[Hackage] #220: detect inconsistent package dependencies

[Hackage]

#220: detect inconsistent package dependencies
----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
  Reporter:  duncan         |        Owner:                
      Type:  enhancement    |       Status:  new           
  Priority:  normal         |    Milestone:                
 Component:  Cabal library  |      Version:  1.2.3.0       
  Severity:  normal         |   Resolution:                
  Keywords:                 |   Difficulty:  hard (< 1 day)
Ghcversion:  6.8.2          |     Platform:                
----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
Comment (by duncan):

 This is a serious problem, package developers have responed by hard-coding
 package versions which they happen to know work with ghc-6.8.2 without
 hitting this problem.

 For example [http://hackage.haskell.org/cgi-bin/hackage-
 scripts/package/yi-0.3 yi-0.3] specifies:
 {{{
 build-depends: bytestring ==0.9.0.1
             -- >= 0.9 && < 0.9.0.4
 }}}

 It is clear that the real dependency is {{{>= 0.9 && < 0.9.1}}} because
 the API is exactly the same for the `0.9.0.x` series. However because `yi`
 depends on the `ghc` package, with `ghc-6.8.2` we would hit the problem
 that the `ghc` package is built with `bytestring-0.9.0.1`. So hard coding
 the `bytestring` version is a quick fix but it means of course that this
 package will not work with any other version of ghc and cannot take
 advantage of rebuilding the ghc package to use a different bytestring
 version.

 The solution is for the package manger to resolve this problem and not for
 packages to hard code binary dependencies, they should stick to api
 dependencies.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/hackage/ticket/220#comment:2>
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