Perl::Installed - Get meta information of a perl installation

    use Perl::Installed;

    my $perl = Perl::Installed->new( prefix => "/usr/local" );

        # Retrieve all files and symlinks
    my @files = $perl->files();

        # Retrieve configuration parameters
    my $cfg = $perl->config();
    print "$cfg->{version} on $cfg->{osname}\n";

When you point Perl::Installed to a perl installation by telling it the prefix (e.g. "/usr" or "/usr/local"), it will provide meta data, like the files the installation consists of or the $Config hash it uses.

This way, you can bundle up perl installations for package management systems like Redhat's RPM or Debian's dpkg. Note that the perl installation you're using to perform the bundling isn't necessarily identical with the perl installation you're bundling up.

new( prefix => "..." )

Constructor, takes the prefix of the perl installation as a mandatory parameter. Usually the prefix of a perl installation is either "/usr" (perl therefore being at /usr/bin/perl) or "/usr/local".

files()

Looks at the installation's .packlist and returns the files therein. It returns a reference to an array with an element for each file/symlink. Every array element is a reference to a hash with the following entries:

    path - Path to the file/symlink
    type - "file" or "link"
    from - If 'path' is a symlink, this entry tells where it's pointing
           to (usually where the corresponding file is).

Example:

    my @files = $perl->files();

    for my $file (@files) {

        if( $file->{type} eq "file" ) {
            print "File: $file->{path}\n";
        } elsif( $file->{type} eq "link" ) {
            print "Link: $file->{path} -> $file->{from}\n";
        }
    }

config()

Returns a reference to the perl installation's $Config hash, just as if you had said use Config and used %Config afterwards. Note that the perl installation you're using to perform the bundling isn't necessarily identical with the perl installation you're bundling up, so it will

packlistfile()

Return the path to the packlist file of the perl core.

Copyright 2007 by Mike Schilli, all rights reserved. This program is free software, you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

2007, Mike Schilli <m@perlmeister.com>