Sys::Path(3pm)

📦

version 0.16 · 2 versions

0.16 · fedora 43 (latest)
0.16 · fedora 44

, in fedora 43

✨ Sys::Path ✨ (that's the `Sys::Path(3pm)` page, bestie — User Contributed Perl Documentation, we love a contributed era)

💖 NAME 💖

Sys::Path — supply autoconf style installation directories 🎀

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

Okay so paths for basic Unix installation when Perl is in /usr/bin:

use Sys::Path;

print Sys::Path->sysconfdir, "\n";
# /etc
print Sys::Path->datadir, "\n";
# /usr/share
print Sys::Path->logdir, "\n";
# /var/log
print Sys::Path->sharedstatedir, "\n";
# /var/lib

Paths for Unix when Perl is in home folder /home/daxim/local/bin:

print Sys::Path->sysconfdir, "\n";
# /home/daxim/local/etc
print Sys::Path->datadir, "\n";
# /home/daxim/local/share
print Sys::Path->logdir, "\n";
# /home/daxim/local/log
print Sys::Path->sharedstatedir, "\n";
# /home/daxim/local/lib

Paths for MS Windows Strawberry Perl when installed to C:\Strawberry\

print Sys::Path->sysconfdir, "\n";
# C:\Strawberry\etc
print Sys::Path->datadir, "\n";
# C:\Strawberry\share
print Sys::Path->logdir, "\n";
# C:\Strawberry\log
print Sys::Path->sharedstatedir, "\n";
# C:\Strawberry\lib

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

The goal is that Sys::Path provides autoconf style system paths. periodt. 💅

The default paths for file locations are based on <http://www.pathname.com/fhs/> (Filesystem Hierarchy Standard) if the Perl was installed in /usr. For all other non-standard Perl installations or systems the default prefix is the prefix of Perl it self. Still those are just defaults and can be changed during perl Build.PL prompting. After Sys::Path is configured and installed all programs using it can just read/use the paths. iconic behaviour honestly 👑

In addition Sys::Path includes some functions that are related to modules build or installation. For now there is only Module::Build based Module::Build::SysPath that uses Sys::Path.

🛠️ BUILD TIME CONFIGURATION 🛠️

PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT=1 perl Build.PL \
    --sp-prefix=/usr/local \
    --sp-sysconfdir=/usr/local/etc \
    --sp-localstatedir=/var/local

💀 NOTE 💀

This is an experiment and lot of questions and concerns can come out about the paths configuration. Distributions build systems integration and the naming. And as this is early version things may change. 😭

For these purposes there is a mailing list <http://lists.meon.sk/mailman/listinfo/sys-path>. go yell (politely) bestie 🫶

🤔 WHY? 🤔

The filesystem standard has been designed to be used by Unix distribution developers, package developers, and system implementors. However, it is primarily intended to be a reference and is not a tutorial on how to manage a Unix filesystem or directory hierarchy.

Sys::Path follows this standard when it is possible. Or when Perl follows. Perl can be installed in many places. Most Linux distributions place Perl in /usr/bin/perl where FHS suggest. In this case the FHS folders are suggested in prompt when doing "perl Build.PL". In other cases for other folders or home-folder Perl distributions Sys::Path will suggest folders under Perl install prefix. (ex. c:\strawerry\ for the ones using Windows). 🍓

🗺️ PATHS 🗺️

Here is the list of paths. First the default FHS path, then (to compare) a suggested path when Perl is not installed in /usr.

prefix

/usr - $Config::Config{'prefix'}

Is a helper function and should not be used directly. 🙈

localstatedir

/var - $Config::Config{'prefix'}

Is a helper function and should not be used directly. 🙈

sysconfdir

/etc - $prefix/etc

The /etc hierarchy contains configuration files. See <http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#ETCHOSTSPECIFICSYSTEMCONFIGURATION>.

