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ExtUtils::MakeMaker::FAPerlmProgrammers ReferenceExtUtils::MakeMaker::FAQ(3pm)

NAME
       ExtUtils::MakeMaker::FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions About MakeMaker

DESCRIPTION
       FAQs, tricks and tips for "ExtUtils::MakeMaker".

   Module Installation
       How do I install a module into my home directory?
	   If you're not the Perl administrator you probably don't have
	   permission to install a module to its default location.  Then you
	   should install it for your own use into your home directory like
	   so:

	       # Non-unix folks, replace ~ with /path/to/your/home/dir
	       perl Makefile.PL INSTALL_BASE=~

	   This will put modules into ~/lib/perl5, man pages into ~/man and
	   programs into ~/bin.

	   To ensure your Perl programs can see these newly installed modules,
	   set your "PERL5LIB" environment variable to ~/lib/perl5 or tell
	   each of your programs to look in that directory with the following:

	       use lib "$ENV{HOME}/lib/perl5";

	   or if $ENV{HOME} isn't set and you don't want to set it for some
	   reason, do it the long way.

	       use lib "/path/to/your/home/dir/lib/perl5";

       How do I get MakeMaker and Module::Build to install to the same place?
	   Module::Build, as of 0.28, supports two ways to install to the same
	   location as MakeMaker.

	   1) Use INSTALL_BASE / "--install_base"

	   MakeMaker (as of 6.31) and Module::Build (as of 0.28) both can
	   install to the same locations using the "install_base" concept.
	   See "INSTALL_BASE" in ExtUtils::MakeMaker for details.  To get MM
	   and MB to install to the same location simply set INSTALL_BASE in
	   MM and "--install_base" in MB to the same location.

	       perl Makefile.PL INSTALL_BASE=/whatever
	       perl Build.PL	--install_base /whatever

	   2) Use PREFIX / "--prefix"

	   Module::Build 0.28 added support for "--prefix" which works like
	   MakeMaker's PREFIX.

	       perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=/whatever
	       perl Build.PL	--prefix /whatever

       How do I keep from installing man pages?
	   Recent versions of MakeMaker will only install man pages on Unix
	   like operating systems.

	   For an individual module:

		   perl Makefile.PL INSTALLMAN1DIR=none INSTALLMAN3DIR=none

	   If you want to suppress man page installation for all modules you
	   have to reconfigure Perl and tell it 'none' when it asks where to
	   install man pages.

       How do I use a module without installing it?
	   Two ways.  One is to build the module normally...

		   perl Makefile.PL
		   make
		   make test

	   ...and then set the PERL5LIB environment variable to point at the
	   blib/lib and blib/arch directories.

	   The other is to install the module in a temporary location.

		   perl Makefile.PL INSTALL_BASE=~/tmp
		   make
		   make test
		   make install

	   And then set PERL5LIB to ~/tmp/lib/perl5.  This works well when you
	   have multiple modules to work with.	It also ensures that the
	   module goes through its full installation process which may modify
	   it.

       PREFIX vs INSTALL_BASE from Module::Build::Cookbook
	   The behavior of PREFIX is complicated and depends closely on how
	   your Perl is configured. The resulting installation locations will
	   vary from machine to machine and even different installations of
	   Perl on the same machine.  Because of this, its difficult to
	   document where prefix will place your modules.

	   In contrast, INSTALL_BASE has predictable, easy to explain
	   installation locations.  Now that Module::Build and MakeMaker both
	   have INSTALL_BASE there is little reason to use PREFIX other than
	   to preserve your existing installation locations. If you are
	   starting a fresh Perl installation we encourage you to use
	   INSTALL_BASE. If you have an existing installation installed via
	   PREFIX, consider moving it to an installation structure matching
	   INSTALL_BASE and using that instead.

   Philosophy and History
       Why not just use <insert other build config tool here>?
	   Why did MakeMaker reinvent the build configuration wheel?  Why not
	   just use autoconf or automake or ppm or Ant or ...

	   There are many reasons, but the major one is cross-platform
	   compatibility.

	   Perl is one of the most ported pieces of software ever.  It works
	   on operating systems I've never even heard of (see perlport for
	   details).  It needs a build tool that can work on all those
	   platforms and with any wacky C compilers and linkers they might
	   have.

	   No such build tool exists.  Even make itself has wildly different
	   dialects.  So we have to build our own.

