Portable package installation on Haskell Platform with Cabal on windows

Question

I have Windows XP and Haskell Platform 2013 installed on it. When I want to compile my code on some computer, which has not Haskell Platform installed on it, and I'm not allowed to install anything, I can copy my Haskell Platform on USB flashcard, and run on this computer, and it's work just fine.

But sometimes I need additional packages, that are not part of the standard Haskell Platform build.

I can simply install it on my personal computer with Cabal, but I don't know, how to install them in such a way that they could work portable, i. e. from my USB flashcard on not my computer.

I tried this:

cabal install gnuplot --prefix "C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2013.2.0.0"

This installed package into Haskell platform directory, but when I run Haskell Platform on another computer, it don't see it.

I think, I should make configuration file to be installed in Haskell Platform directory, but I don't how to do it.

Please, help me to solve this problem. Thank you in advance!

---

---

Thank you very much, Mikhail Glushenkov! All work fine now.

For convenience of newbies like me, that looking for answers, I merely describe the instruction, what to do, to have same result:

0) Read the instruction before doing anything/

1) Uninstall all additional packages, that is needed to be installed portable (with dependencies): unregister this packages with

ghc-pkg unregister gnuplot

, and then delete package-files from where it stores. Also delete all related files from "package.conf.d" folders. To search them, use

ghc-pkg list

.

2) Run (maybe it's unnecessary)

ghc-pkg recache

.

3) Install package in desired directory in haskell platform. I did it in "C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2013.2.0.0\addlib":

cabal install gnuplot --prefix "C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2013.2.0.0\addlib" --global

.

4) Change every new file, related to installed packages in "package.conf.d": replace "C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2013.2.0.0\addlib\utility-ht-0.0.9\ghc-7.6.3" in them like that: "$topdir\..\addlib\utility-ht-0.0.9\ghc-7.6.3", i. e. "C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\2013.2.0.0\addlib\" -> "$topdir\..\addlib\".

5) Run

ghc-pkg recache

.

3a) Maybe, this would work better, then 3 (I did not tested it). If so, don't do 3, 4, and 5.

cabal install gnuplot --prefix "$topdir\..\addlib" --global

.

End.

*UPD*

I found some stupid mistakes in this instructions (in 3a and 4). Fixed now.

3a is not working!

Answer 1

You need to replace the absolute paths in $GHCDIR\lib\package.conf.d\*.conf files with relative paths referencing $topdir and then run ghc-pkg recache.

Take a look at how the Haskell Platform's Windows installer does it.