1 .\" Automatically generated by Pod::Man v1.37, Pod::Parser v1.3
4 .\" ========================================================================
5 .de Sh \" Subsection heading
13 .de Sp \" Vertical space (when we can't use .PP)
17 .de Vb \" Begin verbatim text
22 .de Ve \" End verbatim text
26 .\" Set up some character translations and predefined strings. \*(-- will
27 .\" give an unbreakable dash, \*(PI will give pi, \*(L" will give a left
28 .\" double quote, and \*(R" will give a right double quote. | will give a
29 .\" real vertical bar. \*(C+ will give a nicer C++. Capital omega is used to
30 .\" do unbreakable dashes and therefore won't be available. \*(C` and \*(C'
31 .\" expand to `' in nroff, nothing in troff, for use with C<>.
33 .ds C+ C\v'-.1v'\h'-1p'\s-2+\h'-1p'+\s0\v'.1v'\h'-1p'
37 . if (\n(.H=4u)&(1m=24u) .ds -- \(*W\h'-12u'\(*W\h'-12u'-\" diablo 10 pitch
38 . if (\n(.H=4u)&(1m=20u) .ds -- \(*W\h'-12u'\(*W\h'-8u'-\" diablo 12 pitch
51 .\" If the F register is turned on, we'll generate index entries on stderr for
52 .\" titles (.TH), headers (.SH), subsections (.Sh), items (.Ip), and index
53 .\" entries marked with X<> in POD. Of course, you'll have to process the
54 .\" output yourself in some meaningful fashion.
57 . tm Index:\\$1\t\\n%\t"\\$2"
63 .\" For nroff, turn off justification. Always turn off hyphenation; it makes
64 .\" way too many mistakes in technical documents.
68 .\" Accent mark definitions (@(#)ms.acc 1.5 88/02/08 SMI; from UCB 4.2).
69 .\" Fear. Run. Save yourself. No user-serviceable parts.
70 . \" fudge factors for nroff and troff
79 . ds #H ((1u-(\\\\n(.fu%2u))*.13m)
85 . \" simple accents for nroff and troff
95 . ds ' \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*8/10-\*(#H)'\'\h"|\\n:u"
96 . ds ` \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*8/10-\*(#H)'\`\h'|\\n:u'
97 . ds ^ \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*10/11-\*(#H)'^\h'|\\n:u'
98 . ds , \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*8/10)',\h'|\\n:u'
99 . ds ~ \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu-\*(#H-.1m)'~\h'|\\n:u'
100 . ds / \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*8/10-\*(#H)'\z\(sl\h'|\\n:u'
102 . \" troff and (daisy-wheel) nroff accents
103 .ds : \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*8/10-\*(#H+.1m+\*(#F)'\v'-\*(#V'\z.\h'.2m+\*(#F'.\h'|\\n:u'\v'\*(#V'
104 .ds 8 \h'\*(#H'\(*b\h'-\*(#H'
105 .ds o \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu+\w'\(de'u-\*(#H)/2u'\v'-.3n'\*(#[\z\(de\v'.3n'\h'|\\n:u'\*(#]
106 .ds d- \h'\*(#H'\(pd\h'-\w'~'u'\v'-.25m'\f2\(hy\fP\v'.25m'\h'-\*(#H'
107 .ds D- D\\k:\h'-\w'D'u'\v'-.11m'\z\(hy\v'.11m'\h'|\\n:u'
108 .ds th \*(#[\v'.3m'\s+1I\s-1\v'-.3m'\h'-(\w'I'u*2/3)'\s-1o\s+1\*(#]
109 .ds Th \*(#[\s+2I\s-2\h'-\w'I'u*3/5'\v'-.3m'o\v'.3m'\*(#]
110 .ds ae a\h'-(\w'a'u*4/10)'e
111 .ds Ae A\h'-(\w'A'u*4/10)'E
112 . \" corrections for vroff
113 .if v .ds ~ \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*9/10-\*(#H)'\s-2\u~\d\s+2\h'|\\n:u'
114 .if v .ds ^ \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*10/11-\*(#H)'\v'-.4m'^\v'.4m'\h'|\\n:u'
115 . \" for low resolution devices (crt and lpr)
116 .if \n(.H>23 .if \n(.V>19 \
129 .\" ========================================================================
131 .IX Title "Module::Build 3"
132 .TH Module::Build 3 "2009-12-09" "perl v5.8.7" "User Contributed Perl Documentation"
134 Module::Build \- Build and install Perl modules
136 .IX Header "SYNOPSIS"
137 Standard process for building & installing modules:
146 Or, if you're on a platform (like \s-1DOS\s0 or Windows) that doesn't require
147 the \*(L"./\*(R" notation, you can do this:
156 .IX Header "DESCRIPTION"
157 \&\f(CW\*(C`Module::Build\*(C'\fR is a system for building, testing, and installing
158 Perl modules. It is meant to be an alternative to
159 \&\f(CW\*(C`ExtUtils::MakeMaker\*(C'\fR. Developers may alter the behavior of the
160 module through subclassing in a much more straightforward way than
161 with \f(CW\*(C`MakeMaker\*(C'\fR. It also does not require a \f(CW\*(C`make\*(C'\fR on your system
162 \&\- most of the \f(CW\*(C`Module::Build\*(C'\fR code is pure-perl and written in a very
163 cross-platform way. In fact, you don't even need a shell, so even
164 platforms like MacOS (traditional) can use it fairly easily. Its only
165 prerequisites are modules that are included with perl 5.6.0, and it
166 works fine on perl 5.005 if you can install a few additional modules.
168 See \*(L"\s-1MOTIVATIONS\s0\*(R" for more comparisons between \f(CW\*(C`ExtUtils::MakeMaker\*(C'\fR
169 and \f(CW\*(C`Module::Build\*(C'\fR.
171 To install \f(CW\*(C`Module::Build\*(C'\fR, and any other module that uses
172 \&\f(CW\*(C`Module::Build\*(C'\fR for its installation process, do the following:
175 \& perl Build.PL # 'Build.PL' script creates the 'Build' script
176 \& ./Build # Need ./ to ensure we're using this "Build" script
177 \& ./Build test # and not another one that happens to be in the PATH
181 This illustrates initial configuration and the running of three
182 \&'actions'. In this case the actions run are 'build' (the default
183 action), 'test', and 'install'. Other actions defined so far include:
189 \& config_data ppmdist
191 \& dist prereq_report
192 \& distcheck pure_install
193 \& distclean realclean
195 \& distmeta skipcheck
199 \& fakeinstall testdb
201 \& html testpodcoverage
202 \& install versioninstall
206 You can run the 'help' action for a complete list of actions.
207 .SH "GUIDE TO DOCUMENTATION"
208 .IX Header "GUIDE TO DOCUMENTATION"
209 The documentation for \f(CW\*(C`Module::Build\*(C'\fR is broken up into three sections:
210 .IP "General Usage (Module::Build)" 4
211 .IX Item "General Usage (Module::Build)"
212 This is the document you are currently reading. It describes basic
213 usage and background information. Its main purpose is to assist the
214 user who wants to learn how to invoke and control \f(CW\*(C`Module::Build\*(C'\fR
215 scripts at the command line.
216 .IP "Authoring Reference (Module::Build::Authoring)" 4
217 .IX Item "Authoring Reference (Module::Build::Authoring)"
218 This document describes the structure and organization of
219 \&\f(CW\*(C`Module::Build\*(C'\fR, and the relevant concepts needed by authors who are
220 writing \fIBuild.PL\fR scripts for a distribution or controlling
221 \&\f(CW\*(C`Module::Build\*(C'\fR processes programmatically.
222 .IP "\s-1API\s0 Reference (Module::Build::API)" 4
223 .IX Item "API Reference (Module::Build::API)"
224 This is a reference to the \f(CW\*(C`Module::Build\*(C'\fR \s-1API\s0.
225 .IP "Cookbook (Module::Build::Cookbook)" 4
226 .IX Item "Cookbook (Module::Build::Cookbook)"
227 This document demonstrates how to accomplish many common tasks. It
228 covers general command line usage and authoring of \fIBuild.PL\fR
229 scripts. Includes working examples.
232 There are some general principles at work here. First, each task when
233 building a module is called an \*(L"action\*(R". These actions are listed
234 above; they correspond to the building, testing, installing,
235 packaging, etc., tasks.
237 Second, arguments are processed in a very systematic way. Arguments
238 are always key=value pairs. They may be specified at \f(CW\*(C`perl Build.PL\*(C'\fR
239 time (i.e. \f(CW\*(C`perl Build.PL destdir=/my/secret/place\*(C'\fR), in which case
240 their values last for the lifetime of the \f(CW\*(C`Build\*(C'\fR script. They may
241 also be specified when executing a particular action (i.e.
242 \&\f(CW\*(C`Build test verbose=1\*(C'\fR), in which case their values last only for the
243 lifetime of that command. Per-action command line parameters take
244 precedence over parameters specified at \f(CW\*(C`perl Build.PL\*(C'\fR time.
246 The build process also relies heavily on the \f(CW\*(C`Config.pm\*(C'\fR module.
247 If the user wishes to override any of the
248 values in \f(CW\*(C`Config.pm\*(C'\fR, she may specify them like so:
251 \& perl Build.PL \-\-config cc=gcc \-\-config ld=gcc
254 The following build actions are provided by default.
259 If you run the \f(CW\*(C`Build\*(C'\fR script without any arguments, it runs the
260 \&\f(CW\*(C`build\*(C'\fR action, which in turn runs the \f(CW\*(C`code\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`docs\*(C'\fR actions.
262 This is analogous to the \f(CW\*(C`MakeMaker\*(C'\fR \fImake all\fR target.
267 This action will clean up any files that the build process may have
268 created, including the \f(CW\*(C`blib/\*(C'\fR directory (but not including the
269 \&\f(CW\*(C`_build/\*(C'\fR directory and the \f(CW\*(C`Build\*(C'\fR script itself).
274 This action builds your code base.
276 By default it just creates a \f(CW\*(C`blib/\*(C'\fR directory and copies any \f(CW\*(C`.pm\*(C'\fR
277 and \f(CW\*(C`.pod\*(C'\fR files from your \f(CW\*(C`lib/\*(C'\fR directory into the \f(CW\*(C`blib/\*(C'\fR
278 directory. It also compiles any \f(CW\*(C`.xs\*(C'\fR files from \f(CW\*(C`lib/\*(C'\fR and places
279 them in \f(CW\*(C`blib/\*(C'\fR. Of course, you need a working C compiler (probably
280 the same one that built perl itself) for the compilation to work
283 The \f(CW\*(C`code\*(C'\fR action also runs any \f(CW\*(C`.PL\*(C'\fR files in your \fIlib/\fR
284 directory. Typically these create other files, named the same but
285 without the \f(CW\*(C`.PL\*(C'\fR ending. For example, a file \fIlib/Foo/Bar.pm.PL\fR
286 could create the file \fIlib/Foo/Bar.pm\fR. The \f(CW\*(C`.PL\*(C'\fR files are
287 processed first, so any \f(CW\*(C`.pm\*(C'\fR files (or other kinds that we deal
288 with) will get copied correctly.
290 .IX Item "config_data"
298 This action will compare the files about to be installed with their
299 installed counterparts. For .pm and .pod files, a diff will be shown
300 (this currently requires a 'diff' program to be in your \s-1PATH\s0). For
301 other files like compiled binary files, we simply report whether they
304 A \f(CW\*(C`flags\*(C'\fR parameter may be passed to the action, which will be passed
305 to the 'diff' program. Consult your 'diff' documentation for the
306 parameters it will accept \- a good one is \f(CW\*(C`\-u\*(C'\fR:
309 \& ./Build diff flags=\-u
315 This action is helpful for module authors who want to package up their
316 module for source distribution through a medium like \s-1CPAN\s0. It will create a
317 tarball of the files listed in \fI\s-1MANIFEST\s0\fR and compress the tarball using
318 \&\s-1GZIP\s0 compression.
320 By default, this action will use the \f(CW\*(C`Archive::Tar\*(C'\fR module. However, you can
321 force it to use binary \*(L"tar\*(R" and \*(L"gzip\*(R" executables by supplying an explicit
322 \&\f(CW\*(C`tar\*(C'\fR (and optional \f(CW\*(C`gzip\*(C'\fR) parameter:
325 \& ./Build dist \-\-tar C:\epath\eto\etar.exe \-\-gzip C:\epath\eto\ezip.exe
331 Reports which files are in the build directory but not in the
332 \&\fI\s-1MANIFEST\s0\fR file, and vice versa. (See manifest for details.)
337 Performs the 'realclean' action and then the 'distcheck' action.
342 Creates a \*(L"distribution directory\*(R" named \f(CW\*(C`$dist_name\-$dist_version\*(C'\fR
343 (if that directory already exists, it will be removed first), then
344 copies all the files listed in the \fI\s-1MANIFEST\s0\fR file to that directory.
345 This directory is what the distribution tarball is created from.
350 Creates the \fI\s-1META\s0.yml\fR file that describes the distribution.
352 \&\fI\s-1META\s0.yml\fR is a file containing various bits of \fImetadata\fR about the
353 distribution. The metadata includes the distribution name, version,
354 abstract, prerequisites, license, and various other data about the
355 distribution. This file is created as \fI\s-1META\s0.yml\fR in \s-1YAML\s0 format.
356 It is recommended that the \f(CW\*(C`YAML\*(C'\fR module be installed to create it.
357 If the \f(CW\*(C`YAML\*(C'\fR module is not installed, an internal module supplied
358 with Module::Build will be used to write the \s-1META\s0.yml file, and this
359 will most likely be fine.
361 \&\fI\s-1META\s0.yml\fR file must also be listed in \fI\s-1MANIFEST\s0\fR \- if it's not, a
362 warning will be issued.
364 The current version of the \fI\s-1META\s0.yml\fR specification can be found at
365 <http://module\-build.sourceforge.net/META\-spec\-current.html>
370 Uses \f(CW\*(C`Module::Signature\*(C'\fR to create a \s-1SIGNATURE\s0 file for your
371 distribution, and adds the \s-1SIGNATURE\s0 file to the distribution's
377 Performs the 'distdir' action, then switches into that directory and
378 runs a \f(CW\*(C`perl Build.PL\*(C'\fR, followed by the 'build' and 'test' actions in
384 This will generate documentation (e.g. Unix man pages and \s-1HTML\s0
385 documents) for any installable items under \fBblib/\fR that
386 contain \s-1POD\s0. If there are no \f(CW\*(C`bindoc\*(C'\fR or \f(CW\*(C`libdoc\*(C'\fR installation
387 targets defined (as will be the case on systems that don't support
388 Unix manpages) no action is taken for manpages. If there are no
389 \&\f(CW\*(C`binhtml\*(C'\fR or \f(CW\*(C`libhtml\*(C'\fR installation targets defined no action is
390 taken for \s-1HTML\s0 documents.
392 .IX Item "fakeinstall"
395 This is just like the \f(CW\*(C`install\*(C'\fR action, but it won't actually do
396 anything, it will just report what it \fIwould\fR have done if you had
397 actually run the \f(CW\*(C`install\*(C'\fR action.
402 This action will simply print out a message that is meant to help you
403 use the build process. It will show you a list of available build
406 With an optional argument specifying an action name (e.g. \f(CW\*(C`Build help
407 test\*(C'\fR), the 'help' action will show you any \s-1POD\s0 documentation it can
408 find for that action.
