[Hackage] #427: how to access temporary build-files/logs?

[Hackage]

#427: how to access temporary build-files/logs?
----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
  Reporter:  claus          |        Owner:         
      Type:  enhancement    |       Status:  new    
  Priority:  normal         |    Milestone:         
 Component:  Cabal library  |      Version:  1.6.0.1
  Severity:  normal         |   Resolution:         
  Keywords:                 |   Difficulty:  normal 
Ghcversion:  6.8.3          |     Platform:         
----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
Comment (by duncan):

 It's not clear to me actually that a `cabal install foobar --keep-build-
 dir` is useful since it's not going to be default. It cannot be default
 since we cannot leave large build dirs around for all builds. Even just
 failing builds would be too many, we do not want to force all users to
 periodically clean up old failed build trees.

 Consider the senario:
 {{{
 $ cabal install foobar
 }}}

 It fails, so you run it again:
 {{{
 $ cabal install foobar --keep-build-dir
 ...
 cabal: build dir is at /tmp/foobar.34463/
 }}}

 So now you can go there and try and fix it:
 {{{
 $ cd /tmp/foobar.34463/
 $ vim src/Foobar.hs
 $ cabal install
 }}}

 But in that case isn't it just the same workflow as:

 {{{
 $ cabal install foobar
 }}}

 It fails, so you unpack it, fix it and install:
 {{{
 $ cabal unpack foobar
 $ cd foobar-1.0/
 $ vim src/Foobar.hs
 $ cabal install
 }}}

 In fact it has the exact same number of steps uses fewer obscure flags and
 it works right now (the unpack command is in the current darcs version).
 So perhaps the only thing we need to do is make it clear to hackers that
 they can `cabal unpack` to debug a failing build.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/hackage/ticket/427#comment:7>
Hackage <http://haskell.org/cabal/>
Hackage: Cabal and related projects