Cryptic error messages due to missing version constraints

[itsfarseen]

When I was trying to build the project for the first time in Arch Linux, I encountered the following error:

Click to expand

rejecting: plutus-ledger-api-1.23.0.0 (conflict: plutus-tx==1.29.0.0,
plutus-ledger-api => plutus-tx^>=1.23)

> cabal build
HEAD is now at fcdd22094 Merge pull request #677 from albertodvp/bump-plutus-1.23.0.0
HEAD is now at d5b0e7c Merge pull request #40 from mlabs-haskell/uhbif19/add-transformer-instance
Warning: Requested index-state 2024-06-12T10:15:00Z is newer than
'hackage.haskell.org'! Falling back to older state (2024-06-12T08:29:23Z).
Resolving dependencies...
Error: cabal: Could not resolve dependencies:
[__0] trying: cem-script-0.1.0 (user goal)
[__1] trying: plutus-tx-plugin-1.29.0.0 (dependency of cem-script)
[__2] trying: plutus-tx-1.29.0.0 (dependency of cem-script)
[__3] next goal: plutus-ledger-api (dependency of cem-script)
[__3] rejecting: plutus-ledger-api-1.29.0.0 (conflict: cem-script =>
plutus-ledger-api^>=1.23.0.0)
[__3] skipping: plutus-ledger-api-1.28.0.0, plutus-ledger-api-1.27.0.0,
plutus-ledger-api-1.26.0.0, plutus-ledger-api-1.25.0.0,
plutus-ledger-api-1.24.0.0 (has the same characteristics that caused the
previous version to fail: excluded by constraint '^>=1.23.0.0' from
'cem-script')
[__3] rejecting: plutus-ledger-api-1.23.0.0 (conflict: plutus-tx==1.29.0.0,
plutus-ledger-api => plutus-tx^>=1.23)
[__3] skipping: plutus-ledger-api-1.22.1.0, plutus-ledger-api-1.21.0.0,
plutus-ledger-api-1.20.0.0, plutus-ledger-api-1.19.0.0,
plutus-ledger-api-1.18.0.0, plutus-ledger-api-1.17.0.0,
plutus-ledger-api-1.16.0.0, plutus-ledger-api-1.15.0.1,
plutus-ledger-api-1.15.0.0, plutus-ledger-api-1.14.0.0,
plutus-ledger-api-1.13.0.0, plutus-ledger-api-1.12.0.0,
plutus-ledger-api-1.11.0.0, plutus-ledger-api-1.10.0.0,
plutus-ledger-api-1.9.1.0, plutus-ledger-api-1.9.0.0,
plutus-ledger-api-1.8.0.0, plutus-ledger-api-1.7.0.1,
plutus-ledger-api-1.7.0.0, plutus-ledger-api-1.6.0.0,
plutus-ledger-api-1.5.0.2, plutus-ledger-api-1.5.0.1,
plutus-ledger-api-1.5.0.0, plutus-ledger-api-1.4.0.0,
plutus-ledger-api-1.3.0.0, plutus-ledger-api-1.2.0.0,
plutus-ledger-api-1.1.1.0, plutus-ledger-api-1.1.0.0,
plutus-ledger-api-1.0.0.1, plutus-ledger-api-1.0.0.0,
plutus-ledger-api-1.22.0.0 (has the same characteristics that caused the
previous version to fail: excludes 'plutus-tx' version 1.29.0.0)
[__3] fail (backjumping, conflict set: cem-script, plutus-ledger-api,
plutus-tx)
After searching the rest of the dependency tree exhaustively, these were the
goals I've had most trouble fulfilling: plutus-core, cem-script,
plutus-ledger-api, plutus-tx-plugin, plutus-tx, cardano-crypto-class
Try running with --minimize-conflict-set to improve the error message.

I was not able to figure out why cabal was resolving to the wrong version of plutus-tx.

