[Haskell-cafe] Why does Cabal not choose the latest package?

[Emil Axelsson]

Hello!

I've had some of the usual problems with packages depending on multiple 
versions of another package. It seems the root of the hole problem was 
that I once attempted to run

   cabal install cabal-install

This brought in a number of older packages (Cabal-1.8.0.6, 
containers-0.3.0.0, directory-1.0.1.2, filepath-1.1.0.4, 
process-1.0.1.5) to my local package DB, which led to inconsistencies 
when trying to install new packages.

However, if I run

   cabal install cabal-install-0.10.2

things work just fine. So the problem is that it wants to install an 
older version of cabal-install. A session demonstrating the problem is 
found below.

Why doesn't cabal always install the latest packages?

Thanks!

/ Emil


[emax at laptop:~]> ghc --version
The Glorious Glasgow Haskell Compilation System, version 7.0.2

[emax at laptop:~]> cabal --version
cabal-install version 0.10.2
using version 1.10.1.0 of the Cabal library

[emax at laptop:~]> cabal install cabal-install
Resolving dependencies...
Downloading containers-0.3.0.0...
...

[emax at laptop:~]> cabal install cabal-install-0.10.2
Resolving dependencies...
Configuring cabal-install-0.10.2...
Preprocessing executables for cabal-install-0.10.2...
Building cabal-install-0.10.2...
...