[Hackage] #688: no indication that configuration file location is configurable (was: hard-coded path to configuration file)

[Hackage]

#688: no indication that configuration file location is configurable
---------------------------------+------------------------------------------
  Reporter:  guest               |        Owner:         
      Type:  enhancement         |       Status:  new    
  Priority:  normal              |    Milestone:         
 Component:  cabal-install tool  |      Version:  1.8.0.2
  Severity:  minor               |     Keywords:         
Difficulty:  easy (<4 hours)     |   Ghcversion:  6.10.4 
  Platform:  Linux               |  
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Comment(by duncan):

 I'm not quite sure why you say it is non-standard. It's the standard unix
 place to put per-user application files. Where would you consider to be a
 standard location?

 You can use:
 {{{
 cabal --config-file=... [command] [flags]
 }}}
 So it should work to use a shell alias, something like
 {{{
 alias cabal="cabal --config-file=..."
 }}}

 So really the bug here is not that it's hard coded (since it's not) but
 that these global flags are not easily discoverable. We don't list them
 all in the global --help so as not to clutter things, but then we need a
 way to let people know that there are extra global options and provide a
 way to get the help for them via some extended --help thing.

 So let us know about:
  * what you think the standard location should be
  * if that shell alias (or whatever equivalent you choose to use) works ok

 and we should open another ticket on providing extended help for the
 global flags.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/hackage/ticket/688#comment:1>
Hackage <http://haskell.org/cabal/>
Hackage: Cabal and related projects