Installing the binary tarball requires build tools (binutils, gcc, etc.)

[matthijs]

When installing the binary tarball (e.g., http://www.haskell.org/ghc/dist/6.10.4/ghc-6.10.4-i386-unknown-linux-n.tar.bz2), you need to run ./configure && make install. However, configure does the full build-time set of checks, complaining about the lack of binutils, gcc, and whatnot.

I'm trying to build a small system which doesn't have any build tools, and I'd rather not install them just for satisfying configure :-)

[matthijs]

Also see  Haskell Platform ticket #95 which also doesn't work without build utilities installed (but due to completely different reasons).

[duncan]

You need gcc etc to be able to use ghc, so surely it is right for the ./configure script to check for them.

What do you expect to be able to do with ghc but without gcc et al? I suppose it'd be possible to use ghci and runghc but not use ghc to compile standalone programs. Is that what you're trying to do?

[matthijs]

I hadn't thought ahead that far, turned out I needed ghc for building the platform and other packages anyway... So, perhaps you're right and this is not an issue at all, though I was kinda confused by needing compile tools for installing a binary tarball. Perhaps the configure script could output a message for this stuff, though I think that's not too easy in autoconf? Anyway, feel free to close this ticket :-)

[igloo]

Closed, thanks.