ExtUtils::MakeMaker
ExtUtils::MakeMaker(3)User Contributed Perl DocumentatioExtUtils::MakeMaker(3)
NAME
ExtUtils::MakeMaker - Create a module Makefile
SYNOPSIS
use ExtUtils::MakeMaker;
WriteMakefile( ATTRIBUTE => VALUE [, ...] );
DESCRIPTION
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 direc-
tory that contains a Makefile.PL is treated as a separate object. This
makes it possible to write an unlimited number of Makefiles with a sin-
gle 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 INSTALL_BASE=~
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 cur-
rent 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_VER-
BOSE" 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:
INSTALLDIRS set to
perl site vendor
PERLPREFIX SITEPREFIX VENDORPREFIX
INST_ARCHLIB INSTALLARCHLIB INSTALLSITEARCH INSTALLVENDORARCH
INST_LIB INSTALLPRIVLIB INSTALLSITELIB INSTALLVENDORLIB
INST_BIN INSTALLBIN INSTALLSITEBIN INSTALLVENDORBIN
INST_SCRIPT INSTALLSCRIPT INSTALLSITESCRIPT INSTALLVENDORSCRIPT
INST_MAN1DIR INSTALLMAN1DIR INSTALLSITEMAN1DIR INSTALLVENDORMAN1DIR
INST_MAN3DIR INSTALLMAN3DIR INSTALLSITEMAN3DIR INSTALLVENDORMAN3DIR
The INSTALL... macros in turn default to their %Config ($Con-
fig{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 $/, @INC'
Sometimes older versions of the module you're installing live in other
directories in @INC. Because Perl loads the first version of a module
it finds, not the newest, you might accidentally get one of these older
versions even after installing a brand new version. To delete all
other versions of the module you're installing (not simply older ones)
set the "UNINST" variable.
make install UNINST=1
INSTALL_BASE
INSTALL_BASE can be passed into Makefile.PL to change where your module
will be installed. INSTALL_BASE is more like what everyone else calls
"prefix" than PREFIX is.
To have everything installed in your home directory, do the following.
# Unix users, INSTALL_BASE=~ works fine
perl Makefile.PL INSTALL_BASE=/path/to/your/home/dir
Like PREFIX, it sets several INSTALL* attributes at once. Unlike PRE-
FIX it is easy to predict where the module will end up. The installa-
tion pattern looks like this:
INSTALLARCHLIB INSTALL_BASE/lib/perl5/$Config{archname}
INSTALLPRIVLIB INSTALL_BASE/lib/perl5
INSTALLBIN INSTALL_BASE/bin
INSTALLSCRIPT INSTALL_BASE/bin
INSTALLMAN1DIR INSTALL_BASE/man/man1
INSTALLMAN3DIR INSTALL_BASE/man/man3
INSTALL_BASE in MakeMaker and "--install_base" in Module::Build (as of
0.28) install to the same location. If you want MakeMaker and Mod-
ule::Build to install to the same location simply set INSTALL_BASE and
"--install_base" to the same location.
INSTALL_BASE was added in 6.31.
PREFIX and LIB attribute
PREFIX and LIB can be used to set several INSTALL* attributes in one
go. Here's an example for installing into your home directory.
# Unix users, PREFIX=~ works fine
perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=/path/to/your/home/dir
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). How the exact location is determined is complicated
and depends on how your Perl was configured. INSTALL_BASE works more
like what other build systems call "prefix" than PREFIX and we recom-
mend you use that instead.
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* argu-
ments are resolved so that:
o setting LIB overrides any setting of INSTALLPRIVLIB, INSTALLARCH-
LIB, INSTALLSITELIB, INSTALLSITEARCH (and they are not affected by
PREFIX);
o 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 proba-
bly 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 exten-
sion, 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 sys-
tems 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 link-
able 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 exist-
ing 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 exten-
sions 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:
PERL_INC = PERL_SRC
PERL_LIB = PERL_SRC/lib
PERL_ARCHLIB = PERL_SRC/lib
INST_LIB = PERL_LIB
INST_ARCHLIB = PERL_ARCHLIB
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:
PERL_INC = $archlibexp/CORE
PERL_LIB = $privlibexp
PERL_ARCHLIB = $archlibexp
INST_LIB = ./blib/lib
INST_ARCHLIB = ./blib/arch
If perl has not yet been installed then PERL_SRC can be defined on the
command line as shown in the previous section.
Which architecture dependent directory?
If you don't want to keep the defaults for the INSTALL* macros, Make-
Maker helps you to minimize the typing needed: the usual relationship
between INSTALLPRIVLIB and INSTALLARCHLIB is determined by Configure at
perl compilation time. MakeMaker supports the user who sets INSTALL-
PRIVLIB. If INSTALLPRIVLIB is set, but INSTALLARCHLIB not, then Make-
Maker defaults the latter to be the same subdirectory of INSTALLPRIVLIB
as Configure decided for the counterparts in %Config , otherwise it
defaults to INSTALLPRIVLIB. The same relationship holds for
INSTALLSITELIB and INSTALLSITEARCH.
MakeMaker gives you much more freedom than needed to configure internal
variables and get different results. It is worth to mention, that
make(1) also lets you configure most of the variables that are used in
the Makefile. But in the majority of situations this will not be neces-
sary, and should only be done if the author of a package recommends it
(or you know what you're doing).
Using Attributes and Parameters
The following attributes may be specified as arguments to WriteMake-
file() or as NAME=VALUE pairs on the command line.
ABSTRACT
One line description of the module. Will be included in PPD file.
ABSTRACT_FROM
Name of the file that contains the package description. MakeMaker
looks for a line in the POD matching /^($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 DEST-
DIR=~/tmp/ and installation would go into ~/tmp/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. ~/tmp/ not ~/tmp.
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 univer-
sal 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
{"$(NAME)" => ["boot_$(NAME)" ] }
e.g.
{"RPC" => [qw( boot_rpcb rpcb_gettime getnetconfigent )],
"NetconfigPtr" => [ 'DESTROY'] }
Please see the ExtUtils::Mksymlists documentation for more informa-
tion 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 if INSTALLDIRS=perl.
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 $(SITEPRE-
FIX)/man/man$(MAN*EXT).
If set to 'none', no man pages will be installed.
INSTALLSITESCRIPT
Used by 'make install' which copies files from INST_SCRIPT to this
directory if INSTALLDIRS is set to site (default).
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.
INSTALLVENDORSCRIPT
Used by 'make install' which copies files from INST_SCRIPT to this
directory if INSTALLDIRS is set to is set to vendor.
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 make-
file 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 spec-
ify 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.
'LIBS' => ["-lgdbm", "-ldbm -lfoo", "-L/path -ldbm.nfs"]
Mind, that any element of the array contains a complete set of argu-
ments 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.
LICENSE
The licensing terms of your distribution. Generally its "perl" for
the same license as Perl itself.
See Module::Build::Authoring for the list of options.
Defaults to "unknown".
LINKTYPE
'static' or 'dynamic' (default unless usedl=undef in config.sh).
Should only be used to force static linking (also see linkext below).
MAKE
Variant of make you intend to run the generated Makefile with. This
parameter lets Makefile.PL know what make quirks to account for when
generating the Makefile.
MakeMaker also honors the MAKE environment variable. This parameter
takes precedent.
Currently the only significant values are 'dmake' and 'nmake' for
Windows users.
Defaults to $Config{make}.
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 $(FIRST_MAKEFILE)_old on VMS.
MAN1PODS
Hashref of pod-containing files. MakeMaker will default this to all
EXE_FILES files that include POD directives. The files listed here
will be converted to man pages and installed as was requested at Con-
figure time.
MAN3PODS
Hashref that assigns to *.pm and *.pod files the files into which the
manpages are to be written. MakeMaker parses all *.pod and *.pm files
for POD directives. Files that contain POD will be the default keys
of the MAN3PODS hashref. These will then be converted to man pages
during "make" and will be installed during "make install".
