phpman > perldoc > Module::Build::Bundling(3pm)

NAME
    Module::Build::Bundling - How to bundle Module::Build with a distribution

SYNOPSIS
      # Build.PL
      use inc::latest 'Module::Build';

      Module::Build->new(
        module_name => 'Foo::Bar',
        license => 'perl',
      )->create_build_script;

DESCRIPTION
    WARNING -- THIS IS AN EXPERIMENTAL FEATURE

    In order to install a distribution using Module::Build, users must have Module::Build available
    on their systems. There are two ways to do this. The first way is to include Module::Build in
    the "configure_requires" metadata field. This field is supported by recent versions CPAN and
    CPANPLUS and is a standard feature in the Perl core as of Perl 5.10.1. Module::Build now adds
    itself to "configure_requires" by default.

    The second way supports older Perls that have not upgraded CPAN or CPANPLUS and involves
    bundling an entire copy of Module::Build into the distribution's "inc/" directory. This is the
    same approach used by Module::Install, a modern wrapper around ExtUtils::MakeMaker for
    Makefile.PL based distributions.

    The "trick" to making this work for Module::Build is making sure the highest version
    Module::Build is used, whether this is in "inc/" or already installed on the user's system. This
    ensures that all necessary features are available as well as any new bug fixes. This is done
    using the experimental inc::latest module, available on CPAN.

    A "normal" Build.PL looks like this (with only the minimum required fields):

      use Module::Build;

      Module::Build->new(
        module_name => 'Foo::Bar',
        license     => 'perl',
      )->create_build_script;

    A "bundling" Build.PL replaces the initial "use" line with a nearly transparent replacement:

      use inc::latest 'Module::Build';

      Module::Build->new(
        module_name => 'Foo::Bar',
        license => 'perl',
      )->create_build_script;

    For *authors*, when "Build dist" is run, Module::Build will be automatically bundled into "inc"
    according to the rules for inc::latest.

    For *users*, inc::latest will load the latest Module::Build, whether installed or bundled in
    "inc/".

BUNDLING OTHER CONFIGURATION DEPENDENCIES
    The same approach works for other configuration dependencies -- modules that *must* be available
    for Build.PL to run. All other dependencies can be specified as usual in the Build.PL and CPAN
    or CPANPLUS will install them after Build.PL finishes.

    For example, to bundle the Devel::AssertOS::Unix module (which ensures a "Unix-like" operating
    system), one could do this:

      use inc::latest 'Devel::AssertOS::Unix';
      use inc::latest 'Module::Build';

      Module::Build->new(
        module_name => 'Foo::Bar',
        license => 'perl',
      )->create_build_script;

    The "inc::latest" module creates bundled directories based on the packlist file of an installed
    distribution. Even though "inc::latest" takes module name arguments, it is better to think of it
    as bundling and making available entire *distributions*. When a module is loaded through
    "inc::latest", it looks in all bundled distributions in "inc/" for a newer module than can be
    found in the existing @INC array.

    Thus, the module-name provided should usually be the "top-level" module name of a distribution,
    though this is not strictly required. For example, Module::Build has a number of heuristics to
    map module names to packlists, allowing users to do things like this:

      use inc::latest 'Devel::AssertOS::Unix';

    even though Devel::AssertOS::Unix is contained within the Devel-CheckOS distribution.

    At the current time, packlists are required. Thus, bundling dual-core modules, *including
    Module::Build*, may require a 'forced install' over versions in the latest version of perl in
    order to create the necessary packlist for bundling. This limitation will hopefully be addressed
    in a future version of Module::Build.

  WARNING -- How to Manage Dependency Chains
    Before bundling a distribution you must ensure that all prerequisites are also bundled and load
    in the correct order. For Module::Build itself, this should not be necessary, but it is
    necessary for any other distribution. (A future release of Module::Build will hopefully address
    this deficiency.)

    For example, if you need "Wibble", but "Wibble" depends on "Wobble", your Build.PL might look
    like this:

      use inc::latest 'Wobble';
      use inc::latest 'Wibble';
      use inc::latest 'Module::Build';

      Module::Build->new(
        module_name => 'Foo::Bar',
        license => 'perl',
      )->create_build_script;

    Authors are strongly suggested to limit the bundling of additional dependencies if at all
    possible and to carefully test their distribution tarballs on older versions of Perl before
    uploading to CPAN.

AUTHOR
    David Golden <dagolden AT cpan.org>

    Development questions, bug reports, and patches should be sent to the Module-Build mailing list
    at <module-build AT perl.org>.

    Bug reports are also welcome at <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Module-Build>.

SEE ALSO
    perl(1), inc::latest, Module::Build(3), Module::Build::API(3), Module::Build::Cookbook(3),