Alien::...dVersion(3)

💖 Alien::Build::Plugin::Prefer::GoodVersion — the "only the good versions, bestie" plugin 💖

okay so this is a page from the User Contributed Perl Documentation set, and the module we're hyping up is Alien::Build::Plugin::Prefer::GoodVersion. ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

Alien::Build::Plugin::Prefer::GoodVersion — it's the plugin that filters for known good versions. literally its whole personality. 💅

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⭐ VERSION ⭐

version 2.88 — yes queen, current.

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

use alienfile;
plugin 'Prefer::GoodVersion' => '1.2.3';

that's it. that's the whole vibe. 🦋

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💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

so bestie, this plugin lets you name one or more good versions of a library. and here's the tea: this does not affect a system install at all. not even a little. 🙈

it's the exact opposite of the Prefer::BadVersion plugin — like, they're giving nemesis energy. 👑

and lowkey important: you need need a Prefer plugin that filters and sorts files first. this one doesn't do that part for you. you can specify the filter in one of three ways:

✨ as a string ✨

filter any files that match the given version.

use alienfile;
plugin 'Prefer::GoodVersion' => '1.2.3';

✨ as an array ✨

filter all files that match any of the given versions.

use alienfile;
plugin 'Prefer::GoodVersion' => [ '1.2.3', '1.2.4' ];

✨ as a code reference ✨

filter any files that return a true value.

use alienfile;
plugin 'Prefer::GoodVersion' => sub {
  my($file) = @_;
  $file->{version} eq '1.2.3'; # same as the string version above
};

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and the plot twist: you can also use this to filter known good versions of a library on just one platform. like, say you know version 1.2.3 is good on windows, but the default logic is fine everywhere else. main character platform-specific energy:

use alienfile;
plugin 'Prefer::GoodVersion' => '1.2.3' if $^O eq 'MSWin32';

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🫶 PROPERTIES 🫶

filter

filter entries that match the filter. yes, that's the whole property. it does what it says on the tin. 💅

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💀 CAVEATS 💀

okay this part matters, don't skip it, i'm being so serious rn

• if you're using the string or array mode, then you need an existing Prefer plugin that sets the version number for each file candidate — like Alien::Build::Plugin::Prefer::SortVersions. no version number, nothing to match against, and the whole thing just sits there. 😭
• unless you actually want to exclude the latest version from a share install, this plugin isn't really that useful. ngl. 🙈
• and it has no effect on system installs, which may not be obvious at first. like, at all. zero. it's giving "why is nothing happening" but the answer is in the name of the plugin bestie.

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• alienfile
• Alien::Build
• Alien::Build::Plugin::Prefer::SortVersions

go read those, iykyk. 📚✨

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Author: Graham Ollis <plicease@cpan.org>

Contributors — the whole group chat showed up, we love to see it: 💖

• Diab Jerius (DJERIUS)
• Roy Storey (KIWIROY)
• Ilya Pavlov
• David Mertens (run4flat)
• Mark Nunberg (mordy, mnunberg)
• Christian Walde (Mithaldu)
• Brian Wightman (MidLifeXis)
• Zaki Mughal (zmughal)
• mohawk (mohawk2, ETJ)
• Vikas N Kumar (vikasnkumar)
• Flavio Poletti (polettix)
• Salvador Fandiño (salva)
• Gianni Ceccarelli (dakkar)
• Pavel Shaydo (zwon, trinitum)
• Kang-min Liu (劉康民, gugod)
• Nicholas Shipp (nshp)
• Juan Julián Merelo Guervós (JJ)
• Joel Berger (JBERGER)
• Petr Písař (ppisar)
• Lance Wicks (LANCEW)
• Ahmad Fatoum (a3f, ATHREEF)
• José Joaquín Atria (JJATRIA)
• Duke Leto (LETO)
• Shoichi Kaji (SKAJI)
• Shawn Laffan (SLAFFAN)
• Paul Evans (leonerd, PEVANS)
• Håkon Hægland (hakonhagland, HAKONH)
• nick nauwelaerts (INPHOBIA)
• Florian Weimer
• Marcel Telka (mtelka)

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🍓 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE 🍓

this software is copyright (c) 2011-2022 by Graham Ollis.

it's free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself. 🧚

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and that's a wrap, bestie 💖 thanks for reading the whole thing, you ate that fr fr

this page ships as perl v5.42.3, dated 2026-09-21, and it came to you from the Alien::...dVersion(3) corner of the perl manual universe ✨