problem configuring generic source tarball under debian lenny: editline is missing

[aycan.irican@…]

aycan@mon:~/haskell-platform-2009.2.0$ ./configure
checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking host system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking target system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking for ghc... /home/local/bin/ghc
checking for ghc-pkg... /home/local/bin/ghc-pkg
checking for hsc2hs... /home/local/bin/hsc2hs
checking version of ghc... 6.10.2
checking version of ghc-pkg matches... yes
checking ghc actually works... yes
checking the ghc core packages are all installed... no
configure: error: The core package editline-0.2.1.0 is missing. It should have been distributed with 6.10.2
aycan@mon:~/haskell-platform-2009.2.0$ ghci
GHCi, version 6.10.2: http://www.haskell.org/ghc/  :? for help
Loading package ghc-prim ... linking ... done.
Loading package integer ... linking ... done.
Loading package base ... linking ... done.
Prelude> :q

[dons]

Strange. editline is listed as being available in ghc6 on Debian:

http://packages.debian.org/sid/amd64/ghc6/filelist

I wonder if this should be a bug against Debian, rather than the package? (We don't want to collect distro bugs here).

[duncan]

That is strange indeed. We should get an explanation from the Debian folks.

From first impressions I'd say that the ghc installation should indeed have that core package registered and that the ./configure script has correctly discovered a problem.

[dons]

Issue reported to the Debian Haskell team:

http://lists.debian.org/debian-haskell/2009/05/threads.html

[nomeata@…]

Note that the snippet above mentions ghc-6.10.2, which is not packaged for Debian yet. Aycan must have gotten it somewhere else...

[jgoerzen@…]

Smells as if the builder didn't install libeditline-dev or libedit-dev prior to building.

[dons]

OK. Closing. Not a bug with the platform, or Debian's packages.

My guess: wrong GHC+editline config downloads from haskell.org/ghc

[aycan.irican@…]

why we need editline package to build haskell platform?

[duncan]

Replying to aycan.irican@core.gen.tr:

why we need editline package to build haskell platform?

If you're asking which other platform packages need editline then the answer is none. If you're asking why do we look for editline, it's because the platform specifies a GHC release and the core libs that come with that release.

That said, we may need to make an exception anyway since I think GHC 6.10.3 does not include editline at all.