I've discovered a gotcha that happens when trying to use Cabal on Windows Vista.
If you compile Setup.lhs to a binary (as I often do), with something like 'ghc
--make Setup', and then try to run it, you'll get something like this:
$ ./Setup configure
Setup.exe: Permission denied
This is due to a highly dubious security "feature" in Vista whereby it detects
that you might be trying to run an installer-type program and refuses to execute
the binary without elevated permissions. The idea is that ordinary users won't
be confused when their installer fails partway through due to insufficient
permissions. Unfortunately this works by matching on the name of the
binary(!!!!), so names like "setup", "install" etc. are affected (there isn't a
complete list, apparently).
Other casualties are:
* cabal-setup (compiles Setup.hs to setup.exe)
* The GHC build system, which now uses Cabal
* 'make install', which runs /usr/bin/install.exe
More details in this MSDN thread:
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1021146&SiteID=1
and this Cygwin thread:
http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2006-12/msg00518.html
Fortunately you can turn off the behaviour: Start->Run->secpol.msc, then
Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options ! UAC: Detect
application installations and prompt for elevation. It appears you need to
reboot for the change to take effect.
The right workaround is to add a manifest to the binary asking for no security
elevation, apparently this is quite easy. We'll need to get GHC to do this for
every binary it generates in the future.
For now, I'll put a note in the building guide and FAQ, and make a ticket for
GHC 6.6.2 to do the manifest thing.
Cheers,
Simon
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