Pantry in Stack¶

Beginning with Stack 1.11, Stack uses the Pantry library for its specification of snapshots and package locations. Under the surface, Pantry is geared towards reproducible build plans with cryptographically secure specification of packages and snapshots.

There are three user-visible components to Pantry's configuration which affect usage of Stack:

Snapshot location specification (in the resolver field)
Package location specification (in the extra-deps field and inside snapshots)
Snapshot specification, for creating custom snapshots

Freeze command¶

As you'll see throughout this document, there is a lot of additional information that can be provided to Stack to make the configuration more reproducible and faster to parse. However, it's tedious to specify these values manually. Therefore, the recommended workflow is:

Manually write the simple version of a configuration value
Use stack freeze to obtain the more reproducible version

The standard stack freeze will operate on your stack.yaml file, and provide you with updated resolver and extra-deps values, if relevant. If you run stack freeze --snapshot, it will provide you with an update snapshot file.

New contents will be printed to stdout instead of modifying your existing files to avoid mutation of user-created files.

Snapshot location¶

There are essentially four different ways of specifying a snapshot location:

Via a compiler version, which is a "compiler only" snapshot. This could be, e.g., resolver: ghc-8.6.5.
Via a URL pointing to a snapshot configuration file, e.g. resolver: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/commercialhaskell/stackage-snapshots/master/nightly/2018/8/21.yaml
Via a local file path pointing to a snapshot configuration file, e.g. resolver: my-local-snapshot.yaml
Via a convenience synonym, which provides a short form for some common URLs. These are:
- Github: github:user/repo:path is treated as https://raw.githubusercontent.com/user/repo/master/path
- LTS Haskell: lts-X.Y is treated as github:commercialhaskell/stackage-snapshots:lts/X/Y.yaml
- Stackage Nightly: nightly-YYYY-MM-DD is treated as github:commercialhaskell/stackage-snapshots:nightly/YYYY/M/D.yaml

For safer, more reproducible builds, you can optionally specify a URL together with a cryptographic hash of its content, e.g.:

resolver:
  size: 499143
  url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/commercialhaskell/stackage-snapshots/master/lts/12/0.yaml
  sha256: 781ea577595dff08b9c8794761ba1321020e3e1ec3297fb833fe951cce1bee11

Where the size is the number of bytes in the file, and sha256 is its SHA256 hash. This information can automatically be generated with the stack freeze command.

Package location¶

Pantry supports three types of package locations:

Hackage packages
Repositories
Archives

All three of these formats support optional tree metadata to be added, which can be used for reproducibility and faster downloads. This information can automatically be generated with the stack freeze command.

Hackage¶

Packages can be stated by a name/version combination. The basic syntax for this is:

extra-deps:
- acme-missiles-0.3

Using this syntax, the most recent Cabal file revision available will be used. For more reproducibility of builds, it is recommended to state the SHA256 hash of the cabal file contents as well, like this:

extra-deps:
- acme-missiles-0.3@sha256:2ba66a092a32593880a87fb00f3213762d7bca65a687d45965778deb8694c5d1

Or, better yet, including the cabal file size too:

extra-deps:
- acme-missiles-0.3@sha256:2ba66a092a32593880a87fb00f3213762d7bca65a687d45965778deb8694c5d1,631

Or a specific revision number, with 0 being the original file:

extra-deps:
- acme-missiles-0.3@rev:0

Note that specifying via SHA256 is slightly more resilient in that it does not rely on correct ordering in the package index, while revision number is likely simpler to use. In practice, both should guarantee equally reproducible build plans.

