Creating platform independent installers?

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

I've written a couple of projects in the past which are almost completely perl.

To allow the user to install them I supply a Makefile which will install to /usr/local, but increasingly I'm receiving mail asking for the ability to install beneath a given "prefix".

As I see it I could easily add such support to the makefiles I currently ship, but I suspect I'd be better off using a perl-based installer.

Perhaps something like Module/Build? I'm completely clueless when it comes to the alternatives - although I've frequently installed software with "perl Makefile.PL", etc.

Does anybody have any suggestions, or tips?

For reference most of the software includes a few manpages, a couple of binaries, and a collection of HTML::Template files.

Steve
---
<a href="http://www.steve.org.uk/">steve.org.uk</a> : <a href="http://www.debian-administration.org/">Debian System Administration</a>

Comment on Creating platform independent installers?

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Re: Creating platform independent installers? by jhourcle (Prior) on Jul 19, 2005 at 18:59 UTC
Your main alternatives are ExtUtils::MakeMaker or Module::Build. Before you go too far, you might want to take a look at the CPAN + PREFIX + Module::Build thread, and the link chromatic gave to Why PREFIX will never work (and what will)	[reply]
Re^2: Creating platform independent installers? by kwaping (Priest) on Jul 19, 2005 at 19:31 UTC
Yeah, this topic is pretty hot right now and somewhat a can of worms. Good luck with whatever you decide to use!	[reply]
Re: Creating platform independent installers? by samtregar (Abbot) on Jul 19, 2005 at 22:31 UTC
Take a look at Krang which sports a build/test/install/upgrade system first discussed here on PerlMonks: Installation System Design for a Large Apache/mod_perl Application. Someday the Matchstick project may make this code more readily reusable. -sam	[reply]