NAME

pminstalled.pl - Builds a Perl Public Module Descriptor File

SYNOPSYS

This script must be installed in the server. If not, just copy it from the client:

client$ scp pminstalled.pl perlmodule.server:

Executed in the server:

perlmodule.server$ pminstalled.pl [options] [searchpathlist] -o .ppmdf.descriptor

or executed in the client (assuming automatic SSH authentication):

client$ ssh perlmodule.server perl pminstalled.pl [options] [searchpathlist] > .ppmdf.descriptor

DESCRIPTION

This script is part of the Remote::Use distribution. Its execution produces a Perl Public Module Descriptor File of the specified Perl Modules Server (see section below "PERL PUBLIC MODULES DESCRIPTOR FILE (PPMDF)". Such file is used by a Perl program in a client machine when dealing with a statement

use Some::Module;

to resolve where to locate Some::Module inside the server machine

WARNING

When I wrote this module I didn't know of the existence of PAR::Repository::Client and PAR::Repository distributions. These distributions - now embedded inside the PAR distribution - broach similar problems.

Look at them first before considering using this one. They provide a solution more robust and cover a range of problems much wider than this distribution.

Remote::Use focuses in the direct loading of modules already installed in some remote server while PAR::Repository::Client and PAR::Repository deal with the use of remote PAR repositories.

There are a few scenarios where this module can still be useful:

  • If your server and clients are homogeneous: same Perl version, very similar O.S. distributions, same external libraries installed, etc. and you want to avoid the extra work of repository creation and administration

  • If you want to use protocols like SSH, SFTP or others not currently supported by PAR::Repository::Client and PAR::Repository

  • If no binaries are involved

EXECUTION MODES

When executed without options produces a set of warnings (sent to STDERR) and a PPMDF description of the set of Perl modules in searchpathlist is sent to STDOUT. If searchpathlist is empty it defaults to the @INC list of the Perl interpreter being used.

For each directory /some/path/ in the search list, pminstalled.pl recursively looks for module files like

An/Interesting/Module.pm

that have a .pm extension. The associated directory /some/path/auto/An/Interesting/Module is also visited and all the files there will be added to the list for An::Interesting::Module.

To save the PPMDF, redirect STDOUT to some file like in this example (along these code snippets nereida is the client machine and orion the Perl Public Modules Server):

pp2@nereida:$ ssh orion perl pminstalled.pl > /tmp/perl5lib/.orion.installed.modules
Duplicated module 'Test/Builder.pm':
Is in:
       /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8/Test/Builder.pm
and in:
       /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.4/Test/Builder.pm
only the first will be considered.

Duplicated module 'Test/Simple.pm':
Is in:
       /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8/Test/Simple.pm
and in:
       /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.4/Test/Simple.pm
only the first will be considered.

..... etc, etc.

pp2@nereida:$

If you want to make public modules that aren't in the official @INC path, just add the corresponding -I options to the perl interpreter executing pminstalled.pl:

$ ssh orion perl -I/home/casiano/public_html/cpan pminstalled.pl \
            > /tmp/perl5lib/.orion.plus.public.installed.modules

If we want an entirely different search path alternative to @INC we execute pminstalled.pl with the list of directories where to look at:

orion:$ perl pminstalled.pl /home/casiano/public_html/cpan -o /home/casiano/public_html/.orion.via.web

PERL PUBLIC MODULES DESCRIPTOR FILE (PPMDF)

A Perl Modules Descriptor File describes what Modules in the Module Server Machine will be published and what files must be downloaded for each of those modules. It is used by Remote::Use to automatically download the Perl modules need by a script being executed from a Perl Public Modules Server (See Remote::Use::Tutorial).

The file is a Perl list. For each published module Some::Module there is a key which is the associated file name Some/Module.pm and a value. The value is a hash reference that must contain at least two entries: one named dir and another named file. The second contains the list of files to be downloaded when Some::Module is used. The dir entry contains the prefix path that must be removed from the path of the source file names (at the server) to produce the target file names (at the client).

'Some/Module.pm' => {
  dir => '/prefix/path/',
  files => [ '/auto/Some/Module/Module.so', 
             '/Some/Module.pm', 
             '/Some/Module.pod' ],
  bin => [ '/some/script', /another/script' ],
  man => [ '/some/man', /another/man' ],
}

    

For each module entry additional file families can be added as illustrates the bin entry for Parse::Eyapp in the former example:

'Parse/Eyapp.pm' => { dir => '',
  files => [ '/Parse/Eyapp.pm' ],
  bin => [ '/bin/eyapp', '/bin/treereg' ]
}

The following example illustrates the syntax of a PPMDF file:

pp2@nereida:~/LRemoteUse/examples$ cat /tmp/perl5lib/.orion.via.web
(
'Trivial.pm' => { dir => '', files => [
        '/Trivial.pm' ] },
'Tintin/Trivial.pm' => { dir => '', files => [
        '/Tintin/Trivial.pm' ] },
'Parse/Eyapp.pm' => { dir => '',
  files => [ '/Parse/Eyapp.pm' ],
  bin => [ '/bin/eyapp', '/bin/treereg' ]
},
'Parse/Eyapp/Lalr.pm' => { dir => '', files => [
        '/Parse/Eyapp/Lalr.pm' ] },
'Parse/Eyapp/YATW.pm' => { dir => '', files => [
        '/Parse/Eyapp/YATW.pm' ] },
'Parse/Eyapp/Treeregexp.pm' => { dir => '', files => [
        '/Parse/Eyapp/Treeregexp.pm' ] },
'Parse/Eyapp/Parse.pm' => { dir => '', files => [
        '/Parse/Eyapp/Parse.pm' ] },
'Parse/Eyapp/Scope.pm' => { dir => '', files => [
        '/Parse/Eyapp/Scope.pm' ] },
'Parse/Eyapp/Options.pm' => { dir => '', files => [
        '/Parse/Eyapp/Options.pm' ] },
'Parse/Eyapp/Output.pm' => { dir => '', files => [
        '/Parse/Eyapp/Output.pm' ] },
'Parse/Eyapp/Node.pm' => { dir => '', files => [
        '/Parse/Eyapp/Node.pm' ] },
'Parse/Eyapp/Grammar.pm' => { dir => '', files => [
        '/Parse/Eyapp/Grammar.pm' ] },
'Parse/Eyapp/Driver.pm' => { dir => '', files => [
        '/Parse/Eyapp/Driver.pm' ] },
'Parse/Eyapp/Base.pm' => { dir => '', files => [
        '/Parse/Eyapp/Base.pm' ] },
'Parse/Eyapp/_TreeregexpSupport.pm' => { dir => '', files => [
        '/Parse/Eyapp/_TreeregexpSupport.pm' ] },
'Math/Prime/XS.pm' => { dir => '', files => [
        '/auto/Math/Prime/XS/XS.bs',
        '/auto/Math/Prime/XS/XS.so',
        '/Math/Prime/XS.pm' ] },
);

Here is another (summarized) example:

  ~/LRemote-Use/script$ head -23 orion.installed.modules
  (
  'CPAN/Config.pm' => { dir => '/etc/perl', files => [
	  '/etc/perl/CPAN/Config.pm' ] },
  'Template.pm' => { dir => '/usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8', files => [
	  '/usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8/auto/Template/Stash/XS/XS.so',
	  '/usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8/auto/Template/Stash/XS/XS.bs',
	  '/usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8/Template.pm' ] },
  'IO/Tty.pm' => { dir => '/usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8', files => [
	  '/usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8/auto/IO/Tty/Tty.so',
	  '/usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8/auto/IO/Tty/Tty.bs',
	  '/usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8/IO/Tty.pm' ] },
  'IO/Pty.pm' => { dir => '/usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8', files => [
	  '/usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8/IO/Pty.pm' ] },
  'IO/Tty/Constant.pm' => { dir => '/usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8', files => [
	  '/usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8/IO/Tty/Constant.pm' ] },
  'Math/Prime/XS.pm' => { dir => '/usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8', files => [
	  '/usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8/auto/Math/Prime/XS/XS.so',
	  '/usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8/auto/Math/Prime/XS/XS.bs',
	  '/usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8/Math/Prime/XS.pm' ] },
  'Template/Stash.pm' => { dir => '/usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8', files => [
	  '/usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8/auto/Template/Stash/XS/XS.so',
	  '/usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8/auto/Template/Stash/XS/XS.bs',
	  '/usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8/Template/Stash.pm' ] },

LIST OF OPTIONS

  • --relative path, -r path

    The consequence of using -r path is that path will be removed from the dir entries in the PPMDF file

  • --log file, -l file

    Specifies the log file where warnings will be saved. For example:

    pp2@nereida:$ ssh orion perl pminstalled.pl -log /tmp/dups > /tmp/perl5lib/.orion.installed.modules
  • --output file, -o log

    Must be followed by the name of the output file.

  • --pod, --nopod

    The POD files (extension .pod) associated with the module will be added to the files entry for that module

  • -help

SEE ALSO

AUTHOR

Casiano Rodriguez Leon <casiano@ull.es>

COPYRIGHT

(c) Copyright 2008 Casiano Rodriguez-Leon

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.8.8 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.