Start a new Cabal project with minimal sane defaults.

newcabal.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -e

template='name: $$NAME$$
version: 0.0.0
build-type: Simple
cabal-version: >= 1.9.2

executable $$NAME$$
  main-is: Main.hs
  hs-source-dirs: src
  ghc-options: -Wall -O2
  -- extensions:
  build-depends:
      base >= 4.6 && < 4.7
'

main='module Main where


main :: IO ()
main = putStrLn "hello world"
'

gitignore='dist/
.cabal-sandbox
cabal.sandbox.config
'

if [[ -z "$1" ]]; then
  name="$(basename "$(pwd)")"
else
  name="$1"
fi
name="$(echo "$name" | sed -e 's/ /-/g')"

echo -n "$template" | sed -e 's/\$\$NAME\$\$/'"$name"'/g' > ${name}.cabal
echo "Wrote ${name}.cabal"
mkdir src && echo -n "$main" > src/Main.hs
echo "Wrote src/Main.hs"
echo -n "$gitignore" > .gitignore
echo "Wrote .gitignore"

cabal sandbox init