       What is Module::Build and how does it relate to MakeMaker?
	   Module::Build is a project by Ken Williams to supplant MakeMaker.
	   Its primary advantages are:

	   ·	   pure perl.  no make, no shell commands

	   ·	   easier to customize

	   ·	   cleaner internals

	   ·	   less cruft

	   Module::Build is the official heir apparent to MakeMaker and we
	   encourage people to work on M::B rather than spending time adding
	   features to MakeMaker.

   Module Writing
       How do I keep my $VERSION up to date without resetting it manually?
	   Often you want to manually set the $VERSION in the main module
	   distribution because this is the version that everybody sees on
	   CPAN and maybe you want to customize it a bit.  But for all the
	   other modules in your dist, $VERSION is really just bookkeeping and
	   all that's important is it goes up every time the module is
	   changed.  Doing this by hand is a pain and you often forget.

	   Simplest way to do it automatically is to use your version control
	   system's revision number (you are using version control, right?).

	   In CVS, RCS and SVN you use $Revision$ (see the documentation of
	   your version control system for details).  Every time the file is
	   checked in the $Revision$ will be updated, updating your $VERSION.

	   SVN uses a simple integer for $Revision$ so you can adapt it for
	   your $VERSION like so:

	       ($VERSION) = q$Revision$ =~ /(\d+)/;

	   In CVS and RCS version 1.9 is followed by 1.10.  Since CPAN
	   compares version numbers numerically we use a sprintf() to convert
	   1.9 to 1.009 and 1.10 to 1.010 which compare properly.

	       $VERSION = sprintf "%d.%03d", q$Revision$ =~ /(\d+)\.(\d+)/g;

	   If branches are involved (ie. $Revision: 1.5.3.4$) its a little
	   more complicated.

	       # must be all on one line or MakeMaker will get confused.
	       $VERSION = do { my @r = (q$Revision$ =~ /\d+/g); sprintf "%d."."%03d" x $#r, @r };

	   In SVN, $Revision$ should be the same for every file in the project
	   so they would all have the same $VERSION.  CVS and RCS have a
	   different $Revision$ per file so each file will have a differnt
	   $VERSION.  Distributed version control systems, such as SVK, may
	   have a different $Revision$ based on who checks out the file
	   leading to a different $VERSION on each machine!  Finally, some
	   distributed version control systems, such as darcs, have no concept
	   of revision number at all.

       What's this META.yml thing and how did it get in my MANIFEST?!
	   META.yml is a module meta-data file pioneered by Module::Build and
	   automatically generated as part of the 'distdir' target (and thus
	   'dist').  See "Module Meta-Data" in ExtUtils::MakeMaker.

	   To shut off its generation, pass the "NO_META" flag to
	   "WriteMakefile()".

       How do I delete everything not in my MANIFEST?
	   Some folks are surpried that "make distclean" does not delete
	   everything not listed in their MANIFEST (thus making a clean
	   distribution) but only tells them what they need to delete.	This
	   is done because it is considered too dangerous.  While developing
	   your module you might write a new file, not add it to the MANIFEST,
	   then run a "distclean" and be sad because your new work was
	   deleted.

	   If you really want to do this, you can use
	   "ExtUtils::Manifest::manifind()" to read the MANIFEST and
	   File::Find to delete the files.  But you have to be careful.
	   Here's a script to do that.	Use at your own risk.  Have fun
	   blowing holes in your foot.

	       #!/usr/bin/perl -w

	       use strict;

	       use File::Spec;
	       use File::Find;
	       use ExtUtils::Manifest qw(maniread);

	       my %manifest = map  {( $_ => 1 )}
			      grep { File::Spec->canonpath($_) }
				   keys %{ maniread() };

	       if( !keys %manifest ) {
		   print "No files found in MANIFEST.  Stopping.\n";
		   exit;
	       }

	       find({
		     wanted   => sub {
			 my $path = File::Spec->canonpath($_);

			 return unless -f $path;
			 return if exists $manifest{ $path };

			 print "unlink $path\n";
			 unlink $path;
		     },
		     no_chdir => 1
		    },
		    "."
	       );

       Which tar should I use on Windows?
	   We recommend ptar from Archive::Tar not older that 1.66 with '-C'
	   option.

