so, if I write another shell script to launch the gui, how can I detect if the dependent stuff is installed or not? gtk, ... many of the systems this app would run on are servers, and the gui components are intentionally not installed.

That is something you do at install time, say, with your package manager

Alien::wxWidgets won't install if the gtk... files are missing, and Wx won't install if Alien::wxWidgets isn't installed

OTOH, http://www.citrusperl.com/ allows you to create a perl distribution with wx installed (and anything else you install)

OTOH, http://www.cavapackager.com/ allows you to create installable binaries (not a whole perl distribution), with Wx installed (and anything else you install)

So there you go, don't try launch gui if  eval { require TheGui; } fails

In reply to Re: how to detect gtk installed or not by Anonymous Monk
in thread how to detect gtk installed or not by sdetweil

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