RE: Text.ParserCombinators.Parsec requires -package text.

On 13 September 2004 19:40, Claus Reinke wrote:

>> Just to expand on this a little: it's not clear that we could do this
>> even if we wanted to.  Given an arbitrary .o file, we can't tell (a)
>> if it is a compiled Haskell module and (b) if so, where its .hi file
>> can be found.  We can make guesses, but there isn't a general
>> solution. 
> 
> the only .o files you're interested in are those you've created, no?
> 
> so you could add that information to the .o file - but the .hi file
> might have disappeared.  however, the original question was about
> finding required packages in the linking step, with only some .o file
> at hand. 
> 
> so you could add info about required packages in the object file,
> say as the value of some hidden default symbol, or as an unresolved
> reference to a hidden symbol provided by the package. if, in the first
> case, the <GHCrequired_packages> symbol doesn't exist or if, in the
> second case, there's no reference to a <GHCprovides_package_P>
> symbol, you know its not one of your object files, so it shouldn't
> depend on your packages, should it?

Yes, both of these are good ideas.  However, they both require noodling
in object files of course, which is non-portable.  Or perhaps creative
use of 'nm' or 'objdump' would do.

In any case, I think we already arrived at a reasonable solution...

Cheers,
        Simon