August 2006 - cabal-devel

Re: cabal (./Setup.hs) options
by Duncan Coutts 04 Dec '06

04 Dec '06

On Tue, 2006-08-08 at 10:45 +0200, Johan Tibell wrote: > > Hi, > > > > I like Cabal. There are a few things that I'm used to from autotools which > > I can't seem to find: dry-runs, uninstall and a "make distcheck" equivalent. > > <snip> > > > uninstall > > Removes all files and directories created by install > > Ditto. This is really necessary since otherwise I'll have to build a > Debian package anyway before I can install the Cabal package. Getting > software of my system is almost as important as getting it on there in > the first place. Prevents my system from deteriorating over time. I think we didn't include this feature deliberately for some reason. Isaac can you remember? > Would it be hard to implement? Anything I could do to help? In general the way to help is just to submit patches with an accompanying explanation/motivation/rationale. 'darcs send' does the "Right Thing"tm, i.e. it sends them to the cabal-devel list. Oh and everyone is invited to join the cabal-devel mailing list. Subscribe here: http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/cabal-devel Our main bottleneck on Cabal development is not the lack of people pointing out shortcomings but the number of people sending patches. Send more patches, the last ones tasted great! Duncan (wearing his Cabal patch reviewer hat)

8 12

Repositories
by Paolo Martini 02 Sep '06

02 Sep '06

Hello, I've published a number of repositories so that people can try cabal- install more easily, I need to know wether it's working for you too, and what are the important things to do to towards the goal of shipping it with ghc-6.6. My Cabal repository: <http://hackage.haskell.org/~paolo/darcs/Cabal/> Patches (applied in the above repository): <http://hackage.haskell.org/~paolo/tmp/cabal-install-tarball- index.patch> <http://hackage.haskell.org/~paolo/tmp/cabal-install- dependencies.patch> Packages repository: <http://hackage.haskell.org/~paolo/darcs/packages/> Some of the notable programs in the packages repository, if you are thinking about testing it out: * hnop (!) * lambdabot (!) * darcs-graph * hmp3 * hask-home * many of the dependencies of Hope (<http://hope.bringert.net/>), but no HaskellDB, any version available? * ...etc, darcs send me packages if you please. Issues & ideas: * some packages miss the brief synopsis * no multiple repositories are allowed (I am thinking about how to solving it, ideas are welcome) * should it work on windows for ghc-6.6? * the dependency resolution code seem to work, but it should be probably "audited" better * you ideas? Peace, Paolo. --

2 1

Configure/build separation
by Neil Mitchell 30 Aug '06

30 Aug '06

Hi, First off, being a windows user, having a configure/build separation seems a bit unusual. However, accepting that separation has been chosen, I was wondering what the design rationale for the following behaviour is: I download alex from darcs, runhaskell Setup configure checks for an absolute pile of things - such as alex, c2hs, cpphs - all things that are absolutely not required. In amongst all this waffle, it also checks for Happy - an absolute essential build dependancy. It doesn't find that, like it doesn't find plenty of other things, and continues straight along. Then when I try to buid, it fails. So the two points are: 1) Shouldn't configure check for what is required, rather than everything that any Haskell program might possibly require. 2) Shouldn't failing a configure check be an error, directing you to go get happy? Thanks Neil PS. I'm really liking this Cabal thing, its a very nice concept.

