In current 8.8 tip 334dd6da, these libraries don't point to a release tag (or old release):

• binary: currently at 0.8.6.0 + commits

• bytestring 13 commits since 0.10.8.2

• containers 10 commits since 0.6.0.1

• deepseq 1 commit since 1.4.4.0

• directory 1 commit since 1.3.3.2

• haskeline 1 commit since 0.7.5.0

• parallel4 commits since 3.2.2.0

• parsec 6 commits since 3.1.13.0

• process 5 commits since 1.6.5.0

• stm 4 commits since 2.5.0.0

• terminfo points to commit which looks like 0.4.1.4 but isn't the actual tagged commit. https://github.com/judah/terminfo/issues/34

• text 4 commits since 1.2.3.1

• time is at 1.9.2, but there is 1.9.3

• unix 5 commits since 2.7.2.2

• And as a bonus Cabal, which is partly tracked by #16637 (closed)

IMHO it would be clearer if each boot library had a PATCH release, so git submodule foreach git describe --always would tell which versions are there. Currently some of the packages have some not-essential .travis.yml churn; some have a little of metadata change (e.g. relaxed base, time etc bounds), or actual unreleased changes (e.g. binary and text at least).

From #16602 (closed)

In general, actionable things like bumping Cabal should have a ticket otherwise they are destined to fall through the cracks. It looks like in this case I failed to open one and no one else did so either.