Setting the path when a module installs

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

what is the best practice for setting the path of a library if it isn't in their path?

warn them to set the path?

try and set it myself like: `set path=($path /usr/local/bin)`; or `PATH=${PATH}:/usr/local/bin`;

Is their a standard for this type of thing when writing a module?

edit: sorry that I wasn't specific enough... On OSX when you install allegro the path to the conf file is at /usr/local/bin/allegro-config

When you try and install the perl allegro pm it can't find this file because it isn't in the path. I thought I might write a patch for it. That why I am interested in what is the best practice for this type of thing. So makefile.pl can suck the info it needs and I do it the right way.

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Re: Setting the path when a module installs by l3v3l (Monk) on Jan 04, 2006 at 23:43 UTC
since %ENV is a (special) hash, if you are going to put more custom libs or custom programs into a specific location, I would just set it for your script with something like: `$ENV{'PATH'} = q(/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/home/custom_stuff);` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Setting the path when a module installs by sh1tn (Priest) on Jan 04, 2006 at 23:43 UTC
The pragma use lib.	[reply]
Re: Setting the path when a module installs by Corion (Patriarch) on Jan 05, 2006 at 07:29 UTC
Note that you can only set the environment variables for your child processes and not for your parent process (unless you're on Win32). So if you're running child processes (like a C compiler) from your `Makefile.PL`, the following will work: `use Config '%Config'; my $allegro_dir = '/usr/local/bin/'; $ENV{PATH} .= ":" . $allegro_dir; ...` [download] The following won't do what you want though: `PATH=$ENV{PATH}:$allegro_dir`; [download] because that will launch a child process, which sets the PATH environment variable and then ends. And the changes are gone with the end of the child too.	[reply] [d/l] [select]