7 8

Plan for cabal-install
by Paolo Martini 28 Aug '06

28 Aug '06

Hello, during AngloHaskell, me, Duncan, Shae and David had the occasion to think about cabal-install (formerly known as cabal-get). The current situation: There is a server-program called cabal-server-install which checks that a given package is valid and updates the index accordingly. Its code can be found here <http://hackage.haskell.org/darcs/cabal-server- install/>. The current index file is a list of {name, description, dependencies, url} informations for each package. The hierarchy of packages and the corresponding index file can be found here <http:// hackage.haskell.org/darcs/cabal-server-install/pub/unstable/>. The problems: The current hierarchy is full of outdate packages, this is easy solvable after we've made some design decisions about the format of the hierarchy and the index file. The current index file format is a made-up format consisting of a certain number of fields, this is a problem because: * Cabal is going to support more dependencies information, like optional dependencies, which will require a field per-se. * For example GUI package managers need to know more than the little information now available after an update command. * The index file contains URL information for each package, which we don't know at the moment of producing that file on the server. A solution to all these problems is having all the `.cabal' files in a tarball as the index file. This is good for a number of reasons, some of those are: * No code is needed to generate the index. One can simple tar the directory hierarchy skipping the tarballs. Now, it will only pack the `.cabal' files; in future, it easily packs all the other files we will eventually need, like `.sig' files for signatures and whatnot. This is a big advantage. * The tarball format is very simple, it is all ASCII, and an Haskell un-tar implementation is very few lines of code, which will be needed for Windows. * Using the `.cabal' files for all the information means that cabal- get is easily {backward,forward}-compatible with changes in the `.cabal' files format, because it just relies on the Cabal parser. (e.g. optional dependencies in the near(?) future.) * We have all the informations from the beginning, after the first `cabal-install update' command. We are quite happy with this solution, but some other decisions need to be made: Now cabal-install saves the server list file in configuration-dir/ serv.lst; the index file in conf-dir/pkg.lst; and downloads all the tarballs in conf-dir/packages/. I'd like to discuss what should the local hierarchy of files look like with this change in the index file format. One problem is that we need to support multiple repositories, and still map the packages to the right URLs. The proposed solution would look like this: We have a conf-dir/repositories/ directory which contains a subdirectories. Those subdirectories are the string-encoded URLs of each repository. They contain the local mirror of the remote hierarchy produced by simply unpacking the index file; it generates a perfect local mirror missing the tarballs. This looks like a sensible nice thing. `cabal-install' will then fetch the informations it needs by looking order-sensitively at the server-list-file, then recurse through the hierarchy finding all the .cabal files. This looks like a pratical solution which should work well until we get thousands of packages. If we ever reach that point and efficiency becomes an issue we could simply load the tarball in memory and play with it lazily, mapping in- memory-cabal-files to records structures with the informations we need. What do you think? Does it look like a good plan? More questions: I am personally not sure about the OutputGen type which is defined in Cabal/Network/Hackage/CabalInstall/Types.hs. It seem to be evil and should be removed. Anybody has a precise idea about it? I have some initial code that makes cabal-get work on the tarball index, but I am not sure about how to integrate with the OutputGen actions, so it is not working now. I need some explanation about it. I hope the contents of this email are understandable, please ask for whatever I have explained badly or I have assumed for some reason. Peace, Paolo. --

5 5

darcs patch: Be cleverer about guessing hc-pkg name a... (and 1 more)
by Duncan Coutts 25 Aug '06

25 Aug '06

I got annoied with specifying: ./setup configure --with-compiler=ghc-6.5.20060724 --with-hc-pkg=ghc-pkg-6.5.20060724 So the first patch makes it guess better about so that this works: ./setup configure --with-compiler=ghc-6.5.20060724 The second patch is just a trivial simplification. That bit should probably use pipes rather than outputting to a file and then reading the file. I didn't want to just push these changes, so can someone else give them a quick look over and commit. Cheers. Duncan Wed Aug 23 11:54:12 BST 2006 Duncan Coutts <duncan.coutts(a)worc.ox.ac.uk> * Be cleverer about guessing hc-pkg name and location. So it now works if you say: ./setup configure --with-compiler=ghc-6.5 ie specifying a path-relative name rather than an absolute path. We then look for hc-pkg in the same dir as where we found the compiler. If the compiler appears to have a version suffix then we additionally and preferentially look for hc-pkg with that same version suffix. (I'm not sure that bit works if you've got a .exe suffix, perhaps a windows person could try it / take a look) Wed Aug 23 11:59:56 BST 2006 Duncan Coutts <duncan.coutts(a)worc.ox.ac.uk> * Use slightly simpler way of getting GHC version. ghc has supported --numeric-version for ages.

