[Haskell-beginners] cabal check complains about missing Setup.hs

[Daniel Fischer]

On Thursday 28 July 2011, 14:17:04, Ovidiu Deac wrote:
> When I run cabal check I get the following message:
> 
> $ cabal check
> The following errors will cause portability problems on other
> environments: * The package is missing a Setup.hs or Setup.lhs script.
> 
> Hackage would reject this package.
> 
> 
> ...but except this the package builds fine so far and the executable
> runs fine.
> 
> So what does this exactly mean?

It means that, while cabal can build packages with the `simple' build type 
without a Setup.[l]hs, other ways to build and install a package, in 
particular the old

$ runhaskell ./Setup.hs configure
$ runhaskell ./Setup.hs build
$ runhaskell ./Setup.hs install

need a Setup.[l]hs. Most of the time the simple

module Main (main) where

import Distribution.Simple

main :: IO ()
main = defaultMain

works. If it doesn't, probably even cabal won't be able to build the 
package without a Setup script.

Cheers,
Daniel