readline package does not respect Cabal --extra-{include,lib}-dirs flags

[duncan]

The readline package still uses a ./configure script. It has flags to set extra library and include dirs to search. These are needed by OSX users.

The ./configure script takes the flags:

--with-readline-includes=
--with-readline-libraries=

However when an end user installs the package via Cabal, (either runghc Setup or cabal) they use the Cabal flags:

--extra-include-dirs=
--extra-lib-dirs=

The problem is that the two sets of flags are not connected at all. If the configure script needs to know these directories then the Setup.hs for the package should pass them through. Users are not expected to know the per-package configure flags, especially when we already have suitable generic flags for the same purpose.

The end result is that OSX users cannot install readline. Eg, today someone complained:

hm, I have installed libreadline from mac ports and I have
told cabal to look for it in --extra-include-dirs
--extra-lib-dirs I also have installed the GNU.framework for
mac but it still fails...any suggestions?

This problem actually applies to most bindings packages that use configure scripts. See also  this Cabal ticket about similar mismatches with configure scripts.

[ckeen]

I was the one complaining. I wrote a small (and ugly) patch that seems to work when running Setup.hs in the directory. Running cabal does still not work. Please excuse the bad style I am still a beginner in haskell.

I appreciate any suggestions on how to solve this better.

Kind regards,

Christian

[ckeen]

patch agains the readline darcs repo also works with cabal

[igloo]

If it doesn't work with cabal-install then we should probably look for a solution that does.

[YitzGale]

See also  Cabal Ticket #631.

[igloo]

readline no longer comes with GHC, so I'm closing this ticket.