cabal sdist, file name too long, unhelpful error message

[augustss]

Describe the bug
cabal complains about a file name being too long without any mention of the file name.

To Reproduce
I'm not sure what causes the problem, I have no overly long file names.

$ cabal sdist

produces

Error: cabal: Error packing sdist: File name too long (cannot split)

Expected behavior
No error message.

System information

• Ubuntu running in WSL

cabal-install version 3.10.2.0
compiled using version 3.10.2.1 of the Cabal library

[ffaf1]

Is the repo publicly available?

[ffaf1]

Relevant cabal code:

cabal/cabal-install/src/Distribution/Client/SrcDist.hs

Lines 69 to 86 in 2dad49a

	case Tar.toTarPath True prefix of
	Left err -> liftIO $ dieWithException verbosity $ ErrorPackingSdist err
	Right path -> tell [Tar.directoryEntry path]
	for_ files $ \file -> do
	let fileDir = takeDirectory (prefix </> file)
	needsEntry <- gets (Set.notMember fileDir)
	when needsEntry $ do
	modify (Set.insert fileDir)
	case Tar.toTarPath True fileDir of
	Left err -> liftIO $ dieWithException verbosity $ ErrorPackingSdist err
	Right path -> tell [Tar.directoryEntry path]
	contents <- liftIO . fmap BSL.fromStrict . BS.readFile $ dir </> file
	case Tar.toTarPath False (prefix </> file) of
	Left err -> liftIO $ dieWithException verbosity $ ErrorPackingSdist err
	Right path -> tell [(Tar.fileEntry path contents){Tar.entryPermissions = Tar.ordinaryFilePermissions}]

Relevant tar code:

https://github.com/haskell/tar/blob/665c1ebc369b3c8734b43b5d092a26dc36de25a6/Codec/Archive/Tar/Types.hs#L349-L369

[augustss]

Yes https://github.com/augustss/MicroHs

…

On Mon, Nov 13, 2023, 13:54 ffaf1 ***@***.***> wrote: Is the repo publicly available? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#9438 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABIARHW4OHLQ56445ADXLYDYEIKAFAVCNFSM6AAAAAA7JDATR6VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTQMBYGEYTEMBVHE> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[ffaf1]

Cabal HEAD

~/download/MicroHs (master)$ cabal sdist
Warning: this is a debug build of cabal-install with assertions enabled.
Wrote tarball sdist to
/home/f/download/MicroHs/dist-newstyle/sdist/MicroHs-0.5.tar.gz

Same with cabal 3.10.1.0. This has to be Windows shenanigans. @jneira @Kleidukos, could you test on your machines?

git clone  https://github.com/augustss/MicroHs
cd MicroHs
cabal sdist

[augustss]

The WSL runs regular Ubuntu binaries in a VM, so it's more complex than being a Windows problem. But even so, the error message is not good.

…

On Mon, Nov 13, 2023 at 9:19 PM ffaf1 ***@***.***> wrote: Cabal HEAD ~/download/MicroHs (master)$ cabal sdist Warning: this is a debug build of cabal-install with assertions enabled. Wrote tarball sdist to /home/f/download/MicroHs/dist-newstyle/sdist/MicroHs-0.5.tar.gz Same with cabal 3.10.1.0. This has to be Windows shenanigans. @jneira <https://github.com/jneira> @Kleidukos <https://github.com/Kleidukos>, could you test on your machines? git clone https://github.com/augustss/MicroHs cd MicroHs cabal sdist — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#9438 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABIARHS5WJDR6DWITQKTRZ3YEJ6FHAVCNFSM6AAAAAA7JDATR6VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTQMBZGAYDGOBSGE> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[ffaf1]

I have opened a PR at haskell/tar#76.

[Kleidukos]

Yeah it all works well on my Windows by default. haskell/tar#76 will be helpful in debugging this.

[ffaf1]

The patch was accepted, so strictly speaking this bug report should be closed — when tar maintainers decide to upload a new release to Hackage, that is.

Meanwhile, would you mind using this executable to run cabal sdist in your folder? It should give us the name of the offending filepath.

cabal-lennart.tar.gz

[gbaz]

sadly an almost ten year old issue in tar on supporting long file names. (which really means supporting an extension to the tar format in a clean way, which causes a lot of architectural questions) haskell/tar#1 sigh...

[Bodigrim]

@ffaf1 @gbaz could you test whether haskell/tar#77 works for long file names?

[augustss]

That cabal was much more useful. :) It gave me the bad file name, and I could quickly identify that I had an accidental symbolic link that created a cycle. Thanks! Problems solved.

…

On Tue, Nov 14, 2023 at 10:24 PM ffaf1 ***@***.***> wrote: The patch was accepted, so strictly speaking this bug report should be closed — when tar maintainers decide to upload a new release to Hackage, that is. Meanwhile, would you mind using this executable to run cabal sdist in your folder? It should give us the name of the offending filepath. cabal-lennart.tar.gz <https://github.com/haskell/cabal/files/13357057/cabal-lennart.tar.gz> — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#9438 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABIARHRHKXFOY6LE2VR3OCLYEPOSVAVCNFSM6AAAAAA7JDATR6VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTQMJRGM2DQMBYGM> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[ffaf1]

Another happy user.

@Bodigrim I tried it with a somewhat long path (558 characters) and it worked. (It should really be a Quickcheck test in the testsuite tho)

[Bodigrim]

@Bodigrim I tried it with a somewhat long path (558 characters) and it worked.

Thanks!

(It should really be a Quickcheck test in the testsuite tho)

Contributing tests would be most welcome. The branch indeed is likely to get stalled again unless someone writes tests; I don't have any personaly interest or expertise in the area.