Alien::Build::Manual::Contributing(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation
NAME
Alien::Build::Manual::Contributing - Over-detailed contributing guide
VERSION
version 2.80
SYNOPSIS
perldoc Alien::Build::Manual::Contributing
DESCRIPTION
Thank you for considering to contribute to my open source project! If
you have a small patch please consider just submitting it. Doing so
through the project GitHub is probably the best way:
<https://github.com/plicease/Alien-Build/issues>
If you have a more invasive enhancement or bugfix to contribute, please
take the time to review these guidelines. In general it is good idea
to work closely with the Alien::Build developers, and the best way to
contact them is on the "#native" IRC channel on irc.perl.org.
History
Joel Berger wrote the original Alien::Base. This distribution included
the runtime code Alien::Base and an installer class
Alien::Base::ModuleBuild. The significant thing about Alien::Base was
that it provided tools to make it relatively easy for people to roll
their own Alien distributions. Over time, the PerlAlien (github
organization) or "Alien::Base team" has taken over development of
Alien::Base with myself (Graham Ollis) being responsible for
integration and releases. Joel Berger is still involved in the
project.
Since the original development of Alien::Base, Module::Build, on which
Alien::Base::ModuleBuild is based, has been removed from the core of
Perl. It seemed worthwhile to write a replacement installer that works
with ExtUtils::MakeMaker which IS still bundled with the Perl core.
Because this is a significant undertaking it is my intention to
integrate the many lessons learned by Joel Berger, myself and the
"Alien::Base team" as possible. If the interface seems good then it is
because I've stolen the ideas from some pretty good places.
Philosophy
Alien runtime should be as config-only as possible.
Ideally the code for an Alien::Base based Alien should simply inherit
from Alien::Base, like so:
package Alien::libfoo;
use parent qw( Alien::Base );
1;
The detection logic should be done by the installer code (alienfile and
Alien::Build) and saved into runtime properties (see "runtime_prop" in
Alien::Build). And as much as possible the runtime should be
implemented in the base class (Alien::Base). Where reasonable, the
base class should be expanded to meet the needs of this arrangement.
when downloading a package grab the latest version
If the maintainer of an Alien disappears for a while, and if the
version downloaded during a "share" install is hardcoded in the
alienfile, it can be problematic for end-users.
There are exceptions, of course, in particular when a package provides
a very unstable interface from version to version it makes sense to
hard code the version and for the Alien developer and Alien consumer
developer to coordinate closely.
when installing a package the operating system as a whole should not be
affected
The convenience of using an Alien is that a user of a CPAN module that
consumes an Alien doesn't need to know the exact incantation to install
the libraries on which it depends (or indeed it may not be easily
installed through the package manager anyway).
As a corollary, a user of a CPAN module that consumes an Alien module
shouldn't expect operating system level packages to be installed, or
for these packages to be installed in common system level directories,
like "/usr/local" or "/opt". Instead a "share" directory associated
with the Perl install and Alien module should be used.
Plugins that require user opt-in could be written to prompt a user to
automatically install operating system packages, but this should never
be done by default or without consent by the user.
avoid dependencies
One of the challenges with Alien development is that you are by the
nature of the problem, trying to make everyone happy. Developers
working out of CPAN just want stuff to work, and some build
environments can be hostile in terms of tool availability, so for
reliability you end up pulling a lot of dependencies. On the other
hand, operating system vendors who are building Perl modules usually
want to use the system version of a library so that they do not have to
patch libraries in multiple places. Such vendors have to package any
extra dependencies and having to do so for packages that the don't even
use makes them understandably unhappy.
As general policy the Alien::Build core should have as few dependencies
as possible, and should only pull extra dependencies if they are
needed. Where dependencies cannot be avoidable, popular and reliable
CPAN modules, which are already available as packages in the major
Linux vendors (Debian, Red Hat) should be preferred.