1 0

Logging paths of installed files
by Johan Tibell 25 Aug '06

25 Aug '06

I'm trying to write a module that logs all files installed by Cabal to a file. I've looked through parts of the source and conclude that some of the information (the one used to generate prefixes) needed to construct absolute file paths for installed files exists in Distribution.Simple.LocalBuildInfo. Where does the actual copying take place and is there a way to list the files being copied or am I better of trying to list all files in the dist/ dir and prepend the prefixes myself? What code decides how files are laid out in dist/? Cheers, Johan

1 0

noinst executables?
by Conrad Parker 24 Aug '06

24 Aug '06

Hi, I'm using HUnit with Cabal: specifying test programs to be built and then run with 'runTests'. However, the test programs are marked as normal executables, and hence are installed by ./Setup.hs install. This isn't necessary, and clutters the installation; is there any way yet to mark executable targets as "not for installation" ("noinst" in GNU autotools terms)? cheers, Conrad.

2 1

install doesn't install under Windows
by Neil Mitchell 24 Aug '06

24 Aug '06

Hi Under Windows, for an application, with the example of Alex: runhaskell Setup configure runhaskell Setup build runhaskell Setup install This however doesn't result in an Alex binary that can be found by Cabal, i.e. to build Haddock. So there are a few options: 1) Move alex.exe into some global Haskell directory for binaries (which is on the PATH) 2) Make an alex.bat in some global Haskell binary directory (on the PATH) 3) Make Cabal detect wherever it puts alex, so it can then use it. 4) Put whereever it puts alex on the PATH. All have plus and minus points, I'd lean to 1 (since thats what I already do when installing things). Thanks Neil

4 8

darcs patch: Export all the modules packge.conf.in
by Esa Ilari Vuokko 21 Aug '06

