Module::Build - Build and install Perl modules
Standard process for building & installing modules:
perl Build.PL./Build./Build test./Build installOr, if you're on a platform (like DOS or Windows) that doesn't require the "./" notation, you can do this:
perl Build.PLBuildBuild testBuild installModule::Build is a system for building, testing, and installing Perl modules. It is meant to be an alternative toExtUtils::MakeMaker. Developers may alter the behavior of the module through subclassing in a much more straightforward way than withMakeMaker. It also does not require amake on your system - most of theModule::Build code is pure-perl and written in a very cross-platform way. In fact, you don't even need a shell, so even platforms like MacOS (traditional) can use it fairly easily. Its only prerequisites are modules that are included with perl 5.6.0, and it works fine on perl 5.005 if you can install a few additional modules.
See"MOTIVATIONS" for more comparisons betweenExtUtils::MakeMaker andModule::Build.
To installModule::Build, and any other module that usesModule::Build for its installation process, do the following:
perl Build.PL # 'Build.PL' script creates the 'Build' script./Build # Need ./ to ensure we're using this "Build" script./Build test # and not another one that happens to be in the PATH./Build installThis illustrates initial configuration and the running of three 'actions'. In this case the actions run are 'build' (the default action), 'test', and 'install'. Other actions defined so far include:
build manifestclean manifest_skipcode manpagesconfig_data pardistdiff ppddist ppmdistdistcheck prereq_datadistclean prereq_reportdistdir pure_installdistinstall realcleandistmeta retestdistsign skipcheckdisttest testdocs testallfakeinstall testcoverhelp testdbhtml testpodinstall testpodcoverageinstalldeps versioninstallYou can run the 'help' action for a complete list of actions.
The documentation forModule::Build is broken up into three sections:
This is the document you are currently reading. It describes basic usage and background information. Its main purpose is to assist the user who wants to learn how to invoke and controlModule::Build scripts at the command line.
This document describes the structure and organization ofModule::Build, and the relevant concepts needed by authors who are writingBuild.PL scripts for a distribution or controllingModule::Build processes programmatically.
This is a reference to theModule::Build API.
This document demonstrates how to accomplish many common tasks. It covers general command line usage and authoring ofBuild.PL scripts. Includes working examples.
There are some general principles at work here. First, each task when building a module is called an "action". These actions are listed above; they correspond to the building, testing, installing, packaging, etc., tasks.
Second, arguments are processed in a very systematic way. Arguments are always key=value pairs. They may be specified atperl Build.PL time (i.e.perl Build.PL destdir=/my/secret/place), in which case their values last for the lifetime of theBuild script. They may also be specified when executing a particular action (i.e.Build test verbose=1), in which case their values last only for the lifetime of that command. Per-action command line parameters take precedence over parameters specified atperl Build.PL time.
The build process also relies heavily on theConfig.pm module. If the user wishes to override any of the values inConfig.pm, she may specify them like so:
perl Build.PL --config cc=gcc --config ld=gccThe following build actions are provided by default.
[version 0.01]
If you run theBuild script without any arguments, it runs thebuild action, which in turn runs thecode anddocs actions.
This is analogous to theMakeMakermake all target.
[version 0.01]
This action will clean up any files that the build process may have created, including theblib/ directory (but not including the_build/ directory and theBuild script itself).
[version 0.20]
This action builds your code base.
By default it just creates ablib/ directory and copies any.pm and.pod files from yourlib/ directory into theblib/ directory. It also compiles any.xs files fromlib/ and places them inblib/. Of course, you need a working C compiler (probably the same one that built perl itself) for the compilation to work properly.
Thecode action also runs any.PL files in yourlib/ directory. Typically these create other files, named the same but without the.PL ending. For example, a filelib/Foo/Bar.pm.PL could create the filelib/Foo/Bar.pm. The.PL files are processed first, so any.pm files (or other kinds that we deal with) will get copied correctly.
[version 0.26]
...
[version 0.14]
This action will compare the files about to be installed with their installed counterparts. For .pm and .pod files, a diff will be shown (this currently requires a 'diff' program to be in your PATH). For other files like compiled binary files, we simply report whether they differ.
