# An external command system for cabal: what would you do with it?

**URL:** https://discourse.haskell.org/t/an-external-command-system-for-cabal-what-would-you-do-with-it/7114
**Category:** Announcements
**Created:** [July 26, 2023, 9:50pm UTC](https://discourse.haskell.org/t/an-external-command-system-for-cabal-what-would-you-do-with-it/7114 "2023-07-26T21:50:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 7

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### Author: ![Lsmor](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.haskell.org/lsmor/32/3302_2.png) [@Lsmor](https://discourse.haskell.org/u/Lsmor)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2023, 8:14am UTC](https://discourse.haskell.org/t/an-external-command-system-for-cabal-what-would-you-do-with-it/7114/7 "2023-07-28T08:14:04Z")

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I’d really love this. I am thinking about commands like `cabal add <dependency>` or `cabal auto-modules <folder>` which modify your `.cabal` file, simplifying current workflow. I guess these subcommands might be difficult to implement if you contribute to the `cabal-install` source code, but way more easy (and less burocratic) if you show a poc build by your own.

As someone said in the `github` discussion, a complementary subcomand like `cabal metadata` which prints useful data structures to the stdout, might be necessary so every external subcommand has a common initial point .

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