NAME
Perl::Configure - Answer perl's ./Configure questions reproducibly
SYNOPSIS
# Command line:$ perl-configure threads=y# PerlusePerl::Configure;my$configurator= Perl::Configure->new();# Override certain default settings$configurator->define("threads"=>'y',"perlio"=>'n',);$configurator->run();
DESCRIPTION
Compling perl requires a number of configuration steps. Running ./Configure in a perl source distribution configures it for compilation on a given platform. It asks about a hundred questions and then creates a config.sh file, which will later be used to create a makefile.
However, some answers cause several entries in config.sh to be modified. For example, if you say you want a threaded perl, Configure will modify 94 different values in config.sh.
Perl::Configure to the rescue: It runs Configure, recognizes its questions, fills in preprogrammed answers and gives default answers otherwise. Perl::Configure is most useful for automatically reproducing perl builds with slight modifications.
For example, to create a threaded perl with ithreads, use this:
my$cfg= Perl::Configure->new();$cfg->define("threads"=>'y',"ithreads"=>'y',);$cfg->run();
This will go quickly through all the questions Configure throws at the user, press 'Enter' on pretty much all of them to accept the defaults, and will only answer 'y' to the questions
Build a threading Perl?
and
Use the newer interpreter-based ithreads?
which will then cause 94 variables to be set by Configure in config.sh. Modifying config.sh in this case would be a hopeless undertaking. While ./Configure will (almost) always generate a config.sh file that can be used later to build perl successfully, a hand-edited config.sh file is not guaranteed to work.
Note that in most cases you can use Configure's command line options to accomplish the same thing:
./Configure -Dthreads=y -d
However, this means you have to look at the Configure code and figure out which setting corresponds to the question.
The mapping between a Perl::Configure token (like threads) and the corresponding question (like Build a threading Perl?) is defined in Perl::Configure::Questions. If Perl::Configure::Questions doesn't define a pattern to recognize a question Configure asks, the run() method will hang and time out after 60 seconds. If you see this, please send the question to the module maintainer (see below) to have it added to the existing collection and the next release of Perl::Configure.
Here's the list of the mappings defined in this release:
.-----------------------------------------------------------.| Token | Question |+---------------------------+-------------------------------+| 64-bit-integers | Try touse64-bit integers, || |ifavailable? || | support,ifavailable? || arch | What is your architecture || | name || build-with-mad | Build PerlwithMAD? || carriage-return| Type carriagereturnto || |continue|| ccflags | Any additional cc flags? || char-size | What is the size of a || | character (in bytes)? || compiler | Use which C compiler? || compiler-compiler | Which compiler compiler || | ANY{(byacc or yacc or bison || | -y)} shall Iuse? || compiler-flags-special | Any special flags to pass to || | ANY{cc -c} to compile shared || | library modules? || | defaults? || config-sh-reuse | I see a config.sh file || devel-release | Do you really want to || |continue? || dir-check | Use that name anyway? || dirs-additional | Colon-separated list of || | additional directoriesfor|| | perl to search? || domain-name | What is your domain name? || double-align | Doubles must be aligned on a || | how-many-byte boundary? || dtrace | Support DTraceifavailable? || dynamic-extensions | What extensionsdoyou wish || | to load dynamically? || email | What is your e-mail address? || email-admin | Perl administrator e-mail || | address || extensions | What extensionsdoyou wish || | to include? || fast-stdio | Use the"fast stdio"if|| | available? || files-large | Try to understand large || | files,ifavailable? || getgroup-pointer | What type pointer is the || | second argument to || | getgroups() and setgroups()? || gethostname-ignore | Shall I ignore gethostname() || | from now on? || host-file-yp | Are you getting the hosts || | file via yellow pages? || host-name-confirm | Your host name appears to be || inc-legacy | List of earlier versions to || | include in@INC? || instructions | Would you like to see the || | instructions || ithreads | Use the newer || | interpreter-based ithreads? || keep-reco | Keep the recommended value || ldflags | Any additional ld flags (NOT || | including libraries)? || lib-dirs | Directories tousefor|| | library searches? || lib-dynamic-create-cmd | What command should be used || | to create dynamic libraries? || lib-dynamic-create-flags | Any special flags to pass to || | ANY{cc} to create a || | dynamically loaded library? || lib-dynamic-flags | Any special flags to pass to || | linking? || lib-extension | What is the file extension || | usedforshared libraries? || | to extract C symbols from the || | libraries? || libperl | Build a shared libperl.so || libperl-name | What namedoyou want to give || | to the shared libperl || libs | What libraries touse? || | loading? || load-dynamic-file | Source file tousefor|| | dynamic loading || | available? || make-depend | Run make depend now? || malloc-perl | Do you wish to attempt touse|| | the malloc that comeswith|| malloc-wrap | Do you wish to wrap malloc || | calls to protect against || | potential overflows? || man-lib-suffix | What suffix should be used || |forthe perl5 library man || | pages? || man-suffix | What suffix should be used || |forthe main Perl5 man pages? || mod-dyn-ext | What is the extension of || | dynamically loaded modules || modules-extra | Install any extra modules (y || | or n)? || multiplicity | Build