Aflags parameter may be passed to the action, which will be passed to the 'diff' program. Consult your 'diff' documentation for the parameters it will accept - a good one is-u:
./Build diff flags=-u[version 0.02]
This action is helpful for module authors who want to package up their module for source distribution through a medium like CPAN. It will create a tarball of the files listed inMANIFEST and compress the tarball using GZIP compression.
By default, this action will use theArchive::Tar module. However, you can force it to use binary "tar" and "gzip" executables by supplying an explicittar (and optionalgzip) parameter:
./Build dist --tar C:\path\to\tar.exe --gzip C:\path\to\zip.exe[version 0.05]
Reports which files are in the build directory but not in theMANIFEST file, and vice versa. (Seemanifest for details.)
[version 0.05]
Performs the 'realclean' action and then the 'distcheck' action.
[version 0.05]
Creates a "distribution directory" named$dist_name-$dist_version (if that directory already exists, it will be removed first), then copies all the files listed in theMANIFEST file to that directory. This directory is what the distribution tarball is created from.
[version 0.37]
Performs the 'distdir' action, then switches into that directory and runs aperl Build.PL, followed by the 'build' and 'install' actions in that directory. Use PERL_MB_OPT or.modulebuildrc to set options that should be applied during subprocesses
[version 0.21]
Creates theMETA.yml file that describes the distribution.
META.yml is a file containing various bits ofmetadata about the distribution. The metadata includes the distribution name, version, abstract, prerequisites, license, and various other data about the distribution. This file is created asMETA.yml in a simplified YAML format.
META.yml file must also be listed inMANIFEST - if it's not, a warning will be issued.
The current version of theMETA.yml specification can be found on CPAN asCPAN::Meta::Spec.
[version 0.16]
UsesModule::Signature to create a SIGNATURE file for your distribution, and adds the SIGNATURE file to the distribution's MANIFEST.
[version 0.05]
Performs the 'distdir' action, then switches into that directory and runs aperl Build.PL, followed by the 'build' and 'test' actions in that directory. Use PERL_MB_OPT or.modulebuildrc to set options that should be applied during subprocesses
[version 0.20]
This will generate documentation (e.g. Unix man pages and HTML documents) for any installable items underblib/ that contain POD. If there are nobindoc orlibdoc installation targets defined (as will be the case on systems that don't support Unix manpages) no action is taken for manpages. If there are nobinhtml orlibhtml installation targets defined no action is taken for HTML documents.
[version 0.02]
This is just like theinstall action, but it won't actually do anything, it will just report what itwould have done if you had actually run theinstall action.
[version 0.03]
This action will simply print out a message that is meant to help you use the build process. It will show you a list of available build actions too.
With an optional argument specifying an action name (e.g.Build help test), the 'help' action will show you any POD documentation it can find for that action.
[version 0.26]
This will generate HTML documentation for any binary or library files underblib/ that contain POD. The HTML documentation will only be installed if the install paths can be determined from values inConfig.pm. You can also supply or override install paths on the command line by specifyinginstall_path values for thebinhtml and/orlibhtml installation targets.
[version 0.01]
This action will useExtUtils::Install to install the files fromblib/ into the system. See"INSTALL PATHS" for details about how Module::Build determines where to install things, and how to influence this process.
If you want the installation process to look around in@INC for other versions of the stuff you're installing and try to delete it, you can use theuninst parameter, which tellsExtUtils::Install to do so:
./Build install uninst=1This can be a good idea, as it helps prevent multiple versions of a module from being present on your system, which can be a confusing situation indeed.
[version 0.36]
This action will use thecpan_client parameter as a command to install missing prerequisites. You will be prompted whether to install optional dependencies.
Thecpan_client option defaults to 'cpan' but can be set as an option or in.modulebuildrc. It must be a shell command that takes a list of modules to install as arguments (e.g. 'cpanp -i' for CPANPLUS). If the program part is a relative path (e.g. 'cpan' or 'cpanp'), it will be located relative to the perl program that executed Build.PL.
