ExtUti...keMaker(3perl) Perl Programmers Reference GuideExtUti...keMaker(3perl)
NAME
ExtUtils::MakeMaker - Create a module Makefile
SYNOPSIS
use ExtUtils::MakeMaker;
WriteMakefile(
NAME => "Foo::Bar",
VERSION_FROM => "lib/Foo/Bar.pm",
);
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.
As there are various Make programs with incompatible syntax, which use
operating system shells, again with incompatible syntax, it is important
for users of this module to know which flavour of Make a Makefile has
been written for so they'll use the correct one and won't have to face
the possibly bewildering errors resulting from using the wrong one.
On POSIX systems, that program will likely be GNU Make; on Microsoft
Windows, it will be either Microsoft NMake, DMake or GNU Make. See the
section on the "MAKE" parameter for details.
ExtUtils::MakeMaker (EUMM) 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().
All inputs to WriteMakefile are Unicode characters, not just octets.
EUMM seeks to handle all of these correctly. It is currently still not
possible to portably use Unicode characters in module names, because
this requires Perl to handle Unicode filenames, which is not yet the
case on Windows.
See ExtUtils::MakeMaker::FAQ for details of the design and usage.
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
current directory, and if it exists it executes 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.
You can also organize your tests within subdirectories in the t/
directory. To do so, use the test directive in your Makefile.PL. For
example, if you had tests in:
t/foo
t/foo/bar
You could tell make to run tests in both of those directories with the
following directives:
test => {TESTS => 't/*/*.t t/*/*/*.t'}
test => {TESTS => 't/foo/*.t t/foo/bar/*.t'}
The first will run all test files in all first-level subdirectories and
all subdirectories they contain. The second will run tests in only the
t/foo and t/foo/bar.
If you'd like to see the raw output of your tests, set the
"TEST_VERBOSE" variable to true.
make test TEST_VERBOSE=1
If you want to run particular test files, set the "TEST_FILES" variable.
It is possible to use globbing with this mechanism.
make test TEST_FILES='t/foobar.t t/dagobah*.t'
Windows users who are using "nmake" should note that due to a bug in
"nmake", when specifying "TEST_FILES" you must use back-slashes instead
of forward-slashes.
nmake test TEST_FILES='t\foobar.t t\dagobah*.t'
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
($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 $/, @INC'
Sometimes older versions of the module you're installing live in other
directories in @INC. Because Perl loads the first version of a module
it finds, not the newest, you might accidentally get one of these older
versions even after installing a brand new version. To delete all other
versions of the module you're installing (not simply older ones) set the
"UNINST" variable.
make install UNINST=1
INSTALL_BASE
INSTALL_BASE can be passed into Makefile.PL to change where your module
will be installed. INSTALL_BASE is more like what everyone else calls
"prefix" than PREFIX is.
To have everything installed in your home directory, do the following.
# Unix users, INSTALL_BASE=~ works fine
perl Makefile.PL INSTALL_BASE=/path/to/your/home/dir
Like PREFIX, it sets several INSTALL* attributes at once. Unlike PREFIX
it is easy to predict where the module will end up. The installation
pattern looks like this:
INSTALLARCHLIB INSTALL_BASE/lib/perl5/$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
Module::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 recommend
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*
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 $Config{prefix}).
If the user has superuser privileges, and is not working on AFS or
relatives, then the defaults for INSTALLPRIVLIB, INSTALLARCHLIB,
INSTALLSCRIPT, etc. will be appropriate, and this incantation will be
the best:
perl Makefile.PL;
make;
make test
make install
make install by default writes some documentation of what has been done
into the file "$(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 by 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:
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 = $archlibexp
INST_LIB = ./blib/lib
INST_ARCHLIB = ./blib/arch
If perl has not yet been installed then PERL_SRC can be defined on the
command line as shown in the previous section.
Which architecture dependent directory?
If you don't want to keep the defaults for the INSTALL* macros,
MakeMaker helps you to minimize the typing needed: the usual
relationship between INSTALLPRIVLIB and INSTALLARCHLIB is determined by
Configure at perl compilation time. MakeMaker supports the user who sets
INSTALLPRIVLIB. If INSTALLPRIVLIB is set, but INSTALLARCHLIB not, then
MakeMaker defaults the latter to be the same subdirectory of
INSTALLPRIVLIB as Configure decided for the counterparts in %Config,
otherwise it defaults to INSTALLPRIVLIB. The same relationship holds for
INSTALLSITELIB and INSTALLSITEARCH.
