Module::Build::Cookbook - Examples of Module::Build Usage "Module::Build" isn't conceptually very complicated, but examples are always helpful. I got the idea for writing this cookbook when attending Brian Ingerson's "Extreme Programming Tools for Module Authors" presentation at YAPC 2003, when he said, straightforwardly, "Write A Cookbook." The definitional of how stuff works is in the main "Module::Build" documentation. It's best to get familiar with that too.

The basic installation recipe for modules that use Module::Build
In most cases, you can just issue the following commands: perl Build.PL ./Build ./Build test ./Build install There's nothing complicated here - first you're running a script called Build.PL, then you're running a (newly-generated) script called Build and passing it various arguments. The exact commands may vary a bit depending on how you invoke perl scripts on your system. For instance, if you have multiple versions of perl installed, you can install to one particular perl's library directories like so: /usr/bin/perl5.8.1 Build.PL ./Build ./Build test ./Build install If you're on Windows where the current directory is always searched first for scripts, you'll probably do something like this: perl Build.PL Build Build test Build install On the old Mac OS (version 9 or lower) using MacPerl, you can double-click on the Build.PL script to create the Build script, then double-click on the Build script to run its "build", "test", and "install" actions. The Build script knows what perl was used to run "Build.PL", so you don't need to re-invoke the Build script with the complete perl path each time. If you invoke it with the wrong perl path, you'll get a warning or a fatal error.

Making a CPAN.pm-compatible distribution
New versions of CPAN.pm understand how to use a Build.PL script, but old versions don't. If you want to help users who have old versions, do the following: Create a file in your distribution named Makefile.PL, with the following contents: use Module::Build::Compat; Module::Build::Compat->run_build_pl(args => \@ARGV); Module::Build::Compat->write_makefile(); Now CPAN will work as usual, i.e.: `perl Makefile.PL`, `make`, `make test`, and `make install`, provided the end-user already has "Module::Build" installed. If the end-user might not have "Module::Build" installed, it's probably best to supply a "traditional" Makefile.PL. The "Module::Build::Compat" module has some very helpful tools for keeping a Makefile.PL in sync with a Build.PL. See its documentation, and also the "create_makefile_pl" parameter to the "Module::Build->new()" method.

Installing modules using the programmatic interface
If you need to build, test, and/or install modules from within some other perl code (as opposed to having the user type installation commands at the shell), you can use the programmatic interface. Create a Module::Build object (or an object of a custom Module::Build subclass) and then invoke its "dispatch()" method to run various actions. my $build = Module::Build->new ( module_name => 'Foo::Bar', license => 'perl', requires => { 'Some::Module' => '1.23' }, ); $build->dispatch('build'); $build->dispatch('test', verbose => 1); $build->dispatch('install'); The first argument to "dispatch()" is the name of the action, and any following arguments are named parameters. This is the interface we use to test Module::Build itself in the regression tests.

Installing to a temporary directory
To create packages for package managers like RedHat's "rpm" or Debian's "deb", you may need to install to a temporary directory first and then create the package from that temporary installation. To do this, specify the "destdir" parameter to the "install" action: ./Build install --destdir /tmp/my-package-1.003 This essentially just prepends all the installation paths with the /tmp/my-package-1.003 directory.

Installing to a non-standard directory
To install to a non-standard directory (for example, if you don't have permission to install in the system-wide directories), you can use the "install_base": ./Build install --install_base /foo/bar See "INSTALL PATHS" in Module::Build for a much more complete discussion of how installation paths are determined.

Installing in the same location as ExtUtils::MakeMaker
With the introduction of "--prefix" in Module::Build 0.28 and "INSTALL_BASE" in ExtUtils::MakeMaker 6.31 its easy to get them both to install to the same locations. First, ensure you have at least version 0.28 of Module::Build installed and 6.31 of ExtUtils::MakeMaker. Prior versions have differing installation behaviors. The following installation flags are equivalent between ExtUtils::MakeMaker and Module::Build. MakeMaker Module::Build PREFIX=... --prefix ... INSTALL_BASE=... --install_base ... DESTDIR=... --destdir ... LIB=... --install_path lib=... INSTALLDIRS=... --installdirs ... INSTALLDIRS=perl --installdirs core UNINST=... --uninst ... INC=... --extra_compiler_flags ... POLLUTE=1 --extra_compiler_flags -DPERL_POLLUTE For example, if you are currently installing MakeMaker modules with this command: perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=~ make test make install UNINST=1 You can install into the same location with Module::Build using this: perl Build.PL --prefix ~ ./Build test ./Build install --uninst 1 "prefix" vs "install_base" The behavior of "prefix" is complicated and depends closely on how your Perl is configured. The resulting installation locations will vary from machine to machine and even different installations of Perl on the same machine. Because of this, its difficult to document where "prefix" will place your modules. In contrast, "install_base" has predictable, easy to explain installation locations. Now that Module::Build and MakeMaker both have "install_base" there is little reason to use "prefix" other than to preserve your existing installation locations. If you are starting a fresh Perl installation we encourage you to use "install_base". If you have an existing installation installed via "prefix", consider moving it to an installation structure matching "install_base" and using that instead.

