Re: How to know if a CPAN module uses XS

I just scan the MANIFEST (in the source distro) for a '.xs' file. Presence of one means that compiling is reqired; absence means no compilation is required.

However, whilst this is a fairly reliable method, it's not foolproof. For example, PDL::NetCDF has no xs file yet requires compilation. (The 'perl Makefile.PL' step generates the xs file.) And I think there are some modules that, while providing an xs file, also cater for a pure-perl build.

Perhaps some of the other monks know of a smarter approach.

Cheers,
Rob

Comment on Re: How to know if a CPAN module uses XS

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Re^2: How to know if a CPAN module uses XS by tobyink (Canon) on Jun 20, 2012 at 06:54 UTC
Another heuristic is to look for `use DynaLoader` or `use XSLoader` in any of the modules. XS code also often comes with a file called `typemap` which is used by the XS build system to map between Perl data structures and C data structures. And `ppport.h` is often bundled. This is a C header file which, as I understand it, smooths over the differences between versions of the Perl API. `perl -E'sub Monkey::do{say$_,for@_,do{($monkey=[caller(0)]->[3])=~s{::}{ }and$monkey}}"Monkey say"->Monkey::do'`	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: How to know if a CPAN module uses XS by etj (Priest) on May 23, 2022 at 20:18 UTC
(The 'perl Makefile.PL' step generates the xs file.) It does not. The Makefile thereby generated has a rule that turns the supplied `.pd` file into `.pm` and `.xs` files, and for distributions that have "opted in" and with a PDL 2.058+, a `.c` file per operation (allowing parallel builds). Probably the best heuristic to spot a PDL distro that generates XS rather than being a pure-Perl user of other PDL modules is the use of PDL::Core::Dev, and/or calls to `pdlpp_stdargs`.	[reply] [d/l] [select]