Currently cabal-install uses `--prefix=$HOME/.cabal` and does not specify `--bindir` so we use `$HOME/.cabal/bin` as the bindir. Obviously
#289: symlink binaries into ~/bin ---------------------------------+------------------------------------------ Reporter: duncan | Owner: Type: enhancement | Status: new Priority: normal | Milestone: Cabal-1.4 Component: cabal-install tool | Version: Severity: normal | Resolution: Keywords: | Difficulty: very easy (<1 hour) Ghcversion: 6.8.2 | Platform: ---------------------------------+------------------------------------------ Comment (by Isaac Dupree): Replying to [ticket:289 duncan]: this is not on the `$PATH` by default. of course, neither is any other dir in `$HOME` in `PATH` by default, I just add `$HOME/.cabal/bin` to my `PATH` :-) ...in addition to using GNU Stow elsewhere to keep track of my non-Cabal stuff.
If the name does exist we could give a warning and let the user sort it out.
okay, by telling them (if they want it) what symlink to make? or having a cabal "update-bin-symlinks" maybe?
Of course we need to be able to overwrite our own symlinks. We know it's a symlink we're allowed to overwrite if it links into `$HOME/.cabal/bin`.
yep, that's the same heuristic that Stow uses -- pretty good. Hmm.. watch out, for people who use Stow itself, Stow might leave `bin` dir being a ("folded") symlink to somewhere you don't want to install to, such as `$HOME/stow/darcs-2.0.2/bin` ;-)
It would be nice to install into `$HOME/.cabal/bin` using versioned binary names (Cabal supports that now)
true!
and symlink the generic name into `$HOME/bin`.
I want the generic names somewhere well-defined under `$HOME/.cabal` too. And the versioned names should also be symlinked.
and there are no symlinks on windows.
:-( With greater hacks, we could generate wrapper binaries/scripts on Windows that just load the thing in `$HOME/.cabal/bin`, I suppose -- but maybe Windows users are used to the lack of symlinks?
I'd imagine we'd have it in the `~/.cabal/config` file something like: {{{ prefix: $HOME/.cabal -- bindir: $HOME/.cabal/bin symlink-bindir: $HOME/bin }}}
I guess defaulting to `$HOME/bin` "if it exists as a non-symlink directory" would be a heuristic that's not too unreasonable if you want a silent default. (silence is what makes people like me not know about the existence of `$HOME/.cabal/bin` until we find out about it, too!) (Which reminds me, yet another reason not to put anything of my own making under `$HOME`, because programs might automatically trample it for their own heuristic purposes, thinking they know what's best for me and doing it behind my back without my permission -- I keep my $HOME in /Users/me/HOME, which might be called /home/isaac/HOME under more-normal circumstances) -Isaac -- Ticket URL: http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/hackage/ticket/289#comment:3 Hackage http://haskell.org/cabal/ Hackage: Cabal and related projects