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The stack setup command

stack setup [GHC_VERSION] [--[no-]reinstall] [--ghc-bindist URL]
            [--ghcjs-boot-options GHCJS_BOOT] [--[no-]ghcjs-boot-clean]

stack setup attempts to install a version of GHC and, on Windows, MSYS2.

By default:

  • the version of GHC is the one required by the project. Specify the version of GHC as an argument to attempt to install a different version of GHC. For example stack setup 9.8.4 will attempt to install GHC 9.8.4; and

  • an attempt to install is made only if the version of GHC is not already available to Stack. Pass the flag --reinstall (disabled by default) to attempt to install the version of GHC regardless of whether it is already available to Stack.

Pass the option --ghc-bindist <url> to specify the URL of the GHC to be downloaded and installed. This option requires the use of the --ghc-variant option specifying a custom GHC variant. For further information about the --ghc-variant option, see the ghc-variant non-project specific configuration option documentation.

If Stack is configured not to install GHC (install-ghc: false or passing the --no-install-ghc flag) or not to install MSYS2 (install-msys: false or passing the --no-install-msys flag) then stack setup will warn that the flag and the command are inconsistent and take no action.

A particular binary distribution of GHC will depend on certain libraries, which need to be available.

There are many different Linux distributions and different versions of a particular Linux distribution. One Linux distribution/version may make available different libraries to another Linux distribution/version.

In attempting to identify the particular binary distribution of GHC that is required on Linux, Stack will refer to the presence or absence of certain libraries or the versions of those libraries.

For example, Stack 3.1.1 considers:

  • If libc.musl-x86_64.so.1 is present. This file is provided by the musl libc.

    2.13.1

  • The version of libc6 (if musl libc is not applicable), the GNU C Library (glibc), that is present. The GNU C Library is designed to be backwards compatible.

    2.11.1

  • If libgmp.so.3 or libgmp.so.10 is present. These files are provided by different versions of the GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic Library.

  • If libncursesw.so.6 is present. This file is provided by a shared library for terminal handling with wide character support.

  • If libtinfo.so.5 or libtinfo.so.6 is present. These files are provided by different versions of a shared low-level terminfo library for terminal handling.

Stack 3.1.1 uses ghc-build:

  • musl to indicate libc.musl-x86_64.so.1 is present and Stack should use the GHC binary distribution for Alpine Linux.
  • tinfo6 to indicate libgmp.so.10 and libtinfo.so.6 are present and libc6 is compatible with libc6 2.32.
  • tinfo6-libc6-pre232 to indicate libgmp.so.10 and libtinfo.so.6 are present and libc6 is not compatible with libc6 2.32.
  • ncurses6 to indicate libgmp.so.10 and libncursesw.so.6 are present
  • gmp4 to indicate libgmp.so.3 is present

By default, Stack associates:

  • the tinfo6 build with the 'Fedora 33' binary distribution of GHC 9.4.1 to 9.4.3 and 9.6.1 and later. Those binary distributions require versions of libc6 that are compatible with libc6 2.32;

  • the tinfo6-libc6-pre232 build with the 'Debian 10' binary distribution of GHC 9.4.1 to 9.4.3 and the 'Rocky 8' binary distribution of GHC 9.6.1 and later. Those binary distributions require versions of libc6 that are compatible with libc6 2.28; and

  • the tinfo6 and tinfo6-libc6-pre232 builds with the 'Fedora 27' binary distribution of GHC 9.4.4 to 9.4.8. Those binary distributions require versions of libc6 that are compatible with libc6 2.26.

Since Windows 10 version 1607, Windows has been 'long file paths' capable but that capability is not enabled by default. Consequently, Stack does not assume that it is being used on a system that is 'long file paths' enabled.

Stack uses the 7-Zip tool to decompress, and extract tools from, downloaded archive files. Aiming to avoid long file paths, Stack does so in a temporary directory (named stack-tmp-<hash>) on the drive of the final destination (either in the system temporary directory, where applicable, or the root of the drive). Consequently, Stack needs permission to create a directory in that location.

A Windows user account will usually have permission to create a directory in the system temporary directory. A Windows user account of type Administrator will have permission to create a directory in the root of the system drive (C:\, by convention) but a Standard user account may well not have permission.