How to change library-dirs in ghc-pkg - haskell

I'm trying to compile haskell ghc from source. I try to configure my cabal config from different folder than /usr/. From the start it always succeed in building any package.
At some point (after installing package cabal-install), I change my config for cabal to include another "library-dirs". Then, something wrong happens (probably because wrong string to be inserted in field "library-dirs" in cabal config). So, I try to reconfigure my cabal config file again (I even delete the config file and try to clean the ghc package cache) and comment field "library-dirs" options but it still fails. I also already tried to remove the cabal package directory (a directory where cabal save the cache about the packages).
This is the output when using "ghc-pkg check" :
Warning: library-dirs: {stripped} doesn't exist or isn't a directory
This is the output right now when I building package using cabal or manually from Setup.hs :
sudo -E cabal --config-file=/opt/haskell/config/config install hashable -O2 --global --flags="-fllvm" --prefix=/opt/haskell 2>error --upgrade-dependencies --reinstall
Resolving dependencies...
Configuring hashable-1.2.1.0...
Building hashable-1.2.1.0...
Failed to install hashable-1.2.1.0
Last 10 lines of the build log ( /{stripped}/hashable-1.2.1.0.log ):
Data/Hashable/Class.hs:100:15: Warning:
Literal 15868100553162883236 is out of the Int range -9223372036854775808..9223372036854775807
[2 of 3] Compiling Data.Hashable.Generic ( Data/Hashable/Generic.hs, dist/build/Data/Hashable/Generic.o )
Data/Hashable/Generic.hs:20:1: Warning:
The import of ‛Bits’ from module ‛Data.Bits’ is redundant
[3 of 3] Compiling Data.Hashable ( Data/Hashable.hs, dist/build/Data/Hashable.o )
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find {stripped}: No such file or directory
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
This is the cabal config file : (any default values are stripped)
remote-repo: hackage.haskell.org:http://hackage.haskell.org/packages/archive
remote-repo-cache: /opt/haskell/cabal
world-file: /opt/haskell/cabal/world
extra-prog-path: /opt/haskell/cabal/bin
build-summary: /opt/haskell/cabal/logs/build.log
remote-build-reporting: anonymous
jobs: $ncpus
install-dirs global
prefix: /opt/haskell/
Can anybody help me or guide me ? Or at least tell me where ghc are actually save the information of "library-dirs" configuration for an uninstalled package ?
cabal -V
cabal-install version 1.18.0.2
using version 1.18.1.3 of the Cabal library
ghc -v
The Glorious Glasgow Haskell Compilation System, version 7.9.20140206
Thank you.

I believe this might be due to the fact that each package contains the full path to the location when it was first created. Look into. .ghc/YOUR_PLATFORM/package.conf.d(for me, it's .ghc/x86_64-darwin-7.6.3/package.conf.d). You'll see a lot of .conf files, and each will contain hardcoded paths:
[...]
import-dirs: /Users/pejvan/Library/Haskell/ghc-7.6.3/lib/pandoc-types-1.12.3.3/lib
library-dirs: /Users/pejvan/Library/Haskell/ghc-7.6.3/lib/pandoc-types-1.12.3.3/lib
[...]
haddock-interfaces: /Users/pejvan/Library/Haskell/ghc-7.6.3/lib/pandoc-types-1.12.3.3/doc/html/pandoc-types.haddock
haddock-html: /Users/pejvan/Library/Haskell/ghc-7.6.3/lib/pandoc-types-1.12.3.3/doc/html
You can either manually update the files for the contents to point to the right location or write a script which would do it for you.
Then you need to update the package.cache files (might require a sudo here and there):
pejvan$ ghc-pkg recache
pejvan$ ghc-pkg recache --user
Finally, check that everything is now fine:
pejvan$ ghc-pkg check