MAP_TARGET
If it is intended, that a new perl binary be produced, this variable
may hold a name for that binary. Defaults to perl
MYEXTLIB
If the extension links to a library that it builds set this to the
name of the library (see SDBM_File)
NAME
Perl module name for this extension (DBD::Oracle). This will default
to the directory name but should be explicitly defined in the Make-
file.PL.
NEEDS_LINKING
MakeMaker will figure out if an extension contains linkable code any-
where down the directory tree, and will set this variable accord-
ingly, but you can speed it up a very little bit if you define this
boolean variable yourself.
NOECHO
Command so make does not print the literal commands its running.
By setting it to an empty string you can generate a Makefile that
prints all commands. Mainly used in debugging MakeMaker itself.
Defaults to "@".
NORECURS
Boolean. Attribute to inhibit descending into subdirectories.
NO_META
When true, suppresses the generation and addition to the MANIFEST of
the META.yml module meta-data file during 'make distdir'.
Defaults to false.
NO_VC
In general, any generated Makefile checks for the current version of
MakeMaker and the version the Makefile was built under. If NO_VC is
set, the version check is neglected. Do not write this into your
Makefile.PL, use it interactively instead.
OBJECT
List of object files, defaults to '$(BASEEXT)$(OBJ_EXT)', but can be
a long string containing all object files, e.g. "tkpBind.o tkpBut-
ton.o tkpCanvas.o"
(Where BASEEXT is the last component of NAME, and OBJ_EXT is $Con-
fig{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() sub-
system. This should be applicable to most extensions with exceptions
of those
* with bugs in memory allocations which are caught by Perl's mal-
loc();
* 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 $Con-
fig{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 => {'bin/foobar.PL' => [qw(bin/foobar1 bin/foobar2)]}
In this case the program will be run multiple times using each target
file.
perl bin/foobar.PL bin/foobar1
perl bin/foobar.PL bin/foobar2
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.
{'name_of_file.pm' => '$(INST_LIBDIR)/install_as.pm'}
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 fil-
tering 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 comments 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 com-
mand 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 com-
ment, and the macro would be incorrectly defined.
POLLUTE
Release 5.005 grandfathered old global symbol names by providing pre-
processor 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" instead of simply informing the user of the missing depen-
dencies.
It is extremely rare to have to use "PREREQ_FATAL". Its use by module
authors is strongly discouraged and should never be used lightly.
Module installation tools have ways of resolving umet dependencies
but to do that they need a Makefile. Using "PREREQ_FATAL" breaks
this. That's bad.
The only situation where it is appropriate is when you have dependen-
cies that are indispensible to actually write a Makefile. For exam-
ple, MakeMaker's Makefile.PL needs File::Spec. If its not available
it cannot write the Makefile.
Note: see Test::Harness for a shortcut for stopping tests early if
you are missing dependencies and are afraid that users might use your
module with an incomplete environment.
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.
$PREREQ_PM = {
'A::B' => Vers1,
'C::D' => Vers2,
...
};
PRINT_PREREQ
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 $Con-
fig{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.
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.:
$VERSION = '1.00';
*VERSION = \'1.01';
($VERSION) = q$Revision: 32261 $ =~ /(\d+)/g;
$FOO::VERSION = '1.10';
*FOO::VERSION = \'1.11';
our $VERSION = 1.2.3; # new for perl5.6.0
but these will fail:
my $VERSION = '1.01';
local $VERSION = '1.02';
local $FOO::VERSION = '1.30';
version will be loaded, if available, so this will work.
our $VERSION = qv(1.2.3); # version.pm will be loaded if available
Its up to you to declare a dependency on "version". Also note that
this feature was introduced in MakeMaker 6.35. Earlier versions of
MakeMaker require this:
# All on one line
use version; our $VERSION = qv(1.2.3);
(Putting "my" or "local" on the preceding line will work o.k.)