Running a single test file
"Module::Build" supports running a single test, which enables you to track down errors more quickly. Use the following format: ./Build test --test_files t/mytest.t In addition, you may want to run the test in verbose mode to get more informative output: ./Build test --test_files t/mytest.t --verbose 1 I run this so frequently that I actually define the following shell alias: alias t './Build test --verbose 1 --test_files' So then I can just execute "t t/mytest.t" to run a single test.

Changing the order of the build process
The "build_elements" property specifies the steps "Module::Build" will take when building a distribution. To change the build order, change the order of the entries in that property: # Process pod files first my @e = @{$build->build_elements}; my $i = grep {$e[$_] eq 'pod'} 0..$#e; unshift @e, splice @e, $i, 1; Currently, "build_elements" has the following default value: [qw( PL support pm xs pod script )] Do take care when altering this property, since there may be non-obvious (and non-documented!) ordering dependencies in the "Module::Build" code.

Adding new file types to the build process
Sometimes you might have extra types of files that you want to install alongside the standard types like .pm and .pod files. For instance, you might have a Bar.dat file containing some data related to the "Foo::Bar" module. Assuming the data doesn't need to be created on the fly, the best place for it to end up is probably as Foo/Bar.dat somewhere in perl's @INC path so "Foo::Bar" can access it easily at runtime. The following code from a sample "Build.PL" file demonstrates how to accomplish this: use Module::Build; my $build = Module::Build->new ( module_name => 'Foo::Bar', ...other stuff here... ); $build->add_build_element('dat'); $build->create_build_script; This will find all .dat files in the lib/ directory, copy them to the blib/lib/ directory during the "build" action, and install them during the "install" action. If your extra files aren't in the "lib/" directory, you can explicitly say where they are, just as you'd do with .pm or .pod files: use Module::Build; my $build = new Module::Build ( module_name => 'Foo::Bar', dat_files => {'some/dir/Bar.dat' => 'lib/Foo/Bar.dat'}, ...other stuff here... ); $build->add_build_element('dat'); $build->create_build_script; If your extra files actually need to be created on the user's machine, or if they need some other kind of special processing, you'll probably want to create a special method to do so, named "process_${kind}_files()": use Module::Build; my $class = Module::Build->subclass(code => <<'EOF'); sub process_dat_files { my $self = shift; ... locate and process *.dat files, ... and create something in blib/lib/ } EOF my $build = $class->new ( module_name => 'Foo::Bar', ...other stuff here... ); $build->add_build_element('dat'); $build->create_build_script; If your extra files don't go in lib/ but in some other place, see "Adding new elements to the install process" for how to actually get them installed. Please note that these examples use some capabilities of Module::Build that first appeared in version 0.26. Before that it could certainly still be done, but the simple cases took a bit more work.

Adding new elements to the install process
By default, Module::Build creates seven subdirectories of the blib/ directory during the build process: lib/, arch/, bin/, script/, bindoc/, libdoc/, and html/ (some of these may be missing or empty if there's nothing to go in them). Anything copied to these directories during the build will eventually be installed during the "install" action (see "INSTALL PATHS" in Module::Build. If you need to create a new type of installable element, e.g. "conf", then you need to tell Module::Build where things in blib/conf/ should be installed. To do this, use the "install_path" parameter to the "new()" method: my $build = Module::Build->new ( ...other stuff here... install_path => { conf => $installation_path } ); Or you can call the "install_path()" method later: $build->install_path->{conf} || $installation_path; (Sneakily, or perhaps uglily, "install_path()" returns a reference to a hash of install paths, and you can modify that hash to your heart's content.) The user may also specify the path on the command line: perl Build.PL --install_path conf=/foo/path/etc The important part, though, is that somehow the install path needs to be set, or else nothing in the blib/conf/ directory will get installed. See also "Adding new file types to the build process" for how to create the stuff in blib/conf/ in the first place. Several distributions on CPAN are making good use of various features of Module::Build. They can serve as real-world examples for others.

SVN-Notify-Mirror
<http://search.cpan.org/~jpeacock/SVN-Notify-Mirror/> John Peacock, author of the "SVN-Notify-Mirror" distribution, says: I'm sure I could not have handled this complexity with EU::MM, but it was very easy to do with M::B.

Modifying an action
Sometimes you might need an to have an action, say "./Build install", do something unusual. For instance, you might need to change the ownership of a file or do something else peculiar to your application. You can subclass "Module::Build" on the fly using the "subclass()" method and override the methods that perform the actions. You may need to read through "Module::Build::Authoring" to find the methods you want to override, but the general pattern is "ACTION_" followed by the name of the action you want to modify. Here's an example of how it would work for "install": # Build.PL use Module::Build; my $class = Module::Build->subclass( class => "Module::Build::Custom", code => <<'SUBCLASS' ); sub ACTION_install { my $self = shift; # YOUR CODE HERE $self->SUPER::ACTION_install; } SUBCLASS $class->new( module_name => 'Your::Module', # rest of the usual Module::Build parameters )->create_build_script; See the Module::Build::Authoring pod in 0.27 or above for more complete documentation on this. 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. perl(1), Module::Build(3), Module::Build::Authoring(3), Module::Build::API(3)