Table of Contents
Abstract
C➔Haskell is an interface generator that simplifies the development of Haskell bindings to C libraries. The tool processes existing C header files that determine data layout and function signatures on the C side in conjunction with Haskell modules that specify Haskell-side type signatures and marshaling details. Hooks embedded in the Haskell code signal access to C structures and functions -- they are expanded by the interfacing tool in dependence on information from the corresponding C header file. Another noteworthy property is the lightweight nature of the approach.
More background information is available in a research paper discussing C➔Haskell, which is at http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~chak/papers/papers.html#c2hs. However, this paper does not cover the more recent advanced features such as function hooks and conditional compilation.
It follows a brief discussion of the installation from source. There is,
however, a file INSTALL in the source distribution, which is
more frequently updated and should be consulted in any case.
The master site of C➔Haskell is at http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~chak/haskell/c2hs/. It has all the latest information and sources. Furthermore, it explains how to get access to the C➔Haskell Darcs repository and has references to pre-compiled binaries.
You need a Haskell system supported by C➔Haskell. Currently, this is only
the Glasgow Haskell Compiler (GHC), which you can obtain
from http://haskell.org/ghc/. Furthermore, you need the Haskell
package system Cabal. See the INSTALL file for details on
supported versions.
To build the documentation, you will also need the SGML Tools, which you find at your nearest sunsite or Linux mirror or at ftp://ftp.lip6.fr/pub/sgml-tools/. On an up-to-date Linux system, the tools are probably already installed.
The short answer is
$ tar -xzfpackage.tar.gz # unpack the sources $ cdpackage# change to the toplevel directory $ runghc Setup.hs configure # configure the build system $ runghc Setup.hs build # build everything [ Become root if necessary ] $ runghc Setup.hs install # install c2hs
In the INSTALL file, there are more details.
Optionally, you can build the documentation by issuing make
doc and install it with make install-doc.