I have a project that I want to compile with LTS 2, but I'm stuck trying to work around this well-known bug in OS X 10.11.
Can I somehow specify a newer version of Cabal to use with ghc-7.8.4? Note that the project only really compiles with GHC 7.8.*.
Edit:
Really meant Cabal, not cabal-install.
Edit 2:
Actually, the answer to this question doesn't really solve my concrete problem (compiling helium, which requires GHC <= 7.8.4), because the bug is not specific to Cabal, but rather to unix, which GHC < 7.10 depends upon.
I think the problem is related not just to Cabal library version (btw, stack doesn't use or need cabal-install), but also to GHC version. Stack's FAQ mentions an item about this error, but I think it didn't help for me and I just upgraded to 7.10.2 at the time.
Here's a recipe for installing ghc-7.8.4 into the directory of your choice:
Download the "bindist" from https://www.haskell.org/ghc/download_ghc_7_8_4#macosx_x86_64
Untar it into a scratch directory
Create the destination directory, e.g. $HOME/my-prefix.
In the scratch directory run:
$ ./configure --prefix=$HOME/my-prefix
$ make install
Now ghc may be found in $HOME/my-prefix/bin.
As noted in Michael Snoyman's comment, there is stack setup --upgrade-cabal to do just that. That's it for the answer to this question.
In my specific case (XY problem), for that to work I had to do the usual work-around for that El Capitano related bug, which is explained here. So I enabled rootless, ran the upgrade command and re-enabled rootless.
To no avail I'm afraid: The bug is specific to unix < 2.7.1.0, which GHC 7.8.4 also depends on. So even after upgrading cabal, I can't compile anything in lts-2 unless I disable rootless, which is pretty annoying.
Actually it's kinda depressing that the GHC folks decided not to file a new minor release with the updated unix package. This means that no realistic/recent OS X configuration can build anything which involves GHC < 7.10.
Related
I want to run a program that demands a specific version of the base package. This version is not the one that comes with my OS's version of Haskell hence I apparently can't use my OS's version of Haskell.
It would be great of conda worked with Haskell the way it works with Python so as to create an environment for a specific version of Haskell, but such is not the case. Nor is it the case that Haskell's sandbox feature permits one to specify a version of base let alone Haskell itself.
PS: Frustratingly, the SE question "How to install an older version of base in Haskell" ended up answering another question without changing the title to reflect the question it did answer.
There is a tool that works even better then conda in Haskell called stack. Version of base is hardwired with version of ghc that is installed. You can get stack installed first and it will install version of the ghc you need automatically:
$ curl -sSL https://get.haskellstack.org/ | sh
This command will automatically install ghc-8.6.5, which is specified by lts-14.22 resolver and will make all packages available for you on demand including base
$ stack --resolver lts-14.22 ghci
To obtain the resolver specification:
Go to this table of all packages that come installed with a
particular GHC version.
If a desired base version is not available, find the scroll bar at
the bottom of the table and scroll to the right until you find one.
Say it is base-4.11.1.0, then look at the header of the column for
the ghc version that ships with this base.
In this example either one of this versions of ghc: 8.4.4, 8.4.3,
8.4.2 will have that version of base.
Go on the stackage.org home page and find in
the matching lastest resolver in the list "Latest LTS per GHC
version".
In this example, any lts-12 will do for the base above.
Latest nightly resolver will always have the newest ghc and base available on stackage.
I'm experimenting a problem with the interaction between the ghc-mod plugin in emacs, and NixOS 14.04. Basically, once packages are installed via nix-env -i, they are visible from ghc and ghci, recognised by haskell-mode, but not found by ghc-mod.
To avoid information duplication, you can find all details, and the exact replication of the problem in a VM, in the bug ticket https://github.com/kazu-yamamoto/ghc-mod/issues/269
The current, default, package management set up for Haskell on NixOS does work will with packages that use the ghc-api, or similar (ghc-mod, hint, plugins, hell, ...) run time resources. It takes a little more work to create a Nix expression that integrates them well into the rest of the environment. It is called making a wrapper expression for the package, for an example look at how GHC is installed an operates on NixOS.