MakeMaker gives you much more freedom than needed to configure internal
variables and get different results. It is worth mentioning that make(1)
also lets you configure most of the variables that are used in the
Makefile. But in the majority of situations this will not be necessary,
and should only be done if the author of a package recommends it (or you
know what you're doing).
Using Attributes and Parameters
The following attributes may be specified as arguments to
WriteMakefile() or as NAME=VALUE pairs on the command line. Attributes
that became available with later versions of MakeMaker are indicated.
In order to maintain portability of attributes with older versions of
MakeMaker you may want to use App::EUMM::Upgrade with your
"Makefile.PL".
ABSTRACT
One line description of the module. Will be included in PPD file.
ABSTRACT_FROM
Name of the file that contains the package description. MakeMaker
looks for a line in the POD matching /^($package\s-\s)(.*)/. This is
typically the first line in the "=head1 NAME" section. $2 becomes the
abstract.
AUTHOR
Array of strings containing name (and email address) of package
author(s). Is used in CPAN Meta files (META.yml or META.json) and PPD
(Perl Package Description) files for PPM (Perl Package Manager).
BINARY_LOCATION
Used when creating PPD files for binary packages. It can be set to a
full or relative path or URL to the binary archive for a particular
architecture. For example:
perl Makefile.PL BINARY_LOCATION=x86/Agent.tar.gz
builds a PPD package that references a binary of the "Agent" package,
located in the "x86" directory relative to the PPD itself.
BUILD_REQUIRES
Available in version 6.55_03 and above.
A hash of modules that are needed to build your module but not run it.
This will go into the "build_requires" field of your META.yml and the
"build" of the "prereqs" field of your META.json.
Defaults to "{ "ExtUtils::MakeMaker" => 0 }" if this attribute is not
specified.
The format is the same as PREREQ_PM.
C Ref to array of *.c file names. Initialised from a directory scan and
the values portion of the XS attribute hash. This is not currently
used by MakeMaker but may be handy in Makefile.PLs.
CCFLAGS
String that will be included in the compiler call command line between
the arguments INC and OPTIMIZE. Note that setting this will overwrite
its default value ($Config::Config{ccflags}); to preserve that,
include the default value directly, e.g.:
CCFLAGS => "$Config::Config{ccflags} ..."
The default value is taken from $Config{ccflags}. When overriding
CCFLAGS, make sure to include the $Config{ccflags} settings to avoid
binary incompatibilities.
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 cpprun 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.
CONFIGURE_REQUIRES
Available in version 6.52 and above.
A hash of modules that are required to run Makefile.PL itself, but not
to run your distribution.
This will go into the "configure_requires" field of your META.yml and
the "configure" of the "prereqs" field of your META.json.
Defaults to "{ "ExtUtils::MakeMaker" => 0 }" if this attribute is not
specified.
The format is the same as PREREQ_PM.
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=~/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 below 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.
DLEXT
Specifies the extension of the module's loadable object. For example:
DLEXT => 'unusual_ext', # Default value is $Config{so}
NOTE: When using this option to alter the extension of a module's
loadable object, it is also necessary that the module's pm file
specifies the same change:
local $DynaLoader::dl_dlext = 'unusual_ext';
DL_FUNCS
Hashref of symbol names for routines to be made available as universal
symbols. Each key/value pair consists of the package name and an
array of routine names in that package. Used only under AIX, OS/2,
VMS and Win32 at present. The routine names supplied will be expanded
in the same way as XSUB names are expanded by the XS() macro.
Defaults to
{"$(NAME)" => ["boot_$(NAME)" ] }
e.g.
{"RPC" => [qw( boot_rpcb rpcb_gettime getnetconfigent )],
"NetconfigPtr" => [ 'DESTROY'] }
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
Available in version 6.30_02 and above.
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
$(SITEPREFIX)/man/man$(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. Note that if you do not set
this, the value of INSTALLVENDORLIB will be used, which is probably
not what you want.
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
Available in version 6.30_02 and above.
Used by 'make install' which copies files from INST_SCRIPT to this
directory if INSTALLDIRS 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 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.
'LIBS' => ["-lgdbm", "-ldbm -lfoo", "-L/path -ldbm.nfs"]
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.
LICENSE
Available in version 6.31 and above.
