Is it possible to generate and run TemplateHaskell generated code at runtime?
Using C, at runtime, I can:
Is a similar thing possible with Template Haskell?
Yes, it's possible. The GHC API will compile Template Haskell. A proof-of-concept is available at https://github.com/JohnLato/meta-th, which, although not very sophisticated, shows one general technique that even provides a modicum of type safety. Template Haskell expressions are build using the Meta
type, which can then be compiled and loaded into a usable function.
{-# LANGUAGE ScopedTypeVariables #-}
{-# LANGUAGE TemplateHaskell #-}
{-# OPTIONS_GHC -Wall #-}
module Data.Meta.Meta (
-- * Meta type
Meta (..)
-- * Functions
, metaCompile
) where
import Language.Haskell.TH
import Data.Typeable as Typ
import Control.Exception (bracket)
import System.Plugins -- from plugins
import System.IO
import System.Directory
newtype Meta a = Meta { unMeta :: ExpQ }
-- | Super-dodgy for the moment, the Meta type should register the
-- imports it needs.
metaCompile :: forall a. Typeable a => Meta a -> IO (Either String a)
metaCompile (Meta expr) = do
expr' <- runQ expr
-- pretty-print the TH expression as source code to be compiled at
-- run-time
let interpStr = pprint expr'
typeTypeRep = Typ.typeOf (undefined :: a)
let opener = do
(tfile, h) <- openTempFile "." "fooTmpFile.hs"
hPutStr h (unlines
[ "module TempMod where"
, "import Prelude"
, "import Language.Haskell.TH"
, "import GHC.Num"
, "import GHC.Base"
, ""
, "myFunc :: " ++ show typeTypeRep
, "myFunc = " ++ interpStr] )
hFlush h
hClose h
return tfile
bracket opener removeFile $ \tfile -> do
res <- make tfile ["-O2", "-ddump-simpl"]
let ofile = case res of
MakeSuccess _ fp -> fp
MakeFailure errs -> error $ show errs
print $ "loading from: " ++ show ofile
r2 <- load (ofile) [] [] "myFunc"
print "loaded"
case r2 of
LoadFailure er -> return (Left (show er))
LoadSuccess _ (fn :: a) -> return $ Right fn
This function takes an ExpQ
, and first runs it in IO to create a plain Exp
. The Exp
is then pretty-printed into source code, which is compiled and loaded at run-time. In practice, I've found that one of the more difficult obstacles is specifying the correct imports in the generated TH code.
From what I understand you want to create and run a code at runtime which I think you can do using GHC API but I am not very sure of the scope of what you can achieve. If you want something like hot code swapping you can look at the package hotswap.
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