----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <makemaker@perl.org>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2006 3:25 AM Subject: How to declare external library dependency?
> I recently attempted to build a module (Text::Aspell) which has a > dependency on a specific OS library version. Of course, I didn't read > the docs close enough, and the build failed for me. Is there a way to > declare such a dependency so that others like me won't fall into this > trap? I'm sure I would have gotten the message had the build told me > "Hey, you need a more recent version of libaspell!". > There may be a simpler solution, but I would have 'perl Makefile.PL' build (and run) an executable that reports the libaspell version number. If the version (as reported by the executable) is not recent enough, then 'perl Makefile.PL' should die then and there with an appropriate error message. (I'm assuming that libaspell has such a function, and that the C code one writes to obtain the version number has itself not changed over different releases of the library.) Of course, that's something that the module author should put in place. As a user, all you can do is read the readme :-) You might suggest to the author that he put in place something that will detect the attempted use of an out-of-date version of the library - or even send him a patched Makefile.PL that does just that. Cheers, Rob
