Getting started

Stack is a program for developing Haskell projects.

This guide to getting started takes a new Stack user through the ways that Stack is typically used. It will not teach Haskell or involve much code, and it requires no prior experience of Stack or other Haskell tools.

What are other Haskell tools?

Haskell code is compiled by the Glasgow Haskell Compiler (GHC), which can also be used interactively. Stack can manage versions of GHC. GHC provides commands such as ghc, ghci, runghc and ghc-pkg.

Cabal (the tool) is a tool provided by the cabal-install Haskell package. It aims to simplify the process of managing Haskell software by automating the fetching, configuration, compilation and installation of Haskell libraries and programs. These are goals that Stack shares. Stack can be used independently of Cabal (the tool) but users can also use both, if they wish.

Haskell Language Server (HLS) is an implementation of the Language Server Protocol for Haskell and used by Haskell extensions for code editors.

GHCup is a tool that can manage other Haskell tools, including Stack, GHC, HLS and Cabal (the tool). Stack can use GHCup to manage versions of GHC, as well as manage GHC directly.

Terms used in the guide will be explained as they are introduced and are also defined in the glossary.

Some of Stack's features will not be needed regularly or by all users. Other parts of Stack's documentation include its commands and its configuration.

Setting up

The goal of setting up is a stack executable on the PATH. As we will see, when Stack is used, it sets other things up as needed.

For further information about setting up, see the documentation on that topic. Return here when you know that Stack is on the PATH.

This guide assumes that the directory where Stack install executables (the location reported by stack path --local-bin) has been added to the PATH.

This guide assumes that your computer's operating system is one of Linux, macOS or Windows. Stack's commands are the same on all operating systems.