This utility is designed to write a Makefile for an extension module
from a Makefile.PL. It is based on the Makefile.SH model provided by
Andy Dougherty and the perl5-porters.
It splits the task of generating the Makefile into several subroutines
that can be individually overridden. Each subroutine returns the text
it wishes to have written to the Makefile.
MakeMaker is object oriented. Each directory below the current
directory that contains a Makefile.PL is treated as a separate
object. This makes it possible to write an unlimited number of
Makefiles with a single invocation of WriteMakefile().
How To Write A Makefile.PL
See ExtUtils::MakeMaker::Tutorial.
The long answer is the rest of the manpage :-)
Default Makefile Behaviour
The generated Makefile enables the user of the extension to invoke
perl Makefile.PL # optionally "perl Makefile.PL verbose"
make
make test # optionally set TEST_VERBOSE=1
make install # See below
The Makefile to be produced may be altered by adding arguments of the
form "KEY=VALUE". E.g.
perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=~
Other interesting targets in the generated Makefile are
make config # to check if the Makefile is up-to-date
make clean # delete local temp files (Makefile gets renamed)
make realclean # delete derived files (including ./blib)
make ci # check in all the files in the MANIFEST file
make dist # see below the Distribution Support section
make test
MakeMaker checks for the existence of a file named test.pl in the
current directory and if it exists it execute the script with the
proper set of perl "-I" options.
MakeMaker also checks for any files matching glob(``t/*.t''). It will
execute all matching files in alphabetical order via the
Test::Harness module with the "-I" switches set correctly.
If you'd like to see the raw output of your tests, set the
"TEST_VERBOSE" variable to true.
make test TEST_VERBOSE=1
make testdb
A useful variation of the above is the target "testdb". It runs the
test under the Perl debugger (see perldebug). If the file
test.pl exists in the current directory, it is used for the test.
If you want to debug some other testfile, set the "TEST_FILE" variable
thusly:
make testdb TEST_FILE=t/mytest.t
By default the debugger is called using "-d" option to perl. If you
want to specify some other option, set the "TESTDB_SW" variable:
make testdb TESTDB_SW=-Dx
make install
make alone puts all relevant files into directories that are named by
the macros INST_LIB, INST_ARCHLIB, INST_SCRIPT, INST_MAN1DIR and
INST_MAN3DIR. All these default to something below ./blib if you are
not building below the perl source directory. If you are
building below the perl source, INST_LIB and INST_ARCHLIB default to
../../lib, and INST_SCRIPT is not defined.
The install target of the generated Makefile copies the files found
below each of the INST_* directories to their INSTALL*
counterparts. Which counterparts are chosen depends on the setting of
INSTALLDIRS according to the following table:
The INSTALL... macros in turn default to their %Config
($Config{installprivlib}, $Config{installarchlib}, etc.) counterparts.
You can check the values of these variables on your system with
perl '-V:install.*'
And to check the sequence in which the library directories are
searched by perl, run
perl -le 'print join $/, @INC'
Sometimes older versions of the module you're installing live in other
directories in @INC. Because Perl loads the first version of a module it
finds, not the newest, you might accidentally get one of these older
versions even after installing a brand new version. To delete all other
versions of the module you're installing (not simply older ones) set the
"UNINST" variable.
make install UNINST=1
PREFIX and LIB attribute
PREFIX and LIB can be used to set several INSTALL* attributes in one
go. The quickest way to install a module in a non-standard place might
be
perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=~
This will install all files in the module under your home directory,
with man pages and libraries going into an appropriate place (usually
~/man and ~/lib).
Another way to specify many INSTALL directories with a single
parameter is LIB.
perl Makefile.PL LIB=~/lib
This will install the module's architecture-independent files into
~/lib, the architecture-dependent files into ~/lib/$archname.
Note, that in both cases the tilde expansion is done by MakeMaker, not
by perl by default, nor by make.
Conflicts between parameters LIB, PREFIX and the various INSTALL*
arguments are resolved so that:
*
setting LIB overrides any setting of INSTALLPRIVLIB, INSTALLARCHLIB,
INSTALLSITELIB, INSTALLSITEARCH (and they are not affected by PREFIX);
*
without LIB, setting PREFIX replaces the initial $Config{prefix}
part of those INSTALL* arguments, even if the latter are explicitly
set (but are set to still start with $Config{prefix}).
If the user has superuser privileges, and is not working on AFS or
relatives, then the defaults for INSTALLPRIVLIB, INSTALLARCHLIB,
INSTALLSCRIPT, etc. will be appropriate, and this incantation will be
the best:
perl Makefile.PL;
make;
make test
make install
make install per default writes some documentation of what has been
done into the file "$(INSTALLARCHLIB)/perllocal.pod". This feature
can be bypassed by calling make pure_install.
AFS users
will have to specify the installation directories as these most
probably have changed since perl itself has been installed. They will
have to do this by calling
perl Makefile.PL INSTALLSITELIB=/afs/here/today \
INSTALLSCRIPT=/afs/there/now INSTALLMAN3DIR=/afs/for/manpages
make
Be careful to repeat this procedure every time you recompile an
extension, unless you are sure the AFS installation directories are
still valid.
