in reply to Re: Module and external files
in thread Module and external files

I think that would be OK if he owned management of those files. But alas he is saying he does not -- why would you have those files auto download if you can't guarantee updates are compatible. What happens if the maintainer of those documents updates the structure? What happens when his module gets blacklisted because of a tracking portion (hitting a webserver durring make install).


-Waswas

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Re^3: Module and external files
by PodMaster (Abbot) on Oct 18, 2004 at 15:00 UTC
    He said they are on public domain AND sometimes are updated but preserving the structure. This means they won't change. When they do, he updates the module. Since they're public domain there is nothing prohibiting him from distributing a copy, but the Makefile.PL should always (offter to) check to see if the included ones are the latest.
    What happens when his module gets blacklisted because of a tracking portion (hitting a webserver durring make install).
    As long as he prompts the user there are no issues.

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[reply]
      Aye he also said he was not the maintainer (he does not control when and if the structure will change).

      Here's one approach that I'd likely take
      $ perl Makefile.PL
      Downloading the files ... success
      Parsing .... success
      Generating module (inlining those big hashes) .... success
      Writing makefile ...
      $ make ... $ make test ...

      I agree he needs to prompt the user, but your example only shows a status as it actually tries to connect out -- or is there a prompt there that I am missing? My point was that he would need to make an option for it to auto download, not just blindly do it.

      I would put a separate script in his distro that 1, downloads the file to the correct location, 2 checks to see if the structure is correct. Add this to the install readme with instructions on how to setup a cronjob to update monthly etc.


      -Waswas
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