Hledger: "Nonrepresentable section" error on Arch Linux / build toolchain ideas

[efx]

I'm running into some errors when trying to run stack install --install-ghc --resolver lts-9 --keep-going to build master for a local dev environment. I am running Arch Linux. Here is a snippet of the error log:

--  While building custom Setup.hs for package clock-0.7.2 using:
      /tmp/.stack/setup-exe-cache/x86_64-linux-tinfo6-nopie/Cabal-simple_mPHDZzAJ_1.24.2.0_ghc-8.0.2 --builddir=.stack-work/dist/x86_64-linux-tinfo6-nopie/Cabal-1.24.2.0 build --ghc-options " -ddump-hi -ddump-to-file"
    Process exited with code: ExitFailure 1
    Logs have been written to: /tmp/hledger/.stack-work/logs/clock-0.7.2.log

    Configuring clock-0.7.2...
    Building clock-0.7.2...
    Preprocessing library clock-0.7.2...
    /tmp/stack10478/clock-0.7.2/Clock.hsc:44:0: warning: "hsc_alignment" redefined
    /tmp/stack10478/clock-0.7.2/In file included from .stack-work/dist/x86_64-linux-tinfo6-nopie/Cabal-1.24.2.0/build/System/Clock_hsc_make.c:1:0:
    /tmp/.stack/programs/x86_64-linux/ghc-tinfo6-nopie-8.0.2/lib/ghc-8.0.2/template-hsc.h:88:0: note: this is the location of the previous definition
     #define hsc_alignment(t...) \

    /usr/bin/ld: .stack-work/dist/x86_64-linux-tinfo6-nopie/Cabal-1.24.2.0/build/System/Clock_hsc_make.o: relocation R_X86_64_32 against `.rodata' can not be used when making a shared object; recompile with -fPIC
    /usr/bin/ld: final link failed: Nonrepresentable section on output
    collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
    linking .stack-work/dist/x86_64-linux-tinfo6-nopie/Cabal-1.24.2.0/build/System/Clock_hsc_make.o failed (exit code 1)
    command was: /usr/bin/gcc .stack-work/dist/x86_64-linux-tinfo6-nopie/Cabal-1.24.2.0/build/System/Clock_hsc_make.o .stack-work/dist/x86_64-linux-tinfo6-nopie/Cabal-1.24.2.0/build/System/Clock_hsc_utils.o -o .stack-work/dist/x86_64-linux-tinfo6-nopie/Cabal-1.24.2.0/build/System/Clock_hsc_make -fno-PIE -fno-stack-protector -L/tmp/.stack/programs/x86_64-linux/ghc-tinfo6-nopie-8.0.2/lib/ghc-8.0.2/base-4.9.1.0 -Wl,-R,/tmp/.stack/programs/x86_64-linux/ghc-tinfo6-nopie-8.0.2/lib/ghc-8.0.2/base-4.9.1.0 -L/tmp/.stack/programs/x86_64-linux/ghc-tinfo6-nopie-8.0.2/lib/ghc-8.0.2/integer-gmp-1.0.0.1 -Wl,-R,/tmp/.stack/programs/x86_64-linux/ghc-tinfo6-nopie-8.0.2/lib/ghc-8.0.2/integer-gmp-1.0.0.1 -lgmp -L/tmp/.stack/programs/x86_64-linux/ghc-tinfo6-nopie-8.0.2/lib/ghc-8.0.2/ghc-prim-0.5.0.0 -Wl,-R,/tmp/.stack/programs/x86_64-linux/ghc-tinfo6-nopie-8.0.2/lib/ghc-8.0.2/ghc-prim-0.5.0.0 -L/tmp/.stack/programs/x86_64-linux/ghc-tinfo6-nopie-8.0.2/lib/ghc-8.0.2/rts -Wl,-R,/tmp/.stack/programs/x86_64-linux/ghc-tinfo6-nopie-8.0.2/lib/ghc-8.0.2/rts -lm -lrt -ldl -lpthread

I'm quite unfamiliar with haskell. That said, instead of debugging this, I could see value to creating a Dockerfile or using nix-env to achive a reproducible local build setup without needing to modify system-level paths. Thoughts?

