NAME

Dist::Zilla::PluginBundle::Starter - A minimal Dist::Zilla plugin bundle

SYNOPSIS

; dist.ini
name    = My-Cool-Distribution
author  = Example Jones <jones@example.com>
license = Perl_5
copyright_holder = Example Jones
copyright_year   = 2017
version = 0.001

[@Starter]           ; all that is needed to start
revision = 4         ; always defaults to revision 1

; configuring examples
installer = ModuleBuildTiny
-remove = GatherDir  ; to use [Git::GatherDir] instead, for example
ExecDir.dir = script ; change the directory used by [ExecDir]
managed_versions = 1 ; uses the main module version, and bumps module versions after release
regenerate = LICENSE ; copy LICENSE to root after release and dzil regenerate

[@Starter::Git]      ; drop-in variant bundle for git workflows
revision = 4         ; requires/defaults to revision 3

DESCRIPTION

The [@Starter] plugin bundle for Dist::Zilla is designed to do the minimal amount of work to release a complete distribution reliably. It is similar in purpose to [@Basic], but with additional features to stay up to date and allow greater customization. The selection of included plugins is intended to be unopinionated and unobtrusive, so that it is usable for any well-formed CPAN distribution.

The Dist::Zilla::Starter guide is a starting point if you are new to Dist::Zilla or CPAN distribution building. See "EXAMPLES" for example configurations of this bundle.

For a variant of this bundle with built-in support for a git-based workflow, see [@Starter::Git].

For one-line initialization of a new [@Starter]-based distribution, try Dist::Zilla::MintingProfile::Starter (or Dist::Zilla::MintingProfile::Starter::Git).

Migrating from [@Basic] is easy for most cases. Most of the bundle is the same, so just make sure to remove any extra plugins that [@Starter] already includes, and configure the included plugins if needed (see "CONFIGURING"). Migrating a more complex set of plugins, including some that interact with the additional generated files, may require more careful consideration.

[@Starter] composes the PluginRemover and Config::Slicer roles to make it easier to customize and extend. Also, it supports bundle revisions specified as an option, in order to incorporate future changes to distribution packaging and releasing practices. Existing revisions will not be changed to preserve backwards compatibility.

The FAKE_RELEASE environment variable is supported as in Dist::Milla and Minilla. It replaces the [UploadToCPAN] plugin with [FakeRelease], to test the release process (including any version bumping and commits!) without actually uploading to CPAN.

$ FAKE_RELEASE=1 dzil release

Another simple way to use Dist::Zilla is with Dist::Milla, an opinionated bundle that requires no configuration and performs all of the tasks in "EXTENDING" by default. This bundle can also be configured to operate much like Dist::Milla, as in the "Dist::Milla equivalent" example.

EXAMPLES

Some example dist.ini configurations to get started with.

Just the basics

name    = Acme-Foo
author  = Jane Doe <example@example.com>
license = Artistic_2_0
copyright_holder = Jane Doe
copyright_year   = 2019
version = 1.00

[@Starter]
revision = 4

[Prereqs / RuntimeRequires]
perl = 5.010001
Exporter = 5.57
Path::Tiny = 0

[Prereqs / TestRequires]
Test::More = 0.88

Managed boilerplate

name    = Acme-Foo
author  = Jane Doe <example@example.com>
license = Artistic_2_0
copyright_holder = Jane Doe
copyright_year   = 2019

[@Starter::Git]
revision = 4
managed_versions = 1
regenerate = Makefile.PL
regenerate = META.json
regenerate = LICENSE

[AutoPrereqs]

Dist::Milla equivalent

[CheckChangesHasContent]

[ReadmeAnyFromPod]
type = markdown
filename = README.md
location = root
phase = release
[Regenerate::AfterReleasers]
plugin = ReadmeAnyFromPod

[@Starter::Git]
revision = 4
installer = ModuleBuildTiny
managed_versions = 1
regenerate = Build.PL
regenerate = META.json
regenerate = LICENSE
ExecDir.dir = script
Release_Commit.allow_dirty[] = README.md
BumpVersionAfterRelease.munge_build_pl = 0

[NameFromDirectory]
[LicenseFromModule]
override_author = 1
[Prereqs::FromCPANfile]
[StaticInstall]
mode = auto
[GithubMeta]
issues = 1
[Git::Contributors]

OPTIONS

[@Starter] currently only has a few direct options; it can be further configured by the composed roles, as in "CONFIGURING".

revision

[@Starter]
revision = 4

Selects the revision to use, from "REVISIONS". Defaults to revision 1.

installer

Requires revision 2 or higher.

