3 # This module doesn't do much of anything itself, it inherits from the
4 # modules that do the real work. The only real thing it has to do is
5 # figure out which OS-specific module to pull in. Many of the
6 # OS-specific modules don't do anything either - most of the work is
7 # done in Module::Build::Base.
12 use File::Basename ();
14 use Module::Build::Base;
16 use vars qw($VERSION @ISA);
17 @ISA = qw(Module::Build::Base);
19 $VERSION = eval $VERSION;
21 # Okay, this is the brute-force method of finding out what kind of
22 # platform we're on. I don't know of a systematic way. These values
23 # came from the latest (bleadperl) perlport.pod.
67 # Inserts the given module into the @ISA hierarchy between
68 # Module::Build and its immediate parent
69 sub _interpose_module {
70 my ($self, $mod) = @_;
76 while (@{"${top_class}::ISA"}) {
77 last if ${"${top_class}::ISA"}[0] eq $ISA[0];
78 $top_class = ${"${top_class}::ISA"}[0];
81 @{"${top_class}::ISA"} = @ISA;
85 if (grep {-e File::Spec->catfile($_, qw(Module Build Platform), $^O) . '.pm'} @INC) {
86 __PACKAGE__->_interpose_module("Module::Build::Platform::$^O");
88 } elsif (exists $OSTYPES{$^O}) {
89 __PACKAGE__->_interpose_module("Module::Build::Platform::$OSTYPES{$^O}");
92 warn "Unknown OS type '$^O' - using default settings\n";
95 sub os_type { $OSTYPES{$^O} }
104 Module::Build - Build and install Perl modules
109 Standard process for building & installing modules:
116 Or, if you're on a platform (like DOS or Windows) that doesn't require
117 the "./" notation, you can do this:
127 C<Module::Build> is a system for building, testing, and installing
128 Perl modules. It is meant to be an alternative to
129 C<ExtUtils::MakeMaker>. Developers may alter the behavior of the
130 module through subclassing in a much more straightforward way than
131 with C<MakeMaker>. It also does not require a C<make> on your system
132 - most of the C<Module::Build> code is pure-perl and written in a very
133 cross-platform way. In fact, you don't even need a shell, so even
134 platforms like MacOS (traditional) can use it fairly easily. Its only
135 prerequisites are modules that are included with perl 5.6.0, and it
136 works fine on perl 5.005 if you can install a few additional modules.
138 See L<"MOTIVATIONS"> for more comparisons between C<ExtUtils::MakeMaker>
139 and C<Module::Build>.
141 To install C<Module::Build>, and any other module that uses
142 C<Module::Build> for its installation process, do the following:
144 perl Build.PL # 'Build.PL' script creates the 'Build' script
145 ./Build # Need ./ to ensure we're using this "Build" script
146 ./Build test # and not another one that happens to be in the PATH
149 This illustrates initial configuration and the running of three
150 'actions'. In this case the actions run are 'build' (the default
151 action), 'test', and 'install'. Other actions defined so far include:
159 distcheck pure_install
172 You can run the 'help' action for a complete list of actions.
175 =head1 GUIDE TO DOCUMENTATION
177 The documentation for C<Module::Build> is broken up into three sections:
181 =item General Usage (L<Module::Build>)
183 This is the document you are currently reading. It describes basic
184 usage and background information. Its main purpose is to assist the
185 user who wants to learn how to invoke and control C<Module::Build>
186 scripts at the command line.
188 =item Authoring Reference (L<Module::Build::Authoring>)
190 This document describes the structure and organization of
191 C<Module::Build>, and the relevant concepts needed by authors who are
192 writing F<Build.PL> scripts for a distribution or controlling
193 C<Module::Build> processes programmatically.
195 =item API Reference (L<Module::Build::API>)
197 This is a reference to the C<Module::Build> API.
199 =item Cookbook (L<Module::Build::Cookbook>)
201 This document demonstrates how to accomplish many common tasks. It
202 covers general command line usage and authoring of F<Build.PL>
203 scripts. Includes working examples.