21 Aug '06

Hi, I recently ran into issue I couldn't use Compat.FilePatch with Cabal built in GHC build-tree (ie using Makefiles) Fri Aug 18 00:27:20 FLE Standard Time 2006 Esa Ilari Vuokko <ei(a)vuokko.info> * Export all the modules package.conf.in This simple patch just exports all the modules even when building with makefiles, just like we do in Cabal.cabal Best regards, --Esa New patches: [Export all the modules package.conf.in Esa Ilari Vuokko <ei(a)vuokko.info>**20060817212720 We don't hide them in Cabal.cabal either, and atleast FilePath is usefull for client applications. ] { hunk ./package.conf.in 40 - -hidden-modules: } Context: [repair Distribution.Compat.Map for non-GHC Ross Paterson <ross(a)soi.city.ac.uk>**20060810124314] [Avoid use of deprecated Data.FiniteMap, if possible Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060809153232 Distribution.Compat.Map taken from Haddock. ] [Change 'getInstalledPkg' to the more sensible 'getLatestPkg'. Lemmih <lemmih(a)gmail.com>**20060806135545] [Don't check for packagesDirName and servListFile, they may not exist. Lemmih <lemmih(a)gmail.com>**20060806135423] [GHC build only: set $(MKDEPENDHS) in addition to $(HC) Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060803092216] [pass the whole packageId to GHC with the -package-name flag Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060720150931 This shouldn't make any difference to current GHC's, but will be required by the new GHC package code. ] [install: pass the verbose flag to register too Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060728085914] [Add documentation of new LocalBuildInfo fields Duncan Coutts <duncan.coutts(a)worc.ox.ac.uk>**20060726230130] [Wrap excessively long line Duncan Coutts <duncan.coutts(a)worc.ox.ac.uk>**20060726221702] [Hold back on forcing vanilla libs for TH for the moment Duncan Coutts <duncan.coutts(a)worc.ox.ac.uk>**20060726221532 When we get confirmation from GHC devs that it's the right thing to do then we can add it in. ] [Add initial support for --enable/disable-library-vanilla flags jeremy.shaw(a)linspireinc.com**20060720174408 For additional information see these mail threads: http://www.haskell.org//pipermail/libraries/2006-July/005522.html http://urchin.earth.li/pipermail/debian-haskell/2006-July/000220.html ] [build and install cabal-setup as part of GHC build Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060720140417] [fix indentation in do block for H'98 compatibility Malcolm.Wallace(a)cs.york.ac.uk**20060711162221] [resolve conflicts from henning-thielemann's work. Thanks Henning! ijones(a)syntaxpolice.org**20060708185016] [install Haddock documentation in share/package/doc/html and register that path in the ghc-pkg cabal(a)henning-thielemann.de**20060609194058] [PackageDescription: haddockName generates the name of the .haddock file cabal(a)henning-thielemann.de**20060609193924] [PackageDescription: added toMaybe, some logical simplifications cabal(a)henning-thielemann.de**20060609193508] [Distribution.Simple.Utils: copyDirectoryRecursiveVerbose cabal(a)henning-thielemann.de**20060609192715] [Distribution.Compat.Directory: added getDirectoryContentsWithoutSpecial cabal(a)henning-thielemann.de**20060609192421] [Distribution.simple: haddock option --use-package tells which packages to hyperlink to cabal(a)henning-thielemann.de**20060605183304] [stripPrefix -> dropPrefix cabal(a)henning-thielemann.de**20060604195549] [generate .haddock interface file when running haddock cabal(a)henning-thielemann.de**20060604195216] [UNDO: Merge "unrecognized long opt" fix from 6.4.2 Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060705142842 This patch undid the previous patch, "merge from base". I asked Sven to revert it, but didn't get an answer. See GHC bug #473. ] [Change flags passed to hsc2hs Duncan Coutts <duncan.coutts(a)worc.ox.ac.uk>**20060704001926 The extra-libraries must be passed as -L-l${lib} or linking the C prog that hsc2hs generates may fail if any symbols are referenced. Also can't use cppOptions function since hsc2hs doesn't support -U. Need to do -U flags in ccOptions seperately. ] [finish interaction with remote HTTP servers audreyt(a)audreyt.org**20060624233156] [stage 2 patch: implement the "list" command audreyt(a)audreyt.org**20060624231421] [it's now 00-latest not latest audreyt(a)audreyt.org**20060624221907] [implement support for flat-file layout audreyt(a)audreyt.org**20060624221547] [parsec is not a dependency Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060518131434 It is apparently required for the wash2hs test, however. ] [Merge "unrecognized long opt" fix from 6.4.2 Sven Panne <sven.panne(a)aedion.de>**20060506110640] [Cabal.xml: