Re: [Module-build-general] [comments please] module installation paths

[Ken W. <ke...@ma...>]

On Monday, June 30, 2003, at 02:14  PM, Uri Guttman wrote:

>>>>>> "KW" == Ken Williams <ke...@ma...> writes:
>
>   KW> =item script
>
>   KW> Programs written in pure Perl.  Try to make these as small as 
> possible
>   KW> - put the code into modules whenever possible.
>
> why do scripts have to be small? is there a real size limit? if not, 
> you
> shouldn't editorialize on how to write scripts. some scripts just need
> to be long or not use many modules.

Yup, it's an editorial.  I don't feel bad about editorializing here, 
but I should maybe make it more clear - "in order to promote reuse" or 
something.


>
>   KW> =item bin
>
>   KW> "Architecture-dependent" programs, i.e. compiled C code or 
> something.
>   KW> Pretty rare to see this in a perl distribution, but it happens.
>
> xs (or now inline::) code isn't that rare.

This isn't XS code.  It's binary executables, not binary libraries.  
That's pretty rare as far as I've seen.


> also what
> compiler will be chosen for that? i didn't see any override options in
> this doc.

Yeah, the compiler all comes from Config.pm , and any Config.pm entry 
can be overridden.  The docs for that are elsewhere.

Maybe I should rename this section to "How installation paths are 
determined" or something.


>
>   KW> =item bindoc
>
>   KW> Documentation for the stuff in C<script> and C<bin>.  Usually
>   KW> generated from the POD in those files.  Under Unix, these are 
> manual
>   KW> pages belonging to the 'man1' category.
>
> can the pod be generated from another command? stem will have a 
> stem2pod
> command that needs to be run since some of the pod is autogenerated 
> from
> attribute specifications.

You'd probably just subclass Module::Build for that.


>   KW> The default destinations for these installable things come from
>   KW> entries in your system's C<Config.pm>.  You can select from three
>   KW> different sets of default locations by setting the C<installdirs>
>   KW> parameter as follows:
>
> this needs to be explained a litte more i think. make it clear in the
> text that the choices are core/site/vendor and not lib/arch/etc/. the
> chart shows that but it could be more explicit. never underestimate the
> dumbnitude of people doing cpan installs. :)

Yeah, you're right.  I also need to say that 'site' is the default.



>   KW>   perl Build.PL destdir=/tmp/foo
>   KW> or
>   KW>   Build install destdir=/tmp/foo
>
>
> this is the first time you show how these params are set.

That's because this is just an excerpt from the much larger pod in 
Module/Build.pm .


> overall, i like it a lot. it is the best high level picture of build.pl
> i have seen so far.

Thanks.

  -Ken