CPANPLUS::Shell::Default::Plugins::Prereqs

Deep in one of the current threads on autobundling installers, someone (I think Jos) mentioned a hitherto unkown (to me) module called CPANPLUS::Shell::Default::Plugins::Prereqs, which is another very cool plugin for CPANPLUS.

It will give a very nice overview of what other dists a given dist (local or on CPAN) needs, and will even install them. While the last point isn't so revolutionary for regular CPAN stuff, I find it very comfortable for custom code that's not on CPAN. Yes, Module::Install can also do that, but I think it's evil and I really hate make (or rather Makefiles - using tabs for semantics is just fu̷cked)

Examples

~$ cpanp /prereqs show Moose

  Module                            Req Ver  Installed       CPAN  Satisfied

  Test::LongString                        0       0.11       0.11        Yes

  Scalar::Util                         1.18       1.19       1.19        Yes

  Test::Exception                      0.21       0.27       0.27        Yes

  Filter::Simple                          0       0.82       0.82        Yes

  Class::MOP                           0.66       0.65       0.66         No

  ExtUtils::MakeMaker                  6.44       6.44       6.46        Yes

  Sub::Exporter                       0.972      0.980      0.980        Yes

  Carp                                    0       1.08       1.08        Yes

  Test::More                           0.62       0.80       0.80        Yes

  List::MoreUtils                         0       0.22       0.22        Yes

It also works on stuff that's not on CPAN. You just need to chdir into the dir containing Build.PL (of course it also works with Makefile.PL, but no sane person is still using that...)

~$ cd revdev/RevDev-Schema

~/revdev/RevDev-Schema$ cpanp /prereqs show .

  Module                            Req Ver  Installed       CPAN  Satisfied

  DBIx::SchemaChecksum                 0.23       0.23       0.23        Yes

  DBIx::Class                             0    0.08010    0.08010        Yes

  Array::Diff                          0.04       0.04       0.04        Yes

  RevDev::Utils                        0.10       0.12       0.11        Yes

  DBD::Pg                            2.10.0     2.10.5   2.010007        Yes

  Sys::Hostname                           0       1.11       1.11        Yes

  DateTime::Format::Pg                    0    0.16002    0.16002        Yes

And of course it's totally easy to install the dependencies:

~$ cpanp /prereqs install Moose

  Module                            Req Ver  Installed       CPAN  Satisfied

  Test::LongString                        0       0.11       0.11        Yes

...

  Class::MOP                           0.66       0.65       0.66         No

Running [/opt/perl5.10/bin/perl /opt/perl5.10/bin/cpanp-run-perl /home/domm/.cpanplus/5.10.0/build/Class-MOP-0.66/Makefile.PL ]...

Testing if you have a C compiler

Checking if your kit is complete...

Looks good

Writing Makefile for Class::MOP

...

Result: PASS

  ExtUtils::MakeMaker                  6.44       6.44       6.46        Yes

...

Another very sharp tool in my deployment toolbox. MGRIMES++

Original: http://use.perl.org/~domm/journal/37587

Legacy comments

Alias: In defense of Module::Install... (orignal post)

... it recommends AGAINST the use of auto_install() and I even tried to remove the feature altogether (but it didn't stick, too many things broke).