hlint demands that its data-file locations are known at compile time. If you remove these files, for example hlint.yaml, hlint will fail with a message and lets hie crash

hlint: user error (Failed to find requested hint files:
  ~/.cabal/store/ghc-8.4.4/hlint-2.1.15-8782d6ab3dc227b1c49b92fdeae8ecd837138c4d8f742c2f87f0c13927a32609/share/hlint.yaml
)

In this case, hlint has stored its data-files in ~/.cabal/store.

Unfortunately, if you copy the executable hie instead of installing from source, hie itself chokes on that error, since the data-files are not copied, thus, not available. We should, at the very least, catch that error and avoid crash.

Following options to resolve this issue:

• Fix this upstream, hlint should just create this file in some location or use defaults.
• Provide all data-files in a custom datadir directory.
• Turn hlint into an official run-time dependency and demand a working installation.

This is a blocker for #1068