entity greencard was mixed up with haddock cabal(a)henning-thielemann.de**20060411161212] [Change calls to 'make' into '$(MAKE)' Duncan Coutts <duncan.coutts(a)worc.ox.ac.uk>**20060502174630 This is the portable thing to do and fixes things on FreeBSD where make/=gmake ] [Hugs: copy paths module to the right place, this time Ross Paterson <ross(a)soi.city.ac.uk>**20060503132510] [pass correct -P flag to ffihugs Ross Paterson <ross(a)soi.city.ac.uk>**20060503122452 The -P flag wasn't superfluous, but it was wrong for executables. ] [Hugs: copy path module into package build dir Ross Paterson <ross(a)soi.city.ac.uk>**20060503122300] [add header file for GetModuleFileNameA Ross Paterson <ross(a)soi.city.ac.uk>**20060502141641] [remove superfluous ffihugs -P option Ross Paterson <ross(a)soi.city.ac.uk>**20060502104635] [fix for Hugs Ross Paterson <ross(a)soi.city.ac.uk>**20060502101054 Add explicit types for a couple of constants to work around Hugs's imperfect implementation of the monomorphism restriction. ] [TAG 1.1.4 duncan.coutts(a)worc.ox.ac.uk**20060502095901] [TAG shipped in GHC 6.4.2 Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060424093133] [Hugs: also compile the paths module Ross Paterson <ross(a)soi.city.ac.uk>**20060501171206] [markup fix Ross Paterson <ross(a)soi.city.ac.uk>**20060501145015] [move cabal-install/etc-cabal-get to cabal-install/etc-cabal-install alson(a)alsonkemp.com**20060430175158] [Complete move of cabal-get to cabal-install + some fixups alson(a)alsonkemp.com**20060430174300] [basic information for installing ijones(a)syntaxpolice.org**20060430063205] [build and install cabal-setup ijones(a)syntaxpolice.org**20060430063144] [add etc-cabal-get as a data-file ijones(a)syntaxpolice.org**20060430055332] [bumping cabal version number. 1.1.4 will be the one released with ghc 6.4.2. ijones(a)syntaxpolice.org**20060430044905] [modify makefile for cabal-install ijones(a)syntaxpolice.org**20060430041617] [cabal-get will become cabal-install ijones(a)syntaxpolice.org**20060430025633] [getting rid of cabal-install in favor of cabal-get ijones(a)syntaxpolice.org**20060430024951] [Remove erroneous exports... alson(a)alsonkemp.com**20060428195702] [Patch to fix "-ixyz" being overwritten by "-i" and to remove Cabal's dependency on the Cabal package. alson(a)alsonkemp.com**20060428055353] [Separate build into "make build" and "make install" alson(a)alsonkemp.com**20060428034151] [Fixups to get cabal-get into Cabal alson(a)alsonkemp.com**20060428032617] [Update Cabal with cabal-get alson(a)alsonkemp.com**20060427204050] [Fix JHC command lines. Einar Karttunen <ekarttun(a)cs.helsinki.fi>**20060427005922] [document install-includes and register --inplace Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060428130542] [fix imports for Windows simonmar(a)microsoft.com**20060428075617] [Better support for packages that need to install header files Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060426140627 There's a new field for .cabal files: install-includes: foo.h bar.h This means the same as 'includes', except that the files named therein will be installed into $libdir/include. 'includes' should only be used for headers already installed on the system. Directories listed in 'include-dirs' still turn into -I options for hsc2hs, cpphs, and C compilations. However, for installation purposes, relative directories in 'include-dirs' are now treated differently from absolute directories: - an absolute directory is copied to the include-dirs field of the installed package config - files names in install-includes are assumed to be found in one of the *relative* directories listed in include-dirs So the common pattern for providing a header file that you want to be available everywhere including to via-C compilations against this package: include-dirs: myincludes install-includes: foo.h will install the header file myincludes/foo.h in $libdir/include/foo.h. ] [merge from base: Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060426121408 Wed Apr 26 13:11:10 BST 2006 Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com> * RequireOrder: do not collect unrecognised options after a non-opt ] [pass unrecognised options before the command name to the command Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060426121321 Previously, options before the command name other than --help were just ignored, which is quite confusing behaviour. So now, ./setup --with-compiler=ghc-6.4.2 configure works as you expect, instead of ignoring the --with-compiler option. ] [First attempt at a cabal-setup command Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060303162233 cabal-setup is a replacement for 'runhaskell Setup.hs'. It accepts exactly the same commands. Additionally, the following new features are provided: * Setup.