cabal-exec-install.sh

script for (automatized) installation of haskell executables with cabal using sandboxes

intention

if you..

• want a basic set of cabal executables (such as hoogle, pandoc, hlint, ..), but do not use haskell platform
• do not want to clutter your global/user package databases, but use sandboxes instead
• do not want to learn/use nix (http://nixos.org/nix/) (i survived without it so far)

target:

• linux
• tested on
  • archlinux with only the ghc package installed
  • debian: you have to manually install a more recent cabal-install because the default one in the official repos does not support sandboxes. Once it is installed, you can clear your user package-database again (if cabal-install put some garbage in there) and use this script to upgrade cabal-install in the future (with no cleaning necessary).

main properties:

• sandboxes for everything (one sandbox per package).
• installs executables to $HOME/.cabal/bin (so add that to PATH, and be done)
• currently the sandbox directory is hardcoded to $HOME/.cabal/sandboxes/

usage description:

0. [optional] delete $HOME/.ghc and $HOME/.cabal
1. add $HOME/.cabal/bin to PATH
2. modify the MAIN section of this script to contain a "echo-install foo" line for each executable foo you want installed
3. run the script
4. wait an hour while everything installs
5. [optional] enable "require-sandbox: True" in ~/.cabal/config to never accidentally install stuff user-globally

• result:
  • each foo will be sandbox-installed in $HOME/.cabal/sandboxes/foo/
  • the executables will be put in $HOME/.cabal/bin/
  • the data directory for the executable will be $HOME/.cabal/share/foo/

uninstall:

1. delete $HOME/.cabal/sandboxes
2. delete the relevant executables
3. delete this file :D

notes:

• one warning: the sandbox directory can easily grow to several GB of size. (there should be no problems deleting it once the executables are installed, though. but then you need to re-install everything for upgrades - not worth it imho)
• no error handling, really. if there are errors, you will have to manually fix them to get the relevant executables installed.
• ghc-7.10.3 still is the safest bet for installing executables (until all major packages become compatible with ghc-8.0.*). If your system ships with ghc-8.0, you can use a locally installed ghc-7.10.3 by passing the --with-compiler=.. flag to this script; it will be forwarded to cabal.