doctest-0.25.0: unrecognized option `--interactive'

[philderbeast]

If I switch from doctest-0.24.3 to doctest-0.25.0, the latest version on hackage, then doctest is failing to get started on Cabal's doctests, reporting "unrecognized option `--interactive'".

$ git rev-parse HEAD
49689b494cd17d693fcc22376bb665d5924cd562

$ make doctest
cd Cabal-syntax && cabal repl --with-compiler=doctest --build-depends=QuickCheck --repl-options='-w -Wdefault -Wno-inconsistent-flags'
...
Build profile: -w ghc-9.12.4 -O1
In order, the following will be built (use -v for more details):
 - Cabal-syntax-3.17.0.0 (interactive) (lib) (configuration changed)
Configuring library for Cabal-syntax-3.17.0.0...
Preprocessing library for Cabal-syntax-3.17.0.0...
doctest: unrecognized option `--interactive'
Try `doctest --help' for more information.
Error: [Cabal-7125]
repl failed for Cabal-syntax-3.17.0.0.
make: *** [Makefile:154: doctest] Error 1

This is the change to Cabal's Makefile that installs the later doctest tool rather than the pinned earlier version:

$ git diff
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 54905a9d5..4c91f864c 100644
...
 .PHONY: doctest-install
 doctest-install: ## Install doctest tool needed for running doctests.
-       cabal install doctest-0.24.3 --overwrite-policy=always --ignore-project --flag cabal-doctest
+       cabal install doctest-0.25.0 --overwrite-policy=always --ignore-project --flag cabal-doctest

With doctest-0.24.3, the make doctest recipe runs to completion and all doctests pass:

$ make doctest
cd Cabal-syntax && cabal repl --with-compiler=doctest --build-depends=QuickCheck --repl-options='-w -Wdefault -Wno-inconsistent-flags'
...
Build profile: -w ghc-9.12.4 -O1
In order, the following will be built (use -v for more details):
 - Cabal-syntax-3.17.0.0 (interactive) (lib) (configuration changed)
...
Examples: 154  Tried: 154  Errors: 0  Failures: 0
cd Cabal-described && cabal repl --with-compiler=doctest --build-depends=QuickCheck --repl-options='-w -Wdefault -Wno-inconsistent-flags'
...
Build profile: -w ghc-9.12.4 -O1
In order, the following will be built (use -v for more details):
 - Cabal-syntax-3.17.0.0 (lib) (configuration changed)
 - Cabal-3.17.0.0 (lib) (dependency rebuilt)
 - Cabal-described-3.17.0.0 (interactive) (lib) (dependency rebuilt)
...
Examples: 6  Tried: 6  Errors: 0  Failures: 0
cd Cabal && cabal repl --with-compiler=doctest --build-depends=QuickCheck --repl-options='-w -Wdefault -Wno-inconsistent-flags'
...
Build profile: -w ghc-9.12.4 -O1
In order, the following will be built (use -v for more details):
 - Cabal-3.17.0.0 (interactive) (lib) (configuration changed)
...
Examples: 25  Tried: 25  Errors: 0  Failures: 0
cd cabal-install-solver && cabal repl --with-compiler=doctest --build-depends=QuickCheck --repl-options='-w -Wdefault -Wno-inconsistent-flags'
...
Build profile: -w ghc-9.12.4 -O1
In order, the following will be built (use -v for more details):
 - Cabal-3.17.0.0 (lib) (configuration changed)
 - cabal-install-solver-3.17.0.0 (interactive) (lib) (configuration changed)
...
Examples: 48  Tried: 48  Errors: 0  Failures: 0
cd cabal-install && cabal repl --with-compiler=doctest --build-depends=QuickCheck --repl-options='-w -Wdefault -Wno-inconsistent-flags'
...
Build profile: -w ghc-9.12.4 -O1
In order, the following will be built (use -v for more details):
 - cabal-install-solver-3.17.0.0 (lib) (configuration changed)
 - hooks-exe-0.1 (lib) (file /home/philderbeast/dev/src/cabalism/cabal/dist-newstyle/build/x86_64-linux/ghc-9.12.4/Cabal-3.17.0.0/cache/build changed)
 - cabal-install-3.17.0.0 (interactive) (lib) (dependency rebuilt)
...
Examples: 57  Tried: 57  Errors: 0  Failures: 0

[sol]

@philderbeast which OS are you using? If you can come up with a minimal repro that would help immensely.

