# Cabal meeting (09/05/2024)

[Previous meeting notes](https://hackmd.io/DZOyLXrkQ7mev3148N0Mbw).

## Previous meeting wrap-up

Actions → outcomes:
- ask Ben if he prefers a tag or a hash for GHC/Cabal testing
- *done* ☑ he prefers tags.
- `Cabal` 3.12 release *done* ☑.
- pre-release of `cabal-install`
- *done* ☑ (but check the first point of Food for thought and the first point of Current affairs).

## Current affairs

- (Francesco A.) [Bindist prerealse and GHCup](https://discourse.haskell.org/t/ann-cabal-3-12-0-0-released/9504/10).
I am not really sure what to do. Prerelease to permanent storage? Is that right?

* (Mikolaj) There is a whole point about that (for normal releases) in the checklist. However, this comes at a cost we discussed on the previus meeting: users need to configure their ghcup to use a prerelease channel. Which is why I said then I will use the simpler way.
**action**: Hécate will reply in the Discourse, we are not going to do it this time, but will do it next time
* Artem notices we lack coordination between projects, Mikołaj notices that the more burocracy means less releases.
- (Francesco A.) Also, should we tag it? (Andrea suggested)? We (Mikołaj) did it since it is at no cost to us, but we should decide for future pre-releases what is the correct course of action.
* (Mikolaj) I've now added a note to always create at least a tag to the pre-release section of the release checklist. **done**
- (Mikolaj) volunteers needed for the 3.12.1.0 release.
* Francesco, Mikołaj, Hécate volounteered.
* Artem asks if 3.12.1.0 is going to be a `cabal-install` only release; ~~alas we don’t know yet at this time.~~ `stack` expects us to bring back functionality we axed by mistake, we will do it now, so it is a “yes”.

## Review needed
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- (Mikolaj, speaking for Rodrigo who couldn't come) a lot of small improvement PRs by @sheaf from the Custom Overhaul team need a review (and there's much more to review there!): https://github.com/haskell/cabal/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22attention%3A+needs-review%22+author%3Asheaf
* missing changeloglets: ask in the tickets! **action** for f-a

## Food for thought
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- Hécate dixit: “I think it's okay to cut official pre-releases, and they should be uploaded on downloads.haskell.org, instead of depending on gitlab links that are (and I must emphasise) **not persistent**”.
- Hécate: To elaborate, I believe it's going to spare us many a headache in the future because Gitlab is actually pretty frail and can be unreliable. My main argument is: If we directly upload to downloads.haskell.org, we won't have to think about it twice.
Do we actually care about pre-release users using a volatile link?
- Mikołaj: the process as it is now is cheap and convenient. A “proper” pre-release would take more resources/time, maybe pushing us to do *less* pre-releases.
**action**: update wiki to clarify what different kinds of pre-releases are and make sure we mark it as *non*official so downstream/midstream people don’t scream at us (Artem).
For future releases, we will we decide which kind of release (official or not) it is.