Simplify build process #36
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ExtUtils::MakeMaker can parse "package NAME VERSION" syntax since 6.56, which is included in perl 5.12, the same version that added support for the syntax.
The minimum perl version is perl 5.12, which includes ExtUtils::MakeMaker 6.56. We don't need compatibility code for versions earlier than that.
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I tried to drop the |
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Oh, also, perlpodstyle had special handling in Perl core, which was part of why it was separated out, since it's not installed as part of the module in Perl core. Is the intent to change Perl core to remove that special handling? If so, that's great; I just wanted to double-check. |
Move perlpodstyle to lib so it is installed normally. Also remove the handling from Makefile.PL. It was being installed as a man(1) page, but section 1 is the wrong location for it. If we don't configure anything ourselves, ExtUtils::MakeMaker will install the man page in section 3. This is not perfect, but matches what perl itself does with its non-library pod files. In the future, perl may understand section 7 and adjustments can be made for that.
The .PL files used to generate the pod2man and pod2text scripts only adds a header to the files allowing them to be executed with a shell rather than with perl. This hasn't been useful for decades. Any other modifications needed to make the scripts runnable will already be taken care of by ExtUtils::MakeMaker. We can just include them as normal scripts. EUMM will also properly install the man pages without needing any extra work. We also don't need to convert the file paths to native paths ourselves. EUMM will work properly using / as a directory separator for EXE_FILES on all platforms.
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perlpodstyle would still need special handling in core, but it would just be a minor tweak for the new location. The problem with the way things are currently in podlators is that the actual pod file is not installed, only the man page. As well as being installed in the wrong section. It looks like I'll need to do some more research on the |
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Thanks, all of this looks great if we can get confirmation that VMS no longer needs the separate I'm happy to wait for that confirmation, or would be happy to merge a PR that included all the other changes except that change. |
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Sorry for the slow reply. I believe how this used to work is that running the .PL file on unixy systems resulted in a script file with no extension and a shebang line that has been edited to have the path of the Perl used to run the .PL file. So then you can just run On non-unixy systems, there is no concept analogous to a shebang line. So it's always been simulated by creating a script in the native shell language with some tricks to exit and re-invoke itself as a Perl script. On Windows, the result of running the pod2text.PL file would be pod2text.bat, and on VMS it would be pod2text.com, each with its own magic code at the top to run the embedded Perl script (pod2man is not of much use on non-unixy systems since there is nothing that can read a man file). As far as I know, nothing's really changed here about shebang or the lack of it. However, in core we define commands to invoke everything under the I fear I may just be muddying the waters. Let me know if I can clarify anything. |
This cleans up and simplifies the build process.
Some code was removed because it is no longer relevant on perl 5.12.
Some code was removed because we can rely on ExtUtils::MakeMaker to handle it.
The largest change is removing the
.PLfiles to generate thepod2manandpod2textscripts. The only thing they enabled, allowing the resulting scripts to be run with a shell, has not been a useful feature for decades.