building GHC for Slackware/Salix

[tim.beech]

Dear Ian,

Thanks for your response. Here is the output of the bad tests:

http://pastebin.com/iepNQPf0

Since first posting to the haskell-users list, I have tried several
other builds with similar results. This one simply unpacks the
unknown-linux bindist of GHC (as well as building the versions of gmp
and libffi it needs) and builds from the GHC source against that. Here
is what's passed to configure:

./configure --prefix=/usr --libdir=/usr/lib${LIBDIRSUFFIX}
--mandir=/usr/man --docdir=/usr/doc/$pkgname-$pkgver
--with-ghc=$startdir/src/stage_0_build/usr/bin/ghc

For what it's worth, here is the whole thing - but I doubt it's
relevant:

http://people.salixos.org/mimosa/packages/ghc/7.4.2/SLKBUILD.new


Unless there is an absolute necessity, I'd prefer to build it without
any other Haskell bits and pieces. But if this isn't possible, what *is*
needed? I have already established that the Haskell Platform alone isn't
sufficient to make these errors go away.

The problem with the build script for Haskell Platform turns out to be
an error in the script, nothing to do with needing to be root to execute
the recache command. You are also right that Haskell Platform makes no
difference to the way the documentation is built. I saw dblatex on the
page about build prerequisites, but I can't find it for Slackware/Salix.
In any case, the html documentation is good enough. My main concern is
getting a robust, usable build of GHC itself.

So far I'm only a Haskell user in the sense that my WM is XMonad, and
this build of GHC certainly hasn't caused any trouble in that
department.

Tim