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

Hi
,
How can i convert a perl program (.pl) that i have written into a perl module (.pm)?

thanks.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: building modules
by Bilbo (Pilgrim) on Jun 09, 2003 at 14:31 UTC
[reply]
Re: building modules
by hardburn (Abbot) on Jun 09, 2003 at 14:25 UTC

    It depends. At a bare minimum, you need a package declaration, and probably use the Exporter.

    ----
    I wanted to explore how Perl's closures can be manipulated, and ended up creating an object system by accident.
    -- Schemer

    Note: All code is untested, unless otherwise stated

[reply]
      Thanks for the response.
      I have 2 questions now regarding this.

      1. Can u please point me to a link/doc where i can go through this?
      2. Suppose i have a perl module, can i just add some more routines to it just as in a perl file (also export those routines if needed)?

      thanks.
[reply]

        perlmod is probably the doc you want.

        For your second question, you just need to add the subroutine and then add it to the list of symbols to export.

        ----
        I wanted to explore how Perl's closures can be manipulated, and ended up creating an object system by accident.
        -- Schemer

        Note: All code is untested, unless otherwise stated

[reply]
Re: building modules
by monkey_boy (Priest) on Jun 09, 2003 at 15:17 UTC
    At the bare, bare minimum, call it .pm & put 1; at the end. Then you can put this in your scripts: 
    use lib "/path_to_my_module/";
use my_module;

    [download]
    this will give you access to all the subs.
[reply]
[d/l]
Re: building modules
by gellyfish (Monsignor) on Jun 09, 2003 at 15:17 UTC
    Aside from the other excellent advice, you might want to take a quick look at the program pl2pm that comes with Perl. Admittedly this only takes your perl library file, gives it a package declaration and adds the Exporter stuff and then saves it as a .pm file with the first letter capitalised - but then again if you have only a simple library that might be all that you need to do :-) Of course this isn't a substitute to reading the documentation that you have been pointed at. 
    /J\
[reply]

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