Static Linking of a new Perl Binary
An extension that is built with the above steps is ready to use on
systems supporting dynamic loading. On systems that do not support
dynamic loading, any newly created extension has to be linked together
with the available resources. MakeMaker supports the linking process
by creating appropriate targets in the Makefile whenever an extension
is built. You can invoke the corresponding section of the makefile with
make perl
That produces a new perl binary in the current directory with all
extensions linked in that can be found in INST_ARCHLIB, SITELIBEXP,
and PERL_ARCHLIB. To do that, MakeMaker writes a new Makefile, on
UNIX, this is called Makefile.aperl (may be system dependent). If you
want to force the creation of a new perl, it is recommended, that you
delete this Makefile.aperl, so the directories are searched-through
for linkable libraries again.
The binary can be installed into the directory where perl normally
resides on your machine with
make inst_perl
To produce a perl binary with a different name than "perl", either say
perl Makefile.PL MAP_TARGET=myperl
make myperl
make inst_perl
or say
perl Makefile.PL
make myperl MAP_TARGET=myperl
make inst_perl MAP_TARGET=myperl
In any case you will be prompted with the correct invocation of the
"inst_perl" target that installs the new binary into INSTALLBIN.
make inst_perl per default writes some documentation of what has been
done into the file "$(INSTALLARCHLIB)/perllocal.pod". This
can be bypassed by calling make pure_inst_perl.
Warning: the inst_perl: target will most probably overwrite your
existing perl binary. Use with care!
Sometimes you might want to build a statically linked perl although
your system supports dynamic loading. In this case you may explicitly
set the linktype with the invocation of the Makefile.PL or make:
perl Makefile.PL LINKTYPE=static # recommended
or
make LINKTYPE=static # works on most systems
Determination of Perl Library and Installation Locations
MakeMaker needs to know, or to guess, where certain things are
located. Especially INST_LIB and INST_ARCHLIB (where to put the files
during the make(1) run), PERL_LIB and PERL_ARCHLIB (where to read
existing modules from), and PERL_INC (header files and "libperl*.*").
Extensions may be built either using the contents of the perl source
directory tree or from the installed perl library. The recommended way
is to build extensions after you have run 'make install' on perl
itself. You can do that in any directory on your hard disk that is not
below the perl source tree. The support for extensions below the ext
directory of the perl distribution is only good for the standard
extensions that come with perl.
If an extension is being built below the "ext/" directory of the perl
source then MakeMaker will set PERL_SRC automatically (e.g.,
"../.."). If PERL_SRC is defined and the extension is recognized as
a standard extension, then other variables default to the following:
If an extension is being built away from the perl source then MakeMaker
will leave PERL_SRC undefined and default to using the installed copy
of the perl library. The other variables default to the following:
If perl has not yet been installed then PERL_SRC can be defined on the
command line as shown in the previous section.
Which architecture dependent directory?
If you don't want to keep the defaults for the INSTALL* macros,
MakeMaker helps you to minimize the typing needed: the usual
relationship between INSTALLPRIVLIB and INSTALLARCHLIB is determined
by Configure at perl compilation time. MakeMaker supports the user who
sets INSTALLPRIVLIB. If INSTALLPRIVLIB is set, but INSTALLARCHLIB not,
then MakeMaker defaults the latter to be the same subdirectory of
INSTALLPRIVLIB as Configure decided for the counterparts in %Config ,
otherwise it defaults to INSTALLPRIVLIB. The same relationship holds
for INSTALLSITELIB and INSTALLSITEARCH.
MakeMaker gives you much more freedom than needed to configure
internal variables and get different results. It is worth to mention,
that make(1) also lets you configure most of the variables that are
used in the Makefile. But in the majority of situations this will not
be necessary, and should only be done if the author of a package
recommends it (or you know what you're doing).
Using Attributes and Parameters
The following attributes may be specified as arguments to WriteMakefile()
or as NAME=VALUE pairs on the command line.
ABSTRACT
One line description of the module. Will be included in PPD file.
ABSTRACT_FROM
Name of the file that contains the package description. MakeMaker looks
for a line in the POD matching /^($package\s-\s)(.*)/. This is typically
the first line in the ``=head1 NAME'' section. $2 becomes the abstract.
AUTHOR
String containing name (and email address) of package author(s). Is used
in PPD (Perl Package Description) files for PPM (Perl Package Manager).
BINARY_LOCATION
Used when creating PPD files for binary packages. It can be set to a
full or relative path or URL to the binary archive for a particular
architecture. For example:
perl Makefile.PL BINARY_LOCATION=x86/Agent.tar.gz
builds a PPD package that references a binary of the "Agent" package,
located in the "x86" directory relative to the PPD itself.
C
Ref to array of *.c file names. Initialised from a directory scan
and the values portion of the XS attribute hash. This is not
currently used by MakeMaker but may be handy in Makefile.PLs.
CCFLAGS
String that will be included in the compiler call command line between
the arguments INC and OPTIMIZE.
CONFIG
Arrayref. E.g. [qw(archname manext)] defines ARCHNAME & MANEXT from
config.sh. MakeMaker will add to CONFIG the following values anyway:
ar
cc
cccdlflags
ccdlflags
dlext
dlsrc
ld
lddlflags
ldflags
libc
lib_ext
obj_ext
ranlib
sitelibexp
sitearchexp
so
CONFIGURE
CODE reference. The subroutine should return a hash reference. The
hash may contain further attributes, e.g. {LIBS => ...}, that have to
be determined by some evaluation method.
