6.1.1. Controlling extensions

Language extensions can be controlled (i.e. allowed or not) in two ways:

  • Every language extension can be switched on by a command-line flag “-X...” (e.g. -XTemplateHaskell), and switched off by the flag “-XNo...”; (e.g. -XNoTemplateHaskell).
  • Language extensions can also be enabled using the LANGUAGE pragma, thus {-# LANGUAGE TemplateHaskell #-} (see LANGUAGE pragma).
Haskell2010

Compile Haskell 2010 language variant. Enables the following language extensions:

Haskell98

Compile using Haskell 98 language variant. Enables the following language extensions:

Although not recommended, the deprecated -fglasgow-exts flag enables a large swath of the extensions supported by GHC at once.

-fglasgow-exts

The flag -fglasgow-exts is equivalent to enabling the following extensions:

Enabling these options is the only effect of -fglasgow-exts. We are trying to move away from this portmanteau flag, and towards enabling features individually.