210 There are some general principles at work here. First, each task when
211 building a module is called an "action". These actions are listed
212 above; they correspond to the building, testing, installing,
213 packaging, etc., tasks.
215 Second, arguments are processed in a very systematic way. Arguments
216 are always key=value pairs. They may be specified at C<perl Build.PL>
217 time (i.e. C<perl Build.PL destdir=/my/secret/place>), in which case
218 their values last for the lifetime of the C<Build> script. They may
219 also be specified when executing a particular action (i.e.
220 C<Build test verbose=1>), in which case their values last only for the
221 lifetime of that command. Per-action command line parameters take
222 precedence over parameters specified at C<perl Build.PL> time.
224 The build process also relies heavily on the C<Config.pm> module, and
225 all the key=value pairs in C<Config.pm> are available in
227 C<< $self->{config} >>. If the user wishes to override any of the
228 values in C<Config.pm>, she may specify them like so:
230 perl Build.PL --config cc=gcc --config ld=gcc
232 The following build actions are provided by default.
240 If you run the C<Build> script without any arguments, it runs the
241 C<build> action, which in turn runs the C<code> and C<docs> actions.
243 This is analogous to the MakeMaker 'make all' target.
249 This action will clean up any files that the build process may have
250 created, including the C<blib/> directory (but not including the
251 C<_build/> directory and the C<Build> script itself).
257 This action builds your codebase.
259 By default it just creates a C<blib/> directory and copies any C<.pm>
260 and C<.pod> files from your C<lib/> directory into the C<blib/>
261 directory. It also compiles any C<.xs> files from C<lib/> and places
262 them in C<blib/>. Of course, you need a working C compiler (probably
263 the same one that built perl itself) for the compilation to work
266 The C<code> action also runs any C<.PL> files in your F<lib/>
267 directory. Typically these create other files, named the same but
268 without the C<.PL> ending. For example, a file F<lib/Foo/Bar.pm.PL>
269 could create the file F<lib/Foo/Bar.pm>. The C<.PL> files are
270 processed first, so any C<.pm> files (or other kinds that we deal
271 with) will get copied correctly.
283 This action will compare the files about to be installed with their
284 installed counterparts. For .pm and .pod files, a diff will be shown
285 (this currently requires a 'diff' program to be in your PATH). For
286 other files like compiled binary files, we simply report whether they
289 A C<flags> parameter may be passed to the action, which will be passed
290 to the 'diff' program. Consult your 'diff' documentation for the
291 parameters it will accept - a good one is C<-u>:
293 ./Build diff flags=-u
299 This action is helpful for module authors who want to package up their
300 module for source distribution through a medium like CPAN. It will create a
301 tarball of the files listed in F<MANIFEST> and compress the tarball using
304 By default, this action will use the external C<tar> and C<gzip>
305 executables on Unix-like platforms, and the C<Archive::Tar> module
306 elsewhere. However, you can force it to use whatever executable you
307 want by supplying an explicit C<tar> (and optional C<gzip>) parameter:
309 ./Build dist --tar C:\path\to\tar.exe --gzip C:\path\to\zip.exe
315 Reports which files are in the build directory but not in the
316 F<MANIFEST> file, and vice versa. (See L<manifest> for details.)
322 Performs the 'realclean' action and then the 'distcheck' action.
328 Creates a "distribution directory" named C<$dist_name-$dist_version>
329 (if that directory already exists, it will be removed first), then
330 copies all the files listed in the F<MANIFEST> file to that directory.
331 This directory is what the distribution tarball is created from.
337 Creates the F<META.yml> file that describes the distribution.
339 F<META.yml> is a file containing various bits of "metadata" about the
340 distribution. The metadata includes the distribution name, version,
341 abstract, prerequisites, license, and various other data about the
342 distribution. This file is created as F<META.yml> in YAML format.
