GHC Garage Installation Builds With Unclear Error

Question

I am trying to install Hamlet on a common webfaction server so that I can compile and run my web application there. I am using Yesod for application development.

I managed to build GHC 7 from the source and boot installation. Then I did cabal install hamlet and expected it to work. Bad luck!

I get the following strange error message from cabal / GHC. Can anyone help me out?

 $ cabal install hamlet Resolving dependencies... Configuring hamlet-0.8.2... Preprocessing library hamlet-0.8.2... Building hamlet-0.8.2... [ 1 of 14] Compiling Text.MkSizeType ( Text/MkSizeType.hs, dist/build/Text/MkSizeType.o ) [ 2 of 14] Compiling Text.Shakespeare ( Text/Shakespeare.hs, dist/build/Text/Shakespeare.o ) [ 3 of 14] Compiling Text.Hamlet.Parse ( Text/Hamlet/Parse.hs, dist/build/Text/Hamlet/Parse.o ) Text/Hamlet/Parse.hs:113:13: Warning: A do-notation statement discarded a result of type String. Suppress this warning by saying "_ <- ($) try string "!--"", or by using the flag -fno-warn-unused-do-bind [ 4 of 14] Compiling Text.Hamlet.Quasi ( Text/Hamlet/Quasi.hs, dist/build/Text/Hamlet/Quasi.o ) [ 5 of 14] Compiling Text.Css ( Text/Css.hs, dist/build/Text/Css.o ) [ 6 of 14] Compiling Text.Cassius ( Text/Cassius.hs, dist/build/Text/Cassius.o ) Loading package ghc-prim ... linking ... done. Loading package integer-gmp ... linking ... done. Loading package base ... linking ... done. Loading package array-0.3.0.2 ... linking ... done. Loading package containers-0.4.0.0 ... linking ... done. Loading package pretty-1.0.1.2 ... linking ... done. Loading package template-haskell ... linking ... done. Loading package filepath-1.2.0.0 ... linking ... done. Loading package old-locale-1.0.0.2 ... linking ... done. Loading package old-time-1.0.0.6 ... linking ... done. Loading package unix-2.4.2.0 ... linking ... done. Loading package directory-1.1.0.0 ... linking ... done. Loading package process-1.0.1.5 ... linking ... done. Loading package bytestring-0.9.1.10 ... linking ... done. Loading package transformers-0.2.2.0 ... linking ... done. Loading package mtl-2.0.1.0 ... linking ... done. Loading package parsec-3.1.1 ... linking ... done. Loading package failure-0.1.0.1 ... linking ... done. Loading package deepseq-1.1.0.2 ... linking ... done. Loading package text-0.11.0.8 ... linking ... done. Loading package blaze-builder-0.3.0.1 ... linking ... done. Loading package blaze-html-0.4.1.1 ... linking ... done. Loading package ffi-1.0 ... linking ... done. ghc: mmap 36864 bytes at (nil): Operation not permitted ghc: Try specifying an address with +RTS -xm<addr> -RTS cabal: Error: some packages failed to install: hamlet-0.8.2 failed during the building phase. The exception was: ExitFailure 1 

Answer 1

Well, I seem to have solved the problem and notice it here, hoping that it will help others.

The problem is that webfaction does not allow you to execute files stored in / tmp. The error message from cabal is very confusing.

The fix is ​​to set the environment variable to a directory in your home path (if this restriction does not apply) before starting the cabal installation. I just created an alias -

 alias cabalinstall='export TMPDIR=~/tmp; cabal install' 

This ensures that tmpdir is installed correctly before trying to install any package.