413 This will generate \s-1HTML\s0 documentation for any binary or library files
414 under \fBblib/\fR that contain \s-1POD\s0. The \s-1HTML\s0 documentation will only be
415 installed if the install paths can be determined from values in
416 \&\f(CW\*(C`Config.pm\*(C'\fR. You can also supply or override install paths on the
417 command line by specifying \f(CW\*(C`install_path\*(C'\fR values for the \f(CW\*(C`binhtml\*(C'\fR
418 and/or \f(CW\*(C`libhtml\*(C'\fR installation targets.
423 This action will use \f(CW\*(C`ExtUtils::Install\*(C'\fR to install the files from
424 \&\f(CW\*(C`blib/\*(C'\fR into the system. See \*(L"\s-1INSTALL\s0 \s-1PATHS\s0\*(R"
425 for details about how Module::Build determines where to install
426 things, and how to influence this process.
428 If you want the installation process to look around in \f(CW@INC\fR for
429 other versions of the stuff you're installing and try to delete it,
430 you can use the \f(CW\*(C`uninst\*(C'\fR parameter, which tells \f(CW\*(C`ExtUtils::Install\*(C'\fR to
434 \& ./Build install uninst=1
437 This can be a good idea, as it helps prevent multiple versions of a
438 module from being present on your system, which can be a confusing
444 This is an action intended for use by module authors, not people
445 installing modules. It will bring the \fI\s-1MANIFEST\s0\fR up to date with the
446 files currently present in the distribution. You may use a
447 \&\fI\s-1MANIFEST\s0.SKIP\fR file to exclude certain files or directories from
448 inclusion in the \fI\s-1MANIFEST\s0\fR. \fI\s-1MANIFEST\s0.SKIP\fR should contain a bunch
449 of regular expressions, one per line. If a file in the distribution
450 directory matches any of the regular expressions, it won't be included
451 in the \fI\s-1MANIFEST\s0\fR.
453 The following is a reasonable \fI\s-1MANIFEST\s0.SKIP\fR starting point, you can
454 add your own stuff to it:
466 See the distcheck and skipcheck actions if you want to find out
467 what the \f(CW\*(C`manifest\*(C'\fR action would do, without actually doing anything.
472 This will generate man pages for any binary or library files under
473 \&\fBblib/\fR that contain \s-1POD\s0. The man pages will only be installed if the
474 install paths can be determined from values in \f(CW\*(C`Config.pm\*(C'\fR. You can
475 also supply or override install paths by specifying there values on
476 the command line with the \f(CW\*(C`bindoc\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`libdoc\*(C'\fR installation
482 Generates a \s-1PAR\s0 binary distribution for use with \s-1PAR\s0 or PAR::Dist.
484 It requires that the PAR::Dist module (version 0.17 and up) is
485 installed on your system.
490 Build a \s-1PPD\s0 file for your distribution.
492 This action takes an optional argument \f(CW\*(C`codebase\*(C'\fR which is used in
493 the generated \s-1PPD\s0 file to specify the (usually relative) \s-1URL\s0 of the
494 distribution. By default, this value is the distribution name without
495 any path information.
500 \& ./Build ppd \-\-codebase "MSWin32\-x86\-multi\-thread/Module\-Build\-0.21.tar.gz"
506 Generates a \s-1PPM\s0 binary distribution and a \s-1PPD\s0 description file. This
507 action also invokes the \f(CW\*(C`ppd\*(C'\fR action, so it can accept the same
508 \&\f(CW\*(C`codebase\*(C'\fR argument described under that action.
510 This uses the same mechanism as the \f(CW\*(C`dist\*(C'\fR action to tar & zip its
511 output, so you can supply \f(CW\*(C`tar\*(C'\fR and/or \f(CW\*(C`gzip\*(C'\fR parameters to affect
514 .IX Item "prereq_data"
517 This action prints out a Perl data structure of all prerequisites and the versions
518 required. The output can be loaded again using \f(CW\*(C`eval()\*(C'\fR. This can be useful for
519 external tools that wish to query a Build script for prerequisites.
520 .IP "prereq_report" 4
521 .IX Item "prereq_report"
524 This action prints out a list of all prerequisites, the versions required, and
525 the versions actually installed. This can be useful for reviewing the
526 configuration of your system prior to a build, or when compiling data to send
529 .IX Item "pure_install"
532 This action is identical to the \f(CW\*(C`install\*(C'\fR action. In the future,
533 though, when \f(CW\*(C`install\*(C'\fR starts writing to the file
534 \&\fI$(\s-1INSTALLARCHLIB\s0)/perllocal.pod\fR, \f(CW\*(C`pure_install\*(C'\fR won't, and that
535 will be the only difference between them.
540 This action is just like the \f(CW\*(C`clean\*(C'\fR action, but also removes the
541 \&\f(CW\*(C`_build\*(C'\fR directory and the \f(CW\*(C`Build\*(C'\fR script. If you run the
542 \&\f(CW\*(C`realclean\*(C'\fR action, you are essentially starting over, so you will
543 have to re-create the \f(CW\*(C`Build\*(C'\fR script again.
548 This is just like the \f(CW\*(C`test\*(C'\fR action, but doesn't actually build the
549 distribution first, and doesn't add \fIblib/\fR to the load path, and
550 therefore will test against a \fIpreviously\fR installed version of the
551 distribution. This can be used to verify that a certain installed
552 distribution still works, or to see whether newer versions of a
553 distribution still pass the old regression tests, and so on.
558 Reports which files are skipped due to the entries in the
559 \&\fI\s-1MANIFEST\s0.SKIP\fR file (See manifest for details)
564 This will use \f(CW\*(C`Test::Harness\*(C'\fR or \f(CW\*(C`TAP::Harness\*(C'\fR to run any regression
565 tests and report their results. Tests can be defined in the standard
566 places: a file called \f(CW\*(C`test.pl\*(C'\fR in the top-level directory, or several
567 files ending with \f(CW\*(C`.t\*(C'\fR in a \f(CW\*(C`t/\*(C'\fR directory.
569 If you want tests to be 'verbose', i.e. show details of test execution
570 rather than just summary information, pass the argument \f(CW\*(C`verbose=1\*(C'\fR.
572 If you want to run tests under the perl debugger, pass the argument
573 \&\f(CW\*(C`debugger=1\*(C'\fR.
575 If you want to have Module::Build find test files with different file
576 name extensions, pass the \f(CW\*(C`test_file_exts\*(C'\fR argument with an array
577 of extensions, such as \f(CW\*(C`[qw( .t .s .z )]\*(C'\fR.
579 If you want test to be run by \f(CW\*(C`TAP::Harness\*(C'\fR, rather than \f(CW\*(C`Test::Harness\*(C'\fR,
580 pass the argument \f(CW\*(C`tap_harness_args\*(C'\fR as an array reference of arguments to
581 pass to the TAP::Harness constructor.
583 In addition, if a file called \f(CW\*(C`visual.pl\*(C'\fR exists in the top-level
584 directory, this file will be executed as a Perl script and its output
585 will be shown to the user. This is a good place to put speed tests or
586 other tests that don't use the \f(CW\*(C`Test::Harness\*(C'\fR format for output.
588 To override the choice of tests to run, you may pass a \f(CW\*(C`test_files\*(C'\fR
589 argument whose value is a whitespace-separated list of test scripts to
590 run. This is especially useful in development, when you only want to
591 run a single test to see whether you've squashed a certain bug yet:
594 \& ./Build test \-\-test_files t/something_failing.t
597 You may also pass several \f(CW\*(C`test_files\*(C'\fR arguments separately:
600 \& ./Build test \-\-test_files t/one.t \-\-test_files t/two.t
603 or use a \f(CW\*(C`glob()\*(C'\fR\-style pattern:
606 \& ./Build test \-\-test_files 't/01\-*.t'
612 [Note: the 'testall' action and the code snippets below are currently
614 \&\*(L"http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.module.build/2007/03/msg584.html\*(R" ]
616 Runs the \f(CW\*(C`test\*(C'\fR action plus each of the \f(CW\*(C`test$type\*(C'\fR actions defined by
617 the keys of the \f(CW\*(C`test_types\*(C'\fR parameter.
619 Currently, you need to define the ACTION_test$type method yourself and
620 enumerate them in the test_types parameter.
623 \& my $mb = Module::Build\->subclass(
625 \& sub ACTION_testspecial { shift\->generic_test(type => 'special'); }
626 \& sub ACTION_testauthor { shift\->generic_test(type => 'author'); }
632 \& author => ['.at', '.pt' ],
640 Runs the \f(CW\*(C`test\*(C'\fR action using \f(CW\*(C`Devel::Cover\*(C'\fR, generating a
641 code-coverage report showing which parts of the code were actually
642 exercised during the tests.
644 To pass options to \f(CW\*(C`Devel::Cover\*(C'\fR, set the \f(CW$DEVEL_COVER_OPTIONS\fR
645 environment variable:
648 \& DEVEL_COVER_OPTIONS=\-ignore,Build ./Build testcover
654 This is a synonym for the 'test' action with the \f(CW\*(C`debugger=1\*(C'\fR
660 This checks all the files described in the \f(CW\*(C`docs\*(C'\fR action and
661 produces \f(CW\*(C`Test::Harness\*(C'\fR\-style output. If you are a module author,
662 this is useful to run before creating a new release.
663 .IP "testpodcoverage" 4
664 .IX Item "testpodcoverage"
667 This checks the pod coverage of the distribution and
668 produces \f(CW\*(C`Test::Harness\*(C'\fR\-style output. If you are a module author,
669 this is useful to run before creating a new release.
670 .IP "versioninstall" 4
671 .IX Item "versioninstall"
674 ** Note: since \f(CW\*(C`only.pm\*(C'\fR is so new, and since we just recently added
675 support for it here too, this feature is to be considered
678 If you have the \f(CW\*(C`only.pm\*(C'\fR module installed on your system, you can
679 use this action to install a module into the version-specific library
680 trees. This means that you can have several versions of the same
681 module installed and \f(CW\*(C`use\*(C'\fR a specific one like this:
684 \& use only MyModule => 0.55;
687 To override the default installation libraries in \f(CW\*(C`only::config\*(C'\fR,
688 specify the \f(CW\*(C`versionlib\*(C'\fR parameter when you run the \f(CW\*(C`Build.PL\*(C'\fR script:
691 \& perl Build.PL \-\-versionlib /my/version/place/
694 To override which version the module is installed as, specify the
695 \&\f(CW\*(C`versionlib\*(C'\fR parameter when you run the \f(CW\*(C`Build.PL\*(C'\fR script:
698 \& perl Build.PL \-\-version 0.50
701 See the \f(CW\*(C`only.pm\*(C'\fR documentation for more information on
702 version-specific installs.
