Alien::...CBuilder(3)

💅 Alien::Build::Plugin::Probe::CBuilder — the "just guess bestie" prober 💅

okay so this is a page from the User Contributed Perl Documentation set, and the man page it lives in is titled Alien::...CBuilder(3). Yes the title is abbreviated like that, it's giving mystery, it's giving suspense. We move.

✨ NAME ✨

Alien::Build::Plugin::Probe::CBuilder — no cap, this plugin probes for system libraries by guessing with ExtUtils::CBuilder. It's a guesser. But like, an extremely well-read guesser. 🧚

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🌸 VERSION 🌸

version 2.88 — that's the one, that's the number, don't come for me.

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

The main character setup, look:

use alienfile;
plugin 'Probe::CBuilder' => (
  cflags => '-I/opt/libfoo/include',
  libs   => '-L/opt/libfoo/lib -lfoo',
);

and alternately (and yes, the original says ues, not use, we are preserving this typo like the historical artifact it is, periodt):

ues alienfile;
plugin 'Probe::CBuilder' => (
  aliens => [ 'Alien::libfoo', 'Alien::libbar' ],
);

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So basically: this plugin probes for compiler and linker flags using ExtUtils::CBuilder. 💖

It's a genuinely useful alternative to Alien::Build::Plugin::PkgConfig::Negotiate for packages that do not ship a pkg-config .pc file — or for when those .pc files might not even be available. iykyk.

The example the docs give, and it's a good one: on FreeBSD, libarchive is a core part of the operating system, but it doesn't include a .pc file — which is usually provided when you install the libarchive package on Linux. So like. Same library, different vibe, no .pc. That's the whole reason this plugin exists bestie. 🌈

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👑 PROPERTIES 👑

options

Any extra options you want passed into the constructor to ExtUtils::CBuilder. Extra. Options. Pass them in. Slay.

cflags

The compiler flags. ✨

libs

The linker flags. (No period in the original, I'm just being polite here. It's fine. We're fine.)

program

The program to use in the test. 🧪

version

This one's a regular expression — it parses the version out of the output from the test program. Regex girlies rise. 🔥

atleast_version

The minimum required version, as provided by the system. Lowkey a boundary-setting queen. 💅

aliens

List of aliens to query for compiler and linker flags. 👽👽 (yes, plural aliens, this is the crossover event)

lang

The programming language to use. One of either "C" or "C++". That's it. Two options. Choose wisely. 😭

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

Go read these too, they're all part of the same friend group:

• Alien::Build
• alienfile
• Alien::Build::MM
• Alien

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💜 AUTHOR 💜

Author: Graham Ollis <plicease@cpan.org> 👑

And then the Contributors — an absolutely stacked lineup, we are so blessed, look at this roster:

• 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.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself. Free as in, go off, do your thing, just keep the terms. 💖

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okay bestie that's the whole page, you understood all of it, I'm so proud of you 🥹

and for the cute sign-off: this was perl v5.42.3, dated 2026-09-21, from the Alien::...CBuilder(3) page. bye bestie, hydrate, and remember to check your .pc files 💅✨