Hello there.

I'm maintaining a Perl module. To work properly, it needs a couple of data files (in YAML format). Currently, they get installed by ExtUtils::MakeMaker in a disgustingly hacky way, and later located by the Perl code by looking up a starting point in Config.pm. This works, but it is ugly. It's also somewhat problematic when it comes to some Perl installation variants (particularly, for me right now, Debian's).

So I've been trying to find out what's the right and proper way of including data files with Perl modules, on the assumption that I cannot possibly be the first person ever to need that. And I can't find anything about this. Not in the Perl documentation, not in the MakeMaker documentation, not in the Module::Install documentation, not with Google, not... just not.

Does anyone here know anything about this? Any hints on other modules that have data files? Documentation I've missed?

In reply to Data files in Perl module distributions? by cdybedahl

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.