Related

Haskell there are files missing in the QuickCheck-2.11.3 package

I tried running my program which uses Haskell QuickCheck via ghc MyProgramm.hs , but received the following error:
$ ghc Ex2.hs
[1 of 1] Compiling Ex2 ( Ex2.hs, Ex2.o )
Ex2.hs:21:1: error:
Could not find module ‘Test.QuickCheck’
There are files missing in the ‘QuickCheck-2.11.3’ package,
try running 'ghc-pkg check'.
Use -v to see a list of the files searched for.
|
21 | import Test.QuickCheck (
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^...
I installed stack, ran stack update and stack install QuickCheck without issue but the error persisted. Then, I ran cabal install QuickCheck and got the following errors:
$ cabal install QuickCheck
Resolving dependencies...
Configuring QuickCheck-2.12.4...
Building QuickCheck-2.12.4...
Failed to install QuickCheck-2.12.4
Build log ( /home/username/.cabal/logs/ghc-8.4.3/QuickCheck-2.12.4-3d2YDDqfPBn4BfmTJbpJXK.log ):
cabal: Entering directory '/tmp/cabal-tmp-9133/QuickCheck-2.12.4'
Configuring QuickCheck-2.12.4...
Preprocessing library for QuickCheck-2.12.4..
Building library for QuickCheck-2.12.4..
[ 1 of 16] Compiling Test.QuickCheck.Exception ( Test/QuickCheck/Exception.hs, dist/build/Test/QuickCheck/Exception.o )
[ 2 of 16] Compiling Test.QuickCheck.Random ( Test/QuickCheck/Random.hs, dist/build/Test/QuickCheck/Random.o )
Test/QuickCheck/Random.hs:10:1: error:
Could not find module ‘System.Random’
There are files missing in the ‘random-1.1’ package,
try running 'ghc-pkg check'.
Use -v to see a list of the files searched for.
|
10 | import System.Random
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Test/QuickCheck/Random.hs:11:1: error:
Could not find module ‘System.Random.TF’
There are files missing in the ‘tf-random-0.5’ package,
try running 'ghc-pkg check'.
Use -v to see a list of the files searched for.
|
11 | import System.Random.TF
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Test/QuickCheck/Random.hs:12:1: error:
Could not find module ‘System.Random.TF.Gen’
There are files missing in the ‘tf-random-0.5’ package,
try running 'ghc-pkg check'.
Use -v to see a list of the files searched for.
|
12 | import System.Random.TF.Gen(splitn)
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
cabal: Leaving directory '/tmp/cabal-tmp-9133/QuickCheck-2.12.4'
cabal: Error: some packages failed to install:
QuickCheck-2.12.4-3d2YDDqfPBn4BfmTJbpJXK failed during the building phase. The
exception was:
ExitFailure 1
However, I already have the arch packages haskell-random, haskell-tf-random and haskell-mwc-random installed. Does anybody know how to fix this?
Edit: I also ran cabal install random --reinstall.
Problem
On Archlinux as of 2022-09-17, pacman -S ghc cabal-install will install
system packages that provide only dynamic files (.so, .dyn_hi) in
installed packages inside /usr/lib/ghc-*; static files (.a, .hi) are (for
the most part) missing. However, the default cabal configuration enables static file
building. Unfortunately, upstream cabal-install doesn't track whether or not
static files are available inside installed packages. It just assumes they
are, and when they are gone, it fails with errors such as you have found:
[1 of 1] Compiling Main ( Main.hs, ../setup.dist/work/depender/dist/build/depender/depender-tmp/Main.o )
Main.hs:3:1: error:
Could not find module `Dynamic'
There are files missing in the `dynamic-1.0' package,
try running 'ghc-pkg check'.
Use -v (or `:set -v` in ghci) to see a list of the files searched for.
|
| import qualified Dynamic (number)
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Workaround
A quick workaround just to get up and running quickly is to disable static file
building, which is by default enabled. (Note that trying to pass package-local
flags to disable static file with e.g. --enable-shared --enable-executable-dynamic --disable-library-vanilla (which is how most if
not all current Archlinux Haskell packages seem to build packages, e.g. with
https://github.com/archlinux/svntogit-community/blob/master/haskell-scientific/trunk/PKGBUILD)
building using cabal-install may be ignored due to another, related bug; but
~/.cabal/config is a safe bet.) You may do so by adding 3 lines to
~/.cabal/config in the appropriate location:
library-vanilla: False
shared: True
executable-dynamic: True
(Alternatively, consider using alternative tools like stack.)
More complete solution
For a more long-term solution, one option involves 2 pieces: 1) one or more
system packages that provide all types of build artifacts, static and dynamic,
for the base, foundational packages (from GHC and cabal-install), at least as an option besides dynamic-only packages (secondary Haskell packages are optional,
since cabal-install can rebuild these with needed build artifacts (static or
dynamic)), and 2) patching cabal-install (and ghc-pkg, which can handle .conf
files recording information about installed packages) to track whether static
files are available, and to be aware of these when resolving dependencies so
that cabal-install knows when to prefer rebuild a source package with needed
build artifact configuration over an already installed package that doesn't
provid required build artifacts.
There is a merge request (I submitted) that provides such a patchset, called
fix-dynamic-deps, at https://github.com/haskell/cabal/pull/8461. For users
running into exactly the problem that you described (myself included), I also
created an AUR package that provides both pieces based on GHC 9.4.2 with Cabal
3.9.0.0 that includes my patchset (there is a mirror at
https://github.com/bairyn/ghc-cabal-arts.) It provides ghc and
cabal-install but includes both of these pieces.
Further reading
Here are a few more resources I wrote on or are related to this bug:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?title=Haskell&diff=745459&oldid=738269#Troubleshooting
https://github.com/haskell/cabal/pull/8461
https://github.com/bairyn/ghc-cabal-arts
https://github.com/bairyn/cabal/tree/fix-dynamic-builds
Even though I have a main = do and couldn't get it working that way, I was able to run my QuickCheck test as follows:
To run a quickCheck, first load your program with:
$ ghci MyProg.hs
Then to run the quickCheck, find the test you want to run, then run it with:
$ quickCheck my_quick_check

