NAME

ExtUtils::CXX - support C++ XS files

SYNOPSIS

use ExtUtils::CXX;
use ExtUtils::MakeMaker;

# wrap calls to WriteMakefile or MakeMaker that are supposed to use
# C++ XS files into extutils_cxx blocks:

extutils_cxx {
   WriteMakefile (
      ...  put your normal args here
   );
};

DESCRIPTION

This module enables XS extensions written in C++. It is meant to be useful for the users and installers of c++ modules, rather than the authors, by having a single central place where to patch things, rather than to have to patch every single module that overrides CC manually. That is, in the worst case, you need to patch this module for your environment before being able to CPAN-install further C++ modules; commonly, only setting a few ENV variables is enough; and in the best case, it just works out of the box.

(Comments on what to do and suggestions on how to achieve these things better are welcome).

At the moment, it works by changing the values in %Config::Config temporarily. It does the following things:

1. It tries to change $Config{cc} and $Config{ld} into a C++ compiler.

If the environment variable $CXX is set, then it's value will be used to replace both (except if $PERL_CXXLD is set, then that will be used for $Config{ld}.

(There is also a $PERL_CXX which takes precedence over $CXX).

The important thing is that the chosen C++ compiler compiles files with a .c ending as C++ - a generic compiler wrapper such as gcc that detects the lafguage by the file extension will not work.

In the absence of these variables, it will do the following transformations on what it guesses will be the compiler name:

gcc   => g++
clang => clang++
xlc   => xlC
cc    => g++
c89   => g++

extutils_cxx BLOCK;

This function temporarily does hideous things so you can call WriteMakefile or similar functions in the BLOCK normally. See the description, above, for more details.

WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO

This module only makes your .xs files compile as C++. It does not provide magic C++ support for objects and typemaps, and does not help with portability or writing your .xs file. All of these you have to do - google is your friend.

LIMITATIONS

Combining C++ and C is an art form in itself, and there is simply no portable way to make it work - the platform might have a C compiler, but no C++ compiler. The C++ compiler might be binary incompatible to the C compiler, or might not run for other reasons, and in the end, C++ is more of a moving target than C.

SEE ALSO

There is a module called ExtUtils::XSpp that says it gives you C++ in XS, by changing XS in some ways. I don't know what exactly it's purpose is, but it might be a useful addition for C++ Xs development for you, so you might want to look at it. It doesn't have ExtUtils::MakeMaker support, and there is a companion module that only supports the obsolete (and very broken) Module::Build, sour YMMV.

AUTHOR/CONTACT

Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/extutils-cxx.html