NAME

File::ShareDir::ProjectDistDir - Simple set-and-forget using of a '/share' directory in your projects root

VERSION

version 0.5.1

SYNOPSIS

package An::Example::Package;

use File::ShareDir::ProjectDistDir;

# during development, $dir will be $projectroot/share
# but once installed, it will be wherever File::Sharedir thinks it is.
my $dir = dist_dir('An-Example')

Project layout requirements:

$project/
$project/lib/An/Example/Package.pm
$project/share/   # files for package 'An-Example' go here.

You can use a directory name other than 'share' ( Assuming you make sure when you install that, you specify the different directory there also ) as follows:

use File::ShareDir::ProjectDistDir ':all', defaults => {
  projectdir => 'templates',
};

METHODS

import

use File::ShareDir::ProjectDistDir (@args);

This uses Sub::Exporter to do the heavy lifting, so most usage of this module can be maximised by understanding that first.

  • :all

    ->import( ':all' , .... )

    Import both dist_dir and dist_file

  • dist_dir

    ->import('dist_dir' , .... )

    Import the dist_dir method

  • dist_dir

    ->import('dist_file' , .... )

    Import the dist_file method

  • projectdir

    ->import( .... , projectdir => 'share' )

    Specify what the project directory is as a path relative to the base of your distributions source, and this directory will be used as a ShareDir simulation path for the exported methods During development.

    If not specified, the default value 'share' is used.

  • filename

    ->import( .... , filename => 'some/path/to/foo.pm' );

    Generally you don't want to set this, as its worked out by caller() to work out the name of the file its being called from. This file's path is walked up to find the 'lib' element with a sibling of the name of your projectdir.

  • distname

    ->import( .... , distname => 'somedistname' );

    Specifying this argument changes the way the functions are emitted at installed runtime, so that instead of taking the standard arguments File::ShareDir does, the specification of the distname in those functions is eliminated.

    i.e:

    # without this flag
    use File::ShareDir::ProjectDistDir qw( :all );
    
    my $dir = dist_dir('example');
    my $file = dist_file('example', 'path/to/file.pm' );
    
    # with this flag
    use File::ShareDir::ProjectDistDir ( qw( :all ), distname => 'example' );
    
    my $dir = dist_dir();
    my $file = dist_file('path/to/file.pm' );
  • defaults

    ->import( ... , defaults => {
        filename => ....,
        projectdir => ....,
    });

    This is mostly an alternative syntax for specifying filename and projectdir, which is mostly used internally, and their corresponding other values are packed into this one.

Sub::Exporter tricks of note.

Make your own sharedir util

package Foo::Util;

sub import {
    my ($caller_class, $caller_file, $caller_line )  = caller();
    if ( grep { /share/ } @_ ) {
        require File::ShareDir::ProjectDistDir;
        File::ShareDir::ProjectDistDir->import(
            filename => $caller_file,
            dist_dir => { distname => 'myproject' , -as => 'share' },
            dist_dir => { distname => 'otherproject' , -as => 'other_share' , projectdir => 'share2' },
            -into => $caller_class,
        );
    }
}

....

package Foo;
use Foo::Util qw( share );

my $dir = share();
my $other_dir => other_share();

build_dist_dir

use File::ShareDir::ProjectDirDir ( : all );

#  this calls
my $coderef = File::ShareDir::ProjectDistDir->build_dist_dir(
  'dist_dir' => {},
  { defaults => { filename => 'path/to/yourcallingfile.pm', projectdir => 'share' } }
);

use File::ShareDir::ProjectDirDir ( qw( :all ), distname => 'example-dist' );

#  this calls
my $coderef = File::ShareDir::ProjectDistDir->build_dist_dir(
  'dist_dir' => {},
  { distname => 'example-dist', defaults => { filename => 'path/to/yourcallingfile.pm', projectdir => 'share' } }
);

use File::ShareDir::ProjectDirDir
  dist_dir => { distname => 'example-dist', -as => 'mydistdir' },
  dist_dir => { distname => 'other-dist',   -as => 'otherdistdir' };

# This calls
my $coderef = File::ShareDir::ProjectDistDir->build_dist_dir(
  'dist_dir',
  { distname => 'example-dist' },
  { defaults => { filename => 'path/to/yourcallingfile.pm', projectdir => 'share' } },
);
my $othercoderef = File::ShareDir::ProjectDistDir->build_dist_dir(
  'dist_dir',
  { distname => 'other-dist' },
  { defaults => { filename => 'path/to/yourcallingfile.pm', projectdir => 'share' } },
);

# And leverages Sub::Exporter to create 2 subs in your package.

Generates the exported 'dist_dir' method. In development environments, the generated method will return a path to the development directories 'share' directory. In non-development environments, this simply returns File::ShareDir::dist_dir.