343 It is recommended that the C<YAML> module be installed to create it.
344 If the C<YAML> module is not installed, an internal module supplied
345 with Module::Build will be used to write the META.yml file, and this
346 will most likely be fine.
348 F<META.yml> file must also be listed in F<MANIFEST> - if it's not, a
349 warning will be issued.
351 The current version of the F<META.yml> specification can be found at
352 L<http://module-build.sourceforge.net/META-spec-current.html>
358 Uses C<Module::Signature> to create a SIGNATURE file for your
359 distribution, and adds the SIGNATURE file to the distribution's
366 Performs the 'distdir' action, then switches into that directory and
367 runs a C<perl Build.PL>, followed by the 'build' and 'test' actions in
374 This will generate documentation (e.g. Unix man pages and html
375 documents) for any installable items under B<blib/> that
376 contain POD. If there are no C<bindoc> or C<libdoc> installation
377 targets defined (as will be the case on systems that don't support
378 Unix manpages) no action is taken for manpages. If there are no
379 C<binhtml> or C<libhtml> installation targets defined no action is
380 taken for html documents.
386 This is just like the C<install> action, but it won't actually do
387 anything, it will just report what it I<would> have done if you had
388 actually run the C<install> action.
394 This action will simply print out a message that is meant to help you
395 use the build process. It will show you a list of available build
398 With an optional argument specifying an action name (e.g. C<Build help
399 test>), the 'help' action will show you any POD documentation it can
400 find for that action.
406 This will generate HTML documentation for any binary or library files
407 under B<blib/> that contain POD. The HTML documentation will only be
408 installed if the install paths can be determined from values in
409 C<Config.pm>. You can also supply or override install paths on the
410 command line by specifying C<install_path> values for the C<binhtml>
411 and/or C<libhtml> installation targets.
417 This action will use C<ExtUtils::Install> to install the files from
418 C<blib/> into the system. See L<"INSTALL PATHS">
419 for details about how Module::Build determines where to install
420 things, and how to influence this process.
422 If you want the installation process to look around in C<@INC> for
423 other versions of the stuff you're installing and try to delete it,
424 you can use the C<uninst> parameter, which tells C<ExtUtils::Install> to
427 ./Build install uninst=1
429 This can be a good idea, as it helps prevent multiple versions of a
430 module from being present on your system, which can be a confusing
437 This is an action intended for use by module authors, not people
438 installing modules. It will bring the F<MANIFEST> up to date with the
439 files currently present in the distribution. You may use a
440 F<MANIFEST.SKIP> file to exclude certain files or directories from
441 inclusion in the F<MANIFEST>. F<MANIFEST.SKIP> should contain a bunch
442 of regular expressions, one per line. If a file in the distribution
443 directory matches any of the regular expressions, it won't be included
446 The following is a reasonable F<MANIFEST.SKIP> starting point, you can
447 add your own stuff to it:
457 See the L<distcheck> and L<skipcheck> actions if you want to find out
458 what the C<manifest> action would do, without actually doing anything.
464 This will generate man pages for any binary or library files under
465 B<blib/> that contain POD. The man pages will only be installed if the
466 install paths can be determined from values in C<Config.pm>. You can
467 also supply or override install paths by specifying there values on
468 the command line with the C<bindoc> and C<libdoc> installation
475 Generates a PAR binary distribution for use with L<PAR> or L<PAR::Dist>.
477 It requires that the PAR::Dist module (version 0.17 and up) is
478 installed on your system.
484 Build a PPD file for your distribution.
486 This action takes an optional argument C<codebase> which is used in
487 the generated ppd file to specify the (usually relative) URL of the
488 distribution. By default, this value is the distribution name without
489 any path information.
