"Jason Dagit"
2) Compile GHC yourself.
I find with Debian this is the way to go.
Ouch. Okay, I've compiled GHC once. But I would like end-users to be able to use my software, and I simply cannot require them to go through this.
Install your system and use Debian's packages for everything, and then install your own copy of anything for which you care what version you're running.
Right, I generally do this too. But even Ubuntu's GHC is recent enough that I make do with it. I had a look at cabal-debian, but installation was a bit complex, and I'm not even sure with what or how to apply various patches needed. It'd be great if this worked OOB on Lenny and Hardy. Another Debian question, once I've populated the debian/ directory one way or another, how should this be integrated with the rest of the project? Should it be part of the darcs archive, or a separate archive (foo-debian), or what? How do people organize this? -k -- If I haven't seen further, it is by standing in the footprints of giants