Installing a module that is perl-version specific

SBECK has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I recently released Date::Manip 6.xx which requires perl 5.10 (Date::Manip 5.xx works fine on perl 5.6 and probably earlier versions). NOTE: I'm still supporting the 5.xx releases for users who don't have perl 5.10 .

The problem is that now the automatic installers are failing. If you try to upgrade Date::Manip and you're running perl 5.6/5.8, it'll try the newest version which will fail, and it'll report that it couldn't install Date::Manip. Of course, you can manually specify to use the newest of the 5.xx releases, and that works fine, but I'd like to fix this problem in a better way.

I'm not interested in renaming the module to Date::Manip6 (or some other variation), but I'm considering packaging both the 5.xx and 6.xx releases in the 6.xx package and then fixing the Makefile.PL/Build.PL to install the correct one based on the perl version.

Is this a valid/good/poor/unacceptable solution to the problem? Will it solve one problem only to create another? If there's a better way to solve the problem please let me know. NOTE: backing out the changes that require 5.10 isn't an option that I'm willing to consider.

I'm not 100% sure how to do it, but I'm sure it won't be hard to figure it out, but if there's already a module out there that does this, I'd be interested in a note so that I can see an example of it already being done.

Thanks

Comment on Installing a module that is perl-version specific

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Re: Installing a module that is perl-version specific by ikegami (Patriarch) on Mar 31, 2010 at 20:08 UTC
You could have a front end (interface) that loads the appropriate back end (work horse) based on `$]`. `BEGIN { my $backend; if ($] >= 5.010) { $backend = 'Data::Manip::Perl5010'; } elsif ($] >= 5.008) { $backend = 'Data::Manip::Perl5008'; } elsif ($] >= 5.006) { $backend = 'Data::Manip::Perl5006'; } else { die("Perl $] isn't supported\n"); } eval "require $backend" or die $@; our @ISA = $backend; }` [download] [ Oops, Date::Manip is a procedural module, so you'll have to use `AUTOLOAD` or use `package Date::Manip;` in each of the helper modules instead of using `@ISA`. ]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Installing a module that is perl-version specific by chuckbutler (Monsignor) on Apr 01, 2010 at 01:23 UTC
Building on the submission by ikegami: package Date::Manip; use warnings; use strict; use Carp; use Exporter; # our @ISA; our @EXPORT; my $backend; if ($] >= 5.010) { $backend = 'Date::Manip::Perl5010'; } elsif ($] >= 5.008) { $backend = 'Date::Manip::Perl5008'; } elsif ($] >= 5.006) { $backend = 'Date::Manip::Perl5006'; } else { croak("Perl $] isn't supported\n"); } my $backend_exp = $backend . "::EXPORT"; eval "require $backend; $backend->import(); return 1;" or croak "$@ +"; { no strict qq{refs}; @EXPORT = @{$backend_exp}; } unshift (@ISA, $backend); # 1; [download] We pick the correct version of the module to use. Then load the module file and import the symbols dynamically, with an eval. Then we setup the @EXPORT list so it is available when the ->import() subroutine runs as part of use, the symbols are imported into Main::. Update and Postscript: If the package statement in the per-version Date::Manip's are left as-is, the following code is preferred: `package Date::Manip; use warnings; use strict; use Carp; use Exporter; # my $backend; if ($] >= 5.010) { $backend = 'Date::Manip::Perl5010'; } elsif ($] >= 5.008) { $backend = 'Date::Manip::Perl5008'; } elsif ($] >= 5.006) { $backend = 'Date::Manip::Perl5006'; } else { croak("Perl $] isn't supported\n"); } eval "require $backend; " or croak "$@"; # 1;` [download] This should work well. Good luck. -c	[reply] [d/l] [select]


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