It is reasonable that this is difficult since you are trying to make a install procedure that is atomic, but interacts with an unknown number of other system packages with their own atomic installs and updates. It is doable, but there is a quicker work around.
Look at this example on the install page on the wiki. Instead of trying to create a ghc-mod package that works atomically you weld it on to ghc so ghc+ghc-mod is an atomic update.
I installed ghc+ghc-mod with the below install script added to my ~/.nixpkgs/nixpkgs.nix file.
hsEnv = haskellPackages.ghcWithPackages (self : [
self.ghc
self.ghcMod
# add more packages here
]);
Install package with something like:
nix-env -i hsEnv
or better most of the time:
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.haskellPackages.hsEnv
I have an alias for the above so I do not have to type it out every time. It is just:
nixh hsEnv
The down side of this method is that other Haskell packages installed with nix-env -i[A] will not work with the above installation. If I wanted to get everything working with the lens package then I would have to alter the install script to include lens like:
hsEnv = haskellPackages.ghcWithPackages (self : [
self.ghc
self.ghcMod
self.lens
# add more packages here
]);
and re-install. Nix does not seem to use a different installation for lens or ghc-mod in hsEnv and with the ghc from nix-env -i ghc so apparently only a little more needs to happen behind the scenes most of the time to combine existing packages in the above fashion.
ghc-mod installed fine with the above script but I have not tested out its integration with Emacs as of yet.
Additional notes added to the github thread
DanielG:
I'm having a bit of trouble working with this environment, I can't even get cabal install to behave properly :/ I'm just getting lots of errors like:
With Nix and NixOS you pretty much never use Cabal to install at the global level
Make sure to use sandboxes, if you are going to use cabal-install. You probably do not need it but its there and it works.
Use ghcWithPackages when installing packages like ghc-mod, hint, or anything needs heavy runtime awareness of existing package (They are hard to make atomic and ghcWithPackages gets around this for GHC).
If you are developing install the standard suite of posix tools with nix-env -i stdenv. NixOS does not force you to have your command line and PATH cultured with tools you do not necessarily need.
cabal assumes the existence a few standard tools such as ar, patch(I think), and a few others as well if memory services me right.
If you use the standard install method and/or ghcWithPackages when needed then NixOS will dedup, on a package level (If you plot a dependency tree they will point to the same package in /nix/store, nix-store --optimise can always dedup the store at a file level.), many packages automatically unlike cabal sandboxes.
Response to comment
[carlo#nixos:~]$ nix-env -iA nixos.pkgs.hsEnv
installing `haskell-env-ghc-7.6.3'
these derivations will be built:
/nix/store/39dn9h2gnp1pyv2zwwcq3bvck2ydyg28-haskell-env-ghc-7.6.3.drv
building path(s) `/nix/store/minf4s4libap8i02yhci83b54fvi1l2r-haskell-env-ghc-7.6.3'
building /nix/store/minf4s4libap8i02yhci83b54fvi1l2r-haskell-env-ghc-7.6.3
collision between `/nix/store/1jp3vsjcl8ydiy92lzyjclwr943vh5lx-ghc-7.6.3/bin/haddock' and `/nix/store/2dfv2pd0i5kcbbc3hb0ywdbik925c8p9-haskell-haddock-ghc7.6.3-2.13.2/bin/haddock' at /nix/store/9z6d76pz8rr7gci2n3igh5dqi7ac5xqj-builder.pl line 72.
builder for `/nix/store/39dn9h2gnp1pyv2zwwcq3bvck2ydyg28-haskell-env-ghc-7.6.3.drv' failed with exit code 2
error: build of `/nix/store/39dn9h2gnp1pyv2zwwcq3bvck2ydyg28-haskell-env-ghc-7.6.3.drv' failed
It is the line that starts with collision that tells you what is going wrong:
collision between `/nix/store/1jp3vsjcl8ydiy92lzyjclwr943vh5lx-ghc-7.6.3/bin/haddock' and `/nix/store/2dfv2pd0i5kcbbc3hb0ywdbik925c8p9-haskell-haddock-ghc7.6.3-2.13.2/bin/haddock' at /nix/store/9z6d76pz8rr7gci2n3igh5dqi7ac5xqj-builder.pl line 72.