So I pinned thie plutus-tx version in the cabal file and tried again. After pinning a few more dependencies as per the following snippet, I was able to obtain an error message that makes sense:

Fixes:

common common-onchain
  import:        common-lang
  build-depends:
    , plutarch
    , plutarch-extra
    , plutarch-ledger-api
    , plutus-core           ^>=1.23.0.0   -- updated
    , plutus-ledger-api     ^>=1.23.0.0   
    , plutus-tx             ^>=1.23.0.0   -- updated
    , plutus-tx-plugin      ^>=1.23.0.0   -- updated
    , template-haskell
    , th-abstraction       >=0.6.0.0

common common-offchain
  import:        common-lang

  -- Cardano-api:internal required due to:
  -- https://github.com/IntersectMBO/cardano-api/issues/502
  build-depends:
    , aeson
    , bytestring
    , cardano-api
    , cardano-api:internal
    , cardano-crypto-class ^>=2.1.2  -- updated
    , cardano-ledger-alonzo
    , cardano-ledger-babbage
    , cardano-ledger-core

Error message:

Click to expand:

cardano-crypto-class-2.1.3.0, cardano-crypto-class-2.1.2.0 (conflict:
pkg-config package libblst-any, not found in the pkg-config database)

❯ cabal build
Warning: Requested index-state 2024-06-12T10:15:00Z is newer than
'hackage.haskell.org'! Falling back to older state (2024-06-12T08:29:23Z).
Resolving dependencies...
Error: cabal: Could not resolve dependencies:
[__0] trying: cem-script-0.1.0 (user goal)
[__1] next goal: cardano-crypto-class (dependency of cem-script)
[__1] rejecting: cardano-crypto-class-2.1.5.0, cardano-crypto-class-2.1.4.0,
cardano-crypto-class-2.1.3.0, cardano-crypto-class-2.1.2.0 (conflict:
pkg-config package libblst-any, not found in the pkg-config database)
[__1] rejecting: cardano-crypto-class-2.1.1.0 (conflict: cem-script =>
cardano-crypto-class^>=2.1.2)
[__1] skipping: cardano-crypto-class-2.1.0.2, cardano-crypto-class-2.1.0.1,
cardano-crypto-class-2.1.0.0, cardano-crypto-class-2.0.0.1,
cardano-crypto-class-2.0.0.0.1, cardano-crypto-class-2.0.0 (has the same
characteristics that caused the previous version to fail: excluded by
constraint '^>=2.1.2' from 'cem-script')
[__1] fail (backjumping, conflict set: cardano-crypto-class, cem-script)
After searching the rest of the dependency tree exhaustively, these were the
goals I've had most trouble fulfilling: cem-script, cardano-crypto-class

Then I proceeded to install blst from AUR and libsecp256k1 from pacman, post which the build succeeded.

---

Questions:

• Should we pin the other dependencies like this so that if the user forgets to install a system dependency, they'll get an error that makes sense?
• Should we add the following note to the README?

  If you notice cryptic dependency related errors, double check if the system dependencies are installed

In addition to this:

• We should add the following to the list of system dependencies:
  • libsecp256k1

[uhbif19]

Thanks for report. Apologies for late reply.

I was not able to figure out why cabal was resolving to the wrong version of plutus-tx.

That is unfortunately frequent problem with plutus/cardano deps in this project and we fixed this a lot previously.

Should we add the following note to the README?
We should add the following to the list of system dependencies:

There was doc on this, it was removed, I am not sure why. Probably as we treat devx as only supported platform.
Here it goes:

Arch Linux has libblst in AUR, nix are exemplified by IOHK,
and manual installation is described here:
https://github.com/input-output-hk/cardano-node-wiki/blob/main/docs/getting-started/install.md#installing-blst

@euonymos can I return this to README?

[euonymos]

We have two Nix setups - one in .envrc which is used for development and the other in flake.nix which is used currently only for indexing tests with custom oura. This is not ideal though it works. If you use the one from .envrc (with direnv or manually) you will get IOG's shell with all deps installed. Installing them manually doesn't make any sense (if only you want to avoid using Nix for some reason completely). Don't forget to run cabal update before building.

[uhbif19]

@euonymos Yes, but manual work as well, so I do not see a point to remove it from README. We can mark it like Unsupported method: do on your own risk.

[euonymos]

@uhbif19 sure, I have no objections, please go ahead.