Finally, you can include the Pantry tree information. The following was generated with stack freeze:

- hackage: acme-missiles-0.3@sha256:2ba66a092a32593880a87fb00f3213762d7bca65a687d45965778deb8694c5d1,613
  pantry-tree:
    size: 226
    sha256: 614bc0cca76937507ea0a5ccc17a504c997ce458d7f2f9e43b15a10c8eaeb033

Git and Mercurial repos¶

You can give a Git or Mercurial repo at a specific commit, and Stack will clone that repo.

extra-deps:
- git: git@github.com:commercialhaskell/stack.git
  commit: 6a86ee32e5b869a877151f74064572225e1a0398
- git: git@github.com:snoyberg/http-client.git
  commit: "a5f4f3"
- hg: https://example.com/hg/repo
  commit: da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709

NOTE It is highly recommended that you only use SHA1 values for a Git or Mercurial commit. Other values may work, but they are not officially supported, and may result in unexpected behavior (namely, Stack will not automatically pull to update to new versions). Another problem with this is that your build will not be deterministic, because when someone else tries to build the project they can get a different checkout of the package.

A common practice in the Haskell world is to use "megarepos", or repositories with multiple packages in various subdirectories. Some common examples include wai and digestive-functors. To support this, you may also specify subdirs for repositories, e.g.:

extra-deps:
- git: git@github.com:yesodweb/wai
  commit: 2f8a8e1b771829f4a8a77c0111352ce45a14c30f
  subdirs:
  - auto-update
  - wai

Since v1.7.1, you can specify packages from GitHub repository name using github:

extra-deps:
- github: snoyberg/http-client
  commit: a5f4f30f01366738f913968163d856366d7e0342

If unspecified, subdirs defaults to ['.'] meaning looking for a package in the root of the repo. Note that if you specify a value of subdirs, then '.' is not included by default and needs to be explicitly specified if a required package is found in the top-level directory of the repository.

Using the stack freeze command will add in additional information, including not only the Pantry tree hash, but also package metadata which can allow Stack to work faster by bypassing cabal file parses. For example, this:

extra-deps:
- git: git@github.com:yesodweb/wai
  commit: 2f8a8e1b771829f4a8a77c0111352ce45a14c30f
  subdirs:
  - auto-update
  - wai

Would be converted into:

extra-deps:
- subdir: auto-update
  cabal-file:
    size: 1219
    sha256: c07b2b1a2df1199f83eef819ac9bb067567e100b60586a52f8b92fc733ae3a6d
  name: auto-update
  version: 0.1.2.1
  git: git@github.com:yesodweb/wai
  pantry-tree:
    size: 687
    sha256: 26377897f35ccd3890b4405d72523233717afb04d62f2d36031bf6b18dcef74f
  commit: 2f8a8e1b771829f4a8a77c0111352ce45a14c30f
- subdir: wai
  cabal-file:
    size: 1717
    sha256: 7b46e7a8b121d668351fa8a684810afadf58c39276125098485203ef274fd056
  name: wai
  version: 3.0.2.3
  git: git@github.com:yesodweb/wai
  pantry-tree:
    size: 10299
    sha256: ce33fddab13592c847fbd7acd1859dfcbb9aeb6c212db3cee27c909fa3f3ae44
  commit: 2f8a8e1b771829f4a8a77c0111352ce45a14c30f

Limited git-annex support¶

Pantry does not support git-annex. This is because git archive does not handle symbolic links outside the work tree. It is still possible to use repositories which use git-annex but do not require the annex files for the package to be built.

To do so, ensure that any files or directories stored by git-annex are marked export-ignore in the .gitattributes file in the repository. See #4579 for more information.

For example, if the directory fonts/ is controlled by git-annex, use the following line.

fonts export-ignore

Archives (HTTP(S) or local filepath)¶

You can use HTTP and HTTPS URLs and local filepaths referring to either tarballs or ZIP files.