493 ./Build ppd --codebase "MSWin32-x86-multi-thread/Module-Build-0.21.tar.gz"
499 Generates a PPM binary distribution and a PPD description file. This
500 action also invokes the 'ppd' action, so it can accept the same
501 C<codebase> argument described under that action.
503 This uses the same mechanism as the C<dist> action to tar & zip its
504 output, so you can supply C<tar> and/or C<gzip> parameters to affect
511 This action prints out a list of all prerequisites, the versions required, and
512 the versions actually installed. This can be useful for reviewing the
513 configuration of your system prior to a build, or when compiling data to send
520 This action is identical to the C<install> action. In the future,
521 though, if C<install> starts writing to the file file
522 F<$(INSTALLARCHLIB)/perllocal.pod>, C<pure_install> won't, and that
523 will be the only difference between them.
529 This action is just like the C<clean> action, but also removes the
530 C<_build> directory and the C<Build> script. If you run the
531 C<realclean> action, you are essentially starting over, so you will
532 have to re-create the C<Build> script again.
538 This is just like the C<test> action, but doesn't actually build the
539 distribution first, and doesn't add F<blib/> to the load path, and
540 therefore will test against a I<previously> installed version of the
541 distribution. This can be used to verify that a certain installed
542 distribution still works, or to see whether newer versions of a
543 distribution still pass the old regression tests, and so on.
549 Reports which files are skipped due to the entries in the
550 F<MANIFEST.SKIP> file (See L<manifest> for details)
556 This will use C<Test::Harness> to run any regression tests and report
557 their results. Tests can be defined in the standard places: a file
558 called C<test.pl> in the top-level directory, or several files ending
559 with C<.t> in a C<t/> directory.
561 If you want tests to be 'verbose', i.e. show details of test execution
562 rather than just summary information, pass the argument C<verbose=1>.
564 If you want to run tests under the perl debugger, pass the argument
567 In addition, if a file called C<visual.pl> exists in the top-level
568 directory, this file will be executed as a Perl script and its output
569 will be shown to the user. This is a good place to put speed tests or
570 other tests that don't use the C<Test::Harness> format for output.
572 To override the choice of tests to run, you may pass a C<test_files>
573 argument whose value is a whitespace-separated list of test scripts to
574 run. This is especially useful in development, when you only want to
575 run a single test to see whether you've squashed a certain bug yet:
577 ./Build test --test_files t/something_failing.t
579 You may also pass several C<test_files> arguments separately:
581 ./Build test --test_files t/one.t --test_files t/two.t
583 or use a C<glob()>-style pattern:
585 ./Build test --test_files 't/01-*.t'
591 Runs the C<test> action using C<Devel::Cover>, generating a
592 code-coverage report showing which parts of the code were actually
593 exercised during the tests.
595 To pass options to C<Devel::Cover>, set the C<$DEVEL_COVER_OPTIONS>
596 environment variable:
598 DEVEL_COVER_OPTIONS=-ignore,Build ./Build testcover
604 This is a synonym for the 'test' action with the C<debugger=1>
611 This checks all the files described in the C<docs> action and
612 produces C<Test::Harness>-style output. If you are a module author,
613 this is useful to run before creating a new release.
615 =item testpodcoverage
619 This checks the pod coverage of the distribution and
620 produces C<Test::Harness>-style output. If you are a module author,
621 this is useful to run before creating a new release.
627 ** Note: since C<only.pm> is so new, and since we just recently added
628 support for it here too, this feature is to be considered
631 If you have the C<only.pm> module installed on your system, you can
632 use this action to install a module into the version-specific library
633 trees. This means that you can have several versions of the same
634 module installed and C<use> a specific one like this:
636 use only MyModule => 0.55;
638 To override the default installation libraries in C<only::config>,
639 specify the C<versionlib> parameter when you run the C<Build.PL> script:
641 perl Build.PL --versionlib /my/version/place/
643 To override which version the module is installed as, specify the
644 C<versionlib> parameter when you run the C<Build.PL> script:
646 perl Build.PL --version 0.50
648 See the C<only.pm> documentation for more information on
649 version-specific installs.