[@Starter]
revision = 2
installer = ModuleBuildTiny

[@Starter]
revision = 2
installer = MakeMaker::Awesome
MakeMaker::Awesome.WriteMakefile_arg[0] = (clean => { FILES => 't/generated/*' })

The default installer is [MakeMaker], which works with no extra configuration for most cases. The installer option can be used to replace it with one of the following supported installers, which can then be configured in the same way as shown in "CONFIGURING".

[MakeMaker::Awesome] is useful if you need to customize the generated Makefile.PL.

[ModuleBuildTiny] will generate a simple Build.PL using Module::Build::Tiny, but this may not work correctly with old versions of the CPAN.pm installer or if you use features incompatible with Module::Build::Tiny.

[ModuleBuildTiny::Fallback] generates a more complex Build.PL that uses Module::Build::Tiny by default, but falls back to Module::Build on old versions of the CPAN.pm installer that don't understand configure dependencies.

When using a Module::Build::Tiny-based installer, the [ExecDir] plugin will be set to mark the script/ directory for executables instead of the default bin/.

managed_versions

Requires revision 3 or higher.

[@Starter]
revision = 3
managed_versions = 1

With managed_versions set, [@Starter] will use an additional set of plugins to manage your module versions when releasing, while leaving them in place in the source files.

[RewriteVersion] will read the distribution version from the main module, and set all other module versions to match in the build. [NextRelease] replaces {{$NEXT}} in your Changes file with a line containing the distribution version and build date/time. Finally, [BumpVersionAfterRelease] will bump the versions in your source module files after a release.

When using this option, you must have the distribution version set in your main module in a form like our $VERSION = '1.234';, rather than in dist.ini. Other modules and scripts must also have similar version declarations to be updated appropriately. You can set your distribution's version manually by changing the version of your main module, or by setting the V environment variable when building or releasing. See the documentation for each plugin mentioned above for details on configuring them, which can be done in the usual config-slicing way as shown in "CONFIGURING".

This option also enables the inherit_version option for [MetaProvides::Package] since all module versions are matched to the main module in this configuration.

regenerate

Requires revision 3 or higher.

[@Starter]
revision = 3
regenerate = INSTALL
regenerate = README

The specified generated files will be copied to the root directory upon release using [CopyFilesFromRelease], and excluded from the [GatherDir] plugin in use. Note: if you remove the built-in [GatherDir] plugin to use one separately, you must exclude copied files from that plugin yourself. Additionally, [Regenerate::AfterReleasers] is applied to [CopyFilesFromRelease] to allow these files to be generated and copied on demand outside of a release using dzil regenerate.

REVISIONS

The [@Starter] plugin bundle supports the following revisions.

Revision 1

Revision 1 is the default and is equivalent to using the following plugins:

[ReadmeAnyFromPod]

[PodSyntaxTests]

[Test::ReportPrereqs]

[Test::Compile]

xt_mode = 1

directory = t
directory = xt
directory = inc
directory = share
directory = eg
directory = examples

[MetaProvides::Package]

[ShareDir]

[ExecDir]

This revision differs from [@Basic] as follows:

Uses [ReadmeAnyFromPod] instead of [Readme].
Uses [RunExtraTests] instead of [ExtraTests].
Includes the following additional plugins: [MetaJSON], [PodSyntaxTests], [Test::ReportPrereqs], [Test::Compile], [MetaConfig], [MetaNoIndex], [MetaProvides::Package].

Revision 2

Revision 2 is similar to Revision 1, with these differences:

Sets the option "inherit_version" in [MetaProvides::Package] to 0 by default, so that provides metadata will use individual module versions if they differ from the distribution version.
[Pod2Readme] is used instead of [ReadmeAnyFromPod] to generate the plaintext README, as it is a simpler plugin for this purpose. It takes the same filename and source_filename options, but does not allow further configuration, and does not automatically use a .pod file as the source.
The "installer" option is now supported to change the installer plugin.

Revision 3

Revision 3 is similar to Revision 2, but additionally supports the "managed_versions" and "regenerate" options, and variant bundles like [@Starter::Git].

Revision 4

Revision 4 is similar to Revision 3, but removes the [MetaConfig] plugin because it adds significant clutter to the generated META files without much benefit. It can easily be added to the dist.ini if desired.

CONFIGURING

By using the PluginRemover or Config::Slicer role options, the [@Starter] bundle's included plugins can be customized as desired. Here are some examples:

GatherDir

If the distribution is using git source control, it is often helpful to replace the default [GatherDir] plugin with [Git::GatherDir]. (Note: The [@Starter::Git] variant of this bundle uses [Git::GatherDir] by default.)

