plucky (3) Alien::Build::Manual::Contributing.3pm.gz

NAME

       Alien::Build::Manual::Contributing - Over-detailed contributing guide

VERSION

       version 2.84

SYNOPSIS

        perldoc Alien::Build::Manual::Contributing

DESCRIPTION

       Thank you for considering to contribute to my open source project!  If you have a small patch please
       consider just submitting it.  Doing so through the project GitHub is probably the best way:

       <https://github.com/plicease/Alien-Build/issues>

       If you have a more invasive enhancement or bugfix to contribute, please take the time to review these
       guidelines.  In general it is good idea to work closely with the Alien::Build developers, and the best
       way to contact them is on the "#native" IRC channel on irc.perl.org.

   History
       Joel Berger wrote the original Alien::Base.  This distribution included the runtime code Alien::Base and
       an installer class Alien::Base::ModuleBuild.  The significant thing about Alien::Base was that it
       provided tools to make it relatively easy for people to roll their own Alien distributions.  Over time,
       the PerlAlien (github organization) or "Alien::Base team" has taken over development of Alien::Base with
       myself (Graham Ollis) being responsible for integration and releases.  Joel Berger is still involved in
       the project.

       Since the original development of Alien::Base, Module::Build, on which Alien::Base::ModuleBuild is based,
       has been removed from the core of Perl.  It seemed worthwhile to write a replacement installer that works
       with ExtUtils::MakeMaker which IS still bundled with the Perl core.  Because this is a significant
       undertaking it is my intention to integrate the many lessons learned by Joel Berger, myself and the
       "Alien::Base team" as possible.  If the interface seems good then it is because I've stolen the ideas
       from some pretty good places.

   Philosophy
       Alien runtime should be as config-only as possible.

       Ideally the code for an Alien::Base based Alien should simply inherit from Alien::Base, like so:

        package Alien::libfoo;

        use parent qw( Alien::Base );

        1;

       The detection logic should be done by the installer code (alienfile and Alien::Build) and saved into
       runtime properties (see "runtime_prop" in Alien::Build).  And as much as possible the runtime should be
       implemented in the base class (Alien::Base).  Where reasonable, the base class should be expanded to meet
       the needs of this arrangement.

       when downloading a package grab the latest version

       If the maintainer of an Alien disappears for a while, and if the version downloaded during a "share"
       install is hardcoded in the alienfile, it can be problematic for end-users.

       There are exceptions, of course, in particular when a package provides a very unstable interface from
       version to version it makes sense to hard code the version and for the Alien developer and Alien consumer
       developer to coordinate closely.

       when installing a package the operating system as a whole should not be affected

       The convenience of using an Alien is that a user of a CPAN module that consumes an Alien doesn't need to
       know the exact incantation to install the libraries on which it depends (or indeed it may not be easily
       installed through the package manager anyway).

       As a corollary, a user of a CPAN module that consumes an Alien module shouldn't expect operating system
       level packages to be installed, or for these packages to be installed in common system level directories,
       like "/usr/local" or "/opt".  Instead a "share" directory associated with the Perl install and Alien
       module should be used.

       Plugins that require user opt-in could be written to prompt a user to automatically install operating
       system packages, but this should never be done by default or without consent by the user.

       avoid dependencies

       One of the challenges with Alien development is that you are by the nature of the problem, trying to make
       everyone happy.  Developers working out of CPAN just want stuff to work, and some build environments can
       be hostile in terms of tool availability, so for reliability you end up pulling a lot of dependencies.
       On the other hand, operating system vendors who are building Perl modules usually want to use the system
       version of a library so that they do not have to patch libraries in multiple places.  Such vendors have
       to package any extra dependencies and having to do so for packages that the don't even use makes them
       understandably unhappy.

       As general policy the Alien::Build core should have as few dependencies as possible, and should only pull
       extra dependencies if they are needed.  Where dependencies cannot be avoidable, popular and reliable CPAN
       modules, which are already available as packages in the major Linux vendors (Debian, Red Hat) should be
       preferred.

