#10622: Rename Backpack packages to units -------------------------------------+------------------------------------- Reporter: ezyang | Owner: ezyang Type: task | Status: new Priority: normal | Milestone: Component: Compiler | Version: 7.11 Resolution: | Keywords: backpack Operating System: Unknown/Multiple | Architecture: Type of failure: None/Unknown | Unknown/Multiple Blocked By: | Test Case: Related Tickets: | Blocking: | Differential Revisions: Phab:D1057 -------------------------------------+------------------------------------- Comment (by ezyang): Duncan and I had a chat about this, which in particular clarified "What questions Cabal asks the installed package database." cabal-install currently queries the installed package database in order so determine what the installed packages are when it is making an install plan. However, this is going to soon not be the case with Nix style versioning: Cabal will make an install plan using purely source package info, and then query the database to find out what products it already has installed. So the key idea is: **the installed package database is a database of units**! There may be more junk in the database than you would expect from the packages you have installed, but in a Nix world where there will be many many installs of the same package, ghc-pkq is already going to not be so useful for finding info about packages. I'll update the top level description with the final plan. -- Ticket URL: http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/10622#comment:8 GHC http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ The Glasgow Haskell Compiler