Nix is the best way to develop and build Haskell projects.
Creating a new project
Initialise a new Cabal project by running this command:
$ nix shell nixpkgs\#{cabal-install,ghc} --command cabal init --interactiveThen create the following Nix flake:
{
inputs.nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
outputs = inputs:
with builtins;
let
pname = "hello"; # CHANGE THIS TO YOUR CABAL PROJECT NAME
inherit (inputs.nixpkgs) lib;
foreach = xs: f: with lib; foldr recursiveUpdate { } (
if isList xs then map f xs
else if isAttrs xs then mapAttrsToList f xs
else throw "foreach: expected list or attrset but got ${typeOf xs}"
);
sourceFilter = root: with lib.fileset; toSource {
inherit root;
fileset = fileFilter (file: any file.hasExt [ "cabal" "hs" "md" ]) root;
};
ghcsFor = pkgs: with lib; foldlAttrs
(acc: name: hp:
let
version = getVersion hp.ghc;
majorMinor = versions.majorMinor version;
ghcName = "ghc${replaceStrings ["."] [""] majorMinor}";
in
if hp ? ghc && ! acc ? ${ghcName} && versionAtLeast version "9.2" && versionOlder version "9.11"
then acc // { ${ghcName} = hp; }
else acc
)
{ }
pkgs.haskell.packages;
hpsFor = pkgs: { default = pkgs.haskellPackages; } // ghcsFor pkgs;
overlay = lib.composeManyExtensions [
(final: prev: {
haskell = prev.haskell // {
packageOverrides = lib.composeManyExtensions [
prev.haskell.packageOverrides
(hfinal: hprev: with prev.haskell.lib.compose; {
${pname} = hfinal.callCabal2nix pname (sourceFilter ./.) { };
})
];
};
})
];
in
foreach inputs.nixpkgs.legacyPackages
(system: pkgs':
let
pkgs = pkgs'.extend overlay;
hps = hpsFor pkgs;
bins = pkgs.buildEnv {
name = "${pname}-bins";
paths = [ hps.default.${pname} ];
pathsToLink = [ "/bin" ];
};
libs = pkgs.buildEnv {
name = "${pname}-libs";
paths = map (hp: hp.${pname}) (attrValues hps);
pathsToLink = [ "/lib" ];
};
docs = pkgs.haskell.lib.documentationTarball hps.default.${pname};
sdist = pkgs.haskell.lib.sdistTarball hps.default.${pname};
docsAndSdist = pkgs.linkFarm "${pname}-docsAndSdist" { inherit docs sdist; };
in
{
formatter.${system} = pkgs.nixpkgs-fmt;
legacyPackages.${system} = pkgs;
packages.${system}.default = pkgs.symlinkJoin {
name = "${pname}-all";
paths = [ bins libs docsAndSdist ];
inherit (hps.default.syntax) meta;
};
devShells.${system} =
foreach hps (ghcName: hp: {
${ghcName} = hp.shellFor {
packages = ps: [ hp.${pname} ];
nativeBuildInputs = [
pkgs'.haskellPackages.cabal-install
hp.fourmolu
hp.haskell-language-server
];
};
});
}
) // {
overlays.default = overlay;
};
}Now you’re probably thinking:
Whoa, that’s a big flake!
It is, but it has a number of nice features:
-
support for all Nixpkgs-provided systems (as defined in
nixpkgs.legacyPackages) -
support for all Nixpkgs-provided GHC versions (as defined in
nixpkgs.legacyPackages.${system}.haskell.packages) - a devshell that actually works out of the box
- an overlay for easy flake composability
Basic operations
-
add Haskell modules and dependencies to the generated Cabal file
-
if using Direnv, make sure to
direnv reloadafter changing the Cabal file to update the devshell
-
if using Direnv, make sure to
-
build and run the project locally with
cabal buildandcabal run -
build the project for all GHC versions with
nix build -
build for a specific GHC version with
nix build .#haskell.packages.ghc98.hello