/opt/perl/5.8.9/bin/perl Build.PL./Build installdeps --cpan_client 'cpanp -i'# installs to 5.8.9[version 0.05]
This is an action intended for use by module authors, not people installing modules. It will bring theMANIFEST up to date with the files currently present in the distribution. You may use aMANIFEST.SKIP file to exclude certain files or directories from inclusion in theMANIFEST.MANIFEST.SKIP should contain a bunch of regular expressions, one per line. If a file in the distribution directory matches any of the regular expressions, it won't be included in theMANIFEST.
The following is a reasonableMANIFEST.SKIP starting point, you can add your own stuff to it:
^_build^Build$^blib~$\.bak$^MANIFEST\.SKIP$CVSSee thedistcheck andskipcheck actions if you want to find out what themanifest action would do, without actually doing anything.
[version 0.3608]
This is an action intended for use by module authors, not people installing modules. It will generate a boilerplate MANIFEST.SKIP file if one does not already exist.
[version 0.28]
This will generate man pages for any binary or library files underblib/ that contain POD. The man pages will only be installed if the install paths can be determined from values inConfig.pm. You can also supply or override install paths by specifying there values on the command line with thebindoc andlibdoc installation targets.
[version 0.2806]
Generates a PAR binary distribution for use withPAR orPAR::Dist.
It requires that the PAR::Dist module (version 0.17 and up) is installed on your system.
[version 0.20]
Build a PPD file for your distribution.
This action takes an optional argumentcodebase which is used in the generated PPD file to specify the (usually relative) URL of the distribution. By default, this value is the distribution name without any path information.
Example:
./Build ppd --codebase "MSWin32-x86-multi-thread/Module-Build-0.21.tar.gz"[version 0.23]
Generates a PPM binary distribution and a PPD description file. This action also invokes theppd action, so it can accept the samecodebase argument described under that action.
This uses the same mechanism as thedist action to tar & zip its output, so you can supplytar and/orgzip parameters to affect the result.
[version 0.32]
This action prints out a Perl data structure of all prerequisites and the versions required. The output can be loaded again usingeval(). This can be useful for external tools that wish to query a Build script for prerequisites.
[version 0.28]
This action prints out a list of all prerequisites, the versions required, and the versions actually installed. This can be useful for reviewing the configuration of your system prior to a build, or when compiling data to send for a bug report.
[version 0.28]
This action is identical to theinstall action. In the future, though, wheninstall starts writing to the file$(INSTALLARCHLIB)/perllocal.pod,pure_install won't, and that will be the only difference between them.
[version 0.01]
This action is just like theclean action, but also removes the_build directory and theBuild script. If you run therealclean action, you are essentially starting over, so you will have to re-create theBuild script again.
[version 0.2806]
This is just like thetest action, but doesn't actually build the distribution first, and doesn't addblib/ to the load path, and therefore will test against apreviously installed version of the distribution. This can be used to verify that a certain installed distribution still works, or to see whether newer versions of a distribution still pass the old regression tests, and so on.
[version 0.05]
Reports which files are skipped due to the entries in theMANIFEST.SKIP file (Seemanifest for details)
[version 0.01]
This will useTest::Harness orTAP::Harness to run any regression tests and report their results. Tests can be defined in the standard places: a file calledtest.pl in the top-level directory, or several files ending with.t in at/ directory.
If you want tests to be 'verbose', i.e. show details of test execution rather than just summary information, pass the argumentverbose=1.
If you want to run tests under the perl debugger, pass the argumentdebugger=1.
If you want to have Module::Build find test files with different file name extensions, pass thetest_file_exts argument with an array of extensions, such as[qw( .t .s .z )].
If you want test to be run byTAP::Harness, rather thanTest::Harness, pass the argumenttap_harness_args as an array reference of arguments to pass to the TAP::Harness constructor.
In addition, if a file calledvisual.pl exists in the top-level directory, this file will be executed as a Perl script and its output will be shown to the user. This is a good place to put speed tests or other tests that don't use theTest::Harness format for output.
