xinu

An experimental unix package for Haskell.

How is it different from `unix`?

In the unix package, when at configure time some required library function is not found, the corresponding Haskell function is still part of the library, but implemented using ioError (using CPP). Instead, this library will not include such function, hence, the API may differ between build environments. The header file used to store the feature detection results is, however, part of the installed package, hence, a dependent can use CPP to provide alternative implementations on platforms where this is needed.
The unix package supports many types of paths, including FilePath, ByteString and the new PosixString. The modules providing these implementations are, basically, copies of each other. Instead, xinu uses Backpack (ML-style module functors for Haskell) to achieve the same result.
The unix package provides high-level bindings to library functions, e.g., openFd takes an OpenFileFlags structure in which various fields (eventually passed to openat(2)) can be set. However, Linux supports many more fields. Hence, xinu-ffi also exposes the low-level bindings, so flags with no built-in support can still be passed from higher-level applications.
This package uses MonadIO and the classes from exceptions instead of plain IO actions.