Installing `ghc-mod` with Cabal

Question

cabal install ghc-mod seems to work, but when I try cabal run ghc-mod I get the following error:

Package has never been configured. Configuring with default flags. If this fails, please configure manually.
cabal: No cabal file found.
Please create a package description file <pkgname>.cabal

The resources I've found seem to suggest that creating a package description file shouldn't be necessary to install a package.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

The standard way to install stuff on Haskell nowadays is within sandboxes.

Go to the terminal and create an empty folder that will house your ghc-mod sandbox. cd into that folder and:

cabal sandbox init
cabal install ghc-mod

After it finishes you will find the ghc-mod binary you seek within .cabal-sandbox/bin . Since it's statically linked it's safe to move it to somewhere in your $PATH.

I strongly encourage you use a sandbox but if you don't want to go to .cabal in your home directory and you will find the binary with bin