656 =head2 Command Line Options
658 The following options can be used during any invocation of C<Build.PL>
659 or the Build script, during any action. For information on other
660 options specific to an action, see the documentation for the
663 NOTE: There is some preliminary support for options to use the more
664 familiar long option style. Most options can be preceded with the
665 C<--> long option prefix, and the underscores changed to dashes
666 (e.g. --use-rcfile). Additionally, the argument to boolean options is
667 optional, and boolean options can be negated by prefixing them with
668 'no' or 'no-' (e.g. --noverbose or --no-verbose).
674 Suppress informative messages on output.
678 Load the F<~/.modulebuildrc> option file. This option can be set to
679 false to prevent the custom resource file from being loaded.
683 Display extra information about the Build on output.
685 =item allow_mb_mismatch
687 Suppresses the check upon startup that the version of Module::Build
688 we're now running under is the same version that was initially invoked
689 when building the distribution (i.e. when the C<Build.PL> script was
690 first run). Use with caution.
695 =head2 Default Options File (F<.modulebuildrc>)
699 When Module::Build starts up, it will look first for a file,
700 F<$ENV{HOME}/.modulebuildrc>. If it's not found there, it will look
701 in the the F<.modulebuildrc> file in the directories referred to by
702 the environment variables C<HOMEDRIVE> + C<HOMEDIR>, C<USERPROFILE>,
703 C<APPDATA>, C<WINDIR>, C<SYS$LOGIN>. If the file exists, the options
704 specified there will be used as defaults, as if they were typed on the
705 command line. The defaults can be overridden by specifying new values
708 The action name must come at the beginning of the line, followed by any
709 amount of whitespace and then the options. Options are given the same
710 as they would be on the command line. They can be separated by any
711 amount of whitespace, including newlines, as long there is whitespace at
712 the beginning of each continued line. Anything following a hash mark (C<#>)
713 is considered a comment, and is stripped before parsing. If more than
714 one line begins with the same action name, those lines are merged into
717 Besides the regular actions, there are two special pseudo-actions: the
718 key C<*> (asterisk) denotes any global options that should be applied
719 to all actions, and the key 'Build_PL' specifies options to be applied
720 when you invoke C<perl Build.PL>.
722 * verbose=1 # global options
724 install --install_base /home/ken
725 --install_path html=/home/ken/docs/html
727 If you wish to locate your resource file in a different location, you
728 can set the environment variable 'MODULEBUILDRC' to the complete
729 absolute path of the file containing your options.
736 When you invoke Module::Build's C<build> action, it needs to figure
737 out where to install things. The nutshell version of how this works
738 is that default installation locations are determined from
739 F<Config.pm>, and they may be overridden by using the C<install_path>
740 parameter. An C<install_base> parameter lets you specify an
741 alternative installation root like F</home/foo>, and a C<destdir> lets
742 you specify a temporary installation directory like F</tmp/install> in
743 case you want to create bundled-up installable packages.
745 Natively, Module::Build provides default installation locations for
746 the following types of installable items:
752 Usually pure-Perl module files ending in F<.pm>.
756 "Architecture-dependent" module files, usually produced by compiling
757 XS, Inline, or similar code.
761 Programs written in pure Perl. In order to improve reuse, try to make
762 these as small as possible - put the code into modules whenever
767 "Architecture-dependent" executable programs, i.e. compiled C code or
768 something. Pretty rare to see this in a perl distribution, but it
773 Documentation for the stuff in C<script> and C<bin>. Usually
774 generated from the POD in those files. Under Unix, these are manual
775 pages belonging to the 'man1' category.
779 Documentation for the stuff in C<lib> and C<arch>. This is usually
780 generated from the POD in F<.pm> files. Under Unix, these are manual
781 pages belonging to the 'man3' category.
785 This is the same as C<bindoc> above, but applies to html documents.
789 This is the same as C<bindoc> above, but applies to html documents.
793 Four other parameters let you control various aspects of how
794 installation paths are determined:
800 The default destinations for these installable things come from
801 entries in your system's C<Config.pm>. You can select from three
802 different sets of default locations by setting the C<installdirs>
803 parameter as follows:
805 'installdirs' set to:
808 uses the following defaults from Config.pm:
810 lib => installprivlib installsitelib installvendorlib
811 arch => installarchlib installsitearch installvendorarch
812 script => installscript installsitebin installvendorbin
813 bin => installbin installsitebin installvendorbin
814 bindoc => installman1dir installsiteman1dir installvendorman1dir
815 libdoc => installman3dir installsiteman3dir installvendorman3dir
816 binhtml => installhtml1dir installsitehtml1dir installvendorhtml1dir [*]
817 libhtml => installhtml3dir installsitehtml3dir installvendorhtml3dir [*]
819 * Under some OS (eg. MSWin32) the destination for html documents is
820 determined by the C<Config.pm> entry C<installhtmldir>.
822 The default value of C<installdirs> is "site". If you're creating
823 vendor distributions of module packages, you may want to do something
826 perl Build.PL --installdirs vendor
830 ./Build install --installdirs vendor
832 If you're installing an updated version of a module that was included
833 with perl itself (i.e. a "core module"), then you may set
834 C<installdirs> to "core" to overwrite the module in its present
837 (Note that the 'script' line is different from MakeMaker -
838 unfortunately there's no such thing as "installsitescript" or
839 "installvendorscript" entry in C<Config.pm>, so we use the
840 "installsitebin" and "installvendorbin" entries to at least get the
841 general location right. In the future, if C<Config.pm> adds some more
842 appropriate entries, we'll start using those.)
846 Once the defaults have been set, you can override them.
848 On the command line, that would look like this:
850 perl Build.PL --install_path lib=/foo/lib --install_path arch=/foo/lib/arch
854 ./Build install --install_path lib=/foo/lib --install_path arch=/foo/lib/arch
858 You can also set the whole bunch of installation paths by supplying the
859 C<install_base> parameter to point to a directory on your system. For
860 instance, if you set C<install_base> to "/home/ken" on a Linux
861 system, you'll install as follows:
863 lib => /home/ken/lib/perl5
864 arch => /home/ken/lib/perl5/i386-linux
865 script => /home/ken/bin
867 bindoc => /home/ken/man/man1
868 libdoc => /home/ken/man/man3
869 binhtml => /home/ken/html
870 libhtml => /home/ken/html
872 Note that this is I<different> from how MakeMaker's C<PREFIX>
873 parameter works. C<install_base> just gives you a default layout under the
874 directory you specify, which may have little to do with the
875 C<installdirs=site> layout.
877 The exact layout under the directory you specify may vary by system -
878 we try to do the "sensible" thing on each platform.
882 If you want to install everything into a temporary directory first
883 (for instance, if you want to create a directory tree that a package
884 manager like C<rpm> or C<dpkg> could create a package from), you can
885 use the C<destdir> parameter:
887 perl Build.PL --destdir /tmp/foo
891 ./Build install --destdir /tmp/foo
893 This will effectively install to "/tmp/foo/$sitelib",
894 "/tmp/foo/$sitearch", and the like, except that it will use
895 C<File::Spec> to make the pathnames work correctly on whatever
896 platform you're installing on.
900 Provided for compatibility with ExtUtils::MakeMaker's PREFIX argument.
901 C<prefix> should be used when you wish Module::Build to install your
902 modules, documentation and scripts in the same place
903 ExtUtils::MakeMaker does.
905 The following are equivalent.
907 perl Build.PL --prefix /tmp/foo
908 perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=/tmp/foo
910 Because of the very complex nature of the prefixification logic, the
911 behavior of PREFIX in MakeMaker has changed subtly over time.