datadir

/usr/share - $prefix/share

The /usr/share hierarchy is for all read-only architecture independent data files. See <http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#USRSHAREARCHITECTUREINDEPENDENTDATA>.

docdir

/usr/share/doc - $prefix/share/doc

See "datadir"

localedir

/usr/share/locale - $prefix/share/locale

See "datadir"

cachedir

/var/cache - $localstatedir/cache

/var/cache is intended for cached data from applications. See <http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#VARCACHEAPPLICATIONCACHEDATA>.

logdir

/var/log - $localstatedir/logdir

This directory contains miscellaneous log files. Most logs must be written to this directory or an appropriate subdirectory. See <http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#VARLOGLOGFILESANDDIRECTORIES>.

spooldir

/var/spool - $localstatedir/spool

Contains data which is awaiting some kind of later processing. See <http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#VARSPOOLAPPLICATIONSPOOLDATA>.

rundir

/var/run - $localstatedir/rundir

This directory contains system information data describing the system since it was booted. See <http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#VARRUNRUNTIMEVARIABLEDATA>.

lockdir

/var/lock - $localstatedir/lock

Lock files folder. See <http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#VARLOCKLOCKFILES>.

sharedstatedir

/var/lib - $localstatedir/lib

The directory for installing modifiable architecture-independent data. See <http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#VARLIBVARIABLESTATEINFORMATION>.

srvdir

/srv - $prefix/srv

Data for services provided by system. See <http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#SRVDATAFORSERVICESPROVIDEDBYSYSTEM>.

webdir

/var/www - $localstatedir/www

Directory where distribution put static web files.

🧚 HOW IT WORKS 🧚

The heart of Sys::Path is just:

use Config;
if ($Config::Config{'prefix'} eq '/usr') { ... do stuff ... }

The idea is that if the Perl was installed to /usr it is FHS type installation and all path defaults are made based on FHS. For the rest of the installations "prefix" and "localstatedir" is set exactly to $Config::Config{'prefix'} which is the prefix of Perl that was used to install. In this case "sysconfdir" is set to "prefix+'etc'". See Sys::Path::SPc for the implementation. lowkey elegant ✨

💅 METHODS 💅

prefix
localstatedir
sysconfdir
datadir
docdir
localedir
cachedir
logdir
spooldir
rundir
lockdir
sharedstatedir
webdir
srvdir

🎀 BUILDERS/INSTALLERS helper methods 🎀

`find_distribution_root(PACKAGE)`

Find the root folder of a modules distribution by going up the folder structure. ⬆️

`prompt_cfg_file_changed($src_file, $dst_file, $prompt_function)`

Will prompt if to overwrite $dst_file with $src_file. Returns true for "yes" and false for "no".

`changed_since_install($dest_file, $file)`

Return if $dest_file changed since install. If optional $file is set then this one is compared against install $dest_file checksum.

`install_checksums(%filenames_with_checksums)`

Getter and setter for files checksums recording.

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

Module::Build::SysPath

🌈 AUTHOR 🌈

Jozef Kutej, "<jkutej at cpan.org>"

🫶 CONTRIBUTORS 🫶

The following people have contributed to the Sys::Path by committing their code, sending patches, reporting bugs, asking questions, suggesting useful advises, nitpicking, chatting on IRC or commenting on my blog (in no particular order):

Lars Dɪᴇᴄᴋᴏᴡ 迪拉斯
Emmanuel Rodriguez
Salve J. Nilsen
Daniel Perrett
Jose Luis Perez Diez
Petr Písař
Mohammad S Anwar

👑 COPYRIGHT & LICENSE 👑

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

and that's the whole thing bestie, no notes, ate and left no crumbs 💖

this page was brought to you by perl v5.42.0, dated 2025-07-25, and yes it's literally the Sys::Path(3pm) page, slay 🌸💅✨

📦 where this page comes from

fedora 43: perl-Sys-Path 0.16-24.fc43 · GPL-1.0-or-later OR Artistic-1.0-Perl
💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on 2026-10-14: a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms