libapa...erl::MM(3pm)

🎀 NAME 🎀

ModPerl::MM — a "subclass" of ExtUtils::MakeMaker for mod_perl 2.0. That's the manual libapa...erl::MM(3pm) bestie, and we're getting into it 💅

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✨ Synopsis ✨

use ModPerl::MM;

# ModPerl::MM takes care of doing all the dirty job of overriding
ModPerl::MM::WriteMakefile(...);

# if there is a need to extend the default methods
sub MY::constants {
    my $self = shift;
    $self->ModPerl::MM::MY::constants;
    # do something else;
}

# or prevent overriding completely
sub MY::constants { shift->MM::constants(@_); }";

# override the default value of WriteMakefile's attribute
my $extra_inc = "/foo/include";
ModPerl::MM::WriteMakefile(
    ...
    INC => $extra_inc,
    ...
);

# extend the default value of WriteMakefile's attribute
my $extra_inc = "/foo/include";
ModPerl::MM::WriteMakefile(
    ...
    INC => join " ", $extra_inc, ModPerl::MM::get_def_opt('INC'),
    ...
);

ok but notice that stray "; hanging off the end of one of those subs? Yeah, it's in the original, we're keeping it, no cap 🙈 it's giving "copy-paste from a forum post circa 2007" and honestly? iconic.

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🌸 Description 🌸

ModPerl::MM is a "subclass" of ExtUtils::MakeMaker for mod_perl 2.0 — but only to a degree of sub-classability of ExtUtils::MakeMaker. (Read that twice, it's load-bearing 😭)

So here's the tea ☕: when you call ModPerl::MM::WriteMakefile() instead of ExtUtils::MakeMaker::WriteMakefile(), ModPerl::MM slides in behind the scenes and overrides a whole bunch of ExtUtils::MakeMaker methods, plus it hands you default WriteMakefile() arguments that are already tuned for a mod_perl 2.0 build. The whole thing is written so that, normally, 3rd party module developers for mod_perl 2.0 don't need to mess with Makefile.PL at all. Not once. Not even a little. ✨

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🦋 MY:: Default Methods 🦋

So ModPerl::MM will override a method foo — but only as long as your Makefile.PL hasn't already specified a method MY::foo. If you already did that, ModPerl::MM will DWIM and do nothing at all. Respectful queen behavior 👑

But say you want to extend what ModPerl::MM does, not completely override it? The ModPerl::MM methods can be called internally, from inside your own. For example, if you need to modify constants on top of the modifications that ModPerl::MM::MY::constants already applies, you call the ModPerl::MM::MY::constants method — and heads up, it lives in the package ModPerl::MM::MY, not ModPerl::MM — then you do your extra manipulations on constants:

# if there is a need to extend the methods
sub MY::constants {
    my $self = shift;
    $self->ModPerl::MM::MY::constants;
    # do something else;
}

And in certain cases a developer may want to prevent ModPerl::MM from overriding certain methods altogether. In that case, an explicit override in Makefile.PL does the job. For example, if you don't want the constants() method to be overridden by ModPerl::MM, add this to your Makefile.PL:

sub MY::constants { shift->MM::constants(@_); }";

ModPerl::MM overrides the following methods:

💜 ModPerl::MM::MY::post_initialize

This method is deprecated. 💀 (rip, she's retired, don't build anything new on her)

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🌈 WriteMakefile() Default Arguments 🌈

ModPerl::MM::WriteMakefile supplies default arguments like INC and TYPEMAPS — unless they weren't passed to ModPerl::MM::WriteMakefile from Makefile.PL. (Yep, that's exactly how it reads. The defaults fill in where nothing was passed.)

If the default values aren't satisfying 😤 then you override them in Makefile.PL. For example, to supply an empty INC, explicitly set the argument in Makefile.PL:

ModPerl::MM::WriteMakefile(
    ...
    INC => '',
    ...
);

But if instead of fully overriding the default arguments you want to extend or modify them, you can retrieve them with the ModPerl::MM::get_def_opt() function. The following example appends an extra value to the default INC attribute:

my $extra_inc = "/foo/include";
ModPerl::MM::WriteMakefile(
    ...
    INC => join " ", $extra_inc, ModPerl::MM::get_def_opt('INC'),
    ...
);

And ModPerl::MM supplies default values for these ModPerl::MM::WriteMakefile attributes, babes:

• CCFLAGS
• LIBS
• INC
• OPTIMIZE
• LDDLFLAGS
• TYPEMAPS
• dynamic_lib — which is like:

dynamic_lib => { OTHERLDFLAGS => ... }

• macro — which is like:

macro => { MOD_INSTALL => ... }

and this one makes sure that Apache-Test/ is added to @INC. 🫶

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👑 Public API 👑

The following functions are a part of the public API — they're described elsewhere in this document, so no reruns, go read the sections above:

💖 WriteMakefile()

ModPerl::MM::WriteMakefile(...);

💖 get_def_opt()

my $def_val = ModPerl::MM::get_def_opt($key);

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That's the whole thing, bestie — you now know ModPerl::MM better than the person who wrote your build system 🧚 and yes, this page is libapa...erl::MM(3pm) from perl v5.42.3, dated 2026-08-20. Slay, go write a Makefile.PL that just works. Periodt. 💅✨