912 Module::Build's --prefix logic is equivalent to the PREFIX logic found
913 in ExtUtils::MakeMaker 6.30.
915 If you do not need to retain compatibility with ExtUtils::MakeMaker or
916 are starting a fresh Perl installation we recommand you use
917 C<install_base> instead (and C<INSTALL_BASE> in ExtUtils::MakeMaker).
918 See L<Module::Build::Cookbook/Instaling in the same location as
919 ExtUtils::MakeMaker> for further information.
927 There are several reasons I wanted to start over, and not just fix
928 what I didn't like about MakeMaker:
934 I don't like the core idea of MakeMaker, namely that C<make> should be
935 involved in the build process. Here are my reasons:
941 When a person is installing a Perl module, what can you assume about
942 their environment? Can you assume they have C<make>? No, but you can
943 assume they have some version of Perl.
947 When a person is writing a Perl module for intended distribution, can
948 you assume that they know how to build a Makefile, so they can
949 customize their build process? No, but you can assume they know Perl,
950 and could customize that way.
954 For years, these things have been a barrier to people getting the
955 build/install process to do what they want.
959 There are several architectural decisions in MakeMaker that make it
960 very difficult to customize its behavior. For instance, when using
961 MakeMaker you do C<use ExtUtils::MakeMaker>, but the object created in
962 C<WriteMakefile()> is actually blessed into a package name that's
963 created on the fly, so you can't simply subclass
964 C<ExtUtils::MakeMaker>. There is a workaround C<MY> package that lets
965 you override certain MakeMaker methods, but only certain explicitly
966 preselected (by MakeMaker) methods can be overridden. Also, the method
967 of customization is very crude: you have to modify a string containing
968 the Makefile text for the particular target. Since these strings
969 aren't documented, and I<can't> be documented (they take on different
970 values depending on the platform, version of perl, version of
971 MakeMaker, etc.), you have no guarantee that your modifications will
972 work on someone else's machine or after an upgrade of MakeMaker or
977 It is risky to make major changes to MakeMaker, since it does so many
978 things, is so important, and generally works. C<Module::Build> is an
979 entirely separate package so that I can work on it all I want, without
980 worrying about backward compatibility.
984 Finally, Perl is said to be a language for system administration.
985 Could it really be the case that Perl isn't up to the task of building
986 and installing software? Even if that software is a bunch of stupid
987 little C<.pm> files that just need to be copied from one place to
988 another? My sense was that we could design a system to accomplish
989 this in a flexible, extensible, and friendly manner. Or die trying.
996 The current method of relying on time stamps to determine whether a
997 derived file is out of date isn't likely to scale well, since it
998 requires tracing all dependencies backward, it runs into problems on
999 NFS, and it's just generally flimsy. It would be better to use an MD5
1000 signature or the like, if available. See C<cons> for an example.
1002 - append to perllocal.pod
1003 - add a 'plugin' functionality
1008 Ken Williams <kwilliams@cpan.org>
1010 Development questions, bug reports, and patches should be sent to the
1011 Module-Build mailing list at <module-build@perl.org>.
1013 Bug reports are also welcome at
1014 <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Module-Build>.
1016 The latest development version is available from the Subversion
1017 repository at <https://svn.perl.org/modules/Module-Build/trunk/>
1022 Copyright (c) 2001-2006 Ken Williams. All rights reserved.
1024 This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
1025 modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
1030 perl(1), L<Module::Build::Cookbook>, L<Module::Build::Authoring>,
1031 L<Module::Build::API>, L<ExtUtils::MakeMaker>, L<YAML>
1033 F<META.yml> Specification:
1034 L<http://module-build.sourceforge.net/META-spec-current.html>
1036 L<http://www.dsmit.com/cons/>
1038 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/PerlBuildSystem/>