[arch-haskell] How to currently install haskell packages?

[Xyne]

Magnus Therning wrote:

> This episode has made me consider whether the tight dependency between
> [haskell] and [extra]/[community] should be broken in the future.
> 
> /M

I think I argued for breaking this dependency completely during the discussions
after Don stepped down.

If you bring all of the Haskell packages currently spread across [extra] and
[community] into [haskell] (including ghc), then you eliminate all of
synchronization issues. You will have full control over topological rebuilds
and you can ensure the the included packages form a compatible subset.

Users can place [haskell] above [extra] in pacman.conf, which would avoid
issues if ghc and some other packages remain in the official repos*. That should
not be an issue though because I think there is a good chance that [haskell]
could obtain official status. I don't remember exactly where I saw it, but just
two days ago I found a wiki page or a mailing list post where the devs had
stated that they would like to see more repos dedicated to specific goals. The
[haskell] repo definitely qualifies.

Another advantage of keeping everything in one repo is that it you could then
have non-conflicting repos with different versions of GHC and different subsets
of packages. I am not suggesting that you maintain such repos. I am only
pointing out that it would make it easier to do so.

I truly believe that this would improve the Haskell experience on Arch.

/X



* This should work even if [haskell] depends on some (non-Haskell) packages in
  [extra]. Pacman searches the repos in order, but it will still descend past
  [haskell] in the list to satisfy dependencies of packages in [haskell]. The
  order simply ensures that it will find ghc etc in [haskell] instead of
  [extra].