NAME

Alien::Build::Manual::PluginAuthor - Alien::Build plugin author documentation

VERSION

version 2.80

SYNOPSIS

your plugin:

 package Alien::Build::Plugin::Build::MyPlugin;
 
 use strict;
 use warnings;
 use Alien::Build::Plugin;
 
 has arg1 => 'default_for arg1';
 has arg2 => sub { [ 'default', 'for', 'arg2' ] };
 
 sub init
 {
   my($self, $meta) = @_;
   ...
 }
 
 1;

and then from alienfile:

 use alienfile;
 plugin 'Build::MyPlugin' => (
   arg1 => 'override for arg1',
   arg2 => [ 'something', 'else' ],
 );

flowchart

Notes: The colored blocks indicate alienfile blocks. Hooks are indicated as predefined process (rectangle with double struck vertical edges). Hooks that can easily be implemented from an alienfile are indicated in blue (Note that [] is used to indicate passing in an array reference, but a subroutine reference can also be used). For simplicity, the the flowchart does not include when required modules are loaded. Except for configure time requirements, they are loaded when the corresponding alienfile blocks are entered. It is not shown, but generally any plugin can cause a Fail by throwing an exception with die.

Perlish pseudo code for how plugins are called:

 my $probe;
 my $override = override();
 
 if($override eq 'system') {
 
   $probe = probe();
 
   if($probe ne 'system') {
     die 'system tool or library not found';
   }
 
 }
 
 elsif($override eq 'default') {
   $probe = probe();
 
 } else { # $override eq 'share'
   # note that in this instance the
   # probe hook is never called
   $probe = 'share';
 }
 
 if($probe eq 'system') {
   gather_system();
 
 } else { # $probe eq 'share'
 
   download();
   extract();
   patch();
   build();
   gather_share();
 
   # Check to see if there isa build_ffi hook
   if(defined &build_ffi) {
     patch_ffi();
     build_ffi();
     gather_ffi();
   }
 }
 
 # By default this just returns the value of $ENV{ALIEN_INSTALL_TYPE}
 sub override {
   return $ENV{ALIEN_INSTALL_TYPE};
 }
 
 # Default download implementation; can be
 # replaced by specifying a different download
 # hook.  See Alien::Build::Plugin::Core::Download
 # for detailed implementation.
 sub download {
 
   my $response = fetch();
 
   if($response->{type} eq 'html' || $response->{type} eq 'dir_listing') {
     # decode will transform an HTML listing (html) or a FTP directory
     # listing (dir_listing) into a regular list
     $response = decode($response);
   }
 
   if($response->{type} eq 'list') {
 
     # prefer will filter bad entries in the list
     # and sort them so that the first one is
     # the one that we want
     $response = prefer($response);
 
     my $first_preferred = $res->{list}->[0];
 
     # prefer can sometimes infer the version from the
     # filename.
     if(defined $first_preferred->{version}) {
       # not a hook
       runtime_prop->{version} = $first_preferred->{version};
     }
 
     $response = fetch($first_preferred);
 
   }
 
   if($response->{type} eq 'file') {
     # not a hook
     write_file_to_disk $response;
   }
 
 }

DESCRIPTION

This document explains how to write Alien::Build plugins using the Alien::Build::Plugin base class.

Writing plugins

Plugins use Alien::Build::Plugin, which sets the appropriate base class, and provides you with the has property builder. has takes two arguments, the name of the property and the default value. (As with Moose and Moo, you should use a code reference to specify default values for non-string defaults). No not set this as your plugin's base class directly:

 use parent qw( Alien::Build::Plugin );  # wrong
 use Alien::Build::Plugin;               # right

The only method that you need to implement is init. From this method you can add hooks to change the behavior of the alienfile recipe. This is a very simple example of a probe hook, with the actual probe logic removed:

 sub init
 {
   my($self, $meta) = @_;
   $meta->register_hook(
     probe => sub {
       my($build) = @_;
       if( ... )
       {
         return 'system';
       }
       else
       {
         return 'share';
       }
     },
   );
 }

Hooks get the Alien::Build instance as their first argument, and depending on the hook may get additional arguments.