[Git::GatherDir]
[@Starter]
-remove = GatherDir

The included [GatherDir] plugin can alternatively be configured directly. (See "CONFIGURATION SYNTAX" in Config::MVP::Slicer for an explanation of the subscripts for slicing array attributes.)

[@Starter]
GatherDir.include_dotfiles = 1
GatherDir.exclude_filename[0] = foo_bar.txt
GatherDir.prune_directory[] = ^temp

Readme

The [Pod2Readme] or [ReadmeAnyFromPod] plugin (depending on bundle revision) generates a plaintext README from the POD text in the distribution's "main_module" in Dist::Zilla by default, but can be configured to look elsewhere. The standard README should always be plaintext, but in order to generate a non-plaintext README in addition, [ReadmeAnyFromPod] can simply be used separately. Note that POD-format READMEs should not be included in the distribution build because they will get indexed and installed due to an oddity in CPAN installation tools.

[@Starter]
revision = 2
Pod2Readme.source_filename = bin/foobar

[ReadmeAnyFromPod / Markdown_Readme]
type = markdown
filename = README.md

[ReadmeAnyFromPod / Pod_Readme]
type = pod
location = root ; do not include pod readmes in the build!
phase = release ; avoid changing files in the root with dzil build or dzil test
[Regenerate::AfterReleasers] ; allows regenerating with dzil regenerate
plugin = Pod_Readme

MetaNoIndex

The distribution may include additional files or directories that should not have their contents indexed as CPAN modules. (See "CONFIGURATION SYNTAX" in Config::MVP::Slicer for an explanation of the subscripts for slicing array attributes.)

[@Starter]
MetaNoIndex.file[0] = eggs/FooBar.pm
MetaNoIndex.directory[a] = eggs
MetaNoIndex.directory[b] = bacon

MetaProvides

The [MetaProvides::Package] plugin will use the distribution's version (as set in dist.ini or by a plugin) as the version of each module when populating the provides metadata by default. If the distribution does not have uniform module versions, the plugin can be configured to reflect each module's hardcoded version where available, by setting the inherit_version option to 0 (the default in bundle "Revision 2").

[@Starter]
MetaProvides::Package.inherit_version = 0 ; default in revision 2

With this option set to 0, it will use the main distribution version as a fallback for any module where a version is not found. This can also be overridden, so that if no version is found for a module, no version will be specified for it in metadata, by setting inherit_missing to 0 as well.

[@Starter]
MetaProvides::Package.inherit_version = 0
MetaProvides::Package.inherit_missing = 0

ExecDir

Some distributions use the script/ directory instead of bin/ (the [ExecDir] default) for executable scripts.

[@Starter]
ExecDir.dir = script

Versions

When using the "managed_versions" option, the additional plugins can be directly configured in various ways to suit your versioning needs.

[@Starter]
revision = 3
managed_versions = 1

; configuration examples
RewriteVersion.global = 1
BumpVersionAfterRelease.munge_makefile_pl = 0
NextRelease.filename = ChangeLog
NextRelease.format = %-5v %{yyyy-MM-dd}d

EXTENDING

This bundle includes a basic set of plugins for releasing a distribution, but there are many more common non-intrusive tasks that Dist::Zilla can help with simply by using additional plugins in the dist.ini. You can install all plugins required by a dist.ini by running dzil authordeps --missing | cpanm or with dzil installdeps.

Name

To automatically set the distribution name from the current directory, use [NameFromDirectory].

License and Copyright

To extract the license and copyright information from the main module, and optionally set the author as well, use [LicenseFromModule].

Changelog

To automatically add the new release version to the distribution changelog, use [NextRelease] as the "managed_versions" option does. To ensure the release has changelog entries, use [CheckChangesHasContent].

Git

To better integrate with a git workflow, use the plugins from [@Git], as the [@Starter::Git] variant of this bundle does. To automatically add contributors to metadata from git commits, use [Git::Contributors].

Resources

To automatically set resource metadata from an associated GitHub repository, use [GithubMeta]. To set resource metadata manually, use [MetaResources].

Prereqs

To specify distribution prereqs in a cpanfile, use [Prereqs::FromCPANfile]. To specify prereqs in a prereqs.json or prereqs.yml, use [PrereqsFile]. To specify prereqs in dist.ini, use [Prereqs]. To automatically guess the distribution's prereqs by parsing the code, use [AutoPrereqs].

BUGS

Report any issues on the public bugtracker.

AUTHOR

Dan Book <dbook@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This is free software, licensed under:

The Artistic License 2.0 (GPL Compatible)

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