Compiling GHC 7.2+ on Linux with libc version < 2.7

Question

I will like to install GHC 7.2.2 on a Redhat x86_64 (RHEL v5) server at work (in my user account. I don't have root access). I downloaded the generic binary for Linux x86_64 from GHC download page. But, when I run configure, it throws glibc version exception for ghc-pwd since the glibc version on Linux is 2.6. The required glibc version is 2.7.

I googled around but didn't find any pre-configured GHC binaries for Redhat 5. I will appreciate pointers on how to work around the glibc version issue if any one has figured it out for RHEL 5 (or any Linux flavor if the workaround is general). Alternatively, if there are zipped binaries for Redhat x86_64 available somewhere, I can download and unzip them, if you point me to them. Otherwise it looks like I am stuck with GHC 6.12 at work.

Answer 1

I built ghc 7.4.1 on stock RHEL 5.3, by starting with a binary build of ghc 6.6 or 6.8 (forget which one) which ran fine on the platform. Then I used that to build ghc 6.12 from source, and then used 6.12 to build 7.4.1 from source. Had to use gcc 4.3 to build 7.4.1, but that's fine as gcc 4.3 is available on RHEL 5.3.

It's not much work, just a fair amount of time for all the builds to complete.

Answer 2

I had a similar problem, so I compile ghc myself. Doing so is non-trivial because you need newer binutils and gcc. But t can be done (all in user-land).

Answer 3

GHC needs a GHC binary available to compile itself. There are precompiled GHC binaries available, but they have been built against newer glibc versions

RHEL 5 has glibc 2.5, so you can use GHC 6.8 and bootstrap from there. Generally GHC can be bootstrapped with $VERSION-2 or newer (the precise version is documented with the source downloads).

You will also need a newer version of gcc. @alex-iliev suggests that gcc 4.3 is sufficient, which is available on RHEL 5. Your alternative is to use Gentoo Prefix to install an up-to-date gcc.

Download and install the precompiled 6.8 in a directory:

wget http://www.haskell.org/ghc/dist/6.8.3/ghc-6.8.3-x86_64-unknown-linux.tar.bz2
bunzip2 ghc-6.8.3-x86_64-unknown-linux.tar.bz2 
tar -xf ghc-6.8.3-x86_64-unknown-linux.tar 
cd ghc-6.8.3
mkdir ~/ghc_bootstrap_6_8
./configure --prefix=/home/wilfred/ghc_bootstrap_6_8/
make install

Compile 6.12:

wget http://www.haskell.org/ghc/dist/6.12.3/ghc-6.12.3-src.tar.bz2
bunzip2 ghc-6.12.3-src.tar.bz2 
tar -xf ghc-6.12.3-src.tar 
cd ghc-6.12.3
mkdir ~/ghc_bootstrap_6_12
PATH=/home/wilfred/ghc_bootstrap_6_8/bin:$PATH ./configure --prefix=/home/wilfred/ghc_bootstrap_6_12/
make
make install

Compiling 7.2 and 7.6 is the same process as 6.12. Compiling can take several hours so you may want to look at quick builds (although you'll want a normal build for the final GHC version).

If you do go down the Gentoo Prefix root, just bootstrap your way to GHC 7.2. You can then modify $EPREFIX/usr/portage/eclass/ghc-package.eclass to add the line:

PATH=/home/wilfred/ghc_bootstrap_7_2/bin:$PATH

then simply add ghcbootstrap to your USE flags and:

emerge --nodeps ghc