How do you set up Haskell + ghc-mod on OS/X?

I first set up Haskell from https://www.haskell.org/platform/ but ghc-mod had problems with sandboxes and to update it I needed a newer cabal which needed a newer ghc. Or something like that. (https://stackoverflow.com/a/28049104/131227 ??)
So I deleted everything, and installed from http://ghcformacosx.github.io/.
Then some strange failure setting up a new sandbox was because something didn't properly have a dependancy for happy. (https://github.com/haskell-suite/haskell-src-exts/issues/14)
Ok. Installed happy. Now trying (again) to install ghc-mod and I get a giant mess (below).
Should I use http://www.stackage.org/?
I've seen some people mention ghc-pkg recache or cabal install cabal-install... Are those things I need to do?
Mess:
Resolving dependencies... Configuring ghc-mod-5.2.1.2... Building ghc-mod-5.2.1.2... Failed to install ghc-mod-5.2.1.2 Build log ( /Users/mark/.cabal/logs/ghc-mod-5.2.1.2.log ): Configuring ghc-mod-5.2.1.2... Building ghc-mod-5.2.1.2... Preprocessing library ghc-mod-5.2.1.2...
Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Convert.hs:1:51: Warning:
-XOverlappingInstances is deprecated: instead use per-instance pragmas OVERLAPPING/OVERLAPPABLE/OVERLAPS [ 1 of 38] Compiling Language.Haskell.GhcMod.Read ( Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Read.hs, dist/build/Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Read.o ) [ 2 of 38] Compiling Language.Haskell.GhcMod.Cabal21 ( Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Cabal21.hs, dist/build/Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Cabal21.o ) [ 3 of 38] Compiling Language.Haskell.GhcMod.Cabal18 ( Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Cabal18.hs, dist/build/Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Cabal18.o ) [ 4 of 38] Compiling Language.Haskell.GhcMod.Cabal16 ( Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Cabal16.hs, dist/build/Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Cabal16.o ) [ 5 of 38] Compiling Language.Haskell.GhcMod.GHCChoice ( Language/Haskell/GhcMod/GHCChoice.hs, dist/build/Language/Haskell/GhcMod/GHCChoice.o ) [ 6 of 38] Compiling Language.Haskell.GhcMod.Error ( Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Error.hs, dist/build/Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Error.o )
Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Error.hs:12:1: Warning:
Module ‘Control.Monad.Error’ is deprecated:
Use Control.Monad.Except instead
Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Error.hs:40:10: Warning:
In the use of type constructor or class ‘Error’
(imported from Control.Monad.Error, but defined in Control.Monad.Trans.Error):
Deprecated: "Use Control.Monad.Trans.Except instead"
Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Error.hs:40:10: Warning:
In the use of type constructor or class ‘Error’
(imported from Control.Monad.Error, but defined in Control.Monad.Trans.Error):
Deprecated: "Use Control.Monad.Trans.Except instead" [ 7 of 38] Compiling Language.Haskell.GhcMod.Utils ( Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Utils.hs, dist/build/Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Utils.o )
Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Utils.hs:15:1: Warning:
The import of ‘Control.Applicative’ is redundant
except perhaps to import instances from ‘Control.Applicative’
To import instances alone, use: import Control.Applicative()
Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Utils.hs:45:51: Warning:
In the use of ‘strMsg’
(imported from Language.Haskell.GhcMod.Error, but defined in Control.Monad.Trans.Error):
Deprecated: "Use Control.Monad.Trans.Except instead" [ 8 of 38] Compiling Language.Haskell.GhcMod.Types ( Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Types.hs, dist/build/Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Types.o ) [ 9 of 38] Compiling Language.Haskell.GhcMod.Gap ( Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Gap.hs, dist/build/Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Gap.o )
Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Gap.hs:256:18:
Not in scope: data constructor ‘ExposePackageId’
Perhaps you meant ‘ExposePackage’ (imported from DynFlags) cabal: Error: some packages failed to install: ghc-mod-5.2.1.2 failed during the building phase. The exception was: ExitFailure 1
After applying the accepted answer (which seemed to install ghc-mod), running gch-mod gives the following:
> ghc-mod check x.hs
cabal-helper-wrapper: Installing a private copy of Cabal, this might take a
while but will only happen once per Cabal version.
If anything goes horribly wrong just delete this directory and try again:
/Users/mark/.ghc-mod/cabal-helper
If you want to avoid this automatic installation altogether install version
1.22.0.0 of Cabal manually (into your user or global package-db):
$ cabal install Cabal-1.22.0.0
...In order, the following would be installed:
filepath-1.3.0.1 (latest: 1.4.0.0) (new version)
directory-1.2.2.1 (new version)
process-1.2.3.0 (reinstall) changes: directory-1.2.2.0 -> 1.2.2.1,
filepath-1.4.0.0 -> 1.3.0.1
Cabal-1.22.0.0 (latest: 1.22.2.0) (new version)
cabal: The following packages are likely to be broken by the reinstalls:
ghc-7.10.1
Cabal-1.22.2.0
Use --force-reinstalls if you want to install anyway.
cabal-helper-wrapper: Installing Cabal version 1.22.0.0 failed.
nYou have two choices now:
- Either you install this version of Cabal in your globa/luser package-db
somehow
n- Or you can see if you can update your cabal-install to use a different
version of the Cabal library that we can build with:
$ cabal install cabal-install --constraint 'Cabal > 1.22.0.0'
nTo check the version cabal-install is currently using try:
$ cabal --version
ghc-mod: readCreateProcess: /Users/mark/.cabal/libexec/cabal-helper-wrapper "/Users/mark/work/haskell/ixberg/dist" "entrypoints" "source-dirs" "ghc-options" "ghc-src-options" "ghc-pkg-options" "--with-ghc=ghc" "--with-ghc-pkg=ghc-pkg" "--with-cabal=cabal" (exit 1): failed
Strangely, it wants the version of Cabal that is currently installed:
> cabal --version
cabal-install version 1.22.0.0
using version 1.22.0.0 of the Cabal library
Edit (August 2015) Better fix
A better command line tool for installing Haskell binaries and libraries by the awesome FPComplete group called stack means you can install ghc-mod with stack install ghc-mod (outside a project to make it global) and it will just work. The binary will be installed to ~/.local/bin and should be put on your path so your editor can find it.
I will leave the below for anyone who wishes to know what cabal Hell really meant.
Problem With DanielG's Fork
I asked on the Haskell reddit and NihillstDandy explained that the GHC for Mac OS X does not register the Cabal library. This is not true for your install from http://ghcformacosx.github.io/. It does register the Cabal library.
ghc-mod needs the cabal library to work, but it does not compile with the cabal library. Instead it compiles with cabal-helper and that looks to see if you have a registered version of the cabal library. If it does not find any then cabal-helper-wrapper will install a private copy and in this case it tired to install the same version as what cabal-install was compiled with, cabal-1.22.0.0.
When I installed DanielG's Fork it worked for my current project, but after testing it in other projects I am getting the same error you are. This is a problem with the fork and not Haskell (as far as I can tell).
Original Answer
So, while I was putting this post together ghc-mod was fixed for GHC-7.10. Thanks to DanielG!
git clone https://github.com/DanielG/ghc-mod
cd ghc-mod
cabal install -j4
And if you get errors that say "setup-Simple-Cabal-1.22.2.0-x86_64-osx-ghc-7.10.1: The program 'happy' version
>=1.17 is required but it could not be found."
cabal install happy -j4
The same for any other problems and it should work. (Although you have happy installed, so it should just work).