As such Alien::Build is hyper aggressive at using dynamic
prerequisites.
interface agnostic
One of the challenges with Alien::Base::ModuleBuild was that
Module::Build was pulled from the core. In addition, there is a degree
of hostility toward Module::Build in some corners of the Perl
community. I agree with Joel Berger's rationale for choosing
Module::Build at the time, as I believe its interface more easily lends
itself to building Alien distributions.
That said, an important feature of Alien::Build is that it is installer
agnostic. Although it is initially designed to work with
ExtUtils::MakeMaker, it has been designed from the ground up to work
with any installer (Perl, or otherwise).
As an extension of this, although Alien::Build may have external CPAN
dependencies, they should not be exposed to developers USING
Alien::Build. As an example, Path::Tiny is used heavily internally
because it does what File::Spec does, plus the things that it doesn't,
and uses forward slashes on Windows (backslashes are the "correct
separator on windows, but actually using them tends to break
everything). However, there aren't any interfaces in Alien::Build that
will return a Path::Tiny object (or if there are, then this is a bug).
This means that if we ever need to port Alien::Build to a platform that
doesn't support Path::Tiny (such as VMS), then it may require some work
to Alien::Build itself, modules that USE Alien::Build shouldn't need to
be modified.
plugable
The actual logic that probes the system, downloads source and builds it
should be as pluggable as possible. One of the challenges with
Alien::Base::ModuleBuild was that it was designed to work well with
software that works with "autoconf" and "pkg-config". While you can
build with other tools, you have to know a bit of how the installer
logic works, and which hooks need to be tweaked.
Alien::Build has plugins for "autoconf", "pkgconf" (successor of
"pkg-config"), vanilla Makefiles, and CMake. If your build system
doesn't have a plugin, then all you have to do is write one! Plugins
that prove their worth may be merged into the Alien::Build core.
Plugins that after a while feel like maybe not such a good idea may be
removed from the core, or even from CPAN itself.
In addition, Alien::Build has a special type of plugin, called a
negotiator which picks the best plugin for the particular environment
that it is running in. This way, as development of the negotiator and
plugins develop over time modules that use Alien::Build will benefit,
without having to change the way they interface with Alien::Build
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to that Joel Berger for getting things running in the
first place. Also important to thank other members of the "Alien::Base
team":
Zaki Mughal (SIVOAIS)
Ed J (ETJ, mohawk)
Also kind thanks to all of the developers who have contributed to
Alien::Base over the years:
<https://metacpan.org/pod/Alien::Base#CONTRIBUTORS>
SEE ALSO
Alien::Build::Manual(3)
Other Alien::Build manuals.
AUTHOR
Author: Graham Ollis <plicease@cpan.org>
Contributors:
Diab Jerius (DJERIUS)
Roy Storey (KIWIROY)
Ilya Pavlov
David Mertens (run4flat)
Mark Nunberg (mordy, mnunberg)
Christian Walde (Mithaldu)
Brian Wightman (MidLifeXis)
Zaki Mughal (zmughal)
mohawk (mohawk2, ETJ)
Vikas N Kumar (vikasnkumar)
Flavio Poletti (polettix)
Salvador Fandino (salva)
Gianni Ceccarelli (dakkar)
Pavel Shaydo (zwon, trinitum)
Kang-min Liu (<?><?><?>, gugod)
Nicholas Shipp (nshp)
Juan Julian Merelo Guervos (JJ)
Joel Berger (JBERGER)
Petr Pisar (ppisar)
Lance Wicks (LANCEW)
Ahmad Fatoum (a3f, ATHREEF)
Jose Joaquin Atria (JJATRIA)
Duke Leto (LETO)
Shoichi Kaji (SKAJI)
Shawn Laffan (SLAFFAN)
Paul Evans (leonerd, PEVANS)
Hakon Haegland (hakonhagland, HAKONH)
nick nauwelaerts (INPHOBIA)
Florian Weimer
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
This software is copyright (c) 2011-2022 by Graham Ollis.
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.
perl v5.34.1 2023-05-11
Alien::Build::Manual::Contributing(3)
alien-build 2.800.0 - Generated Mon Apr 8 18:36:28 CDT 2024