Modifying hooks

You can also modify hooks using before_hook, around_hook and after_hook, similar to Moose modifiers:

 sub init
 {
   my($self, $meta) = @_;
 
   $meta->before_hook(
     build => sub {
       my($build) = @_;
       $build->log('this runs before the build');
     },
   );
 
   $meta->after_hook(
     build => sub {
       my($build) = @_;
       $build->log('this runs after the build');
     },
   );
 
   $meta->around_hook(
     build => sub {
       my $orig = shift;
 
       # around hooks are useful for setting environment variables
       local $ENV{CPPFLAGS} = '-I/foo/include';
 
       $orig->(@_);
     },
   );
 }

Testing plugins

You can and should write tests for your plugin. The best way to do this is using Test::Alien::Build, which allows you to write an inline alienfile in your test. Here is an example:

 use Test::V0;
 use Test::Alien::Build;
 
 my $build = alienfile_ok q{
   use alienfile;
   plugin 'Build::MyPlugin' => (
     arg1 => 'override for arg1',
     arg2 => [ 'something', 'else' ],
   );
   ...
 };
 
 # you can interrogate $build, it is an instance of L<Alien::Build>.
 
 my $alien = alien_build_ok;
 
 # you can interrogate $alien, it is an instance of L<Alien::Base>.

Negotiator plugins

A Negotiator plugin doesn't itself typically implement anything on its own, but picks the best plugin to achieve a particular goal.

The "best" plugin can in some cases vary depending on the platform or tools that are available. For example The download negotiator might choose to use the fetch plugin that relies on the command line curl, or it might choose the fetch plugin that relies on the Perl module HTTP::Tiny depending on the platform and what is already installed. (For either to be useful they have to support SSL).

The Negotiator plugin is by convention named something like Alien::Build::Plugin::*::Negotiate, but is typically invoked without the ::Negotiate suffix. For example:

 plugin 'Download'; # is short for Alien::Build::Plugin::Download::Negotiator

Here is a simple example of a negotiator which picks curl if already installed and HTTP::Tiny otherwise. (The actual download plugin is a lot smarter and complicated than this, but this is a good simplified example).

 package Alien::Build::Plugin::Download::Negotiate;
 
 use strict;
 use warnings;
 use Alien::Build::Plugin;
 use File::Which qw( which );
 
 sub init
 {
   my($self, $meta) = @_;
 
   if(which('curl')) {
     $meta->apply_plugin('Fetch::Curl');
   } else {
     $meta->apply_plugin('Fetch::HTTPTiny');
   }
 }

Hooks

The remainder of this document is a reference for the hooks that you can register. Generally speaking you can register any hook that you like, but some care must be taken as some hooks have default behavior that will be overridden when you register a hook. The hooks are presented in alphabetical order. The execution order is shown in the flowchart above (if you are browsing the HTML version of this document), or the Perlish pseudo code in the synopsis section.

HOOKS

build hook

 $meta->register_hook( build => sub {
   my($build) = @_;
   ...
 });

This does the main build of the alienized project and installs it into the staging area. The current directory is the build root. You need to run whatever tools are necessary for the project, and install them into $build-install_prop->{prefix}> (%{.install.prefix}).

build_ffi hook

 $meta->register_hook( build_ffi => sub {
   my($build) = @_;
   ...
 });

This is the same as build, except it fires only on a FFI build.

decode hook

 $meta->register_hook( decode => sub {
   my($build, $res) = @_;
   ...
 }

This hook takes a response hash reference from the fetch hook above with a type of html or dir_listing and converts it into a response hash reference of type list. In short it takes an HTML or FTP file listing response from a fetch hook and converts it into a list of filenames and links that can be used by the prefer hook to choose the correct file to download. See the fetch hook for the specification of the input and response hash references.

check_digest hook

 # implement the well known FOO-92 digest
 $meta->register_hook( check_digest => sub {
   my($build, $file, $algorithm, $digest) = @_;
   if($algorithm ne 'FOO92') {
     return 0;
   }
   my $actual = foo92_hex_digest($file);
   if($actual eq $digest) {
     return 1;
   } else {
     die "Digest FOO92 does not match: got $actual, expected $digest";
   }
 });

This hook should check the given $file (the format is the same as used by the fetch hook) matches the given $digest using the given $algorithm. If the plugin does not support the given algorithm, then it should return a false value. If the digest does not match, it should throw an exception. If the digest matches, it should return a true value.

clean_install

 $meta->register_hook( clean_install => sub {
   my($build) = @_;
 });

This hook allows you to remove files from the final install location before the files are installed by the installer layer (examples: Alien::Build::MM, Alien::Build::MB or App::af). This hook is not called by default, and must be enabled via the interface to the installer layer (example: "clean_install" in Alien::Build::MM).

