Glossary

The following terms are used in Stack's documentation.

Term	Meaning
Cabal	The Haskell Common Architecture for Building Applications and Libraries, provided by the Cabal package. Also referred to as Cabal (the library) to distinguish it from Cabal (the tool).
Cabal file	A file containing a package description used by Cabal, named <package_name>.cabal. A Cabal file specifies properties in the form of field/value pairs.
Cabal (the tool)	The Haskell tool used for building provided by the cabal-install package.
CI	Continuous integration.
CMake	A system for managing build processes.
config.yaml	A global and non-project-specific configuration file used by Stack.
dependency	A Haskell package other than a project package and on which a project package depends (directly or indirectly), located locally or elsewhere.
Docker	A platform for developing, shipping, and running applications. It can package and run an application in a loosely isolated environment called a container.
Emacs	GNU Emacs, an extensible, customisable text editor.
extra-deps	Extra dependencies (one version of each) that add to, or shadow, those specified in a snapshot.
FreeBSD	A Unix-like operating system.
GCC	The GNU Compiler Collection or its executable gcc.
GHC	The Glasgow Haskell Compiler.
GHC boot package	A package that comes with GHC, is included in GHC's global package database, and is not specified directly in a Stackage snapshot. See the output of command stack exec -- ghc-pkg list --global.
GHC wired-in package	A GHC boot package that cannot be shaddowed with different versions of the same package. Also referred to as 'magic'.
GHCi	GHC's interactive environment.
GHCJS	A Haskell to JavaScript compiler.
GHCup	An installer for Haskell.
Git	A distributed version control system.
GPG	The GNU Privacy Guard or GnuPG, software that allows you to encrypt or sign your data and communications.
Hackage	The Haskell Package Repository.
Haddock	The document generation tool for Haskell libraries.
'Haskell' extension	The 'Haskell' extension for VS Code.
HLS	Haskell Language Server, an implementation of the Language Server Protocol for Haskell.
Homebrew	A package manager for macOS or Linux, or its executable brew.
Hoogle	A Haskell API search engine.
Hpack	A format for Haskell packages or the executable hpack that produces a Cabal file from package.yaml.
Linux	A family of operating systems based on the Linux kernel.
macOS	The primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Previously known as Mac OS X or OS X.
Make	A build automation tool.
Markdown	A plain text formatting syntax or software used to convert files in that format to HTML.
MSYS2	The MSYS2 software distribution and building platform for Windows.
Nix	A purely functional package manager, available for Linux and macOS.
package	A Haskell package is an organised collection of Haskell code and related files. It is described by a Cabal file or a package.yaml file, which is itself part of the package.
package.yaml	A file that describes a package in the Hpack format.
Pantry	A library for content-addressable Haskell package management, provided by the pantry package. A dependency of Stack.
PATH	The PATH environment variable, specifying a list of directories searched for executable files.
project	A Stack project is a local directory that contains a project-level configuration file (stack.yaml, by default). A project may relate to more than one project package.
project package	A Haskell package that is part of a project and located locally. Distinct from a dependency located locally.
PVP	The Haskell Package Versioning Policy, which tells developers of libraries how to set their version numbers.
REPL	An interactive (run-eval-print loop) programming environment.
resolver	A synonym for snapshot, now deprecated.
Setup.hs	A project-specific file used by Cabal to perform setup tasks.
snapshot	A snapshot defines a version of GHC (and, implicitly, its boot packages), a set of packages (one version of each), Cabal flags and GHC options.
Stack	The Stack project or its executable stack.
stack.yaml	A project-level configuration file used by Stack, which may also contain non-project-specific options.
Stackage	A distribution of compatible Haskell packages.
Stack root	A directory in which Stack stores important files. See stack path --stack-root. On Windows, or if Stack is configured to use the XDG Base Directory Specification, Stack also stores important files outside of the Stack root.
Stack work directory	A directory within a local project or package directory in which Stack stores files created during the build process. Named .stack-work, by default.
Unix-like operating systems	Linux, FreeBSD and macOS.
VS Code	Visual Studio Code, a source code editor.
Windows	A group of operating systems developed by Microsoft.
WSL	Windows Subsystem for Linux. Provides a Linux environment on Windows.
XDG Base Directory Specification	A specification of directories relative to which files should be located.
YAML	A human-friendly data serialization language. The YAML syntax allows for key/value pairs.