The Haskell Tool Stack

Build Status Release

stack is a cross-platform program for developing Haskell projects. It is aimed at Haskellers both new and experienced.

It features:

  • Installing GHC automatically.
  • Installing packages needed for your project.
  • Building your project.
  • Testing your project.
  • Benchmarking your project.

How to install

Downloads are available by operating system:

How to use

Go into a Haskell project directory and run stack build. If everything is already configured, this will:

  • Download the package index.
  • Download and install all necessary dependencies for the project.
  • Build and install the project.

You may be prompted to run some of the following along the way:

  • stack new to create a brand new project.
  • stack init to create a stack configuration file for an existing project. stack will figure out what Stackage release (LTS or nightly) is appropriate for the dependencies.
  • stack setup to download and install the correct GHC version. (For information on installation paths, please use the stack path command.)

If you just want to install a package using stack, then all you have to do is stack install <package-name>.

Run stack for a complete list of commands.

Architecture

A full description of the architecture is available here.

Questions, Feedback, Discussion

Why stack?

stack is a project of the Commercial Haskell group, spearheaded by FP Complete. It is designed to answer the needs of commercial Haskell users, hobbyist Haskellers, and individuals and companies thinking about starting to use Haskell. It is intended to be easy to use for newcomers, while providing the customizability and power experienced developers need.

While stack itself has been around since June of 2015, it is based on codebases used by FP Complete for its corporate customers and internally for years prior. stack is a refresh of that codebase combined with other open source efforts like stackage-cli to meet the needs of users everywhere.

A large impetus for the work on stack was a large survey of people interested in Haskell, which rated build issues as a major concern. The stack team hopes that stack can address these concerns.

Changes

0.1.3.0

Major changes:

  • Detect when a module is compiled but not listed in the cabal file (#32)
    • A warning is displayed for any modules that should be added to other-modules in the .cabal file
    • These modules are taken into account when determining whether a package needs to be built
  • Respect TemplateHaskell addDependentFile dependency changes (#105)
    • TH dependent files are taken into account when determining whether a package needs to be built.
  • Overhauled target parsing, added --test and --bench options #651

Other enhancements:

  • Set the HASKELL_DIST_DIR environment variable #524
  • Track build status of tests and benchmarks #525
  • --no-run-tests #517
  • Targets outside of root dir don’t build #366
  • Upper limit on number of flag combinations to test #543
  • Fuzzy matching support to give better error messages for close version numbers #504
  • --local-bin-path global option. Use to change where binaries get placed on a --copy-bins #342
  • Custom snapshots #111
  • –force-dirty flag: Force treating all local packages as having dirty files (useful for cases where stack can’t detect a file change)
  • GHC error messages: display file paths as absolute instead of relative for better editor integration
  • Add the --copy-bins option #569
  • Give warnings on unexpected config keys #48
  • Remove Docker pass-host option
  • Don’t require cabal-install to upload #313
  • Generate indexes for all deps and all installed snapshot packages #143
  • Provide --resolver global option #645
    • Also supports --resolver nightly, --resolver lts, and --resolver lts-X
  • Make stack build --flag error when flag or package is unknown #617
  • Preserve file permissions when unpacking sources #666
  • stack build etc work outside of a project
  • list-dependencies command #638
  • --upgrade-cabal option to stack setup #174
  • --exec option #651
  • --only-dependencies implemented correctly #387

Bug fixes:

  • Extensions from the other-extensions field no longer enabled by default #449
  • Fix: haddock forces rebuild of empty packages #452
  • Don’t copy over executables excluded by component selection #605
  • Fix: stack fails on Windows with git package in stack.yaml and no git binary on path #712
  • Fixed GHCi issue: Specifying explicit package versions (#678)
  • Fixed GHCi issue: Specifying -odir and -hidir as .stack-work/odir (#529)
  • Fixed GHCi issue: Specifying A instead of A.ext for modules (#498)

0.1.2.0

  • Add --prune flag to stack dot #487
  • Add --[no-]external,--[no-]include-base flags to stack dot #437
  • Add --ignore-subdirs flag to init command #435
  • Handle attempt to use non-existing resolver #436
  • Add --force flag to init command
  • exec style commands accept the --package option (see Reddit discussion)
  • stack upload without arguments doesn’t do anything #439
  • Print latest version of packages on conflicts #450
  • Flag to avoid rerunning tests that haven’t changed #451
  • stack can act as a script interpreter (see [Script interpreter] (https://github.com/commercialhaskell/stack/wiki/Script-interpreter) and Reddit discussion)
  • Add the --file-watch flag to auto-rebuild on file changes #113
  • Rename stack docker exec to stack exec --plain
  • Add the --skip-msys flag #377
  • --keep-going, turned on by default for tests and benchmarks #478
  • concurrent-tests: BOOL #492
  • Use hashes to check file dirtiness #502
  • Install correct GHC build on systems with libgmp.so.3 #465
  • stack upgrade checks version before upgrading #447

0.1.1.0

  • Remove GHC uncompressed tar file after installation #376
  • Put stackage snapshots JSON on S3 #380
  • Specifying flags for multiple packages #335
  • single test suite failure should show entire log #388
  • valid-wanted is a confusing option name #386
  • stack init in multi-package project should use local packages for dependency checking #384
  • Display information on why a snapshot was rejected #381
  • Give a reason for unregistering packages #389
  • stack exec accepts the --no-ghc-package-path parameter
  • Don’t require build plan to upload #400
  • Specifying test components only builds/runs those tests #398
  • STACK_EXE environment variable
  • Add the stack dot command
  • stack upgrade added #237
  • --stack-yaml command line flag #378
  • --skip-ghc-check command line flag #423

Bug fixes:

  • Haddock links to global packages no longer broken on Windows #375
  • Make flags case-insensitive #397
  • Mark packages uninstalled before rebuilding #365

0.1.0.0

  • Fall back to cabal dependency solver when a snapshot can’t be found
  • Basic implementation of stack new #137
  • stack solver command #364
  • stack path command #95
  • Haddocks #143:
    • Build for dependencies
    • Use relative links
    • Generate module contents and index for all packages in project

0.0.3

  • --prefetch #297
  • upload command ported from stackage-upload #225
  • --only-snapshot #310
  • --resolver #224
  • stack init #253
  • --extra-include-dirs and --extra-lib-dirs #333
  • Specify intra-package target #201

0.0.2

  • Fix some Windows specific bugs #216
  • Improve output for package index updates #227
  • Automatically update indices as necessary #227
  • –verbose flag #217
  • Remove packages (HTTPS and Git) #199
  • Config values for system-ghc and install-ghc
  • Merge stack deps functionality into stack build
  • install command #153 and #272
  • overriding architecture value (useful to force 64-bit GHC on Windows, for example)
  • Overhauled test running (allows cycles, avoids unnecessary recompilation, etc)

0.0.1

  • First public release, beta quality