The file named in VERSION_FROM is not added as a dependency to Make-
file. This is not really correct, but it would be a major pain during
development to have to rewrite the Makefile for any smallish change
in that file. If you want to make sure that the Makefile contains the
correct VERSION macro after any change of the file, you would have to
do something like
depend => { Makefile => '$(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. Make-
Maker 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_DEPENDENCY, ...}
(ANY_TARGET must not be given a double-colon rule by MakeMaker.)
dist
{TARFLAGS => 'cvfF', COMPRESS => 'gzip', SUFFIX => '.gz',
SHAR => 'shar -m', DIST_CP => 'ln', ZIP => '/bin/zip',
ZIPFLAGS => '-rl', DIST_DEFAULT => 'private tardist' }
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'.
dynamic_lib
{ARMAYBE => 'ar', OTHERLDFLAGS => '...', INST_DYNAMIC_DEP => '...'}
linkext
{LINKTYPE => 'static', 'dynamic' or ''}
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 utili-
ties for embedding.
If you still need a different solution, try to develop another subrou-
tine that fits your needs and submit the diffs to "makemaker@perl.org"
For a complete description of all MakeMaker methods see ExtU-
tils::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 suppress the creation of man pages.
MAN3PODS takes a hash ref not a string, but the above worked by acci-
dent 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 over-
ride or create an attribute you would say something like
$self->{LIBS} = ['-ldbm -lucb -lc'];
Distribution Support
For authors of extensions MakeMaker provides several Makefile targets.
Most of the support comes from the ExtUtils::Manifest module, where
additional documentation can be found.
make distcheck
reports which files are below the build directory but not in the
MANIFEST file and vice versa. (See ExtUtils::Manifest::fullcheck()
for details)
make skipcheck
reports which files are skipped due to the entries in the "MANI-
FEST.SKIP" file (See ExtUtils::Manifest::skipcheck() for details)
make distclean
does a realclean first and then the distcheck. Note that this is
not needed to build a new distribution as long as you are sure that
the MANIFEST file is ok.
make manifest
rewrites the MANIFEST file, adding all remaining files found (See
ExtUtils::Manifest::mkmanifest() for details)
make distdir
Copies all the files that are in the MANIFEST file to a newly cre-
ated directory with the name "$(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 MANIFEST. 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 $(TO_UNIX), which defaults to a null com-
mand 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 com-
mand $(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 $(RCS_LABEL) on all files in the MANIFEST file.
Customization of the dist targets can be done by specifying a hash ref-
erence to the dist attribute of the WriteMakefile call. The following
parameters are recognized:
CI ('ci -u')
COMPRESS ('gzip --best')
POSTOP ('@ :')
PREOP ('@ :')
TO_UNIX (depends on the system)
RCS_LABEL ('rcs -q -Nv$(VERSION_SYM):')
SHAR ('shar')
SUFFIX ('.gz')
TAR ('tar')
TARFLAGS ('cvf')
ZIP ('zip')
ZIPFLAGS ('-r')
An example:
WriteMakefile( 'dist' => { COMPRESS=>"bzip2", SUFFIX=>".bz2" })
Module Meta-Data
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 Mod-
ule::Build developers (see http://module-build.source-
forge.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
use ExtUtils::MakeMaker qw(WriteEmptyMakefile);
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 prompt-
ing. 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.
SEE ALSO
Module::Build is a pure-Perl alternative to MakeMaker which does not
rely on make or any other external utility. It is easier to extend to
suit your needs.
Module::Install is a wrapper around MakeMaker which adds features not
normally available.
ExtUtils::ModuleMaker and Module::Starter are both modules to help you
setup your distribution.
AUTHORS
Andy Dougherty "doughera@lafayette.edu", Andreas Koenig
"andreas.koenig@mind.de", Tim Bunce "timb@cpan.org". VMS support by
Charles Bailey "bailey@newman.upenn.edu". OS/2 support by Ilya
Zakharevich "ilya@math.ohio-state.edu".
Currently maintained by Michael G Schwern "schwern@pobox.com"
Send patches and ideas to "makemaker@perl.org".
Send bug reports via http://rt.cpan.org/. Please send your generated
Makefile along with your report.
For more up-to-date information, see <http://www.makemaker.org>.
LICENSE
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.
See <http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html>
perl v5.8.6 2007-07-03 ExtUtils::MakeMaker(3)
