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hsc2hs: Haskell Pre-processor for C FFI bindings

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The hsc2hs command can be used to automate some parts of the process of writing Haskell bindings to C code. It reads an almost-Haskell source with embedded special constructs, and outputs a real Haskell file with these constructs processed, based on information taken from some C headers. The extra constructs deal with accessing C data from Haskell.

It may also output a C file which contains additional C functions to be linked into the program, together with a C header that gets included into the C code to which the Haskell module will be compiled (when compiled via C) and into the C file. These two files are created when the #def construct is used (see below).

Actually hsc2hs does not output the Haskell file directly. It creates a C program that includes the headers, gets automatically compiled and run. That program outputs the Haskell code.

In the following, "Haskell file" is the main output (usually a .hs file), "compiled Haskell file" is the Haskell file after ghc has compiled it to C (i.e. a .hc file), "C program" is the program that outputs the Haskell file, "C file" is the optionally generated C file, and "C header" is its header file.

Contents

Command line syntax

hsc2hs takes input files as arguments, and flags that modify its behavior:

-o FILE, --output=FILE
Name of the Haskell file.
-t FILE, --template=FILE
The template file (see below).
-c PROG, --cc=PROG
The C compiler to use (default: gcc)
-l PROG, --ld=PROG
The linker to use (default: gcc).
-C FLAG, --cflag=FLAG
An extra flag to pass to the C compiler.
-I DIR
Passed to the C compiler.
-L FLAG, --lflag=FLAG
An extra flag to pass to the linker.
-i FILE, --include=FILE
As if the appropriate #include directive was placed in the source.
-D NAME[=VALUE], --define=NAME[=VALUE]
As if the appropriate #define directive was placed in the source.
--no-compile
Stop after writing out the intermediate C program to disk. The file name for the intermediate C program is the input file name with .hsc replaced with _hsc_make.c.
-k, --keep-files
Proceed as normal, but do not delete any intermediate files.
-x, --cross-compile
Activate cross-compilation mode (see cross-compilation).
--cross-safe
Restrict the .hsc directives to those supported by the --cross-compile mode (see cross-compilation). This should be useful if your .hsc files must be safely cross-compiled and you wish to keep non-cross-compilable constructs from creeping into them.
-?, --help
Display a summary of the available flags and exit successfully.
-V, --version
Output version information and exit successfully.

The input file should end with .hsc (it should be plain Haskell source only; literate Haskell is not supported at the moment). Output files by default get names with the .hsc suffix replaced:

.hs Haskell file
_hsc.h C header
_hsc.c C file

The C program is compiled using the Haskell compiler. This provides the include path to HsFFI.h which is automatically included into the C program.

Input syntax

All special processing is triggered by the # operator. To output a literal #, write it twice: ##. Inside string literals and comments # characters are not processed.

A # is followed by optional spaces and tabs, an alphanumeric keyword that describes the kind of processing, and its arguments. Arguments look like C expressions separated by commas (they are not written inside parens). They extend up to the nearest unmatched ), ] or }, or to the end of line if it occurs outside any () [] {} '' "" /**/ and is not preceded by a backslash. Backslash-newline pairs are stripped.

In addition #{stuff} is equivalent to #stuff except that it's self-delimited and thus needs not to be placed at the end of line or in some brackets.

Meanings of specific keywords:

