Module::Build::Compat - Compatibility with ExtUtils::MakeMaker
# In a Build.PL :
use Module::Build;
my $build = Module::Build->new
( module_name => 'Foo::Bar',
license => 'perl',
create_makefile_pl => 'traditional' );
...
Because ExtUtils::MakeMaker has been the standard way to distribute
modules for a long time, many tools (CPAN.pm, or your system
administrator) may expect to find a working Makefile.PL in every
distribution they download from CPAN. If you want to throw them a
bone, you can use Module::Build::Compat to automatically generate a
Makefile.PL for you, in one of several different styles.
Module::Build::Compat also provides some code that helps out the
Makefile.PL at runtime.
Note that Module::Build::Compat more often causes installation issues
than solves them, and each of the three Makefile.PL generation styles
has unique compatibility or functionality issues that are unlikely to be
fixed. Thus, the use of this module and create_makefile_pl is
discouraged.
- create_makefile_pl($style, $build)
-
Creates a Makefile.PL in the current directory in one of several
styles, based on the supplied
Module::Build object $build . This is
typically controlled by passing the desired style as the
create_makefile_pl parameter to Module::Build 's new() method;
the Makefile.PL will then be automatically created during the
distdir action.
The currently supported styles are:
- traditional
-
A Makefile.PL will be created in the ``traditional'' style, i.e. it will
use
ExtUtils::MakeMaker and won't rely on Module::Build at all.
In order to create the Makefile.PL, we'll include the requires and
build_requires dependencies as the PREREQ_PM parameter.
You don't want to use this style if during the perl Build.PL stage
you ask the user questions, or do some auto-sensing about the user's
environment, or if you subclass Module::Build to do some
customization, because the vanilla Makefile.PL won't do any of that.
Many standard Module::Build features such as test_requires are also
not supported.
- small
-
A small Makefile.PL will be created that passes all functionality
through to the Build.PL script in the same directory. The user must
already have
Module::Build installed in order to use this, or else
they'll get a module-not-found error.
This style attempts (with varying success) to translate the Makefile.PL
protocol to Build.PL, and is unnecessary on any modern toolchain that
recognizes configure_requires metadata described below, as Build.PL
will be run by default in this case. See
https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=75936 for an example of
the issues it may cause.
- passthrough (DEPRECATED)
-
This is just like the
small option above, but if Module::Build is
not already installed on the user's system, the script will offer to
use CPAN.pm to download it and install it before continuing with
the build.
This option has been deprecated and may be removed in a future version
of Module::Build. Modern CPAN.pm and CPANPLUS will recognize the
configure_requires metadata property and install Module::Build before
running Build.PL if Module::Build is listed and Module::Build now
adds itself to configure_requires by default.
Perl 5.10.1 includes configure_requires support. In the future, when
configure_requires support is deemed sufficiently widespread, the
passthrough style will be removed.
- run_build_pl(args => \@ARGV)
-
This method runs the Build.PL script, passing it any arguments the
user may have supplied to the
perl Makefile.PL command. Because
ExtUtils::MakeMaker and Module::Build accept different arguments, this
method also performs some translation between the two.
run_build_pl() accepts the following named parameters:
- args
-
The
args parameter specifies the parameters that would usually
appear on the command line of the perl Makefile.PL command -
typically you'll just pass a reference to @ARGV .
- script
-
This is the filename of the script to run - it defaults to
Build.PL .
- write_makefile()
-
This method writes a 'dummy' Makefile that will pass all commands
through to the corresponding
Module::Build actions.
write_makefile() accepts the following named parameters:
- makefile
-
The name of the file to write - defaults to the string
Makefile .
So, some common scenarios are:
-
Just include a Build.PL script (without a Makefile.PL
script), and give installation directions in a README or INSTALL
document explaining how to install the module. In particular, explain
that the user must install
Module::Build before installing your
module.
Note that if you do this, you may make things easier for yourself, but
harder for people with older versions of CPAN or CPANPLUS on their
system, because those tools generally only understand the
Makefile.PL/ExtUtils::MakeMaker way of doing things.
-
Include a Build.PL script and a ``traditional'' Makefile.PL,
created either manually or with
create_makefile_pl() . Users won't
ever have to install Module::Build if they use the Makefile.PL, but
they won't get to take advantage of Module::Build 's extra features
either.
For good measure, of course, test both the Makefile.PL and the
Build.PL before shipping.
-
Include a Build.PL script and a ``pass-through'' Makefile.PL
built using
Module::Build::Compat . This will mean that people can
continue to use the ``old'' installation commands, and they may never
notice that it's actually doing something else behind the scenes. It
will also mean that your installation process is compatible with older
versions of tools like CPAN and CPANPLUS.
Ken Williams <kwilliams@cpan.org>
Copyright (c) 2001-2006 Ken Williams. All rights reserved.
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
the Module::Build manpage(3), the ExtUtils::MakeMaker manpage(3)
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