The rest of the post is on how to downgrade the cabal executable, also known as cabal-install, to version 1.20.0.3. Although you could really use this to downgrade to any version. Since there is a working fork of ghc-mod that works with GHC-7.10 and cabal-1.22 you do not need to downgrade to fix ghc-mod.
I'm just leaving the rest of the post up here since, unfortunately, this is a problem with Haskell as a whole. Halcyon and nix are ways to deal with Haskell's shortcomings in this regard.
How to downgrade Cabal in Haskell
When I wrote this post ghc-mod, nor any fork, compiled with GHC-7.10 and versions below 7.10 broke with cabal-1.22 sandboxes.
However, even if you compile ghc-mod with GHC-7.8.4 (the version before 7.10) and cabal-1.20.0.3 you still cannot use ghc-mod inside a sandbox created by cabal-1.22 and above. So the only way to use ghc-mod is to either downgrade your entire system to cabal-1.20.0.3 or don't use sandboxes. This means you can still use GHC-7.10, but you have to use the older version of cabal. That is unless you want to wait until the convener or someone else fixes it for GHC-7.10. Its been over a week already, but some kind Haskell programmer fixed it in a fork (see above).
If this is something you still want here is how to compile ghc-mod with GHC-7.8.4 and cabal-1.20.0.3. Also, I replace the executable cabal-1.22 with the older cabal-1.20.0.3. Note, it does not matter what directory you download the sources to.
download GHC-7.8.4 source for your OS from here
tar -xf path_to_zipped_source
cd path_to_ghc-7.8.4
The next steps will install ghc-7.8.4 as ghc-7.8.4 in the same folder as ghc-7.10 is install for you. The -j4 is to tell make to use 4 threads to compile it.
./configure
make install -j4
To get the correct version of cabal we can just ask cabal to get it.
cabal get cabal-install-1.20.0.3
cd cabal-install-1.20.0.3
Now to install cabal with ghc-7.8.4. Here cabal-1.22 will pull all the decencies and should give you some warning about installing another version of the cabal library (not to be confused with cabal-install), this should not cause problems.
cabal --with-compiler=ghc-7.8.4 install
So now you should have cabal-1.20.0.4 installed, but not on your path. It will be in ~/.cabal/bin. We need to make this global, so remove cabal-1.22 (it only removes the symlink).
rm `which cabal`
And create the symlink to cabal-1.20.0.4. Btw, you will need to remove any sandboxes you made with cabal-1.22 and remake them with cabal-1.20.0.4.
If you do not have realpath you can just type in the full path of cabal. I use it for connivence.
cd ~/.cabal/bin
ln -s `realpath cabal` /usr/local/bin
Now this is how I compiled ghc-mod on my mac (you may run into your own problems). I'm not sure why cabal couldn't do it in one call, but this worked in the end.
cabal --with-compiler=ghc-7.8.4 install happy
cabal --with-compiler=ghc-7.8.4 install haskell-src-exts-1.16.0.1
cabal --with-compiler=ghc-7.8.4 install hlint-1.9.19
cabal --with-compiler=ghc-7.8.4 install ghc-mod
Now you should be able to call ghc-mod from anywhere. To test it just type ghc-mod after you have cabal sandbox init. If it does not throw any errors then your in the clear.
The version of executable cabal that is used to configure this project should be the same as the version of the global Cabal package.
It's easier to install a compatible version of cabal-install than Cabal as follows:
$ ghc-pkg list | grep Cabal
Cabal-1.22.2.0
$ cabal install cabal-install-1.22.2.0
Or build one in sandbox and replace/shadow the original one.
Then don't forget to re-configure the project with the new cabal:
$ cabal clean && cabal configure
Now the ghc-mod should works.
If Cabal-1.22 isn't registered (ghc-pkg list cabal), the cabal-helper-wrapper will install a private copy because it needs the library installed to work, but it doesn't want to stomp on anything you have that might break by upgrading Cabal directly.
GHC for Mac OS X doesn't register the Cabal library, it comes bundled with a version of cabal-install built against it.

