Glib::MakeHelper(3)

📦
version 1.3294 · 14 versions
, in fedora 43

💖 Glib::MakeHelper 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to Glib::MakeHelper — it's a lil' bundle of Makefile.PL utilities for Glib-based extensions, and it lives in section 3 of the User Contributed Perl Documentation, iykyk 🫶

🌸 NAME 🌸

Glib::MakeHelper — Makefile.PL utilities for Glib-based extensions ✨

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

eval "use Glib::MakeHelper; 1"
    or complain_that_glib_is_too_old_and_die();

%xspod_files = Glib::MakeHelper->do_pod_files (@xs_files);

package MY;
sub postamble {
    return Glib::MakeHelper->postamble_clean ()
         . Glib::MakeHelper->postamble_docs (@main::xs_files)
         . Glib::MakeHelper->postamble_rpms (
                MYLIB     => $build_reqs{MyLib},
           );
}

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

ngl, the Makefile.PL for your typical Glib-based module is huge and hairy 😭 like, the amount of crazy hoops you gotta jump through just to get things right? it's giving chaos.

So this module wraps up some of the more intense and error-prone bits, which means less copied code and less potential for errors. we love to see it 💅

✨ METHODS ✨

👑 HASH = Glib::MakeHelper->do_pod_files (@xs_files)

Scans the @xs_files and hands you back a hash describing the pod files that will be created 💖 That's in the format wanted by WriteMakefile().

But here's the tea: if @ARGV contains the string "disable-apidoc", you get an empty list back instead, and thus no apidoc pod will be generated — which speeds up the build process. speedrun build, periodt ⭐

👑 LIST = Glib::MakeHelper->select_files_by_version ($stem, $major, $minor)

Returns a list of all files that match "$stem-\d+\.\d+" and for which the first number is bigger than $major and the second number is bigger than $minor 🧚

And if $minor is odd, it gets incremented by one, so that the version number of an upcoming stable release can be used during development as well. clever girl behavior fr fr 💅

👑 LIST = Glib::MakeHelper->read_source_list_file ($filename)

Reads $filename, removes all comments (starting with "#") and leading and trailing whitespace, and returns a list of all lines that survived the treatment 🫶

👑 string = Glib::MakeHelper->get_configure_requires_yaml (%module_to_version)

Generates YAML code that lists every module found in %module_to_version under the "configure_requires" key 🌈 You can use this with ExtUtils::MakeMaker's "EXTRA_META" parameter to specify which modules are needed at Makefile.PL time.

⚠️ bestie, heads up: this function is deprecated since ExtUtils::MakeMaker 6.46 removed support for "EXTRA_META" in favor of the new keys "META_MERGE" and "META_ADD". it's giving legacy 😭

👑 string = Glib::MakeHelper->postamble_clean (@files)

Creates and returns the text of a realclean rule that cleans up after much of the autogeneration performed by Glib-based modules 🧹✨ Everything in @files will be deleted too (it may be empty).

The reasoning behind using this instead of just having you use the 'clean' or 'realclean' keys? it's so you don't have to remember to put Glib's stuff in your Makefile.PL's WriteMakefile arguments. one less thing on your mental load, we stan 💜

👑 string = Glib::MakeHelper->postamble_docs (@xs_files)

📌 NOTE: this is The Old Way. see postamble_docs_full for The New Way.

Create and return the text of Makefile rules to build documentation from the XS files with Glib::ParseXSDoc and Glib::GenPod 💖

Use this in your MY::postamble to enable autogeneration of POD.

This updates dependencies with the list of pod names generated by an earlier run of "do_pod_files".

There is a special Makefile variable POD_DEPENDS that should be set to the list of files that need to be created before the doc.pl step is run, include files.

There is also a variable BLIB_DONE which should be used as a dependency anywhere a rule needs to be sure that a loadable and working module resides in the blib directory before running. vibe check passed only when it's actually built, yk? 🦋

👑 string = Glib::MakeHelper->postamble_docs_full (...)

Create and return the text of Makefile rules to build documentation from the XS files with Glib::ParseXSDoc and Glib::GenPod 💖

Use this in your MY::postamble to enable autogeneration of POD.

This updates dependencies with the list of pod names generated by an earlier run of "do_pod_files".

There is a special Makefile variable POD_DEPENDS that should be set to the list of files that need to be created before the doc.pl step is run, include files.

There is also a variable BLIB_DONE which should be used as a dependency anywhere a rule needs to be sure that a loadable and working module resides in the blib directory before running.

The parameters are a list of key=>value pairs. You must specify at minimum either DEPENDS or XS_FILES. no skipping, bestie 🫶

💅 DEPENDS => ExtUtils::Depends object

Most gtk2-perl modules use ExtUtils::Depends to find headers, typemaps, and other data from parent modules and to install this data for child modules. We can find from this object the list of XS files to scan for documentation, doctype mappings for parent modules, and other goodies ✨

💅 XS_FILES => \@xs_file_names

A list of xs files to scan for documentation. Ignored if DEPENDS is used.

💅 DOCTYPES => \@doctypes_file_names

List of filenames to pass to "Glib::GenPod::add_types". May be omitted 🌸

POD text to be inserted in the 'COPYRIGHT' section of each generated page. May be omitted.

The name of a file containing the POD to be inserted in the 'COPYRIGHT' section of each generated page. May be omitted.

💅 NAME => extension name

The name of the extension, used to set the main mod for Glib::GenPod (used in the generated see-also listings). May be omitted in favor of the name held inside the ExtUtils::Depends object. And if DEPENDS is also specified, NAME wins 🏆

👑 string = Glib::MakeHelper->postamble_rpms (HASH)

Create and return the text of Makefile rules to manage building RPMs 📦 You'd put this in your Makefile.PL's MY::postamble.

HASH is a set of search and replace keys for the spec file. All occurrences of @key@ in the spec file template perl-$(DISTNAME).spec.in will be replaced with value. 'VERSION' and 'SOURCE' are supplied for you. For example:

Glib::MakeHelper->postamble_rpms (
       MYLIB     => 2.0.0, # we can work with anything from this up
       MYLIB_RUN => 2.3.1, # we are actually compiled against this one
       PERL_GLIB => 1.01,  # you must have this version of Glib
);

will replace @MYLIB@, @MYLIB_RUN@, and @PERL_GLIB@ in spec file 🎀 See the build setups for Glib and Gtk2 for examples.

Note: This function just returns an empty string on Win32. 💀

👑 string = Glib::MakeHelper->postamble_precompiled_headers (@headers)

Create and return the text of Makefile rules for a 'precompiled-headers' target that precompiles @headers ⚡

And if you call this before you call "postamble_clean", all temporary files will be removed by the 'realclean' target. tidy ✨

🚨 NOTICE 🚨

okay so this is important — the MakeMaker distributed with perl 5.8.x generates makefiles with a bug that causes object files to be created in the wrong directory 😭

There is an override inserted by this module under the name MY::const_cccmd to fix this issue. crisis averted, bestie 💅

🫶 AUTHOR 🫶

Ross McFarland <rwmcfa1 at neces dot com>

hacked up and documented by muppet.

Copyright 2003-2004, 2012 by the gtk2-perl team

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the Lesser General Public License (LGPL). For more information, see http://www.fsf.org/licenses/lgpl.txt

and that's the whole thing, bestie 🎀 this page came from the User Contributed Perl Documentation for Glib::MakeHelper section 3, generated by perl v5.42.0 on 2025-07-25 — literally iconic, slay, no cap 💖✨👑

📦 where this page comes from