It is a conflict between two different haddocks. Switch to a new profile and try again. Since this is a welding together ghc+packages it should not be installed in a profile with other Haskell packages. That does not stop you from running binaries and interrupters from both packages at once, they just need to be in their own name space so when you call haddock, cabal, ghc, there is only one choice per profile.
If you are not familiar with profiles yet you can use:
nix-env -S /nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/<user>/<New profile name>
The default profile is either default or channels do not which one it will be for your set up. But check for it so you can switch back to it later. There are some tricks so that you do not have to use the /nix/var/nix/profiles/ directory to store you profiles to cut down on typing but that is the default location.
First of all, thank you for looking at this. I am a newbie to programming( I can program Java and Python)
I am gonna ask some really trivial questions.
How do i install the "extra " of Haskell on my mac? My situation is that i got ghci running, i am following the tutorial from my Terminal http://learnyouahaskell.com/introduction
I downloaded GHC
Xcode
Emacs(not working, more explanation below)
But i would like to have something like they use in their examples, a text editor that help me write in .hs and support the programming language. I tried to download Emacs but i couldn't find "haskell" as supported language, and i have no idea how to install it so it works together with my GHC. Also, i don't think the tutorial says a lot about Cabal. How do i access it? If i just go in and type "cabal install" or just "cabal" it just gives me "not in scope" as an answer.
Maybe i misunderstood cabal? it isn't something you "access" as such?
Thanks for checking my post out. I look forward to functional programming!( i am a mathematician :) )
Did you install ghc directly from http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ ? Usually it is better to install haskell platform as suggested in the tutorial. It includes cabal already.
If you used haskell platform, then try to find where cabal is installed and add the directory into your $PATH variable. I think you can fire a bug if platform installer for Mac doesn't install cabal in usual location.
(Note: AFAIK haskell platform installer is broken for new MacOS, it contains hardcoded path to xcode. But it is simple to find and fix)
Check out haskell mode for emacs. I don't use emacs, so the link is the only I can suggest, sorry.
If you have the Apple developer tools installed already, you can look at a package manager like e.g. homebrew (see at Link for installation). Then in a terminal you type
brew install ghc haskell-platform
and it will take care of everything, dependencies etc. You will get ghc, ghci, cabal, everything at once. It will put things in /usr/local/ so you might not even have to edit your $PATH ...
For editing, Aquamacs (download at http://aquamacs.org/) supports Haskell out of the box, and is very Mac-friendly.
I'm currently trying out web development frameworks for haskell and I recently came across yesod. It seemed pretty interesting so I installed it using cabal, however I'm not able to run the development server. Following their getting started instructions here's the result:
$ yesod init
$ cd mysite
$ yesod devel
Configuring mysite-0.0.0...
Testing files...
Rebuilding app
yesod: bind: resource busy (Address already in use)
Preprocessing library mysite-0.0.0...
Preprocessing executables for mysite-0.0.0...
Building mysite-0.0.0...
Controller.hs:16:7:
Could not find module `Data.Dynamic':
It is a member of the hidden package `base'.
Perhaps you need to add `base' to the build-depends in your .cabal file.
It is a member of the hidden package `base-3.0.3.2'.
Perhaps you need to add `base' to the build-depends in your .cabal file.
Use -v to see a list of the files searched for.
Testing files...
Testing files...
^^ above line just keeps repeating...
I'm assuming it has something to do with the Data.Dynamic module but I don't know how to go about fixing it.
