Bindist for ARM

[samuela]

There are no bindists for ARM. This is currently blocking ghcup support for the raspberry pi and other ARM devices: https://gitlab.haskell.org/haskell/ghcup-hs/issues/12#note_266006.

See https://downloads.haskell.org/~cabal/cabal-install-3.2.0.0/.

What needs to be done to get bindists for ARM?

[hvr]

I'd need to figure out on which machine those arm7 bindists of GHC were built on (ping @bgamari?) and whether I can get access there to build cabal binaries accordingly.

Same for aarch64 btw

[phadej]

I'd prefer that this is resolved via #6616 and not so various people provide bindists (in pretty opaque way). The assembly of bindists should be scripted with scripts perfectly living in this repository.

[phadej]

Note my comment on #6616. Based on my this week experiences, if ARM is not a platform which "just works", we (= regular Cabal contributors) won't have resources to maintain it.

[hasufell]

I feel this is a little awkward zic-zac. We made @samuela do extensive work on the cabal CI, although he was merely interested in ARM bindists. Now we're telling him ARM won't be supported? There surely is a better way to handle this:

1. include it in the CI
2. make sure users understand it is experimental
3. ask people for help on ARM, if bindists don't work. Apparently, there's at least a couple who care.

[samuela]

Ok, it's official... Apple is switching to ARM! So getting ARM builds working one way or another will be necessary.

[hasufell]

@samuela if you manage to make such bindists manually, then they can be used by ghcup as well. We're not constrained to upstream bindists.

[GrahamCampbell]

I am having trouble bootstrapping 3.4.0.0-rc1 on arm64/v8 with GHC 8.10.2 and LLVM 9. Everything works fine on amd64 with exactly the same code, but not on arm64/v8.
I used the following boostrap json config:

