[mp2] rfc: adding MP_INSTALL_OPTIONAL_MODULES=1

[Stas Bekman]

Our test suite gets quite a few important tests that require certain modules 
or certain version numbers to be installed. Without which users get those 
tests skipped, which may miss problems. Even though we have Bundle::Apache2, 
users need to take a special action to install those and since the bundle will 
contain modules relying on mp2 itself, it's not practical to install the 
Bundle before mp2 is installed. So ideally we want CPAN.pm/CPANPLUS to detect 
the optional prerequisites and fetch them automatically. Therefore think to 
add to modperl-2.0/Makefile.PL an optional PREREQ_PM which will be passed to 
WriteMakefile only if MP_INSTALL_OPTIONAL_MODULES=1 is passed.

If we ever prompt users for anything we could prompt them as well for that 
option as well. If you think this name is too long, please suggest a different 
name.

Hmm, may be the name is misleading after all, since it's only when Makefile.PL 
is run under CPAN.pm/CPANPLUS it'll automatically install these optional 
modules. Otherwise it'll just warn about unsatisfied dependencies and 
continues. MP_REQUIRE_OPTIONAL_MODULES=1?

To start with we will want to populate PREREQ_PM with LWP/whatever, CGI/3.01, 
Compress::Zlib/1.09 and may be a few more.

I'm also going to extend the bugreport class to tell us version numbers of 
selected modules, which will be set individually by each package using 
Apache-Test. e.g. I want the mp2 report include the CGI.pm version, since most 
reported bugs connected with older CGI.pm, are already fixed in the latest 
versions.

p.s. I hope Lincoln will release CGI.pm 3.01 asap.

__________________________________________________________________
Stas Bekman            JAm_pH ------> Just Another mod_perl Hacker
http://stason.org/     mod_perl Guide ---> http://perl.apache.org
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