Haskell related Debian packages


12 Dec 2002 11:36:59 -0500


I'm considering packaging several Haskell libraries for Debian, and
wonder what people think about where things should go.

Please excuse me if anyone feels that this email isn't appropriate for
this mailing list.  Though these are somewhat Debian-specific
questions, I thought that some Haskell folks could lent their
insight.  You would be the users after all.

There aren't many examples of libraries (without any binaries) that
are packaged thus far.  I noticed that ctklight installs stuff in
/usr/share/hugs98/extentions, but it can be used with GHC also, so I
am not sure why its done this way. I don't use hugs too much though,
also I don't know anything about nhc.

So I'm considering sticking the *.lhs files for HUnit, for example, in
/usr/share/hunit.  Then people can alter their Makefiles to include
that directory in either hugs or ghc, but I see one problem with that:
GHC would want to compile the source files, and stick them in
/usr/share/hunit, but would be unable to (because of permissions
problems when users compile).

The package could install binary files, but then it would build-depend
on ghc which doesn't exist for several Debian platforms.  So I guess
it could check to see if ghc is installed on the building computer and
stick binaries in /usr/lib.

Another option would be to compile packages for GHC in the post-install
script if ghc is installed, and stick those installed files in
/usr/lib, and the .hs files in /usr/share/hugs98/extentions if hugs is
installed.

So my question is: if you were / are using Debian, what do you think
that a well-behaved Haskell library package should do?  Also Debian
users might email me privately with suggestions on what are the most
important programs to package: I plan to start with the ones I use the
most.


peace,

Isaac