Bunch of undefined references when building happy (or alex?) with cabal 2.0.

[Hithroc]

I was trying to build a project with cabal new-build, but it fails on happy (or alex?) with a ton of undefined references for every dependency there is.

Here's the full build-log

$ cabal --version
cabal-install version 2.0.0.0
compiled using version 2.0.0.2 of the Cabal library
$ ghc --version               
The Glorious Glasgow Haskell Compilation System, version 8.2.1

The build was clean (or at least I think so), with ~/.cabal, ./dist and ./dist-newstyle preemptively removed and cabal update after it.

[23Skidoo]

Looks like it dies while trying to compile alex's setup script:

/usr/bin/ghc --make -fbuilding-cabal-package -odir /home/hithroc/Programming/slay/dist-newstyle/tmp/src-12193/alex-3.2.2/dist/setup -hidir /home/hithroc/Programming/slay/dist-newstyle/tmp/src-12193/alex-3.2.2/dist/setup -i -i/home/hithroc/Programming/slay/dist-newstyle/tmp/src-12193/alex-3.2.2 -hide-all-packages -no-user-package-db -package-db /home/hithroc//.cabal/store/ghc-8.2.1/package.db -package-id Cabal-1.24.2.0-3d3624be09857cc559744ea16604d5b1446daf6aa9098b8970b7234356d197af -package-id array-0.5.2.0 -package-id base-4.10.0.0 -package-id binary-0.8.5.1 -package-id bytestring-0.10.8.2 -package-id containers-0.5.10.2 -package-id deepseq-1.4.3.0 -package-id directory-1.3.0.2 -package-id filepath-1.4.1.2 -package-id ghc-prim-0.5.1.0 -package-id old-time-1.1.0.3-JBqRS8v7R0IBEIYolASC7h -package-id pretty-1.1.3.3 -package-id process-1.4.3.0-fd021455b0f0a6c2cc80b2398121d27f7f97070f71d018c8d1c7239f430bead4 -package-id template-haskell-2.12.0.0 -package-id time-1.8.0.2 -package-id transformers-0.5.2.0 -package-id unix-2.7.2.2 /home/hithroc/Programming/slay/dist-newstyle/tmp/src-12193/alex-3.2.2/dist/setup/setup.hs -o /home/hithroc/Programming/slay/dist-newstyle/tmp/src-12193/alex-3.2.2/dist/setup/setup -threaded

which results in

/usr/bin/ghc returned ExitFailure 1 with error message:
/usr/bin/ld.gold: error: cannot find -lHStransformers-0.5.2.0
/usr/bin/ld.gold: error: cannot find -lHStemplate-haskell-2.12.0.0
/usr/bin/ld.gold: error: cannot find -lHSghc-boot-th-8.2.1
/usr/bin/ld.gold: error: cannot find
-lHSold-time-1.1.0.3-JBqRS8v7R0IBEIYolASC7h
/usr/bin/ld.gold: error: cannot find
-lHSold-locale-1.0.0.7-1sqf81TERjR1yVX7sI2OtM
/usr/bin/ld.gold: error: cannot find -lHSbinary-0.8.5.1
/usr/bin/ld.gold: error: cannot find -lHSpretty-1.1.3.3
/usr/bin/ld.gold: error: cannot find -lHSdirectory-1.3.0.2
/usr/bin/ld.gold: error: cannot find -lHSunix-2.7.2.2
/usr/bin/ld.gold: error: cannot find -lHSfilepath-1.4.1.2
/usr/bin/ld.gold: error: cannot find -lHStime-1.8.0.2
/usr/bin/ld.gold: error: cannot find -lHScontainers-0.5.10.2
/usr/bin/ld.gold: error: cannot find -lHSbytestring-0.10.8.2
/usr/bin/ld.gold: error: cannot find -lHSdeepseq-1.4.3.0
/usr/bin/ld.gold: error: cannot find -lHSarray-0.5.2.0
/usr/bin/ld.gold: error: cannot find -lHSbase-4.10.0.0
/usr/bin/ld.gold: error: cannot find -lHSinteger-gmp-1.0.1.0
/usr/bin/ld.gold: error: cannot find -lHSghc-prim-0.5.1.0
/usr/bin/ld.gold: error: cannot find -lHSrts_thr
/home/hithroc/Programming/slay/dist-newstyle/tmp/src-12193/alex-3.2.2/dist/setup/Main.o:r98Q_info:
error: undefined reference to 'newCAF'

etc. I'm not quite sure what's going on here. One possibility is that a different incompatible build of the same GHC version was installed, so that there are now dangling references to old stuff.

The build was clean (or at least I think so), with ~/.cabal, ./dist and ./dist-newstyle preemptively removed

I'd try doing that again and also removing ~/.ghc.

Also this part looks a bit weird:

reading package config: /usr/lib/ghc-8.2.1/package.conf.d/x509-system-1.6.6-802b6nq6Mfa1v0d1ClWGvd.conf
reading package config: /usr/lib/ghc-8.2.1/package.conf.d/x509-validation-1.6.9-Dd5EFAR6Bq6FmGcD5eqma4.conf
reading package config: /usr/lib/ghc-8.2.1/package.conf.d/x509-1.7.2-5MZiH8hVjrZFowdihXA6OU.conf
reading package config: /usr/lib/ghc-8.2.1/package.conf.d/idris-1.1.1-2wc4WkMCqDW7MTFXypgnJf.conf

Normally I'd not expect to find so much Haskell stuff in /usr/lib. Were all these installed by the distro's package manager?

[Hithroc]

I did already try to remove ~/.ghc too, and that didn't help.

Yes, I suppose they're installed by the package manager as dependensies to some other packages (except Idris).

[23Skidoo]

Which OS/distro are you using?

[ezyang]

I also must ask: have you managed to successfully build any Haskell program with /usr/bin/ghc? Even a simple hello world with -threaded

[Hithroc]

@ezyang Oh well, good thing that you asked that. I have no idea how I managed to overlook that. Indeed, even simple main = return () fails linking.
After investigating further I found the root of the issue: Arch Linux's ghc package no longer contains static libraries, and GHC uses static linking by default.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Haskell#Problems_with_linking

[nponeccop]

The dynamic-only GHC (and --disable-library-vanilla configure option) is a supported configuration, as can be seen from https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/8414 and similar issues in GHC.

This issue is actually a duplicate of #1720

So JFYI we expect cabal-install and even stack work well on Arch once this bug is fixed. And one person even volunteered to fix it soon!