$ cat .cabal/config ... root-cmd: sudo ... user-install: False ... On 21 Apr 2009, at 14:41, Achim Schneider wrote:

Thomas Davie wrote:

...

There seems to be an assumption amongst the community that a user's home directory is the most useful place for cabal to install to by default. A few people have challenged that. I wanted to find out which one most people do actually prefer, so please go and vote on this poll.

http://noordering.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/cabals-default-install-location/

It's no more than a straw poll, I don't know how protected it is against ballot stuffing, but I'm pretty confident that Haskellers are trustworthy enough not to play with it that way.

I'll tell you all the result next week.

alias cabal='cabal --global'

-- (c) this sig last receiving data processing entity. Inspect headers for copyright history. All rights reserved. Copying, hiring, renting, performance and/or quoting of this signature prohibited.

_______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe

On Tue, 2009-04-21 at 12:41 +0200, Achim Schneider wrote:

alias cabal='cabal --global'

We do have a config file you know. It's exactly to let you persistently set command line flags like this. Duncan

On Wed, 2009-04-22 at 11:33 +0200, david48 wrote:

The default should at least be consistent among cabal install, runghc Setup.hs, installing GHC, Gtk2Hs, and so on.

If GHC is installed in /home/myusername/local,

Where you choose to install ghc is not related.

what does cabal install --global ?

Global always means /usr/local by default, unless you change it in the cabal config file. By default ghc, gtk2hs also install globally in /usr/local (unless you specify a --prefix.) This tradition of global and /usr/local for ./configure scripts is ok, but for a convenient package manager it's not necessarily ideal. Duncan

On Wed, 2009-04-22 at 12:26 +0200, david48 wrote:

On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 12:06 PM, Duncan Coutts wrote: On Wed, 2009-04-22 at 11:33 +0200, david48 wrote: > > The default should at least be consistent among cabal install, runghc > Setup.hs, installing GHC, Gtk2Hs, and so on. > > If GHC is installed in /home/myusername/local,

Where you choose to install ghc is not related.

What about the package list ? In other words, why would I need a separate user and global package list if ghc is installed in my home directory ?

Sure, you don't strictly need two in that case. Duncan

On Wed, 2009-04-22 at 11:33 +0200, david48 wrote:

...

The default should at least be consistent among cabal install, runghc Setup.hs, installing GHC, Gtk2Hs, and so on.

If GHC is installed in /home/myusername/local,

Where you choose to install ghc is not related.

...

what does cabal install --global ?

Global always means /usr/local by default, unless you change it in the cabal config file.

By default ghc, gtk2hs also install globally in /usr/local (unless you specify a --prefix.)

This tradition of global and /usr/local for ./configure scripts is ok, but for a convenient package manager it's not necessarily ideal.

Ubuntu/Debian policy seems to be installation into /var/lib/cabal . So it's clear that the whole hierarchy is managed by single tool cabal. Drawback is

On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 2:06 PM, Duncan Coutts wrote: that you should add /var/lib/cabal/bin into your PATH. -- Victor Nazarov

Victor Nazarov writes:

...

This tradition of global and /usr/local for ./configure scripts is ok, but for a convenient package manager it's not necessarily ideal.

Well, the system package manager uses /usr. But for locally compiled software, I don't see any good alternative to /usr/local. It is certainly what I'd expect, based on most other build systems I've used. Also, it's the default location for some non-cabalized packages.

Ubuntu/Debian policy seems to be installation into /var/lib/cabal .

Since when? I have a ton of stuff installed via apt-get, and I don't even have this directory. The policy is that everything from the repositories (i.e. .deb packages) get installed under /usr.

So it's clear that the whole hierarchy is managed by single tool cabal. Drawback is that you should add /var/lib/cabal/bin into your PATH.

Some systems used /opt in more or less this way. -k -- If I haven't seen further, it is by standing in the footprints of giants

The results in the poll seem to have stabilised now, so I'll tell you what happened... For user installs: 103 For global installs: 52 Others: 9 Interesting Ideas: ------------------------ • Claus made the suggestion that there be no default, instead that cabal asks you which you prefer the first time you run, or directs you to the configuration file. • Many users made the suggestion that cabal should install globally when running as root, and for a user when running as a user, possibly also displaying a prominent message about what's going on. Conclusions: ------------------ Most people do indeed want user installs, but a very much not insignificant population want global installs. Perhaps one of these other suggestions is the way forward? Bob p.s. I personally very much like Claus' idea.

Duncan Coutts wrote:

Thanks for all that. Some good suggestions.

I've linked the results in the ticket on this issue so someone can re-read all the suggestions in detail when they come to update the behaviour (hopefully for 0.6.4 or something).

http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/hackage/ticket/289#comment:17

Could you add this[1] link too, because it highlights the problem with user installs[1]. i.e. you either have to have root access to install the dependencies, or install non-haskell dependencies in your home directory. Edward 1. http://haskell.org/pipermail/haskell-cafe/2009-April/060441.html