How do I require a specific version?

jk2addict has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I'm currently between a rock and a hard place and I want to do something e-vil to work around the problem.

I'm currently using Module::Pluggable in Handel to load plugins for the checkout process. It currently loads all available plugins in any given namespace, but I'm tweaking the config to ignore specified plugins, or also to load just the listed plugins. Module::Pluggable currently has the except and only options available in its use statement.

Normally, this would be a no brainer...change my use statement in the begin block to a require/import during new() and pass the appropriate oprions from the config into except/only.

However, currently my use statement also specifies a minimum version of M::P of 2.9. Is there some special encantation whereby you can pass the version into require or into import()?

Sure, I suppose I could just die after require if M::P->VERSION is lower than 2.9, but I was looking for something cleaner, something closer to use Module::Pluggable 2.9;

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Re: How do I require a specific version? by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jul 27, 2005 at 01:14 UTC
Exporter provides `import` for most modules, and Exporter's `import` has support for version checking. However, Module::Pluggable does not use `Exporter`. It has a custom `import` which doesn't provide support for version checking. Looking into Exporter, I see it calls the function `VERSION` from UNIVERSAL, so all you have to do is: `BEGIN { require Module::Pluggable; Module::Pluggable->VERSION(2.9); } use Module::Pluggable ...your usual args...;` [download] That's the first I've heard of the `UNIVERSAL::VERSION` function. neat!	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: How do I require a specific version? by jk2addict (Chaplain) on Jul 27, 2005 at 01:41 UTC
Big duh. I never though that VERSION took an argument. VERSION ( [ REQUIRE ] ) VERSION will return the value of the variable $VERSION in the package the object is blessed into. If REQUIRE is given then it will do a comparison and die if the package version is not greater than or equal to REQUIRE. VERSION can be called as either a class (static) method, an object method or a function.	[reply]
Re: How do I require a specific version? by jk2addict (Chaplain) on Jul 27, 2005 at 01:20 UTC
"Reputation: -1"? Sigh. :-) I went another route. I submitted a patch to M::P to create only/except subs. I'm working on patching the *.t files now. Now I'll have to wait on that feature to hopefully make it into a M::P release before I can release, but it will be worth it in the end.	[reply]
Re: How do I require a specific version? by bsb (Priest) on Jul 27, 2005 at 06:57 UTC
The only module may help: only - Load specific module versions; Install many	[reply]
Re: How do I require a specific version? by data64 (Chaplain) on Jul 30, 2005 at 23:04 UTC
You could put the "use" statement inside an eval block. This will let you conditionally include the module and also let you do the version checking. Update: I didn't realize that op had not tried the version argument to use. I assumed that op wanted to do more things and handle the error. In hindsight, bad assumption.	[reply]