The licensing terms of your distribution. Generally it's "perl_5" for
the same license as Perl itself.
See CPAN::Meta::Spec 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).
MAGICXS
Available in version 6.8305 and above.
When this is set to 1, "OBJECT" will be automagically derived from
"O_FILES".
MAKE
Available in version 6.30_01 and above.
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 precedence.
Currently the only significant values are 'dmake' and 'nmake' for
Windows users, instructing MakeMaker to generate a Makefile in the
flavour of DMake ("Dennis Vadura's Make") or Microsoft NMake
respectively.
Defaults to $Config{make}, which may go looking for a Make program in
your environment.
How are you supposed to know what flavour of Make a Makefile has been
generated for if you didn't specify a value explicitly? Search the
generated Makefile for the definition of the MAKE variable, which is
used to recursively invoke the Make utility. That will tell you what
Make you're supposed to invoke the Makefile with.
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.
This hash should map POD files (or scripts containing POD) to the man
file names under the "blib/man1/" directory, as in the following
example:
MAN1PODS => {
'doc/command.pod' => 'blib/man1/command.1',
'scripts/script.pl' => 'blib/man1/script.1',
}
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".
Example similar to MAN1PODS.
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
META_ADD
META_MERGE
Available in version 6.46 and above.
A hashref of items to add to the CPAN Meta file (META.yml or
META.json).
They differ in how they behave if they have the same key as the
default metadata. META_ADD will override the default value with its
own. META_MERGE will merge its value with the default.
Unless you want to override the defaults, prefer META_MERGE so as to
get the advantage of any future defaults.
Where prereqs are concerned, if META_MERGE is used, prerequisites are
merged with their counterpart WriteMakefile() argument (PREREQ_PM is
merged into {prereqs}{runtime}{requires}, BUILD_REQUIRES into
"{prereqs}{build}{requires}", CONFIGURE_REQUIRES into
"{prereqs}{configure}{requires}", and TEST_REQUIRES into
"{prereqs}{test}{requires})". When prereqs are specified with
META_ADD, the only prerequisites added to the file come from the
metadata, not WriteMakefile() arguments.
Note that these configuration options are only used for generating
META.yml and META.json -- they are NOT used for MYMETA.yml and
MYMETA.json. Therefore data in these fields should NOT be used for
dynamic (user-side) configuration.
By default CPAN Meta specification 1.4 is used. In order to use CPAN
Meta specification 2.0, indicate with "meta-spec" the version you want
to use.
META_MERGE => {
"meta-spec" => { version => 2 },
resources => {
repository => {
type => 'git',
url => 'git://github.com/Perl-Toolchain-Gang/ExtUtils-MakeMaker.git',
web => 'https://github.com/Perl-Toolchain-Gang/ExtUtils-MakeMaker',
},
},
},
MIN_PERL_VERSION
Available in version 6.48 and above.
The minimum required version of Perl for this distribution.
Either the 5.006001 or the 5.6.1 format is acceptable.
MYEXTLIB
If the extension links to a library that it builds, set this to the
name of the library (see SDBM_File)
NAME
The package representing the distribution. For example, "Test::More"
or "ExtUtils::MakeMaker". It will be used to derive information about
the distribution such as the "DISTNAME", installation locations within
the Perl library and where XS files will be looked for by default (see
"XS").
"NAME" must be a valid Perl package name and it must have an
associated ".pm" file. For example, "Foo::Bar" is a valid "NAME" and
there must exist Foo/Bar.pm. Any XS code should be in Bar.xs unless
stated otherwise.
Your distribution must have a "NAME".
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 it's 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 and META.json module meta-data files during 'make
distdir'.
Defaults to false.
NO_MYMETA
Available in version 6.57_02 and above.
When true, suppresses the generation of MYMETA.yml and MYMETA.json
module meta-data files during 'perl Makefile.PL'.
Defaults to false.
NO_PACKLIST
Available in version 6.7501 and above.
When true, suppresses the writing of "packlist" files for installs.
Defaults to false.
NO_PERLLOCAL
Available in version 6.7501 and above.
When true, suppresses the appending of installations to "perllocal".
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 or an array containing all object files, e.g. "tkpBind.o
tkpButton.o tkpCanvas.o" or ["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. If it contains
spaces or other shell metacharacters, it needs to be quoted in a way
that protects them, since this value is intended to be inserted in a
shell command line in the Makefile. E.g.:
# Perl executable lives in "C:/Program Files/Perl/bin"
# Normally you don't need to set this yourself!
$ perl Makefile.PL PERL='"C:/Program Files/Perl/bin/perl.exe" -w'
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. Neglecting to set this flag in any one of the 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_DIR
Available in version 6.51_01 and above.
Desired permission for directories. Defaults to 755.
PERM_RW
Desired permission for read/writable files. Defaults to 644.
PERM_RWX
Desired permission for executable files. Defaults to 755.
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. This basename is actually
a build target, and there is an intention, but not a requirement, that
the *.PL file make the file passed to to 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'}
PL_FILES => {'foo.PL' => 'foo.c'}
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
If an output file depends on extra input files beside the script
itself, a hash ref can be used in version 7.36 and above:
PL_FILES => { 'foo.PL' => {
'foo.out' => 'foo.in',
'bar.out' => [qw(bar1.in bar2.in)],
}
In this case the extra input files will be passed to the program after
the target file:
perl foo.PL foo.out foo.in
perl foo.PL bar.out bar1.in bar2.in
PL files are normally run after pm_to_blib and include INST_LIB and
INST_ARCH in their @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 it's somewhat DWIM). The argument passed
to the .PL is set up as a target to build in the Makefile. In other
sections such as "postamble" you can specify a dependency on the
filename/argument that the .PL is supposed (or will have, now that
that is is a dependency) to generate. Note the file to be generated
will still be generated and the .PL will still run even without an
explicit dependency created by you, since the "all" target still
depends on running all eligible to run.PL files.
PM
Hashref of .pm files and *.pl files to be installed. e.g.
{'name_of_file.pm' => '$(INST_LIB)/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 filtering
is done. You could use:
PM_FILTER => 'perl -ne "print unless /^\\#/"',
to remove all the leading comments on the fly during the build. In
order to be as portable as possible, please consider using a Perl one-
liner rather than Unix (or other) utilities, as above. The # is
escaped for the Makefile, since what is going to be generated will
then be:
PM_FILTER = perl -ne "print unless /^\#/"
Without the \ before the #, we'd have the start of a Makefile comment,
and the macro would be incorrectly defined.
You will almost certainly be better off using the "PL_FILES" system,
instead. See above, or the ExtUtils::MakeMaker::FAQ entry.
POLLUTE
Prior to 5.6 various interpreter variables were available without a
"PL_" prefix, eg. "PL_undef" was available as "undef". As of release
5.6, these are only defined if the POLLUTE flag is enabled:
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.
PPM_UNINSTALL_EXEC
Available in version 6.8502 and above.
Name of the executable used to run "PPM_UNINSTALL_SCRIPT" below. (e.g.
perl)
PPM_UNINSTALL_SCRIPT
Available in version 6.8502 and above.
Name of the script that gets executed by the Perl Package Manager
before the removal 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 affected
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
dependencies.
It is extremely rare to have to use "PREREQ_FATAL". Its use by module
authors is strongly discouraged and should never be used lightly.
For dependencies that are required in order to run "Makefile.PL", see
"CONFIGURE_REQUIRES".
Module installation tools have ways of resolving unmet dependencies
but to do that they need a Makefile. Using "PREREQ_FATAL" breaks
this. That's bad.
Assuming you have good test coverage, your tests should fail with
missing dependencies informing the user more strongly that something
is wrong. You can write a t/00compile.t test which will simply check
that your code compiles and stop "make test" prematurely if it
doesn't. See "BAIL_OUT" in Test::More for more details.
PREREQ_PM
A hash of modules that are needed to run your module. The keys are
the module names ie. Test::More, and the minimum version is the value.
If the required version number is 0 any version will do. The versions
given may be a Perl v-string (see version) or a range (see
CPAN::Meta::Requirements).
This will go into the "requires" field of your META.yml and the
"runtime" of the "prereqs" field of your META.json.
PREREQ_PM => {
# Require Test::More at least 0.47
"Test::More" => "0.47",
# Require any version of Acme::Buffy
"Acme::Buffy" => 0,
}
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,
...
};
If a distribution defines a minimal required perl version, this is
added to the output as an additional line of the form:
$MIN_PERL_VERSION = '5.008001';
If BUILD_REQUIRES is not empty, it will be dumped as $BUILD_REQUIRES
hashref.
