local::lib(3pm)

User Contributed Perl Documentation

local::lib(3pm)

NAME¶

local::lib - create and use a local lib/ for perl modules with PERL5LIB

SYNOPSIS¶

In code -

  use local::lib; # sets up a local lib at ~/perl5
  use local::lib '~/foo'; # same, but ~/foo
  # Or...
  use FindBin;
  use local::lib "$FindBin::Bin/../support";  # app-local support library

From the shell -

  # Install LWP and its missing dependencies to the '~/perl5' directory
  perl -MCPAN -Mlocal::lib -e 'CPAN::install(LWP)'
  # Just print out useful shell commands
  $ perl -Mlocal::lib
  export PERL_MB_OPT='--install_base /home/username/perl5'
  export PERL_MM_OPT='INSTALL_BASE=/home/username/perl5'
  export PERL5LIB='/home/username/perl5/lib/perl5/i386-linux:/home/username/perl5/lib/perl5'
  export PATH="/home/username/perl5/bin:$PATH"

The bootstrapping technique¶

A typical way to install local::lib is using what is known as the "bootstrapping" technique. You would do this if your system administrator hasn't already installed local::lib. In this case, you'll need to install local::lib in your home directory.

If you do have administrative privileges, you will still want to set up your environment variables, as discussed in step 4. Without this, you would still install the modules into the system CPAN installation and also your Perl scripts will not use the lib/ path you bootstrapped with local::lib.

By default local::lib installs itself and the CPAN modules into ~/perl5.

Windows users must also see "Differences when using this module under Win32".

1. Download and unpack the local::lib tarball from CPAN (search for "Download" on the CPAN page about local::lib). Do this as an ordinary user, not as root or administrator. Unpack the file in your home directory or in any other convenient location.

2. Run this:

  perl Makefile.PL --bootstrap

If the system asks you whether it should automatically configure as much as possible, you would typically answer yes.

In order to install local::lib into a directory other than the default, you need to specify the name of the directory when you call bootstrap, as follows:

  perl Makefile.PL --bootstrap=~/foo

3. Run this: (local::lib assumes you have make installed on your system)

  make test && make install

4. Now we need to setup the appropriate environment variables, so that Perl starts using our newly generated lib/ directory. If you are using bash or any other Bourne shells, you can add this to your shell startup script this way:

  echo 'eval $(perl -I$HOME/perl5/lib/perl5 -Mlocal::lib)' >>~/.bashrc

If you are using C shell, you can do this as follows:

  /bin/csh
  echo $SHELL
  /bin/csh
  perl -I$HOME/perl5/lib/perl5 -Mlocal::lib >> ~/.cshrc

If you passed to bootstrap a directory other than default, you also need to give that as import parameter to the call of the local::lib module like this way:

  echo 'eval $(perl -I$HOME/foo/lib/perl5 -Mlocal::lib=$HOME/foo)' >>~/.bashrc

After writing your shell configuration file, be sure to re-read it to get the changed settings into your current shell's environment. Bourne shells use ". ~/.bashrc" for this, whereas C shells use "source ~/.cshrc".

If you're on a slower machine, or are operating under draconian disk space limitations, you can disable the automatic generation of manpages from POD when installing modules by using the "--no-manpages" argument when bootstrapping:

  perl Makefile.PL --bootstrap --no-manpages

To avoid doing several bootstrap for several Perl module environments on the same account, for example if you use it for several different deployed applications independently, you can use one bootstrapped local::lib installation to install modules in different directories directly this way:

  cd ~/mydir1
  perl -Mlocal::lib=./
  eval $(perl -Mlocal::lib=./)  ### To set the environment for this shell alone
  printenv                      ### You will see that ~/mydir1 is in the PERL5LIB
  perl -MCPAN -e install ...    ### whatever modules you want
  cd ../mydir2
  ... REPEAT ...

If you are working with several "local::lib" environments, you may want to remove some of them from the current environment without disturbing the others. You can deactivate one environment like this (using bourne sh):

  eval $(perl -Mlocal::lib=--deactivate,~/path)

which will generate and run the commands needed to remove "~/path" from your various search paths. Whichever environment was activated most recently will remain the target for module installations. That is, if you activate "~/path_A" and then you activate "~/path_B", new modules you install will go in "~/path_B". If you deactivate "~/path_B" then modules will be installed into "~/pathA" -- but if you deactivate "~/path_A" then they will still be installed in "~/pathB" because pathB was activated later.

You can also ask "local::lib" to clean itself completely out of the current shell's environment with the "--deactivate-all" option. For multiple environments for multiple apps you may need to include a modified version of the "use FindBin" instructions in the "In code" sample above. If you did something like the above, you have a set of Perl modules at "~/mydir1/lib". If you have a script at "~/mydir1/scripts/myscript.pl", you need to tell it where to find the modules you installed for it at "~/mydir1/lib".

In "~/mydir1/scripts/myscript.pl":

  use strict;
  use warnings;
  use local::lib "$FindBin::Bin/..";  ### points to ~/mydir1 and local::lib finds lib
  use lib "$FindBin::Bin/../lib";     ### points to ~/mydir1/lib

Put this before any BEGIN { ... } blocks that require the modules you installed.

