Supporting Module Requirements

Short Circuit has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

My project uses a number of modules from CPAN that may or may not be installed on the user's computer. Currently, that includes Getopt::Compact and Text::Table. The next release is going to depend on Text::Wrap, and possibly others.

What is the best way for me to support the users, with respect to the module requirements? Should I bundle the CPAN modules with the distribution tarball? Should I create a separate tarball? Should I include instructions on installing it from CPAN?

My project is still beta; I'm still trying to get everything arranged for a comfortable 1.x release.

Comment on Supporting Module Requirements

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Supporting Module Requirements by merlyn (Sage) on May 09, 2005 at 12:33 UTC
You might consider PAR, but if you want to let them install their own modules, then simply list the dependencies in your Makefile.PL/Build.PL. Their CPAN.pm will Do The Right Thing to ensure that they're installed. -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.	[reply]
Re^2: Supporting Module Requirements by thcsoft (Monk) on May 09, 2005 at 13:17 UTC
agreed. and if you make a Bundle from your project, CPAN will install all the required modules automagically. language is a virus from outer space.	[reply]
Re^2: Supporting Module Requirements by mpeters (Chaplain) on May 09, 2005 at 13:52 UTC
Or depending on the complexity of the install you could just script it and bring CPAN.pm into the picture. Look at the "Programming Examples" section in the pod. If you have many external dependencies (external to perl) than scripting the install will make your like much easier. If you are developing a web app, you might consider bundling it with apache so that it's all self contained. This is what krang does, and we've successfully used this same model for other projects.	[reply]
Re^2: Supporting Module Requirements by Short Circuit (Novice) on May 10, 2005 at 00:03 UTC
PAR looks interesting. I'll definitely look into it. My only concern is how I'll debug non-Perl-savvy users' issues. Will the error messages remain the same?	[reply]