id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	priority	milestone	component	version	severity	resolution	keywords	cc	difficulty	ghcversion	platform
277	add data-dir field	guest		"Cabal currently looks for data files to install relative to the source directory, giving the package author no possibility to move them into their own directory without cluttering up the cabal file (you end up writing things like {{{data-files: data/foo, data/bar, data/foobar}}}) and the source (where you'll have to include the {{{""data/""}}} prefix in all calls to {{{getDataFileName}}}).

The proposal is to add a {{{data-dir}}} field to the package configuration that specifies a single path which is used as a prefix for all data files in the source directory. The location of the installed files is not affected by {{{data-dir}}}.

Notes:
 * It's impossible to change {{{data-dir}}} to take a list of paths without breaking the {{{Paths_foo}}} module interface.
 * installation of data files will have to copy source files from a different location, ditto for sdist
 * installed packages don't change. In particular the {{{Paths_foo}}} module doesn't change."	enhancement	closed	normal		Cabal library	HEAD	minor	fixed			easy (<4 hours)	6.8.2