To override the choice of tests to run, you may pass atest_files argument whose value is a whitespace-separated list of test scripts to run. This is especially useful in development, when you only want to run a single test to see whether you've squashed a certain bug yet:
./Build test --test_files t/something_failing.tYou may also pass severaltest_files arguments separately:
./Build test --test_files t/one.t --test_files t/two.tor use aglob()-style pattern:
./Build test --test_files 't/01-*.t'[version 0.2807]
[Note: the 'testall' action and the code snippets below are currently in alpha stage, see"/www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.module.build/2007/03/msg584.html"" in "http: ]
Runs thetest action plus each of thetest$type actions defined by the keys of thetest_types parameter.
Currently, you need to define the ACTION_test$type method yourself and enumerate them in the test_types parameter.
my $mb = Module::Build->subclass( code => q( sub ACTION_testspecial { shift->generic_test(type => 'special'); } sub ACTION_testauthor { shift->generic_test(type => 'author'); } ))->new( ... test_types => { special => '.st', author => ['.at', '.pt' ], }, ...[version 0.26]
Runs thetest action usingDevel::Cover, generating a code-coverage report showing which parts of the code were actually exercised during the tests.
To pass options toDevel::Cover, set the$DEVEL_COVER_OPTIONS environment variable:
DEVEL_COVER_OPTIONS=-ignore,Build ./Build testcover[version 0.05]
This is a synonym for the 'test' action with thedebugger=1 argument.
[version 0.25]
This checks all the files described in thedocs action and producesTest::Harness-style output. If you are a module author, this is useful to run before creating a new release.
[version 0.28]
This checks the pod coverage of the distribution and producesTest::Harness-style output. If you are a module author, this is useful to run before creating a new release.
[version 0.16]
** Note: sinceonly.pm is so new, and since we just recently added support for it here too, this feature is to be considered experimental. **
If you have theonly.pm module installed on your system, you can use this action to install a module into the version-specific library trees. This means that you can have several versions of the same module installed anduse a specific one like this:
use only MyModule => 0.55;To override the default installation libraries inonly::config, specify theversionlib parameter when you run theBuild.PL script:
perl Build.PL --versionlib /my/version/place/To override which version the module is installed as, specify theversion parameter when you run theBuild.PL script:
perl Build.PL --version 0.50See theonly.pm documentation for more information on version-specific installs.
The following options can be used during any invocation ofBuild.PL or the Build script, during any action. For information on other options specific to an action, see the documentation for the respective action.
NOTE: There is some preliminary support for options to use the more familiar long option style. Most options can be preceded with the-- long option prefix, and the underscores changed to dashes (e.g.--use-rcfile). Additionally, the argument to boolean options is optional, and boolean options can be negated by prefixing them withno orno- (e.g.--noverbose or--no-verbose).
Suppress informative messages on output.
Display extra information about the Build on output.verbose will turn offquiet
Sets thecpan_client command for use with theinstalldeps action. Seeinstalldeps for more details.
Load the~/.modulebuildrc option file. This option can be set to false to prevent the custom resource file from being loaded.
Suppresses the check upon startup that the version of Module::Build we're now running under is the same version that was initially invoked when building the distribution (i.e. when theBuild.PL script was first run). As of 0.3601, a mismatch results in a warning instead of a fatal error, so this option effectively just suppresses the warning.
Prints Module::Build debugging information to STDOUT, such as a trace of executed build actions.
[version 0.28]
When Module::Build starts up, it will look first for a file,$ENV{HOME}/.modulebuildrc. If it's not found there, it will look in the the.modulebuildrc file in the directories referred to by the environment variablesHOMEDRIVE +HOMEDIR,USERPROFILE,APPDATA,WINDIR,SYS$LOGIN. If the file exists, the options specified there will be used as defaults, as if they were typed on the command line. The defaults can be overridden by specifying new values on the command line.
The action name must come at the beginning of the line, followed by any amount of whitespace and then the options. Options are given the same as they would be on the command line. They can be separated by any amount of whitespace, including newlines, as long there is whitespace at the beginning of each continued line. Anything following a hash mark (#) is considered a comment, and is stripped before parsing. If more than one line begins with the same action name, those lines are merged into one set of options.
