extra-include-dirs in stack.yaml in implicit global config ignored from outside of a project

[mpilgrem]

I am not sure if this is supposed to happen: I am using stack version 0.1.4.0 on Windows 10 (64 bit). I have set extra-include-dirs and extra-lib-dirs in stack.yaml but those settings seem to be ignored when I run stack from outside a project. For example, if I run stack path the corresponding items are shown as empty in the output unless I run stack path in the folder which is the config-location (or a sub-folder).

[borsboom]

What is the path where you put this stack.yaml?

[mpilgrem]

It is at: (config-location:) C:\Users\[My User Name]\AppData\Roaming\stack\global\stack.yaml.

[borsboom]

Try moving it up a level, to C:\Users\[My User Name]\AppData\Roaming\stack\stack.yaml. The "global project" is the default project used when you not inside another project, and its stack.yaml will be ignored if you are in a project with its own stack.yaml. On the other hand, stack\stack.yaml sets the defaults that apply to all projects.

[mpilgrem]

Thank you. That works.

[rvion]

how about adding small Readme.md in those folder ?
Having specific documentation about those fodlers scope directly in them would prevent future bug report like this one.

The content could be:

the `stack.yaml` file in this folder is for xxxx
for more details, see the full documentation here: https://yyyy

[borsboom]

I just added a bit of clarifying text to the stack.yaml documentation (which was already pretty clear), and also opened #969 to make ~/.stack/global/stack.yaml self-document its use.

Since the user's original problem is resolved, closing this issue.

[mpilgrem]

I agree that the stack.yaml documentation was already pretty clear but, as a Windows user, it was borsboom's suggestion above that caused me to understand it better. Perhaps if I explain my own confusion, it will help design documentation that will help others. I do so below.

First, non-Windows paths are unfamilar to me. It would help to have the equivalent Windows paths, for a plain vanilla Windows installation of stack, added in parentheses to the stack.yaml documentation (where there is an equivalent).

Second, I understood that there could be project-specific stack.yaml files (in the folder from which stack was run, or its parent if not there, and so on) and that that project-specific file could contain options that were classified as 'project-specific' and options that were classified as 'non-project specific'.

However, I did not understand that there were two 'default' stack.yaml files in the absence of a project-specific one:

(1) one default file in \stack\global\ for options that are classified as 'project-specific' (which file already existed and is often referred to in messages produced by stack itself - I think I must have misunderstood also what 'config-location' means in the output of stack path; I am not sure that meaning is documented); and

(2) one default file in \stack\ for options that are not classified as 'project-specific' (which file did not already exist in my installation).