X-Git-Url: http://git.shadowcat.co.uk/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?a=blobdiff_plain;f=pod%2Fperlmodstyle.pod;h=558edcf26ab3c4318e597006b1fff60cb5013cb0;hb=0111df86b68202837d8ca044a27bbc00d7895fb1;hp=c039da7ee32af2cfc00168b200b6cf5f840f54d1;hpb=da75cd15705fec9f427a4cc8a647f3b6919c6e04;p=p5sagit%2Fp5-mst-13.2.git

diff --git a/pod/perlmodstyle.pod b/pod/perlmodstyle.pod
index c039da7..558edcf 100644
--- a/pod/perlmodstyle.pod
+++ b/pod/perlmodstyle.pod
@@ -588,9 +588,20 @@ using
 
     perl -MExtUtils::MakeMaker -le 'print MM->parse_version(shift)' 'Foo.pm'
 
-If you want to release a 'beta' or 'alpha' version of a module but don't
-want CPAN.pm to list it as most recent use an '_' after the regular
-version number followed by at least 2 digits, eg. 1.20_01
+If you want to release a 'beta' or 'alpha' version of a module but
+don't want CPAN.pm to list it as most recent use an '_' after the
+regular version number followed by at least 2 digits, eg. 1.20_01. If
+you do this, the following idiom is recommended:
+
+  $VERSION = "1.12_01";
+  $XS_VERSION = $VERSION; # only needed if you have XS code
+  $VERSION = eval $VERSION;
+
+With that trick MakeMaker will only read the first line and thus read
+the underscore, while the perl interpreter will evaluate the $VERSION
+and convert the string into a number. Later operations that treat
+$VERSION as a number will then be able to do so without provoking a
+warning about $VERSION not being a number.
 
 Never release anything (even a one-word documentation patch) without
 incrementing the number.  Even a one-word documentation patch should