Cabal sandbox is not working on Windows

[wdanilo]

Hello, I'm a Linux user trying to run cabal sandbox on Windows and it simply does not work, look:

C:\Users\win7>mkdir test

C:\Users\win7>cd test

C:\Users\win7\test>cabal sandbox init
Writing a default package environment file to
C:\Users\win7\test\cabal.sandbox.config
Creating a new sandbox at C:\Users\win7\test\.cabal-sandbox

C:\Users\win7\test>cabal update
Downloading the latest package list from hackage.haskell.org

C:\Users\win7\test>cabal install MissingH
Resolving dependencies...
cabal: internal error when reading package index: could not read tar file
entryThe package index or index cache is probably corrupt. Running cabal
update might fix it.

in the .cabal-sandbox/packages folder I see only 2 files - 00-index.cache and 00-index.tar - the first one is empty and the second is 10 kb file filled with 0. I'm creating sandbox from scratch - this is always the result ....

Some more verbose output:

C:\Users\win7\test>cabal install MissingH -v3
Using a sandbox located at C:\Users\win7\test\.cabal-sandbox
Searching for ghc in path.
Found ghc at C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2013.2.0.0\bin\ghc.exe
("C:\\Program Files\\Haskell Platform\\2013.2.0.0\\bin\\ghc.exe",["--numeric-ver
sion"])
C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2013.2.0.0\bin\ghc.exe is version 7.6.3
looking for tool ghc-pkg near compiler in C:\Program Files\Haskell
Platform\2013.2.0.0\bin
found ghc-pkg in C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2013.2.0.0\bin\ghc-pkg.exe
("C:\\Program Files\\Haskell Platform\\2013.2.0.0\\bin\\ghc-pkg.exe",["--version
"])
C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2013.2.0.0\bin\ghc-pkg.exe is version 7.6.3
("C:\\Program Files\\Haskell Platform\\2013.2.0.0\\bin\\ghc.exe",["--supported-l
anguages"])
("C:\\Program Files\\Haskell Platform\\2013.2.0.0\\bin\\ghc.exe",["--info"])
The package database already exists:
C:\Users\win7\test\.cabal-sandbox\i386-windows-ghc-7.6.3-packages.conf.d
Reading available packages...
Reading available packages...
Reading installed packages...
("C:\\Program Files\\Haskell Platform\\2013.2.0.0\\bin\\ghc-pkg.exe",["dump","--
package-db=C:\\Users\\win7\\test\\.cabal-sandbox\\i386-windows-ghc-7.6.3-package
s.conf.d","-v0"])
("C:\\Program Files\\Haskell Platform\\2013.2.0.0\\bin\\ghc.exe",["--print-libdi
r"])
Reading installed packages...
("C:\\Program Files\\Haskell Platform\\2013.2.0.0\\bin\\ghc-pkg.exe",["dump","--
global","-v0"])
("C:\\Program Files\\Haskell Platform\\2013.2.0.0\\bin\\ghc-pkg.exe",["dump","--
package-db=C:\\Users\\win7\\test\\.cabal-sandbox\\i386-windows-ghc-7.6.3-package
s.conf.d","-v0"])
("C:\\Program Files\\Haskell Platform\\2013.2.0.0\\bin\\ghc.exe",["--print-libdi
r"])
Reading available packages...
Choosing modular solver.
Resolving dependencies...
cabal: internal error when reading package index: could not read tar file
entryThe package index or index cache is probably corrupt. Running cabal
update might fix it.

[23Skidoo]

What is the output of cabal --version? Does this still happen with HEAD?

[wdanilo]

It was 1.18.0.2 (using 1.18.1 Cabal Library). Head (1.19.1) seems to work, thank you :)
(But I'm not using hackage.org since its down now - I'm tring it on luite.com mirror - it should not cause any difference, but I prefer to point such details out :) )

[23Skidoo]

What about the version from the 1.18 branch (that contains this fix)? I suspect that this is the same issue as #1538.

[wdanilo]

I do not have access to pc right now so I cannot check it out, but I'm happy it works with 1.19.1 :)
There is other Windows related problem though, which I've reported here: #1583

[23Skidoo]

Leaving this open until we get a confirmation that the issue has been fixed on the 1.18 branch.

[wdanilo]

Sorry for the late answer! It seems working from the branch! Thank you :)

[23Skidoo]

@wdanilo

Thanks. Closing.