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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-26T18:14:39+00:00

So I’d like to set up a linux machine for Haskell development with one

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So I’d like to set up a linux machine for Haskell development with one huge caveat — no root privs on this machine. We could of course get the admins to install GHC for us, eventually. However, in the long-term then we need to hassle them when we want to upgrade, etc. So much better to do everything in userland. Which also means that we’ll want to install c libs we link to in userland as well, etc. to keep everything as hassle-free as possible.

So, the question is, how, soup-to-nuts, would I go about doing a purely userland install of GHC? The machine will have gcc, and the usual toolchain. If necessary, we can start with a typical ghc install to get the ball rolling, but it would be nice not to.

Additionally, any tips on managing an environment like this would be appreciated, especially involving how such a setup can be manageable with multiple devs/accounts.

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  1. Editorial Team

    You obviously need a directory that all pertinent users have at least read permission on. Say /home/foo, with subdirectories bin, lib, share, .cabal. Then ./configure --prefix=/home/foo and make && make install, and make sure that /home/foo/* is before /usr/* in everybody’s PATH, LIBRARY_PATH etc. You should probably start with installing gcc and c-libs there, and when everything C is installed, install ghc.

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