{hs,lhs} is optional. If omitted, cabal-setup behaves just like Distribution.Simple.defaultMain. * If the .cabal file contains a cabal-version field, then Setup.hs is built using an appropriate version of Cabal. This might entail creating Setup.hs if it doesn't exist. * cabal-setup interprets the options --with-compiler and --with-hc-pkg to determine the compiler used to compile Setup.hs. Later, we could add support for building multiple packages in dependency order, as per recent discussions on libraries(a)haskell.org. ] [add new modules Ross Paterson <ross(a)soi.city.ac.uk>**20060425195548] [Implement "setup register --inplace", and a few other minor things Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060425144733 There are a few changes in this patch: - New flag to register, --inplace. "setup register --inplace" registers the package for use in the build tree, i.e. without installing. It works with GHC only, currently. - The parameters to RegisterCmd, UnregisterCmd and InstallCmd are a legacy from before the time of hooks (or something) and don't serve any purpose any more, AFAICT. So I removed them. - I don't think "setup register" worked propertly before if --user was given to configure. It does now. - New flag to register: --with-hc-pkg (just the same as when given to configure, but lets you override it at register-time) ] [Refactoring only: separate compiler-specific simple build implementation Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060425111957] [get LocalBuildInfo from Distribution.LocalBuildInfo Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060425111921] [warning cleanup Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060425102302] [Distribution.Compat.FilePath should be hidden Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060411141305 This also matches package.conf.in. ] [Hide Distribution.GetOpt; it just re-exports System.Console.GetOpt anyway Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060411141045 This also matches Cabal.cabal. ] [GHC FFI flag should be -fffi not -ffi, the latter merely happens to work. Duncan Coutts <duncan.coutts(a)worc.ox.ac.uk>**20060318022010] [Make ghc-6.2 packages be exposed by default. Duncan Coutts <duncan.coutts(a)worc.ox.ac.uk>**20060221135026 For ghc-6.4 when Cabal registers packages it exposes them by default. However it does not do the same fo ghc-6.2. This change corrects the discrepancy. This patch is already being used in Gentoo with Cabal 1.1.3. ] [test case for buildinfo with multiple executables ijones(a)syntaxpolice.org**20060408213048] [It is no longer necessary to run 'configure' before 'clean' or 'sdist', addressing http://haskell.galois.com/trac/hackage/ticket/12. Nick Alexander <ncalexan(a)uci.edu>**20060404054127 In order to change this behaviour, it was necessary to modify the hook interface, specifically cleanHook, postClean, sDistHook, postSDist. They now take a Maybe LocalBuildInfo, since a LocalBuildInfo might not be available in .setup-config. ] [windows patch from brian.mabry.edwards(a)gmail.com ijones(a)syntaxpolice.org**20060404171731] [oops, don't enable -split-objs by default Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060314124358] [export configDependency Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060303155527] [comment fix Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060303155516] [don't check cabal-version during parsing, it doesn't work Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060303155500 because parsers are evaluated multiple times due to backtracking. ] [no need to use a verbatim copy of System.Console.GetOpt, omit if possible Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060303144025] [Support for -split-objs with GHC Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060302170907 New configure option: --enable-split-objs creates libraries using -split-objs with GHC (current HEAD or later only, the configure checks for version 6.5). Fixes ticket #19. ] [Initial support for JHC Einar Karttunen <ekarttun(a)cs.helsinki.fi>**20060206233543] [added some fields to test suite for duncan's mods ijones(a)syntaxpolice.org**20060204223256] [fixup PackageDescription test code Duncan Coutts <duncan.coutts(a)worc.ox.ac.uk>**20060201183912 just ignore the extra ParseOk warnings field ] [ignore "x-" extension fields without a warning Duncan Coutts <duncan.coutts(a)worc.ox.ac.uk>**20060201183145] [Make unknown fields a warning rather than an error Duncan Coutts <duncan.coutts(a)worc.ox.ac.uk>**20060201182944 Add support