Besides the regular actions, there are two special pseudo-actions: the key* (asterisk) denotes any global options that should be applied to all actions, and the key 'Build_PL' specifies options to be applied when you invokeperl Build.PL.
* verbose=1 # global optionsdiff flags=-uinstall --install_base /home/ken --install_path html=/home/ken/docs/htmlinstalldeps --cpan_client 'cpanp -i'If you wish to locate your resource file in a different location, you can set the environment variableMODULEBUILDRC to the complete absolute path of the file containing your options.
[version 0.28]
Specifies an alternate location for a default options file as described above.
[version 0.36]
Command line options that are applied to Build.PL or any Build action. The string is split as the shell would (e.g. whitespace) and the result is prepended to any actual command-line arguments.
[version 0.19]
When you invoke Module::Build'sbuild action, it needs to figure out where to install things. The nutshell version of how this works is that default installation locations are determined fromConfig.pm, and they may be overridden by using theinstall_path parameter. Aninstall_base parameter lets you specify an alternative installation root like/home/foo, and adestdir lets you specify a temporary installation directory like/tmp/install in case you want to create bundled-up installable packages.
Natively, Module::Build provides default installation locations for the following types of installable items:
Usually pure-Perl module files ending in.pm.
"Architecture-dependent" module files, usually produced by compiling XS,Inline, or similar code.
Programs written in pure Perl. In order to improve reuse, try to make these as small as possible - put the code into modules whenever possible.
"Architecture-dependent" executable programs, i.e. compiled C code or something. Pretty rare to see this in a perl distribution, but it happens.
Documentation for the stuff inscript andbin. Usually generated from the POD in those files. Under Unix, these are manual pages belonging to the 'man1' category.
Documentation for the stuff inlib andarch. This is usually generated from the POD in.pm files. Under Unix, these are manual pages belonging to the 'man3' category.
This is the same asbindoc above, but applies to HTML documents.
This is the same aslibdoc above, but applies to HTML documents.
Four other parameters let you control various aspects of how installation paths are determined:
The default destinations for these installable things come from entries in your system'sConfig.pm. You can select from three different sets of default locations by setting theinstalldirs parameter as follows:
'installdirs' set to: core site vendor uses the following defaults from Config.pm:lib => installprivlib installsitelib installvendorlibarch => installarchlib installsitearch installvendorarchscript => installscript installsitebin installvendorbinbin => installbin installsitebin installvendorbinbindoc => installman1dir installsiteman1dir installvendorman1dirlibdoc => installman3dir installsiteman3dir installvendorman3dirbinhtml => installhtml1dir installsitehtml1dir installvendorhtml1dir [*]libhtml => installhtml3dir installsitehtml3dir installvendorhtml3dir [*]* Under some OS (eg. MSWin32) the destination for HTML documents is determined by the C<Config.pm> entry C<installhtmldir>.The default value ofinstalldirs is "site". If you're creating vendor distributions of module packages, you may want to do something like this:
perl Build.PL --installdirs vendoror
./Build install --installdirs vendorIf you're installing an updated version of a module that was included with perl itself (i.e. a "core module"), then you may setinstalldirs to "core" to overwrite the module in its present location.
(Note that the 'script' line is different fromMakeMaker - unfortunately there's no such thing as "installsitescript" or "installvendorscript" entry inConfig.pm, so we use the "installsitebin" and "installvendorbin" entries to at least get the general location right. In the future, ifConfig.pm adds some more appropriate entries, we'll start using those.)
Once the defaults have been set, you can override them.
On the command line, that would look like this:
perl Build.PL --install_path lib=/foo/lib --install_path arch=/foo/lib/archor this:
./Build install --install_path lib=/foo/lib --install_path arch=/foo/lib/archYou can also set the whole bunch of installation paths by supplying theinstall_base parameter to point to a directory on your system. For instance, if you setinstall_base to "/home/ken" on a Linux system, you'll install as follows:
lib => /home/ken/lib/perl5arch => /home/ken/lib/perl5/i386-linuxscript => /home/ken/binbin => /home/ken/binbindoc => /home/ken/man/man1libdoc => /home/ken/man/man3binhtml => /home/ken/htmllibhtml => /home/ken/htmlNote that this isdifferent from howMakeMaker'sPREFIX parameter works.install_base just gives you a default layout under the directory you specify, which may have little to do with theinstalldirs=site layout.
