How do I set up Gtk on Windows for Haskell development?

Question

So far I have installed full version from https://www.haskell.org/platform/windows.html

Initially, pacman did not work so I did run as an administrator mingw64.exe found in

C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\8.2.1\msys

I have updated the msys2 sytem running pacman -Syu and installed all Gtk libraries. I am trying to compile https://github.com/mmsbrggr/hsudoku using stack. I have gone past the missing dll errors and now I get the following:

haskell-gi-base-0.20.4: configure

-- While building package haskell-gi-base-0.20.4 using: C:\sr\setup-exe-cache\x86_64-windows\Cabal-simple_Z6RU0evB_1.24.2.0_ghc-8.0.2.exe --builddir=.stack-work\dist\ca59d0ab configure --with-ghc=C:\Users\Jacek\AppData\Local\Programs\stack\x86_64-windows\ghc-8.0.2\bin\ghc.EXE --with-ghc-pkg=C:\Users\Jacek\AppData\Local\Programs\stack\x86_64-windows\ghc-8.0.2\bin\ghc-pkg.EXE --user --package-db=clear --package-db=global --package-db=C:\sr\snapshots\7eb65607\pkgdb --libdir=C:\sr\snapshots\7eb65607\lib --bindir=C:\sr\snapshots\7eb65607\bin --datadir=C:\sr\snapshots\7eb65607\share --libexecdir=C:\sr\snapshots\7eb65607\libexec --sysconfdir=C:\sr\snapshots\7eb65607\etc --docdir=C:\sr\snapshots\7eb65607\doc\haskell-gi-base-0.20.4 --htmldir=C:\sr\snapshots\7eb65607\doc\haskell-gi-base-0.20.4 --haddockdir=C:\sr\snapshots\7eb65607\doc\haskell-gi-base-0.20.4 --dependency=base=base-4.9.1.0 --dependency=bytestring=bytestring-0.10.8.1 --dependency=containers=containers-0.5.7.1 --dependency=text=text-1.2.2.2-9UQZjEJZQFSGMffj1Z5g00 "--extra-include-dirs=C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\8.2.1\msys\mingw64\include" "--extra-include-dirs=C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\8.2.1\msys\mingw64\include\GLIB-2.0" --extra-include-dirs=C:\Users\Jacek\AppData\Local\Programs\stack\x86_64-windows\msys2-20150512\mingw64\include --extra-include-dirs=C:\Users\Jacek\Downloads\glib-2.54.1 "--extra-lib-dirs=C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\8.2.1\msys\mingw64\bin" "--extra-lib-dirs=C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\8.2.1\msys\usr\bin" --extra-lib-dirs=C:\Users\Jacek\AppData\Local\Programs\stack\x86_64-windows\msys2-20150512\mingw64\bin --extra-lib-dirs=C:\Users\Jacek\AppData\Local\Programs\stack\x86_64-windows\msys2-20150512\mingw64\lib Process exited with code: ExitFailure 1 Logs have been written to: C:\Users\Jacek\Documents\ExperimentingHaskell\hsudoku.stack-work\logs\haskell-gi-base-0.20.4.log
Configuring haskell-gi-base-0.20.4...
Cabal-simple_Z6RU0evB_1.24.2.0_ghc-8.0.2.exe: Missing dependencies on foreign
libraries:
* Missing C libraries: gobject-2.0, glib-2.0, intl
This problem can usually be solved by installing the system packages that
provide these libraries (you may need the "-dev" versions). If the libraries
are already installed but in a non-standard location then you can use the
flags --extra-include-dirs= and --extra-lib-dirs= to specify where they are.

I am able to find includes, but I am concerned that some compiler options are wrapped in quotes. Could it be a problem?

How do I correctly add development files when I develop with Haskell and Gtk on Windows? How do I tell the Haskell compiler where it can find the includes?

extra-include-dirs: ['C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\8.2.1\msys\mingw64\include', 'C:\Users\Jacek\Downloads\glib-2.54.1','C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\8.2.1\msys\mingw64\include\GLIB-2.0'] extra-lib-dirs: ['C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\8.2.1\msys\mingw64\bin', 'C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\8.2.1\msys\usr\bin']

My extra-include dirs seem to be garbled in the compiler output.