Differences when using this module under Win32¶

To set up the proper environment variables for your current session of "CMD.exe", you can use this:

  C:\>perl -Mlocal::lib
  set PERL_MB_OPT=--install_base C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\perl5
  set PERL_MM_OPT=INSTALL_BASE=C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\perl5
  set PERL5LIB=C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\perl5\lib\perl5;C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\perl5\lib\perl5\MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
  set PATH=C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\perl5\bin;%PATH%
  
  ### To set the environment for this shell alone
  C:\>perl -Mlocal::lib > %TEMP%\tmp.bat && %TEMP%\tmp.bat && del %TEMP%\temp.bat
  ### instead of $(perl -Mlocal::lib=./)

If you want the environment entries to persist, you'll need to add then to the Control Panel's System applet yourself or use App::local::lib::Win32Helper.

The "~" is translated to the user's profile directory (the directory named for the user under "Documents and Settings" (Windows XP or earlier) or "Users" (Windows Vista or later)) unless $ENV{HOME} exists. After that, the home directory is translated to a short name (which means the directory must exist) and the subdirectories are created.

RATIONALE¶

The version of a Perl package on your machine is not always the version you need. Obviously, the best thing to do would be to update to the version you need. However, you might be in a situation where you're prevented from doing this. Perhaps you don't have system administrator privileges; or perhaps you are using a package management system such as Debian, and nobody has yet gotten around to packaging up the version you need.

local::lib solves this problem by allowing you to create your own directory of Perl packages downloaded from CPAN (in a multi-user system, this would typically be within your own home directory). The existing system Perl installation is not affected; you simply invoke Perl with special options so that Perl uses the packages in your own local package directory rather than the system packages. local::lib arranges things so that your locally installed version of the Perl packages takes precedence over the system installation.

If you are using a package management system (such as Debian), you don't need to worry about Debian and CPAN stepping on each other's toes. Your local version of the packages will be written to an entirely separate directory from those installed by Debian.

DESCRIPTION¶

This module provides a quick, convenient way of bootstrapping a user-local Perl module library located within the user's home directory. It also constructs and prints out for the user the list of environment variables using the syntax appropriate for the user's current shell (as specified by the "SHELL" environment variable), suitable for directly adding to one's shell configuration file.

More generally, local::lib allows for the bootstrapping and usage of a directory containing Perl modules outside of Perl's @INC. This makes it easier to ship an application with an app-specific copy of a Perl module, or collection of modules. Useful in cases like when an upstream maintainer hasn't applied a patch to a module of theirs that you need for your application.

On import, local::lib sets the following environment variables to appropriate values:

PERL_MB_OPT

PERL_MM_OPT

PERL5LIB

PATH: PATH is appended to, rather than clobbered.

These values are then available for reference by any code after import.

CREATING A SELF-CONTAINED SET OF MODULES¶

See lib::core::only for one way to do this - but note that there are a number of caveats, and the best approach is always to perform a build against a clean perl (i.e. site and vendor as close to empty as possible).

OPTIONS¶

Options are values that can be passed to the "local::lib" import besides the directory to use. They are specified as "use local::lib '--option'[, path];" or "perl -Mlocal::lib=--option[,path]".

--deactivate¶

Remove the chosen path (or the default path) from the module search paths if it was added by "local::lib", instead of adding it.

--deactivate-all¶

Remove all directories that were added to search paths by "local::lib" from the search paths.

METHODS¶

ensure_dir_structure_for¶

Arguments: $path

Return value: None

Attempts to create the given path, and all required parent directories. Throws an exception on failure.

print_environment_vars_for¶

Arguments: $path

Return value: None

Prints to standard output the variables listed above, properly set to use the given path as the base directory.

build_environment_vars_for¶

Arguments: $path, $interpolate

Return value: \%environment_vars

Returns a hash with the variables listed above, properly set to use the given path as the base directory.

setup_env_hash_for¶

Arguments: $path

Return value: None

Constructs the %ENV keys for the given path, by calling "build_environment_vars_for".

active_paths¶

Arguments: None

Return value: @paths

Returns a list of active "local::lib" paths, according to the "PERL_LOCAL_LIB_ROOT" environment variable.

install_base_perl_path¶

Arguments: $path

Return value: $install_base_perl_path

Returns a path describing where to install the Perl modules for this local library installation. Appends the directories "lib" and "perl5" to the given path.

install_base_arch_path¶

Arguments: $path

Return value: $install_base_arch_path

Returns a path describing where to install the architecture-specific Perl modules for this local library installation. Based on the "install_base_perl_path" method's return value, and appends the value of $Config{archname}.

install_base_bin_path¶

Arguments: $path

Return value: $install_base_bin_path

Returns a path describing where to install the executable programs for this local library installation. Based on the "install_base_perl_path" method's return value, and appends the directory "bin".

resolve_empty_path¶

Arguments: $path

Return value: $base_path

Builds and returns the base path into which to set up the local module installation. Defaults to "~/perl5".

