CPAN Module Distributions

libguile libraries I was using don't pass the PERL_DL_NONLAZY tests. What I needed to 

do was to filter out the PERL_DL_NONLAZY setting but otherwise leave the make test

code in the Makefile as is. To accomplish this, I added a subroutine called MY::test

to the end of my Makefile.PL:

package MY;

sub test {

  my $pkg = shift;

  my $test = $pkg >SUPER::test(@_);  # call the real test() from MY parent

  $test =~ s/PERL_DL_NONLAZY=1//g;   # filter out PERL_DL_NONLAZY setting

  return $test;                      # return the modified test block

}

This subroutine filters the output of the real test() subroutine and removes the 

troublesome PERL_DL_NONLAZY setting. To get a list of subroutines that you can 

extend in MY, see the documentation for the ExtUtils::MM_Unix module.

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Alternatives to h2xs

In Perl, there is nearly always more than one way to do any given task, and build 

ing a module distribution is no exception. It's a good bet that most of the module 

distributions on CPAN were built with h2xs, but that hasn't stopped people from 

trying to build better tools.

ExtUtils::ModuleMaker is intended to bring generating module templates  into 

the 21st century,  according to its author, R. Geoffrey Avery. The module offers the 

ability to operate from the command line similarly to h2xs or to be called from 

a script file to access more advanced functionality. One unique feature of 

ExtUtils::ModuleMaker is its ability to generate license text and a full LICENSE 

file based on a selection of open source licenses. For more details, see the module 

documentation, available on CPAN.

Sean M. Burke's makepmdist script offers an entirely different take on building a 

module distribution from h2xs and ExtUtils::ModuleMaker. Instead of generating 

templates for you to edit and maintain, it offers a fast path to building a module 

distribution from a single module file. You simply give it your module file as an 

argument, and out pops a .tar.gz file ready to upload to CPAN. The module file 

must be the only module in the distribution, and in order to specify prerequisites 

and tests it must adhere to a POD convention specified by makepmdist. However, 

for very simple modules it offers a time to upload that just can't be beat! You can 

find the script in Sean's author directory on CPAN authors/id/S/SB/SBURKE/.

However, even with these working alternatives some modules require the ser 

vices of h2xs. For example, XS modules (introduced in Chapter 9) are only 

supported by h2xs. I suggest you learn to use h2xs and then explore these alterna 

tives once you're familiar enough to draw your own conclusions.

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