Misspelled user-flags (`-f`) are silently ignored
- Dominant language
- Haskell
- Stars
- 1.7k
- Forks
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- Avg merge
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- Merged PRs (30d)
- 28
Description
Misspelled user-flags (`-f`) are silently ignored. In the wild:
```
$ cabal install -w ghc-9.0.1 cabal-plan
...
$ cabal-plan license-report fix-whitespace
ERROR: `cabal-plan license-report` sub-command not available! Please recompile/reinstall `cabal-plan` with the `license-report` Cabal flag activated.
...
$ cabal install -w ghc-9.0.1 -f licence-report cabal-plan
Resolving dependencies...
Up to date
Copying 'cabal-plan' to ...
$ cabal-plan license-report fix-whitespace
ERROR: `cabal-plan license-report` sub-command not available! Please recompile/reinstall `cabal-plan` with the `license-report` Cabal flag activated.
```
Swallowing errors: not a good UI.
Contributor guide
Research direction
Start by reproducing the misspelled `-f licence-report` command shown in the issue, then trace how cabal-install handles user flags during dependency resolution and installation. The work is done when an unknown or misspelled flag is rejected with a clear error instead of being silently ignored, while valid flags continue to work.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- haskell
- Domain
- build-system, cli
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100