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in reply to RFC: ExtUtils::Autoconf

Splendid idea, looking forward to trying it out. One question, though. As far as I know, most autotools actually are in Perl. I think this means they don't really have to be "extutils" from the perl perspective. It has always surprised my that this gnu software isn't on CPAN - but I think you would have the right (under the gpl) to change that and to package your release with (some of) the autotools and achieve tighter integration than you have now.

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Re^2: RFC: ExtUtils::Autoconf
by rafl (Friar) on Sep 04, 2006 at 19:04 UTC

    The module is currently under ExtUtils:: as it interfaces with autoconf using the autoconf executables, which are external tools.

    I didn't really know that autoconf is mostly written in Perl. I really like the idea of integrating autoconf into the distribution. I just took a look into it and saw that all executables of autoconf, except the `autoconf' executable itself, are written in perl. Unfortunately autoconf comes with quite a lot of m4 macros. These could be integrated with the distribution as well, but then it would still require an m4 executable, which, unfortunately, isn't written in Perl. So doesn't seem easily possible to integrate autoconf in my module, even if the idea is very appealing.

    Cheers, Flo

[reply]
      Well, I guess you couldn't reach full integration - but at least to the point where the autotools themselves (and their underlying *.pms) are part of the distribution, requiring users only to have m4.

      (Note: I'm not entirely sure if all this is easy or even a good idea. I just like the notion of being able to download and install the autotools from cpan, with few prerequisites.)
[reply]

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