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1 | package ExtUtils::MakeMaker::FAQ; |
2 | |
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3 | use vars qw($VERSION); |
4 | $VERSION = '1.11'; |
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5 | |
6 | 1; |
7 | __END__ |
8 | |
9 | =head1 NAME |
10 | |
11 | ExtUtils::MakeMaker::FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions About MakeMaker |
12 | |
13 | =head1 DESCRIPTION |
14 | |
15 | FAQs, tricks and tips for C<ExtUtils::MakeMaker>. |
16 | |
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17 | |
18 | =head2 Module Installation |
19 | |
20 | =over 4 |
21 | |
22 | =item How do I keep from installing man pages? |
23 | |
24 | Recent versions of MakeMaker will only install man pages on Unix like |
25 | operating systems. |
26 | |
27 | For an individual module: |
28 | |
29 | perl Makefile.PL INSTALLMAN1DIR=none INSTALLMAN3DIR=none |
30 | |
31 | If you want to suppress man page installation for all modules you have |
32 | to reconfigure Perl and tell it 'none' when it asks where to install |
33 | man pages. |
34 | |
35 | |
36 | =item How do I use a module without installing it? |
37 | |
38 | Two ways. One is to build the module normally... |
39 | |
40 | perl Makefile.PL |
41 | make |
42 | |
43 | ...and then set the PERL5LIB environment variable to point at the |
44 | blib/lib and blib/arch directories. |
45 | |
46 | The other is to install the module in a temporary location. |
47 | |
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48 | perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=~/tmp LIB=~/tmp/lib/perl |
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49 | |
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50 | And then set PERL5LIB to F<~/tmp/lib/perl>. This works well when you have |
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51 | multiple modules to work with. It also ensures that the module goes |
52 | through its full installation process which may modify it. |
53 | |
54 | =back |
55 | |
56 | |
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57 | =head2 Philosophy and History |
58 | |
59 | =over 4 |
60 | |
61 | =item Why not just use <insert other build config tool here>? |
62 | |
63 | Why did MakeMaker reinvent the build configuration wheel? Why not |
64 | just use autoconf or automake or ppm or Ant or ... |
65 | |
66 | There are many reasons, but the major one is cross-platform |
67 | compatibility. |
68 | |
69 | Perl is one of the most ported pieces of software ever. It works on |
70 | operating systems I've never even heard of (see perlport for details). |
71 | It needs a build tool that can work on all those platforms and with |
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72 | any wacky C compilers and linkers they might have. |
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73 | |
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74 | No such build tool exists. Even make itself has wildly different |
75 | dialects. So we have to build our own. |
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76 | |
77 | |
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78 | =item What is Module::Build and how does it relate to MakeMaker? |
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79 | |
80 | Module::Build is a project by Ken Williams to supplant MakeMaker. |
81 | Its primary advantages are: |
82 | |
83 | =over 8 |
84 | |
85 | =item * pure perl. no make, no shell commands |
86 | |
87 | =item * easier to customize |
88 | |
89 | =item * cleaner internals |
90 | |
91 | =item * less cruft |
92 | |
93 | =back |
94 | |
95 | Module::Build is the official heir apparent to MakeMaker and we |
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96 | encourage people to work on M::B rather than spending time adding features |
97 | to MakeMaker. |
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98 | |
99 | =back |
100 | |
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101 | |
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102 | =head2 Module Writing |
103 | |
104 | =over 4 |
105 | |
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106 | =item How do I keep my $VERSION up to date without resetting it manually? |
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107 | |
108 | Often you want to manually set the $VERSION in the main module |
109 | distribution because this is the version that everybody sees on CPAN |
110 | and maybe you want to customize it a bit. But for all the other |
111 | modules in your dist, $VERSION is really just bookkeeping and all that's |
112 | important is it goes up every time the module is changed. Doing this |
113 | by hand is a pain and you often forget. |
114 | |
115 | Simplest way to do it automatically is to use your version control |
116 | system's revision number (you are using version control, right?). |
117 | |
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118 | In CVS, RCS and SVN you use $Revision$ (see the documentation of your |
119 | version control system for details) writing it like so: |
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120 | |
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121 | $VERSION = sprintf "%d.%03d", q$Revision$ =~ /(\d+)/g; |
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122 | |
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123 | Every time the file is checked in the $Revision$ will be updated, |
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124 | updating your $VERSION. |
125 | |
126 | In CVS version 1.9 is followed by 1.10. Since CPAN compares version |
127 | numbers numerically we use a sprintf() to convert 1.9 to 1.009 and |
128 | 1.10 to 1.010 which compare properly. |
129 | |
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130 | If branches are involved (ie. $Revision: 1.5.3.4$) its a little more |
