Re: Update dependants if installed (was: Update these modules if installed?)

There's a "conflicts" key available in META.json:

  ...
  "runtime": {
    "requires": { ... },
    "conflicts": {
      "Log::ger::Some::Plugin": "< 0.5",
      "Log::ger::Other::Plugin": "< 0.3"
    }
  }
[download]

However, as far as I'm aware, CPAN clients don't actually look at this information and use it to upgrade stuff. Your Makefile.PL (or a script in your test suite) could look at it though, and perhaps spit out some very visible warnings.

toby döt ink

Comment on Re: Update dependants if installed (was: Update these modules if installed?) Download Code

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Re^2: Update dependants if installed (was: Update these modules if installed?) by perlancar (Hermit) on Mar 10, 2020 at 00:56 UTC
Ah yes, perhaps CPAN clients should upgrade on conflicts of "Some::Module < 0.123", although this would still cause a circular dependency failure in the case of upgrading dependants. I'm afraid a warn() in Makefile.PL or diag() in a test script will not be seen by many cpanminus users unless they use the verbose (-v) option. And a die() will be annoying.	[reply]
Re^3: Update dependants if installed (was: Update these modules if installed?) by tobyink (Canon) on Mar 10, 2020 at 14:24 UTC
Yeah, the lack of feedback to cpanm users is an annoyance. Just a random thought; not great, but could be helpful. At configure-time, you could modify your pod to add an "INSTALLATION NOTES" section with text like: "This software was installed on $date at $time. At the time of installation, the following packages were already installed but now need upgrading". toby döt ink	[reply]
Re^4: Update dependants if installed (was: Update these modules if installed?) by perlancar (Hermit) on Mar 10, 2020 at 18:23 UTC
That's a nice idea and might be helpful to some; will add it to my list of things to consider for updating dependants. Thanks. For now, I'm adding "meta" (API) version checking to Log::ger for the next time this happens. At least users will get a clearer die message instead of some random failure.	[reply]