Quick Start: Just building and installing GHC

"I just want to build it!"

No problem. This recipe should build and install a working GHC with all the default settings.

The following instructions assume that you have got the sources (note: not just a darcs get) and installed the necessary tools.

If you are starting from a darcs checkout (or rebuilding from darcs), then:

$ perl boot

(this step isn't necessary if you have a source distribution).

Next:

$ ./configure
$ make
$ make install

This will do a 2-stage bootstrap build of the compiler, with profiling libraries, and install the results in the default location (under /usr/local on Unix, for example).

The configure script is a standard GNU autoconf script, and accepts the usual options for changing install locations and the like. Run ./configure --help for a list of options.

If you want to do anything at all non-standard, or you want to do some development, read on...