Cabal: rebuild package to use newer libraries

I'm using Ubuntu 14.10 with GHC 7.6.3 and cabal installed via the Ubuntu package installer, and trying to use the Heap data structure, which I naively installed using:
cabal install heap
As soon as I started importing the library into my code, I got the following linking error:
...
Loading package primitive-0.5.0.1 ... linking ... done.
...
Loading package heap-1.0.0 ... linking ... done.
...
Loading package primitive-0.5.2.1 ... linking ... done
...
GHCi runtime linker: fatal error: I found a duplicate definition for symbol
hsprimitive_memset_Word32
whilst processing object file
/home/simon/.cabal/lib/primitive-0.5.2.1/ghc-7.6.3/HSprimitive-0.5.2.1.o
This could be caused by:
* Loading two different object files which export the same symbol
* Specifying the same object file twice on the GHCi command line
* An incorrect `package.conf' entry, causing some object to be
loaded twice.
GHCi cannot safely continue in this situation. Exiting now. Sorry.
This answer notionally explains what to do, but the instructions are not specific enough for me to follow.
How do I get Heap to use primitive-0.5.2.1 (I'm assuming that this lightly used library is the one that is out of date), or should I be doing something completely different?
One solution might be to specifically install an earlier version of heap:
cabal install heap-0.6.0
You might have to first unregister heap-1.0.0.
Another option is to blow away your ~/.ghc directory. Of course, you will have to reinstall cabal packages.
I think the best option is to start using cabal sandboxing for your projects.
Edit: heap-1.0.0 contains QuickCheck tests and thus brings in all of the QuickCheck dependencies. To install that version without QuickCheck, try this:
In a new directory, run cabal get heap-1.0.0
cd heap-1.0.0
Edit heap.cabal and remove the Build-Depends: line
Run cabal install

Cabal install current package into its own .cabal-sandbox/*-packages.conf.d

I have a package named commands. I want to install it into its own sandbox e.g. .cabal-sandbox/x86_64-osx-ghc-7.8.3-packages.conf.d/commands-0.0.0-f3f84f48f42ac74a69ee5fd73512bfd0.conf. currently, there is just one .hi interface file for one module Commands, I don't know how it got there.
I tried cabal install commands, by the logic of "that's how the other packages got there I think", but it fails with unknown package.
I also tried stuff with ghc-pkg like ghc-pkg update commands -f .cabal-sandbox/x86_64-osx-ghc-7.8.3-packages.conf.d but I'm not using them right. ideally, I'd like to do this with cabal.
the last thing I tried was ghc -idist/build/, but it complained about the package names in the interface files being different, command versus main ("... differs from name found in the interface file ..."). and if I faked the executable's package with ghc -package-name commands-0.0.0, the linker complained that it couldn't find the symbol _ZCMain_main_closure, because every executable needs the function main in the module Main in the package main.
I'm sure there's a better way of doing this.
I followed online examples for my cabal file:
$ cat commands.cabal
name: commands
library
exposed-modules: Commands.Types, Commands.Bits
...
the minimal failing code example is just:
$ cat Main.hs
import Commands.Types
main = return ()
in the root project directory.
Context: I need to build my executable with make (not cabal) because it links to foreign code (Objective-C via language-c-inline). my makefile: https://github.com/sboosali/Haskell-DragonNaturallySpeaking/blob/master/Makefile). thus, I have to compile a script explicitly. I don't know how to compile the executable with cabal, but I want cabal to build and test and manage my library.
By putting my package into the sandbox, I will be able to import its modules from the script, by compiling with cabal exec -- ghc. I will also be able to include the script with extra-source-files at least, and know it will work.
Here's what I'd try:
First unregister any previous commands library. Try
ghc-pkg --global unregister commands
Install new commands to your sandbox.
From your sandbox directory, try this:
cabal --enable-shared --disable-documentation --prefix=./ install /path/to/your/library/source
Note the prefix specification.
I nuked it (rm -fr .cabal-sandbox/), reinstalled everything (cabal install --only-dependencies), added itself as a source (cabal sandbox add-source .), installed it (cabal install command). and then make worked. idk...

