Cabal Doesn't Build Executable

Question

For some reason, cabal isn't creating an executable for my program. When I run cabal build , I get this output:

Building server-0.1.0.0...
Preprocessing executable 'server' for server-0.1.0.0...
Warning: output was redirected with -o, but no output will be generated
because there is no Main module.

A subsequent cabal run gives me this error:

Preprocessing executable 'server' for server-0.1.0.0...
Warning: output was redirected with -o, but no output will be generated
because there is no Main module.
cabal: dist/build/server/server: does not exist

Sure enough, there is no server binary in dist/build/server/server . The temp files are, however, in dist/build/server/server-temp/ .

My .cabal file:

name:                server
version:             0.1.0.0
synopsis:            An example haskell web service.
license:             Apache-2.0
license-file:        LICENSE
author:              Some Body
maintainer:          somebody@gmail.com
category:            Web
build-type:          Simple
cabal-version:       >=1.10
executable server
  main-is:             Core/Main.hs
  build-depends:       base,
                       containers,
                       bytestring,
                       bytestring-conversion,
                       aeson,
                       http-types,
                       acid-state,
                       mtl,
                       safecopy,
                       warp,
                       wai,
                       wai-extra,
                       wai-middleware-static
  hs-source-dirs:      src
  default-language:    Haskell2010

My directory structure (including dist from cabal build ):

.
├── cabal.sandbox.config
├── dist
│   ├── build
│   │   ├── autogen
│   │   │   ├── cabal_macros.h
│   │   │   └── Paths_server.hs
│   │   └── server
│   │       └── server-tmp
│   │           ├── Core
│   │           │   ├── Main.dyn_hi
│   │           │   ├── Main.dyn_o
│   │           │   ├── Main.hi
│   │           │   └── Main.o
│   │           ├── Model
│   │           │   ├── DB.dyn_hi
│   │           │   ├── DB.dyn_o
│   │           │   ├── DB.hi
│   │           │   └── DB.o
│   │           └── Util
│   │               ├── HTTP.dyn_hi
│   │               ├── HTTP.dyn_o
│   │               ├── HTTP.hi
│   │               └── HTTP.o
│   ├── package.conf.inplace
│   │   └── package.cache
│   └── setup-config
├── LICENSE
├── server.cabal
├── Setup.hs
└── src
    ├── Core
    │   └── Main.hs
    ├── Model
    │   └── DB.hs
    ├── Service
    └── Util
        └── HTTP.hs

The main definition:

main :: IO ()
main = do
  db <- openLocalStateFrom "~/.acid-state" (UserDatabase Map.empty)
  putStrLn $ "http://localhost:8080/"
  run 8080 $ logStdout $ staticPolicy (noDots >-> addBase "../client/") $ app db

Answer 1

it's all there in the message:

you need a source file defining the Main module

module Main where ...

and exporting a main function:

main :: IO ()
main = ...

and your main-is field in your .cabal file should point to this.

If you have all this you should be able to compile it into an executable.

Here is a nice intro: How to write a Haskell programm

update

as it turn out the module was named Core.Main - make sure you have one module Main too - you can always add a top level main.hs and reexport just the main from Core.Main too