Cabal (software)

The Cabal (common architecture for building applications and libraries) is a type of package manager to aid in packaging and distributing software packages, in the forms of application software and libraries, for the programming language Haskell.

Cabal

Original author(s)	Isaac Potoczny-Jones
Developer(s)	Duncan Coutts
Initial release	January 2005; 20 years ago (2005-01)
Stable release	3.14.2.0[1]  / 7 April 2025; 40 days ago (7 April 2025)
Repository	github.com/haskell/cabal
Written in	Haskell
Operating system	Unix, Unix-like, Windows
Platform	IA-32, x86-64
Available in	English
Type	Application level package manager
License	BSD
Website	www.haskell.org/cabal

History

Cabal was introduced to simplify packaging of Haskell software and modules. It was added to the Glasgow Haskell Compiler in version 6.4 as the default package manager,^[2] alongside GHC's internal manager ghc-pkg. Its approach has changed significantly over the course of its development, moving from global package installation to sandboxed builds, and eventually a Nix-inspired solution of local builds with global caching,^[3] which became the default in 2019.

Use

Cabal packages provide a standard set of metadata and build process; thus, it is possible to develop tools to upload Cabal packages to the CPAN-like community repository of software, Hackage, or even allow automated downloading, compiling, and installing of desired packages from Hackage.^[4]