NOTE Stack assumes that these files never change after downloading to avoid needing to make an HTTP request on each build. Use hashes to provide more security.

extra-deps:
- https://example.com/foo/bar/baz-0.0.2.tar.gz
- archive: http://github.com/yesodweb/wai/archive/2f8a8e1b771829f4a8a77c0111352ce45a14c30f.zip
  subdirs:
  - wai
  - warp
- archive: ../acme-missiles-0.3.tar.gz
  sha256: e563d8b524017a06b32768c4db8eff1f822f3fb22a90320b7e414402647b735b

With the stack freeze command, this would be replaced with:

extra-deps:
- size: 1540
  url: https://hackage.haskell.org/package/acme-dont-1.1.tar.gz
  cabal-file:
    size: 602
    sha256: 8264ad3e5113d3e0417b46e71d5a9c0914a1f03b5b81319cc329f1dc0f49b96c
  name: acme-dont
  version: '1.1'
  sha256: c32231ff8548bccd4f3bafcc9b1eb84947a2e5e0897c50c048e0e7609fc443ce
  pantry-tree:
    size: 206
    sha256: 79dbeddaf0fd507611687cefe9511c8fda489849fb0cac3894925716936290b2
- size: 285152
  subdir: wai
  url: http://github.com/yesodweb/wai/archive/2f8a8e1b771829f4a8a77c0111352ce45a14c30f.zip
  cabal-file:
    size: 1717
    sha256: 7b46e7a8b121d668351fa8a684810afadf58c39276125098485203ef274fd056
  name: wai
  version: 3.0.2.3
  sha256: 3b6eb04f3763ca16432f3ab2135d239161fbe2c8811b8cd1778ffa67469289ba
  pantry-tree:
    size: 10296
    sha256: ce431f1a22fcda89375ba5e35e53aee968eea23d1124fcba7cb9eae426daa2db
- size: 285152
  subdir: warp
  url: http://github.com/yesodweb/wai/archive/2f8a8e1b771829f4a8a77c0111352ce45a14c30f.zip
  cabal-file:
    size: 6648
    sha256: e3f01fd7417af923fd30962e9e6a4fe4de41ebc5e02af9819067fed79c9c6575
  name: warp
  version: 3.0.13.1
  sha256: 3b6eb04f3763ca16432f3ab2135d239161fbe2c8811b8cd1778ffa67469289ba
  pantry-tree:
    size: 4292
    sha256: d6b1def306a042b5fc500930302533a3ea828e916c99cbd82c0b7e2c4e3a8e09
- size: 1442
  filepath: acme-missiles-0.3.tar.gz
  cabal-file:
    size: 613
    sha256: 2ba66a092a32593880a87fb00f3213762d7bca65a687d45965778deb8694c5d1
  name: acme-missiles
  version: '0.3'
  sha256: e563d8b524017a06b32768c4db8eff1f822f3fb22a90320b7e414402647b735b
  pantry-tree:
    size: 226
    sha256: 614bc0cca76937507ea0a5ccc17a504c997ce458d7f2f9e43b15a10c8eaeb033

Snapshots¶

NOTE Stack has supported custom snapshots properly since version 1.6. In version 1.11, the support for snapshots was moved to Pantry, and Stackage snapshots have moved over to using the same format. Therefore, there is no longer such a thing as "custom snapshots," there are simply "snapshots." Pantry snapshots follow the same format as Stack 1.6 "custom snapshots."

Snapshots provide a list of packages to use, along with flags, ghc-options, and a few other settings. Snapshots may extend any other snapshot that can be specified in a resolver field. The packages specified follow the same syntax mentioned above for dependencies. Unlike extra-deps, however, no support for local directories is available in snapshots to ensure reproducibility.

resolver: lts-8.21 # Inherits GHC version and package set
compiler: ghc-8.0.1 # Overwrites GHC version in the resolver, optional

# Additional packages, follows extra-deps syntax
packages:
- unordered-containers-0.2.7.1
- hashable-1.2.4.0
- text-1.2.2.1

