The (batch) compilation system components

The Glorious Haskell Compilation System, as with most UNIX (batch) compilation systems, has several interacting parts:

1. A driver `ghc' -- which you usually think of as "the compiler" -- is a program that merely invokes/glues-together the other pieces of the system (listed below), passing the right options to each, slurping in the right libraries, etc.
2. A literate pre-processor `unlit' that extracts Haskell code from a literate script; used if you believe in that sort of thing.
3. The Haskellised C pre-processor `hscpp', only needed by people requiring conditional compilation, probably for large systems. The "Haskellised" part just means that `#line' directives in the output have been converted into proper Haskell `{-# LINE ... -}' pragmas. You must give an explicit `-cpp' option for the C pre-processor to be invoked.
4. The Haskell compiler `hsc', which -- in normal use -- takes its input from the C pre-processor and produces assembly-language output (sometimes: ANSI C output).
5. The ANSI C Haskell high-level assembler :-) compiles `hsc''s C output into assembly language for a particular target architecture. (It doesn't have to be an ANSI C compiler, but that's preferred; to go fastest, you need GNU C, version 2.x.)
6. The assembler -- a standard UNIX one, probably `as'.
7. The linker -- a standard UNIX one, probably `ld'.
8. A runtime system, including (most notably) a storage manager; the linker links in the code for this.
9. The Haskell standard prelude, a large library of standard functions, is linked in as well.
10. Parts of other installed libraries that you have at your site may be linked in also.