} character in a file-path - windows

[IvanRenison]

Hello, I have a } character in my users' path in windows: C:\Users\usuario}\ and when I try to install something with cabal, like these: cabal install ansi-terminal I get an error like these:

cabal.exe: Error parsing config file
C:\Users\usuario}\AppData\Roaming\cabal\config:28:
mismatched brackets, unexpected }  

And the line 28 of that file is:

remote-repo-cache: C:\Users\usuario}\AppData\Roaming\cabal\packages

The first line of that file to have a path. I tried putting the path in that file with " ". ' ' and < > but it didn't work.

[Mikolaj]

Hi @IvanRenison,

I've put such a line into my config file and I experience no problem. What is the output of cabal --version on your system?

[IvanRenison]

cabal --version returns:

cabal-install version 2.4.1.0
compiled using version 2.4.1.0 of the Cabal library

I downloaded it yesterday form: https://www.haskell.org/cabal/download.html

[IvanRenison]

It is strange, because I am seeing that there are version up tu 3.4.0.0

[Mikolaj]

Indeed, 2.4 is very old. You probably need to find and uninstall the old cabal (renaming the cabal executable to cabal.old should be enough).

[jneira]

cabal --version returns:

cabal-install version 2.4.1.0
compiled using version 2.4.1.0 of the Cabal library

I downloaded it yesterday form: https://www.haskell.org/cabal/download.html

hi, some reason to not download the last version, 3.4.0.0?

[Mikolaj]

Yeah, I assumed the new version is somehow obscured by the old one, but I'm just guessing.

[IvanRenison]

Yes, It seems that that is happening

[IvanRenison]

Manual using the new .exe I get the same error:

PS C:\Users\usuario}\Desktop> ./cabal.exe --version
cabal-install version 3.4.0.0
compiled using version 3.4.0.0 of the Cabal library
PS C:\Users\usuario}\Desktop> ./cabal.exe install ansi-terminal
cabal.exe: Error parsing config file
C:\Users\usuario}\AppData\Roaming\cabal\config:28:
mismatched brackets, unexpected } 

[Mikolaj]

I was trying with development version, but perhaps there is something in the other parts of your config file (or with Windows). If the config file is not secret (no passwords in there), could you paste it, e.g., at https://gist.github.com?

It's also possible something else in our computer setups differs, though it's doubtful.

[IvanRenison]

Here it is: https://gist.github.com/IvanRenison/1b3dea05c9b192bd7132cbd8a2d14311

[IvanRenison]

I never touched that file, it was generated like that

[IvanRenison]

I tried deleting the file, and 3.4.0.0 version generated a new one, but with the same problem

[Mikolaj]

Thank you for the full file. Still can't reproduce with cabal 3.5. @jneira: can you? Does anybody have 3.4 handy to try on Linux and on Windows?

[jneira]

will try to reproduce in windows

[jneira]

I've reproduced in windows simple adding a } in the store-dir field

[Mikolaj]

Wild. So it looks like it happens only in Windows and in all versions of cabal?

[phadej]

Try with master. The (old parsing) code generating mismatched brackets errors have been removed in fe82a92, so the parsing shouldn't fail anymore.

[Mikolaj]

Thank you @phadej. I do try with master and it doesn't fail for me. The commit you point to is probably the reason.

[jneira]

I can confirm master works in windows too:

D:\ws\haskell\cabal-test>cabal build
cabal: Error parsing config file
D:\user\AppData\Roaming\cabal\config:30:
mismatched brackets, unexpected }

D:\ws\haskell\cabal-test>D:\user\AppData\Roaming\cabal\bin\cabal.exe build
Resolving dependencies...

D:\ws\haskell\cabal-test>cabal --version
cabal-install version 3.4.0.0
compiled using version 3.4.0.0 of the Cabal library

D:\ws\haskell\cabal-test>D:\user\AppData\Roaming\cabal\bin\cabal.exe --version
cabal-install version 3.5
compiled using version 3.5.0.0 of the Cabal library

[Mikolaj]

Splendid. @IvanRenison: will you wait for 3.6 release or try to use a pre-release? I think some windows artefacts are being built by CI, but I don't know how to get to them --- do we have any nightly builds available to users?

[phadej]

@Mikolaj

• Actions tab
• Search for branch master (or one you are interested in) and Artifacts workflow https://github.com/haskell/cabal/actions/workflows/artifacts.yml?query=branch%3Amaster
• Click one of the jobs, currently the latest is https://github.com/haskell/cabal/actions/runs/968594241
• Download an artifact

EDIT: clicking the green mark of the latest commit on the main page also leads into similar place:

Then you need to click on artifacts workflow summary (on the left) to get to the page where artifacts are listed.

[Mikolaj]

Amazing! @IvanRenison: would you kindly try and become an early adopter of the development snapshot artefacts feature and try to install the latest development version of cabal (as linked above) and become an early adopter of cabal 3.6-rc1 as well, which solves your bug (please do report whether it does)? Any feedback along the way would be much appreciated, e.g., which step was particularly confusing. Thank you!

[IvanRenison]

Yes, I will try it.
Any way, don't worry about me. I use linux for all the coding. I only wanted to try my project in windows. But I have no hurry for doing it

[IvanRenison]

Yes, it worked, but I had to manually delete the old config file

[Mikolaj]

So, apparently, the dev binary artefacts are usable and the issue is indeed fixed. Success. Thank you all!

[Mikolaj]

BTW, any idea where we could advertise what @phadej pictured above, that is, wow to get the dev build binaries? Even just to point users to, after their bugs are fixed on master.

[fgaz]

Maybe on the cabal website, next to the other downloads

[Mikolaj]

Indeed, this looks a good location to me: https://www.haskell.org/cabal/download.html, somewhere closer to the bottom.

[Mikolaj]

Anybody up to making a PR at https://github.com/haskell/cabal-website? I take it upon myself to badger @emilypi to rebuild the docs after it's merged (just as I annoyingly badger weekly right now:).

[emilypi]

Anybody up to making a PR at https://github.com/haskell/cabal-website

I feel badgered, and therefore will make a PR 😄