As a result of this, specifying the Distribution name is not required during development, however, it will start to matter once it is installed. This is a potential avenues for bugs if you happen to name it wrong.

build_dist_file

use File::ShareDir::ProjectDirDir ( : all );

#  this calls
my $coderef = File::ShareDir::ProjectDistDir->build_dist_file(
  'dist_file' => {},
  { defaults => { filename => 'path/to/yourcallingfile.pm', projectdir => 'share' } }
);

use File::ShareDir::ProjectDirDir ( qw( :all ), distname => 'example-dist' );

#  this calls
my $coderef = File::ShareDir::ProjectDistDir->build_dist_file(
  'dist_file' => {},
  { distname => 'example-dist', defaults => { filename => 'path/to/yourcallingfile.pm', projectdir => 'share' } }
);

use File::ShareDir::ProjectDirDir
  dist_file => { distname => 'example-dist', -as => 'mydistfile' },
  dist_file => { distname => 'other-dist',   -as => 'otherdistfile' };

# This calls
my $coderef = File::ShareDir::ProjectDistDir->build_dist_file(
  'dist_file',
  { distname => 'example-dist' },
  { defaults => { filename => 'path/to/yourcallingfile.pm', projectdir => 'share' } },
);
my $othercoderef = File::ShareDir::ProjectDistDir->build_dist_file(
  'dist_file',
  { distname => 'other-dist' },
  { defaults => { filename => 'path/to/yourcallingfile.pm', projectdir => 'share' } },
);

# And leverages Sub::Exporter to create 2 subs in your package.

Generates the 'dist_file' method.

In development environments, the generated method will return a path to the development directories 'share' directory. In non-development environments, this simply returns File::ShareDir::dist_file.

Caveats as a result of package-name as stated in "build_dist_dir" also apply to this method.

SIGNIFICANT CHANGES

0.5.0 - Heuristics and Return type changes

New devdir heuristic

Starting with 0.5.0, instead of using our simple lib/../share pattern heuristic, a more advanced heuristic is used from the new Path::FindDev and Path::IsDev.

This relies on a more "concrete" marker somewhere at the top of your development tree, and more importantly, checks for the existence of specific files that are not likely to occur outside a project root.

lib and share based heuristics were a little fragile, for a few reasons:

  • lib can, and does appear all over UNIX file systems, for purposes other than development project roots.

    For instance, have a look in /usr/

    /usr/bin
    /usr/lib
    /usr/share  ## UHOH.

    This would have the very bad side effect of anything installed in /usr/lib thinking its "in development".

    Fortunately, nobody seems to have hit this specific bug, which I suspect is due only to /usr/lib being a symbolic link on most x86_64 systems.

  • lib is also reasonably common within CPAN package names.

    For instance:

    lib::abs

    Which means you'll have a hierarchy like:

    $PREFIX/lib/lib/abs

    All you need for something to go horribly wrong would be for somebody to install a CPAN module named:

    share::mystuff

    Or similar, and instantly, you have:

    $PREFIX/lib/lib/
    $PREFIX/lib/share/

    Which would mean any module calling itself lib::* would be unable to use this module.

So instead, as of 0.5.0, the heuristic revolves around certain specific files being in the dev directory.

Which is hopefully a more fault resilient mechanism.

New Return Types

Starting with 0.5.0, the internals are now based on Path::Tiny instead of Path::Class, and as a result, there may be a few glitches in transition.

Also, previously you could get a Path::Class::* object back from dist_dir and dist_file by importing it as such:

use File::ShareDir::ProjectDistDir
    qw( dist_dir dist_file ),
    defaults => { pathclass => 1 };

Now you can also get Path::Tiny objects back, by passing:

use File::ShareDir::ProjectDistDir
    qw( dist_dir dist_file ),
    defaults => { pathtiny => 1 };

For the time being, you can still get Path::Class objects back, but its likely to be deprecated in future.

( In fact, I may even make 2 specific sub-classes of PDD for people who want objects back, as it will make the API and the code much cleaner )

AUTHOR

Kent Fredric <kentnl@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2013 by Kent Fredric <kentnl@cpan.org>.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.