       As such Alien::Build is hyper aggressive at using dynamic prerequisites.

       interface agnostic

       One of the challenges with Alien::Base::ModuleBuild was that Module::Build was pulled from the core.  In
       addition, there is a degree of hostility toward Module::Build in some corners of the Perl community.  I
       agree with Joel Berger's rationale for choosing Module::Build at the time, as I believe its interface
       more easily lends itself to building Alien distributions.

       That said, an important feature of Alien::Build is that it is installer agnostic.  Although it is
       initially designed to work with ExtUtils::MakeMaker, it has been designed from the ground up to work with
       any installer (Perl, or otherwise).

       As an extension of this, although Alien::Build may have external CPAN dependencies, they should not be
       exposed to developers USING Alien::Build.  As an example, Path::Tiny is used heavily internally because
       it does what File::Spec does, plus the things that it doesn't, and uses forward slashes on Windows
       (backslashes are the "correct separator on windows, but actually using them tends to break everything).
       However, there aren't any interfaces in Alien::Build that will return a Path::Tiny object (or if there
       are, then this is a bug).

       This means that if we ever need to port Alien::Build to a platform that doesn't support Path::Tiny (such
       as VMS), then it may require some work to Alien::Build itself, modules that USE Alien::Build shouldn't
       need to be modified.

       plugable

       The actual logic that probes the system, downloads source and builds it should be as pluggable as
       possible.  One of the challenges with Alien::Base::ModuleBuild was that it was designed to work well with
       software that works with "autoconf" and "pkg-config".  While you can build with other tools, you have to
       know a bit of how the installer logic works, and which hooks need to be tweaked.

       Alien::Build has plugins for "autoconf", "pkgconf" (successor of "pkg-config"), vanilla Makefiles, and
       CMake.  If your build system doesn't have a plugin, then all you have to do is write one!  Plugins that
       prove their worth may be merged into the Alien::Build core.  Plugins that after a while feel like maybe
       not such a good idea may be removed from the core, or even from CPAN itself.

       In addition, Alien::Build has a special type of plugin, called a negotiator which picks the best plugin
       for the particular environment that it is running in.  This way, as development of the negotiator and
       plugins develop over time modules that use Alien::Build will benefit, without having to change the way
       they interface with Alien::Build

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

       I would like to that Joel Berger for getting things running in the first place.  Also important to thank
       other members of the "Alien::Base team":

       Zaki Mughal (SIVOAIS)

       Ed J (ETJ, mohawk)

       Also kind thanks to all of the developers who have contributed to Alien::Base over the years:

       <https://metacpan.org/pod/Alien::Base#CONTRIBUTORS>

SEE ALSO

       Alien::Build::Manual
           Other Alien::Build manuals.

AUTHOR

       Author: Graham Ollis <plicease@cpan.org>

       Contributors:

       Diab Jerius (DJERIUS)

       Roy Storey (KIWIROY)

       Ilya Pavlov

       David Mertens (run4flat)

       Mark Nunberg (mordy, mnunberg)

       Christian Walde (Mithaldu)

       Brian Wightman (MidLifeXis)

       Zaki Mughal (zmughal)

       mohawk (mohawk2, ETJ)

       Vikas N Kumar (vikasnkumar)

       Flavio Poletti (polettix)

       Salvador Fandiño (salva)

       Gianni Ceccarelli (dakkar)

       Pavel Shaydo (zwon, trinitum)

       Kang-min Liu (劉康民, gugod)

       Nicholas Shipp (nshp)

       Juan Julián Merelo Guervós (JJ)

       Joel Berger (JBERGER)

       Petr Písař (ppisar)

       Lance Wicks (LANCEW)

       Ahmad Fatoum (a3f, ATHREEF)

       José Joaquín Atria (JJATRIA)

       Duke Leto (LETO)

       Shoichi Kaji (SKAJI)

       Shawn Laffan (SLAFFAN)

       Paul Evans (leonerd, PEVANS)

       Håkon Hægland (hakonhagland, HAKONH)

       nick nauwelaerts (INPHOBIA)

       Florian Weimer

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

       This software is copyright (c) 2011-2022 by Graham Ollis.

       This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5
       programming language system itself.