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

Okay, I have never created a PPM package before. I read that one truly great node about "building and creating PPM distributions" here (sorry too lazy to link). It was very informative. I also looked at the activestate documentation. I know I should use PPM::Make to simplify things for me. Where I am lost is the whole repository thing. Why do some people, like crazyinsomniac, have their own repositories? What's the purpose? Isn't there a CPAN for PPM packages out there? What does the PPM utility query when I tell it to install something? Isn't that the central repository? See I am really confused here. Also I looked at the activestate website and I did see what appears to be a central repository. It's at:

http://ppm.activestate.com/PPMPackages/

So why do people have their own repositories? And why don't scripts like cpan-upload and brain d foy's release also allow you to release/upload your package to a PPM repository? Thanks, monks.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Central PPM Repository?
by batkins (Chaplain) on Aug 16, 2003 at 02:57 UTC
    I'm pretty sure the main problem is that ActiveState isn't too open about their PPM repository - certainly not as open as CPAN. PPM queries the ActiveState repository by default, but since it's pretty limited, you can set your repository to a third party to get a bigger selection of modules.

    Personally, I think it would be nice if CPAN integrated PPM builds somehow. But oh well, I don't use Windoze too much anyways lately.

    milkbone - perl/tk instant messaging - it's the only way to fly

    You know anyone who'll debug two million lines of code for what I get this job?
    - Dennis Nedry

[reply]
      What do you mean by ActiveState isn't too open about their PPM repository? The ActiveState PPM repository is essentially just a CPAN mirror containing binary distributions of all modules that compile and pass their regression tests on a given platform.

      Due to the size of CPAN, all the module building is automated. Some of the build failures are due to this automated build process (e.g. you cannot automatically build a DBD-* driver without installing the client libraries for that database first). We try to add additional building instructions for popular modules that don't build automatically. But a lot of modules also fail their Makefile.PL or their tests when running unattended.

      We started to make the build logs available on the Build Status pages so that authors can check for themselves why their module isn't included on our PPM repository. If it is a problem they can fix, then all they need to do is upload a new version to CPAN and it should appear automatically on the PPM repository within a few days.

      We also host a PPM mailing list for any questions related to PPM in general, and to our repositories and the module building process in particular.

      PS: The build status pages are not completely uptodate yet, as some of the results are from the time when the build logs didn't get published. A rolling rebuild should be complete soon to sync the logs up with the current status of the build engine.

[reply]
[d/l]
        Hm, could ActiveState perhaps send mail to the CPAN author (through the associated CPAN author email) when a build fails? I'd never even considered testing my modules for Windows/PPM/ActiveState inclusion, but if I got an email I may or may not be inspired to fix any minor issues. I doubt I'd sign onto some mailing list or develop an ActiveState registered identity, as I wouldn't be active.

        I have three modules on CPAN, all simple and pure perl. None show on your (admittedly not up-to-date) status page, but I don't know if it's age or breakage at issue.

        --
        [ e d @ h a l l e y . c c ]

[reply]
Re: Central PPM Repository?
by tphyahoo (Vicar) on May 12, 2005 at 09:25 UTC
[reply]

Back to Seekers of Perl Wisdom