ghc-pkg

[Thomas Hallgren]

Simon Marlow wrote:

>Perhaps it would be easier to have hmake just invoke 'ghc --make' under
>the hood?
>
I don't think ghc --make is mature enough to replace other make tools 
yet. For example, when trying to compile Fudgets with ghc-5.02 --make 
-O2, with GHCRTS=-M100M, I got

    GHC's heap exhausted;
    while trying to allocate 0 bytes in a 99999744-byte heap;
    use the `-H<size>' option to increase the total heap size.

after about 2/3 of the library had compiled. GHC also left 54MB of junk 
behind in /tmp. I don't know exactly how big the heep needs to be, or 
how much free space in /tmp is needed to compile all of fudgets (285 
modules), but I think it is clear that this behaviour is horrendous...

As a comparison, using hmake, or some other make tool, fudgets compile 
just fine with ghc-5.02 -O2 , GHCRTS=-M40M (perhaps even less, I haven't 
tried), using only a few megabytes of space in /tmp.

Additionally, ghc --make lacks (AFAIK) several useful features found in 
other make tools (although not all in the same tool...):

   1. The ability to distingush directories containing source code to be
      compiled from directories containing previously compiled code
      (hmake has the flags -P and -i, hbcmake has -i and -I). (I guess
      you could use -package-conf as a cumbersome substitute, though.)
   2. The ability to specify compiler flags for individual modules
      without putting them in the source code. (Some flags are 'static'
      and can not be put in the source code.)
   3. The ability to compile several modules in parallel, on a
      multi-processor machine, or a network of workstations.
   4. The ability to automatically invoke program generators (e.g. happy)...
   5. A graphical user interface.

Regards,
Thomas Hallgren