cabal-bounds ============ A command line program for managing the bounds/versions of the dependencies in a cabal file. `cabal-bounds` is able to do three things with the bounds of the dependencies in the cabal file: * drop them * update them by the library versions of the current cabal build * update them by the library versions of a haskell platform release Example: Raise the Upper Bounds =============================== If you have several cabalized projects, then it can be quite time consuming to keep the bounds of your dependencies up to date. Especially if you're following the [package versioning policy](), then you want to raise your upper bounds from time to time, to allow the building with newer versions of the dependencies. `cabal-bounds` tries to automate this update process to some degree. So a typical update process might look like: # update the version infos of all libraries $> cabal update # drops the upper bound of all dependencies in 'myproject.cabal', most likely you want to ignore 'base' $> cabal-bounds drop --upper --ignore=base myproject.cabal # create a cabal sandbox for building of 'myproject' $> cabal sandbox init # build 'myproject' $> cabal install # update the upper bound of all dependencies in 'myproject.cabal' by the cabal build information $> cabal-bounds update --upper --ignore=base myproject.cabal dist/dist-sandbox-*/setup-config Example: Update Bounds by Haskell Platform ========================================== Ensuring that your project builds with the current [haskell platform]() - or perhaps the last two ones - can make it, especially for beginners, a lot easier to build your project. `cabal-bounds` supports the updating of the bounds by the library versions of a specific haskell platform release. To update the bounds to the haskell platform `2013.2.0.0`: $> cabal-bounds update --haskell-platform=2013.2.0.0 myproject.cabal There're two additional symbolic names for specifying a haskell platform release: `current` and `previous`. So one use case might be to initialize the bounds to library versions used by a haskell platform release, test if your project builds and works with these, and then raise the upper bounds to the newest available versions: # intialize the bounds to the previous haskell platform release $> cabal-bounds update --ignore=base --haskell-platform=previous myproject.cabal # build and test the project # initialize the lower bounds of libraries not present in the haskell platform $> cabal-bounds update --lower --missing --ignore=base myproject.cabal dist/dist-sandbox-*/setup-config # drop the upper bounds to test your project with the newest available library versions $> cabal-bounds drop --upper --ignore=base myproject.cabal # build and test the project # set the upper bounds to the ones used in the current build $> cabal-bounds update --upper --ignore=base myproject.cabal dist/dist-sandbox-*/setup-config If you specify a haskell platform release and a setup config file at once, then the setup config library verions are only used for the libraries not present in the haskell platform release. Example: Bound Changes ====================== The `=>` shows what the result is of the operation for every dependency. Left is the dependency before calling the command, right the one after calling. $> cabal-bounds drop ... lens >=4.0.1 && <4.1 => lens $> cabal-bounds drop --upper ... lens >=4.0.1 && <4.1 => lens >=4.0.1 If the cabal build (the setup-config) uses `lens 4.1.2`, then the results of the `update` command would be: $> cabal-bounds update ... lens >=4.0.1 && <4.1 => lens >=4.1.2 && <4.2 lens => lens >=4.1.2 && <4.2 $> cabal-bounds update --lower ... lens >=4.0.1 && <5 => lens >=4.1.2 && <5 lens >=4.0.1 && <4.1 => lens >=4.1.2 lens <4.1 => lens >=4.1.2 lens => lens >=4.1.2 $> cabal-bounds update --upper ... lens >=4.0.1 && <4.1 => lens >=4.0.1 && <4.2 lens >=4.0.1 => lens >=4.0.1 && <4.2 lens => lens <4.2 You can also specify which component of the version number should be updated: $> cabal-bounds update --lowercomp=minor ... lens >=4.0.1 && <4.1 => lens >=4.1.2 $> cabal-bounds update --lowercomp=major2 ... lens >=4.0.1 && <4.1 => lens >=4.1 $> cabal-bounds update --lowercomp=major1 ... lens >=4.0.1 && <4.1 => lens >=4 && <4.1 $> cabal-bounds update --uppercomp=minor ... lens >=4.0.1 && <4.1 => lens >=4.0.1 && <4.1.3 $> cabal-bounds update --uppercomp=major2 ... lens >=4.0.1 && <4.1 => lens >=4.0.1 && <4.2 $> cabal-bounds update --uppercomp=major1 ... lens >=4.0.1 && <4.1 => lens >=4.0.1 && <5 Options ======= You can restrict the modification to certain sections in the cabal file by specifing the type and the name of the section: * `--library` * `--executable=name` * `--testsuite=name` * `--benchmark=name` If you omit these options, then all sections are considered and modified. You can also restrict the modification of dependencies by specifing which dependencies should only or shouldn't be modified: * `--only=name` * `--ignore=name` You can also only update the dependencies without a bound by specifying the `--missing` flag. If you omit these options, then all dependencies are considered and modified. All options taking a name can be specified multiple times: e.g. `--executable=exe1 --executable=exe2` or `--ignore=base --ignore=whatever` Please consult `cabal-bounds --help` for a complete list of options. Installation ============ You have to ensure, that the `Cabal` library of `cabal-bounds` matches the one used by the `cabal` binary: $> cabal --version cabal-install version 1.18.0.2 using version 1.18.1 of the Cabal library $> cabal install --constraint="Cabal == 1.18.1" cabal-bounds If you update the `cabal` binary and the used `Cabal` library changes, then you have to rebuild `cabal-bounds`. Issues ====== Perhaps the currently most annoying thing is, that you have to live with the reformating of your `cabal` file done by the pretty printer of the `Cabal` library. To reformat your `cabal` file without changing any bounds you can call `cabal-bounds` with the name of a section that isn't present in the `cabal` file: $> cabal-bounds drop --executable=blub myproject.cabal