Getting Started


  • Language.C exports the stable, common modules of the Language.C library

  • Language.C.Data exports common datatypes representing identifiers, source code location etc.

  • Language.C.AST contains the definitions for the abstract syntax tree

  • Language.C.Parser provides functionality to parse preprocessed C source files

  • Language.C.Pretty adds support for pretty printing AST nodes
  • Language.C.System can be used to invoke external preprocessors / compilers
  • [EXPERIMENTAL] Language.C.Analysis helps to analyze C sources

Preprocessing, Parsing and Pretty Printing

To preprocess, parse and then pretty-print a file proceed as follows.

Import the Language.C library

module Main where
import Language.C
import Language.C.System.GCC   -- preprocessor used
main = parseMyFile "test.c" >>= printMyAST

Parse a file using parseCFile

parseMyFile :: FilePath -> IO CTranslUnit
parseMyFile input_file =
  do parse_result <- parseCFile (newGCC "gcc") Nothing [] input_file
     case parse_result of
       Left parse_err -> error (show parse_err)
       Right ast      -> return ast

Pretty print the AST

printMyAST :: CTranslUnit -> IO ()
printMyAST ctu = (print . pretty) ctu


When in doubt, consult the API documentation.

In general, every AST node type is an instance of CNode, which allows the user to retrieve the source code location and a unique identifier for that node.

While expressions and statements are rather easy to understand (from a syntactic point of view), declarations are a bit tricky. Here's an example:

AST of Declarations: An example

Consider the declaration

static int *x,
           __attribute__((deprecated)) y = 0,

This source block declares two objects (x of type pointer to int and y of type int, the latter being deprecated and initialized to 0) and one function prototype (f of type function taking a unspecified number of arguments and returning a pointer to int).


static is a storage specifier and the leftmost int is a type specifier. They both apply to all of the declared objects.

decl = CDecl [CStorageSpec [CStatic _], CTypeSpec [CInt _]] [declr1, declr2, declr3] _


The declarator for x has no initializer or bitfield. It specifies one pointer type derivation, i.e. int becomes pointer to int.

declr1 = (Just (CDeclr (Just "x") [CPtrDeclr _ _] _ _ _), _, _)

The declarator for y has an initializer and an attribute, but no type derivations

declr2 = (Just (CDeclr (Just "y") [] _ [deprecated] _), Just 0, _)

Finally, the declarator for f specifes a function type derivation and a pointer type derivation, i.e. int becomes function returning pointer to int.

declr3 = (Just (CDecr (Just "f") [fun_deriv, CPtrDeclr _ _] _ _ _), _ _)
fun_deriv = CFunDeclr (Right ([],False)) [] _

This formal approach to C's syntax takes a while to adopt to, but it turns out to be an accurate model.


The analysis module is still under development, though it already does some useful things. See project status? for the current status of the analysis.

Last modified 7 years ago Last modified on Dec 19, 2009, 11:37:22 PM