Really, they don't have to do anything, other than put the files in the correct place, in the case of a pure perl installation. However, it's possible that they're doing other things as well, as they may trigger other items to register that they now exist on your system. (XML::Parser comes to mind), or they may set up configuration information (like Bundle::libnet)

For the most part, you can generally expect them to do the following (but remember -- these aren't necessarily rules, this is more like guidelines than anything else.)

perl Makefile.PL
Builds the file named 'Makefile' which is used by the make command. May derive values from the current perl installation, or prompt you for information, or expect you to pass in things through environmental variables or as command line arguments. It's somewhat common for this step to generate new files, or modify existing ones.
make
Compiles whatever components need it, and places them into the blib directory. (it's also possible that this step might generate new files, or modify existing ones).
make test
Runs a series of tests (typically in the 't' directory if it's a more recent module) to test that the module is working correctly on your system.
make install
Moves files to their proper location on your system.

In reply to Re^5: Mac Perl Package Question by jhourcle
in thread Mac Perl Package Question by RobertJ

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