“cabal: Сouldn't find a timestamp record for the given compiler/platform pair.”

[mietek]

Summary: Attempting to use cabal commands in the presence of a sandbox that contains packages compiled with another version of GHC results in a confusing error message.

---

With cabal-install 1.20.0.0 and 1.20.0.1:

$ cabal freeze
cabal: Сouldn't find a timestamp record for the given compiler/platform pair.
Please report this on the Cabal bug tracker:
https://github.com/haskell/cabal/issues/new .

Extra information:

$ ghc --info
 [("Project name","The Glorious Glasgow Haskell Compilation System")
 ,("GCC extra via C opts"," -fwrapv")
 ,("C compiler command","/opt/bin/clang-xcode5-wrapper")
 ,("C compiler flags"," -m64 -fno-stack-protector  -m64")
 ,("ar command","/usr/bin/ar")
 ,("ar flags","clqs")
 ,("ar supports at file","@ArSupportsAtFile@")
 ,("touch command","touch")
 ,("dllwrap command","/bin/false")
 ,("windres command","/bin/false")
 ,("perl command","/usr/bin/perl")
 ,("target os","OSDarwin")
 ,("target arch","ArchX86_64")
 ,("target word size","8")
 ,("target has GNU nonexec stack","False")
 ,("target has .ident directive","True")
 ,("target has subsections via symbols","True")
 ,("LLVM llc command","llc")
 ,("LLVM opt command","opt")
 ,("Project version","7.6.1")
 ,("Booter version","7.4.2")
 ,("Stage","2")
 ,("Build platform","x86_64-apple-darwin")
 ,("Host platform","x86_64-apple-darwin")
 ,("Target platform","x86_64-apple-darwin")
 ,("Have interpreter","YES")
 ,("Object splitting supported","YES")
 ,("Have native code generator","YES")
 ,("Support SMP","YES")
 ,("Unregisterised","NO")
 ,("Tables next to code","YES")
 ,("RTS ways","l debug  thr thr_debug thr_l thr_p dyn debug_dyn thr_dyn thr_debug_dyn")
 ,("Leading underscore","YES")
 ,("Debug on","False")
 ,("LibDir","/opt/ghc-7.6.1/lib/ghc-7.6.1")
 ,("Global Package DB","/opt/ghc-7.6.1/lib/ghc-7.6.1/package.conf.d")
 ,("Gcc Linker flags","[\"-m64\"]")
 ,("Ld Linker flags","[\"-arch\",\"x86_64\"]")
 ]

$ ghc-pkg list
/opt/ghc-7.6.1/lib/ghc-7.6.1/package.conf.d
   Cabal-1.16.0
   array-0.4.0.1
   base-4.6.0.0
   bin-package-db-0.0.0.0
   binary-0.5.1.1
   bytestring-0.10.0.0
   containers-0.5.0.0
   deepseq-1.3.0.1
   directory-1.2.0.0
   filepath-1.3.0.1
   ghc-7.6.1
   ghc-prim-0.3.0.0
   haskell2010-1.1.1.0
   haskell98-2.0.0.2
   hoopl-3.9.0.0
   hpc-0.6.0.0
   integer-gmp-0.5.0.0
   old-locale-1.0.0.5
   old-time-1.1.0.1
   pretty-1.1.1.0
   process-1.1.0.2
   rts-1.0
   template-haskell-2.8.0.0
   time-1.4.0.1
   unix-2.6.0.0

[23Skidoo]

I assume that you're working inside a sandbox. Can you come up with step-by-step instructions on how to reproduce this or does this happen only occasionally?

[mietek]

Right. I have misidentified the problem.

The real problem was that I had a leftover .cabal-sandbox with packages from GHC 7.8.2. After removing the leftover sandbox and re-initialising, cabal freeze no longer complains.

[23Skidoo]

The real problem was that I had a leftover .cabal-sandbox with packages from GHC 7.8.2. After removing the leftover sandbox and re-initialising, cabal freeze no longer complains.

Thanks, now I understand how to reproduce this. We should handle this case better.

[BardurArantsson]

Can we please have an improved summary/title and description of this issue? (I'm assuming that you, @23Skidoo can also edit the first comment?)

[mietek]

Done.

[BardurArantsson]

Thank you!

[mietek]

Closing as obsolete.