[Haskell-cafe] Optional C dependencies / build-time feature toggles

[Michael Orlitzky]

On 12/11/2016 11:53 AM, Tobias Dammers wrote:
> 
> The pipe dream would be for those dependencies to be optional *at run
> time*, such that the application would test for their presence on
> startup, or load them dynamically when and if they're needed. However,
> I'm also fine with making them compile-time feature toggles, such that
> users can enable only the ones they need. Doing some sort of
> autotools-style dependency discovery would of course be cool as well
> (i.e., only enable mysql support if libmysqlclient is present).

This actually isn't ideal, because once everything is installed, you
have no idea what is important. Can I uninstall libfoo-mysql? Well,
bar-utils is making use of it, but it always does when libfoo-mysql is
present, so there's no way to tell if the mysql support is important
(i.e. whether or not the user wanted it when he installed bar-utils).

The end result is that every "optional" dependency has to remain
installed unconditionally forever, because removing them might break
software that auto-detects their presence. (Google: "automagic
dependencies")


> So the broad question is, which of these are realistic, and how would I
> go about it?
> 
> And, regarding feature toggles, this bit in the Cabal FAQ baffles me a
> little:
> 
>> Question: I like to let the user enable extended functionality using a
>> Cabal flag. Is this the right way?
>>
>> Answer: Certainly not. Since other packages can distinguish packages
>> only according to their name and their version, it is not a good idea
>> to allow different APIs for the same package version. Cumbersome as it
>> is you have to move extra features to a separate package.

This is a cabal-install or stack deficiency, not one inherent to Haskell
packages or package management in general. The real solution: use a
feature flag, and then use a package manager that knows what to do with
them. As an added bonus, a real package manager can handle the C library
dependencies as well, and your application won't break randomly when
those libraries move around or disappear.