resolve_home_path¶

Arguments: $path

Return value: $home_path

Attempts to find the user's home directory. If installed, uses "File::HomeDir" for this purpose. If no definite answer is available, throws an exception.

resolve_relative_path¶

Arguments: $path

Return value: $absolute_path

Translates the given path into an absolute path.

resolve_path¶

Arguments: $path

Return value: $absolute_path

Calls the following in a pipeline, passing the result from the previous to the next, in an attempt to find where to configure the environment for a local library installation: "resolve_empty_path", "resolve_home_path", "resolve_relative_path". Passes the given path argument to "resolve_empty_path" which then returns a result that is passed to "resolve_home_path", which then has its result passed to "resolve_relative_path". The result of this final call is returned from "resolve_path".

A WARNING ABOUT UNINST=1¶

Be careful about using local::lib in combination with "make install UNINST=1". The idea of this feature is that will uninstall an old version of a module before installing a new one. However it lacks a safety check that the old version and the new version will go in the same directory. Used in combination with local::lib, you can potentially delete a globally accessible version of a module while installing the new version in a local place. Only combine "make install UNINST=1" and local::lib if you understand these possible consequences.

LIMITATIONS¶

The perl toolchain is unable to handle directory names with spaces in it, so you cant put your local::lib bootstrap into a directory with spaces. What you can do is moving your local::lib to a directory with spaces after you installed all modules inside your local::lib bootstrap. But be aware that you cant update or install CPAN modules after the move.

Rather basic shell detection. Right now anything with csh in its name is assumed to be a C shell or something compatible, and everything else is assumed to be Bourne, except on Win32 systems. If the "SHELL" environment variable is not set, a Bourne-compatible shell is assumed.

Bootstrap is a hack and will use CPAN.pm for ExtUtils::MakeMaker even if you have CPANPLUS installed.

Kills any existing PERL5LIB, PERL_MM_OPT or PERL_MB_OPT.

Should probably auto-fixup CPAN config if not already done.

Patches very much welcome for any of the above.

On Win32 systems, does not have a way to write the created environment variables to the registry, so that they can persist through a reboot.

TROUBLESHOOTING¶

If you've configured local::lib to install CPAN modules somewhere in to your home directory, and at some point later you try to install a module with "cpan -i Foo::Bar", but it fails with an error like: "Warning: You do not have permissions to install into /usr/lib64/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/x86_64-linux at /usr/lib64/perl5/5.8.8/Foo/Bar.pm" and buried within the install log is an error saying "'INSTALL_BASE' is not a known MakeMaker parameter name", then you've somehow lost your updated ExtUtils::MakeMaker module.

To remedy this situation, rerun the bootstrapping procedure documented above.

Then, run "rm -r ~/.cpan/build/Foo-Bar*"

Finally, re-run "cpan -i Foo::Bar" and it should install without problems.

ENVIRONMENT¶

SHELL

COMSPEC: local::lib looks at the user's "SHELL" environment variable when printing out commands to add to the shell configuration file.

On Win32 systems, "COMSPEC" is also examined.

SUPPORT¶

IRC:

    Join #local-lib on irc.perl.org.

AUTHOR¶

Matt S Trout <mst@shadowcat.co.uk> http://www.shadowcat.co.uk/

auto_install fixes kindly sponsored by http://www.takkle.com/

CONTRIBUTORS¶

Patches to correctly output commands for csh style shells, as well as some documentation additions, contributed by Christopher Nehren <apeiron@cpan.org>.

Doc patches for a custom local::lib directory, more cleanups in the english documentation and a german documentation contributed by Torsten Raudssus <torsten@raudssus.de>.

Hans Dieter Pearcey <hdp@cpan.org> sent in some additional tests for ensuring things will install properly, submitted a fix for the bug causing problems with writing Makefiles during bootstrapping, contributed an example program, and submitted yet another fix to ensure that local::lib can install and bootstrap properly. Many, many thanks!

pattern of Freenode IRC contributed the beginnings of the Troubleshooting section. Many thanks!

Patch to add Win32 support contributed by Curtis Jewell <csjewell@cpan.org>.

Warnings for missing PATH/PERL5LIB (as when not running interactively) silenced by a patch from Marco Emilio Poleggi.

Mark Stosberg <mark@summersault.com> provided the code for the now deleted '--self-contained' option.

Documentation patches to make win32 usage clearer by David Mertens <dcmertens.perl@gmail.com> (run4flat).

Brazilian portuguese translation and minor doc patches contributed by Breno G. de Oliveira <garu@cpan.org>.

Improvements to stacking multiple local::lib dirs and removing them from the environment later on contributed by Andrew Rodland <arodland@cpan.org>.

COPYRIGHT¶

LICENSE¶

This library is free software and may be distributed under the same terms as perl itself.

2011-02-24

perl v5.14.2

Source file:	local::lib.3pm.en.gz (from liblocal-lib-perl 1.008004-2)
Source last updated:	2012-01-05T15:01:45Z
Converted to HTML:	2017-06-07T17:03:48Z