Profiled binaries create empty files
gwern@localhost:1891~>ghc --version [ 1:20PM]
The Glorious Glasgow Haskell Compilation System, version 6.8.2
I recently happened to go through the effort to build a copy of Darcs with profiling enabled (to profile, obviously), and while the profiling runs were quite as helpful as I could've wished, I've since noticed something very annoying:
gwern@localhost:1922~>~/bin/bin/darcs whatsnew [ 1:35PM]
No changes!
gwern@localhost:1923~>cat darcs.prof [ 1:36PM]
gwern@localhost:1924~>ls [ 1:36PM]
bin/ _darcs/ darcs.prof hacryptopp/ hiersort/ hope/ idris/ ivor/ par-gc-ismm08.pdf pics2/ torrent/
Note the complete lack of any +RTS-RTS flags; nevertheless, an annoying empty file has been created to clutter up my home directory. And deleting it is pointless since it'll just get created. Even worse, this stupid file will appear anywhere I use the profiled darcs (at last count, slocate knew of at least 12 such darcs.prof). And since my system is set up for profiling, it'll only get worse as more and more binaries get built for profiling.
I understand from Igloo there's some vague user-friendliness rationale behind GHC's littering, but I'm skeptical that this is really the best way to go about matters.
-- gwern