NAME

SYNOPSIS

WriteMakefile( ATTRIBUTE => VALUE [, ...] );

which is really

MM->new(\%att)->flush;

DESCRIPTION

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.

Hintsfile support

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

What's new in version 5 of MakeMaker

Multi directory extensions have an immediately visible speed advantage, because there's no startup penalty for any single subdirectory Makefile.

Single directory packages benefit from the much improved needs_linking() method. As the main Makefile knows everything about the subdirectories, a needs_linking() method can now query all subdirectories if there is any linking involved down in the tree. The speedup for PM-only Makefiles seems to be around 1 second on my Indy 100 MHz.

Incompatibilities between MakeMaker 5.00 and 4.23

You are likely to face a few warnings that expose deprecations which will result in incompatibilities in the long run:

You should not use %att directly anymore. Instead any subroutine you override in the MY package will be called by the object method, so you can access all object attributes directly via the object in $_[0].

You should not call the class methos MM->something anymore. Instead you should call the superclass. Something like

Especially the libscan() and exescan() methods should be altered towards OO programming, that means do not expect that $_ to contain the path but rather $_[1].

Try to build several extensions simultanously to debug your Makefile.PL. You can unpack a bunch of distributed packages within one directory and run

That's actually fun to watch :)

Final suggestion: Try to delete all of your MY:: subroutines and watch, if you really still need them. MakeMaker might already do what you want without them. That's all about it.

Default Makefile Behaviour

The Makefile to be produced may be altered by adding arguments of the form KEY=VALUE. E.g.

Other interesting targets in the generated Makefile are

make test

MakeMaker also checks for any files matching glob(``t/*.t''). It will add commands to the test target of the generated Makefile that execute all matching files via the Test::Harness module with the -I switches set correctly.

make install

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

The INSTALL... macros in turn default to their %Config ($Config{installprivlib}, $Config{installarchlib}, etc.) counterparts.

If you don't want to keep the defaults, 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.

PREFIX attribute

This will replace the string specified by $Config{prefix} in all $Config{install*} values.

Note, that the tilde expansion is done by MakeMaker, not by perl by default, nor by make.

If the user has superuser privileges, and is not working on AFS (Andrew File System) or relatives, then the defaults for INSTALLPRIVLIB, INSTALLARCHLIB, INSTALLBIN, etc. will be appropriate, and this incantation will be the best:

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

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

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

To produce a perl binary with a different name than perl, either say

or say

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:

or

Determination of Perl Library and Installation Locations

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:

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:

If perl has not yet been installed then PERL_SRC can be defined on the command line as shown in the previous section.

Useful Default Makefile Macros

BASEEXT = Basename part of FULLEXT. May be just equal FULLEXT.

ROOTEXT = Directory part of FULLEXT with leading slash (eg /DBD)

INST_LIBDIR = $(INST_LIB)$(ROOTEXT)

INST_AUTODIR = $(INST_LIB)/auto/$(FULLEXT)

INST_ARCHAUTODIR = $(INST_ARCHLIB)/auto/$(FULLEXT)

Using Attributes and Parameters

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.

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 (export lists) and VMS (linker options) 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'] }

DL_VARS

Array of symbol names for variables to be made available as universal symbols. Used only under AIX (export lists) and VMS (linker options) at present. Defaults to []. (e.g. [ qw( Foo_version Foo_numstreams Foo_tree ) ])

EXE_FILES

Ref to array of executable files. The files will be copied to the INST_EXE 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.

H

Ref to array of *.h file names. Similar to C.

INC

Include file dirs eg: ``-I/usr/5include -I/path/to/inc''

INSTALLARCHLIB

Used by 'make install', which copies files from INST_ARCHLIB to this directory if INSTALLDIRS is set to perl.

INSTALLBIN

Used by 'make install' which copies files from INST_EXE to this directory.

INSTALLDIRS

Determines which of the two sets of installation directories to choose: installprivlib and installarchlib versus installsitelib and installsitearch. The first pair is chosen with INSTALLDIRS=perl, the second with INSTALLDIRS=site. Default is site.

INSTALLMAN1DIR

This directory gets the man pages at 'make install' time. Defaults to $Config{installman1dir}.