This hook SHOULD NOT remove the _alien directory or its content from the install location.

The default implementation removes all the files EXCEPT the _alien directory and its content.

download hook

 $meta->register_hook( download => sub {
   my($build) = @_;
   ...
 });

This hook is used to download from the internet the source. Either as an archive (like tar, zip, etc), or as a directory of files (git clone, etc). When the hook is called, the current working directory will be a new empty directory, so you can save the download to the current directory. If you store a single file in the directory, Alien::Build will assume that it is an archive, which will be processed by the extract hook. If you store multiple files, Alien::Build will assume the current directory is the source root. If no files are stored at all, an exception with an appropriate diagnostic will be thrown.

Note: If you register this hook, then the fetch, decode and prefer hooks will NOT be called, unless you call them yourself from this hook.

extract hook

 $meta->register_hook( extract => sub {
   my($build, $archive) = @_;
   ...
 });

This hook is used to extract an archive that has already been downloaded. Alien::Build already has plugins for the most common archive formats, so you will likely only need this to add support for new or novel archive formats. When this hook is called, the current working directory will be a new empty directory, so you can save the content of the archive to the current directory. If a single directory is written to the current directory, Alien::Build will assume that is the root directory of the package. If multiple files and/or directories are present, that will indicate that the current working directory is the root of the package. The logic typically handles correctly the default behavior for tar (where packages are typically extracted to a subdirectory) and for zip (where packages are typically extracted to the current directory).

fetch hook

 package Alien::Build::Plugin::MyPlugin;
 
 use strict;
 use warnings;
 use Alien::Build::Plugin;
 use Carp ();
 
 has '+url' => sub { Carp::croak "url is required property" };
 
 sub init
 {
   my($self, $meta) = @_;
 
   $meta->register_hook( fetch => sub {
     my($build, $url, %options) = @_;
     ...
   }
 }
 
 1;

Used to fetch a resource. The first time it will be called without an argument (or with $url set to undef, so the configuration used to find the resource should be specified by the plugin's properties. On subsequent calls the first argument will be a URL.

The %options hash may contain these options:

http_headers

HTTP request headers, if an appropriate protocol is being used. The headers are provided as an array reference of key/value pairs, which allows for duplicate header keys with multiple values.

If a non-HTTP protocol is used, or if the plugin cannot otherwise send HTTP request headers, the plugin SHOULD issue a warning using the $build->log method, but because this option wasn't part of the original spec, the plugin MAY no issue that warning while ignoring it.

Note that versions of Alien::Build prior to 2.39 did not pass the options hash into the fetch plugin.

Normally the first fetch will be to either a file or a directory listing. If it is a file then the content should be returned as a hash reference with the following keys:

 # content of file stored in Perl
 return {
   type     => 'file',
   filename => $filename,
   content  => $content,
   version  => $version,  # optional, if known
   protocol => $protocol, # AB 2.60 optional, but recommended
 };
 
 # content of file stored in the filesystem
 return {
   type     => 'file',
   filename => $filename,
   path     => $path,     # full file system path to file
   version  => $version,  # optional, if known
   tmp      => $tmp,      # optional
   protocol => $protocol, # AB 2.60 optional, but recommended
 };

$tmp if set will indicate if the file is temporary or not, and can be used by Alien::Build to save a copy in some cases. The default is true, so Alien::Build assumes the file or directory is temporary if you don't tell it otherwise. Probably the most common situation when you would set tmp to false, is when the file is bundled inside the Alien distribution. See Alien::Build::Plugin::Fetch::Local for example.

If the URL points to a directory listing you should return it as either a hash reference containing a list of files:

 return {
   type => 'list',
   list => [
     # filename: each filename should be just the
     #   filename portion, no path or url.
     # url: each url should be the complete url
     #   needed to fetch the file.
     # version: OPTIONAL, may be provided by some fetch or prefer
     { filename => $filename1, url => $url1, version => $version1 },
     { filename => $filename2, url => $url2, version => $version2 },
   ],
   protocol => $protocol, # AB 2.60 optional, but recommended
 };

or if the listing is in HTML format as a hash reference containing the HTML information:

 return {
   type => 'html',
   charset  => $charset, # optional
   base     => $base,    # the base URL: used for computing relative URLs
   content  => $content, # the HTML content
   protocol => $protocol, # optional, but recommended
 };

or a directory listing (usually produced by an FTP servers) as a hash reference:

 return {
   type     => 'dir_listing',
   base     => $base,
   content  => $content,
   protocol => $protocol, # AB 2.60 optional, but recommended
 };

[version 2.60]

For all of these responses $protocol is optional, since it was not part of the original spec, however it is strongly recommended that you include this field, because future versions of Alien::Build will use this to determine if a file was downloaded securely (that is via a secure protocol such as SSL).

