Module::Build::Compat - Compatibility with ExtUtils::MakeMaker
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.
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:
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.
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 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.
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:
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:
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.
Module::Build(3), ExtUtils::MakeMaker(3)