os-string-2.0.7: Library for manipulating Operating system strings.
Copyright© 2021 Julian Ospald
LicenseMIT
MaintainerJulian Ospald <hasufell@posteo.de>
Stabilityexperimental
Portabilityportable
Safe HaskellNone
LanguageHaskell2010

System.OsString

Description

An implementation of platform specific short OsString, which is:

  1. on windows wide char bytes ([Word16])
  2. on unix char bytes ([Word8])

It captures the notion of syscall specific encoding (or the lack thereof) to avoid roundtrip issues and memory fragmentation by using unpinned byte arrays. Bytes are not touched or interpreted.

Synopsis

String types

data OsString Source #

Newtype representing short operating system specific strings.

Internally this is either WindowsString or PosixString, depending on the platform. Both use unpinned ShortByteString for efficiency.

The constructor is only exported via System.OsString.Internal.Types, since dealing with the internals isn't generally recommended, but supported in case you need to write platform specific code.

Instances

Instances details
NFData OsString Source # 
Instance details

Defined in System.OsString.Internal.Types

Methods

rnf :: OsString -> () Source #

Monoid OsString Source #

"String-Concatenation" for OsString. This is not the same as (</>).

Instance details

Defined in System.OsString.Internal.Types

Semigroup OsString Source # 
Instance details

Defined in System.OsString.Internal.Types

Generic OsString Source # 
Instance details

Defined in System.OsString.Internal.Types

Associated Types

type Rep OsString 
Instance details

Defined in System.OsString.Internal.Types

type Rep OsString = D1 ('MetaData "OsString" "System.OsString.Internal.Types" "os-string-2.0.7-3f43" 'True) (C1 ('MetaCons "OsString" 'PrefixI 'True) (S1 ('MetaSel ('Just "getOsString") 'NoSourceUnpackedness 'NoSourceStrictness 'DecidedLazy) (Rec0 PlatformString)))

Methods

from :: OsString -> Rep OsString x #

to :: Rep OsString x -> OsString #

Show OsString Source #

On windows, decodes as UCS-2. On unix prints the raw bytes without decoding.

Instance details

Defined in System.OsString.Internal.Types

Eq OsString Source #

Byte equality of the internal representation.

Instance details

Defined in System.OsString.Internal.Types

Ord OsString Source #

Byte ordering of the internal representation.

Instance details

Defined in System.OsString.Internal.Types

Lift OsString Source # 
Instance details

Defined in System.OsString.Internal.Types

Methods

lift :: Quote m => OsString -> m Exp #

liftTyped :: forall (m :: Type -> Type). Quote m => OsString -> Code m OsString #

type Rep OsString Source # 
Instance details

Defined in System.OsString.Internal.Types

type Rep OsString = D1 ('MetaData "OsString" "System.OsString.Internal.Types" "os-string-2.0.7-3f43" 'True) (C1 ('MetaCons "OsString" 'PrefixI 'True) (S1 ('MetaSel ('Just "getOsString") 'NoSourceUnpackedness 'NoSourceStrictness 'DecidedLazy) (Rec0 PlatformString)))

OsString construction

encodeUtf :: MonadThrow m => String -> m OsString Source #

Partial unicode friendly encoding.

On windows this encodes as UTF16-LE (strictly), which is a pretty good guess. On unix this encodes as UTF8 (strictly), which is a good guess.

Throws an EncodingException if encoding fails. If the input does not contain surrogate chars, you can use unsafeEncodeUtf.

unsafeEncodeUtf :: HasCallStack => String -> OsString Source #

Unsafe unicode friendly encoding.

Like encodeUtf, except it crashes when the input contains surrogate chars. For sanitized input, this can be useful.

encodeWith Source #

Arguments

:: TextEncoding

unix text encoding

-> TextEncoding

windows text encoding (wide char)

-> String 
-> Either EncodingException OsString 

Encode a FilePath with the specified encoding.