Perlformultiplicity? || optimizer | What optimizer/debugger flag || | should be used? || os-defaults | Which of these apply,ifany || os-name | Operatingsystemname || os-version | Operatingsystemversion? || pager | What pager is used on your || |system? || path-addon | Installation prefix touse|| |foradd-on modules and || | utilities? || path-addon-public-exe | Pathname where the add-on || | public executables should be || | installed? || path-addon-public-scripts | Pathname where add-on public || | executable scripts should be || | installed? || path-bin | Pathname where the public || | executables will reside? || path-html-lib-site | Pathname where the || | site-specific library html || | pages should be installed || path-html-site | Pathname where the || | site-specific html pages || | should be installed || path-install | What installation prefix || | should Iuseforinstalling || | files? || path-man-lib-site | Pathname where the || | site-specific library manual || | pages should be installed? || path-man-lib-src | Wheredothe perl5 library || | man pages (source) go? || path-man-site | Pathname where the || | site-specific manual pages || | should be installed || path-man-src | Wheredothe main Perl5 || | manual pages (source) go? || path-module-html | Directoryforthe Perl5 || | module html pages? || path-perl-html | Directoryforthe main Perl5 || | html pages? || path-private | Pathname where the private || | library files will reside? || path-public-arch | Other username to test || | security of setuid scripts || |with? || path-public-exe | Wheredoyou keep publicly || | executable scripts? || path-shebang | What shall I putafterthe#! || | to start up perl || path-site-specific | Pathnameforthe || | site-specific library files? || path-site-specific-arch | Pathnameforthe || | site-specific || | architecture-dependent || | library files? || path-vendor-specific | Pathnameforthe || | vendor-supplied library || | files? || path-vendor-specific-arch | Pathnameforvendor-supplied || | architecture-dependent files? || path-vendor-specific-bin | Pathnameforthe || | vendor-supplied executables || | directory? || path-vendor-specific-html | Pathnameforthe || | vendor-supplied html pages? || path-vendor-specific-man1 | Pathnameforthe || | vendor-supplied manual || | section 1 pages? || path-vendor-specific-man3 | Pathnameforthe || | vendor-supplied manual || | section 3 pages? || path-vendor-specific-scri | Pathnameforthe || pts | vendor-supplied scripts || | directory? || perlio | Use the PerlIO abstraction || | layer? || prefix | Installation prefix touse? || previous-keep | Keep the previous value || random-func | Use which function to || | generate random numbers? || relocatable-inc | Use relocatable@INC? || setuid-emu | Do you want todo|| | setuid/setgid emulation? || setuid-secure | Does your kernel have || |*secure* setuid scripts? || | escape to edit config.sh || socks | Build PerlforSOCKS? || static-extensions | What extensionsdoyou wish || | to load statically? || threads | Build a threading Perl? || usrbinperl | Do you want to install perl || | as /usr/bin/perl || vendor-specific | Do you want to configure || | vendor-specific add-on || | directories? || vendor-specific-prefix | Installation prefix touse|| |forvendor-supplied add-ons || version-specific-only | Do you want to install only || | the version-specific parts of || | perl? || vfork | Do you still want touse|| | vfork() |'---------------------------+-------------------------------'
Perl::Configure requires an existing perl installation with a number of CPAN modules (Expect amongst them), so it can't be used to bootstrap a machine without a fully functional perl interpreter.
EXAMPLES
If you want to make sure that a previously generated config.sh file's content is used as a default and that any discrepancies are kept, use config-sh and previous-keep.
my$cfg= Perl::Configure->new();$cfg->define("config-sh"=>'y',"previous-keep"=>'y',);$cfg->run();
If you specify a prefix path that doesn't exist (yet), make sure to set dir-check to 'y' to answer Configure's question appropriately:
$cfg->define("prefix"=>'/quack',"dir-check"=>'y',);
ADDING QUESTIONS
The questions that Perl::Configure recognizes are stored in the __DATA__ section of Perl::Configure::Questions in YAML format. New releases of Perl::Configure might add to this section (or change its format, so don't rely on it, use the API instead).
If you encounter a Configure question that Perl::Configure doesn't recognize (and therefore first hangs and then aborts), the best way to fix this is submit the question, a proposed token name and a sample answer to the maintainer of this module (see below). This way, Perl::Configure can be improved and other people can benefit from your update.
If you want a quick fix (or need to fix something very specific to your platform that no one else will find useful), you can add questions to Perl::Configure::Questions:
my$questions= Perl::Configure::Questions->new();$questions->add("path-frobnicate",# token"What's your frobnication path?",# question"/frob",# sample answer);my$cfg= Perl::Configure->new(questions=>$questions);$cfg->define("prefix"=>'/somewhere',"path-frobnicate"=>'/frob',);$cfg->run();
If you forget to add() the question and the token beforehand, Perl::Configure's define method would complain about an unknown token and die.
There is also an optional forth parameter to override Configure's defaults, please check the Perl::Configure::Questions documentation for details.
SEE ALSO
Perl::Configure::Questions
AUTHOR
Mike Schilli, m@perlmeister.com, 2006
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
Copyright (C) 2006 by Mike Schilli
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.8.5 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.