<div class="hidden-warning"><a href="https://docs.haskellstack.org/"><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/commercialhaskell/stack/doc/img/hidden-warning.svg"></a></div>

## Snapshot specification

[:octicons-tag-24: 2.1.1](https://github.com/commercialhaskell/stack/releases/tag/v2.1.1)

A snapshot specifies: (a) a version of GHC and, implicitly, its boot packages;
(b) usually, directly, specific versions of a list of packages; (c) sometimes,
Cabal flags for certain packages; and (d) sometimes, GHC options.

!!! info

    Stackage snapshots are not expected to include directly any boot packages
    but some such snapshots may include directly some boot packages.  In
    particular, some snapshots include directly `Win32` (which is a boot package
    on Windows) while most do not.

Snapshots may extend any other snapshot that can be specified in a
[`snapshot`](../configure/yaml/project.md#snapshot) key. The packages specified
follow the same syntax for dependencies in Stack's project-level configuration
files. Unlike the `extra-deps` key, however, no support for local directories is
available in snapshots to ensure reproducibility.

!!! info

    Stack uses the [Pantry](https://hackage.haskell.org/package/pantry) library
    for snapshot specification.

~~~yaml
# Inherits a specific GHC version and, implicitly, its boot packages and
# specific versions of a set of other packages:
snapshot: lts-24.43
# Overwrites the version of GHC (and, implicitly, its boot packages) specified
# in the snapshot (optional):
compiler: ghc-9.10.2

# Additional packages, follows extra-deps syntax
packages:
- unordered-containers-0.2.7.1
- hashable-1.2.4.0
- text-1.2.2.1

# Packages from the parent snapshot to ignore
drop-packages:
- wai-extra

# Packages which should be hidden
hidden:
  wai: true
  warp: false

# Set GHC options for specific packages
ghc-options:
  warp:
  - -O2

# Override flags, can also override flags in the parent snapshot
flags:
  unordered-containers:
    debug: true
~~~

If you put this in a `snapshot.yaml` file in the same directory as your project,
you can now use the snapshot like this:

~~~yaml
snapshot: snapshot.yaml
~~~

This is an example of a custom snapshot stored in the filesystem. They are
assumed to be mutable, so you are free to modify it. We detect that the snapshot
has changed by hashing the contents of the involved files, and using it to
identify the snapshot internally. It is often reasonably efficient to modify a
custom snapshot, due to Stack sharing snapshot packages whenever possible.

### Overriding the compiler

The following snapshot specification will be identical to `lts-24.43`, but
instead use `ghc-9.10.2` and its boot packages instead of `ghc-9.10.3` and its
boot packages:

~~~yaml
snapshot: lts-24.43 # GHC 9.10.3
compiler: ghc-9.10.2
~~~

### Dropping packages

The following snapshot specification will be identical to `lts-24.43`, but
without the `text` package in our snapshot. Removing this package will cause all
the packages that depend on `text` to be unbuildable, but they will still be
present in the snapshot.

~~~yaml
snapshot: lts-24.43
drop-packages:
- text
~~~

### Hiding packages

The following snapshot specification will be identical to `lts-24.43`, but the
`text` package will be hidden when registering. This will affect, for example,
the import parser in the script command.

~~~yaml
snapshot: lts-24.43
hidden:
- text
~~~

### Specifying GHC options

In order to specify GHC options for a package, you use the same syntax as the
[ghc-options](../configure/yaml/non-project.md#ghc-options) key for build
configuration.

The following snapshot specification will be identical to `lts-24.43`, but
provides `-O1` as a ghc-option for `text`:

~~~yaml
snapshot: lts-24.43
packages:
- text-2.1.2
ghc-options:
  text: -O1
~~~

This works somewhat differently than the stack.yaml `ghc-options` key, in that
options can only be specified for packages that are mentioned in the custom
snapshot's `packages` list. It sets the ghc-options, rather than extending those
specified in the snapshot being extended.

Another difference is that the `*` entry for `ghc-options` applies to all
packages in the `packages` list, rather than all packages in the snapshot.

### Specifying Cabal flags

In order to specify Cabal flags for a package, you use the same syntax as the
[flags](../configure/yaml/project.md#flags) key for build configuration. The
following snapshot specification will be identical to `lts-24.43`, but
it enables the `developer` Cabal flag:

~~~yaml
snapshot: lts-24.43
packages:
- text-2.1.2
flags:
  text:
    developer: true
~~~
