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-rw-r--r--nixpkgs/doc/languages-frameworks/perl.xml318
1 files changed, 176 insertions, 142 deletions
diff --git a/nixpkgs/doc/languages-frameworks/perl.xml b/nixpkgs/doc/languages-frameworks/perl.xml
index d9b6b2721c6..ff0f350e99c 100644
--- a/nixpkgs/doc/languages-frameworks/perl.xml
+++ b/nixpkgs/doc/languages-frameworks/perl.xml
@@ -3,159 +3,193 @@
xml:id="sec-language-perl">
<title>Perl</title>
- <para>
- Nixpkgs provides a function <varname>buildPerlPackage</varname>, a generic package builder function for any Perl package that has a standard <varname>Makefile.PL</varname>. It’s implemented in <link
-xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/development/perl-modules/generic"><filename>pkgs/development/perl-modules/generic</filename></link>.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Perl packages from CPAN are defined in <link
-xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/top-level/perl-packages.nix"><filename>pkgs/top-level/perl-packages.nix</filename></link>, rather than <filename>pkgs/all-packages.nix</filename>. Most Perl packages are so straight-forward to build that they are defined here directly, rather than having a separate function for each package called from <filename>perl-packages.nix</filename>. However, more complicated packages should be put in a separate file, typically in <filename>pkgs/development/perl-modules</filename>. Here is an example of the former:
-<programlisting>
-ClassC3 = buildPerlPackage rec {
- name = "Class-C3-0.21";
- src = fetchurl {
- url = "mirror://cpan/authors/id/F/FL/FLORA/${name}.tar.gz";
- sha256 = "1bl8z095y4js66pwxnm7s853pi9czala4sqc743fdlnk27kq94gz";
- };
-};
-</programlisting>
- Note the use of <literal>mirror://cpan/</literal>, and the <literal>${name}</literal> in the URL definition to ensure that the name attribute is consistent with the source that we’re actually downloading. Perl packages are made available in <filename>all-packages.nix</filename> through the variable <varname>perlPackages</varname>. For instance, if you have a package that needs <varname>ClassC3</varname>, you would typically write
-<programlisting>
-foo = import ../path/to/foo.nix {
- inherit stdenv fetchurl ...;
- inherit (perlPackages) ClassC3;
-};
-</programlisting>
- in <filename>all-packages.nix</filename>. You can test building a Perl package as follows:
-<screen>
-<prompt>$ </prompt>nix-build -A perlPackages.ClassC3
-</screen>
- <varname>buildPerlPackage</varname> adds <literal>perl-</literal> to the start of the name attribute, so the package above is actually called <literal>perl-Class-C3-0.21</literal>. So to install it, you can say:
-<screen>
-<prompt>$ </prompt>nix-env -i perl-Class-C3
-</screen>
- (Of course you can also install using the attribute name: <literal>nix-env -i -A perlPackages.ClassC3</literal>.)
- </para>
-
- <para>
- So what does <varname>buildPerlPackage</varname> do? It does the following:
- <orderedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- In the configure phase, it calls <literal>perl Makefile.PL</literal> to generate a Makefile. You can set the variable <varname>makeMakerFlags</varname> to pass flags to <filename>Makefile.PL</filename>
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- It adds the contents of the <envar>PERL5LIB</envar> environment variable to <literal>#! .../bin/perl</literal> line of Perl scripts as <literal>-I<replaceable>dir</replaceable></literal> flags. This ensures that a script can find its dependencies. (This can cause this shebang line to become too long for Darwin to handle; see the note below.)
