#262: Check for required C libraries during configure ----------------------------+----------------------------------------------- Reporter: guest | Owner: Type: enhancement | Status: new Priority: high | Milestone: Cabal-1.6 Component: Cabal library | Version: 1.2.3.0 Severity: normal | Resolution: Keywords: | Difficulty: easy (<4 hours) Ghcversion: 6.8.2 | Platform: ----------------------------+----------------------------------------------- Comment (by alexeevg):
we should look up exactly how autoconf does these checks
I started looking into it and stumbled upon a little problem. Maybe it's a silly question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Autoconf uses AC_CHECK_LIB macro to check if the library is present. AC_CHECK_LIB takes the library name and a function(symbol) name that is expected to be exported from the library, generates a C program depending on this symbol and tries compiling it. This is a bit of info we miss in BuildInfo - we have extra- libs, but no function names.
Error messages should be helpful for the typical Cabal user, who should not be assumed to know > anything about C libraries or linking.
This is a bit unclear to me - we have no info on required packages, we have only includes/extra-libs, how do we make error messages user- friendly? Autoconf doesn't do it. -- Ticket URL: http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/hackage/ticket/262#comment:9 Hackage http://haskell.org/cabal/ Hackage: Cabal and related projects