Bug#1125673: ghc: Please do not ship files under /var

[Gioele Barabucci]

Hi Stéphane,

On 17/04/26 12:25, Stéphane Glondu wrote:
> Le 16/04/2026 à 13:20, Gioele Barabucci a écrit :
>>> >1105 Haskell packages (all Haskell packages?) install one or more 
>>> >files in /var/lib/ghc/package.conf.d/.
>>> >
>>> >Would it be possible to change the way these packages are built, so 
>>> >that they do not ship any files under /var, a directory meant to 
>>> >"[contain] _variable_ data files" (FHS)?
>>>
>>> Kari, can you give us some insight about why they were moved to
>>> /var in the first place?
>>
>> Hi Kari, gentle ping. :)
>>
>>  From conversations in IRC it seems that it would be easy to move 
>> these files away from /var, but what is missing is to understand 
>> (Chesterton's Fence-like) for which historical reasons these files are 
>> installed there.
> 
> I guess the same applies to OCaml packages... And (as far as OCaml is 
> concerned), I am partly responsible.

Should I open a new bug for OCaml and add there some OCaml-specific data?

Or do you (Haskell and OCaml dev) think that is makes more sense to try 
to seek a common solution (location, at least) for both languages?

Truth be told, the kind of information that OCaml packages store in 
`/var/lib/ocaml/` strikes me as very different from what Haskell/GHC 
packages store in `/var/lib/ghc/package.conf.d/`. But I'm just a 
bystander. :)

-- 
Gioele Barabucci