ExtUtils::MakeMaker(3pm) Perl Programmers Reference Guide ExtUtils::MakeMaker(3pm)
NAME
ExtUtils::MakeMaker - create an extension 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 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().
How To Write A Makefile.PL
The short answer is: Don't.
Always begin with h2xs.
Always begin with h2xs!
ALWAYS BEGIN WITH H2XS!
even if you're not building around a header file, and even if you don't have an XS component.
Run h2xs(1) before you start thinking about writing a module. For so called pm-only modules that consist of "*.pm" files only, h2xs has the
"-X" switch. This will generate dummy files of all kinds that are useful for the module developer.
The medium answer is:
use ExtUtils::MakeMaker;
WriteMakefile( NAME => "Foo::Bar" );
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 PREFIX=/tmp/myperl5
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 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_VERBOSE" 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
PREFIX SITEPREFIX VENDORPREFIX
INST_ARCHLIB INSTALLARCHLIB INSTALLSITEARCH INSTALLVENDORARCH
INST_LIB INSTALLPRIVLIB INSTALLSITELIB INSTALLVENDORLIB
INST_BIN INSTALLBIN INSTALLSITEBIN INSTALLVENDORBIN
INST_SCRIPT INSTALLSCRIPT INSTALLSCRIPT INSTALLSCRIPT
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 $/, @INC'
PREFIX and LIB attribute
PREFIX and LIB can be used to set several INSTALL* attributes in one go. The quickest way to install a module in a non-standard place might
be
perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=~
This will install all files in the module under your home directory, with man pages and libraries going into an appropriate place (usually
~/man and ~/lib).
Another way to specify many INSTALL directories with a single parameter is LIB.
perl Makefile.PL LIB=~/lib
This will install the module's architecture-independent files into ~/lib, the architecture-dependent files into ~/lib/$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:
o setting LIB overrides any setting of INSTALLPRIVLIB, INSTALLARCHLIB, INSTALLSITELIB, INSTALLSITEARCH (and they are not affected by PRE-
FIX);
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 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 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 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 dur-
ing 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 = $archlibexp
INST_LIB = ./blib/lib
INST_ARCHLIB = ./blib/arch
If perl has not yet been installed then PERL_SRC can be defined on the command line as shown in the previous section.
Which architecture dependent directory?
If you don't want to keep the defaults for the INSTALL* macros, MakeMaker helps you to minimize the typing needed: the usual relationship
between INSTALLPRIVLIB and INSTALLARCHLIB is determined by Configure at perl compilation time. MakeMaker supports the user who sets
INSTALLPRIVLIB. If INSTALLPRIVLIB is set, but INSTALLARCHLIB not, then MakeMaker defaults the latter to be the same subdirectory of
INSTALLPRIVLIB as Configure decided for the counterparts in %Config , otherwise it defaults to INSTALLPRIVLIB. The same relationship holds
for INSTALLSITELIB and INSTALLSITEARCH.
MakeMaker gives you much more freedom than needed to configure internal variables and get different results. It is worth to mention, that
make(1) also lets you configure most of the variables that are used in the Makefile. But in the majority of situations this will not be
necessary, and should only be done if the author of a package recommends it (or you know what you're doing).
Using Attributes and Parameters
The following attributes may be specified as arguments to WriteMakefile() or as NAME=VALUE pairs on the command line.
ABSTRACT
One line description of the module. Will be included in PPD file.
ABSTRACT_FROM
Name of the file that contains the package description. MakeMaker looks for a line in the POD matching /^($packages-s)(.*)/. This is
typically the first line in the "=head1 NAME" section. $2 becomes the abstract.
AUTHOR
String containing name (and email address) of package author(s). Is used in PPD (Perl Package Description) files for PPM (Perl Package
Manager).
BINARY_LOCATION
Used when creating PPD files for binary packages. It can be set to a full or relative path or URL to the binary archive for a particular
architecture. For example:
perl Makefile.PL BINARY_LOCATION=x86/Agent.tar.gz
builds a PPD package that references a binary of the "Agent" package, located in the "x86" directory relative to the PPD itself.
C Ref to array of *.c file names. Initialised from a directory scan and the values portion of the XS attribute hash. This is not currently
used by MakeMaker but may be handy in Makefile.PLs.
CCFLAGS
String that will be included in the compiler call command line between the arguments INC and OPTIMIZE.
CONFIG
Arrayref. E.g. [qw(archname manext)] defines ARCHNAME & MANEXT from config.sh. MakeMaker will add to CONFIG the following values anyway:
ar cc cccdlflags ccdlflags dlext dlsrc ld lddlflags ldflags libc lib_ext obj_ext ranlib sitelibexp sitearchexp so
CONFIGURE
CODE reference. The subroutine should return a hash reference. The hash may contain further attributes, e.g. {LIBS => ...}, that have to
be determined by some evaluation method.
DEFINE
Something like "-DHAVE_UNISTD_H"
DIR
Ref to array of subdirectories containing Makefile.PLs e.g. [ 'sdbm' ] in ext/SDBM_File
DISTNAME
Your name for distributing the package (by tar file). This defaults to NAME above.
DL_FUNCS
Hashref of symbol names for routines to be made available as universal symbols. Each key/value pair consists of the package name and an
array of routine names in that package. Used only under AIX, OS/2, VMS and Win32 at present. The routine names supplied will be
expanded in the same way as XSUB names are expanded by the XS() macro. Defaults to
{"$(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.
FIRST_MAKEFILE
The name of the Makefile to be produced. Defaults to the contents of MAKEFILE, but can be overridden. This is used for the second Make-
file that will be produced for the MAP_TARGET.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 INSTALL-
PRIVLIB and INSTALLSITELIB to that value regardless any explicit setting of those arguments (or of PREFIX). INSTALLARCHLIB and INSTALL-
SITEARCH 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.
LINKTYPE
'static' or 'dynamic' (default unless usedl=undef in config.sh). Should only be used to force static linking (also see linkext below).
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
The name of the Makefile to be produced.
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.
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 anywhere 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
Defaults to "@". By setting it to an empty string you can generate a Makefile that echos all commands. Mainly used in debugging MakeMaker
itself.
NORECURS
Boolean. Attribute to inhibit descending into subdirectories.
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 $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
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
o with bugs in memory allocations which are caught by Perl's malloc();
o which interact with the memory allocator in other ways than via malloc(), realloc(), free(), calloc(), sbrk() and brk();
o 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.
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
Ref to hash of files to be processed as perl programs. MakeMaker will default to any found *.PL file (except Makefile.PL) being keys and
the basename of the file being the value. E.g.
{'foobar.PL' => 'foobar'}
The *.PL files are expected to produce output to the target files themselves. If multiple files can be generated from the same *.PL file
then the value in the hash can be a reference to an array of target file names. E.g.
{'foobar.PL' => ['foobar1','foobar2']}
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 over-
ride 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 behav-
iour. 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.
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 coments 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 command 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 comment, and the macro would be incorrectly defined.
POLLUTE
Release 5.005 grandfathered old global symbol names by providing preprocessor 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.
Defaults to $Config{installprefixexp}.
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 with the proper message.
Note: see Test::Harness for a shortcut for stopping tests early if you are missing dependencies.
Do not use this parameter for simple requirements, which could be resolved at a later time, e.g. after an unsuccessful make test of your
module.
It is extremely rare to have to use "PREREQ_FATAL" at all!
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
$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 PREFIX, but only for the site install locations.
Defaults to PREFIX (if set) or $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.
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 PREFIX, but only for the vendor install locations.
Defaults to PREFIX (if set) or $Config{vendorprefixexp}
VERBINST
If true, make install will be verbose
VERSION
Your version number for distributing the package. This defaults to 0.1.
VERSION_FROM
Instead of specifying the VERSION in the Makefile.PL you can let MakeMaker parse a file to determine the version number. The parsing rou-
tine requires that the file named by VERSION_FROM contains one single line to compute the version number. The first line in the file that
contains the regular expression
/([$*])(([w:']*)VERSION).*=/
will be evaluated with eval() and the value of the named variable after the eval() will be assigned to the VERSION attribute of the Make-
Maker object. The following lines will be parsed o.k.:
$VERSION = '1.00';
*VERSION = '1.01';
( $VERSION ) = '$Revision: 1.63 $ ' =~ /$Revision:s+([^s]+)/;
$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 $FOO::VERSION = '1.30';
(Putting "my" or "local" on the preceding line will work o.k.)
The file named in VERSION_FROM is not added as a dependency to Makefile. This is not really correct, but it would be a major pain during
development to have to rewrite the Makefile for any smallish change in that file. If you want to make sure that the Makefile contains the
correct VERSION macro after any change of the file, you would have to do something like
depend => { Makefile => '$(VERSION_FROM)' }
See attribute "depend" below.
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.
clean
{FILES => "*.xyz foo"}
depend
{ANY_TARGET => ANY_DEPENDECY, ...}
(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, ...}
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 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 supress 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 com-
mands 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
$self->{LIBS} = ['-ldbm -lucb -lc'];
Distribution Support
For authors of extensions MakeMaker provides several Makefile targets. Most of the support comes from the ExtUtils::Manifest module, where
additional documentation can be found.
make distcheck
reports which files are below the build directory but not in the MANIFEST file and vice versa. (See ExtUtils::Manifest::fullcheck() for
details)
make skipcheck
reports which files are skipped due to the entries in the "MANIFEST.SKIP" file (See ExtUtils::Manifest::skipcheck() for details)
make distclean
does a realclean first and then the distcheck. Note that this is not needed to build a new distribution as long as you are sure that
the MANIFEST file is ok.
make manifest
rewrites the MANIFEST file, adding all remaining files found (See ExtUtils::Manifest::mkmanifest() for details)
make distdir
Copies all the files that are in the MANIFEST file to a newly created directory with the name "$(DISTNAME)-$(VERSION)". If that direc-
tory exists, it will be removed first.
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 $(TOUNIX), 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 zip-
file. 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( 'dist' => { COMPRESS=>"bzip2", SUFFIX=>".bz2" })
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
ExtUtils::MakeMaker::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).
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.
SEE ALSO
ExtUtils::MM_Unix, ExtUtils::Manifest ExtUtils::Install, ExtUtils::Embed
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.
perl v5.8.0 2002-06-01 ExtUtils::MakeMaker(3pm)