Calling Haskell from C++ code
I'm currently writing an app in C++ and found that some of its functionality would be better written in Haskell. I've seen instructions on calling Haskell from C code, but is it possible to do the same with C++?
EDIT: To clarify, what I'm looking for is a way to compile Haskell code into an external library that g++ can link with the object code from C++.
UPDATE: I've put up a working example below for anyone else interested (also so I won't forget).
Solution 1:
To anyone interested, this is the test case that I've finally got working:
M.hs
module Foo where
foreign export ccall foo :: Int -> Int
foo :: Int -> Int
foo = floor . sqrt . fromIntegral
test.cpp
#include <iostream>
#include "M_stub.h"
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
std::cout << "hello\n";
hs_init(&argc, &argv);
std::cout << foo(500) << "\n";
hs_exit();
return 0;
}
I did the compiles & linking on my Windows machine. The commands to run (in this order) are:
>ghc -XForeignFunctionInterface -c M.hs
>g++ -c test.cpp -I"c:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2010.2.0.0\lib\include"
>g++ -o test.exe -DDONT_WANT_WIN32_DLL_SUPPORT M.o M_stub.o test.o -L"C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2010.2.0.0\lib\haskell98-1.0.1.1" -L"C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2010.2.0.0\lib\random-1.0.0.2" -L"C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2010.2.0.0\lib\time-1.1.4" -L"C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2010.2.0.0\lib\process-1.0.1.3" -L"C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2010.2.0.0\lib\directory-1.0.1.1" -L"C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2010.2.0.0\lib\old-time-1.0.0.5" -L"C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2010.2.0.0\lib\old-locale-1.0.0.2" -L"C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2010.2.0.0\lib\filepath-1.1.0.4" -L"C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2010.2.0.0\lib\Win32-2.2.0.2" -L"C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2010.2.0.0\lib\bytestring-0.9.1.7" -L"C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2010.2.0.0\lib\array-0.3.0.1" -L"C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2010.2.0.0\lib\base-4.2.0.2" -L"C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2010.2.0.0\lib\integer-gmp-0.2.0.1" -L"C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2010.2.0.0\lib\ghc-prim-0.2.0.0" -L"C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2010.2.0.0\lib" -L"C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2010.2.0.0\lib/gcc-lib" -lHSrtsmain -lHShaskell98-1.0.1.1 -lHSrandom-1.0.0.2 -lHStime-1.1.4 -lHSprocess-1.0.1.3 -lHSdirectory-1.0.1.1 -lHSold-time-1.0.0.5 -lHSold-locale-1.0.0.2 -lHSfilepath-1.1.0.4 -lHSWin32-2.2.0.2 -luser32 -lgdi32 -lwinmm -ladvapi32 -lshell32 -lshfolder -lHSbytestring-0.9.1.7 -lHSarray-0.3.0.1 -lHSbase-4.2.0.2 -lwsock32 -luser32 -lshell32 -lHSinteger-gmp-0.2.0.1 -lHSghc-prim-0.2.0.0 -lHSrts -lm -lwsock32 -u _ghczmprim_GHCziTypes_Izh_static_info -u _ghczmprim_GHCziTypes_Czh_static_info -u _ghczmprim_GHCziTypes_Fzh_static_info -u _ghczmprim_GHCziTypes_Dzh_static_info -u _base_GHCziPtr_Ptr_static_info -u _base_GHCziWord_Wzh_static_info -u _base_GHCziInt_I8zh_static_info -u _base_GHCziInt_I16zh_static_info -u _base_GHCziInt_I32zh_static_info -u _base_GHCziInt_I64zh_static_info -u _base_GHCziWord_W8zh_static_info -u _base_GHCziWord_W16zh_static_info -u _base_GHCziWord_W32zh_static_info -u _base_GHCziWord_W64zh_static_info -u _base_GHCziStable_StablePtr_static_info -u _ghczmprim_GHCziTypes_Izh_con_info -u _ghczmprim_GHCziTypes_Czh_con_info -u _ghczmprim_GHCziTypes_Fzh_con_info -u _ghczmprim_GHCziTypes_Dzh_con_info -u _base_GHCziPtr_Ptr_con_info -u _base_GHCziPtr_FunPtr_con_info -u _base_GHCziStable_StablePtr_con_info -u _ghczmprim_GHCziBool_False_closure -u _ghczmprim_GHCziBool_True_closure -u _base_GHCziPack_unpackCString_closure -u _base_GHCziIOziException_stackOverflow_closure -u _base_GHCziIOziException_heapOverflow_closure -u _base_ControlziExceptionziBase_nonTermination_closure -u _base_GHCziIOziException_blockedIndefinitelyOnMVar_closure -u _base_GHCziIOziException_blockedIndefinitelyOnSTM_closure -u _base_ControlziExceptionziBase_nestedAtomically_closure -u _base_GHCziWeak_runFinalizzerBatch_closure -u _base_GHCziTopHandler_runIO_closure -u _base_GHCziTopHandler_runNonIO_closure -u _base_GHCziConc_ensureIOManagerIsRunning_closure -u _base_GHCziConc_runSparks_closure -u _base_GHCziConc_runHandlers_closure -lHSffi
The long list of parameters for the last g++ command is from running
>ghc M.hs -v
and then copying the command where it says "***Linker:" (some of the first parameters need to be removed).
The result:
>test
hello
22
Solution 2:
Edit: You should also see Tomer's answer below. My answer here describes the theory of what's going on, but I may have some of the details of execution incomplete, whereas his answer is a complete working example.
As sclv indicates, compiling should be no problem. The difficulty there is likely to be linking the C++ code, and here you will have a little bit of difficulty with getting all the needed runtime libraries linked in. The problem is that Haskell programs need to be linked with the Haskell runtime libraries, and C++ programs need to be linked with the C++ runtime libraries. In the Wiki page you reference, when they do
$ ghc -optc -O test.c A.o A_stub.o -o test
to compile the C program, that actually does two steps: It compiles the C program into an object file, and then links it together. Written out, that would be something like (probably not quite right, as I don't speak GHC):
$ ghc -c -optc-O test.c -o test.o
$ ghc test.o A.o A_stub.o -o test
GHC just acts like GCC (and, IIUC, functionally is GCC) when compiling the C program. When linking it, however, it is different from what happens if you call GCC directly, because it also magically includes the Haskell runtime libraries. G++ works the same way for C++ programs -- when it's used as a linker, it includes the C++ runtime libraries.
So, as I mentioned, you need to compile in a way that links with both runtime libraries. If you run G++ in verbose mode to compile and link a program, like so:
$ g++ test.cpp -o test -v
it will create a long list of output about what it's doing; at the end will be a line of output where it does the linking (with the collect2 subprogram) indicating what libraries it links to. You can compare that to the output for compiling a simple C program to see what's different for C++; on my system, it adds -lstdc++.
Thus, you should be able to compile and link your mixed Haskell/C++ program like so:
$ ghc -c -XForeignFunctionInterface -O A.hs # compile Haskell object file.
$ g++ -c -O test.cpp # compile C++ object file.
$ ghc A.o A_stub.o test.o -lstdc++ -o test # link
There, because you've specified -lstdc++, it will include the C++ runtime library (assuming -l is the right GHC syntax; you'll need to check), and because you've linked with ghc, it will include the Haskell runtime library. This should result in a working program.
Alternately, you should be able to do something similar to the -v output investigation with GHC, and figure out what Haskell runtime library (or libraries) it links to for Haskell support, and then add that library when linking your program with C++, just as you already do for pure C++ programs. (See Tomer's answer for details of that, since that's what he did.)
Solution 3:
This is a tutorial on the topic:
https://github.com/jarrett/cpphs
It covers calling Haskell from C++ and calling C from Haskell.