Module::Build::Bundling(3)
NAME
Module::Build::Bundling - How to bundle Module::Build with a
distribution
SYNOPSIS
# Build.PL
use inc::latest 'Module::Build';
Module::Build->new(
module_name => 'Foo::Bar',
license => 'perl',
)->create_build_script;
DESCRIPTION
WARNING -- THIS IS AN EXPERIMENTAL FEATURE
In order to install a distribution using Module::Build, users must have
Module::Build available on their systems. There are two ways to do
this. The first way is to include Module::Build in the
"configure_requires" metadata field. This field is supported by recent
versions CPAN and CPANPLUS and is a standard feature in the Perl core
as of Perl 5.10.1. Module::Build now adds itself to
"configure_requires" by default.
The second way supports older Perls that have not upgraded CPAN or
CPANPLUS and involves bundling an entire copy of Module::Build into the
distribution's "inc/" directory. This is the same approach used by
Module::Install, a modern wrapper around ExtUtils::MakeMaker for
Makefile.PL based distributions.
The "trick" to making this work for Module::Build is making sure the
highest version Module::Build is used, whether this is in "inc/" or
already installed on the user's system. This ensures that all
necessary features are available as well as any new bug fixes. This is
done using the experimental inc::latest module, available on CPAN.
A "normal" Build.PL looks like this (with only the minimum required
fields):
use Module::Build;
Module::Build->new(
module_name => 'Foo::Bar',
license => 'perl',
)->create_build_script;
A "bundling" Build.PL replaces the initial "use" line with a nearly
transparent replacement:
use inc::latest 'Module::Build';
Module::Build->new(
module_name => 'Foo::Bar',
license => 'perl',
)->create_build_script;
For authors, when "Build dist" is run, Module::Build will be
automatically bundled into "inc" according to the rules for
inc::latest.
For users, inc::latest will load the latest Module::Build, whether
installed or bundled in "inc/".
BUNDLING OTHER CONFIGURATION DEPENDENCIES
The same approach works for other configuration dependencies -- modules
that must be available for Build.PL to run. All other dependencies can
be specified as usual in the Build.PL and CPAN or CPANPLUS will install
them after Build.PL finishes.
For example, to bundle the Devel::AssertOS::Unix module (which ensures
a "Unix-like" operating system), one could do this:
use inc::latest 'Devel::AssertOS::Unix';
use inc::latest 'Module::Build';
Module::Build->new(
module_name => 'Foo::Bar',
license => 'perl',
)->create_build_script;
The "inc::latest" module creates bundled directories based on the
packlist file of an installed distribution. Even though "inc::latest"
takes module name arguments, it is better to think of it as bundling
and making available entire distributions. When a module is loaded
through "inc::latest", it looks in all bundled distributions in "inc/"
for a newer module than can be found in the existing @INC array.
Thus, the module-name provided should usually be the "top-level" module
name of a distribution, though this is not strictly required. For
example, Module::Build has a number of heuristics to map module names
to packlists, allowing users to do things like this:
use inc::latest 'Devel::AssertOS::Unix';
even though Devel::AssertOS::Unix is contained within the Devel-CheckOS
distribution.
At the current time, packlists are required. Thus, bundling dual-core
modules, including Module::Build, may require a 'forced install' over
versions in the latest version of perl in order to create the necessary
packlist for bundling. This limitation will hopefully be addressed in
a future version of Module::Build.
WARNING -- How to Manage Dependency Chains
Before bundling a distribution you must ensure that all prerequisites
are also bundled and load in the correct order. For Module::Build
itself, this should not be necessary, but it is necessary for any other
distribution. (A future release of Module::Build will hopefully
address this deficiency.)
For example, if you need "Wibble", but "Wibble" depends on "Wobble",
your Build.PL might look like this:
use inc::latest 'Wobble';
use inc::latest 'Wibble';
use inc::latest 'Module::Build';
Module::Build->new(
module_name => 'Foo::Bar',
license => 'perl',
)->create_build_script;
Authors are strongly suggested to limit the bundling of additional
dependencies if at all possible and to carefully test their
distribution tarballs on older versions of Perl before uploading to
CPAN.
AUTHOR
David Golden <dagolden@cpan.org>
Development questions, bug reports, and patches should be sent to the
Module-Build mailing list at <module-build@perl.org>.
Bug reports are also welcome at
<http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Module-Build>.
SEE ALSO
perl(1), inc::latest, Module::Build(3), Module::Build::API(3),
Module::Build::Cookbook(3),
perl v5.16.3 2015-01-19 Module::Build::Bundling(3)
module-build 0.421.0 - Generated Wed Jan 21 19:03:34 CST 2015