Note: on windows, we expect a "wide char" encoding (e.g. UCS-2 or UTF-16). Anything that works with Word16 boundaries. Picking an incompatible encoding may crash filepath operations.

encodeFS :: String -> IO OsString Source #

Deprecated: Use System.OsPath.encodeFS from filepath

Like encodeUtf, except this mimics the behavior of the base library when doing filesystem operations (usually filepaths), which is:

  1. on unix, uses shady PEP 383 style encoding (based on the current locale, but PEP 383 only works properly on UTF-8 encodings, so good luck)
  2. on windows does permissive UTF-16 encoding, where coding errors generate Chars in the surrogate range

Looking up the locale requires IO. If you're not worried about calls to setFileSystemEncoding, then unsafePerformIO may be feasible (make sure to deeply evaluate the result to catch exceptions).

encodeLE :: String -> IO OsString Source #

Like encodeUtf, except this mimics the behavior of the base library when doing string operations, which is:

  1. on unix this uses getLocaleEncoding
  2. on windows does permissive UTF-16 encoding, where coding errors generate Chars in the surrogate range

Looking up the locale requires IO. If you're not worried about calls to setFileSystemEncoding, then unsafePerformIO may be feasible (make sure to deeply evaluate the result to catch exceptions).

osstr :: QuasiQuoter Source #

QuasiQuote an OsString. This accepts Unicode characters and encodes as UTF-8 on unix and UTF-16 on windows. If used as pattern, requires turning on the ViewPatterns extension.

pack :: [OsChar] -> OsString Source #

Pack a list of OsChar to an OsString

Note that using this in conjunction with unsafeFromChar to convert from [Char] to OsString is probably not what you want, because it will truncate unicode code points.

OsString deconstruction

decodeUtf :: MonadThrow m => OsString -> m String Source #

Partial unicode friendly decoding.

On windows this decodes as UTF16-LE (strictly), which is a pretty good guess. On unix this decodes as UTF8 (strictly), which is a good guess. Note that filenames on unix are encoding agnostic char arrays.

Throws a EncodingException if decoding fails.

decodeWith Source #

Arguments

:: TextEncoding

unix text encoding

-> TextEncoding

windows text encoding

-> OsString 
-> Either EncodingException String 

Decode an OsString with the specified encoding.

The String is forced into memory to catch all exceptions.

decodeFS :: OsString -> IO String Source #

Deprecated: Use System.OsPath.encodeFS from filepath

Like decodeUtf, except this mimics the behavior of the base library when doing filesystem operations (usually filepaths), which is:

  1. on unix, uses shady PEP 383 style encoding (based on the current locale, but PEP 383 only works properly on UTF-8 encodings, so good luck)
  2. on windows does permissive UTF-16 encoding, where coding errors generate Chars in the surrogate range

Looking up the locale requires IO. If you're not worried about calls to setFileSystemEncoding, then unsafePerformIO may be feasible (make sure to deeply evaluate the result to catch exceptions).

decodeLE :: OsString -> IO String Source #

Like decodeUtf, except this mimics the behavior of the base library when doing string operations, which is:

  1. on unix this uses getLocaleEncoding
  2. on windows does permissive UTF-16 encoding, where coding errors generate Chars in the surrogate range

Looking up the locale requires IO. If you're not worried about calls to setFileSystemEncoding, then unsafePerformIO may be feasible (make sure to deeply evaluate the result to catch exceptions).

unpack :: OsString -> [OsChar] Source #

Unpack an OsString to a list of OsChar.

Word types

data OsChar Source #

Newtype representing a code unit.

On Windows, this is restricted to two-octet codepoints Word16, on POSIX one-octet (Word8).

