ExtUti...cklist(3perl) Perl Programmers Reference Guide ExtUti...cklist(3perl)
NAME
ExtUtils::Packlist - manage .packlist files
SYNOPSIS
use ExtUtils::Packlist;
my ($pl) = ExtUtils::Packlist->new('.packlist');
$pl->read('/an/old/.packlist');
my @missing_files = $pl->validate();
$pl->write('/a/new/.packlist');
$pl->{'/some/file/name'}++;
or
$pl->{'/some/other/file/name'} = { type => 'file',
from => '/some/file' };
DESCRIPTION
ExtUtils::Packlist provides a standard way to manage .packlist files.
Functions are provided to read and write .packlist files. The original
.packlist format is a simple list of absolute pathnames, one per line.
In addition, this package supports an extended format, where as well as
a filename each line may contain a list of attributes in the form of a
space separated list of key=value pairs. This is used by the
installperl script to differentiate between files and links, for
example.
USAGE
The hash reference returned by the new() function can be used to examine
and modify the contents of the .packlist. Items may be added/deleted
from the .packlist by modifying the hash. If the value associated with
a hash key is a scalar, the entry written to the .packlist by any
subsequent write() will be a simple filename. If the value is a hash,
the entry written will be the filename followed by the key=value pairs
from the hash. Reading back the .packlist will recreate the original
entries.
FUNCTIONS
new()
This takes an optional parameter, the name of a .packlist. If the
file exists, it will be opened and the contents of the file will be
read. The new() method returns a reference to a hash. This hash
holds an entry for each line in the .packlist. In the case of old-
style .packlists, the value associated with each key is undef. In
the case of new-style .packlists, the value associated with each key
is a hash containing the key=value pairs following the filename in
the .packlist.
read()
This takes an optional parameter, the name of the .packlist to be
read. If no file is specified, the .packlist specified to new()
will be read. If the .packlist does not exist, Carp::croak will be
called.
write()
This takes an optional parameter, the name of the .packlist to be
written. If no file is specified, the .packlist specified to new()
will be overwritten.
validate()
This checks that every file listed in the .packlist actually exists.
If an argument which evaluates to true is given, any missing files
will be removed from the internal hash. The return value is a list
of the missing files, which will be empty if they all exist.
packlist_file()
This returns the name of the associated .packlist file
EXAMPLE
Here's "modrm", a little utility to cleanly remove an installed module.
#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use IO::Dir;
use ExtUtils::Packlist;
use ExtUtils::Installed;
sub emptydir($) {
my ($dir) = @_;
my $dh = IO::Dir->new($dir) || return(0);
my @count = $dh->read();
$dh->close();
return(@count == 2 ? 1 : 0);
}
# Find all the installed packages
print("Finding all installed modules...\n");
my $installed = ExtUtils::Installed->new();
foreach my $module (grep(!/^Perl$/, $installed->modules())) {
my $version = $installed->version($module) || "???";
print("Found module $module Version $version\n");
print("Do you want to delete $module? [n] ");
my $r = <STDIN>; chomp($r);
if ($r && $r =~ /^y/i) {
# Remove all the files
foreach my $file (sort($installed->files($module))) {
print("rm $file\n");
unlink($file);
}
my $pf = $installed->packlist($module)->packlist_file();
print("rm $pf\n");
unlink($pf);
foreach my $dir (sort($installed->directory_tree($module))) {
if (emptydir($dir)) {
print("rmdir $dir\n");
rmdir($dir);
}
}
}
}
AUTHOR
Alan Burlison <Alan.Burlison@uk.sun.com>
perl v5.40.1 2026-08-30 ExtUti...cklist(3perl)
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