#include <file.h>, #include "file.h"
The specified file gets included into the C program, the compiled Haskell file, and the C header. <HsFFI.h> is included automatically.
#define ⟨name⟩, #define ⟨name ⟨value⟩, #undef ⟨name⟩
Similar to #include. Note that #includes and #defines may be put in the same file twice so they should not assume otherwise.
#let ⟨name⟩ ⟨parameters⟩ = "⟨definition⟩"
Defines a macro to be applied to the Haskell source. Parameter names are comma-separated, not inside parens. Such macro is invoked as other #-constructs, starting with #name. The definition will be put in the C program inside parens as arguments of printf. To refer to a parameter, close the quote, put a parameter name and open the quote again, to let C string literals concatenate. Or use printf's format directives. Values of arguments must be given as strings, unless the macro stringifies them itself using the C preprocessor's #parameter syntax.
#def ⟨C_definition⟩
The definition (of a function, variable, struct or typedef) is written to the C file, and its prototype or extern declaration to the C header. Inline functions are handled correctly. struct definitions and typedefs are written to the C program too. The inline, struct or typedef keyword must come just after def.
#if ⟨condition⟩, #ifdef ⟨name⟩, #ifndef ⟨name⟩, #elif ⟨condition⟩, #else, #endif, #error ⟨message⟩, #warning ⟨message⟩
Conditional compilation directives are passed unmodified to the C program, C file, and C header. Putting them in the C program means that appropriate parts of the Haskell file will be skipped.
#const ⟨C_expression⟩
The expression must be convertible to long or unsigned long. Its value (literal or negated literal) will be output.
#const_str ⟨C_expression⟩
The expression must be convertible to const char pointer. Its value (string literal) will be output.
#type ⟨C_type⟩
A Haskell equivalent of the C numeric type will be output. It will be one of {Int,Word}{8,16,32,64}, Float, Double, LDouble.
#peek ⟨struct_type⟩, ⟨field⟩
A function that peeks a field of a C struct will be output. It will have the type Storable b => Ptr a -> IO b. The intention is that #peek and #poke can be used for implementing the operations of class Storable for a given C struct (see the Foreign.Storable module in the library documentation).
#poke ⟨struct_type⟩, ⟨field⟩
Similarly for poke. It will have the type Storable b => Ptr a -> b -> IO ().
#ptr ⟨struct_type⟩, ⟨field⟩
Makes a pointer to a field struct. It will have the type Ptr a -> Ptr b.
#offset ⟨struct_type⟩, ⟨field⟩
Computes the offset, in bytes, of field in struct_type. It will have type Int.
#size ⟨struct_type⟩
Computes the size, in bytes, of struct_type. It will have type Int.
#alignment ⟨struct_type⟩
Computes the alignment, in bytes, of struct_type. It will have type Int.
#enum ⟨type⟩, ⟨constructor⟩, ⟨value⟩, ⟨value⟩, ...
A shortcut for multiple definitions which use #const. Each value is a name of a C integer constant, e.g. enumeration value. The name will be translated to Haskell by making each letter following an underscore uppercase, making all the rest lowercase, and removing underscores. You can supply a different translation by writing hs_name = c_value instead of a value, in which case c_value may be an arbitrary expression. The hs_name will be defined as having the specified type. Its definition is the specified constructor (which in fact may be an expression or be empty) applied to the appropriate integer value. You can have multiple #enum definitions with the same type; this construct does not emit the type definition itself.

Custom constructs

#const, #type, #peek, #poke and #ptr are not hardwired into the hsc2hs, but are defined in a C template that is included in the C program: template-hsc.h. Custom constructs and templates can be used too. Any #-construct with unknown key is expected to be handled by a C template.

A C template should define a macro or function with name prefixed by hsc_ that handles the construct by emitting the expansion to stdout. See template-hsc.h for examples.

Such macros can also be defined directly in the source. They are useful for making a #let-like macro whose expansion uses other #let macros. Plain #let prepends hsc_ to the macro name and wraps the definition in a printf call.

Cross-compilation

hsc2hs normally operates by creating, compiling, and running a C program. That approach doesn't work when cross-compiling — in this case, the C compiler's generates code for the target machine, not the host machine. For this situation, there's a special mode hsc2hs --cross-compile which can generate the .hs by extracting information from compilations only — specifically, whether or not compilation fails.

Only a subset of .hsc syntax is supported by --cross-compile. The following are unsupported:

  • #{const_str}
  • #{let}
  • #{def}
  • Custom constructs