diff --git a/hackage-db.cabal b/hackage-db.cabal
--- a/hackage-db.cabal
+++ b/hackage-db.cabal
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 Name:                   hackage-db
-Version:                1.10
+Version:                1.11
 Copyright:              Peter Simons
 License:                BSD3
 License-File:           LICENSE
diff --git a/src/Distribution/Hackage/DB/Parsed.hs b/src/Distribution/Hackage/DB/Parsed.hs
--- a/src/Distribution/Hackage/DB/Parsed.hs
+++ b/src/Distribution/Hackage/DB/Parsed.hs
@@ -57,19 +57,20 @@
     parsePackages :: String -> Map Version ByteString -> Map Version GenericPackageDescription
     parsePackages name = Data.Map.mapWithKey (parsePackage name)
 
--- | Parse a single Cabal file. Failure is reported with 'error'.
+-- | Convenience wrapper around 'parsePackage'' to parse a single Cabal
+-- file. Failure is reported with 'error'.
 
 parsePackage :: String -> Version -> ByteString -> GenericPackageDescription
 parsePackage name version buf = case parsePackage' buf of
                            Right a  -> a
                            Left err -> error $ "cannot parse cabal package " ++ show name ++ "-" ++ display version ++ ": " ++ err
 
--- | Parse a single Cabal file. Failure is reported with 'fail'.
+-- | Parse a single Cabal file.
 
-parsePackage' :: Monad m => ByteString -> m GenericPackageDescription
+parsePackage' :: ByteString -> Either String GenericPackageDescription
 parsePackage' buf = case parsePackageDescription (decodeUTF8 buf) of
-                     ParseOk _ a     -> return a
-                     ParseFailed err -> fail (show err)
+                     ParseOk _ a     -> Right a
+                     ParseFailed err -> Left (show err)
   where
     decodeUTF8 :: ByteString -> String
     decodeUTF8 = toString . fromRep . BSC.unpack
diff --git a/src/Distribution/Hackage/DB/Unparsed.hs b/src/Distribution/Hackage/DB/Unparsed.hs
--- a/src/Distribution/Hackage/DB/Unparsed.hs
+++ b/src/Distribution/Hackage/DB/Unparsed.hs
@@ -20,9 +20,9 @@
 import Data.Map
 import Data.Maybe ( fromMaybe )
 import Data.Version
+import Distribution.Hackage.DB.Path
 import Distribution.Text ( simpleParse )
-import System.Directory ( getHomeDirectory )
-import System.FilePath ( joinPath, splitDirectories )
+import System.FilePath ( splitDirectories )
 
 -- | A 'Map' representation of the Hackage database. Every package name
 -- maps to a non-empty set of version, and for every version there is a
@@ -60,12 +60,3 @@
 
     pVersion :: String -> Version
     pVersion str = fromMaybe (error $ "Hackage.DB.parseHackage: cannot parse version " ++ show str) (simpleParse str)
-
--- | Determine the default path of the Hackage database, which typically
--- resides at @"$HOME\/.cabal\/packages\/hackage.haskell.org\/00-index.tar"@.
--- Running the command @"cabal update"@ will keep that file up-to-date.
-
-hackagePath :: IO FilePath
-hackagePath = do
-  homedir <- getHomeDirectory
-  return $ joinPath [homedir, ".cabal", "packages", "hackage.haskell.org", "00-index.tar"]