705 .Sh "Command Line Options"
706 .IX Subsection "Command Line Options"
707 The following options can be used during any invocation of \f(CW\*(C`Build.PL\*(C'\fR
708 or the Build script, during any action. For information on other
709 options specific to an action, see the documentation for the
712 \&\s-1NOTE:\s0 There is some preliminary support for options to use the more
713 familiar long option style. Most options can be preceded with the
714 \&\f(CW\*(C`\-\-\*(C'\fR long option prefix, and the underscores changed to dashes
715 (e.g. \f(CW\*(C`\-\-use\-rcfile\*(C'\fR). Additionally, the argument to boolean options is
716 optional, and boolean options can be negated by prefixing them with
717 \&\f(CW\*(C`no\*(C'\fR or \f(CW\*(C`no\-\*(C'\fR (e.g. \f(CW\*(C`\-\-noverbose\*(C'\fR or \f(CW\*(C`\-\-no\-verbose\*(C'\fR).
720 Suppress informative messages on output.
722 .IX Item "use_rcfile"
723 Load the \fI~/.modulebuildrc\fR option file. This option can be set to
724 false to prevent the custom resource file from being loaded.
727 Display extra information about the Build on output.
728 .IP "allow_mb_mismatch" 4
729 .IX Item "allow_mb_mismatch"
730 Suppresses the check upon startup that the version of Module::Build
731 we're now running under is the same version that was initially invoked
732 when building the distribution (i.e. when the \f(CW\*(C`Build.PL\*(C'\fR script was
733 first run). Use with caution.
736 Prints Module::Build debugging information to \s-1STDOUT\s0, such as a trace of
737 executed build actions.
738 .Sh "Default Options File (\fI.modulebuildrc\fP)"
739 .IX Subsection "Default Options File (.modulebuildrc)"
742 When Module::Build starts up, it will look first for a file,
743 \&\fI$ENV{\s-1HOME\s0}/.modulebuildrc\fR. If it's not found there, it will look
744 in the the \fI.modulebuildrc\fR file in the directories referred to by
745 the environment variables \f(CW\*(C`HOMEDRIVE\*(C'\fR + \f(CW\*(C`HOMEDIR\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`USERPROFILE\*(C'\fR,
746 \&\f(CW\*(C`APPDATA\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`WINDIR\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`SYS$LOGIN\*(C'\fR. If the file exists, the options
747 specified there will be used as defaults, as if they were typed on the
748 command line. The defaults can be overridden by specifying new values
751 The action name must come at the beginning of the line, followed by any
752 amount of whitespace and then the options. Options are given the same
753 as they would be on the command line. They can be separated by any
754 amount of whitespace, including newlines, as long there is whitespace at
755 the beginning of each continued line. Anything following a hash mark (\f(CW\*(C`#\*(C'\fR)
756 is considered a comment, and is stripped before parsing. If more than
757 one line begins with the same action name, those lines are merged into
760 Besides the regular actions, there are two special pseudo\-actions: the
761 key \f(CW\*(C`*\*(C'\fR (asterisk) denotes any global options that should be applied
762 to all actions, and the key 'Build_PL' specifies options to be applied
763 when you invoke \f(CW\*(C`perl Build.PL\*(C'\fR.
766 \& * verbose=1 # global options
768 \& install \-\-install_base /home/ken
769 \& \-\-install_path html=/home/ken/docs/html
772 If you wish to locate your resource file in a different location, you
773 can set the environment variable \f(CW\*(C`MODULEBUILDRC\*(C'\fR to the complete
774 absolute path of the file containing your options.
776 .IX Header "INSTALL PATHS"
779 When you invoke Module::Build's \f(CW\*(C`build\*(C'\fR action, it needs to figure
780 out where to install things. The nutshell version of how this works
781 is that default installation locations are determined from
782 \&\fIConfig.pm\fR, and they may be overridden by using the \f(CW\*(C`install_path\*(C'\fR
783 parameter. An \f(CW\*(C`install_base\*(C'\fR parameter lets you specify an
784 alternative installation root like \fI/home/foo\fR, and a \f(CW\*(C`destdir\*(C'\fR lets
785 you specify a temporary installation directory like \fI/tmp/install\fR in
786 case you want to create bundled-up installable packages.
788 Natively, Module::Build provides default installation locations for
789 the following types of installable items:
792 Usually pure-Perl module files ending in \fI.pm\fR.
795 \&\*(L"Architecture\-dependent\*(R" module files, usually produced by compiling
796 \&\s-1XS\s0, Inline, or similar code.
799 Programs written in pure Perl. In order to improve reuse, try to make
800 these as small as possible \- put the code into modules whenever
804 \&\*(L"Architecture\-dependent\*(R" executable programs, i.e. compiled C code or
805 something. Pretty rare to see this in a perl distribution, but it
809 Documentation for the stuff in \f(CW\*(C`script\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`bin\*(C'\fR. Usually
810 generated from the \s-1POD\s0 in those files. Under Unix, these are manual
811 pages belonging to the 'man1' category.
814 Documentation for the stuff in \f(CW\*(C`lib\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`arch\*(C'\fR. This is usually
815 generated from the \s-1POD\s0 in \fI.pm\fR files. Under Unix, these are manual
816 pages belonging to the 'man3' category.
