell#-}\nmodule Main where\n\nimport Language.Haskell.TH\nimport qualified Data.ByteString as BS\n\nembedFile :: FilePath -> Q BS.ByteString\nembedFile ff = runIO $ BS.readFile ff\n\n\nmain = do\n me <- runQ $ embedFile \"./test.hs\"\n print me\n\n" $ mv test.hs test.hs.old $ ./test test: ./test.hs: openBinaryFile: does not exist (No such file or directory) i was hoping test.hs would become part of the executable.