Ok, I understand the refererence to nhc98 libraries in the error message. Nonetheless, my hmake is definitely from cvs. It seems that the Makefile calls hmake (which processes SysDeps) at least 3 times! The first time indeed __NHC__ is true and hence that branch taken. (I inserted a bogus import in that case and got one error message about it). However, Makefile calls hmake also twice(!) with __NHC__ undefined, so that the last default branch is taken, causing the two error messages. Note that all these calls of hmake happen before the directory hattrans is entered. Any ideas? myrtle$ gmake hat Warning: package(s) lang not available in /proj/haskell/include/nhc98/packages Fail: Can't find module IOExts in user directories . src/hattrans src/compiler98 Or in installed libraries/packages at /proj/haskell/include/nhc98 /proj/haskell/include/nhc98/packages/base Asked for by: src/compiler98/SysDeps.hs Fix using the -I, -P, or -package flags. Stop - hmake dependency error. Warning: package(s) lang not available in /proj/haskell/include/nhc98/packages Fail: Can't find module IOExts in user directories . src/hattrans src/compiler98 Or in installed libraries/packages at /proj/haskell/include/nhc98 /proj/haskell/include/nhc98/packages/base Asked for by: src/compiler98/SysDeps.hs Fix using the -I, -P, or -package flags. Stop - hmake dependency error. cd src/hattrans; gmake HC=ghc all gmake[1]: Entering directory `/nfs/myrtle/d23/part1/home/cur/oc/hat/src/hattrans' .... continues build