Instances

Instances details
NFData OsChar Source # 
Instance details

Defined in System.OsString.Internal.Types

Methods

rnf :: OsChar -> () Source #

Generic OsChar Source # 
Instance details

Defined in System.OsString.Internal.Types

Associated Types

type Rep OsChar 
Instance details

Defined in System.OsString.Internal.Types

type Rep OsChar = D1 ('MetaData "OsChar" "System.OsString.Internal.Types" "os-string-2.0.7-3f43" 'True) (C1 ('MetaCons "OsChar" 'PrefixI 'True) (S1 ('MetaSel ('Just "getOsChar") 'NoSourceUnpackedness 'NoSourceStrictness 'DecidedLazy) (Rec0 PlatformChar)))

Methods

from :: OsChar -> Rep OsChar x #

to :: Rep OsChar x -> OsChar #

Show OsChar Source # 
Instance details

Defined in System.OsString.Internal.Types

Eq OsChar Source #

Byte equality of the internal representation.

Instance details

Defined in System.OsString.Internal.Types

Methods

(==) :: OsChar -> OsChar -> Bool #

(/=) :: OsChar -> OsChar -> Bool #

Ord OsChar Source #

Byte ordering of the internal representation.

Instance details

Defined in System.OsString.Internal.Types

type Rep OsChar Source # 
Instance details

Defined in System.OsString.Internal.Types

type Rep OsChar = D1 ('MetaData "OsChar" "System.OsString.Internal.Types" "os-string-2.0.7-3f43" 'True) (C1 ('MetaCons "OsChar" 'PrefixI 'True) (S1 ('MetaSel ('Just "getOsChar") 'NoSourceUnpackedness 'NoSourceStrictness 'DecidedLazy) (Rec0 PlatformChar)))

Word construction

unsafeFromChar :: Char -> OsChar Source #

Truncates on unix to 1 and on Windows to 2 octets.

Word deconstruction

toChar :: OsChar -> Char Source #

Converts back to a unicode codepoint (total).

Basic interface

snoc :: OsString -> OsChar -> OsString Source #

O(n) Append a byte to the end of a OsString

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

cons :: OsChar -> OsString -> OsString Source #

O(n) cons is analogous to (:) for lists.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

last :: HasCallStack => OsString -> OsChar Source #

O(1) Extract the last element of a OsString, which must be finite and non-empty. An exception will be thrown in the case of an empty OsString.

This is a partial function, consider using unsnoc instead.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

tail :: HasCallStack => OsString -> OsString Source #

O(n) Extract the elements after the head of a OsString, which must be non-empty. An exception will be thrown in the case of an empty OsString.

This is a partial function, consider using uncons instead.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

uncons :: OsString -> Maybe (OsChar, OsString) Source #

O(n) Extract the head and tail of a OsString, returning Nothing if it is empty.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

head :: HasCallStack => OsString -> OsChar Source #

O(1) Extract the first element of a OsString, which must be non-empty. An exception will be thrown in the case of an empty OsString.

This is a partial function, consider using uncons instead.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

init :: HasCallStack => OsString -> OsString Source #

O(n) Return all the elements of a OsString except the last one. An exception will be thrown in the case of an empty OsString.

This is a partial function, consider using unsnoc instead.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

unsnoc :: OsString -> Maybe (OsString, OsChar) Source #

O(n) Extract the init and last of a OsString, returning Nothing if it is empty.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

null :: OsString -> Bool Source #

O(1) Test whether a OsString is empty.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

length :: OsString -> Int Source #

O(1) The length of a OsString.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

Transforming OsString

map :: (OsChar -> OsChar) -> OsString -> OsString Source #

O(n) map f xs is the OsString obtained by applying f to each element of xs.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

reverse :: OsString -> OsString Source #

O(n) reverse xs efficiently returns the elements of xs in reverse order.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

intercalate :: OsString -> [OsString] -> OsString Source #

O(n) The intercalate function takes a OsString and a list of OsStrings and concatenates the list after interspersing the first argument between each element of the list.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