The exact layout under the directory you specify may vary by system - we try to do the "sensible" thing on each platform.
If you want to install everything into a temporary directory first (for instance, if you want to create a directory tree that a package manager likerpm ordpkg could create a package from), you can use thedestdir parameter:
perl Build.PL --destdir /tmp/fooor
./Build install --destdir /tmp/fooThis will effectively install to "/tmp/foo/$sitelib", "/tmp/foo/$sitearch", and the like, except that it will useFile::Spec to make the pathnames work correctly on whatever platform you're installing on.
Provided for compatibility withExtUtils::MakeMaker's PREFIX argument.prefix should be used when you wish Module::Build to install your modules, documentation and scripts in the same placeExtUtils::MakeMaker does.
The following are equivalent.
perl Build.PL --prefix /tmp/fooperl Makefile.PL PREFIX=/tmp/fooBecause of the very complex nature of the prefixification logic, the behavior of PREFIX inMakeMaker has changed subtly over time. Module::Build's --prefix logic is equivalent to the PREFIX logic found inExtUtils::MakeMaker 6.30.
If you do not need to retain compatibility withExtUtils::MakeMaker or are starting a fresh Perl installation we recommend you useinstall_base instead (andINSTALL_BASE inExtUtils::MakeMaker). See"Instaling in the same location as ExtUtils::MakeMaker" in Module::Build::Cookbook for further information.
There are several reasons I wanted to start over, and not just fix what I didn't like aboutMakeMaker:
I don't like the core idea ofMakeMaker, namely thatmake should be involved in the build process. Here are my reasons:
When a person is installing a Perl module, what can you assume about their environment? Can you assume they havemake? No, but you can assume they have some version of Perl.
When a person is writing a Perl module for intended distribution, can you assume that they know how to build a Makefile, so they can customize their build process? No, but you can assume they know Perl, and could customize that way.
For years, these things have been a barrier to people getting the build/install process to do what they want.
There are several architectural decisions inMakeMaker that make it very difficult to customize its behavior. For instance, when usingMakeMaker you douse ExtUtils::MakeMaker, but the object created inWriteMakefile() is actually blessed into a package name that's created on the fly, so you can't simply subclassExtUtils::MakeMaker. There is a workaroundMY package that lets you override certainMakeMaker methods, but only certain explicitly preselected (byMakeMaker) methods can be overridden. Also, the method of customization is very crude: you have to modify a string containing the Makefile text for the particular target. Since these strings aren't documented, andcan't be documented (they take on different values depending on the platform, version of perl, version ofMakeMaker, etc.), you have no guarantee that your modifications will work on someone else's machine or after an upgrade ofMakeMaker or perl.
It is risky to make major changes toMakeMaker, since it does so many things, is so important, and generally works.Module::Build is an entirely separate package so that I can work on it all I want, without worrying about backward compatibility.
Finally, Perl is said to be a language for system administration. Could it really be the case that Perl isn't up to the task of building and installing software? Even if that software is a bunch of stupid little.pm files that just need to be copied from one place to another? My sense was that we could design a system to accomplish this in a flexible, extensible, and friendly manner. Or die trying.
The current method of relying on time stamps to determine whether a derived file is out of date isn't likely to scale well, since it requires tracing all dependencies backward, it runs into problems on NFS, and it's just generally flimsy. It would be better to use an MD5 signature or the like, if available. Seecons for an example.
- append to perllocal.pod- add a 'plugin' functionalityKen Williams <kwilliams@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>.
The latest development version is available from the Git repository at <https://github.com/dagolden/module-build/>
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.
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Perldoc Browser is maintained by Dan Book (DBOOK). Please contact him via theGitHub issue tracker oremail regarding any issues with the site itself, search, or rendering of documentation.
The Perl documentation is maintained by the Perl 5 Porters in the development of Perl. Please contact them via thePerl issue tracker, themailing list, orIRC to report any issues with the contents or format of the documentation.