cabal: library archive index and Mac OS X?

[Isaac Jones]

Wolfgang Thaller <wolfgang.thaller at gmx.net> writes:

(snip)
> The index stores a time stamp; if the .a file's modification date is
> newer, then ld will refuse to load from it until you re-run
> ranlib. This commonly happens when you first build your .a files and
> then touch their modification date while installing.

Owch.  That's some odd behavior; any links to an explanation for why
it works that way?  Does this happen on other arches?

I don't see a cabal-side workaround... maybe GHC should run ranlib
before linking?  Is there any drawback to that?  Are there any flags
to ln to change this behavior?

peace,

  isaac