Reducing OsStrings (folds)

foldl :: (a -> OsChar -> a) -> a -> OsString -> a Source #

foldl, applied to a binary operator, a starting value (typically the left-identity of the operator), and a OsString, reduces the OsString using the binary operator, from left to right.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

foldl' :: (a -> OsChar -> a) -> a -> OsString -> a Source #

foldl' is like foldl, but strict in the accumulator.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

foldl1 :: (OsChar -> OsChar -> OsChar) -> OsString -> OsChar Source #

foldl1 is a variant of foldl that has no starting value argument, and thus must be applied to non-empty OsStrings. An exception will be thrown in the case of an empty OsString.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

foldl1' :: (OsChar -> OsChar -> OsChar) -> OsString -> OsChar Source #

foldl1' is like foldl1, but strict in the accumulator. An exception will be thrown in the case of an empty OsString.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

foldr :: (OsChar -> a -> a) -> a -> OsString -> a Source #

foldr, applied to a binary operator, a starting value (typically the right-identity of the operator), and a OsString, reduces the OsString using the binary operator, from right to left.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

foldr' :: (OsChar -> a -> a) -> a -> OsString -> a Source #

foldr' is like foldr, but strict in the accumulator.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

foldr1 :: (OsChar -> OsChar -> OsChar) -> OsString -> OsChar Source #

foldr1 is a variant of foldr that has no starting value argument, and thus must be applied to non-empty OsStrings An exception will be thrown in the case of an empty OsString.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

foldr1' :: (OsChar -> OsChar -> OsChar) -> OsString -> OsChar Source #

foldr1' is a variant of foldr1, but is strict in the accumulator.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

Special folds

all :: (OsChar -> Bool) -> OsString -> Bool Source #

O(n) Applied to a predicate and a OsString, all determines if all elements of the OsString satisfy the predicate.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

any :: (OsChar -> Bool) -> OsString -> Bool Source #

O(n) Applied to a predicate and a OsString, any determines if any element of the OsString satisfies the predicate.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

Generating and unfolding OsStrings

replicate :: Int -> OsChar -> OsString Source #

O(n) replicate n x is a OsString of length n with x the value of every element. The following holds:

replicate w c = unfoldr w (\u -> Just (u,u)) c

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

unfoldr :: (a -> Maybe (OsChar, a)) -> a -> OsString Source #

O(n), where n is the length of the result. The unfoldr function is analogous to the List 'unfoldr'. unfoldr builds a OsString from a seed value. The function takes the element and returns Nothing if it is done producing the OsString or returns Just (a,b), in which case, a is the next byte in the string, and b is the seed value for further production.

This function is not efficient/safe. It will build a list of [Word8] and run the generator until it returns Nothing, otherwise recurse infinitely, then finally create a OsString.

If you know the maximum length, consider using unfoldrN.

Examples:

   unfoldr (\x -> if x <= 5 then Just (x, x + 1) else Nothing) 0
== pack [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

unfoldrN :: Int -> (a -> Maybe (OsChar, a)) -> a -> (OsString, Maybe a) Source #

O(n) Like unfoldr, unfoldrN builds a OsString from a seed value. However, the length of the result is limited by the first argument to unfoldrN. This function is more efficient than unfoldr when the maximum length of the result is known.

The following equation relates unfoldrN and unfoldr:

fst (unfoldrN n f s) == take n (unfoldr f s)

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

Substrings

Breaking strings

take :: Int -> OsString -> OsString Source #

O(n) take n, applied to a OsString xs, returns the prefix of xs of length n, or xs itself if n > length xs.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

takeEnd :: Int -> OsString -> OsString Source #

O(n) takeEnd n xs is equivalent to drop (length xs - n) xs. Takes n elements from end of bytestring.

>>> takeEnd 3 "abcdefg"
"efg"
>>> takeEnd 0 "abcdefg"
""
>>> takeEnd 4 "abc"
"abc"

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

takeWhileEnd :: (OsChar -> Bool) -> OsString -> OsString Source #

Returns the longest (possibly empty) suffix of elements satisfying the predicate.

takeWhileEnd p is equivalent to reverse . takeWhile p . reverse.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

takeWhile :: (OsChar -> Bool) -> OsString -> OsString Source #

Similar to takeWhile, returns the longest (possibly empty) prefix of elements satisfying the predicate.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

drop :: Int -> OsString -> OsString Source #

O(n) drop n xs returns the suffix of xs after the first n elements, or empty if n > length xs.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

dropEnd :: Int -> OsString -> OsString Source #

O(n) dropEnd n xs is equivalent to take (length xs - n) xs. Drops n elements from end of bytestring.