DEFINE
Something like "-DHAVE_UNISTD_H"
DESTDIR
This is the root directory into which the code will be installed. It
prepends itself to the normal prefix. For example, if your code
would normally go into /usr/local/lib/perl you could set DESTDIR=~/myperl/
and installation would go into ~/myperl/usr/local/lib/perl.
This is primarily of use for people who repackage Perl modules.
NOTE: Due to the nature of make, it is important that you put the trailing
slash on your DESTDIR. ``~/myperl/'' not ``~/myperl''.
DIR
Ref to array of subdirectories containing Makefile.PLs e.g. [ 'sdbm'
] in ext/SDBM_File
DISTNAME
A safe filename for the package.
Defaults to NAME above but with :: replaced with -.
For example, Foo::Bar becomes Foo-Bar.
DISTVNAME
Your name for distributing the package with the version number
included. This is used by 'make dist' to name the resulting archive
file.
Defaults to DISTNAME-VERSION.
For example, version 1.04 of Foo::Bar becomes Foo-Bar-1.04.
On some OS's where . has special meaning VERSION_SYM may be used in
place of VERSION.
DL_FUNCS
Hashref of symbol names for routines to be made available as universal
symbols. Each key/value pair consists of the package name and an
array of routine names in that package. Used only under AIX, OS/2,
VMS and Win32 at present. The routine names supplied will be expanded
in the same way as XSUB names are expanded by the XS() macro.
Defaults to
Please see the ExtUtils::Mksymlists documentation for more information
about the DL_FUNCS, DL_VARS and FUNCLIST attributes.
DL_VARS
Array of symbol names for variables to be made available as universal symbols.
Used only under AIX, OS/2, VMS and Win32 at present. Defaults to [].
(e.g. [ qw(Foo_version Foo_numstreams Foo_tree ) ])
EXCLUDE_EXT
Array of extension names to exclude when doing a static build. This
is ignored if INCLUDE_EXT is present. Consult INCLUDE_EXT for more
details. (e.g. [ qw( Socket POSIX ) ] )
This attribute may be most useful when specified as a string on the
command line: perl Makefile.PL EXCLUDE_EXT='Socket Safe'
EXE_FILES
Ref to array of executable files. The files will be copied to the
INST_SCRIPT directory. Make realclean will delete them from there
again.
If your executables start with something like #!perl or
#!/usr/bin/perl MakeMaker will change this to the path of the perl
'Makefile.PL' was invoked with so the programs will be sure to run
properly even if perl is not in /usr/bin/perl.
FIRST_MAKEFILE
The name of the Makefile to be produced. This is used for the second
Makefile that will be produced for the MAP_TARGET.
Defaults to 'Makefile' or 'Descrip.MMS' on VMS.
(Note: we couldn't use MAKEFILE because dmake uses this for something
else).
FULLPERL
Perl binary able to run this extension, load XS modules, etc...
FULLPERLRUN
Like PERLRUN, except it uses FULLPERL.
FULLPERLRUNINST
Like PERLRUNINST, except it uses FULLPERL.
FUNCLIST
This provides an alternate means to specify function names to be
exported from the extension. Its value is a reference to an
array of function names to be exported by the extension. These
names are passed through unaltered to the linker options file.
H
Ref to array of *.h file names. Similar to C.
IMPORTS
This attribute is used to specify names to be imported into the
extension. Takes a hash ref.
It is only used on OS/2 and Win32.
INC
Include file dirs eg: "-I/usr/5include -I/path/to/inc"
INCLUDE_EXT
Array of extension names to be included when doing a static build.
MakeMaker will normally build with all of the installed extensions when
doing a static build, and that is usually the desired behavior. If
INCLUDE_EXT is present then MakeMaker will build only with those extensions
which are explicitly mentioned. (e.g. [ qw( Socket POSIX ) ])
It is not necessary to mention DynaLoader or the current extension when
filling in INCLUDE_EXT. If the INCLUDE_EXT is mentioned but is empty then
only DynaLoader and the current extension will be included in the build.
This attribute may be most useful when specified as a string on the
command line: perl Makefile.PL INCLUDE_EXT='POSIX Socket Devel::Peek'
INSTALLARCHLIB
Used by 'make install', which copies files from INST_ARCHLIB to this
directory if INSTALLDIRS is set to perl.
INSTALLBIN
Directory to install binary files (e.g. tkperl) into if
INSTALLDIRS=perl.
INSTALLDIRS
Determines which of the sets of installation directories to choose:
perl, site or vendor. Defaults to site.
INSTALLMAN1DIR
INSTALLMAN3DIR
These directories get the man pages at 'make install' time if
INSTALLDIRS=perl. Defaults to $Config{installman*dir}.
If set to 'none', no man pages will be installed.
INSTALLPRIVLIB
Used by 'make install', which copies files from INST_LIB to this
directory if INSTALLDIRS is set to perl.
Defaults to $Config{installprivlib}.
INSTALLSCRIPT
Used by 'make install' which copies files from INST_SCRIPT to this
directory.
INSTALLSITEARCH
Used by 'make install', which copies files from INST_ARCHLIB to this
directory if INSTALLDIRS is set to site (default).
INSTALLSITEBIN
Used by 'make install', which copies files from INST_BIN to this
directory if INSTALLDIRS is set to site (default).
INSTALLSITELIB
Used by 'make install', which copies files from INST_LIB to this
directory if INSTALLDIRS is set to site (default).
INSTALLSITEMAN1DIR
INSTALLSITEMAN3DIR
These directories get the man pages at 'make install' time if
INSTALLDIRS=site (default). Defaults to
$(SITEPREFIX)/man/man$(MAN*EXT).
If set to 'none', no man pages will be installed.
INSTALLVENDORARCH
Used by 'make install', which copies files from INST_ARCHLIB to this
directory if INSTALLDIRS is set to vendor.
INSTALLVENDORBIN
Used by 'make install', which copies files from INST_BIN to this
directory if INSTALLDIRS is set to vendor.
INSTALLVENDORLIB
Used by 'make install', which copies files from INST_LIB to this
directory if INSTALLDIRS is set to vendor.
INSTALLVENDORMAN1DIR
INSTALLVENDORMAN3DIR
These directories get the man pages at 'make install' time if
INSTALLDIRS=vendor. Defaults to $(VENDORPREFIX)/man/man$(MAN*EXT).
If set to 'none', no man pages will be installed.
INST_ARCHLIB
Same as INST_LIB for architecture dependent files.
INST_BIN
Directory to put real binary files during 'make'. These will be copied
to INSTALLBIN during 'make install'
INST_LIB
Directory where we put library files of this extension while building
it.
INST_MAN1DIR
Directory to hold the man pages at 'make' time
INST_MAN3DIR
Directory to hold the man pages at 'make' time
INST_SCRIPT
Directory, where executable files should be installed during
'make'. Defaults to ``./blib/script'', just to have a dummy location during
testing. make install will copy the files in INST_SCRIPT to
INSTALLSCRIPT.
LD
Program to be used to link libraries for dynamic loading.
Defaults to $Config{ld}.
LDDLFLAGS
Any special flags that might need to be passed to ld to create a
shared library suitable for dynamic loading. It is up to the makefile
to use it. (See ``lddlflags'' in Config)
Defaults to $Config{lddlflags}.
LDFROM
Defaults to ``$(OBJECT)'' and is used in the ld command to specify
what files to link/load from (also see dynamic_lib below for how to
specify ld flags)
LIB
LIB should only be set at "perl Makefile.PL" time but is allowed as a
MakeMaker argument. It has the effect of setting both INSTALLPRIVLIB
and INSTALLSITELIB to that value regardless any explicit setting of
those arguments (or of PREFIX). INSTALLARCHLIB and INSTALLSITEARCH
are set to the corresponding architecture subdirectory.
LIBPERL_A
The filename of the perllibrary that will be used together with this
extension. Defaults to libperl.a.
LIBS
An anonymous array of alternative library
specifications to be searched for (in order) until
at least one library is found. E.g.
Mind, that any element of the array
contains a complete set of arguments for the ld
command. So do not specify
'LIBS' => ["-ltcl", "-ltk", "-lX11"]
See ODBM_File/Makefile.PL for an example, where an array is needed. If
you specify a scalar as in
'LIBS' => "-ltcl -ltk -lX11"
MakeMaker will turn it into an array with one element.
LINKTYPE
'static' or 'dynamic' (default unless usedl=undef in
config.sh). Should only be used to force static linking (also see
linkext below).
MAKEAPERL
Boolean which tells MakeMaker, that it should include the rules to
make a perl. This is handled automatically as a switch by
MakeMaker. The user normally does not need it.
MAKEFILE_OLD
When 'make clean' or similar is run, the $(FIRST_MAKEFILE) will be
backed up at this location.
Defaults to $(FIRST_MAKEFILE).old or $(FIRST_MAKEFILE)_old on VMS.
MAN1PODS
Hashref of pod-containing files. MakeMaker will default this to all
EXE_FILES files that include POD directives. The files listed
here will be converted to man pages and installed as was requested
at Configure time.
MAN3PODS
Hashref that assigns to *.pm and *.pod files the files into which the
manpages are to be written. MakeMaker parses all *.pod and *.pm files
for POD directives. Files that contain POD will be the default keys of
the MAN3PODS hashref. These will then be converted to man pages during
"make" and will be installed during "make install".
MAP_TARGET
If it is intended, that a new perl binary be produced, this variable
may hold a name for that binary. Defaults to perl
MYEXTLIB
If the extension links to a library that it builds set this to the
name of the library (see SDBM_File)
NAME
Perl module name for this extension (DBD::Oracle). This will default
to the directory name but should be explicitly defined in the
Makefile.PL.
NEEDS_LINKING
MakeMaker will figure out if an extension contains linkable code
anywhere down the directory tree, and will set this variable
accordingly, but you can speed it up a very little bit if you define
this boolean variable yourself.
NOECHO
Command so make does not print the literal commands its running.
By setting it to an empty string you can generate a Makefile that
prints all commands. Mainly used in debugging MakeMaker itself.
Defaults to "@".
NORECURS
Boolean. Attribute to inhibit descending into subdirectories.
NO_META
When true, suppresses the generation and addition to the MANIFEST of
the META.yml module meta-data file during 'make distdir'.
Defaults to false.
NO_VC
In general, any generated Makefile checks for the current version of
MakeMaker and the version the Makefile was built under. If NO_VC is
set, the version check is neglected. Do not write this into your
Makefile.PL, use it interactively instead.
OBJECT
List of object files, defaults to '$(BASEEXT)$(OBJ_EXT)', but can be a long
string containing all object files, e.g. ``tkpBind.o
tkpButton.o tkpCanvas.o''
(Where BASEEXT is the last component of NAME, and OBJ_EXT is $Config{obj_ext}.)
OPTIMIZE
Defaults to "-O". Set it to "-g" to turn debugging on. The flag is
passed to subdirectory makes.
PERL
Perl binary for tasks that can be done by miniperl
PERL_CORE
Set only when MakeMaker is building the extensions of the Perl core
distribution.
PERLMAINCC
The call to the program that is able to compile perlmain.c. Defaults
to $(CC).
PERL_ARCHLIB
Same as for PERL_LIB, but for architecture dependent files.
Used only when MakeMaker is building the extensions of the Perl core
distribution (because normally $(PERL_ARCHLIB) is automatically in @INC,
and adding it would get in the way of PERL5LIB).
PERL_LIB
Directory containing the Perl library to use.
Used only when MakeMaker is building the extensions of the Perl core
distribution (because normally $(PERL_LIB) is automatically in @INC,
and adding it would get in the way of PERL5LIB).
PERL_MALLOC_OK
defaults to 0. Should be set to TRUE if the extension can work with
the memory allocation routines substituted by the Perl malloc() subsystem.
This should be applicable to most extensions with exceptions of those
*
with bugs in memory allocations which are caught by Perl's malloc();
*
which interact with the memory allocator in other ways than via
malloc(), realloc(), free(), calloc(), sbrk() and brk();
*
which rely on special alignment which is not provided by Perl's malloc().
NOTE. Negligence to set this flag in any one of loaded extension
nullifies many advantages of Perl's malloc(), such as better usage of
system resources, error detection, memory usage reporting, catchable failure
of memory allocations, etc.
PERLPREFIX
Directory under which core modules are to be installed.
Defaults to $Config{installprefixexp} falling back to
$Config{installprefix}, $Config{prefixexp} or $Config{prefix} should
$Config{installprefixexp} not exist.
Overridden by PREFIX.
PERLRUN
Use this instead of $(PERL) when you wish to run perl. It will set up
extra necessary flags for you.
PERLRUNINST
Use this instead of $(PERL) when you wish to run perl to work with
modules. It will add things like -I$(INST_ARCH) and other necessary
flags so perl can see the modules you're about to install.
PERL_SRC
Directory containing the Perl source code (use of this should be
avoided, it may be undefined)
PERM_RW
Desired permission for read/writable files. Defaults to 644.
See also ``perm_rw'' in MM_Unix.
PERM_RWX
Desired permission for executable files. Defaults to 755.
See also ``perm_rwx'' in MM_Unix.
PL_FILES
MakeMaker can run programs to generate files for you at build time.
By default any file named *.PL (except Makefile.PL and Build.PL) in
the top level directory will be assumed to be a Perl program and run
passing its own basename in as an argument. For example...
perl foo.PL foo
This behavior can be overridden by supplying your own set of files to
search. PL_FILES accepts a hash ref, the key being the file to run
and the value is passed in as the first argument when the PL file is run.
PL_FILES => {'bin/foobar.PL' => 'bin/foobar'}
Would run bin/foobar.PL like this:
perl bin/foobar.PL bin/foobar
If multiple files from one program are desired an array ref can be used.
PL files are normally run after pm_to_blib and include INST_LIB and
INST_ARCH in its @INC so the just built modules can be
accessed... unless the PL file is making a module (or anything else in
PM) in which case it is run before pm_to_blib and does not include
INST_LIB and INST_ARCH in its @INC. This apparently odd behavior
is there for backwards compatibility (and its somewhat DWIM).
PM
Hashref of .pm files and *.pl files to be installed. e.g.
By default this will include *.pm and *.pl and the files found in
the PMLIBDIRS directories. Defining PM in the
Makefile.PL will override PMLIBDIRS.
PMLIBDIRS
Ref to array of subdirectories containing library files. Defaults to
[ 'lib', $(BASEEXT) ]. The directories will be scanned and any files
they contain will be installed in the corresponding location in the
library. A libscan() method can be used to alter the behaviour.
Defining PM in the Makefile.PL will override PMLIBDIRS.
(Where BASEEXT is the last component of NAME.)
PM_FILTER
A filter program, in the traditional Unix sense (input from stdin, output
to stdout) that is passed on each .pm file during the build (in the
pm_to_blib() phase). It is empty by default, meaning no filtering is done.
Great care is necessary when defining the command if quoting needs to be
done. For instance, you would need to say:
{'PM_FILTER' => 'grep -v \\"^\\#\\"'}
to remove all the leading coments on the fly during the build. The
extra \\ are necessary, unfortunately, because this variable is interpolated
within the context of a Perl program built on the command line, and double
quotes are what is used with the -e switch to build that command line. The
# is escaped for the Makefile, since what is going to be generated will then
be:
PM_FILTER = grep -v \"^\#\"
Without the \\ before the #, we'd have the start of a Makefile comment,
and the macro would be incorrectly defined.
POLLUTE
Release 5.005 grandfathered old global symbol names by providing preprocessor
macros for extension source compatibility. As of release 5.6, these
preprocessor definitions are not available by default. The POLLUTE flag
specifies that the old names should still be defined:
perl Makefile.PL POLLUTE=1
Please inform the module author if this is necessary to successfully install
a module under 5.6 or later.
PPM_INSTALL_EXEC
Name of the executable used to run "PPM_INSTALL_SCRIPT" below. (e.g. perl)
PPM_INSTALL_SCRIPT
Name of the script that gets executed by the Perl Package Manager after
the installation of a package.
PREFIX
This overrides all the default install locations. Man pages,
libraries, scripts, etc... MakeMaker will try to make an educated
guess about where to place things under the new PREFIX based on your
Config defaults. Failing that, it will fall back to a structure
which should be sensible for your platform.
If you specify LIB or any INSTALL* variables they will not be effected
by the PREFIX.
PREREQ_FATAL
Bool. If this parameter is true, failing to have the required modules
(or the right versions thereof) will be fatal. perl Makefile.PL will die
with the proper message.
Note: see Test::Harness for a shortcut for stopping tests early if
you are missing dependencies.
Do not use this parameter for simple requirements, which could be resolved
at a later time, e.g. after an unsuccessful make test of your module.
It is extremely rare to have to use "PREREQ_FATAL" at all!
PREREQ_PM
Hashref: Names of modules that need to be available to run this
extension (e.g. Fcntl for SDBM_File) are the keys of the hash and the
desired version is the value. If the required version number is 0, we
only check if any version is installed already.
PREREQ_PRINT
Bool. If this parameter is true, the prerequisites will be printed to
stdout and MakeMaker will exit. The output format is an evalable hash
ref.
RedHatism for "PREREQ_PRINT". The output format is different, though:
perl(A::B)>=Vers1 perl(C::D)>=Vers2 ...
SITEPREFIX
Like PERLPREFIX, but only for the site install locations.
Defaults to $Config{siteprefixexp}. Perls prior to 5.6.0 didn't have
an explicit siteprefix in the Config. In those cases
$Config{installprefix} will be used.
Overridable by PREFIX
SIGN
When true, perform the generation and addition to the MANIFEST of the
SIGNATURE file in the distdir during 'make distdir', via 'cpansign
-s'.
Note that you need to install the Module::Signature module to
perform this operation.
Defaults to false.
SKIP
Arrayref. E.g. [qw(name1 name2)] skip (do not write) sections of the
Makefile. Caution! Do not use the SKIP attribute for the negligible
speedup. It may seriously damage the resulting Makefile. Only use it
if you really need it.
TYPEMAPS
Ref to array of typemap file names. Use this when the typemaps are
in some directory other than the current directory or when they are
not named typemap. The last typemap in the list takes
precedence. A typemap in the current directory has highest
precedence, even if it isn't listed in TYPEMAPS. The default system
typemap has lowest precedence.
USE_MM_LD_RUN_PATH
boolean
The Red Hat perl MakeMaker distribution differs from the standard
upstream release in that it disables use of the MakeMaker generated
LD_RUN_PATH by default, UNLESS this attribute is specified , or the
USE_MM_LD_RUN_PATH environment variable is set during the MakeMaker run.
The upstream MakeMaker will set the ld(1) environment variable LD_RUN_PATH
to the concatenation of every -L ld(1) option directory in which a -l ld(1)
option library is found, which is used as the ld(1) -rpath option if none
is specified. This means that, if your application builds shared libraries
and your MakeMaker application links to them, that the absolute paths of the
libraries in the build tree will be inserted into the RPATH header of all
MakeMaker generated binaries, and that such binaries will be unable to link
to these libraries if they do not still reside in the build tree directories
(unlikely) or in the system library directories (/lib or /usr/lib), regardless
of any LD_LIBRARY_PATH setting. So if you specified -L../mylib -lmylib , and
your 'libmylib.so' gets installed into /some_directory_other_than_usr_lib,
your MakeMaker application will be unable to link to it, even if LD_LIBRARY_PATH
is set to include /some_directory_other_than_usr_lib, because RPATH overrides
LD_LIBRARY_PATH.
So for Red Hat MakeMaker builds LD_RUN_PATH is NOT generated by default for
every link. You can still use explicit -rpath ld options or the LD_RUN_PATH
environment variable during the build to generate an RPATH for the binaries.
You can set the USE_MM_LD_RUN_PATH attribute to 1 on the MakeMaker command
line or in the WriteMakefile arguments to enable generation of LD_RUN_PATH
for every link command.
USE_MM_LD_RUN_PATH will default to 1 (LD_RUN_PATH will be used) IF the
$USE_MM_LD_RUN_PATH environment variable is set during a MakeMaker run.
VENDORPREFIX
Like PERLPREFIX, but only for the vendor install locations.
Defaults to $Config{vendorprefixexp}.
Overridable by PREFIX
VERBINST
If true, make install will be verbose
VERSION
Your version number for distributing the package. This defaults to
0.1.
VERSION_FROM
Instead of specifying the VERSION in the Makefile.PL you can let
MakeMaker parse a file to determine the version number. The parsing
routine requires that the file named by VERSION_FROM contains one
single line to compute the version number. The first line in the file
that contains the regular expression
/([\$*])(([\w\:\']*)\bVERSION)\b.*\=/
will be evaluated with eval() and the value of the named variable
after the eval() will be assigned to the VERSION attribute of the
MakeMaker object. The following lines will be parsed o.k.:
my $VERSION = '1.01';
local $VERSION = '1.02';
local $FOO::VERSION = '1.30';
(Putting "my" or "local" on the preceding line will work o.k.)
The file named in VERSION_FROM is not added as a dependency to
Makefile. This is not really correct, but it would be a major pain
during development to have to rewrite the Makefile for any smallish
change in that file. If you want to make sure that the Makefile
contains the correct VERSION macro after any change of the file, you
would have to do something like
depend => { Makefile => '$(VERSION_FROM)' }
See attribute "depend" below.
VERSION_SYM
A sanitized VERSION with . replaced by _. For places where . has
special meaning (some filesystems, RCS labels, etc...)
XS
Hashref of .xs files. MakeMaker will default this. e.g.
{'name_of_file.xs' => 'name_of_file.c'}
The .c files will automatically be included in the list of files
deleted by a make clean.
XSOPT
String of options to pass to xsubpp. This might include "-C++" or
"-extern". Do not include typemaps here; the TYPEMAP parameter exists for
that purpose.
XSPROTOARG
May be set to an empty string, which is identical to "-prototypes", or
"-noprototypes". See the xsubpp documentation for details. MakeMaker
defaults to the empty string.
XS_VERSION
Your version number for the .xs file of this package. This defaults
to the value of the VERSION attribute.
Additional lowercase attributes
can be used to pass parameters to the methods which implement that
part of the Makefile. Parameters are specified as a hash ref but are
passed to the method as a hash.
clean
{FILES => "*.xyz foo"}
depend
{ANY_TARGET => ANY_DEPENDECY, ...}
(ANY_TARGET must not be given a double-colon rule by MakeMaker.)
If you specify COMPRESS, then SUFFIX should also be altered, as it is
needed to tell make the target file of the compression. Setting
DIST_CP to ln can be useful, if you need to preserve the timestamps on
your files. DIST_CP can take the values 'cp', which copies the file,
'ln', which links the file, and 'best' which copies symbolic links and
links the rest. Default is 'best'.
NB: Extensions that have nothing but *.pm files had to say
{LINKTYPE => ''}
with Pre-5.0 MakeMakers. Since version 5.00 of MakeMaker such a line
can be deleted safely. MakeMaker recognizes when there's nothing to
be linked.
macro
{ANY_MACRO => ANY_VALUE, ...}
postamble
Anything put here will be passed to MY::postamble() if you have one.
realclean
{FILES => '$(INST_ARCHAUTODIR)/*.xyz'}
test
{TESTS => 't/*.t'}
tool_autosplit
{MAXLEN => 8}
Overriding MakeMaker Methods
If you cannot achieve the desired Makefile behaviour by specifying
attributes you may define private subroutines in the Makefile.PL.
Each subroutine returns the text it wishes to have written to
the Makefile. To override a section of the Makefile you can
either say:
sub MY::c_o { "new literal text" }
or you can edit the default by saying something like:
package MY; # so that "SUPER" works right
sub c_o {
my $inherited = shift->SUPER::c_o(@_);
$inherited =~ s/old text/new text/;
$inherited;
}
If you are running experiments with embedding perl as a library into
other applications, you might find MakeMaker is not sufficient. You'd
better have a look at ExtUtils::Embed which is a collection of utilities
for embedding.
If you still need a different solution, try to develop another
subroutine that fits your needs and submit the diffs to
"makemaker@perl.org"
For a complete description of all MakeMaker methods see
ExtUtils::MM_Unix.
Here is a simple example of how to add a new target to the generated
Makefile:
sub MY::postamble {
return <<'MAKE_FRAG';
$(MYEXTLIB): sdbm/Makefile
cd sdbm && $(MAKE) all
MAKE_FRAG
}
The End Of Cargo Cult Programming
WriteMakefile() now does some basic sanity checks on its parameters to
protect against typos and malformatted values. This means some things
which happened to work in the past will now throw warnings and
possibly produce internal errors.
Some of the most common mistakes:
MAN3PODS => ' '
This is commonly used to supress the creation of man pages. MAN3PODS
takes a hash ref not a string, but the above worked by accident in old
versions of MakeMaker.
The correct code is "MAN3PODS => { }".
Hintsfile support
MakeMaker.pm uses the architecture specific information from
Config.pm. In addition it evaluates architecture specific hints files
in a "hints/" directory. The hints files are expected to be named
like their counterparts in "PERL_SRC/hints", but with an ".pl" file
name extension (eg. "next_3_2.pl"). They are simply "eval"ed by
MakeMaker within the WriteMakefile() subroutine, and can be used to
execute commands as well as to include special variables. The rules
which hintsfile is chosen are the same as in Configure.
