Old versions of GHC (7.0 and 7.2) 'couldn't find timestamp record for given compiler/platform pair'

[dbp]

I'm doing a little application archeology, and need to install some packages that don't work with modern versions of base. I tried to install an application using 7.0.4 and 7.2.2 (the two oldest versions supported by halcyon) and both errored out in the following way:

-----> Restoring GHC directory
       Extracting halcyon-ghc-7.0.4.tar.gz... done, 598MB

-----> Using existing Cabal directory

-----> Determining constraints
       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 .
   *** ERROR: Failed to determine constraints

This is with an ubuntu 14.10 system.

[dbp]

Hmm. As a follow up, I don't think this is a problem with old versions, but with switching versions. Now running it with halcyon install --ghc-version=7.8.4 produces the same error.

[mietek]

This is unexpected, but unlikely to be a Halcyon issue. Which Cabal version are you using?

[mietek]

I can’t reproduce this. My simple test application, hello, installs successfully on Ubuntu 14.10 with all of the following:

• GHC 7.0.4 and Cabal 1.20.0.3
• GHC 7.0.4 and Cabal 1.22.2.0
• GHC 7.2.2 and Cabal 1.20.0.3
• GHC 7.2.2 and Cabal 1.22.2.0

[dbp]

@mietek In that case, let's close this. I don't actually think it was anything specific to 7.2, but rather switching between versions. I'll create a new issue if I can give an actual reproduction.

[mietek]

I wouldn’t expect switching GHC versions to cause any issues. On the other hand, switching Cabal versions has already caused reproducible issues (haskell/cabal#2320).

[mietek]

@dbp: Please also take a look at haskell/cabal#1869 and haskell/cabal#2491.

[dbp]

Oh that seems possible. I was definitely switching while building. Is it
possible that a sandbox was left around? Or is the sandbox in /app ever
persisted?

On Tuesday, May 5, 2015, Miëtek Bak notifications@github.com wrote:

@dbp https://github.com/dbp: Please also take a look at
haskell/cabal#2491 haskell/cabal#2491.

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[mietek]

Halcyon keeps track of the versions of GHC and Cabal used to build the Halcyon-managed sandbox, and should automatically prevent a version mismatch. Perhaps you’ve had some leftover files in your project’s directory?

[dbp]

Certainly likely. I believe I tried to build without halcyon first before I
realized I needed an older version of GHC.

On Tuesday, May 5, 2015, Miëtek Bak notifications@github.com wrote:

Halcyon keeps track of the versions of GHC and Cabal used to build the
Halcyon-managed sandbox, and should automatically prevent a version
mismatch. Perhaps you’ve had some leftover files in your project’s
directory?

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#73 (comment).