Getting Started

THis page tells you how to get started with hacking on GHC.

Getting GHC to build on your machine

• Grab the latest sources
• Set up your build tree

Although old code in GHC is not warning-clean, we want new code to be, and we are gradually cleaning the old modules. Here is how to cooperate with this. The rest of the same page describes the coding conventions we encourage you to use.

Deciding what to work on

• You may have a pet project of your own. If you are wondering which bits of the compiler would be important for you, start by consulting the Commentary.
• Pick an easy bug report or task to work on

Contributing back to GHC

• Validating your patches
• Submit patches back, using darcs send is the recommended way.

More information

• Ask questions on  the cvs-ghc mailing list
• Useful information about GHC's architecture is in the Commentary
• Familiarise yourself with the GHC WorkingConventions.