819 This is the same as \f(CW\*(C`bindoc\*(C'\fR above, but applies to \s-1HTML\s0 documents.
822 This is the same as \f(CW\*(C`bindoc\*(C'\fR above, but applies to \s-1HTML\s0 documents.
824 Four other parameters let you control various aspects of how
825 installation paths are determined:
827 .IX Item "installdirs"
828 The default destinations for these installable things come from
829 entries in your system's \f(CW\*(C`Config.pm\*(C'\fR. You can select from three
830 different sets of default locations by setting the \f(CW\*(C`installdirs\*(C'\fR
831 parameter as follows:
834 \& 'installdirs' set to:
839 \& uses the following defaults from Config.pm:
843 \& lib => installprivlib installsitelib installvendorlib
844 \& arch => installarchlib installsitearch installvendorarch
845 \& script => installscript installsitebin installvendorbin
846 \& bin => installbin installsitebin installvendorbin
847 \& bindoc => installman1dir installsiteman1dir installvendorman1dir
848 \& libdoc => installman3dir installsiteman3dir installvendorman3dir
849 \& binhtml => installhtml1dir installsitehtml1dir installvendorhtml1dir [*]
850 \& libhtml => installhtml3dir installsitehtml3dir installvendorhtml3dir [*]
854 \& * Under some OS (eg. MSWin32) the destination for HTML documents is
855 \& determined by the C<Config.pm> entry C<installhtmldir>.
858 The default value of \f(CW\*(C`installdirs\*(C'\fR is \*(L"site\*(R". If you're creating
859 vendor distributions of module packages, you may want to do something
863 \& perl Build.PL \-\-installdirs vendor
869 \& ./Build install \-\-installdirs vendor
872 If you're installing an updated version of a module that was included
873 with perl itself (i.e. a \*(L"core module\*(R"), then you may set
874 \&\f(CW\*(C`installdirs\*(C'\fR to \*(L"core\*(R" to overwrite the module in its present
877 (Note that the 'script' line is different from \f(CW\*(C`MakeMaker\*(C'\fR \-
878 unfortunately there's no such thing as \*(L"installsitescript\*(R" or
879 \&\*(L"installvendorscript\*(R" entry in \f(CW\*(C`Config.pm\*(C'\fR, so we use the
880 \&\*(L"installsitebin\*(R" and \*(L"installvendorbin\*(R" entries to at least get the
881 general location right. In the future, if \f(CW\*(C`Config.pm\*(C'\fR adds some more
882 appropriate entries, we'll start using those.)
884 .IX Item "install_path"
885 Once the defaults have been set, you can override them.
887 On the command line, that would look like this:
890 \& perl Build.PL \-\-install_path lib=/foo/lib \-\-install_path arch=/foo/lib/arch
896 \& ./Build install \-\-install_path lib=/foo/lib \-\-install_path arch=/foo/lib/arch
899 .IX Item "install_base"
900 You can also set the whole bunch of installation paths by supplying the
901 \&\f(CW\*(C`install_base\*(C'\fR parameter to point to a directory on your system. For
902 instance, if you set \f(CW\*(C`install_base\*(C'\fR to \*(L"/home/ken\*(R" on a Linux
903 system, you'll install as follows:
906 \& lib => /home/ken/lib/perl5
907 \& arch => /home/ken/lib/perl5/i386\-linux
908 \& script => /home/ken/bin
909 \& bin => /home/ken/bin
910 \& bindoc => /home/ken/man/man1
911 \& libdoc => /home/ken/man/man3
912 \& binhtml => /home/ken/html
913 \& libhtml => /home/ken/html
916 Note that this is \fIdifferent\fR from how \f(CW\*(C`MakeMaker\*(C'\fR's \f(CW\*(C`PREFIX\*(C'\fR
917 parameter works. \f(CW\*(C`install_base\*(C'\fR just gives you a default layout under the
918 directory you specify, which may have little to do with the
919 \&\f(CW\*(C`installdirs=site\*(C'\fR layout.
921 The exact layout under the directory you specify may vary by system \-
922 we try to do the \*(L"sensible\*(R" thing on each platform.
925 If you want to install everything into a temporary directory first
926 (for instance, if you want to create a directory tree that a package
927 manager like \f(CW\*(C`rpm\*(C'\fR or \f(CW\*(C`dpkg\*(C'\fR could create a package from), you can
928 use the \f(CW\*(C`destdir\*(C'\fR parameter:
931 \& perl Build.PL \-\-destdir /tmp/foo
937 \& ./Build install \-\-destdir /tmp/foo
940 This will effectively install to \*(L"/tmp/foo/$sitelib\*(R",
941 \&\*(L"/tmp/foo/$sitearch\*(R", and the like, except that it will use
942 \&\f(CW\*(C`File::Spec\*(C'\fR to make the pathnames work correctly on whatever
943 platform you're installing on.
946 Provided for compatibility with \f(CW\*(C`ExtUtils::MakeMaker\*(C'\fR's \s-1PREFIX\s0 argument.
947 \&\f(CW\*(C`prefix\*(C'\fR should be used when you wish Module::Build to install your
948 modules, documentation and scripts in the same place
949 \&\f(CW\*(C`ExtUtils::MakeMaker\*(C'\fR does.
951 The following are equivalent.
954 \& perl Build.PL \-\-prefix /tmp/foo
955 \& perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=/tmp/foo
958 Because of the very complex nature of the prefixification logic, the
959 behavior of \s-1PREFIX\s0 in \f(CW\*(C`MakeMaker\*(C'\fR has changed subtly over time.
960 Module::Build's \-\-prefix logic is equivalent to the \s-1PREFIX\s0 logic found
961 in \f(CW\*(C`ExtUtils::MakeMaker\*(C'\fR 6.30.
963 If you do not need to retain compatibility with \f(CW\*(C`ExtUtils::MakeMaker\*(C'\fR or
964 are starting a fresh Perl installation we recommend you use
965 \&\f(CW\*(C`install_base\*(C'\fR instead (and \f(CW\*(C`INSTALL_BASE\*(C'\fR in \f(CW\*(C`ExtUtils::MakeMaker\*(C'\fR).
966 See \*(L"Instaling in the same location as ExtUtils::MakeMaker\*(R" in Module::Build::Cookbook for further information.
968 .IX Header "MOTIVATIONS"
969 There are several reasons I wanted to start over, and not just fix
970 what I didn't like about \f(CW\*(C`MakeMaker\*(C'\fR:
972 I don't like the core idea of \f(CW\*(C`MakeMaker\*(C'\fR, namely that \f(CW\*(C`make\*(C'\fR should be
973 involved in the build process. Here are my reasons:
976 When a person is installing a Perl module, what can you assume about
977 their environment? Can you assume they have \f(CW\*(C`make\*(C'\fR? No, but you can
978 assume they have some version of Perl.
980 When a person is writing a Perl module for intended distribution, can
981 you assume that they know how to build a Makefile, so they can
982 customize their build process? No, but you can assume they know Perl,
983 and could customize that way.
987 For years, these things have been a barrier to people getting the
988 build/install process to do what they want.
991 There are several architectural decisions in \f(CW\*(C`MakeMaker\*(C'\fR that make it
992 very difficult to customize its behavior. For instance, when using
993 \&\f(CW\*(C`MakeMaker\*(C'\fR you do \f(CW\*(C`use ExtUtils::MakeMaker\*(C'\fR, but the object created in
994 \&\f(CW\*(C`WriteMakefile()\*(C'\fR is actually blessed into a package name that's
995 created on the fly, so you can't simply subclass
996 \&\f(CW\*(C`ExtUtils::MakeMaker\*(C'\fR. There is a workaround \f(CW\*(C`MY\*(C'\fR package that lets
997 you override certain \f(CW\*(C`MakeMaker\*(C'\fR methods, but only certain explicitly
998 preselected (by \f(CW\*(C`MakeMaker\*(C'\fR) methods can be overridden. Also, the method
999 of customization is very crude: you have to modify a string containing
1000 the Makefile text for the particular target. Since these strings
1001 aren't documented, and \fIcan't\fR be documented (they take on different
1002 values depending on the platform, version of perl, version of
1003 \&\f(CW\*(C`MakeMaker\*(C'\fR, etc.), you have no guarantee that your modifications will
1004 work on someone else's machine or after an upgrade of \f(CW\*(C`MakeMaker\*(C'\fR or
1007 It is risky to make major changes to \f(CW\*(C`MakeMaker\*(C'\fR, since it does so many
1008 things, is so important, and generally works. \f(CW\*(C`Module::Build\*(C'\fR is an
1009 entirely separate package so that I can work on it all I want, without
1010 worrying about backward compatibility.
1012 Finally, Perl is said to be a language for system administration.
1013 Could it really be the case that Perl isn't up to the task of building
1014 and installing software? Even if that software is a bunch of stupid
1015 little \f(CW\*(C`.pm\*(C'\fR files that just need to be copied from one place to
1016 another? My sense was that we could design a system to accomplish
1017 this in a flexible, extensible, and friendly manner. Or die trying.
1020 The current method of relying on time stamps to determine whether a
1021 derived file is out of date isn't likely to scale well, since it
1022 requires tracing all dependencies backward, it runs into problems on
1023 \&\s-1NFS\s0, and it's just generally flimsy. It would be better to use an \s-1MD5\s0
1024 signature or the like, if available. See \f(CW\*(C`cons\*(C'\fR for an example.
1027 \& \- append to perllocal.pod
1028 \& \- add a 'plugin' functionality
1032 Ken Williams <kwilliams@cpan.org>
1034 Development questions, bug reports, and patches should be sent to the
1035 Module-Build mailing list at <module\-build@perl.org>.
1037 Bug reports are also welcome at
1038 <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Module\-Build>.
1040 The latest development version is available from the Subversion
1041 repository at <https://svn.perl.org/modules/Module\-Build/trunk/>
1043 .IX Header "COPYRIGHT"
1044 Copyright (c) 2001\-2006 Ken Williams. All rights reserved.
1046 This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
1047 modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
1049 .IX Header "SEE ALSO"
1050 \&\fIperl\fR\|(1), Module::Build::Cookbook, Module::Build::Authoring,
1051 Module::Build::API, ExtUtils::MakeMaker, \s-1YAML\s0
1053 \&\fI\s-1META\s0.yml\fR Specification:
1054 <http://module\-build.sourceforge.net/META\-spec\-current.html>
1056 <http://www.dsmit.com/cons/>
1058 <http://search.cpan.org/dist/PerlBuildSystem/>
projects / catagits/Gitalist.git / blob