INSTALLMAN3DIR

This directory gets the man pages at 'make install' time. Defaults to $Config{installman3dir}.

INSTALLPRIVLIB

Used by 'make install', which copies files from INST_LIB to this directory if INSTALLDIRS is set to perl.

INSTALLSITELIB

Used by 'make install', which copies files from INST_LIB to this directory if INSTALLDIRS is set to site (default).

INSTALLSITEARCH

Used by 'make install', which copies files from INST_ARCHLIB to this directory if INSTALLDIRS is set to site (default).

INST_ARCHLIB

Same as INST_LIB for architecture dependent files.

INST_EXE

Directory, where executable scripts should be installed during 'make'. Defaults to ``./blib/bin'', just to have a dummy location during testing. make install will copy the files in INST_EXE to INSTALLBIN.

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

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)

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 of .pm and .pod files. MakeMaker will default this to all .pod and any .pm files that include POD directives. The files listed here will be converted to man pages and installed as was requested at Configure time.

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 Makefile.PL.

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

Defaults the @. 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.

OBJECT

List of object files, defaults to '$(BASEEXT)$(OBJ_EXT)', but can be a long string containing all object files, e.g. "tkpBind.o tkpButton.o tkpCanvas.o"

PERL

Perl binary for tasks that can be done by miniperl

PERLMAINCC

The call to the program that is able to compile perlmain.c. Defaults to $(CC).

PERL_ARCHLIB

Same as above for architecture dependent files

PERL_LIB

Directory containing the Perl library to use.

PERL_SRC

Directory containing the Perl source code (use of this should be avoided, it may be undefined)

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.

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. If a lib directory exists and is not listed in DIR (above) then any *.pm and *.pl files it contains will also be included by default. 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.

PREFIX

Can be used to set the three INSTALL* attributes in one go (except for probably INSTALLMAN1DIR, if it is not below PREFIX according to %Config). They will have PREFIX as a common directory node and will branch from that node into lib/, lib/ARCHNAME or whatever Configure decided at the build time of your perl (unless you override one of them, of course).

PREREQ

Placeholder, not yet implemented. Will eventually be a 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. Needs further evaluation, should probably allow to define prerequisites among header files, libraries, perl version, etc.

SKIP

Arryref. E.g. [qw(name1 name2)] skip (do not write) sections of the Makefile

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.

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

/(\$[\w:]*\bVERSION)\b.*=/

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

$VERSION = '1.00'; ( $VERSION ) = '$Revision: 1.174 $ ' =~ /\$Revision:\s+([^\s]+)/; $FOO::VERSION = '1.10';

but these will fail:

my $VERSION = '1.01'; local $VERSION = '1.02'; local $FOO::VERSION = '1.30';

The file named in VERSION_FROM is added as a dependency to Makefile to guarantee, that the Makefile contains the correct VERSION macro after a change of the file.

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. 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

clean

{FILES => "*.xyz foo"}

depend

{ANY_TARGET => ANY_DEPENDECY, ...}

dist

{TARFLAGS => 'cvfF', COMPRESS => 'gzip', SUFFIX => 'gz', SHAR => 'shar -m', DIST_CP => 'ln'}

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 => '...'}

installpm

{SPLITLIB => '$(INST_LIB)' (default) or '$(INST_ARCHLIB)'}

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'}

tool_autosplit

{MAXLEN =E<gt> 8}

Overriding MakeMaker Methods

or you can edit the default by saying something like:

Both methods above are available for backwards compatibility with older Makefile.PLs.

If you still need a different solution, try to develop another subroutine, that fits your needs and submit the diffs to perl5-porters@nicoh.com or comp.lang.perl.misc as appropriate.

Distribution Support

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 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 command $(PREOP) which defaults to a null command. Does a distdir next and runs tar on that directory into a tarfile. Then deletes the distdir. 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 command $(PREOP) which defaults to a null command. Does a distdir next and runs shar on that directory into a sharfile. Then deletes the distdir. 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 ci

Does a $(CI) and a $(RCS_LABEL) on all files in the MANIFEST file.

An example:

AUTHORS

MODIFICATION HISTORY

TODO