Version 6.6 (released 11 October 2006)

Online Docs

Source Distribution

The source distribution needs an installed GHC (version 5.04 at least). If your platform isn't currently supported with a binary distribution, then you'll need to consult the section on Porting GHC in the Building Guide.

Binary Packages

The OS-specific packages (eg. RPMs on Linux) are generally a better bet than the vanilla .tar.bz2 binary bundles, because they will check for dependencies and allow the package to be uninstalled at a later date.

However, if you don't have permission to install binaries on your system, or you want to install somewhere other than the default place (/usr or /usr/local on a Unix system), then you'll need to use a .tar.bz2 binary bundle.

Available binary distributions:


Linux (x86)


Linux (x86_64)

  • Debian: see below.
  • Generic .tar.bz2 binary bundle. This was built on Fedora FC5, your mileage may vary. It is a complete build, including interactive system, profiling libraries and documentation.
  • RPMs for openSUSE Linux/x86_64 10.1 from Sven Panne:
  • RPMs for openSUSE Linux/x86_64 10.1, 10.0, 9.3 and the current Factory version have been made available by Herbert Graeber here.

Sparc/Solaris

This is a complete build, with profiling libraries and docs. The build was done (using GCC 4.0.3) on Solaris 8, but was also tested under Solaris 10.

There may be problems with gcc-3.4.x; see #951 for details.

NOTE: you'll need libm.so.2, libreadline.so.5, libncurses.so.5, and libgmp.so.3. You should ensure you have these before you start, since without them GHC won't work at all. Grab the ncurses and readline sources from GNU and build them if you don't have them.

Sparc/Solaris distributions were built by Christian Maeder.


x86/Solaris

This is a complete build, with profiling libraries and docs, for Solaris 10.

x86/Solaris distributions were built by Christian Maeder.


Windows (x86) (standalone)

This is a Windows Installer for Microsoft Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 and XP, prepared by Sigbjorn Finne. It's a complete build, as above.

Note: there are known issues under Windows Vista, please see bug #1110.

This installer relies on the Windows Installer runtime to operate. If, after having downloaded the above file, double-clicking on the MSI file doesn't start up the installer, the likely cause is that you don't have the Windows Installer runtime installed on your machine. You can download it from Microsoft:

Install the appropriate version, then double-click again on the MSI file.

If just want the files, a .zip bundle is also provided: ghc-6-6.zip. Just for fun, and at nearly half the size, a 7-zip version is also provided as ghc-6-6.7z


Windows (x86) (Visual Studio version)

Visual Haskell is a Visual Studio extension for Haskell, which comes with a complete GHC installation. Note: Visual Haskell currently does not work under Windows Vista.


Debian: alpha, amd64, arm, hppa, i386, ia64, m68k, mips, mipsel, powerpc, s390, sparc

All these platforms have ghc6 packages in testing and unstable in the main Debian archive. Only x86 and sparc are registerised. Use "apt-get update; apt-get install ghc6 ghc6-prof ghc6-doc" to install them; you can also get the library sources in the ghc6-libsrc package.

The extralibs, as well as various other libraries, are available as libghc6-library-dev. You may also need libghc6-library-prof if you want the profiling version, but often this is included in the main package.

The Debian packages are maintained by Ian Lynagh.


MacOS X 10.3 & 10.4 (using MacPorts)

GHC 6.6 is now available for OS X via the MacPorts system.

The compiler is built from source, using a binary bootstrap compiler. Both 10.3 (Panther) and 10.4 (Tiger) are supported. Both PowerPC and Intel architectures are supported.

For more information on MacPorts, see: http://www.macports.org

The MacPorts GHC package was prepared by Gregory Wright.


MacOS X 10.4 (Tiger) PowerPC

This is a standard unix-style binary package with GHCi and profiling libraries. It requires Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger). This build has a post-install script that fixes readline and runs "ranlib" for you, so there's no manual tweaking involved.

This package was prepared by Greg Heartsfield.

Due to bugs in older versions of gcc, we recommend you use at least gcc 3.3.1.


MacOS X 10.4 (Tiger) Intel

This is a standard unix-style binary package with GHCi and profiling libraries. It requires Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger). This build has a post-install script that fixes readline, installs GMP.framework, and runs "ranlib" for you, so there's no manual tweaking involved.

This package was prepared by Audrey Tang.