shake-0.15.5: Build system library, like Make, but more accurate dependencies.

Safe HaskellNone




This module is used for defining new types of rules for Shake build systems. Most users will find the built-in set of rules sufficient.



type ShakeValue a = (Show a, Typeable a, Eq a, Hashable a, Binary a, NFData a) Source

Define an alias for the six type classes required for things involved in Shake Rules. This alias is only available in GHC 7.4 and above, and requires the ConstraintKinds extension.

To define your own values meeting the necessary constraints it is convenient to use the extensions GeneralizedNewtypeDeriving and DeriveDataTypeable to write:

newtype MyType = MyType (String, Bool) deriving (Show,Typeable,Eq,Hashable,Binary,NFData)

class (ShakeValue key, ShakeValue value) => Rule key value where Source

Define a pair of types that can be used by Shake rules. To import all the type classes required see Development.Shake.Classes.

A Rule instance for a class of artifacts (e.g. files) provides:

  • How to identify individual artifacts, given by the key type, e.g. with file names.
  • How to describe the state of an artifact, given by the value type, e.g. the file modification time.
  • A way to compare two states of the same individual artifact, with equalValue returning either EqualCheap or NotEqual.
  • A way to query the current state of an artifact, with storedValue returning the current state, or Nothing if there is no current state (e.g. the file does not exist).

Checking if an artifact needs to be built consists of comparing two values of the same key with equalValue. The first value is obtained by applying storedValue to the key and the second is the value stored in the build database after the last successful build.

As an example, below is a simplified rule for building files, where files are identified by a FilePath and their state is identified by a hash of their contents (the builtin functions need and %> provide a similar rule).

newtype File = File FilePath deriving (Show, Typeable, Eq, Hashable, Binary, NFData)
newtype Modtime = Modtime Double deriving (Show, Typeable, Eq, Hashable, Binary, NFData)
getFileModtime file = ...

instance Rule File Modtime where
    storedValue _ (File x) = do
        exists <- System.Directory.doesFileExist x
        if exists then Just <$> getFileModtime x else return Nothing
    equalValue _ _ t1 t2 =
        if t1 == t2 then EqualCheap else NotEqual

This example instance means:

  • A value of type File uniquely identifies a generated file.
  • A value of type Modtime will be used to check if a file is up-to-date.

It is important to distinguish Rule instances from actual rules. Rule instances are one component required for the creation of rules. Actual rules are functions from a key to an Action; they are added to Rules using the rule function.

A rule can be created for the instance above with:

-- Compile foo files; for every foo output file there must be a
-- single input file named "".
compileFoo :: Rules ()
compileFoo = rule (Just . compile)
        compile :: File -> Action Modtime
        compile (File outputFile) = do
            -- figure out the name of the input file
            let inputFile = outputFile <.> "foo"
            unit $ cmd "fooCC" inputFile outputFile
            -- return the (new) file modtime of the output file:
            getFileModtime outputFile

Note: In this example, the timestamps of the input files are never used, let alone compared to the timestamps of the ouput files. Dependencies between output and input files are not expressed by Rule instances. Dependencies are created automatically by apply.

For rules whose values are not stored externally, storedValue should return Just with a sentinel value and equalValue should always return EqualCheap for that sentinel.

Minimal complete definition



storedValue :: ShakeOptions -> key -> IO (Maybe value) Source

[Required] Retrieve the value associated with a key, if available.

As an example for filenames/timestamps, if the file exists you should return Just the timestamp, but otherwise return Nothing.

equalValue :: ShakeOptions -> key -> value -> value -> EqualCost Source

[Optional] Equality check, with a notion of how expensive the check was.

data EqualCost Source

An equality check and a cost.



The equality check was cheap.


The equality check was expensive, as the results are not trivially equal.


The values are not equal.


Add a rule to build a key, returning an appropriate Action. All rules at a given priority must be disjoint. Rules have priority 1 by default, but can be modified with priority.


Execute a rule, returning the associated values. If possible, the rules will be run in parallel. This function requires that appropriate rules have been added with rule. All key values passed to apply become dependencies of the Action.

apply1 :: Rule key value => key -> Action value Source


trackUse :: ShakeValue key => key -> Action () Source

Track that a key has been used by the action preceeding it.

trackChange :: ShakeValue key => key -> Action () Source

Track that a key has been changed by the action preceeding it.

trackAllow :: ShakeValue key => (key -> Bool) -> Action () Source

Allow any matching key to violate the tracking rules.



Deprecated: Use rule with priority 0

A deprecated way of defining a low priority rule. Defined as:

defaultRule = priority 0 . rule