The hintsfile is eval()ed immediately after the arguments given to
WriteMakefile are stuffed into a hash reference $self but before this
reference becomes blessed. So if you want to do the equivalent to
override or create an attribute you would say something like
$self->{LIBS} = ['-ldbm -lucb -lc'];
Distribution Support
For authors of extensions MakeMaker provides several Makefile
targets. Most of the support comes from the ExtUtils::Manifest module,
where additional documentation can be found.
make distcheck
reports which files are below the build directory but not in the
MANIFEST file and vice versa. (See ExtUtils::Manifest::fullcheck() for
details)
make skipcheck
reports which files are skipped due to the entries in the
"MANIFEST.SKIP" file (See ExtUtils::Manifest::skipcheck() for
details)
make distclean
does a realclean first and then the distcheck. Note that this is not
needed to build a new distribution as long as you are sure that the
MANIFEST file is ok.
make manifest
rewrites the MANIFEST file, adding all remaining files found (See
ExtUtils::Manifest::mkmanifest() for details)
make distdir
Copies all the files that are in the MANIFEST file to a newly created
directory with the name "$(DISTNAME)-$(VERSION)". If that directory
exists, it will be removed first.
Additionally, it will create a META.yml module meta-data file in the
distdir and add this to the distdir's MANFIEST. You can shut this
behavior off with the NO_META flag.
make disttest
Makes a distdir first, and runs a "perl Makefile.PL", a make, and
a make test in that directory.
make tardist
First does a distdir. Then a command $(PREOP) which defaults to a null
command, followed by $(TOUNIX), which defaults to a null command under
UNIX, and will convert files in distribution directory to UNIX format
otherwise. Next it runs "tar" on that directory into a tarfile and
deletes the directory. Finishes with a command $(POSTOP) which
defaults to a null command.
make dist
Defaults to $(DIST_DEFAULT) which in turn defaults to tardist.
make uutardist
Runs a tardist first and uuencodes the tarfile.
make shdist
First does a distdir. Then a command $(PREOP) which defaults to a null
command. Next it runs "shar" on that directory into a sharfile and
deletes the intermediate directory again. Finishes with a command
$(POSTOP) which defaults to a null command. Note: For shdist to work
properly a "shar" program that can handle directories is mandatory.
make zipdist
First does a distdir. Then a command $(PREOP) which defaults to a null
command. Runs "$(ZIP) $(ZIPFLAGS)" on that directory into a
zipfile. Then deletes that directory. Finishes with a command
$(POSTOP) which defaults to a null command.
make ci
Does a $(CI) and a $(RCS_LABEL) on all files in the MANIFEST file.
Customization of the dist targets can be done by specifying a hash
reference to the dist attribute of the WriteMakefile call. The
following parameters are recognized:
CI ('ci -u')
COMPRESS ('gzip --best')
POSTOP ('@ :')
PREOP ('@ :')
TO_UNIX (depends on the system)
RCS_LABEL ('rcs -q -Nv$(VERSION_SYM):')
SHAR ('shar')
SUFFIX ('.gz')
TAR ('tar')
TARFLAGS ('cvf')
ZIP ('zip')
ZIPFLAGS ('-r')
Long plaguing users of MakeMaker based modules has been the problem of
getting basic information about the module out of the sources
without running the Makefile.PL and doing a bunch of messy
heuristics on the resulting Makefile. To this end a simple module
meta-data file has been introduced, META.yml.
META.yml is a YAML document (see http://www.yaml.org) containing
basic information about the module (name, version, prerequisites...)
in an easy to read format. The format is developed and defined by the
Module::Build developers (see
http://module-build.sourceforge.net/META-spec.html)
MakeMaker will automatically generate a META.yml file for you and
add it to your MANIFEST as part of the 'distdir' target (and thus
the 'dist' target). This is intended to seamlessly and rapidly
populate CPAN with module meta-data. If you wish to shut this feature
off, set the "NO_META""WriteMakefile()" flag to true.
Disabling an extension
If some events detected in Makefile.PL imply that there is no way
to create the Module, but this is a normal state of things, then you
can create a Makefile which does nothing, but succeeds on all the
``usual'' build targets. To do so, use
ExtUtils::MakeMaker::WriteEmptyMakefile();
instead of WriteMakefile().
This may be useful if other modules expect this module to be built
OK, as opposed to work OK (say, this system-dependent module builds
in a subdirectory of some other distribution, or is listed as a
dependency in a CPAN::Bundle, but the functionality is supported by
different means on the current architecture).
Other Handy Functions
prompt
my $value = prompt($message);
my $value = prompt($message, $default);
The "prompt()" function provides an easy way to request user input
used to write a makefile. It displays the $message as a prompt for
input. If a $default is provided it will be used as a default. The
function returns the $value selected by the user.
If "prompt()" detects that it is not running interactively and there
is nothing on STDIN or if the PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT environment variable
is set to true, the $default will be used without prompting. This
prevents automated processes from blocking on user input.
If no $default is provided an empty string will be used instead.
ENVIRONMENT
PERL_MM_OPT
Command line options used by "MakeMaker->new()", and thus by
"WriteMakefile()". The string is split on whitespace, and the result
is processed before any actual command line arguments are processed.
PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT
If set to a true value then MakeMaker's prompt function will
always return the default without waiting for user input.
PERL_CORE
Same as the PERL_CORE parameter. The parameter overrides this.
