Cabal and `main-is` field

1 Mar 2009

      Hi.

I have started to use Cabal for a small project where I have to build 
several executables.

The project layout is something like this:

/
   bin/
     a.hs
     b.hs
   src/
     X.hs
     Y.hs

The Cabal configuration file is something like:

executable a
     build-depends: haskell98, base, ...

     main-is:           a.hs
     hs-source-dirs:    src bin
     other-modules: X

This is perfectly reasonable, but it is odd, IMHO.

I don't understand why `main-is` is relative to `hs-source-dirs`.
What is the rationale?
After all, there is only one executable that can be specified in the 
`executable` block.

The configuration file should be, instead (IMHO, of course):

executable a
     build-depends: haskell98, base, ...

     main-is:           bin/a.hs
     hs-source-dirs:    src
     other-modules: X

Another "problem" I have noted, is that if I specify `main-is` field two 
times, no error is reported.
Simply, Cabal uses the last directive.

One last thing: is it possible to define "macros" in Cabal?
In my package, I have n executables, that have many dependencies in common.
I would like to avoid having to repeat the same dependencies for each 
executable block.

Thanks   Manlio Perillo

Manlio Perillo

Gwern Branwen

Manlio Perillo

Gwern Branwen

Duncan Coutts

Manlio Perillo

Denis Bueno

Duncan Coutts

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