Module::Build::Bundling(3pm)

1Module::Build::BundlingU(s3e)r Contributed Perl DocumentaMtoidounle::Build::Bundling(3)
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NAME

6       Module::Build::Bundling - How to bundle Module::Build with a
7       distribution
8

SYNOPSIS

10         # Build.PL
11         use inc::latest 'Module::Build';
12
13         Module::Build->new(
14           module_name => 'Foo::Bar',
15           license => 'perl',
16         )->create_build_script;
17

DESCRIPTION

19       WARNING -- THIS IS AN EXPERIMENTAL FEATURE
20
21       In order to install a distribution using Module::Build, users must have
22       Module::Build available on their systems.  There are two ways to do
23       this.  The first way is to include Module::Build in the
24       "configure_requires" metadata field.  This field is supported by recent
25       versions CPAN and CPANPLUS and is a standard feature in the Perl core
26       as of Perl 5.10.1.  Module::Build now adds itself to
27       "configure_requires" by default.
28
29       The second way supports older Perls that have not upgraded CPAN or
30       CPANPLUS and involves bundling an entire copy of Module::Build into the
31       distribution's "inc/" directory.  This is the same approach used by
32       Module::Install, a modern wrapper around ExtUtils::MakeMaker for
33       Makefile.PL based distributions.
34
35       The "trick" to making this work for Module::Build is making sure the
36       highest version Module::Build is used, whether this is in "inc/" or
37       already installed on the user's system.  This ensures that all
38       necessary features are available as well as any new bug fixes.  This is
39       done using the experimental inc::latest module, available on CPAN.
40
41       A "normal" Build.PL looks like this (with only the minimum required
42       fields):
43
44         use Module::Build;
45
46         Module::Build->new(
47           module_name => 'Foo::Bar',
48           license     => 'perl',
49         )->create_build_script;
50
51       A "bundling" Build.PL replaces the initial "use" line with a nearly
52       transparent replacement:
53
54         use inc::latest 'Module::Build';
55
56         Module::Build->new(
57           module_name => 'Foo::Bar',
58           license => 'perl',
59         )->create_build_script;
60
61       For authors, when "Build dist" is run, Module::Build will be
62       automatically bundled into "inc" according to the rules for
63       inc::latest.
64
65       For users, inc::latest will load the latest Module::Build, whether
66       installed or bundled in "inc/".
67

BUNDLING OTHER CONFIGURATION DEPENDENCIES

69       The same approach works for other configuration dependencies -- modules
70       that must be available for Build.PL to run.  All other dependencies can
71       be specified as usual in the Build.PL and CPAN or CPANPLUS will install
72       them after Build.PL finishes.
73
74       For example, to bundle the Devel::AssertOS::Unix module (which ensures
75       a "Unix-like" operating system), one could do this:
76
77         use inc::latest 'Devel::AssertOS::Unix';
78         use inc::latest 'Module::Build';
79
80         Module::Build->new(
81           module_name => 'Foo::Bar',
82           license => 'perl',
83         )->create_build_script;
84
85       The "inc::latest" module creates bundled directories based on the
86       packlist file of an installed distribution.  Even though "inc::latest"
87       takes module name arguments, it is better to think of it as bundling
88       and making available entire distributions.  When a module is loaded
89       through "inc::latest", it looks in all bundled distributions in "inc/"
90       for a newer module than can be found in the existing @INC array.
91
92       Thus, the module-name provided should usually be the "top-level" module
93       name of a distribution, though this is not strictly required.  For
94       example, Module::Build has a number of heuristics to map module names
95       to packlists, allowing users to do things like this:
96
97         use inc::latest 'Devel::AssertOS::Unix';
98
99       even though Devel::AssertOS::Unix is contained within the Devel-CheckOS
100       distribution.
101
102       At the current time, packlists are required.  Thus, bundling dual-core
103       modules, including Module::Build, may require a 'forced install' over
104       versions in the latest version of perl in order to create the necessary
105       packlist for bundling.  This limitation will hopefully be addressed in
106       a future version of Module::Build.
107
108   WARNING -- How to Manage Dependency Chains
109       Before bundling a distribution you must ensure that all prerequisites
110       are also bundled and load in the correct order.  For Module::Build
111       itself, this should not be necessary, but it is necessary for any other
112       distribution.  (A future release of Module::Build will hopefully
113       address this deficiency.)
114
115       For example, if you need "Wibble", but "Wibble" depends on "Wobble",
116       your Build.PL might look like this:
117
118         use inc::latest 'Wobble';
119         use inc::latest 'Wibble';
120         use inc::latest 'Module::Build';
121
122         Module::Build->new(
123           module_name => 'Foo::Bar',
124           license => 'perl',
125         )->create_build_script;
126
127       Authors are strongly suggested to limit the bundling of additional
128       dependencies if at all possible and to carefully test their
129       distribution tarballs on older versions of Perl before uploading to
130       CPAN.
131

AUTHOR

133       David Golden <dagolden@cpan.org>
134
135       Development questions, bug reports, and patches should be sent to the
136       Module-Build mailing list at <module-build@perl.org>.
137
138       Bug reports are also welcome at
139       <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Module-Build>.
140

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

BUNDLING OTHER CONFIGURATION DEPENDENCIES

AUTHOR

SEE ALSO