Additional Info
Running Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick
ghc version:
$ ghc --version
The Glorious Glasgow Haskell Compilation System, version 6.12.1
I haven't run into this specific issue, but the error message looks like it's a simple question of GHC being unable to find version 3.0.3.2 the package "base." This version has been buildable since GHC 6.9, so you should have it. Try running the following command:
ghc-pkg check
This will tell you if there is something wrong with your packages. Cabal can be a bit of a nightmare for dependencies -- partly, it seems, because a lot of Haskell developers underestimate the extent to which their underlying libraries will shift in the future. So they will define a dependency as ">= [version of package x]" without limiting the max version to the one presently available. Or they just leave out version-limiting altogether.
Yesod, I'm happy to say, doesn't fall into this trap. But several of the libraries it depends on do. When you start developing in Haskell, learn this lesson: never assume that future versions of a library won't break your code. They will. A lot.
If ghc-pkg comes up with broken packages, you may need to clean up/uninstall/reinstall these packages until they are either cleaned up or hidden. (Just do ghc-pkg hide [package name] to tell ghc to ignore that package.
Your next problem is that hidden base package. Try the following:
ghc-pkg list | grep base
If you see brackets around the library, that means it's hidden. The package base-3.0.3.2 might show up as hidden (although that's a bit unlikely, as that's where the backward-compatible Prelude lives). If it is hidden, try to unhide it with the following command:
ghc-pkg expose base-3.0.3.2
Now try re-running yesod devel and see how it goes. Best case scenario is that it works. If not, let us know.
According to the Yesod in Five Minutes guide, you appear to be missing the a call to the command "cabal install" between your "cd mysite" and "yesod devel". It may need to install further packages based on what your responses were during "yesod init", such as which database you want to use.
Also, you may want to check that the port is not currently being used, as you have the "Address already in use" shown in your transcript.
First, it would be a good idea to resolve any broken packages reported by ghc-pkg check, by removing/reinstalling/upgrading them.
Next, can you manually cabal build the mysite app without trouble ? If your mysite.cabal actually does not specify base in the build-depends list, you should follow the suggestion to add that.
The repeating Testing Files message is normal for current yesod devel, it is polling your source files.
So I recently installed cabal (from the default binary of ArchLinux).
I then tried to upgrade cabal as a user:
cabal upgrade Cabal --user --prefix=$USER
Resolving dependencies...
cabal: fromFlag NoFlag. Use fromFlagOrDefault
What I've already done:
Googled the error message. Turned up the cabal source and little else.
Looked at haskell-wiki on cabal-install.
Looked through this guide.
So basically I'm wondering:
What's up with the error message?
Could anyone point me in the direction of a cabal tutorial?
I think that's a bug in Arch's package. I'm running Arch as well, and I got the same error.
I then built cabal-install (0.8.2) from Hackage, which didn't complain when I run cabal upgrade Cabal. In fact, it started building right away, although I didn't let it finish because I didn't feel comfortable upgrading a core package.
May I ask why you wanted to upgrade Cabal? The version that comes with ghc is 1.8.0.2, and the latest version is 1.8.0.4 -- not too distant IMO. Besides, if you're running cabal-install as normal user, why not simply cabal install? It doesn't have permission to overwrite the system files anyway.
I'm guessing wildly here, but can you see if
You have a nonstandard Setup.hs?
You have flags: set in ~/.cabal/config?
The most helpful tutorial I have found is not ostensibly about Cabal; it is called How to Write a Haskell Program.
I have looked through the guide you mention (the official Cabal documentation), and the information I wanted is a tiny bit of flotsam swimming in a sea of complexity. I assume that the complexity serves some useful purpose, since I know that good people have been working very hard on Cabal for several years, but as an outsider, I find the state of play discouraging. I was just barely able to build, install, and upload a simple package of my own—with a little help from my friends on SO.
I tentatively suggest you might want to avoid cabal upgrade and maybe try cabal install instead, and see if you can move forward with your original goals.
From user tlo:
The global configuration file for cabal-install is ~/.cabal/config. If
you do not have this file, cabal will create it for you on the first
call to cabal update.
I deleted my config, ran cabal update, and all was good.