Inline-FAQ(3)						User Contributed Perl Documentation					     Inline-FAQ(3)

NAME

       Inline-FAQ - The Inline FAQ

DESCRIPTION

       Welcome to the official Inline FAQ. In this case, FAQ means:

	   Formerly Answered Questions

       This is a collection of old, long-winded emails that myself and others have sent to the Inline mailing list. (inline@perl.org) They have
       been reviewed and edited for general Inline edification. Some of them may be related to a specific language. They are presented here in a
       traditional FAQ layout.

General Inline
       Since there is only a handful of content so far, all FAQs are currently under this heading.

   How disposable is a .Inline or _Inline directory?
       I probably need to be more emphatic about the roll of _Inline/ cache directories. Since they are created automatically, they are completely
       disposable. I delete them all the time. And it is fine to have a different one for each project. In fact as long as you don't have
       ~/.Inline/ defined, Inline will create a new ./_Inline directory. You can move that to ./.Inline and it will continue to work if you want
       to give it more longevity and hide it from view. There is a long complicated list of rules about how [_.]Inline/ directories are
       used/created. But it was designed to give you the most flexibility/ease-of-use. Never be afraid to nuke 'em. They'll just pop right back
       next time. :)

   Whatever happened to the SITE_INSTALL option?
       SITE_INSTALL is gone. I was going to leave it in and change the semantics, but thought it better to remove it, so people wouldn't try to
       use it the old way. There is now _INSTALL_ (but you're not supposed to know that :). It works magically through the use of
       Inline::MakeMaker. I explained this earlier but it's worth going through again because it's the biggest change for 0.40. Here's how to
       'permanently' install an Inline extension (Inline based module) with 0.40:

	   1) Create a module with Inline.
	   2) Test it using the normal/local _Inline/ cache.
	   3) Create a Makefile.PL (like the one produced by h2xs)
	   4) Change 'use ExtUtils::MakeMaker' to 'use Inline::MakeMaker'
	   5) Change your 'use Inline C => DATA' to 'use Inline C => DATA => NAME
	      => Foo => VERSION => 1.23'
	   6) Make sure NAME matches your package name ('Foo'), or begins with
	      'Foo::'.
	   7) Make sure VERSION matches $Foo::VERSION. This must be a string (not a
	      number) matching /^d.dd$/
	   8) Do the perl/make/test/install dance (thanks binkley :)

       With Inline 0.41 (or thereabouts) you can skip steps 3 & 4, and just say 'perl -MInline=INSTALL ./Foo.pm'. This will work for non-Inline
       modules too. It will become the defacto standard (since there is no easy standard) way of installing a Perl module. It will allow
       Makefile.PL parameters 'perl -MInline=INSTALL ./Foo.pm - PREFIX=/home/ingy/perl' and things like that. It will also make use of a MANIFEST
       if you provide one.

   How do I create a binary distribution using Inline?
       I've figured out how to create and install a PPM binary distribution; with or without distributing the C code! And I've decided to share it
       with all of you :)

       NOTE: Future versions of Inline will make this process a one line command. But for now just use this simple recipe.

       ---

       The Inline 0.40 distribution comes with a sample extension module called Math::Simple. Theoretically you could distribute this module on
       CPAN. It has all the necessary support for installation. You can find it in Inline-0.40/modules/Math/Simple/. Here are the steps for
       converting this into a binary distribution *without* C source code.

       NOTE: The recipient of this binary distribution will need to have the PPM.pm module installed. This module requires a lot of other CPAN
       modules. ActivePerl (available for Win32, Linux, and Solaris) has all of these bundled. While ActivePerl isn't required, it makes things (a
       lot) easier.

       1) cd Inline-0.40/Math/Simple/

       2) Divide Simple.pm into two files:

	   ---8<--- (Simple.pm)
	   package Math::Simple;
	   use strict;
	   require Exporter;
	   @Math::Simple::ISA = qw(Exporter);
	   @Math::Simple::EXPORT = qw(add subtract);
	   $Math::Simple::VERSION = '1.23';

	   use Inline (C => 'src/Simple.c' =>
		       NAME => 'Math::Simple',
		       VERSION => '1.23',
		      );
	   1;
	   ---8<---
	   ---8<--- (src/Simple.c)
	   int add (int x, int y) {
	       return x + y;
	   }

	   int subtract (int x, int y) {
	       return x - y;
	   }
	   ---8<---

       So now you have the Perl in one file and the C in the other. The C code must be in a subdirectory.

       3) Note that I also changed the term 'DATA' to the name of the C file. This will work just as if the C were still inline.

       4) Run 'perl Makefile.PL'

       5) Run 'make test'

       6) Get the MD5 key from 'blib/arch/auto/Math/Simple/Simple.inl'

       7) Edit 'blib/lib/Math/Simple.pm'. Change 'src/Simple.c' to '02c61710cab5b659efc343a9a830aa73' (the MD5 key)

       8) Run 'make ppd'

       9) Edit 'Math-Simple.ppd'. Fill in AUTHOR and ABSTRACT if you wish. Then change:

	   <CODEBASE HREF="" />

       to

	   <CODEBASE HREF="Math-Simple.tar.gz" />

       10) Run:

	   tar cvf Math-Simple.tar blib
	   gzip --best Math-Simple.tar

       11) Run:

	   tar cvf Math-Simple-1.23.tar Math-Simple.ppd Math-Simple.tar.gz
	   gzip --best Math-Simple-1.23.tar

       12) Distribute Math-Simple-1.23.tar.gz with the following instructions:

       A) Run:

	   gzip -d Math-Simple-1.23.tar.gz
	   tar xvzf Math-Simple-1.23.tar

       B) Run 'ppm install Math-Simple.ppd'

       C) Delete Math-Simple.tar and Math-Simple.ppd.

       D) Test with:

	   perl -MMath::Simple -le 'print add(37, 42)'

       ---

       That's it. The process should also work with zip instead of tar, but I haven't tried it.

       The recipient of the binary must have Perl built with a matching architecture. Luckily, ppm will catch this.

       For a binary dist *with* C source code, simply omit steps 2, 3, 6, and 7.

       If this seems too hard, then in a future version you should be able to just type:

	   make ppm

perl v5.12.1							    2010-01-27							     Inline-FAQ(3)