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- In the fixup phase, it writes the propagated build inputs (<varname>propagatedBuildInputs</varname>) to the file <filename>$out/nix-support/propagated-user-env-packages</filename>. <command>nix-env</command> recursively installs all packages listed in this file when you install a package that has it. This ensures that a Perl package can find its dependencies.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </orderedlist>
- </para>
-
- <para>
- <varname>buildPerlPackage</varname> is built on top of <varname>stdenv</varname>, so everything can be customised in the usual way. For instance, the <literal>BerkeleyDB</literal> module has a <varname>preConfigure</varname> hook to generate a configuration file used by <filename>Makefile.PL</filename>:
-<programlisting>
-{ buildPerlPackage, fetchurl, db }:
-
-buildPerlPackage rec {
- name = "BerkeleyDB-0.36";
-
- src = fetchurl {
- url = "mirror://cpan/authors/id/P/PM/PMQS/${name}.tar.gz";
- sha256 = "07xf50riarb60l1h6m2dqmql8q5dij619712fsgw7ach04d8g3z1";
- };
-
- preConfigure = ''
- echo "LIB = ${db.out}/lib" > config.in
- echo "INCLUDE = ${db.dev}/include" >> config.in
- '';
-}
-</programlisting>
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Dependencies on other Perl packages can be specified in the <varname>buildInputs</varname> and <varname>propagatedBuildInputs</varname> attributes. If something is exclusively a build-time dependency, use <varname>buildInputs</varname>; if it’s (also) a runtime dependency, use <varname>propagatedBuildInputs</varname>. For instance, this builds a Perl module that has runtime dependencies on a bunch of other modules:
-<programlisting>
-ClassC3Componentised = buildPerlPackage rec {
- name = "Class-C3-Componentised-1.0004";
- src = fetchurl {
- url = "mirror://cpan/authors/id/A/AS/ASH/${name}.tar.gz";
- sha256 = "0xql73jkcdbq4q9m0b0rnca6nrlvf5hyzy8is0crdk65bynvs8q1";
- };
- propagatedBuildInputs = [
- ClassC3 ClassInspector TestException MROCompat
- ];
-};
-</programlisting>
- </para>
-
- <para>
- On Darwin, if a script has too many <literal>-I<replaceable>dir</replaceable></literal> flags in its first line (its “shebang line”), it will not run. This can be worked around by calling the <literal>shortenPerlShebang</literal> function from the <literal>postInstall</literal> phase:
-<programlisting>
-{ stdenv, buildPerlPackage, fetchurl, shortenPerlShebang }:
-
-ImageExifTool = buildPerlPackage {
- pname = "Image-ExifTool";
- version = "11.50";
-
- src = fetchurl {
- url = "https://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/Image-ExifTool-11.50.tar.gz";
- sha256 = "0d8v48y94z8maxkmw1rv7v9m0jg2dc8xbp581njb6yhr7abwqdv3";
- };
-
- buildInputs = stdenv.lib.optional stdenv.isDarwin shortenPerlShebang;
- postInstall = stdenv.lib.optional stdenv.isDarwin ''
- shortenPerlShebang $out/bin/exiftool
- '';
-};
-</programlisting>
- This will remove the <literal>-I</literal> flags from the shebang line, rewrite them in the <literal>use lib</literal> form, and put them on the next line instead. This function can be given any number of Perl scripts as arguments; it will modify them in-place.