linux-8.10.2.json

{
    "builtin": [
        {
            "package": "rts",
            "version": "1.0"
        },
        {
            "package": "ghc-prim",
            "version": "0.6.1"
        },
        {
            "package": "integer-gmp",
            "version": "1.0.3.0"
        },
        {
            "package": "base",
            "version": "4.14.1.0"
        },
        {
            "package": "array",
            "version": "0.5.4.0"
        },
        {
            "package": "deepseq",
            "version": "1.4.4.0"
        },
        {
            "package": "bytestring",
            "version": "0.10.10.0"
        },
        {
            "package": "containers",
            "version": "0.6.2.1"
        },
        {
            "package": "binary",
            "version": "0.8.8.0"
        },
        {
            "package": "filepath",
            "version": "1.4.2.1"
        },
        {
            "package": "time",
            "version": "1.9.3"
        },
        {
            "package": "unix",
            "version": "2.7.2.2"
        },
        {
            "package": "directory",
            "version": "1.3.6.0"
        },
        {
            "package": "transformers",
            "version": "0.5.6.2"
        },
        {
            "package": "mtl",
            "version": "2.2.2"
        },
        {
            "package": "text",
            "version": "1.2.3.2"
        },
        {
            "package": "parsec",
            "version": "3.1.14.0"
        },
        {
            "package": "pretty",
            "version": "1.1.3.6"
        },
        {
            "package": "process",
            "version": "1.6.9.0"
        },
        {
            "package": "ghc-boot-th",
            "version": "8.10.2"
        },
        {
            "package": "template-haskell",
            "version": "2.16.0.0"
        },
        {
            "package": "stm",
            "version": "2.5.0.0"
        }
    ],
    "dependencies": [
        {
            "cabal_sha256": null,
            "flags": [
                "-bundled-binary-generic"
            ],
            "package": "Cabal",
            "revision": null,
            "source": "local",
            "src_sha256": null,
            "version": "3.4.0.0"
        },
        {
            "cabal_sha256": "b704cb6676c03e98267190df797497587576a2e96094550ea143415239bbe66e",
            "flags": [],
            "package": "network",
            "revision": 0,
            "source": "hackage",
            "src_sha256": "d7ef590173fff2ab522fbc167f3fafb867e4ecfca279eb3ef0d137b51f142c9a",
            "version": "3.1.1.1"
        },
        {
            "cabal_sha256": "d2d9ff3a80d9b2d1ff317a354bc0c56cc109c69a4c2449e5fc712d3ddce83ede",
            "flags": [],
            "package": "network-uri",
            "revision": 0,
            "source": "hackage",
            "src_sha256": "a01c1389f15d2cc2e847914737f706133bb11f0c5f8ee89711a36a25b7afa723",
            "version": "2.6.3.0"
        },
        {
            "cabal_sha256": "3c19975fdfd8d057eae58847bda6a79514ad882fd6f8ead72ac0247af34bdfc6",
            "flags": [
                "-conduit10",
                "-mtl1",
                "+network-uri",
                "-warn-as-error",
                "-warp-tests"
            ],
            "package": "HTTP",
            "revision": 1,
            "source": "hackage",
            "src_sha256": "a602d7f30e917164c6a634f8cb1f5df4849048858db01380a0875e16e5aa687b",
            "version": "4000.3.14"
        },
        {
            "cabal_sha256": "4c70f1407881059e93550d3742191254296b2737b793a742bd901348fb3e1fb1",
            "flags": [
                "-examples",
                "+integer-gmp",
                "+sse2",
                "-sse41"
            ],
            "package": "hashable",
            "revision": 1,
            "source": "hackage",
            "src_sha256": "822e5413fbccca6ae884d3aba4066422c8b5d58d23d18b9ecb5c03273bb19ab4",
            "version": "1.3.0.0"
        },
        {
            "cabal_sha256": "a178c166856da7ff22fe4500337b54812e94fd2059409452187d72e057ede9cd",
            "flags": [
                "-bench"
            ],
            "package": "async",
            "revision": 1,
            "source": "hackage",
            "src_sha256": "4b4ab1ac82c45144d82c6daf6cb6ba45eab9957dad44787fa5e869e23d73bbff",
            "version": "2.2.2"
        },
        {
            "cabal_sha256": "8cbba2505d4da4f6cfc90cd36c8e8ad0c09c056538481ea00e8b10b78f70cb10",
            "flags": [],
            "package": "base16-bytestring",
            "revision": 0,
            "source": "hackage",
            "src_sha256": "525689679d5cc80fa532c1d5cfeace0f62bbb54134fad514f1ba00d0e7fe69ba",
            "version": "0.1.1.7"
        },
        {
            "cabal_sha256": "190264fef9e65d9085f00ccda419137096d1dc94777c58272bc96821dc7f37c3",
            "flags": [],
            "package": "base64-bytestring",
            "revision": 0,
            "source": "hackage",
            "src_sha256": "210d6c9042241ca52ee5d89cf221dbeb4d0e64b37391345369035ad2d9b4aca9",
            "version": "1.1.0.0"
        },
        {
            "cabal_sha256": "b963d6308db096362d73d9c603b331cf188aa69310195f479dfedf6045d7e602",
            "flags": [
                "-exe"
            ],
            "package": "cryptohash-sha256",
            "revision": 4,
            "source": "hackage",
            "src_sha256": "52756435dbea248e344fbcbcc5df5307f60dfacf337dfd11ae30f1c7a4da05dd",
            "version": "0.11.101.0"
        },
        {
            "cabal_sha256": "5490be9cfbea95e14a7a68b7d055ae8d295822e0b146d2ac8285b3e5a3e3282f",
            "flags": [
                "-example"
            ],
            "package": "echo",
            "revision": 1,
            "source": "hackage",
            "src_sha256": "704f07310f8272d170f8ab7fb2a2c13f15d8501ef8310801e36964c8eff485ef",
            "version": "0.1.3"
        },
        {
            "cabal_sha256": "d50c4d0801a35be7875a040470c09863342514930c82a7d25780a6c2efc4fda9",
            "flags": [
                "-optimised-mixer"
            ],
            "package": "splitmix",
            "revision": 0,
            "source": "hackage",
            "src_sha256": "1c11c87352ddbb13365380fe163f99bb8f8845ebc96ca1d572e5d3a9bf810bfa",
            "version": "0.1"
        },
        {
            "cabal_sha256": "5ca8674e95c46c7eb90f520c26aea22d403625c97697275434afba66ebd32b05",
            "flags": [],
            "package": "random",
            "revision": 0,
            "source": "hackage",
            "src_sha256": "e4519cf7c058bfd5bdbe4acc782284acc9e25e74487208619ca83cbcd63fb9de",
            "version": "1.2.0"
        },
        {
            "cabal_sha256": "4d33a49cd383d50af090f1b888642d10116e43809f9da6023d9fc6f67d2656ee",
            "flags": [],
            "package": "edit-distance",
            "revision": 1,
            "source": "hackage",
            "src_sha256": "3e8885ee2f56ad4da940f043ae8f981ee2fe336b5e8e4ba3f7436cff4f526c4a",
            "version": "0.2.2.1"
        },
        {
            "cabal_sha256": "fb98b08de467d51f788f8bd9391f0e9ab9bd4d8dfc264296b895ffea0d822dfa",
            "flags": [
                "+no-donna",
                "+test-doctests",
                "+test-hlint",
                "+test-properties"
            ],
            "package": "ed25519",
            "revision": 3,
            "source": "hackage",
            "src_sha256": "d8a5958ebfa9309790efade64275dc5c441b568645c45ceed1b0c6ff36d6156d",
            "version": "0.0.5.0"
        },
        {
            "cabal_sha256": "c9d3fa30fb6ab2ba16e037586ca79be6e57ec5f00381b6ee5f293400dbdf5515",
            "flags": [
                "+ofd-locking"
            ],
            "package": "lukko",
            "revision": 0,
            "source": "hackage",
            "src_sha256": "8a79d113dc0ccef16c24d83379cc457485943027e777529c46362fecc06607d2",
            "version": "0.1.1.2"
        },
        {
            "cabal_sha256": "7a715414c4d494c9048cfb6d7634e07e7732ca154cb8938dc85f6ea192192e8c",
            "flags": [
                "-old-bytestring",
                "-old-time"
            ],
            "package": "tar",
            "revision": 2,
            "source": "hackage",
            "src_sha256": "b384449f62b2b0aa3e6d2cb1004b8060b01f21ec93e7b63e7af6d8fad8a9f1de",
            "version": "0.5.1.1"
        },
        {
            "cabal_sha256": "d34ddf5fece4d1e9d471b5298f36335bb3cfe12cb5a1b8525c42f0b665382f45",
            "flags": [
                "-non-blocking-ffi",
                "-pkg-config"
            ],
            "package": "zlib",
            "revision": 1,
            "source": "hackage",
            "src_sha256": "f0f810ff173560b60392db448455c0513b3239f48e43cb494b3733aa559621d0",
            "version": "0.6.2.1"
        },
        {
            "cabal_sha256": "692c385c085baa2813046ae58e31df21c250346b81c882431b5ffef76451a18a",
            "flags": [
                "+base48",
                "+lukko",
                "-mtl21",
                "-old-directory",
                "+use-network-uri"
            ],
            "package": "hackage-security",
            "revision": 2,
            "source": "hackage",
            "src_sha256": "9162b473af5a21c1ff32a50b972b9acf51f4c901604a22cf08a2dccac2f82f17",
            "version": "0.6.0.1"
        },
        {
            "cabal_sha256": "44aa95ca762294ffbb28cf0af9c567d93b5d2c56e4f38ce5385a257d899f968e",
            "flags": [],
            "package": "regex-base",
            "revision": 1,
            "source": "hackage",
            "src_sha256": "c41f82f5fc1157c961a4cbdc0cd5561e5aa44f339ce6e706d978d97e0ca6b914",
            "version": "0.94.0.0"
        },
        {
            "cabal_sha256": "690d1366e9ea6df71ded3daf49ca3d53c63eda3f95937962299b2391824dc3b3",
            "flags": [
                "-_regex-posix-clib"
            ],
            "package": "regex-posix",
            "revision": 1,
            "source": "hackage",
            "src_sha256": "251300f1a6bb2e91abb8bf513a21981f8fab79c98a65acea2bb6d6a524414521",
            "version": "0.96.0.0"
        },
        {
            "cabal_sha256": "0a9a6dd29706258ae60a5c22aecc140a40743b8f08fc324fd9984e7dfbf3a80d",
            "flags": [],
            "package": "resolv",
            "revision": 0,
            "source": "hackage",
            "src_sha256": "81a2bafad484db123cf8d17a02d98bb388a127fd0f822fa022589468a0e64671",
            "version": "0.1.2.0"
        },
        {
            "cabal_sha256": null,
            "flags": [
                "-debug-conflict-sets",
                "-debug-expensive-assertions",
                "-debug-tracetree",
                "+lukko",
                "+native-dns"
            ],
            "package": "cabal-install",
            "revision": null,
            "source": "local",
            "src_sha256": null,
            "version": "3.4.0.0"
        }
    ]
}

