[Bioperl-l] No more Makefile.PL (MakeMaker -> Module::Build)

[Chris Fields]

On Nov 16, 2006, at 6:45 AM, Nathan S. Haigh wrote:

> Sendu Bala wrote:
>> Chris Fields wrote:
>>> I see that there is a PPMMaker module with Module::Build, so we'll
>>> have to
>>> look into that for WinXP PPMs..
>>
>> Nathan, does:
>>
>> perl Build.PL
>> ./Build ppmdist
>>
>> create anything useful? For me it generates a tar.gz containing blib,
>> and a ppd file (the contents of which can be adjusted by supplying  
>> "an
>> optional argument codebase which is used in the generated ppd file to
>> specify the (usually relative) URL of the distribution. By default,
>> this value is the distribution name without any path information",  
>> eg.
>> ./Build ppmdist --codebase "MSWin32-x86-multi-thread/ 
>> Bioperl....tar.gz").
>>
>> Is this PPM4 format? What else needs to be done to it to make it
>> suitable? I can easily extend the ppmdist action to do whatever you
>> want, so let me know.
>
> Sorry, but i've been busy this last week etc so haven't be able to  
> test
> RC3 on WinXP yet - hopefully Chris' tests have been sufficient.
>
> Essentially a PPM dist comprises of the .tar.gz file you described (of
> the blib dir) and then the XML file (.ppd) which describes the package
> and it's dependencies. The syntax of the XML has changed for PPM4  
> (which
> required me to do these changes by hand on the ppd that was previously
> output by "make ppd". For PPM4 the XML in the ppd file can be copied
> over to packages.xml file in our PPM repository. the codebase URL  
> can be
> relative/absolute and it's exact value depends on the relative  
> position
> of the XML (whether in the .ppd or package.xml file) and the .tar.gz
> file. Thus, by default, they would have to reside in the same dir  
> on our
> server.
>
> Without looking at the XML I couldn't say if it was PPM3 or PPM4
> compatible. Could you e-mail me the ppd file and I'll take a look.
>
> Cheers
> Nath

I'll also try making a PPM here.  I noticed that Module::Build has a  
developer release; I may check with the developers about PPM  
compatibility.

I hate to say it, but we might need to get a PPM3 rolled for this  
release if people ask for it.  There has been some backlash about  
PPM4 so a lot of people are actually downgrading to an older  
ActivePerl installations for PPM3.  We'll just make a barebones  
version if this pops up (and no Bundle).

One BioPerl CPAN issue: I noticed that 1.5.2-RC3 is not listed as a  
developer release, but as the latest release (which implies it is  
stable):

http://search.cpan.org/~sendu/bioperl-1.5.2-RC3/

Not sure what's going on there, but I don't think that was intended,  
correct?

Christopher Fields
Postdoctoral Researcher
Lab of Dr. Robert Switzer
Dept of Biochemistry
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign