Re^5: Mac Perl Package Question

Really, they don't have to do anything, other than put the files in the correct place, in the case of a pure perl installation. However, it's possible that they're doing other things as well, as they may trigger other items to register that they now exist on your system. (XML::Parser comes to mind), or they may set up configuration information (like Bundle::libnet)

For the most part, you can generally expect them to do the following (but remember -- these aren't necessarily rules, this is more like guidelines than anything else.)

perl Makefile.PL: Builds the file named 'Makefile' which is used by the make command. May derive values from the current perl installation, or prompt you for information, or expect you to pass in things through environmental variables or as command line arguments. It's somewhat common for this step to generate new files, or modify existing ones.
make: Compiles whatever components need it, and places them into the blib directory. (it's also possible that this step might generate new files, or modify existing ones).
make test: Runs a series of tests (typically in the 't' directory if it's a more recent module) to test that the module is working correctly on your system.
make install: Moves files to their proper location on your system.

Comment on Re^5: Mac Perl Package Question

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Re^6: Mac Perl Package Question by RobertJ (Acolyte) on Apr 13, 2005 at 14:04 UTC
Thanks. Very informative. For the particular module the only thing I could find that was "different" after the install was the addition of an empty directory "/Library/Perl/darwin/auto/File/Copy/Recursive" I have not been able to do a test with a t directory present. Someone on this forum suggested that I might be missing something in my install because I have Perl 5.6 that came with Mac OS 10.2.x. For the couple of module installs I have done I just skipped the step and everthing seems to work fine.	[reply]
Re^7: Mac Perl Package Question by jhourcle (Prior) on Apr 15, 2005 at 22:22 UTC
make test verifies that everything is running as it should. If that's not the case, that's a sign that something is broken, and will not produce the expected results when you try using it. It could be a sign that the distribution was corrupted, or that it doesn't properly handle your platform, or that you're missing dependancies, or in the case of compiled modules, that a library is missing. Normally, you would want to take a look at the README, or other install notes, as it might be a known issue. (especially if there's a 'README.macos' file, or similar). If you haven't already, I'd also suggest downloading the Developer Tools from Apple's website, specifically the BSD Tools and gcc, which you'll need for any compiled Perl modules. (BSD Tools should have the perl.h file, if I recall correctly).	[reply]