PRINT_PREREQ
RedHatism for "PREREQ_PRINT". The output format is different, though:
perl(A::B)>=Vers1 perl(C::D)>=Vers2 ...
A minimal required perl version, if present, will look like this:
perl(perl)>=5.008001
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
Available in version 6.18 and above.
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.
TEST_REQUIRES
Available in version 6.64 and above.
A hash of modules that are needed to test your module but not run or
build it.
This will go into the "build_requires" field of your META.yml and the
"test" of the "prereqs" field of your META.json.
The format is the same as PREREQ_PM.
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 something like a $VERSION assignment or "package Name
VERSION" will be used. The following lines will be parsed o.k.:
# Good
package Foo::Bar 1.23; # 1.23
$VERSION = '1.00'; # 1.00
*VERSION = \'1.01'; # 1.01
($VERSION) = q$Revision$ =~ /(\d+)/g; # The digits in $Revision$
$FOO::VERSION = '1.10'; # 1.10
*FOO::VERSION = \'1.11'; # 1.11
but these will fail:
# Bad
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.)
"Version strings" are incompatible and should not be used.
# Bad
$VERSION = 1.2.3;
$VERSION = v1.2.3;
version objects are fine. As of MakeMaker 6.35 version.pm will be
automatically loaded, but you must declare the dependency on
version.pm. For compatibility with older MakeMaker you should load on
the same line as $VERSION is declared.
# All on one line
use version; our $VERSION = qv(1.2.3);
The file named in VERSION_FROM is not added as a dependency to
Makefile. This is not really correct, but it would be a major pain
during development to have to rewrite the Makefile for any smallish
change in that file. If you want to make sure that the Makefile
contains the correct VERSION macro after any change of the file, you
would have to do something like
depend => { Makefile => '$(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.
XSBUILD
Available in version 7.12 and above.
Hashref with options controlling the operation of "XSMULTI":
{
xs => {
all => {
# options applying to all .xs files for this distribution
},
'lib/Class/Name/File' => { # specifically for this file
DEFINE => '-Dfunktastic', # defines for only this file
INC => "-I$funkyliblocation", # include flags for only this file
# OBJECT => 'lib/Class/Name/File$(OBJ_EXT)', # default
LDFROM => "lib/Class/Name/File\$(OBJ_EXT) $otherfile\$(OBJ_EXT)", # what's linked
},
},
}
Note "xs" is the file-extension. More possibilities may arise in the
future. Note that object names are specified without their XS
extension.
"LDFROM" defaults to the same as "OBJECT". "OBJECT" defaults to, for
"XSMULTI", just the XS filename with the extension replaced with the
compiler-specific object-file extension.
The distinction between "OBJECT" and "LDFROM": "OBJECT" is the make
target, so make will try to build it. However, "LDFROM" is what will
actually be linked together to make the shared object or static
library (SO/SL), so if you override it, make sure it includes what you
want to make the final SO/SL, almost certainly including the XS
basename with "$(OBJ_EXT)" appended.
XSMULTI
Available in version 7.12 and above.
When this is set to 1, multiple XS files may be placed under lib/ next
to their corresponding "*.pm" files (this is essential for compiling
with the correct "VERSION" values). This feature should be considered
experimental, and details of it may change.
This feature was inspired by, and small portions of code copied from,
ExtUtils::MakeMaker::BigHelper. Hopefully this feature will render
that module mainly obsolete.
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 "-prototypes", "-noprototypes" or the empty string. The
empty string is equivalent to the xsubpp default, 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_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
Specify the targets for testing.
{TESTS => 't/*.t'}
"RECURSIVE_TEST_FILES" can be used to include all directories
recursively under "t" that contain ".t" files. It will be ignored if
you provide your own "TESTS" attribute, defaults to false.
{RECURSIVE_TEST_FILES=>1}
This is supported since 6.76
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 suppress 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
$self->{LIBS} = ['-ldbm -lucb -lc'];
Distribution Support
For authors of extensions MakeMaker provides several Makefile targets.