# Override flags, can also override flags in the parent snapshot
flags:
  unordered-containers:
    debug: true

# Packages from the parent snapshot to ignore
drop-packages:
- wai-extra

# Packages which should be hidden (affects script command's import
# parser
hidden:
  wai: true
  warp: false

# Set GHC options for specific packages
ghc-options:
  warp:
  - -O2

If you put this in a snapshot.yaml file in the same directory as your project, you can now use the custom snapshot like this:

resolver: snapshot.yaml

This is an example of a custom snapshot stored in the filesystem. They are assumed to be mutable, so you are free to modify it. We detect that the snapshot has changed by hashing the contents of the involved files, and using it to identify the snapshot internally. It is often reasonably efficient to modify a custom snapshot, due to stack sharing snapshot packages whenever possible.

Running the stack freeze --snapshot command yields the following output:

flags:
  unordered-containers:
    debug: true
ghc-options:
  warp:
  - -O2
packages:
- hackage: unordered-containers-0.2.7.1@sha256:7a1ceb6d88c0f16ec417f28dac16f6dc7b10e88fbb536a74d84941ad2f57b74b,4367
  pantry-tree:
    size: 1286
    sha256: 8a8f745cacae3c11a9c6e6c2fcefc95a13d0c153a8e14b4d28485db1b59d9ef3
- hackage: hashable-1.2.4.0@sha256:33a49b3ea87cc4a0c89a4fd48f19e4807d8c620aff710a048a28cf7d9c9b4620,4271
  pantry-tree:
    size: 1325
    sha256: cb05c31a8ec43f727004e5a6c8e35ff92e0515855a85cb01fa73623683ee4b33
- hackage: text-1.2.2.1@sha256:1c6ffad395d1674915cc9fda1d3b8f202ddcbfda7c341eb8bd99de67d3283bf9,5724
  pantry-tree:
    size: 7376
    sha256: ac2601c49cf7bc0f5d66b2793eddc8352f51a6ee989980827a0d0d8169700a03
hidden:
  warp: false
  wai: true
drop-packages:
- wai-extra
compiler: ghc-8.0.1
resolver:
  size: 515969
  url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/commercialhaskell/stackage-snapshots/master/lts/8/21.yaml
  sha256: 2ec73d520d3e55cb753eaca11a72a9ce95bd9ba7ccaf16de1150d0130a50a5a1

Overriding the compiler¶

The following snapshot specification will be identical to lts-7.1, but instead use ghc-7.10.3 instead of ghc-8.0.1:

resolver: lts-7.1
compiler: ghc-7.10.3

Dropping packages¶

The following snapshot specification will be identical to lts-7.1, but without the text package in our snapshot. Removing this package will cause all the packages that depend on text to be unbuildable, but they will still be present in the snapshot.

resolver: lts-7.1
drop-packages:
  - text

Specifying ghc-options¶

In order to specify ghc-options for a package, you use the same syntax as the ghc-options field for build configuration. The following snapshot specification will be identical to lts-7.1, but provides -O1 as a ghc-option for text:

resolver: lts-7.1
packages:
  - text-1.2.2.1
ghc-options:
  text: -O1

This works somewhat differently than the stack.yaml ghc-options field, in that options can only be specified for packages that are mentioned in the custom snapshot's packages list. It sets the ghc-options, rather than extending those specified in the snapshot being extended.

Another difference is that the * entry for ghc-options applies to all packages in the packages list, rather than all packages in the snapshot.

Specifying flags¶

In order to specify flags for a package, you use the same syntax as the flags field for build configuration. The following snapshot specification will be identical to lts-7.1, but it enables the developer cabal flag:

resolver: lts-7.1
packages:
  - text-1.2.2.1
flags:
  text:
    developer: true

Updating frozen information¶

Suppose you're depending on foo-1.2.3 from Hackage, and have used stack freeze on your file. Now you'd like to upgrade to foo-1.2.4. Doing so requires you to:

Change the version number specified to 1.2.4
Remove any freeze information that may conflict, like cabal file info, pantry tree, etc
Rerun the stack freeze command to generate the new freeze information