NAME

CPAN::Plugin::Sysdeps - a CPAN.pm plugin for installing system dependencies

SYNOPSIS

In the CPAN.pm shell:

o conf plugin_list push CPAN::Plugin::Sysdeps
o conf commit

DESCRIPTION

CPAN::Plugin::Sysdeps is a plugin for CPAN.pm to install non-CPAN dependencies automatically. Currently, the list of required system dependencies is maintained in a static data structure in CPAN::Plugin::Sysdeps::Mapping. Supported operations systems and distributions are FreeBSD and Debian-like Linux distributions.

The plugin may be configured like this:

o conf plugin_list CPAN::Plugin::Sysdeps=arg1,arg2,...

Possible arguments are:

apt-get, aptitude, <pkg>, <yum>

Force a particular installer for system packages. If not set, then the plugin find a default for the current operating system or linux distributions:

Debian-like distributions: apt-get

Fedora-like distributions: yum

FreeBSD: pkg

Additionally, sudo(1) is prepended before the installer programm if the current user is not a privileged one.

batch

Don't ask any questions.

interactive

Be interactive, especially ask for confirmation before installing a system package.

dryrun

Only log installation actions.

debug

Turn debugging on. Alternatively the environment variable CPAN_PLUGIN_SYSDEPS_DEBUG may be set to a true value.

mapping=perlmod|file

Prepend another static mapping from cpan modules or distributions to system packages. This should be specified as a perl module (Foo::Bar) or an absolute file name. The mapping file is supposed to just return the mapping data structure as described below.

MAPPING

!This implementation is subject to change!

A mapping is tree-like data structure expressed as nested arrays. The top-level nodes usually specify a cpan module or distribution to match, and a leaf should specify the dependent system packages.

A sample mapping may look like this:

    (
     [cpanmod => ['BerkeleyDB', 'DB_File'],
      [os => 'freebsd',
       [package => 'db48']],
      [linuxdistro => '~debian',
       [linuxdistrocodename => 'squeeze',
	[package => 'libdb4.8-dev']],
       [linuxdistrocodename => 'wheezy',
	[package => 'libdb5.1-dev']],
       [package => 'libdb5.3-dev']]],
    );

The nodes are key-value pairs. The values may be strings, arrays of strings (meaning that any of the strings may match), or compiled regular expressions.

Supported keywords are:

cpanmod => $value

Match a CPAN module name (e.g. Foo::Bar).

cpandist => $value

Match a CPAN distribution name (e.g. Foo-Bar-1.23). Note that currently only the base_id is matched; this may change!

os => $value

Match a operating system (perl's $^O value).

linuxdistro => $value

Match a linux distribution name, as returned by lsb_release -is. The distribution name is lowercased.

There are special values ~debian to match Debian-like distributions (Ubuntu and LinuxMint) and ~fedora to match Fedora-like distributions (RedHat and CentOS).

linuxdistrocodename => $value

Match a linux distribution version using its code name (e.g. jessie).

TODO: it should be possible to express comparisons with code names, e.g. '>=squeeze'.

linuxdistroversion => $value

Match a linux distribution versions. Comparisons like '>=8.0' are possible.

package => $value

Specify the dependent system packages.

For some distributions (currently: debian-like ones) it is possible to specify alternatives in the form package1 | package2 | ....

NOTES, LIMITATIONS, BUGS, TODO

• Minimal requirements

  It is assumed that some dependencies are still installed: a make, a suitable C compiler, maybe sudo, patch (e.g. if there are distroprefs using patch files) and of course perl. On linux systems, lsb-release is usually required (there's limited support for lsb-release-less operation on some Debian-like distributions).

• Batch mode

  Make sure to configure the plugin with the batch keyword (but read also "Conflicting packages"). In CPAN/MyConfig.pm:

  'plugin_list' => [q[CPAN::Plugin::Sysdeps=batch]],

  Installation of system packages requires root priviliges. Therefore the installer is run using sudo(1) if the executing user is not root. To avoid the need to enter a password either make sure that running the installer program (apt-get or so) is made password-less in the sudoers file, or run a wrapper like sudo_keeper.

• Error handling

  Failing things in the plugin are causing die() calls. This can happen if packages cannot be installed (e.g. because of a bad network connection, the package not existing for the current os or distribution, package exists only in a "non-free" repository which needs to be added to /etc/apt/sources.list, another installer process having the exclusive lock...).

• Conflicting packages

  System prerequisites specified in the mapping may conflict with already installed packages. Please note that with the "batch" configuration already installed conflicting packages are actually removed, at least on Debian systems.

• Support for more OS and Linux distributions

  The default mapping has support for FreeBSD and Debian-like systems (but details are missing for distributions like Ubuntu or Mint). Support for other systems is missing.

• Windows support

  Probably it is possible to support Windows by using installer tools like chocolatey.

CREDITS

This module was developed at the Perl QA Hackathon 2016 http://act.qa-hackathon.org/qa2016/ which was made possible by the generosity of many sponsors:

https://www.fastmail.com FastMail, https://www.ziprecruiter.com ZipRecruiter, http://www.activestate.com ActiveState, http://www.opusvl.com OpusVL, https://www.strato.com Strato, http://www.surevoip.co.uk SureVoIP, http://www.cv-library.co.uk CV-Library, https://www.iinteractive.com/ Infinity, https://opensource.careers/perl-careers/ Perl Careers, https://www.mongodb.com MongoDB, https://www.thinkproject.com thinkproject!, https://www.dreamhost.com/ Dreamhost, http://www.perl6.org/ Perl 6, http://www.perl-services.de/ Perl Services, https://www.evozon.com/ Evozon, http://www.booking.com Booking, http://eligo.co.uk Eligo, http://www.oetiker.ch/ Oetiker+Partner, http://capside.com/en/ CAPSiDE, https://www.procura.nl/ Procura, https://constructor.io/ Constructor.io, https://metacpan.org/author/BABF Robbie Bow, https://metacpan.org/author/RSAVAGE Ron Savage, https://metacpan.org/author/ITCHARLIE Charlie Gonzalez, https://twitter.com/jscook2345 Justin Cook.

AUTHOR

Slaven Rezic

SEE ALSO

cpan-sysdeps, CPAN, apt-get(1), aptitude(1), pkg(8), yum(1).