System.Installer

This module allows you to include any file into a module during compilation. You can then write out the file at run time.

Expected use is via the Template Haskell splicing syntax. E.g.

   $(installBinariesFunc "installMyFiles"
     [("FileOne", "/foo/bar/fileOne.txt"),
      ("FileTwo", "/foo/bar/fileTwo.txt"),
      ("Three",   "/foo/baz/thirdFile.qux")
     ])

This will cause an enumeration ADT to be defined as:

   data Installer_installMyFiles =
            Installer_installMyFiles_FileOne
          | Installer_installMyFiles_FileTwo
          | Installer_installMyFiles_Three

with instances for Enum, Eq, Ord and Show. The install for Show will return the fst element of the tuple in the list passed to installBinariesFunc. A function called installMyFiles will also be defined of type Installer_installMyFiles -> FilePath -> IO (). Calling this will cause the file content to be written out to the filepath. If the filepath provided is a directory, then the file will be created within that directory with the same name as the leaf of the path in the snd elem of the tuples passed to installBinariesFunc.

Note that the files written out are not set executable so you must correct file permissions yourself.

The module works by, at compile time, reading in the files specified and converting them to C files with a header. These files will be stored in a directory called hinstaller-tmp under the same leaf name as the original. Then, the module calls a C compiler by invoking the process cc which must exist. Finally, the names of the files must be passed to the linker. With GHC, use -optl hinstaller-tmp/file.o where file is the name of the file you're including. Repeat for each file.

In order to clean up this hinstaller-tmp directory, the module exports a function cabalCleanHInstallerDir. To use this, modify your Setup.hs along the lines of the following:

  #!/usr/bin/env runghc

  import Distribution.Simple
  import System.Installer

  main = defaultMainWithHooks myHooks

  myHooks :: UserHooks
  myHooks = defaultUserHooks { postBuild = cabalCleanHInstallerDir }

Then, once the build is complete, the directory will be cleaned up. With Cabal, use the ld-options field to pass in the names of compiled C files: ld-options: hinstaller-tmp/file.o

Documentation

installBinariesFunc :: String -> [(String, FilePath)] -> Q [Dec]

cabalCleanHInstallerDir :: Args -> BuildFlags -> PackageDescription -> LocalBuildInfo -> IO ExitCode