[sol]

Also, which version of cabal-install?

[philderbeast]

I'm on Ubuntu 25.10 and am running cabal-install installed from source at the revision:

$ git rev-parse HEAD
49689b494cd17d693fcc22376bb665d5924cd562

[philderbeast]

I thought I'd also try a released version of cabal-install so deleted ~/.local/bin/cabal to pick up ~/.ghcup/bin/cabal and am getting a different error (after the first package passes its doctests):

$ git diff
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 54905a9d5..f5fa15784 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
...
 .PHONY: doctest
 doctest: ## Run doctests.
+       cabal --numeric-version
        cd Cabal-syntax && $(DOCTEST)
        cd Cabal-described && $(DOCTEST)
        cd Cabal && $(DOCTEST)
@@ -162,7 +163,7 @@ doctest: ## Run doctests.
 # SEE: https://github.com/haskell/cabal/issues/11493
 .PHONY: doctest-install
 doctest-install: ## Install doctest tool needed for running doctests.
-       cabal install doctest-0.24.3 --overwrite-policy=always --ignore-project --flag cabal-doctest
+       cabal install doctest-0.25.0 --overwrite-policy=always --ignore-project --flag cabal-doctest

$ make doctest
cabal --numeric-version
3.16.1.0
cd Cabal-syntax && cabal repl --with-compiler=doctest --build-depends=QuickCheck --repl-options='-w -Wdefault -Wno-inconsistent-flags'
...
Build profile: -w ghc-9.12.4 -O1
In order, the following will be built (use -v for more details):
 - Cabal-syntax-3.17.0.0 (interactive) (lib) (first run)
...
Examples: 154  Tried: 154  Errors: 0  Failures: 0
cd Cabal-described && cabal repl --with-compiler=doctest --build-depends=QuickCheck --repl-options='-w -Wdefault -Wno-inconsistent-flags'
...
Build profile: -w ghc-9.12.4 -O1
In order, the following will be built (use -v for more details):
 - Cabal-syntax-3.17.0.0 (lib) (configuration changed)
 - tasty-1.5.4 (lib) (requires build)
 - Cabal-3.17.0.0 (lib) (first run)
 - tasty-quickcheck-0.11.1 (lib) (requires build)
 - Cabal-described-3.17.0.0 (interactive) (lib) (first run)
Starting     tasty-1.5.4 (lib)
Configuring library for Cabal-syntax-3.17.0.0...
Building     tasty-1.5.4 (lib)
Preprocessing library for Cabal-syntax-3.17.0.0...
Building library for Cabal-syntax-3.17.0.0...
doctest: unrecognized option `--make'
Try `doctest --help' for more information.

Failed to build tasty-1.5.4.
Build log (
/home/.../.cache/cabal/logs/ghc-9.12.4/tasty-1.5.4-26b118cb3ebeab285a69fe17f4b6080a411e1948e5fc038422da30dfe386506b.log
):
Configuring library for tasty-1.5.4...
Preprocessing library for tasty-1.5.4...
Building library for tasty-1.5.4...
doctest: unrecognized option `--make'
Try `doctest --help' for more information.
Error: [Cabal-7125]
Failed to build Cabal-syntax-3.17.0.0 (which is required by Cabal-described-3.17.0.0).
Failed to build tasty-1.5.4 (which is required by Cabal-described-3.17.0.0). See the build log above for details.

make: *** [Makefile:156: doctest] Error 1

The contents of that log file are:

Configuring library for tasty-1.5.4...
Preprocessing library for tasty-1.5.4...
Building library for tasty-1.5.4...
doctest: unrecognized option `--make'
Try `doctest --help' for more information.

