PAR::Dist - Create and manipulate PAR distributions


NAME

PAR::Dist - Create and manipulate PAR distributions


VERSION

This document describes version 0.07 of PAR::Dist, released January 1, 2004.


SYNOPSIS

As a shell command:

    % perl -MPAR::Dist -eblib_to_par

In programs:

    use PAR::Dist;
    my $dist = blib_to_par();   # make a PAR file using ./blib/
    install_par($dist);         # install it into the system
    uninstall_par($dist);       # uninstall it from the system
    sign_par($dist);            # sign it using Module::Signature
    verify_par($dist);          # verify it using Module::Signature
    install_par("http://foo.com/DBI-1.37-MSWin32-5.8.0.par";); # works too
    install_par("http://foo.com/DBI-1.37";); # auto-appends archname + perlver
    install_par("cpan://AUTRIJUS/PAR-0.73"); # uses CPAN author directory


DESCRIPTION

This module creates and manipulates PAR distributions. They are architecture-specific PAR files, containing everything under blib/ of CPAN distributions after their make or Build stage, a META.yml describing metadata of the original CPAN distribution, and a MANIFEST detailing all files within it. Digitally signed PAR distributions will also contain a SIGNATURE file.

The naming convention for such distributions is:

    $NAME-$VERSION-$ARCH-$PERL_VERSION.par

For example, PAR-Dist-0.01-i386-freebsd-5.8.0.par corresponds to the 0.01 release of PAR-Dist on CPAN, built for perl 5.8.0 running on i386-freebsd.


FUNCTIONS

Five functions are exported by default. They can take either a hash of named arguments, a single argument (taken as $path by blib_to_par and $dist by other functions), or no arguments (in which case the first PAR file in the current directory is used).

Therefore, under a directory containing only a single test.par, all invocations below are equivalent:

    % perl -MPAR::Dist -e"install_par( dist => 'test.par' )"
    % perl -MPAR::Dist -e"install_par( 'test.par' )"
    % perl -MPAR::Dist -einstall_par;

If $dist resembles a URL, LWP::Simple::mirror is called to mirror it locally under $ENV{PAR_TEMP} (or $TEMP/par/ if unspecified), and the function will act on the fetched local file instead. If the URL begins with cpan://AUTHOR/, it will be expanded automatically to the author's CPAN directory (e.g. http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-authors/id/A/AU/AUTHOR/).

If $dist does not have a file extension beginning with a letter or underscore, a dash and $suffix ($ARCH-$PERL_VERSION.par by default) will be appended to it.

blib_to_par

Builds a PAR distribution from the blib/ subdirectory under $path, or under the current directory if unspecified. If blib/ does not exist, it automatically runs Build, make, Build.PL or Makefile.PL to create it.

Returns the filename or the generated PAR distribution.

install_par

Installs a PAR distribution into the system, using ExtUtils::Install::install_default.

uninstall_par

Uninstalls all previously installed contents of a PAR distribution, using ExtUtils::Install::uninstall.

sign_par

Digitally sign a PAR distribution using gpg or Crypt::OpenPGP, via Module::Signature.

verify_par

Verify the digital signature of a PAR distribution using gpg or Crypt::OpenPGP, via Module::Signature.

Returns a boolean value indicating whether verification passed; $! is set to the return code of Module::Signature::verify.


SEE ALSO

PAR, the ExtUtils::Install manpage, the Module::Signature manpage, the LWP::Simple manpage


AUTHORS

Autrijus Tang <autrijus@autrijus.org>

PAR has a mailing list, <par@perl.org>, that you can write to; send an empty mail to <par-subscribe@perl.org> to join the list and participate in the discussion.

Please send bug reports to <bug-par@rt.cpan.org>.


COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2003, 2004 by Autrijus Tang <autrijus@autrijus.org>.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

See http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html

 PAR::Dist - Create and manipulate PAR distributions