Use the righ ghc-9.4.8 tarball for Debian Linux without version

[marinelli]

I think we have the wrong tarball specified for ghc-9.4.8 for Debian GNU/Linux (x64) when the version of the distro is unknown. We use deb11 since version 9.4.1:

$ cat ghcup-0.0.8.yaml | yq '.ghcupDownloads .GHC | map_values (.viArch.A_64.Linux_Debian.unknown_versioning)' | tail 
9.4.3: *ghc-943-64-deb11
9.4.4: *ghc-944-64-deb11
9.4.5: *ghc-945-64-deb11
9.4.6: *ghc-946-64-deb11
9.4.7: *ghc-947-64-deb11
9.4.8: *ghc-948-64-deb9
9.6.1: *ghc-961-64-deb11
9.6.2: *ghc-962-64-deb11
9.6.3: *ghc-963-64-deb11
9.8.1: *ghc981-x86_64-deb11

[hasufell]

This is not a mistake. We want to use the oldest tarball (highest glibc compatibility) if we can't find out the distro version.

This was discussed here: #127 (comment)

[marinelli]

This is not a mistake. We want to use the oldest tarball (highest glibc compatibility) if we can't find out the distro version.

This was discussed here: #127 (comment)

The sentences there seems to be a bit contradictory, but maybe I do not understand the reasoning made there.

As you wrote at point 1, I have problems installing ghc on Debian GNU/Linux testing/unstable due to libtinfo version, it defaults to deb9.

I do not really think it's a good idea to set it to an old version, that is also discontinued as a Debian release [1]. There're distros, like gLinux (used in Google), that are based on Debian Testing.

But I also think that the approach used is wrong.
If we have some predicate P(C1, C2, ..., Cn) to identify the platform version, where every condition Ci is the result of reading some information in the running OS, why would I default to the oldest version if we do not have enough information to choose the right one?
For an old platform version, given that is old and more stable, the conditions Ci, encoded in ghcup, will be sufficient to identify the right platform.
On the other hand, for an unreleased version, the Ci conditions will not be enough anymore to identify the proper platform (maybe due to a new soname for a library). In this case I would use, by default, the latest available platform, it might have a chance to be compatible with the running OS.

[1] https://wiki.debian.org/LTS

[hasufell]

I have problems installing ghc on Debian GNU/Linux testing/unstable due to libtinfo version, it defaults to deb9.

Can you paste the contents of /etc/os-release?

[hasufell]

Debian testing/unstable has the following os-release:

PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux trixie/sid"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_CODENAME=trixie
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"

It's missing a VERSION field.

[hasufell]

But I also think that the approach used is wrong.

As explained in the linked comment, you're simply trading glibc issues with ncurses/tinfo issues. Which ones are more prominent may depend on the distro.

[hasufell]

#151

[hasufell]

Fixed

[marinelli]

Fixed

Nice! But I think you run too fast :)

I'll add a couple of comments there.