[sol]

For some reason it seems this code does not take effect:

doctest/src/Options.hs

Line 86 in e5f6a36

, "--make"

Possibly due to response files?

[philderbeast]

cabal repl --with-compiler=doctest --build-depends=QuickCheck --repl-options='-w -Wdefault -Wno-inconsistent-flags'

This is using a similar command to the passing doctest options to cabal repl section from doctest's readme.

With doctest-0.25.0 I'm seeing a better results with cabal-doctest:

$ make doctest
cabal --numeric-version
3.16.1.0
cd Cabal-syntax && cabal doctest
doctest version 0.25.0
using version 9.12.4 of the GHC API
...
Build profile: -w ghc-9.12.4 -O1
In order, the following will be built (use -v for more details):
 - Cabal-syntax-3.17.0.0 (interactive) (lib) (configuration changed)
...
Examples: 154  Tried: 154  Errors: 0  Failures: 0
cd Cabal-described && cabal doctest
doctest version 0.25.0
using version 9.12.4 of the GHC API
...
Build profile: -w ghc-9.12.4 -O1
In order, the following will be built (use -v for more details):
 - Cabal-syntax-3.17.0.0 (lib) (configuration changed)
 - Cabal-3.17.0.0 (lib) (dependency rebuilt)
 - Cabal-described-3.17.0.0 (interactive) (lib) (dependency rebuilt)
...
Examples: 6  Tried: 6  Errors: 0  Failures: 0
cd Cabal && cabal doctest
doctest version 0.25.0
using version 9.12.4 of the GHC API
...
Build profile: -w ghc-9.12.4 -O1
In order, the following will be built (use -v for more details):
 - Cabal-3.17.0.0 (interactive) (lib) (configuration changed)
...
Examples: 25  Tried: 25  Errors: 0  Failures: 0
cd cabal-install-solver && cabal doctest
doctest version 0.25.0
using version 9.12.4 of the GHC API
...
Build profile: -w ghc-9.12.4 -O1
In order, the following will be built (use -v for more details):
 - Cabal-3.17.0.0 (lib) (configuration changed)
 - cabal-install-solver-3.17.0.0 (interactive) (lib) (configuration changed)
...
Examples: 48  Tried: 48  Errors: 0  Failures: 0
cd cabal-install && cabal doctest
doctest version 0.25.0
using version 9.12.4 of the GHC API
...
Build profile: -w ghc-9.12.4 -O1
In order, the following will be built (use -v for more details):
 - cabal-install-solver-3.17.0.0 (lib) (configuration changed)
 - hooks-exe-0.1 (lib) (file /home/philderbeast/dev/src/cabalism/cabal/dist-newstyle/build/x86_64-linux/ghc-9.12.4/Cabal-3.17.0.0/cache/build changed)
 - cabal-install-3.17.0.0 (interactive) (lib) (dependency rebuilt)
...
Examples: 57  Tried: 57  Errors: 0  Failures: 0

[philderbeast]

If you can come up with a minimal repro that would help immensely.

Will do when I find one but thought I should log the issue with what I had.

[blamario]

FWIW, I ran into both errors. The --make error appears when running cabal --with-compiler=doctest or --with-ghc=doctest. That's presumably because cabal attempts to build the dependencies calling doctest --make. If I switch the option to cabal --with-repl=doctest, I get the doctest: unrecognized option `--interactive' error. The latter one should be very easy to fix I presume, just ignore --interactive.

[blamario]

To reproduce, git clone git@github.com:blamario/grampa.git, then cd grampa/rank2classes and cabal build && cabal repl --with-repl=doctest rank2classes:doctests.

$ cabal --version
cabal-install version 3.16.0.0 
compiled using version 3.16.0.0 of the Cabal library (in-tree)

$ doctest --version
doctest version 0.25.0
using version 9.10.3 of the GHC API
using /nix/store/s9jd43rkwc2syl9cvgj6f786avy8bgzy-ghc-9.10.3/bin/ghc-9.10.3