[Haskell-cafe] Re: ghc HEAD

[James Andrew Cook]

In many cases it would make quite a lot of sense for the developer to be able to specify default flags as well, preferably without resorting to including a C file.  Generally, the developer will know better than the user whether it makes sense to include -N, the various thread affinity options, the default stack/heap size, etc.  Bonus points for a sensible monoid allowing each library to contribute to the decision for an executable with no declared preference :).

Ideally, the user would be able to specify constraints on those sorts of things globally, once for all, perhaps in their cabal configuration (since I for one don't want any program to give itself a default stack size of 2G without my knowledge just because the author couldn't be bothered to track down a space leak).  The packages would specify what they want, and cabal would give it to them, within the bounds of the user's constraints.

It certainly would not be a trivial undertaking to define the proper behavior of such a system, but if I were gonna wish for a miracle in this area, I think that's the direction I'd be dreaming in.

-- James

On Sep 7, 2010, at 9:51 PM, Ivan Lazar Miljenovic wrote:

> On 8 September 2010 02:37, Brandon S Allbery KF8NH <allbery at ece.cmu.edu> wrote:
>> A better fix would be to identify "safe" settings and only allow those (and
>> only via +RTS) when setuid.  OTOH that's pretty much the system
>> configuration version of the Halting Problem :)
> 
> Or optionally, allow the developer to specify which flags are safe
> (e.g. "users are allowed to specify -N").
> 
> -- 
> Ivan Lazar Miljenovic
> Ivan.Miljenovic at gmail.com
> IvanMiljenovic.wordpress.com
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