The source distribution needs an installed GHC 4.08.X, 5.X or 6.X to build. If there isn't a binary distribution for your platform (any version), then you'll need to consult the section on Porting GHC in the Building Guide.

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 (usually /usr or /usr/local), then you'll need to use the .tar.bz2 binary bundle.

Source Distribution

ghc-6.0-src.tar.bz2 (5 Mb).

x86/Linux

RPMs for RedHat Linux/x86 9.0 (reported to also work with RedHat 8.0) from Jens Petersen.

Debian packages:
- DEBs for x86 Debian GNU/Linux are included in the archive for the testing and unstable distributions; just apt-get install ghc6 ghc6-prof ghc6-doc. There are also ghc6-hopengl, ghc6-threaded-rts and ghc6-libsrc packages.
- The stable distribution predates this release, but packages are available in the "Haskell Experimental" repository. To use it add this line to /etc/apt/sources.list:
```
  deb http://www.syntaxpolice.org/haskell-experimental/ stable/
  
```
  Then run apt-get update and install in the same way as for testing/unstable.
The Debian packages are maintained by Ian Lynagh.

Binary tar for Linux/x86 with glibc 2.2 (a complete build, including interactive system, profiling libraries and documentation): .tar.bz2 (12.7 Mb). This build was done on a RedHat 7.2 box.
NOTE: you need the following libraries to use this distribution: libreadline.so.4, libncurses.so.5. These come as standard on RedHat 7.2, at least.

Sparc/Solaris

NOTE: you must use GCC 2.95 on Sparc. There is a known bug with GCC 3.0 and later which causes incorrect code to be generated.

ghc-6.0-sparc-sun-solaris2.tar.bz2 (19.5 Mb)

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

NOTE: you'll need libncurses.so.5. You should ensure you have this before you start, since without it GHC won't work at all. Grab the ncurses sources from GNU and build it if you don't have it.

Windows

ghc-6-0.msi (~35 Mb)

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.

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.

x86/FreeBSD

GHC is in the FreeBSD ports tree as lang/ghc6.

To install a binary package, try pkg_add -r ghc6 provided the package exists on whatever mirror site your system is set up to use.

To install from source instead, make sure your copy of /usr/ports is up to date, and say cd /usr/ports/lang/ghc6 && make install.

x86/OpenBSD

ghc-6.0-i386-unknown-openbsd.tar.bz2 (.tar.bz2 binary package, for OpenBSD 3.3)

Note: -current post-ELF users: GHC is now in the OpenBSD ports tree, and in future will be distributed via the ports system.

OpenBSD binaries are prepared by Don Stewart.

MacOS X 10.2 (Jaguar)

GHC.6.0.dmg

It's a double-clickable disk image containing an Apple Installer Package (.pkg). It includes profiling & GHCi, but no documentation (use the online docs for now). GHCi is now statically linked with Readline, but the readline library itself is not included, so you will have to install that seperately if you link anything with -package util.

MacOS X packages were prepared by Wolfgang Thaller.