Hi, I initially wrote App::Build to solve exactly the problem you describe. At that time, it depended on internals of Module::Build that were changed when Module::Build went from 0.26xx to 0.28xx. I discontinued development of it.
However, Mattia Barbon picked it up (<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>) and continues to develop it for Module::Build 0.28xx. Stephen P.S. App::Options is an awesome/awesomely simple configuration/option handling module. It would be too bad if Module::Build::ConfigData didn't work well with App::Options. On 8/22/07, wu-lee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hello - new subscriber here. > > I've written a module which is essentially an application. > > As such, it needs to install some config files, templates, and web > content. These need to have permissions and ownership set appropriately > for the host system (which might not be unix). > > I'm pretty sure installing files to standard locations such as $etc, > $var, $usr_lib, and setting permissions are common things to want to do, > at least it's a common problem for me, but so far as I know none of the > CPAN frameworks (ExtUtils::MakeMaker, Module::Install, and what I'm > using currenly, Module::Build) seem to support that directly. > > Naively you might think this should be as transparent as installing .pm > files. I'm sure it isn't, but I also wonder why there doesn't seem to > be many (any?) modules which try to tackle it, since it'd seem to be > such a common requirement. > > > So far I've seen the M::B::Cookbook, and looked at the Alien::Selenium > and OpenGuides distributions for examples of custom Module::Build > installations. > > I also just recently discovered App::Build which looks promising as more > general solution. On closer inspection it seems to mandate the use of > App::Options over the usual Module::Build::ConfigData mechanism (which > it clobbers), and it doesn't do any automatic platform-specific path > configuration for you (which would be nice to have). Perhaps this would > be a good starting point, however. > > > > Firstly, as presumably this wheel has been invented lots of times already: > > - Are there any existing application installation frameworks exist > that I could use/build on (besides the ones above)? > > - Are there any guidelines, or opinions about the various options I > could choose (such as App::Install)? > > - Is there some reason why this niche hasn't already been filled by > Module::Build? > > > > To elaborate, I'm looking for something which can not only define new > install directories for config, data, cgi scripts etc., but can infer > these appropriately for the platform in use, and set up permissions and > ownership too, where necessary. Perhaps that's asking for a lot. > > My current solution is based on OpenGuides' installer - a subclass of > Module::Build which sets up new install directories with > M::B->install_path. After installing, my implementation sets the > correct file ownership and permissions of web content. It gets this > information from a file in the distribution called 'blib.perms' that > maps blib/ paths to symbolic permissions/ownership properties. To get > the paths it currently queries the user. Finally, it stores the paths > using Module::Build::ConfigData, so that the application can find the files. > > It mostly works for me, but isn't especially well tested on platforms > besides Debian Linux (and even then, could probably do with more testing). > > > Some related questions I'd also like to ask: > > - Are there any CPAN implementations of a function which works like > unix's 'cp -a', but cross platform? (File::Copy doesn't copy permissions > or ownership, and neither does ExtUtils::Install, at least on > directories. Therefore I've tried to implement one, it seems to work, > but see disclaimer above. ) > > - Likewise a directory generator which can assign the correct > permissions / ACLs or whatever? (Ditto last aside). > > - If not, can anyone advice me where I might contribute most usefully? > Module::Build? App::Build? > > > Thanks, > > Nick >
