NAME

       Module::Install::FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions for Module::Install

DESCRIPTION

       Though Module::Install itself has a general FAQ section in the pod, it's more for
       advocacy. Here's an incomplete and growing list of the actual questions I have been
       frequently asked (or found on the net) about Module::Install.

   Do I also have to update my CPAN modules every time Module::Install is updated?
       The point of Module::Install is let module authors take care of everything related to
       updating toolchains for the sake of module users. So, if you choose to use
       Module::Install, it's you who should update toolchains, i.e. Module::Install and other
       bundled modules. You should check if there's any significant change/fix in your
       toolchains. You should check if your toolchains go along with other tools users use to
       install your distributions, or with the systems users are in, or whatever that matters. In
       the end, you are expected to have much more knowledge and willingness than average users.

       That being said, practically, you don't have to update your distributions if they are
       working well. But if you do find issues, please update your distributions, even when you
       have nothing to change in your own modules. Module::Install is not only a tool to write
       better, but also a tool to encourage you to help others.

   Do I really have to avoid auto_install()?
       Not at all, using "auto_install()" is just fine. While it indeed behaved erratically in
       older Module::Install versions, there have been no reported issues since mid-2009. As far
       as compatbility with various CPAN clients: several rather large projects on CPAN
       (including Catalyst and DBIx::Class), are using "auto_install" without any issues reported
       by their substantial userbases.

       That said, if all you want to do is make it easy for a contributor to checkout your code
       and quickly install necessary dependencies, there are alternatives to "auto_install".

       If your CPAN module is new enough, you can pass a dot to the cpan command it provides, and
       it will install all the required distributions from the CPAN:

         $ cpan .

       The same is true for the cpanm command from App::cpanminus, with which you even can write
       like "cpanm --installdeps ."

   Should I put an "inc" directory Module::Install automatically creates into a repository for my
       projects?
       Depends. If the repository is private and only for you, you usually don't want to put it
       in your repository to let you always use the latest Module::Install you have (the "inc"
       directory is recreated each time you run "perl Makefile.PL").

       If not, but you alone are the release manager and know what you have to do when you
       release, putting the "inc" directory into your repository may help other casual
       contributors, especially if you use minor (or private) non-core extensions in your
       Makefile.PL.

       However, if you generously allow other people to release, or you're not so familiar with
       how Module::Install works and don't know what you have to do in the above situation, don't
       put it in the repository. It may be the cause of troubles including a wrong version in the
       "META.yml".

       If you feel sorry about the inconvenience for your fellow contributors, you may want to
       add explicitly "use Module::Install::<ExtensionYouWantToUse>;" after "use
       inc::Module::Install;" in your Makefile.PL. It doesn't do any harm, and it makes clear
       which extensions they need to install.

   What're there in the "inc" directory?
       Module::Install puts its components (sometimes with extra modules) under the "inc"
       directory to be released with a distribution.  Those modules will not be installed into
       your system, unless explicitly copied into somewhere. They are only used to help
       configuration, tests, and/or installation.

       If there's no "inc" directory, Module::Install will automatically create it when you run
       "perl Makefile.PL". And if that happens, a directory (as of this writing, ".author") will
       also be created under the "inc" directory. If the ".author" directory exists, the "inc"
       directory will be recreated each time you run "perl Makefile.PL" to make sure everything
       you need is included and up-to-date. This ".author" directory will not be included in a
       distribution.

   "perl Makefile.PL" doesn't work or does a strange behavior for me. Why?
       Module::Install uses an Autoloader magic to delegate command handling to the extensions in
       the "inc" directory. This works while everything is in order, but when it finds something
       it can't understands, it dies with a compile error, or does what you don't expect.

       To prevent the latter strange behavior, Module::Install 0.96 and above dies when it tries
       to process unknown commands. In most cases (other than typos), these unknown commands are
       from non-core extensions on the CPAN, and they should hopefully have predictable names
       that you can easily tell from which extension they come, though some may be a bit hard to
       find.

       If you are trying to contribute to some project, and having a trouble to run
       "Makefile.PL", please contact the author of the project to learn what you have to install.
       If the distribution is already on the CPAN, you may also want to look into the MANIFEST
       file to see which extensions are included in the "inc" directory before you ask.

       This usually does not happen in the user land as distributions that use Module::Install
       should have all the necessary extensions under the "inc" directory. If this should happen,
       that's most probably because the release manager shipped the distribution under a non-
       author mode. Please contact the author to fix the issue.

   Why can't I do <anything> with Module::Install that I can do with ExtUtils::MakeMaker?
       Module::Install is just a wrapper of ExtUtils::MakeMaker. You can do almost everything you
       can do with ExtUtils::MakeMaker by passing arbitrary attributes to ExtUtils::MakeMaker in
       the backend via "makemaker_args" like this:

         use inc::Module::Install;

         all_from 'lib/Foo/Bar.pm';

         makemaker_args(
           dist => { PREOP => '...' },
           PL_FILES => {'bin/foobar.PL' => 'bin/foobar'},
         );
         WriteAll;

       However, by the singleton nature of Module::Install, it may fail to process Makefile.PLs
       in subdirectories correctly now, and you may need to override attributes explicitly in
       some cases where Module::Install provides other default values than ExtUtils::MakeMaker
       does. Please see also the ExtUtils::MakeMaker's pod for further instructions.

   I added MyMakefile.PL to my distribution, but it doesn't work as I expected. Why?
       ExtUtils::MakeMaker (and Module::Build also) treats "*.PL" files in the top level
       directory as something special to generate other files. So, if you add something that has
       ".PL" extension like "MyMakefile.PL" in the top level directory, it also runs
       automatically when you run Makefile.PL.

       If you don't like this behavior, use "makemaker_args" to pass an anonymous hash to
       "PL_FILES".

         makemaker_args(PL_FILES => {});

AUTHOR

       Kenichi Ishigaki <ishigaki@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright 2010 Kenichi Ishigaki.

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