[[!comment format=mdwn username="joey" subject="""comment 1""" date="2016-06-07T17:13:29Z" content=""" propellor-config is the name of the Executable component in the cabal file that we want cabal to build. Usage: cabal build [FLAGS] or: cabal build COMPONENTS [FLAGS] It's the COMPONENT shown in the cabal build help. It seems that your cabal doesn't not understand this syntax. What version of cabal is that? (Based on the license warning, I'm guessing its an older version of cabal than the 1.22.6.0 I'm using here. The cabal 1.20.0.3 in Debian stable also supports this syntax.) Only building the propellor-config Executable is only an optimisation; otherwise cabal build also builds propellor as a library which is not needed here. So your workaround to drop that parameter should be ok. You probably need to rebuild propellor on the remote host manually after updating the code there, since the remote host has a version of propellor compiled such that it tries to recompile itself using that parameter.. """]]