Cabal: executable data-files

Question

I want to include an executable file in the cabal data-files section to execute it as a subprocess in my Haskell program.

The file's there, getDataFileName works for it, but it lacks the executable bit and so trying to run it with System.Process.createProcess fails with permission denied .

Is there a way for cabal to preserve the execution permission of the file? Is there another clean way to solve this?

Answer 1

As summarized in some discussion on cabal patches, the current (underdocumented) state of play is that one should use both a copy and an install hook, since one or the other will get executed.

Edit: After some digging, there's an old ticket on libexec support in cabal, which would be a very nice solution if it were implemented.