[Haskell-cafe] Distributing Linux binaries

[Conrad Meyer]

On Monday 09 March 2009 01:26:37 pm Don Stewart wrote:
> lists:
> > Hi folks,
> >
> > I've got an application to release. I'm releasing the source, but I also
> > wanted to release binary versions for people that don't have GHC. I
> > developed on Windows, so making a Windows executable was simple. I also
> > have access to an Ubuntu Linux box, on which I can easily build and test
> > my app.
> >
> > But, I'm a bit confused about how to release binaries for Linux. It's not
> > so simple as on Windows. Or, maybe it is but I don't know it. What do
> > people recommend as a way of distributing Linux binaries? I tried to make
> > a Debian package and couldn't figure it out, but maybe that's overkill.
> > GHC itself has some kind of tarball for the binary distributions, one for
> > Debian and one for Red Hat. How would I make such a package and what
> > would go into it? There's only one executable, so it shouldn't be too
> > complicated.
>
> You could make a .cabal package for it, and use that to construct a
> binary tar.gz bundle that's installable.
>
> Duncan, is there a cabal binary-dist?

This seems like the best way to release it to me. Individual distros can 
package cabalised source tarballs as they choose; any typical user can cabal 
install the package.

Regards,
-- 
Conrad Meyer <konrad at tylerc.org>