GHC 7.8.2's ghci does not track missing symbols when loading non-Haskell object files
I have a package that bundles in C library sources. I never had a problem with this when using GHC 7.6.
In GHC 7.8, the order of the c-sources in the cabal file now matters. Sources must be listed earlier if they have symbols that subsequently loaded object files will need. If the c-sources are in the wrong order, when running "cabal repl" I get
Loading object (static) dist/build/decnumber/src/decQuad.o ... ghc: panic! (the 'impossible' happened)
(GHC version 7.8.2 for x86_64-unknown-linux):
Loading temp shared object failed: /tmp/ghc14294_0/ghc14294_1.so: undefined symbol: DECSTICKYTAB
Please report this as a GHC bug: http://www.haskell.org/ghc/reportabug
When using the same code and cabal file with GHC 7.6, "cabal repl" works fine: GHCi loads each static object (regardless of ordering in the cabal file), links up the necessary symbols, and launches successfully.
Haskell Cafe discussion here:
http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/haskell-cafe/2014-May/114041.html