Commit | Line | Data |
---|---|---|
86530b38 AT |
1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | ||
3 | Inline-FAQ - The Inline FAQ | |
4 | ||
5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
6 | ||
7 | Welcome to the official Inline FAQ. In this case, B<FAQ> means: | |
8 | ||
9 | Formerly Answered Questions | |
10 | ||
11 | This is a collection of old, long-winded emails that myself and others | |
12 | have sent to the Inline mailing list. (inline@perl.org) They have been | |
13 | reviewed and edited for general Inline edification. Some of them may be | |
14 | related to a specific language. They are presented here in a traditional | |
15 | FAQ layout. | |
16 | ||
17 | =head1 General Inline | |
18 | ||
19 | Since there is only a handful of content so far, all FAQs are currently | |
20 | under this heading. | |
21 | ||
22 | =head2 How disposable is a .Inline or _Inline directory? | |
23 | ||
24 | I probably need to be more emphatic about the roll of _Inline/ cache | |
25 | directories. Since they are created automatically, they are completely | |
26 | disposable. I delete them all the time. And it is fine to have a | |
27 | different one for each project. In fact as long as you don't have | |
28 | ~/.Inline/ defined, Inline will create a new ./_Inline directory. You | |
29 | can move that to ./.Inline and it will continue to work if you want to | |
30 | give it more longevity and hide it from view. There is a long | |
31 | complicated list of rules about how [_.]Inline/ directories are | |
32 | used/created. But it was designed to give you the most | |
33 | flexibility/ease-of-use. Never be afraid to nuke 'em. They'll just pop | |
34 | right back next time. :) | |
35 | ||
36 | =head2 Whatever happened to the SITE_INSTALL option? | |
37 | ||
38 | SITE_INSTALL is gone. I was going to leave it in and change the | |
39 | semantics, but thought it better to remove it, so people wouldn't try to | |
40 | use it the old way. There is now _INSTALL_ (but you're not supposed to | |
41 | know that :). It works magically through the use of Inline::MakeMaker. I | |
42 | explained this earlier but it's worth going through again because it's | |
43 | the biggest change for 0.40. Here's how to 'permanently' install an | |
44 | Inline extension (Inline based module) with 0.40: | |
45 | ||
46 | 1) Create a module with Inline. | |
47 | 2) Test it using the normal/local _Inline/ cache. | |
48 | 3) Create a Makefile.PL (like the one produced by h2xs) | |
49 | 4) Change 'use ExtUtils::MakeMaker' to 'use Inline::MakeMaker' | |
50 | 5) Change your 'use Inline C => DATA' to 'use Inline C => DATA => NAME | |
51 | => Foo => VERSION => 1.23' | |
52 | 6) Make sure NAME matches your package name ('Foo'), or begins with | |
53 | 'Foo::'. | |
54 | 7) Make sure VERSION matches $Foo::VERSION. This must be a string (not a | |
55 | number) matching /^\d\.\d\d$/ | |
56 | 8) Do the perl/make/test/install dance (thanks binkley :) | |
57 | ||
58 | With Inline 0.41 (or thereabouts) you can skip steps 3 & 4, and just | |
59 | say 'perl -MInline=INSTALL ./Foo.pm'. This will work for non-Inline | |
60 | modules too. It will become the defacto standard (since there is no easy | |
61 | standard) way of installing a Perl module. It will allow Makefile.PL | |
62 | parameters 'perl -MInline=INSTALL ./Foo.pm - PREFIX=/home/ingy/perl' and | |
63 | things like that. It will also make use of a MANIFEST if you provide | |
64 | one. | |
65 | ||
66 | =head2 How do I create a binary distribution using Inline? | |
67 | ||
68 | I've figured out how to create and install a PPM binary distribution; | |
69 | with or without distributing the C code! And I've decided to share it | |
70 | with all of you :) | |
71 | ||
