Support 64-bit Windows

[3noch]

I can't use stack until it supports two things:

1. 64-bit GHC on Windows
2. Compiling the same code for both 32-bit and 64-bit (possibly with some flag to specify which)

I couldn't find a way to accomplish (2) but it might already be in place. (1) is disabled for some reason ATM. I think @ndmitchell has fears about 64-bit GHC's stability on Windows? I personally have never had issues (other than some libraries not fully supporting 64-bit, but that's not GHC's fault).

[ndmitchell]

I have enough concerns about 64bit windows that if you only support one binary download, it should be 32bit. But you should support both ideally :) Partly its just newer and historically had some issues (the first version was dire) - now I suspect it's just less tested.

[3noch]

@ndmitchell I'm curious how long it's been since that first version. Did it produce incorrect code?

[ndmitchell]

A long time! I think it segfaulted with NAG dlls or something, pretty rare and a long time ago. Now it's just less tested.

[snoyberg]

Alright, I think I've got this working. Try running with the --arch x86_64 flag, or adding arch: x86_64 to your stack.yaml file. I'll test this out on my Windows machine today and see how it goes.

[3noch]

I've successfully built a project with both 32- and 64-bit GHC! I still need to test installing GHC.

[3noch]

Installing 64-bit GHC worked!

[snoyberg]

Awesome! Should we consider this resolved?

[3noch]

Is there a way to specify which GHC version you want in stack.yaml and/or via command-line?

[ndmitchell]

I would have thought stack.yaml was the wrong place for it - you want that to be a cross-platform file.

[snoyberg]

stack setup 7.8 or stack setup 7.10 will work. The resolver field in stack.yaml determines which version of GHC should be used.

[3noch]

Ok I was aware of the setup bit, but I wasn't sure how to get stack to actually use a particular setup. So the resolver includes GHC version. Very well. Thank you. I think this is solved, then. Amazing work.

[3noch]

With that in mind, can/does setup deduce the proper GHC?

[3noch]

Also, I keep getting Would add the following to PATH:... at the end up stack setup. I don't understand it.

[snoyberg]

With that in mind, can/does setup deduce the proper GHC?

Yes.

Also, I keep getting Would add the following to PATH:... at the end up stack setup. I don't understand it.

Please feel free to update the text to be more user-friendly. It's intended to let the user how the PATH environment variable would be modified for any subprocesses, which would be useful information to have if the user wanted to use that GHC directly.

[3noch]

Ok that makes sense now. I wasn't sure if it was telling me that I should change my PATH, or if stack would do it, or if it was informational only (i.e. stack will use the right GHC regardless of PATH).

[gregwebs]

Is this fixed in the latest release?

[snoyberg]

I think so, let's close it.

[wismill]

Hi, please reopen this issue, there is something wrong with the installer of GHC 7.10 64 bits (stack Version 0.0.2, Git revision ca93c89).

With .\stack setup 7.10 --arch x86_64 it completes the installation (message "everything is Ok") but at the end I got the message "Executable named ghc not found on path: [...]".

In fact, the structure of the GHC directory looks strange (I have remaining "stage1" and "stage2" subdirectories):

    Verzeichnis: C:\Users\qrn\AppData\Local\Programs\stack\x86_64-windows\ghc-7.10.1


Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name                                                                                                                                  
----                -------------     ------ ----                                                                                                                                  
d----        2015-06-16     10:48            compiler                                                                                                                              
d----        2015-06-16     10:48            docs                                                                                                                                  
d----        2015-06-16     10:48            driver                                                                                                                                
d----        2015-06-16     10:48            ghc                                                                                                                                   
d----        2015-06-16     10:48            includes                                                                                                                              
d----        2015-06-16     10:48            inplace                                                                                                                               
d----        2015-06-16     10:48            libffi                                                                                                                                
d----        2015-06-16     10:48            libraries                                                                                                                             
d----        2015-06-16     10:48            mk                                                                                                                                    
d----        2015-06-16     10:48            rts                                                                                                                                   
d----        2015-06-16     10:48            rules                                                                                                                                 
d----        2015-06-16     10:48            utils                                                                                                                                 
-a---        2015-03-28     07:18        233 bindist.mk                                                                                                                            
-a---        2014-12-22     16:55      42856 config.guess                                                                                                                          
-a---        2014-12-22     16:55      35740 config.sub                                                                                                                            
-a---        2015-03-28     07:18     207272 configure                                                                                                                             
-a---        2015-02-23     12:48      51617 ghc.mk                                                                                                                                
-a---        2014-12-22     16:55       1376 INSTALL                                                                                                                               
-a---        2014-12-22     16:55      13997 install-sh                                                                                                                            
-a---        2014-12-22     16:55       1611 LICENSE                                                                                                                               
-a---        2015-03-21     23:30       3518 Makefile                                                                                                                              
-a---        2014-12-22     16:55       5463 packages                                                                                                                              
-a---        2014-12-22     16:55        420 README                                                                                                                                
-a---        2015-03-21     23:30       1402 settings.in

Also, could you consider to make by default the architecture of GHC the same than the one of Windows? It is counter-intuitive to have by default 32 bits on a 64 bits system.

[snoyberg]

Good catch, there was an incorrect URL. Can you delete your Programs directory (or at least the downloaded tarball and unpacked directory) and try again? No need to redownload stack.

We're defaulting to 32-bit for now because there's still some concern about the reliability of 64-bit GHC on Windows.

[wismill]

It works now! I have installed both 32 and 64 bits versions.

[snoyberg]

Cool, thank you!