#780: Simpler support for isolated/sandboxed builds ---------------------------------+------------------------------------------ Reporter: duncan | Owner: Type: enhancement | Status: new Priority: normal | Milestone: Component: cabal-install tool | Version: Severity: normal | Keywords: Difficulty: unknown | Ghcversion: Platform: | ---------------------------------+------------------------------------------ Changes (by nathan.collins): * cc: nathan.collins@… (added) Comment: I just attempted my first "sandboxed" build with Cabal, and failed, and I agree it could be much easier. After about 2 hours I was still failing, and I came here to see if I had run into a bug. But, trying the Capri package you mention above, I was able to figure out a sandboxed build in about 5 minutes! Here's where I gave up using `cabal` (some output elided here and in other examples): {{{ $ ghc-pkg init ./cabal/packages $ prefix=`pwd`/cabal $ cd lib/replib-read-only $ cabal install --prefix $prefix --package-db=$prefix/packages $ cd ../../src $ cabal install --prefix $prefix --package-db=$prefix/packages ... Loading package RepLib-0.3.1 ... linking ... done. ... Registering trellys-core-0.0... cabal: trellys-core-0.0: dependency "RepLib-0.3.1-bd84a6d961076829097d3c4eb1eaee2c" doesn't exist (use --force to override) cabal: Error: some packages failed to install: trellys-core-0.0 failed during the building phase. The exception was: ExitFailure 1 }}} I wonder if this is a bug, because the failure was after building and linking, and `ghc-pkg` knows about the package: {{{ $ cd .. $ ghc-pkg list --package-conf cabal/packages/ -v using cache: cabal/packages/package.cache using cache: /home/collins/.ghc/i386-linux-6.12.1/package.conf.d/package.cache using cache: /var/lib/ghc-6.12.1/package.conf.d/package.cache cabal/packages/ RepLib-0.3.1 (RepLib-0.3.1-bd84a6d961076829097d3c4eb1eaee2c) }}} Now, here's the successful `capri` version, for comparison: {{{ $ capri bootstrap $ capri clone syb 'base-3*' $ capri import lib/replib-read-only $ capri import src }}} To be fair, the capri version had one hangup: in my first try I didn't have the {{{ $ capri clone syb 'base-*' }}} line, and I got {{{ ... Linking dist/build/trellys/trellys ... <command line>: unknown package: base-3.0.3.2 cabal: Error: some packages failed to install: trellys-core-0.0 failed during the building phase. The exception was: ExitFailure 1 }}} in the `capri import src` step. But, a very similar error is covered in the second example in the Capri documentation (which in total is 12 pages in my browser, and onl y required skimming), so the solution was quickly found. Comparing the (failed) `cabal` version with the `capri` version, they're both simple. The difference is that it took me 2 hours to come up with the `cabal` version, versus 5 minutes to come up with the `capri` version. The reason for the time difference is that `capri`'s (short) documentation is all about doing what I wanted to do, whereas `cabal`'s (long) documentation has no section devoted to sandboxed installs. So, assuming there is an easy way to do this with `cabal`, it would probably be enough to add a section to the documentation that explained the process for people that want to move from a (working, but not sandboxed) install process like {{{ $ cd lib/replib-read-only $ cabal install $ cd ../../src $ cabal install }}} to a sandboxed one. P.S. the code I'm trying to build is a working copy of https://code.google.com/p/trellys/, in case someone is dying to debug my failed `cabal` sandboxed build :) -- Ticket URL: http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/hackage/ticket/780#comment:1 Hackage http://haskell.org/cabal/ Hackage: Cabal and related projects

#780: Simpler support for isolated/sandboxed builds ---------------------------------+------------------------------------------ Reporter: duncan | Owner: Type: enhancement | Status: new Priority: normal | Milestone: Component: cabal-install tool | Version: Severity: normal | Keywords: Difficulty: unknown | Ghcversion: Platform: | ---------------------------------+------------------------------------------ Comment(by elga): * [http://www.releve-identite-operateur.fr/rio-simyo.html simyo] -- Ticket URL: http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/hackage/ticket/780#comment:3 Hackage http://haskell.org/cabal/ Hackage: Cabal and related projects

#780: Simpler support for isolated/sandboxed builds ---------------------------------+------------------------------------------ Reporter: duncan | Owner: refold Type: enhancement | Status: assigned Priority: normal | Milestone: cabal-install-0.16 Component: cabal-install tool | Version: Severity: normal | Keywords: Difficulty: unknown | Ghcversion: Platform: | ---------------------------------+------------------------------------------ Changes (by refold): * owner: => refold * status: new => assigned -- Ticket URL: http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/hackage/ticket/780#comment:4 Hackage http://haskell.org/cabal/ Hackage: Cabal and related projects