NAME

Alien::MSYS - Tools required for GNU style configure scripts on Windows

VERSION

version 0.06

SYNOPSIS

from Perl:

use Alien::MSYS;
# runs uname from MSYS
my $uname = mysy { `uname` };

From Prompt/Makefile

C:\> perl -MAlien::MSYS -e msys_run uname

DESCRIPTION

MSYS provides minimal shell and POSIX tools on Windows to enable GNU style configure scripts to run (the type usually generated by autoconf). This module aims to provide an interface for using MSYS on Windows and act as a no-op on Unix like operating systems which already have that capability. If you use this module, I recommend that you list this as a prerequisite only during MSWin32 installs.

When installing, this distribution will look for an existing MSYS using the following methods in this order:

environment variable PERL_ALIEN_MSYS_BIN

If set, this environment variable should be set to the root of MSYS (NOT MinGW). For example, if you have MinGW / MSYS installed on D: you might use this:

C:\> set PERL_ALIEN_MSYS_BIN=D:\MinGW\msys\1.0\bin

Keep in mind that this environment variable is consulted during both install and at run-time, so it is advisable to set this in the System Properties control panel.

search PATH for mingw-get.exe

First Alien::MSYS searches the PATH environment variable for the mingw-get.exe program, which is a common method for installing MinGW and MSYS. From there if it can deduce the location of MSYS it will use that.

try C:\MinGW\msys\1.0\bin

This is usually the default location, so Alien::MSYS will try this directory even if it isn't found by another method.

Use desktop shortcut for MinGW Installer

Usually when you install the MinGW installer it creates a shortcut on the desktop. if Win32::Shortcut is installed (it is an optional dependency), then Alien::MSYS can use that information to determine the location of MSYS.

If MSYS cannot be found using any of these methods, then it will download and install MSYS in this distribution's share directory (via File::ShareDir).

FUNCTIONS

msys

# get the uname from MSYS
my $uname = msys { `uanem` };

# run with GNU make from MSYS instead of
# dmake from Strawberry Perl
msys { system 'make' };

This function takes a single argument, a code reference, and runs it with the correctly set environment so that calls to the system function or the qx quote like operator will use MSYS instead of the default environment.

msys_run

# pass command through @ARGV
C:\> perl -MAlien::MSYS -e msys_run uname

# pass command through @_
C:\> perl -MAlien::MSYS -e "msys_run 'make'; msys_run 'make install'"

This function runs a command with the MSYS environment. It gets the command and arguments either as passed to it, or if none are passed the the command is expected to be in @ARGV.

If the command fails then it will exit with a non-zero error code. This is useful, in the second example above if either make or make install fails, then the whole command will fail, also make install will not be attempted unless make succeeds.

msys_path

This function returns the full path to the MSYS bin directory.

AUTHOR

Graham Ollis <plicease@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2013 by Graham Ollis.

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