for warnings to the ParseResult type. Change existing warnings from using Debug.Trace to use this new warning support. ] [fix conflict Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060206095833] [push and pull all ijones(a)syntaxpolice.org**20060201185441] [combine GNUmakefile and Makefile Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060206095400] [now build Setup.lhs instead of using runghc on it. still uses runhugs. ijones(a)syntaxpolice.org**20060130054810] [cabal-install uses defaultMain if it can't find Setup.lhs ijones(a)syntaxpolice.org**20060130050710] [cleaned up suffix handler params to hooks ijones(a)syntaxpolice.org**20060116064811 Summary if last few changes: I modified the hooks interface quite a bit, again. There's good news and bad news about this. The good news is that it's cleaned up and should be easier to maintain and to avoid future modifications. The bad news is that this change itself will break stuff, of course. If you have any trouble building your Setup scripts, please let me know. I really think that it was best to bite the bullet right now in one big go instead of down the road with lots of little changes. I have a lot more confidence in the hooks interface, and I don't actually expect that it'll change as often. I made the types more consistent, and made sure there are accessor functions on each of the Flags types so that if the flags types change in the future, it shouldn't break lots of code. Another piece of good / bad news is that I decided not to get rid of the pre & post hooks. They are nice for convenience and it wouldn't be nearly so easy to write hooks without them. That's bad because the interface to hooks is still pretty big, which means that there's more likelihood that it'll change in the future. Another weakness in the Hooks interface is that with command hooks (like sDistHook) it's tempting to add parameters to them; basically the stuff that we compute between the preSDist and sDist hook. I removed such params and have their values computed elsewhere. Cabal hackers, please avoid adding parameters to these command hooks if at all possible in order to keep the interface steady. If you need to compute a value to pass to these functions, compute it in the function and / or make it available as a function that someone crafting hooks can use as well, or consider whether it belongs in one of the parameters already being passed to the hooks, PackageDescription, LocalBuildInfo, UserHooks, Flags. ] [make the order of params to cmd hooks consistent ijones(a)syntaxpolice.org**20060116055858] [remove some flags from sdist, some cleanup ijones(a)syntaxpolice.org**20060116053818] [clarifying and making flags types consistent ijones(a)syntaxpolice.org**20060116035033] [changing tuple types to records w/ fields ijones(a)syntaxpolice.org**20060115234317] [moving TODO stuff to wiki ijones(a)syntaxpolice.org**20060115234303] [fix version number in fptools makefile to match .cabal file ijones(a)syntaxpolice.org**20060201183331] [Add extraGHCiLibraries to the InstalledPackageInfo and extend the parser. Duncan Coutts <duncan.coutts(a)worc.ox.ac.uk>**20060131163640] [re-add the GNUmakefiles Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>*-20060123115236 These are now safe after we added "-f Makefile" to the make args when invoked from the GHC build system. This repo should now be useable as the main Cabal repo. ] [re-add the GNUmakefiles Simon Marlow <simonmar(a)microsoft.com>**20060123115236 These are now safe after we added "-f Makefile" to the make args when invoked from the GHC build system. This repo should now be useable as the main Cabal repo. ] [TAG checkpoint simonmar(a)microsoft.com**20060113152542] Patch bundle hash: 404684fddc759aeb78516c4b902e1d6658b4c29a

3 4

Cabal/GHC interaction buglet
by Neil Mitchell 21 Aug '06

21 Aug '06

Hi, Using GHC 6.4.2, Cabal from Darcs - every time I do runhaskell Setup build in Hoogle (the Hoogle cabal file isn't up on the web yet, but I'm working on it!) it does relinking. Trying -v I get the command: Building Hoogle-3.0... C:\ghc\ghc-6.4.2\bin\ghc.exe -Idist\build -o dist\build\hoogle\hoogle --make -hi de-all-packages -i -idist\build\autogen -isrc -odir dist\build\hoogle\hoogle-tmp Unfortunately GHC 6.4.2 has a bug in it that if the .exe is not specified in the -o it always relinks. Any chance Cabal can ++ executableExtension when passing onto the GHC? (I did take a look at writing a patch, but as far as I can see in Distribution.Simple.GHC, the file passed along to -o is created by mkGHCiLibName and should end in ".o", but it doesn't... If anyone can point me at where this should go, then maybe, just maybe...) Thanks Neil

3 5