From my point of view, I’d already be satisfied if cabal would say "The following required packages are also available from your distribution and it is recommended to install them before continuing: libghc6-a-dev
#578: Allow installation of distro packages ---------------------------------+------------------------------------------ Reporter: bos | Owner: Type: enhancement | Status: new Priority: normal | Milestone: _|_ Component: cabal-install tool | Version: Severity: normal | Resolution: Keywords: | Difficulty: project(> week) Ghcversion: | Platform: ---------------------------------+------------------------------------------ Comment (by duncan): Replying to [comment:6 nomeata]: libghc6-b-dev. Do you want to abort now? [Y,n]". Unlike apt-get, most cabal commands are not interactive. We prefer to go with "Do the right thing". For this issue, surely either the right thing is to install the system package or it's not. It's not going to vary on a per-package basis. At most it should be a config file preference. Though what the default should be I don't know. -- Ticket URL: http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/hackage/ticket/578#comment:8 Hackage http://haskell.org/cabal/ Hackage: Cabal and related projects