[adept]

What do you mean when you say "modifying system level paths"?

Also, what happens if you run just "stack build"?

[efx]

I was alluding to what ledger-install.sh might do to install things for the users' given system. /usr/bin or other install locations. These are pedestrian observations so I could be wrong here.
It appears to be the same error, I can post the entire log if helpful.

[simonmichael]

Hi @efx.. I'm not familiar with this particular error (or --keep-going) but it might be related to the recent major Haskell troubles on Arch. Two vaguely related links I found just now:
https://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/6nleqc/arch_haskell
https://github.com/commercialhaskell/stack/issues/2712#issuecomment-254088034

I would make sure you're using an up to date stack (latest 1.5 at least).

[simonmichael]

We have a nix-env command on the download page, which works for some people (not all..). I think https://github.com/j3k0/docker-hledger is the latest on hledger & docker.

[simonmichael]

hledger-install.sh (there is no ledger-install.sh) doesn't modify paths. (It probably should do more to help users add ~/.local/bin to $PATH though).

[simonmichael]

PS I assume you get the same error from just running hledger-install.sh.

[efx]

Awesome thanks for the help @adept and @simonmichael. It is stack 1.6.0.20171202 but I see another notice about being compiled with different dependencies. When I get some time later today, I'll try to put together a nix-env command or a dockerfile based on that other project. I do get the same errors when running ./hledger-install.sh.

[simonmichael]

Similar error encountered by other clock users: https://github.com/corsis/clock/issues/43

You are using ghc 8.0.2 which I would have expected to resolve this. But perhaps clock author knows more.

[efx]

Spent some more time digging. Trying the various options mentioned on the arch wiki page and this issue: https://github.com/commercialhaskell/stack/issues/3268. Unfortunately have not gotten the stack install to work. The Stack FAQ doc explains the exact linking error I keep seeing. They mention using a container as well to create an isolated build environment. I'll probably pick it up again and go that route. The Plot Thickens :smile:

[simonmichael]

Prematurely closed, needs additional testing/workaround/download page advice for arch users building hledger.

[simonmichael]

A possible workaround for this issue: change -fno-PIE to -no-pie in the settings file for your GHC, as in this more recent comment at stack#2712. If you have this problem, please try this and and let us know.

[efx]

I verified changing that setting to -no-pie causes the stack install to complete successfully. This was using stack Version 1.6.1, Git revision f25811329bbc40b0c21053a8160c56f923e1201b (5435 commits) x86_64 hpack-0.20.0

[ghost]

Thanks!

[efx]

You can cleanly configure this by adding ghc-build: nopie to ~/.stack/config.yaml. Let me know if you want this included somewhere as documentation. See here for more discussion.

[simonmichael]

Thanks @efx. We may be ok for docs - download > arch linux points to this discussion. Unless you see a way to improve it.

[simonmichael]

Any further action required here ? We'd like "stack install" on Arch Linux to just work.

[efx]

@simonmichael I'll test with a fresh install sometime today or tomorrow and document the steps.

[efx]

Found another similar old issue.
I hadn't noticed the message before but installing stack from the official repositories reports:

You need to either 1) install latest stable ghc package from [extra] or 2) install libtinfo from AUR for the prebuilt binaries installed by stack to work.

I verified that from a clean install, when installing stack from the official repositories, you need to also install ncurses5-compat-libs. From within a docker container, cloning hledger and running stack install works up until Setup.hs in compiling hledger-lib. The error is similar to https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/issues/420 and I saw another that says it is particular to containers too.

For now, recommending the ncurses lib install seems easiest but not necessarily ideal.

[simonmichael]

Thanks for the info. I've also linked this comment on the download page, and that's probably all we should do for Arch haskell at the moment.