Herbert Valerio Riedel wrote

> Are you proposing that each package listed in 'build-depends' should be
> looked up for its executables (if it contains any), and check if those
> are available as installed executable?

Yes, although it might be worth having this as a separate
(build-depends-executable?) section.

>What should happen if the executable is not found?

cabal will try to install it, the same as if a libarary was not found in the
package database.

>> If it's in cabal's bin but not the path, the user should be warned.
>Why only warned? Shouldn't the dependency check rather fail then, as the
>executable most likely won't be found?

Yes, the installation should probably fail with a warning explaining what
the problem is.

>What if the executable found via $PATH differs from the one in
>~/.cabal/bin (or the respective sandbox `bin` folder?); should then be
>warned as well?

Not suggesting that cabal check versions, just whether an executable by the
specified name is on the path. Looking in .cabal/bin if it isn't there is
just to help diagnose a misconfigured path variable.



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