I am getting an unusual error from Cabal.
I am on Windows Subsystem for Linux, it is Ubuntu 22.04 running on Windows 11.
I have never written any Haskell. I followed some online tutorials to create a new project. I used cabal init to create the cabal project.
I have ghc version 9.8.2, cabal-install version 3.10.3.0. Everything was installed with ghcup.
If I use
build-depends:
base ^>=4.19.1.0
Cabal builds my program correctly and prints “Hello, world!”
When I modify this to
build-depends:
base ^>=4.19.1.0,
Frames ^>=0.7.4.2
I get an unusual error.
Resolving dependencies...
Build profile: -w ghc-9.8.2 -O1
In order, the following will be built (use -v for more details):
- bifunctors-5.6.2 (lib) (requires build)
- hashable-1.4.4.0 (lib) (requires build)
- stringsearch-0.3.6.6 (lib:stringsearch) (requires build)
- vinyl-0.14.3 (lib) (requires build)
- profunctors-5.6.2 (lib) (requires build)
- unordered-containers-0.2.20 (lib) (requires build)
- discrimination-0.5 (lib) (requires build)
- semigroupoids-6.0.0.1 (lib) (requires build)
- free-5.2 (lib) (requires build)
- pipes-group-1.0.12 (lib) (requires build)
- pipes-bytestring-2.1.7 (lib) (requires build)
- Frames-0.7.4.2 (lib) (requires build)
- Analyses2-0.1.0.0 (exe:wnn) (configuration changed)
Starting stringsearch-0.3.6.6 (all, legacy fallback)
Starting bifunctors-5.6.2 (lib)
Starting hashable-1.4.4.0 (lib)
Starting vinyl-0.14.3 (lib)
Building stringsearch-0.3.6.6 (all, legacy fallback)
Building bifunctors-5.6.2 (lib)
Building hashable-1.4.4.0 (lib)
Building vinyl-0.14.3 (lib)
Installing hashable-1.4.4.0 (lib)
Completed hashable-1.4.4.0 (lib)
/mnt/d/.../Analyses2/dist-newstyle/tmp/src-23385/hashable-1.4.4.0: removeDirectoryRecursive:removeContentsRecursive:removePathRecursive:removeContentsRecursive:removeDirectory: permission denied (Permission denied)
I can repeat this with minor differences and different packages raise an error with removeDirectory, for example not hashable but th-abstraction instead.
The files that Cabal creates to populate the folder dist-newstyle/tmp appear to behave in a strange way with respect to filesystem permissions which I don’t know how to interpret. I ran rm -rf tmp and I got the following errors
rm -rf dist-newstyle/tmp/
rm: cannot remove 'dist-newstyle/tmp/src-23384/bifunctors-5.6.2/dist/build/autogen': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove 'dist-newstyle/tmp/src-23384/bifunctors-5.6.2/dist/build/Data/Bifunctor': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove 'dist-newstyle/tmp/src-23386/stringsearch-0.3.6.6/Data/ByteString/Lazy': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove 'dist-newstyle/tmp/src-23387/vinyl-0.14.3/Data/Vinyl/ARec': Permission denied
If I navigate to these folders after the command they are empty.
If I run rm -rf dist-newstyle/tmp again a second time, the files disappear, the filesystem having apparently changed its mind about whether I have permission to delete them.
If I try using sudo, I still get the same errors about not having permissions
rm: cannot remove 'dist-newstyle/tmp/src-23384/bifunctors-5.6.2': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove 'dist-newstyle/tmp/src-24596/bifunctors-5.6.2/dist/build/Data': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove 'dist-newstyle/tmp/src-24596/bifunctors-5.6.2/src/Data': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove 'dist-newstyle/tmp/src-24598/unordered-containers-0.2.20/dist/build/Data/HashMap': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove 'dist-newstyle/tmp/src-24599/vinyl-0.14.3/Data/Vinyl': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove 'dist-newstyle/tmp/src-24599/vinyl-0.14.3/dist/build/Data': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove 'dist-newstyle/tmp/src-24600/stringsearch-0.3.6.6/Data/ByteString/Lazy': Permission denied
but with a slightly different set of files.
If I run sudo rm -rf dist-newstyle/tmp again, it deletes some of the inner folders and raises new errors about being unable to delete the outer folders
rm: cannot remove 'dist-newstyle/tmp/src-24598/unordered-containers-0.2.20/dist/build': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove 'dist-newstyle/tmp/src-24599': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove 'dist-newstyle/tmp/src-24600/stringsearch-0.3.6.6': Permission denied
And every time I run the command it seems to prune folders from the bottom of the tree and return an error on the interior nodes? One more time, sudo rm -rf ./dist-newstyle/tmp
rm: cannot remove 'dist-newstyle/tmp/': Permission denied
Then, running it a fourth time, it is successful.
What is going on here? Cabal appears to be interacting in a very subtle and bizarre way with the file system permissions on WSL.
Maybe the problem is with WSL and not Cabal at all. The files are stored on /mnt/d/..., maybe it’s the fact that it’s interacting with a mounted drive with a Windows filesystem configuration?