Haskell Cabal: How to ignore dependencies

I'm trying to install a package (nymphaea as it happens). This depends on an earlier version of base than the one I have. I'm not keen on downgrading my base libraries, so I'd like to try to just ignore that dependency, and see how things go.
Is there a way to tell cabal to miss out a particular dependency?
Update: After I edit the cabal file, what do I do with it? Cabal doesn't have an obvious way to point it at a file, nor anywhere I can manually put cabal files, as far as I can tell.
[As per below, apparently I should just invoke cabal install in a directory containing the edited cabal file ]
Update 2: Unfortunately, cabal gives me a weird error about package versions being required which I appear to have:
$ cabal install -v --upgrade-dependencies time
Reading available packages...
Resolving dependencies...
In order, the following would be installed:
time-1.2.0.5 (new version)
Extracting
C:\Users\Marcin\AppData\Roaming\cabal\packages\hackage.haskell.org\time\1.2.0.5\time-1.2.0.5.tar.gz
to C:\Users\Marcin\time-1.2.0.54736...
Creating C:\Users\Marcin\time-1.2.0.54736\time-1.2.0.5\dist\setup (and its
parents)
C:\Program Files (x86)\Haskell Platform\2011.2.0.1\bin\ghc.exe --make C:\Users\Marcin\time-1.2.0.54736\time-1.2.0.5\Setu
p.hs -o C:\Users\Marcin\time-1.2.0.54736\time-1.2.0.5\dist\setup\setup.exe -odir C:\Users\Marcin\time-1.2.0.54736\time-1
.2.0.5\dist\setup -hidir C:\Users\Marcin\time-1.2.0.54736\time-1.2.0.5\dist\setup -i -iC:\Users\Marcin\time-1.2.0.54736\
time-1.2.0.5 -package Cabal-1.10.1.0
<command line>: cannot satisfy -package Cabal-1.10.1.0:
Cabal-1.10.1.0-55f781465ee9f32289755ad706c71f0f is unusable due to missing or recursive dependencies:
directory-1.1.0.0-3a2367d72569467a8af8a231656ff1b8 process-1.0.1.5-b3dded8e54a2e13d22af410bdcfafff4
(use -v for more information)
World file is already up to date.
cabal.exe: Error: some packages failed to install:
time-1.2.0.5 failed during the configure step. The exception was:
ExitFailure 1
To follow up on the comments to Don's answer:
First, grab the package from Hackage.
$ cabal unpack nymphaea
Then edit the .cabal file and change base <= 4.1.0.0 to base > 3 && < 5.
$ cd nymphaea-0.3
$ vim nymphaea.cabal
Now, try to install it.
$ cabal install
I got it to work with this change using Haskell Platform 2011.2.0.1 on Ubuntu Natty after installing the required Debian packages.
You must edit the .cabal file associated with the package and remove any constraints on base that you see. Change, for example,
base < 3
to
base >= 3 && < 5
And see if it compiles. If it works, you might bump the version and let the maintainer know. If they don't respond, you might upload the fixed version to Hackage yourself.

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