72 | NOTE: Future versions of Inline will make this process a one line | |
73 | command. But for now just use this simple recipe. | |
74 | ||
75 | --- | |
76 | ||
77 | The Inline 0.40 distribution comes with a sample extension module called | |
78 | Math::Simple. Theoretically you could distribute this module on CPAN. It | |
79 | has all the necessary support for installation. You can find it in | |
80 | Inline-0.40/modules/Math/Simple/. Here are the steps for converting this | |
81 | into a binary distribution *without* C source code. | |
82 | ||
83 | NOTE: The recipient of this binary distribution will need to have the | |
84 | PPM.pm module installed. This module requires a lot of other CPAN | |
85 | modules. ActivePerl (available for Win32, Linux, and Solaris) has all of | |
86 | these bundled. While ActivePerl isn't required, it makes things (a | |
87 | lot) easier. | |
88 | ||
89 | 1) cd Inline-0.40/Math/Simple/ | |
90 | ||
91 | 2) Divide Simple.pm into two files: | |
92 | ||
93 | ---8<--- (Simple.pm) | |
94 | package Math::Simple; | |
95 | use strict; | |
96 | require Exporter; | |
97 | @Math::Simple::ISA = qw(Exporter); | |
98 | @Math::Simple::EXPORT = qw(add subtract); | |
99 | $Math::Simple::VERSION = '1.23'; | |
100 | ||
101 | use Inline (C => 'src/Simple.c' => | |
102 | NAME => 'Math::Simple', | |
103 | VERSION => '1.23', | |
104 | ); | |
105 | 1; | |
106 | ---8<--- | |
107 | ---8<--- (src/Simple.c) | |
108 | int add (int x, int y) { | |
109 | return x + y; | |
110 | } | |
111 | ||
112 | int subtract (int x, int y) { | |
113 | return x - y; | |
114 | } | |
115 | ---8<--- | |
116 | ||
117 | So now you have the Perl in one file and the C in the other. The C code | |
118 | must be in a subdirectory. | |
119 | ||
120 | 3) | |
121 | Note that I also changed the term 'DATA' to the name of the C file. This | |
122 | will work just as if the C were still inline. | |
123 | ||
124 | 4) Run 'perl Makefile.PL' | |
125 | ||
126 | 5) Run 'make test' | |
127 | ||
128 | 6) Get the MD5 key from 'blib/arch/auto/Math/Simple/Simple.inl' | |
129 | ||
130 | 7) | |
131 | Edit 'blib/lib/Math/Simple.pm'. Change 'src/Simple.c' to | |
132 | '02c61710cab5b659efc343a9a830aa73' (the MD5 key) | |
133 | ||
134 | 8) Run 'make ppd' | |
135 | ||
136 | 9) | |
137 | Edit 'Math-Simple.ppd'. Fill in AUTHOR and ABSTRACT if you wish. Then | |
138 | change: | |
139 | ||
140 | <CODEBASE HREF="" /> | |
141 | ||
142 | to | |
143 | ||
144 | <CODEBASE HREF="Math-Simple.tar.gz" /> | |
145 | ||
146 | 10) Run: | |
147 | ||
148 | tar cvf Math-Simple.tar blib | |
149 | gzip --best Math-Simple.tar | |
150 | ||
151 | 11) | |
152 | Run: | |
153 | ||
154 | tar cvf Math-Simple-1.23.tar Math-Simple.ppd Math-Simple.tar.gz | |
155 | gzip --best Math-Simple-1.23.tar | |
156 | ||
157 | 12) Distribute Math-Simple-1.23.tar.gz with the following instructions: | |
158 | ||
159 | A) Run: | |
160 | ||
161 | gzip -d Math-Simple-1.23.tar.gz | |
162 | tar xvzf Math-Simple-1.23.tar | |
163 | ||
164 | B) Run 'ppm install Math-Simple.ppd' | |
165 | ||
166 | C) Delete Math-Simple.tar and Math-Simple.ppd. | |
167 | ||
168 | D) Test with: | |
169 | ||
170 | perl -MMath::Simple -le 'print add(37, 42)' | |
171 | ||
172 | --- | |
173 | ||
174 | That's it. The process should also work with zip instead of tar, but I | |
175 | haven't tried it. | |
176 | ||
177 | The recipient of the binary must have Perl built with a matching | |
178 | architecture. Luckily, ppm will catch this. | |
179 | ||
180 | For a binary dist *with* C source code, simply omit steps 2, 3, 6, and | |
181 | 7. | |
182 | ||
183 | If this seems too hard, then in a future version you should be able to | |
184 | just type: | |
185 | ||
186 | make ppm | |
187 | ||
188 | =cut |