       Which zip should I use on Windows for '[nd]make zipdist'?
	   We recommend InfoZIP: http://www.info-zip.org/Zip.html
	   <http://www.info-zip.org/Zip.html>

   XS
       How to I prevent "object version X.XX does not match bootstrap
       parameter Y.YY" errors?
	   XS code is very sensitive to the module version number and will
	   complain if the version number in your Perl module doesn't match.
	   If you change your module's version # without rerunning Makefile.PL
	   the old version number will remain in the Makefile causing the XS
	   code to be built with the wrong number.

	   To avoid this, you can force the Makefile to be rebuilt whenever
	   you change the module containing the version number by adding this
	   to your WriteMakefile() arguments.

	       depend => { '$(FIRST_MAKEFILE)' => '$(VERSION_FROM)' }

       How do I make two or more XS files coexist in the same directory?
	   Sometimes you need to have two and more XS files in the same
	   package.  One way to go is to put them into separate directories,
	   but sometimes this is not the most suitable solution. The following
	   technique allows you to put two (and more) XS files in the same
	   directory.

	   Let's assume that we have a package "Cool::Foo", which includes
	   "Cool::Foo" and "Cool::Bar" modules each having a separate XS file.
	   First we use the following Makefile.PL:

	     use ExtUtils::MakeMaker;

	     WriteMakefile(
		 NAME		   => 'Cool::Foo',
		 VERSION_FROM	   => 'Foo.pm',
		 OBJECT		     => q/$(O_FILES)/,
		 # ... other attrs ...
	     );

	   Notice the "OBJECT" attribute. MakeMaker generates the following
	   variables in Makefile:

	     # Handy lists of source code files:
	     XS_FILES= Bar.xs \
		   Foo.xs
	     C_FILES = Bar.c \
		   Foo.c
	     O_FILES = Bar.o \
		   Foo.o

	   Therefore we can use the "O_FILES" variable to tell MakeMaker to
	   use these objects into the shared library.

	   That's pretty much it. Now write Foo.pm and Foo.xs, Bar.pm and
	   Bar.xs, where Foo.pm bootstraps the shared library and Bar.pm
	   simply loading Foo.pm.

	   The only issue left is to how to bootstrap Bar.xs. This is done
	   from Foo.xs:

	     MODULE = Cool::Foo PACKAGE = Cool::Foo

	     BOOT:
	     # boot the second XS file
	     boot_Cool__Bar(aTHX_ cv);

	   If you have more than two files, this is the place where you should
	   boot extra XS files from.

	   The following four files sum up all the details discussed so far.

	     Foo.pm:
	     -------
	     package Cool::Foo;

	     require DynaLoader;

	     our @ISA = qw(DynaLoader);
	     our $VERSION = '0.01';
	     bootstrap Cool::Foo $VERSION;

	     1;

	     Bar.pm:
	     -------
	     package Cool::Bar;

	     use Cool::Foo; # bootstraps Bar.xs

	     1;

	     Foo.xs:
	     -------
	     #include "EXTERN.h"
	     #include "perl.h"
	     #include "XSUB.h"

	     MODULE = Cool::Foo	 PACKAGE = Cool::Foo

	     BOOT:
	     # boot the second XS file
	     boot_Cool__Bar(aTHX_ cv);

	     MODULE = Cool::Foo	 PACKAGE = Cool::Foo  PREFIX = cool_foo_

	     void
	     cool_foo_perl_rules()

		 CODE:
		 fprintf(stderr, "Cool::Foo says: Perl Rules\n");

	     Bar.xs:
	     -------
	     #include "EXTERN.h"
	     #include "perl.h"
	     #include "XSUB.h"

	     MODULE = Cool::Bar	 PACKAGE = Cool::Bar PREFIX = cool_bar_

	     void
	     cool_bar_perl_rules()

		 CODE:
		 fprintf(stderr, "Cool::Bar says: Perl Rules\n");

	   And of course a very basic test:

	     t/cool.t:
	     --------
	     use Test;
	     BEGIN { plan tests => 1 };
	     use Cool::Foo;
	     use Cool::Bar;
	     Cool::Foo::perl_rules();
	     Cool::Bar::perl_rules();
	     ok 1;

	   This tip has been brought to you by Nick Ing-Simmons and Stas
	   Bekman.

PATCHING
       If you have a question you'd like to see added to the FAQ (whether or
       not you have the answer) please send it to makemaker@perl.org.

AUTHOR
       The denizens of makemaker@perl.org.

SEE ALSO
       ExtUtils::MakeMaker

perl v5.16.2			  2012-10-11	 ExtUtils::MakeMaker::FAQ(3pm)
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