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131 | complicated. |
132 | |
133 | # must be all on one line or MakeMaker will get confused. |
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134 | $VERSION = do { my @r = (q$Revision$ =~ /\d+/g); sprintf "%d."."%03d" x $#r, @r }; |
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135 | |
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136 | =item What's this F<META.yml> thing and how did it get in my F<MANIFEST>?! |
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137 | |
138 | F<META.yml> is a module meta-data file pioneered by Module::Build and |
139 | automatically generated as part of the 'distdir' target (and thus |
140 | 'dist'). See L<ExtUtils::MakeMaker/"Module Meta-Data">. |
141 | |
142 | To shut off its generation, pass the C<NO_META> flag to C<WriteMakefile()>. |
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143 | |
144 | =back |
145 | |
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146 | =head2 XS |
147 | |
148 | =over 4 |
149 | |
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150 | =item How to I prevent "object version X.XX does not match bootstrap parameter Y.YY" errors? |
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151 | |
152 | XS code is very sensitive to the module version number and will |
153 | complain if the version number in your Perl module doesn't match. If |
154 | you change your module's version # without reruning Makefile.PL the old |
155 | version number will remain in the Makefile causing the XS code to be built |
156 | with the wrong number. |
157 | |
158 | To avoid this, you can force the Makefile to be rebuilt whenever you |
159 | change the module containing the version number by adding this to your |
160 | WriteMakefile() arguments. |
161 | |
162 | depend => { '$(FIRST_MAKEFILE)' => '$(VERSION_FROM)' } |
163 | |
164 | |
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165 | =item How do I make two or more XS files coexist in the same directory? |
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166 | |
167 | Sometimes you need to have two and more XS files in the same package. |
168 | One way to go is to put them into separate directories, but sometimes |
169 | this is not the most suitable solution. The following technique allows |
170 | you to put two (and more) XS files in the same directory. |
171 | |
172 | Let's assume that we have a package C<Cool::Foo>, which includes |
173 | C<Cool::Foo> and C<Cool::Bar> modules each having a separate XS |
174 | file. First we use the following I<Makefile.PL>: |
175 | |
176 | use ExtUtils::MakeMaker; |
177 | |
178 | WriteMakefile( |
179 | NAME => 'Cool::Foo', |
180 | VERSION_FROM => 'Foo.pm', |
181 | OBJECT => q/$(O_FILES)/, |
182 | # ... other attrs ... |
183 | ); |
184 | |
185 | Notice the C<OBJECT> attribute. MakeMaker generates the following |
186 | variables in I<Makefile>: |
187 | |
188 | # Handy lists of source code files: |
189 | XS_FILES= Bar.xs \ |
190 | Foo.xs |
191 | C_FILES = Bar.c \ |
192 | Foo.c |
193 | O_FILES = Bar.o \ |
194 | Foo.o |
195 | |
196 | Therefore we can use the C<O_FILES> variable to tell MakeMaker to use |
197 | these objects into the shared library. |
198 | |
199 | That's pretty much it. Now write I<Foo.pm> and I<Foo.xs>, I<Bar.pm> |
200 | and I<Bar.xs>, where I<Foo.pm> bootstraps the shared library and |
201 | I<Bar.pm> simply loading I<Foo.pm>. |
202 | |
203 | The only issue left is to how to bootstrap I<Bar.xs>. This is done |
204 | from I<Foo.xs>: |
205 | |
206 | MODULE = Cool::Foo PACKAGE = Cool::Foo |
207 | |
208 | BOOT: |
209 | # boot the second XS file |
210 | boot_Cool__Bar(aTHX_ cv); |
211 | |
212 | If you have more than two files, this is the place where you should |
213 | boot extra XS files from. |
214 | |
215 | The following four files sum up all the details discussed so far. |
216 | |
217 | Foo.pm: |
218 | ------- |
219 | package Cool::Foo; |
220 | |
221 | require DynaLoader; |
222 | |
223 | our @ISA = qw(DynaLoader); |
224 | our $VERSION = '0.01'; |
225 | bootstrap Cool::Foo $VERSION; |
226 | |
227 | 1; |
228 | |
229 | Bar.pm: |
230 | ------- |
231 | package Cool::Bar; |
232 | |
233 | use Cool::Foo; # bootstraps Bar.xs |
234 | |
235 | 1; |
236 | |
237 | Foo.xs: |
238 | ------- |
239 | #include "EXTERN.h" |
240 | #include "perl.h" |
241 | #include "XSUB.h" |
242 | |
243 | MODULE = Cool::Foo PACKAGE = Cool::Foo |
244 | |
245 | BOOT: |
246 | # boot the second XS file |
247 | boot_Cool__Bar(aTHX_ cv); |
248 | |
249 | MODULE = Cool::Foo PACKAGE = Cool::Foo PREFIX = cool_foo_ |
250 | |
251 | void |
252 | cool_foo_perl_rules() |
253 | |
254 | CODE: |
255 | fprintf(stderr, "Cool::Foo says: Perl Rules\n"); |
256 | |
257 | Bar.xs: |
258 | ------- |
259 | #include "EXTERN.h" |
260 | #include "perl.h" |
261 | #include "XSUB.h" |
262 | |
263 | MODULE = Cool::Bar PACKAGE = Cool::Bar PREFIX = cool_bar_ |
264 | |
265 | void |
266 | cool_bar_perl_rules() |
267 | |
268 | CODE: |
269 | fprintf(stderr, "Cool::Bar says: Perl Rules\n"); |
270 | |
271 | And of course a very basic test: |
272 | |
273 | test.pl: |
274 | -------- |
275 | use Test; |
276 | BEGIN { plan tests => 1 }; |
277 | use Cool::Foo; |
278 | use Cool::Bar; |
279 | Cool::Foo::perl_rules(); |
280 | Cool::Bar::perl_rules(); |
281 | ok 1; |
282 | |
283 | This tip has been brought to you by Nick Ing-Simmons and Stas Bekman. |
284 | |
285 | =back |
286 | |
287 | =head1 PATCHING |
288 | |
289 | If you have a question you'd like to see added to the FAQ (whether or |
290 | not you have the answer) please send it to makemaker@perl.org. |
291 | |
292 | =head1 AUTHOR |
293 | |
294 | The denizens of makemaker@perl.org. |
295 | |
296 | =head1 SEE ALSO |
297 | |
298 | L<ExtUtils::MakeMaker> |
299 | |
300 | =cut |