Downloading Cabal

Ways to download and install Cabal's executable tool cabal.

The tool's explicit target form is cabal-install:exe:cabal, the executable named cabal from the cabal-install package.

Install/Upgrade

Most people with GHC will already have cabal because it is included with GHCup, the recommended way to install GHC and cabal.

If you want to upgrade to the latest stable version, use GHCup again or use cabal itself:

$ cabal install cabal cabal-install

Sometimes the older installed version is still on the program search $PATH, you can check you're running the latest version with:

$ cabal --version

If mixing installation methods, be careful about PATH precedence.

Alternative Sources

Packages for Debian (multiple versions) are available on the Haskell.org APT repository.

Packages for Windows are available via Chocolatey.

Documentation

For Cabal and cabal-install documentation, please see the User's guide, the API documentation, and the Cabal change log.

Bugs

Report bugs here or to the cabal-devel mailing list.

Code

You can get the development version of the code at github/haskell/cabal.

Version Numbers

Stable Releases are numbered a.b.c.d, where b is even. Unstable snapshots between releases are numbered a.b.c.d, where b is odd. Changes for c and d are minor.

For example, 2.1.x.x is the development version leading up to the stable release 2.2.x.x.

Included with GHC

The Cabal library versions bundled with the latest in each ghc-x.y.* series are:

  • ghc-9.10.1 includes Cabal-3.12.0.0
  • ghc-9.8.2 includes Cabal-3.10.2.0
  • ghc-9.6.5 includes Cabal-3.10.3.0
  • ghc-9.4.8 includes Cabal-3.8.1.0
  • ghc-9.2.8 includes Cabal-3.6.3.0
  • ghc-9.0.2 includes Cabal-3.4.1.0
  • ghc-8.10.7 includes Cabal-3.2.1.0
  • ghc-8.8.4 includes Cabal-3.0.1.0
  • ghc-8.6.5 includes Cabal-2.4.0.1
  • ghc-8.4.4 includes Cabal-2.2.0.1
  • ghc-8.2.2 includes Cabal-2.0.1.0
  • ghc-8.0.2 includes Cabal-1.24.2.0
  • ghc-7.10.3 includes Cabal-1.22.5.0

Libraries, such as Cabal (and more recently, Cabal-syntax) included with each ghc-x.y.z version can be found by substituting for x.y.z in:

https://downloads.haskell.org/~ghc/x.y.z/docs/users_guide/x.y.z-notes.html#included-libraries

You can browse older releases at downloads.haskell.org/~cabal.

Downloading Cabal

Ways to download and install Cabal's executable tool cabal.

The tool's explicit target form is cabal-install:exe:cabal, the executable named cabal from the cabal-install package.

Install/Upgrade

Most people with GHC will already have cabal because it is included with GHCup, the recommended way to install GHC and cabal.

If you want to upgrade to the latest stable version, use GHCup again or use cabal itself:

$ cabal install cabal cabal-install

Sometimes the older installed version is still on the program search $PATH, you can check you're running the latest version with:

$ cabal --version

If mixing installation methods, be careful about PATH precedence.

Alternative Sources

Packages for Debian (multiple versions) are available on the Haskell.org APT repository.

Packages for Windows are available via Chocolatey.

Documentation

For Cabal and cabal-install documentation, please see the User's guide, the API documentation, and the Cabal change log.

Bugs

Report bugs here or to the cabal-devel mailing list.

Code

You can get the development version of the code at github/haskell/cabal.

Version Numbers

Stable Releases are numbered a.b.c.d, where b is even. Unstable snapshots between releases are numbered a.b.c.d, where b is odd. Changes for c and d are minor.

For example, 2.1.x.x is the development version leading up to the stable release 2.2.x.x.

Included with GHC

The Cabal library versions bundled with the latest in each ghc-x.y.* series are:

  • ghc-9.10.1 includes Cabal-3.12.0.0
  • ghc-9.8.2 includes Cabal-3.10.2.0
  • ghc-9.6.5 includes Cabal-3.10.3.0
  • ghc-9.4.8 includes Cabal-3.8.1.0
  • ghc-9.2.8 includes Cabal-3.6.3.0
  • ghc-9.0.2 includes Cabal-3.4.1.0
  • ghc-8.10.7 includes Cabal-3.2.1.0
  • ghc-8.8.4 includes Cabal-3.0.1.0
  • ghc-8.6.5 includes Cabal-2.4.0.1
  • ghc-8.4.4 includes Cabal-2.2.0.1
  • ghc-8.2.2 includes Cabal-2.0.1.0
  • ghc-8.0.2 includes Cabal-1.24.2.0
  • ghc-7.10.3 includes Cabal-1.22.5.0

Libraries, such as Cabal (and more recently, Cabal-syntax) included with each ghc-x.y.z version can be found by substituting for x.y.z in:

https://downloads.haskell.org/~ghc/x.y.z/docs/users_guide/x.y.z-notes.html#included-libraries

You can browse older releases at downloads.haskell.org/~cabal.