Some plugins (like decode plugins ) trans late a file hash from one type to another, they should maintain the $protocol from the old to the new representation of the file.

gather_ffi hook

 $meta->register_hook( gather_ffi => sub {
   my($build) = @_;
   $build->runtime_prop->{cflags}  = ...;
   $build->runtime_prop->{libs}    = ...;
   $build->runtime_prop->{version} = ...;
 });

This hook is called for a FFI build to determine the properties necessary for using the library or tool. These properties should be stored in the runtime_prop hash as shown above. Typical properties that are needed for libraries are cflags and libs. If at all possible you should also try to determine the version of the library or tool.

gather_share hook

 $meta->register_hook( gather_share => sub {
   my($build) = @_;
   $build->runtime_prop->{cflags}  = ...;
   $build->runtime_prop->{libs}    = ...;
   $build->runtime_prop->{version} = ...;
 });

This hook is called for a share install to determine the properties necessary for using the library or tool. These properties should be stored in the runtime_prop hash as shown above. Typical properties that are needed for libraries are cflags and libs. If at all possible you should also try to determine the version of the library or tool.

gather_system hook

 $meta->register_hook( gather_system => sub {
   my($build) = @_;
   $build->runtime_prop->{cflags}  = ...;
   $build->runtime_prop->{libs}    = ...;
   $build->runtime_prop->{version} = ...;
 });

This hook is called for a system install to determine the properties necessary for using the library or tool. These properties should be stored in the runtime_prop hash as shown above. Typical properties that are needed for libraries are cflags and libs. If at all possible you should also try to determine the version of the library or tool.

override hook

 $meta->register_hook( override => sub {
   my($build) = @_;
   return $ENV{ALIEN_INSTALL_TYPE} || '';
 });

This allows you to alter the override logic. It should return one of share, system, default or ''. The default implementation is shown above. Alien::Build::Plugin::Probe::Override and Alien::Build::Plugin::Probe::OverrideCI are examples of how you can use this hook.

patch hook

 $meta->register_hook( patch => sub {
   my($build) = @_;
   ...
 });

This hook is completely optional. If registered, it will be triggered after extraction and before build. It allows you to apply any patches or make any modifications to the source if they are necessary.

patch_ffi hook

 $meta->register_hook( patch_ffi => sub {
   my($build) = @_;
   ...
 });

This hook is exactly like the patch hook, except it fires only on an FFI build.

prefer hook

 $meta->register_hook( prefer => sub {
   my($build, $res) = @_;
   return {
     type => 'list',
     list => [sort @{ $res->{list} }],
   };
 }

This hook sorts candidates from a listing generated from either the fetch or decode hooks. It should return a new list hash reference with the candidates sorted from best to worst. It may also remove candidates that are totally unacceptable.

probe hook

 $meta->register_hook( probe => sub {
   my($build) = @_;
   return 'system' if ...; # system install
   return 'share';         # otherwise
 });
 
 $meta->register_hook( probe => [ $command ] );

This hook should return the string system if the operating system provides the library or tool. It should return share otherwise.

You can also use a command that returns true when the tool or library is available. For example for use with pkg-config:

 $meta->register_hook( probe =>
   [ '%{pkgconf} --exists libfoo' ] );

Or if you needed a minimum version:

 $meta->register_hook( probe =>
   [ '%{pkgconf} --atleast-version=1.00 libfoo' ] );

Note that this hook SHOULD NOT gather system properties, such as cflags, libs, versions, etc, because the probe hook will be skipped in the event the environment variable ALIEN_INSTALL_TYPE is set. The detection of these properties should instead be done by the gather_system hook.

Multiple probe hooks can be given. These will be used in sequence, stopping at the first that detects a system installation.

AUTHOR

Author: Graham Ollis <plicease@cpan.org>

Contributors:

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

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

To install Alien::Build, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.

cpanm

cpanm Alien::Build

CPAN shell

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Alien::Build

For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.

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