>>> dropEnd 3 "abcdefg"
"abcd"
>>> dropEnd 0 "abcdefg"
"abcdefg"
>>> dropEnd 4 "abc"
""

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

dropWhileEnd :: (OsChar -> Bool) -> OsString -> OsString Source #

Similar to dropWhileEnd, drops the longest (possibly empty) suffix of elements satisfying the predicate and returns the remainder.

dropWhileEnd p is equivalent to reverse . dropWhile p . reverse.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

dropWhile :: (OsChar -> Bool) -> OsString -> OsString Source #

Similar to dropWhile, drops the longest (possibly empty) prefix of elements satisfying the predicate and returns the remainder.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

break :: (OsChar -> Bool) -> OsString -> (OsString, OsString) Source #

Similar to break, returns the longest (possibly empty) prefix of elements which do not satisfy the predicate and the remainder of the string.

break p is equivalent to span (not . p) and to (takeWhile (not . p) &&& dropWhile (not . p)).

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

breakEnd :: (OsChar -> Bool) -> OsString -> (OsString, OsString) Source #

Returns the longest (possibly empty) suffix of elements which do not satisfy the predicate and the remainder of the string.

breakEnd p is equivalent to spanEnd (not . p) and to (takeWhileEnd (not . p) &&& dropWhileEnd (not . p)).

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

span :: (OsChar -> Bool) -> OsString -> (OsString, OsString) Source #

Similar to span, returns the longest (possibly empty) prefix of elements satisfying the predicate and the remainder of the string.

span p is equivalent to break (not . p) and to (takeWhile p &&& dropWhile p).

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

spanEnd :: (OsChar -> Bool) -> OsString -> (OsString, OsString) Source #

Returns the longest (possibly empty) suffix of elements satisfying the predicate and the remainder of the string.

spanEnd p is equivalent to breakEnd (not . p) and to (takeWhileEnd p &&& dropWhileEnd p).

We have

spanEnd (not . isSpace) "x y z" == ("x y ", "z")

and

spanEnd (not . isSpace) sbs
   ==
let (x, y) = span (not . isSpace) (reverse sbs) in (reverse y, reverse x)

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

splitAt :: Int -> OsString -> (OsString, OsString) Source #

O(n) splitAt n sbs is equivalent to (take n sbs, drop n sbs).

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

split :: OsChar -> OsString -> [OsString] Source #

O(n) Break a OsString into pieces separated by the byte argument, consuming the delimiter. I.e.

split 10  "a\nb\nd\ne" == ["a","b","d","e"]   -- fromEnum '\n' == 10
split 97  "aXaXaXa"    == ["","X","X","X",""] -- fromEnum 'a' == 97
split 120 "x"          == ["",""]             -- fromEnum 'x' == 120
split undefined ""     == []                  -- and not [""]

and

intercalate [c] . split c == id
split == splitWith . (==)

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

splitWith :: (OsChar -> Bool) -> OsString -> [OsString] Source #

O(n) Splits a OsString into components delimited by separators, where the predicate returns True for a separator element. The resulting components do not contain the separators. Two adjacent separators result in an empty component in the output. eg.

splitWith (==97) "aabbaca" == ["","","bb","c",""] -- fromEnum 'a' == 97
splitWith undefined ""     == []                  -- and not [""]

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

stripSuffix :: OsString -> OsString -> Maybe OsString Source #

O(n) The stripSuffix function takes two OsStrings and returns Just the remainder of the second iff the first is its suffix, and otherwise Nothing.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

stripPrefix :: OsString -> OsString -> Maybe OsString Source #

O(n) The stripPrefix function takes two OsStrings and returns Just the remainder of the second iff the first is its prefix, and otherwise Nothing.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

Predicates

isInfixOf :: OsString -> OsString -> Bool Source #

Check whether one string is a substring of another.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

isPrefixOf :: OsString -> OsString -> Bool Source #

O(n) The isPrefixOf function takes two OsStrings and returns True

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

isSuffixOf :: OsString -> OsString -> Bool Source #

O(n) The isSuffixOf function takes two OsStrings and returns True iff the first is a suffix of the second.

