Is there a known workaround to this problem, short of dropping the "self" dependency in the cabal file? Would it be too much to ask if hackage can upgrade it's cabal? Would that break further things?
Using a development version of cabal-install would run the risk of breaking other packages. A release that contains this fix would be better.
Agreed. I couldn't find anything specific about the release plans on the cabal web site (http://www.haskell.org/cabal/), so I've filed a ticket (http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/hackage/ticket/907) to have discussion on whether it's time for a new release. End of the year is a busy time for everyone, but a new cabal-install release will be a nice new-year gift to the community if the lead developers can squeeze it in. -Levent.