How to install Haskell "Batteries Included" Platform on Ubuntu Jaunty

  • By Jesse Hallett
    •  • 
  • 2nd Jul 2009
    •  • 
  • 2 min read
    •  • 
  • Tags: 
  • Haskell

Just for kicks I thought I would take another shot at some Haskell programming. To get all of the common libraries and the automated package installer, cabal, I set up the Haskell Platform. Here is how I did it.

Ubuntu Jaunty includes a package for the Haskell compiler, ghc, at version 6.8. The Haskell Platform installer will roll its eyes at you if you try to proceed with this version of ghc. So the first step is to install ghc 6.10.

Paste these lines into /etc/apt/sources.list.d/haskell.list:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/someone561/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/someone561/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

To get the key to verify packages from that PPA, run this optional command:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys E51D9310

Then update your package list and install Haskell:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ghc6 ghc6-prof ghc6-doc haddock

The Haskell Platform website does not list a package for Ubuntu yet. So download the source installer.

Before you run the installer you will want to install the necessary build dependencies:

sudo apt-get install libglut-dev happy alex libedit-dev zlib1g-dev

Please leave a comment if you discover that I have left out any dependencies.

To perform the final installation step you will also need to have checkinstall installed:

sudo apt-get install checkinstall

Unpack the source installer wherever you like:

tar -xzf haskell-platform-2009.2.0.1.tar.gz

Finally cd into the installer directory and run the generic installation procedure:

./configure
make
sudo checkinstall -y

This will build and install a deb package called haskell-platform. If you ever want to remove Haskell Platform just uninstall that package.

If all of the above worked, you should be good to go. You compile Haskell code with ghc. You can run an interactive read-eval-print-loop with ghci. And you can install Haskell libraries with cabal.

Revisions

2009-07-23 — Added zlib1g-dev to list of build dependencies. Thanks Jack Siler and Fernand.
2009-08-01 — Added step for installing checkinstall. Thanks Paulo.