my %dependencies = (
   item1 => [ 'item2' ],
   item2 => [ qw' item3 item4 ' ],
);
my %done;

sub act_on {
   my $item = shift;

   $done{$item} = undef;    # mark it early to avoid circular dependen
+cies

   if (exists $dependencies{$item}) {
      foreach my $dep (@{$dependencies{$item}}) {
         warn "Circular dependency $item => $dep"
            if exists $done{$dep} and !$done{$dep};

         &act_on($dep) unless exists $done{$dep};
      }
   }

   # Dependencies satisfied, do whatever on $item
   print "Doing $item...\n";

   $done{$item} = 1;         # really done
}  

act_on "item1";

Doing item3...
Doing item4...
Doing item2...
Doing item1...
[download]

What about a module that gives me a make interface I can use from a script that does other things. I guess I could just do a system("make $foo") or "cons $foo" or whatever, but I was hoping for a module with a real API to set up dependancies and then fullfill them. I suppose this is what you're talking about. I'll take a look at that. I was hoping for something that wasn't so inbred with Make's horrendous syntax for pattern matching and whatnot...

-Ted

Cons has been talking for a long time about moving to an architecture like you're describing--a modular build engine to manage dependencies, with plug-in modules for various dependency scanners, compile tools, etc. The consensus among that community is that itwould be a Good Thing, but no one has actually had time or energy to go ahead and do it.

I agree completely about the hassles arising from Make.pm being so closely tied to Make's syntax.

I'm not sure what you want to do in Perl that you couldn't do within a Cons config file itself, since it's just a Perl script. You shouldn't need to do a separate system("cons $foo").

See Cons, also covered in "Cons: A Software Construction System" - The Perl Journal, Spring 1998. This is what you want, I think.

There is also pmake, but I think this is not what you want, since it merely emulates make in Perl.

Christian Lemburg
Brainbench MVP for Perl
http://www.brainbench.com

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

updatemerlyn fixed the above, you can ignore this now : )

after looking at the source for the node (which looked pretty funny) I think merlyn meant to say:

"See this or that for "make-in-Perl" solutions."

where this and that are my words placed between the <A href="... tags that merlyn supplied. I simply added those words and so the links would show up(they look useful). I did not change any other content. If I in any way altered the intent or meaning of the post please let me know.

update: I lied. I did change the content. I forgot to mention that i changed the code in the first link to query CPAN for make not pmake, as pmake gave no results and make gave plenty of relevant ones...again, seemed to be a typo...

<myExperience>
$mostLanguages = 'Designed for engineers by engineers.';
$perl          = 'Designed for people who speak by a linguist.';
</myExperience>
[download]

It was a vroom-acknowledged breakage. Fixed now.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker