+ <sect2>
+ <title>Maintaining a local set of packages</title>
+
+ <para>When GHC starts up, it automatically reads the default set
+ of packages from a configuration file, normally named
+ <filename>package.conf</filename> in your GHC installation
+ directory.</para>
+
+ <para>You can load in additional package configuration files
+ using the <option>-package-conf</option> option:</para>
+
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-package-conf <replaceable>file</replaceable></option></term>
+ <indexterm><primary><option>-package-conf <replaceable>file</replaceable></option></primary>
+ </indexterm>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Read in the package configuration file
+ <replaceable>file</replaceable> in addition to the system
+ default file. This allows the user to have a local set of
+ packages in addition to the system-wide ones.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
+
+ <para>To create your own package configuration file, just create
+ a new file and put the string
+ <quote><literal>[]</literal></quote> in it. Packages can be
+ added to the new configuration file using the
+ <literal>ghc-pkg</literal> tool, described in <xref
+ linkend="package-management">.</para>
+ </sect2>
+