Michael Snoyman has tracked GHC and Cabal versions from GHC 7.8.3 and Cabal-1.18.1.3. I wanted to understand earlier versions of Cabal, from Cabal-1.0 up to the release of the ubiquitous cabal-version: >=1.10.
Prehistory
On 15 July 2003, Isaac Jones (as he then was) announced at libraries@haskell.org a Haskell-based build and install system, part of the Library Infrastructure project.
On 29 August 2003, he presented the idea at the Haskell Implementers Meeting. An associated archive code, DistUtils, has been preserved.
26 April 2004 is the date of the first commit in the current cabal GitHub respository, transferred from the original DARCS repository.
On 1 June 2004, Isaac Jones (with Simon Peyton Jones, Simon Marlow, Malcolm Wallace and Ross Patterson) announced at libraries@haskell.org a specification for the Haskell Package System (HPS).
6 June 2004 is the date of the first commit in the current haskell-report GitHub respository, renaming HPS as Cabal (Common Architecture for Building Applications and Tools).
On 7 June 2004, Isaac Jones mentioned at libraries@haskell.org that the packaging system was now called ‘Cabal’ (Common Architecture for Building Applications and Libraries).
17 June 2004 is the date of the first commit creating a Setup.description file describing Name: Cabal and version: 0.1.
Cabal versions
Released versions are higlighted. I consider a version to be released if: (1) it was provided with a released version of GHC; (2) it was released on Hackage; or (3) I have identified an announcement of the release and it is not described as a release candidate or development version.
| GHC | Cabal | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 6.4 | 1.0 | GHC released on 2005-03-11. |
| 6.4.1 | 1.0 | GHC released on 2005-09-19. Other versions of Cabal were available. |
| 1.1.1 | Described as a release candidate for Cabal-1.2 on 2005-07-14. Referred to in change log for Cabal-1.1.6. Not released on Hackage or available at downloads.haskell.org. | |
| 1.1.3 | Described as a pre-release. Available at downloads.haskell.org. | |
| 6.4.2 | 1.1.4 | Available at downloads.haskell.org. Release notes refer to Cabal-1.1.3 and change log not updated. |
| 1.1.5.9.4 | Announced as the third release candidate of Cabal-1.1.6 on 2006-09-12. Available at downloads.haskell.org. (Release notes refer to Cabal-1.1.3 and change log not updated.) | |
| 6.6 | 1.1.6 | Released on Hackage on 2006-11-02. Change log now refers to Cabal-1.1.4. |
| 1.1.6.1 | Not released on Hackage. Available at downloads.haskell.org. | |
| 6.6.1 | 1.1.6.2 | Not released on Hackage. Available at downloads.haskell.org. |
| 1.2.0 | Announced as released on 2007-09-06. Not released on Hackage. Available at downloads.haskell.org. Release notes refer to Cabal-1.1.6 and change log says ‘to be included in GHC 6.8.x’. | |
| 1.2.1 | Released on Hackage on 2007-10-21. | |
| 6.8.1 | 1.2.2.0 | GHC’s version numbering policy changed from GHC 6.8.1. Released on Hackage on 2007-11-01. |
| 6.8.2 | 1.2.3.0 | Released on Hackage on 2007-12-12. |
| 6.8.3 | 1.2.4.0 | GHC released on 2008-06-17. Cabal released on Hackage on 2008-06-20. |
| 1.3 | Referred to in change log for Cabal-1.3.4. Not released on Hackage or available at downloads.haskell.org. | |
| 1.3.3 | Referred to in release notes for Cabal-1.3.4 as a development version. Not released on Hackage or available at downloads.haskell.org. | |
| 1.3.4 | Not released on Hackage. Available at downloads.haskell.org. Release notes refer to Cabal-1.3.3. Change log refers to Cabal-1.3. User Guide says Cabal follows the Package Versioning Policy. | |
| 1.3.10 | Announced as first release candidate for Cabal-1.4 on 2008-03-29. Not released on Hackage. Available at downloads.haskell.org. (Described as a development version. Change log refers to Cabal-1.3.x.) | |
| 1.3.12 | Not released on Hackage. Available at downloads.haskell.org. Described as a development version. Change log refers to Cabal-1.3.x. | |
| 1.4.0.0 | Released on Hackage on 2008-06-12. | |
| 1.4.0.1 | Released on Hackage on 2008-06-17. | |
| 1.4.0.2 | Released on Hackage on 2008-08-26. | |
| 1.6.0.0 | Not released on Hackage. Available at downloads.haskell.org. No release notes. | |
| 6.10.1 | 1.6.0.1 | Released on Hackage on 2008-10-11. |
| 1.6.0.2 | Released on Hackage on 2009-02-19. | |
| 6.10.2 | 1.6.0.3 | Released on Hackage on 2009-04-09. |
| 6.10.3 | 1.6.0.3 | |
| 6.10.4 | 1.6.0.4 | Not released on Hackage or available at downloads.haskell.org. |
| 6.12.1 | 1.8.0.2 | Released on Hackage on 2009-12-16. |
| 6.12.2 | 1.8.0.4 | Released on Hackage on 2010-03-31. |
| 6.12.3 | 1.8.0.6 | Released on Hackage on 2010-06-15. |
| 7.0.1 | 1.10.0.0 | Released on Hackage on 2010-11-16. |