The following holds:

isSuffixOf x y == reverse x `isPrefixOf` reverse y

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

Search for arbitrary susbstrings

breakSubstring :: OsString -> OsString -> (OsString, OsString) Source #

Break a string on a substring, returning a pair of the part of the string prior to the match, and the rest of the string.

The following relationships hold:

break (== c) l == breakSubstring (singleton c) l

For example, to tokenise a string, dropping delimiters:

tokenise x y = h : if null t then [] else tokenise x (drop (length x) t)
    where (h,t) = breakSubstring x y

To skip to the first occurrence of a string:

snd (breakSubstring x y)

To take the parts of a string before a delimiter:

fst (breakSubstring x y)

Note that calling `breakSubstring x` does some preprocessing work, so you should avoid unnecessarily duplicating breakSubstring calls with the same pattern.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

Searching OsStrings

Searching by equality

elem :: OsChar -> OsString -> Bool Source #

O(n) elem is the OsString membership predicate.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

find :: (OsChar -> Bool) -> OsString -> Maybe OsChar Source #

O(n) The find function takes a predicate and a OsString, and returns the first element in matching the predicate, or Nothing if there is no such element.

find f p = case findIndex f p of Just n -> Just (p ! n) ; _ -> Nothing

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

filter :: (OsChar -> Bool) -> OsString -> OsString Source #

O(n) filter, applied to a predicate and a OsString, returns a OsString containing those characters that satisfy the predicate.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

partition :: (OsChar -> Bool) -> OsString -> (OsString, OsString) Source #

O(n) The partition function takes a predicate a OsString and returns the pair of OsStrings with elements which do and do not satisfy the predicate, respectively; i.e.,

partition p bs == (filter p sbs, filter (not . p) sbs)

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

Indexing OsStrings

index :: HasCallStack => OsString -> Int -> OsChar Source #

O(1) OsString index (subscript) operator, starting from 0.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

indexMaybe :: OsString -> Int -> Maybe OsChar Source #

O(1) OsString index, starting from 0, that returns Just if:

0 <= n < length bs

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

(!?) :: OsString -> Int -> Maybe OsChar Source #

O(1) OsString index, starting from 0, that returns Just if:

0 <= n < length bs

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

elemIndex :: OsChar -> OsString -> Maybe Int Source #

O(n) The elemIndex function returns the index of the first element in the given OsString which is equal to the query element, or Nothing if there is no such element.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

elemIndices :: OsChar -> OsString -> [Int] Source #

O(n) The elemIndices function extends elemIndex, by returning the indices of all elements equal to the query element, in ascending order.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

count :: OsChar -> OsString -> Int Source #

count returns the number of times its argument appears in the OsString

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

findIndex :: (OsChar -> Bool) -> OsString -> Maybe Int Source #

O(n) The findIndex function takes a predicate and a OsString and returns the index of the first element in the OsString satisfying the predicate.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

findIndices :: (OsChar -> Bool) -> OsString -> [Int] Source #

O(n) The findIndices function extends findIndex, by returning the indices of all elements satisfying the predicate, in ascending order.

Since: os-string-1.4.200.0

Coercions

coercionToPlatformTypes :: Either (Coercion OsChar WindowsChar, Coercion OsString WindowsString) (Coercion OsChar PosixChar, Coercion OsString PosixString) Source #

This is a type-level evidence that OsChar is a newtype wrapper over WindowsChar or PosixChar and OsString is a newtype wrapper over WindowsString or PosixString. If you pattern match on coercionToPlatformTypes, GHC will know that relevant types are coercible to each other. This helps to avoid CPP in certain scenarios.