extutils::makemaker(3)

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 exten
sion module from a Makefile.PL. It is based on the Make
file.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 mod
ule. 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 argu
ments 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 ven

dor

PREFIX SITEPREFIX VEN

DORPREFIX

INST_ARCHLIB INSTALLARCHLIB INSTALLSITEARCH IN

STALLVENDORARCH
INST_LIB INSTALLPRIVLIB INSTALLSITELIB IN

STALLVENDORLIB
INST_BIN INSTALLBIN INSTALLSITEBIN IN

STALLVENDORBIN
INST_SCRIPT INSTALLSCRIPT INSTALLSCRIPT IN

STALLSCRIPT
INST_MAN1DIR INSTALLMAN1DIR INSTALLSITEMAN1DIR IN

STALLVENDORMAN1DIR
INST_MAN3DIR INSTALLMAN3DIR INSTALLSITEMAN3DIR IN

STALLVENDORMAN3DIR

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:

· setting LIB overrides any setting of INSTALLPRIVLIB,

INSTALLARCHLIB, INSTALLSITELIB, INSTALLSITEARCH (and
they are not affected by PREFIX);

· without LIB, setting PREFIX replaces the initial $Con

fig{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)/perllo
cal.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 recom
pile an extension, unless you are sure the AFS installa
tion 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 cre
ating appropriate targets in the Makefile whenever an
extension is built. You can invoke the corresponding sec
tion 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 invoca
tion 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)/perl
local.pod". This can be bypassed by calling make
pure_inst_perl.

Warning: the inst_perl: target will most probably over
write 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 invoca
tion 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 auto
matically (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 sec
tion.

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 INSTAL
LARCHLIB 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 counter
parts in %Config , otherwise it defaults to INSTALL
PRIVLIB. The same relationship holds for INSTALLSITELIB
and INSTALLSITEARCH.

MakeMaker gives you much more freedom than needed to con
figure 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 recom
mends 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 /^($pack
age*)/. 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 exam
ple:

perl Makefile.PL BINARY_LOCA

TION=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 com
mand 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 ref
erence. The hash may contain further attributes, e.g.
{LIBS => ...}, that have to be determined by some evalu
ation 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 avail
able 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 FUN
CLIST 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. Con
sult 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 Makefile 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 unal
tered 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 exten
sions 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{install
man*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 $(VENDORPRE
FIX)/man/man$(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 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.

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 explic
itly defined in the Makefile.PL.

NEEDS_LINKING

MakeMaker will figure out if an extension contains link
able 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

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 subdirec
tories.

NO_VC

In general, any generated Makefile checks for the cur
rent 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 '$(BASE
EXT)$(OBJ_EXT)', but can be a long string containing all
object files, e.g. "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

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 perl
main.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 applica ble 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 pro

vided 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 detec
tion, memory usage reporting, catchable failure of mem
ory 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 gener
ated 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 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 lib_
scan() 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.

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 com
patibility. As of release 5.6, these preprocessor defi
nitions 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 Pack
age 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 mes
sage.

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 unsuc
cessful 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 out
put format is

$PREREQ_PM = {
'A::B' => Vers1,
'C::D' => Vers2,
...

};

PRINT_PREREQ
RedHatism for "PREREQ_PRINT". The output format is dif
ferent, 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 routine requires that the file named
by VERSION_FROM contains one single line to compute the
version number. The first line in the file that contains
the regular expression

/([])(([120

will be evaluated with eval() and the value of the named variable after the eval() will be assigned to the VER SION attribute of the MakeMaker object. The following
lines will be parsed o.k.:

$VERSION = '1.00';
*VERSION = ´1.01';
( $VERSION ) = '$Revision: 1.63 $ ' =~ /evision:^/;
$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 depen
dency 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 con
tains 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 docu
mentation 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 imple
ment 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 sym
bolic links and links the rest. Default is 'best'.

dynamic_lib{ARMAYBE => 'ar', OTHERLDFLAGS => '...', INST_DYNAM

IC_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 sec
tion 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 ExtU
tils::Embed which is a collection of utilities for embed
ding.

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 val
ues. 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 spe
cific 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 Make
file targets. Most of the support comes from the ExtU
tils::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 ExtU_
tils::Manifest::fullcheck() for details)

make skipcheck
reports which files are skipped due to the entries in
the "MANIFEST.SKIP" file (See ExtUtils::Mani_ fest::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 "$(DIST
NAME)-$(VERSION)". If that directory 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 inter
mediate directory again. Finishes with a command
$(POSTOP) which defaults to a null command. Note: For
shdist to work properly a "shar" program that can han
dle 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 specify
ing a hash reference to the dist attribute of the
WriteMakefile call. The following parameters are recog
nized:

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", SUF

FIX=>".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 systemdependent module builds in a subdirectory of some other
distribution, or is listed as a dependency in a CPAN::Bun
dle, 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 pro
cessed.

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 <schw_
ern@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.make
maker.org.

perl v5.8.0 2002-06-01 ExtUtils::MakeMaker(3)