ExtUtils::MakeMaker::FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions About MakeMaker

FAQs, tricks and tips for CWExtUtils::MakeMaker.

Why not just use <insert other build config tool here>?

Why did MakeMaker reinvent the build configuration wheel? Why not just use autoconf or automake or ppm or Ant or ... There are many reasons, but the major one is cross-platform compatibility. Perl is one of the most ported pieces of software ever. It works on operating systems I've never even heard of (see perlport for details). It needs a build tool that can work on all those platforms and with any wacky C compilers they might have. No such build tool existed at the time and I only know of one now (Module::Build).

What's Module::Build and how does it relate to MakeMaker?

Module::Build is a project by Ken Williams to supplant MakeMaker. Its primary advantages are:

* pure perl. no make, no shell commands

* easier to customize

* cleaner internals

* less cruft

Module::Build is the official heir apparent to MakeMaker and we encourage people to work on M::B rather than spending time improving MakeMaker.

Often you want to manually set the CW$VERSION in the main module distribution because this is the version that everybody sees on CPAN and maybe you want to customize it a bit. But for all the other modules in your dist, CW$VERSION is really just bookkeeping and all that's important is it goes up every time the module is changed. Doing this by hand is a pain and you often forget. Simplest way to do it automatically is to use your version control system's revision number (you are using version control, right?). In CVS and RCS you use $Revision$ writing it like so:

    $VERSION = sprintf "%d.%03d", q$Revision: 1.9 $ =~ /(\d+)/g;

    # must be all on one line or MakeMaker will get confused.
    $VERSION = do { my @r = (q$Revision: 1.9 $ =~ /\d+/g); sprintf "%d."."%03d" x $#r, @r };

What's this META.yml thing and how did it get in my MANIFEST?!

META.yml is a module meta-data file pioneered by Module::Build and automatically generated as part of the 'distdir' target (and thus 'dist'). See Module Meta-Data in ExtUtils::MakeMaker. To shut off its generation, pass the CWNO_META flag to CWWriteMakefile().

XS code is very sensitive to the module version number and will complain if the version number in your Perl module doesn't match. If you change your module's version # without reruning Makefile.PL the old version number will remain in the Makefile causing the XS code to be built with the wrong number. To avoid this, you can force the Makefile to be rebuilt whenever you change the module containing the version number by adding this to your WriteMakefile() arguments.

    depend => { '$(FIRST_MAKEFILE)' => '$(VERSION_FROM)' }

How do I make two or more XS files coexist in the same directory?

Sometimes you need to have two and more XS files in the same package. One way to go is to put them into separate directories, but sometimes this is not the most suitable solution. The following technique allows you to put two (and more) XS files in the same directory. Let's assume that we have a package CWCool::Foo, which includes CWCool::Foo and CWCool::Bar modules each having a separate XS file. First we use the following Makefile.PL:

  use ExtUtils::MakeMaker;

  WriteMakefile(
      NAME              => 'Cool::Foo',
      VERSION_FROM      => 'Foo.pm',
      OBJECT              => q/$(O_FILES)/,
      # ... other attrs ...
  );

Notice the CWOBJECT attribute. MakeMaker generates the following variables in Makefile:

  # Handy lists of source code files:
  XS_FILES= Bar.xs \
        Foo.xs
  C_FILES = Bar.c \
        Foo.c
  O_FILES = Bar.o \
        Foo.o

Therefore we can use the CWO_FILES variable to tell MakeMaker to use these objects into the shared library. That's pretty much it. Now write Foo.pm and Foo.xs, Bar.pm and Bar.xs, where Foo.pm bootstraps the shared library and Bar.pm simply loading Foo.pm. The only issue left is to how to bootstrap Bar.xs. This is done from Foo.xs:

  MODULE = Cool::Foo PACKAGE = Cool::Foo

  BOOT:
  # boot the second XS file
  boot_Cool__Bar(aTHX_ cv);

If you have more than two files, this is the place where you should boot extra XS files from. The following four files sum up all the details discussed so far.

  Foo.pm:
  -------
  package Cool::Foo;

  require DynaLoader;

  our @ISA = qw(DynaLoader);
  our $VERSION = '0.01';
  bootstrap Cool::Foo $VERSION;

  1;

  Bar.pm:
  -------
  package Cool::Bar;

  use Cool::Foo; # bootstraps Bar.xs

  1;

  Foo.xs:
  -------
  #include "EXTERN.h"
  #include "perl.h"
  #include "XSUB.h"

  MODULE = Cool::Foo  PACKAGE = Cool::Foo

  BOOT:
  # boot the second XS file
  boot_Cool__Bar(aTHX_ cv);

  MODULE = Cool::Foo  PACKAGE = Cool::Foo  PREFIX = cool_foo_

  void
  cool_foo_perl_rules()

      CODE:
      fprintf(stderr, "Cool::Foo says: Perl Rules\n");

  Bar.xs:
  -------
  #include "EXTERN.h"
  #include "perl.h"
  #include "XSUB.h"

  MODULE = Cool::Bar  PACKAGE = Cool::Bar PREFIX = cool_bar_

  void
  cool_bar_perl_rules()

      CODE:
      fprintf(stderr, "Cool::Bar says: Perl Rules\n");

And of course a very basic test:

  test.pl:
  --------
  use Test;
  BEGIN { plan tests => 1 };
  use Cool::Foo;
  use Cool::Bar;
  Cool::Foo::perl_rules();
  Cool::Bar::perl_rules();
  ok 1;

This tip has been brought to you by Nick Ing-Simmons and Stas Bekman.

If you have a question you'd like to see added to the FAQ (whether or not you have the answer) please send it to makemaker@perl.org.

The denizens of makemaker@perl.org.

ExtUtils::MakeMaker