[Hackage] #588: whitespace in description mangled before running haddock

[Hackage]

#588: whitespace in description mangled before running haddock
----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
  Reporter:  guest          |        Owner:         
      Type:  defect         |       Status:  new    
  Priority:  low            |    Milestone:         
 Component:  Cabal library  |      Version:  1.6.0.2
  Severity:  minor          |     Keywords:         
Difficulty:  unknown        |   Ghcversion:         
  Platform:                 |  
----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
 The cabal documentation on this page:

 http://www.haskell.org/cabal/release/cabal-latest/doc/users-
 guide/authors.html#pkg-descr

 contains this under the documentation for the description property:
 'For library packages, this field is used as prologue text by setup
 haddock  (see the section called “setup haddock”), and thus may contain
 the same markup as haddock documentation comments.'

 But when I try to use e.g. paragraphs in this field, it appears as though
 the whitespace gets stripped out and so the paragraphs don't appear and
 all the text gets shoved together.

 Example from my cabal file:

 Description:         Sql parser, pretty printer and type checker, targets
 PostGreSQL SQL and PL/pgSQL, uses Parsec and UUAGC.

                      Overview:

                      see the module 'Database.HsSqlPpp.TypeChecking.Ast'
 for the ast types;

                      'Parser' for converting text to asts;

                      'PrettyPrinter' for converting asts to text;

 <snip>

 this results in:

 Sql parser, pretty printer and type checker, targets PostGreSQL SQL and
 PL/pgSQL, uses Parsec and UUAGC. Overview: see the module
 Database.HsSqlPpp.TypeChecking.Ast for the ast types; Parser for
 converting text to asts; PrettyPrinter for converting asts to text;<snip>

 coming out in the haddock docs and on hackagedb - all the newlines are
 missing. When I copy this text to a separate file an invoke haddock -p,
 the documentation comes out with the paragraphs correctly, so I'm guessing
 this is something cabal is doing to the description property before
 passing it to haddock.

 full cabal file here:
 http://hackage.haskell.org/packages/archive/hssqlppp/0.0.6/hssqlppp.cabal
 scrunched text viewable here:
 http://hackage.haskell.org/package/hssqlppp

 reported by Jake Wheat

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/hackage/ticket/588>
Hackage <http://haskell.org/cabal/>
Hackage: Cabal and related projects