Text/Regex/TDFA/NewDFA/Engine.hs:13:33: parse error on input ‘#’ - haskell

Question

I have been trying to run a simple Haskell program using TDFA. The program is as follows:
import Control.Monad
import Data.Array
import qualified Data.Text as T
import Text.Regex
import Text.Regex.TDFA
import Text.Regex.Base
str = "abbbbaab" :: String
regex = "(a+)(b+)" :: String
main = do
if str (=~) :: regex then putStrLn "matched" else putStrLn "no matches"
when I try to run the above program using the command like: ghc test.hs -o test and then I am getting the following error (test.hs is the Haskell program which contains the above code):
Text/Regex/TDFA/NewDFA/Engine.hs:13:33: parse error on input ‘#’
Note that I have the latest version of TDFA installed on my pc. I did it by following ways:
ghc --make -o setup Setup.hs
Also, I did the following:
user#user-VirtualBox:~/regex-tdfa-master$ sudo cabal install regex-tdfa
[sudo] password for user:
Resolving dependencies...
All the requested packages are already installed:
regex-tdfa-1.2.2
Use --reinstall if you want to reinstall anyway.
I even tried it with the Makefile which I got from TDFA's github repository:
user#user-VirtualBox:~/regex-tdfa-master$ make
ghc -o setup --make ./Setup.hs
./setup clean
cleaning...
./setup configure --prefix=/Users/user/local/devel/trl --enable-library-profiling --user
Configuring regex-tdfa-1.2.2...
./setup build
Building regex-tdfa-1.2.2...
Preprocessing` library regex-tdfa-1.2.2...
[ 1 of 23] Compiling Text.Regex.TDFA.NewDFA.Uncons ( Text/Regex/TDFA/NewDFA/Uncons.hs, dist/build/Text/Regex/TDFA/NewDFA/Uncons.o )
...........(Skipped to make the things short here)..............................
[23 of 23] Compiling Text.Regex.TDFA ( Text/Regex/TDFA.hs, dist/build/Text/Regex/TDFA.o )
Text/Regex/TDFA.hs:60:8:
Could not find module ‘Text.Regex.Base’
Perhaps you haven't installed the profiling libraries for package ‘regex-base-0.93.2#regex_47KXx9dLqeO8MNJeizLKhP’?
Use -v to see a list of the files searched for.
Text/Regex/TDFA/ByteString.hs:24:8:
Could not find module ‘Text.Regex.Base.Impl’
Perhaps you haven't installed the profiling libraries for package ‘regex-base-0.93.2#regex_47KXx9dLqeO8MNJeizLKhP’?
Use -v to see a list of the files searched for.
Text/Regex/TDFA/CorePattern.hs:37:8:
Could not find module ‘Control.Monad.RWS’
Perhaps you haven't installed the profiling libraries for package ‘mtl-2.2.1#mtl_Aue4leSeVkpKLsfHIV51E8’?
Use -v to see a list of the files searched for.
Text/Regex/TDFA/ReadRegex.hs:13:8:
`Could not find module ‘Text.ParserCombinators.Parsec’`
Perhaps you haven't installed the profiling libraries for package ‘parsec-3.1.9#parse_EE5NO1mlYLh4J8mgDEshNv’?
Use -v to see a list of the files searched for.
Text/Regex/TDFA/String.hs:23:8:
Could not find module ‘Text.Regex.Base.RegexLike’`
Perhaps you haven't installed the profiling libraries for package ‘regex-base-0.93.2#regex_47KXx9dLqeO8MNJeizLKhP’?
Use -v to see a list of the files searched for.
Text/Regex/TDFA/TDFA.hs:10:8:`
Could not find module ‘Control.Monad.State’
Perhaps you haven't installed the profiling libraries for package ‘mtl-2.2.1#mtl_Aue4leSeVkpKLsfHIV51E8’?
Use -v to see a list of the files searched for.
Makefile:16: recipe for target 'build' failed
make: *** [build] Error 1
user#user-VirtualBox:~/regex-tdfa-master$
However, nothing worked. Hence, any help would be so appreciated...

Answer 1

Text/Regex/TDFA/NewDFA/Engine.hs:13:33: parse error on input ‘#’
On an initial note, this error points to a module of the regex-tdfa package, so you should have gotten it when building the package, rather than when building your test.hs, unless you were trying to build test.hs after putting it within the package source tree. In any case, line 13 of the mentioned file is:
import GHC.Prim(MutableByteArray#,RealWorld,Int#,sizeofMutableByteArray#,unsafeCoerce#)
The # names require the MagicHash GHC extension to be enabled. As there is no {-# LANGUAGE MagicHash #-} pragma at the beginning of the file, one should assume the extension is enabled through the .cabal file of the package, and that is indeed the case. That being so, your problem seems to be that you are attempting use the package modules straight from the source tree, without using an appropriate build tool such as Cabal. (Note that if you did successfully run cabal install regex-tdfa there should be no need of dealing with the source tree: ghc --make -o test test.hs should be enough.)
P.S.: There is an error in your test.hs. The last line should be...
if str =~ regex then putStrLn "matched" else putStrLn "no matches"
(I did manage to run it after this correction.)

Answer 2

It looks like you are compiling your program from within Regex-TDFA source code. I am able to reproduce your problem if I do cabal unpack regex-tdfa && cd regex-tdfa-1.2.2 && ghc --make test.hs.
The error happens because when GHC finds Regex-TDFA source files in the current directory, it just picks them and tries to compile, as if they were ordinary source files belonging to your project. However, Regex-TDFA cannot be built with simple ghc --make: in order to build it, you have to run cabal first. Cabal will read regex-tdfa.cabal file that contains the list of the necessary GHC extensions.
In particular, parse error happens because GHC extension MagicHash is missing (that's where the hash # comes from).
The "fix" is to move your test.hs to some other location: then GHC will use system package for Regex-TDFA.