Cabal

Syntax#

• cabal <command> where <command> is one of:
• [global]
  • update
    • Updates list of known packages
  • install
    • Install packages
  • help
    • Help about commands
  • info
    • Display detailed information about a particular package
  • list
    • List packages matching a search string
  • fetch
    • Downloads packages for later installation
  • user-config
    • Display and update the user’s global cabal configuration
• [package]
  • get
    • Download/Extract a package’s source code (repository)
  • init
    • Create a new .cabal package file (interactively)
  • configure
    • Prepare to build the package
  • build
    • Compile all/specific components
  • clean
    • Clean up after a build
  • run
    • Builds and runs an executable
  • repl
    • Open an interpreter session for the given component
  • test
    • Run all/specific tests in the test suite
  • bench
    • Run all/specific benchmarks
  • check
    • Check the package for common mistakes
  • sdist
    • Generate a source distribution file (.tar.gz)
  • upload
    • Uploads source packages or documentation to Hackage
  • report
    • Upload build reports to a remote server
  • freeze
    • Freeze dependencies
  • gen-bounds
    • Generate dependency bounds
  • haddock
    • Generate Haddock HTML documentation
  • hscolour
    • Generate HsColour colourised code, in HTML format
  • copy
    • Copy the files into the install locations
  • register
    • Register this package with the compiler
• [sandbox]
  • sandbox
    • Create/modify/delete a sandbox
      • cabal sandbox init [FLAGS]
      • cabal sandbox delete [FLAGS]
      • cabal sandbox add-source [FLAGS] PATHS
      • cabal sandbox delete-source [FLAGS] PATHS
      • cabal sandbox list-sources [FLAGS]
      • cabal sandbox hc-pkg [FLAGS] [—] COMMAND [—] [ARGS]
  • exec
    • Give a command access to the sandbox package repository
  • repl
    • Open interpreter with access to sandbox packages

Install packages

To install a new package, e.g. aeson:

cabal install aeson

Working with sandboxes

A Haskell project can either use the system wide packages or use a sandbox. A sandbox is an isolated package database and can prevent dependency conflicts, e. g. if multiple Haskell projects use different versions of a package.

To initialize a sandbox for a Haskell package go to its directory and run:

cabal sandbox init

Now packages can be installed by simply running cabal install.

Listing packages in a sandbox:

cabal sandbox hc-pkg list

Deleting a sandbox:

cabal sandbox delete

Add local dependency:

cabal sandbox add-source /path/to/dependency