Most of the support comes from the ExtUtils::Manifest module, where
additional documentation can be found.
make distcheck
reports which files are below the build directory but not in the
MANIFEST file and vice versa. (See "fullcheck" in ExtUtils::Manifest
for details)
make skipcheck
reports which files are skipped due to the entries in the
"MANIFEST.SKIP" file (See "skipcheck" in ExtUtils::Manifest for
details)
make distclean
does a realclean first and then the distcheck. Note that this is not
needed to build a new distribution as long as you are sure that the
MANIFEST file is ok.
make veryclean
does a realclean first and then removes backup files such as "*~",
"*.bak", "*.old" and "*.orig"
make manifest
rewrites the MANIFEST file, adding all remaining files found (See
"mkmanifest" in ExtUtils::Manifest for details)
make distdir
Copies all the files that are in the MANIFEST file to a newly
created directory with the name "$(DISTNAME)-$(VERSION)". If that
directory exists, it will be removed first.
Additionally, it will create META.yml and META.json 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
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')
An example:
WriteMakefile(
...other options...
dist => {
COMPRESS => "bzip2",
SUFFIX => ".bz2"
}
);
Module Meta-Data (META and MYMETA)
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. Over the years, it has become standard to keep this
information in one or more CPAN Meta files distributed with each
distribution.
The original format of CPAN Meta files was YAML and the corresponding
file was called META.yml. In 2010, version 2 of the CPAN::Meta::Spec
was released, which mandates JSON format for the metadata in order to
overcome certain compatibility issues between YAML serializers and to
avoid breaking older clients unable to handle a new version of the spec.
The CPAN::Meta library is now standard for accessing old and new-style
Meta files.
If CPAN::Meta is installed, MakeMaker will automatically generate
META.json and META.yml files for you and add them 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.
At the 2008 QA Hackathon in Oslo, Perl module toolchain maintainers
agreed to use the CPAN Meta format to communicate post-configuration
requirements between toolchain components. These files, MYMETA.json and
MYMETA.yml, are generated when Makefile.PL generates a Makefile (if
CPAN::Meta is installed). Clients like CPAN or CPANPLUS will read these
files to see what prerequisites must be fulfilled before building or
testing the distribution. If you wish to shut this feature off, set the
"NO_MYMETA" 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
prompting. This prevents automated processes from blocking on user
input.
If no $default is provided an empty string will be used instead.
os_unsupported
os_unsupported();
os_unsupported if $^O eq 'MSWin32';
The os_unsupported() function provides a way to correctly exit your
"Makefile.PL" before calling "WriteMakefile". It is essentially a
"die" with the message "OS unsupported".
This is supported since 7.26
Supported versions of Perl
Please note that while this module works on Perl 5.6, it is no longer
being routinely tested on 5.6 - the earliest Perl version being
routinely tested, and expressly supported, is 5.8.1. However, patches to
repair any breakage on 5.6 are still being accepted.
ENVIRONMENT
PERL_MM_OPT
Command line options used by "MakeMaker->new()", and thus by
WriteMakefile(). The string is split as the shell would, and the
result is processed before any actual command line arguments are
processed.
PERL_MM_OPT='CCFLAGS="-Wl,-rpath -Wl,/foo/bar/lib" LIBS="-lwibble -lwobble"'
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 may be easier to extend
to suit your needs.
Module::Build::Tiny is a minimal pure-Perl alternative to MakeMaker that
follows the Build.PL protocol of Module::Build but without its
complexity and cruft, implementing only the installation of the module
and leaving authoring to mbtiny or other authoring tools.
Module::Install is a (now discouraged) wrapper around MakeMaker which
adds features not normally available.
ExtUtils::ModuleMaker and Module::Starter are both modules to help you
setup your distribution.
CPAN::Meta and CPAN::Meta::Spec explain CPAN Meta files in detail.
File::ShareDir::Install makes it easy to install static, sometimes also
referred to as 'shared' files. File::ShareDir helps accessing the shared
files after installation. Test::File::ShareDir helps when writing tests
to use the shared files both before and after installation.
Dist::Zilla is an authoring tool which allows great customization and
extensibility of the author experience, relying on the existing install
tools like ExtUtils::MakeMaker only for installation.
Dist::Milla is a Dist::Zilla bundle that greatly simplifies common
usage.
Minilla is a minimal authoring tool that does the same things as
Dist::Milla without the overhead of Dist::Zilla.
AUTHORS
Andy Dougherty "doughera@lafayette.edu", Andreas König
"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
<https://metacpan.org/release/ExtUtils-MakeMaker>.
Repository available at
<https://github.com/Perl-Toolchain-Gang/ExtUtils-MakeMaker>.
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 v5.40.1 2026-08-30 ExtUti...keMaker(3perl)
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