You don't need to point to the glib sources. Haskell needs the compiled glib binary and the development includes. Usually, you get these by installing a dev version of glib, e.g. one you might find already ready-to-install on the web (easier), or one you can generate by compiling and installing the glib sources. — chi
@chi How do I get the dev version of glib on MSYS2? That is why I went to ftp.gnome.org for sources. In the ideal world, I would need help from someone who tried the same on Windows. — ruby_object
AFAIK, there's no devel package on MSYS2, the includes are shipped with the main package. Just list the available packages and install glib2. github.com/msys2/msys2/wiki/Using-packages — liberforce
@liberforce, thanks, I have found glib2 includes using pacman -Ql mingw-w64-x86_64-glib2. Now I suspect that Haskell can't find the existing directories because the path contains spaces. — ruby_object
That's possible, look at msys2.org, at step 3 they say: Enter Installation Folder (ASCII, no accents, spaces nor symlinks, short path) . — liberforce

Mike Pilgrem Mike Pilgrem · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-31T14:29:22

I was able to build and run the example 'Hello World' program at the haskell-gi repository on 64-bit Windows (version 10.0.16299.125) using the Haskell Tool Stack (stack, version 1.6.3) as follows:

stack had previously been set up to use GHC 8.0.2 or GHC 8.2.2.
I followed the instructions for the MSYS2 installer for 64-bit Windows, accepting the defaults and updating (as set out in the instructions).
Opening a MSYS2 shell, I then used pacman to install packages mingw64/mingw-w64-x86_64-pkg-config mingw64/mingw-w64-x86_64-gobject-introspection mingw64/mingw-w64-x86_64-gtksourceview3 mingw64/mingw-w64-x86_64-webkitgtk3. I then returned to Windows' Command Prompt. (However, I can't rule out that I may have installed other packages.)
I set up the following Windows environment variables for my account (finding `Edit environment variables for your account' by typing 'env' into the Windows 10 search bar):
```
PKG_CONFIG_PATH=C:\msys64\mingw64\lib\pkgconfig
XDG_DATA_DIRS=C:\msys64\mingw64\share
```
Steps 3 and 4 were based on a page on the haskell-gi wiki.
I added C:\msys64\mingw64\bin near the start of the PATH environment variable for my account. See step 7 below about the importance of what is found first on the path.
I created a new Haskell project gi-gtk-test with a simple template and then moved into its folder using:
```
stack new gi-gtk-test simple
cd gi-gtk-test
```
At the time of writing, that created a stack.yaml file with resolver: lts-10.1 (GHC 8.2.2). A bug in GHC 8.2.2 means that it does not work with gi-gtk, so I changed that to resolver: lts-9.21 to revert to GHC 8.0.2.
This proved to be a vital step: Using stack exec where -- pkg-config and stack exec where -- zlib1.dll to see what versions were first encountered on the PATH that is set up in the stack environment, I made sure that the versions first encountered were those in C:\msys64\mingw64\bin\ (by changing the order of folders on my PATH or renaming unwanted zlib1.dll as zlib1.dll.old). (I think that other versions of the former resulted in error messages about 'missing C libraries' and other versions of the latter resulted in dialog boxes with obscure messages about dlls.)

I added the packages gi-gtk and haskell-gi-base to the gi-gtk-test.cabal file, as follows:

executable gi-gtk-test
  hs-source-dirs:      src
  main-is:             Main.hs
  default-language:    Haskell2010
  build-depends:       base >= 4.7 && < 5
                     , gi-gtk
                     , haskell-gi-base

I changed the contents of Main.hs to be the example program, namely:

{-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings, OverloadedLabels #-}

module Main where

import qualified GI.Gtk as Gtk  -- package gi-gtk
import Data.GI.Base             -- package haskell-gi-base

main :: IO ()
main = do
  Gtk.init Nothing
  win <- new Gtk.Window [ #title := "Hi there" ]
  on win #destroy Gtk.mainQuit
  button <- new Gtk.Button [ #label := "Click me" ]
  on button #clicked (set button [ #sensitive := False,
                                   #label := "Thanks for clicking me" ])
  #add win button
  #showAll win
  Gtk.main

Then, the following worked as expected to build and run the example program:
```
stack build
stack exec gi-gtk-test
```

How do I set up Gtk on Windows for Haskell development?

2 Answers