CPAN Module Distributions

generates all those nice .tar.gz files available on CPAN. The make dist command is 

the payoff for all the hard work that goes into using h2xs and Makefile.PL.

Here's what the make dist output looks like on my Linux system:

$ make dist

rm  rf Data Counter 0.01

/usr/local/bin/perl  I/usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.1/i686 linux \

 I/usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.1  MExtUtils::Manifest=manicopy,maniread \

 e "manicopy(maniread(), Data Counter 0.01 ,  best );"

mkdir Data Counter 0.01

mkdir Data Counter 0.01/t

tar cvf Data Counter 0.01.tar Data Counter 0.01

Data Counter 0.01/

Data Counter 0.01/t/

Data Counter 0.01/t/03errors.t

Data Counter 0.01/t/01load.t

Data Counter 0.01/t/02basic.t

Data Counter 0.01/README

Data Counter 0.01/MANIFEST

Data Counter 0.01/count_args.pl.PL

Data Counter 0.01/Changes

Data Counter 0.01/Makefile.PL

Data Counter 0.01/Counter.pm

rm  rf Data Counter 0.01

gzip   best Data Counter 0.01.tar

A .tar.gz distribution file is created called Data Counter 0.01.tar.gz. The contents 

of the file are taken from your MANIFEST file. (Here's where all your hard work keep 

ing it up to date finally pays off!) Conveniently, the format for the distribution file 

name is exactly what CPAN expects.

ExtUtils::MakeMaker also provides a convenient way to make sure your new 

distribution will pass a make test after being unpacked in an empty directory 

make disttest. Running make disttest will catch missing files in your distribution, 

although be aware that it won't catch a missing test file from your test directory 

since make test doesn't know what it's missing. To explicitly check your MANIFEST

file, use the command make distcheck. The output will list files in your distribution 

that aren't in your MANIFEST file.

Do It Yourself

Sometimes the way ExtUtils::MakeMaker does things isn't the way you want to do 

them. One common example is that your module can optionally use some other 

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