[FR] - Make cardano-api/gen a normal library again due to haskell.nix incompatibility.

[MangoIV]

Internal/External
External When trying to depend on the cardano-node/cardano-api/gen lib, the ghcWrapper somehow doesn't include the lib in the shell environment. This makes it not really usable as a dependency.

Area
Other Any other topic (Delegation, Ranking, ...).

Describe the feature you'd like
I would like the gen library to be a normal toplevel library as long as all the bugs with sublibs aren't fixed.

Describe alternatives you've considered
The alternative is fixing haskell.nix and/or cabal

Additional context / screenshots
Also see this issue on haskell.nix

[github-actions]

This issue is stale because it has been open 30 days with no activity. Remove stale label or comment or this will be closed in 120 days.

[newhoggy]

It's not possible to make library cardano-api:gen a separate package because test-suite cardano-api:cardano-api-test depends on library cardano-api:gen which in turn depends on library cardano-api.

test-suite cardano-api:cardano-api-test and library cardano-api are defined in the same package cardano-api, so cabal requires that the gen package exist in the same package as well.

Unfortunately, this means fixing haskell.nix and/or cabal is the only viable option.

[eyeinsky]

Unfortunately, this means fixing haskell.nix and/or cabal is the only viable option.

Improving haskell.nix seems like a good thing!

[newhoggy]

@MangoIV , @eyeinsky I'm interested to know if this resolves the issue: #4970

[MangoIV]

Afaict yes.

[newhoggy]

Can you point to where the library is used? Is it for consumption via an srp entry in a cabal.project or something else?

[MangoIV]

I tried it with both srp and nix extra hackage. Neither do worth. Sublibs just don't work. At least for Haskell.nix devShells. See the attached issue. Thank you.

[Jimbo4350]

@MangoIV Instead of making cardano-api/gen a top level library, will adding a .cabal file for the generators fix your issue? I'd rather not add another library to the cardano-node repo.

[MangoIV]

I will close this issue as I don't depend on this anymore. I still want to note that one probably wants to abstain from using public sublibs as they're not fully supported by cabal yet and haskell.nix cannot deal with them for that reason and stuff will break.