[Hackage] #42: implement hugs-pkg?

[Hackage]

#42: implement hugs-pkg?
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  Reporter:  ijones         |        Owner:  ross at soi.city.ac.uk
      Type:  enhancement    |       Status:  new                
  Priority:  normal         |    Milestone:                     
 Component:  Cabal library  |      Version:                     
  Severity:  normal         |   Resolution:                     
  Keywords:                 |   Difficulty:  normal             
Ghcversion:  6.2.2          |     Platform:                     
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Changes (by duncan):

  * owner:  => ross at soi.city.ac.uk

Comment:

 So I'm happy with the idea that for hugs and nhc that we do not need a
 distinct concept of a package database. The package database can coincide
 with the location where packages are installed, and hugs/nhc just look in
 that dir for their packages. Cabal would also look there for the
 `InstalledPackageInfo` files. So the package db and the libdir are really
 the same thing.

 Hugs already looks in `~/lib/hugs/*` for package directories.

 So for hugs there are two things to do:
   * make Cabal and hugs agree on where the per-user install path for
 package should be. Currently cabal-install puts them in
 `~/.cabal/lib/hugs/*` (or something like that).
   * get the next release of hugs to include the `InstalledPackageInfo`
 files for all the packages that it comes with. This will enable cabal to
 know what packages are installed by reading these files, just as it does
 with ghc by asking ghc-pkg for the equivalent info.

 I'm not sure which of Hugs or Cabal should change on the issue of where
 packages are instelled per-user. I know people would scream if cabal
 installed things in `~/lib` by default, but perhaps if they're using hugs
 then they don't care. If we have to get hugs to change anyway to include
 the `InstalledPackageInfo` files then adding an extra default search path
 entry for a location under `~/.cabal/` would not be any more work.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/hackage/ticket/42#comment:3>
Hackage <http://haskell.org/cabal/>
Hackage: Cabal and related projects