I have written a compiler for a packet filter language in Haskell. I think this is a good example of how Haskell can be used in an application domain (low level computer networking) where people tend to use C for everything, including writing compilers. The language itself is not very fancy, from a Haskell programmer's point of view, but maybe you will still find this worth having at least a glance at. This is a very early release. Expect it to blow up in your face, or, more likely, fail to compile. Please report bugs. Thanks. /jaap --------------------------------------------------------------------------- PIFFLE, A PACKET FILTER LANGUAGE http://code.google.com/p/piffle What is Piffle? * "Piffle" is a pronounceable form of PFL, that is, Packet Filter Language. ("Piffle" is also an obscure word for "chatter".) * Piffle is a programming language for writing network packet filters. * The Piffle compiler accepts resource limits on the processor time and memory used for processing each packet of input; simply pass the -C or -M option, and it will check at compile time that your program cannot not exceed the limits you specify. * Piffle is easy to learn, because it is built around the familiar abstractions of procedural languages such as C and Pascal. * Piffle programs can be compiled with interchangeable back-ends called "boilerplates". The pcap boilerplate, which comes with the Piffle compiler, allows Piffle programs to read and write pcap/tcpdump dump files, to read packets from network devices, and to preprocess packets with Berkeley Packet Filters. You can write your own boilerplates to talk to other network monitoring interfaces, such as tun/tap. * Piffle runs on GNU/Linux systems, and is designed to be portable to other POSIX-compliant systems that run the GNU C Compiler gcc and the Glasgow Haskell Compiler ghc. * Hopefully, Piffle will in the future become available as an operation in Streamline, an advanced network monitoring framework, formerly known as FFPF, the fairly fast packet filter. Streamline is being developed at the VU Amsterdam Computer Systems Section. Within Streamline, Piffle will coexist with Ruler, a regular-expression based packet rewriting language. The author Piffle was designed and implemented by Jaap Weel as part of the Compiler Construction Practical course at the VU Amsterdam CS department. Read the code Feel free to have a look at the source and do with it as you please (within the bounds of the GPL, of course). Download the code For the most recent tarball release, which may still be broken, check the downloads page. For the latest (and even more possibly broken) version of Piffle, you will have to use subversion. Read the documentation Be sure to have a look at the latest published version of the manual. Contribute I would very much appreciate if people could try to compile and run Piffle (in particular make test) on their own machines, and report any problems on the issues page or by e-mail. Get in touch with the author You can contact the author at weel at ugcs dot caltech dot edu , or visit his web site at http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~weel.