... gem install pjam ...

I really don't understand the purpose behind pjam -- its like a shell script I coded myself to remember  pinto ... perl Build.PL && ./Build dist

something like milla/minilla except written in ruby with giant if/else block

I wouldn't trust this style of coding

cmd = "export version_postfix='#{version_postfix}' && cd #{project_id}
+/#{config['application']} && rm -rf cpanlib && mkdir cpanlib/ && cp -
+r #{local_lib}/* cpanlib/ && rm -rf *.gz && ./Build realclean --quiet
+ 1>/dev/null && perl Build.PL --quiet 1>/dev/null 2>module_build.err.
+log && ./Build manifest --quiet 2>/dev/null 1>/dev/null && ./Build di
+st --quiet 1>/dev/null && ln -fs `ls #{project_id}/#{config['applicat
+ion']}/*.gz` #{project_id}/current.tar.gz && echo -n `ls *.gz` > #{pr
+oject_id}/current.txt"
[download]

I don't understand why anyone except the author would ever use pjam

Eek. Or this:

cmd = "export version_postfix='#{version_postfix}' && cd #{project_id}
+/#{src} && rm -rf *.gz && rm -rf MANIFEST && perl Build.PL --quiet 1>
+/dev/null 2>module_build.err.log  && ./Build realclean && perl Build.
+PL --quiet 1>/dev/null 2>module_build.err.log && ./Build manifest --q
+uiet 2>/dev/null 1>/dev/null  && ./Build dist --quiet 1>/dev/null"
[download]

Hopefully you don't have any important zipped files lying around in that directory. And hopefully nothing anywhere near this script involves shell metacharacters, because this guy has never heard of escaping. An amateur implementation of a pointless idea -- all too common in Ruby.

I really don't understand the purpose ... - If to say about pjam purposes please read my previous comment

I wouldn't trust this style of coding - really, you don't have to (:, it *just works for me*, and I wrote in documentation *WHEN it may works for others* ... and ... don't take implementation too serious, one day I may re-factoring this. I know code may look ugly, but again *it just works for me*, it's prototype, but I use it on my day to day basis and this make life easier , so why I can't share this with others, we call it open source, don't we?

well pinto doc well explained this : An "archive" is the file that developers ship, which contains all their application/library code, test cases, build scripts etc. Conversely, the archive is the file that users must fetch to install the application/library. Sometimes I also refer to these as "distributions".

so perl applications distribution archives are just archive to be unpacked and installed on target host, to run a PERL application

gem install pjam -- fantastic :D /// why not? :) I used to code on PERL for about 10 yeas, then I switched to ruby, but my daily job is to install perl applications; So I wrote pjam using ruby; but for end users it's just a tool that works;

so what does pjam do that pinto by itself doesn't do already?

First of all, pinto itself it's just a tool to handle cpan-like repositories, it does nothing with HOW source code gets built and becomes distribution archives. So pjam is upper layer to integrate sources code changes (SCM) and pinto, which in turn produce builds (distribution archives). Right now it's only about subversion, but it can be generalized on other SCMs.

Secondly, pjam is helpful abstraction to organize source code into structural projects to simplify distribution processes.