Failing step on arm64/v8:

Installing library in /usr/local/lib/ghc-8.10.2/ghc-8.10.2
"/usr/local/lib/ghc-8.10.2/bin/ghc-pkg" --force --global-package-db "/usr/local/lib/ghc-8.10.2/package.conf.d" update rts/dist/package.conf.install
ghc-pkg: Couldn't open database /usr/local/lib/ghc-8.10.2/package.conf.d for modification: {handle: /usr/local/lib/ghc-8.10.2/package.conf.d/package.cache.lock}: hLock: invalid argument (Invalid argument)

The same step on amd64:

Installing library in /usr/local/lib/ghc-8.10.2/ghc-8.10.2
"/usr/local/lib/ghc-8.10.2/bin/ghc-pkg" --force --global-package-db "/usr/local/lib/ghc-8.10.2/package.conf.d" update rts/dist/package.conf.install
Reading package info from "rts/dist/package.conf.install" ... done.
"utils/ghc-cabal/dist-install/build/tmp/ghc-cabal-bindist" register libraries/ghc-prim dist-install "/usr/local/lib/ghc-8.10.2/bin/ghc" "/usr/local/lib/ghc-8.10.2/bin/ghc-pkg" "/usr/local/lib/ghc-8.10.2" '' '/usr/local' '/usr/local/lib/ghc-8.10.2' '/usr/local/share/doc/ghc-8.10.2/html/libraries' NO  

[jneira]

Afaik we already have cabal bindists for arm thanks to gitlab ci config added by @hasufell so we could close this
@samuela feel free to reopen if anything is missing