- </para>
-
- <section xml:id="ssec-generation-from-CPAN">
- <title>Generation from CPAN</title>
+ <section xml:id="ssec-perl-running">
+ <title>Running perl programs on the shell</title>
<para>
- Nix expressions for Perl packages can be generated (almost) automatically from CPAN. This is done by the program <command>nix-generate-from-cpan</command>, which can be installed as follows:
+ When executing a Perl script, it is possible you get an error such as <literal>./myscript.pl: bad interpreter: /usr/bin/perl: no such file or directory</literal>. This happens when the script expects Perl to be installed at <filename>/usr/bin/perl</filename>, which is not the case when using Perl from nixpkgs. You can fix the script by changing the first line to:
+ <programlisting>
+ #!/usr/bin/env perl
+ </programlisting>
+ to take the Perl installation from the <literal>PATH</literal> environment variable, or invoke Perl directly with:
+ <screen>
+ <prompt>$ </prompt>perl ./myscript.pl
+ </screen>
</para>
-<screen>
-<prompt>$ </prompt>nix-env -i nix-generate-from-cpan
-</screen>
+ <para>
+ When the script is using a Perl library that is not installed globally, you might get an error such as <literal>Can't locate DB_File.pm in @INC (you may need to install the DB_File module)</literal>. In that case, you can use <command>nix-shell</command> to start an ad-hoc shell with that library installed, for instance:
+ <screen>
+ <prompt>$ </prompt>nix-shell -p perl perlPackages.DBFile --run ./myscript.pl
+ </screen>
+ </para>
<para>
- This program takes a Perl module name, looks it up on CPAN, fetches and unpacks the corresponding package, and prints a Nix expression on standard output. For example:
-<screen>
-<prompt>$ </prompt>nix-generate-from-cpan XML::Simple
- XMLSimple = buildPerlPackage rec {
- name = "XML-Simple-2.22";
- src = fetchurl {
- url = "mirror://cpan/authors/id/G/GR/GRANTM/${name}.tar.gz";
- sha256 = "b9450ef22ea9644ae5d6ada086dc4300fa105be050a2030ebd4efd28c198eb49";
- };
- propagatedBuildInputs = [ XMLNamespaceSupport XMLSAX XMLSAXExpat ];
- meta = {
- description = "An API for simple XML files";
- license = with stdenv.lib.licenses; [ artistic1 gpl1Plus ];
- };
- };
-</screen>
- The output can be pasted into <filename>pkgs/top-level/perl-packages.nix</filename> or wherever else you need it.
+ If you are always using the script in places where <command>nix-shell</command> is available, you can embed the <command>nix-shell</command> invocation in the shebang like this:
+ <programlisting>
+ #!/usr/bin/env nix-shell
+ #! nix-shell -i perl -p perl perlPackages.DBFile
+ </programlisting>
</para>
</section>
- <section xml:id="ssec-perl-cross-compilation">
- <title>Cross-compiling modules</title>
+ <section xml:id="ssec-perl-packaging">
+ <title>Packaging Perl programs</title>
+
+ <para>
+ Nixpkgs provides a function <varname>buildPerlPackage</varname>, a generic package builder function for any Perl package that has a standard <varname>Makefile.PL</varname>. It’s implemented in <link
+ xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/development/perl-modules/generic"><filename>pkgs/development/perl-modules/generic</filename></link>.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Perl packages from CPAN are defined in <link
+ xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/top-level/perl-packages.nix"><filename>pkgs/top-level/perl-packages.nix</filename></link>, rather than <filename>pkgs/all-packages.nix</filename>. Most Perl packages are so straight-forward to build that they are defined here directly, rather than having a separate function for each package called from <filename>perl-packages.nix</filename>. However, more complicated packages should be put in a separate file, typically in <filename>pkgs/development/perl-modules</filename>. Here is an example of the former:
+ <programlisting>
+ ClassC3 = buildPerlPackage rec {
+ name = "Class-C3-0.21";
+ src = fetchurl {
+ url = "mirror://cpan/authors/id/F/FL/FLORA/${name}.tar.gz";
+ sha256 = "1bl8z095y4js66pwxnm7s853pi9czala4sqc743fdlnk27kq94gz";
+ };
+ };
+ </programlisting>
+ Note the use of <literal>mirror://cpan/</literal>, and the <literal>${name}</literal> in the URL definition to ensure that the name attribute is consistent with the source that we’re actually downloading. Perl packages are made available in <filename>all-packages.nix</filename> through the variable <varname>perlPackages</varname>. For instance, if you have a package that needs <varname>ClassC3</varname>, you would typically write
+ <programlisting>
+ foo = import ../path/to/foo.nix {
+ inherit stdenv fetchurl ...;
+ inherit (perlPackages) ClassC3;
+ };
+ </programlisting>
+ in <filename>all-packages.nix</filename>. You can test building a Perl package as follows:
+ <screen>
+ <prompt>$ </prompt>nix-build -A perlPackages.ClassC3
+ </screen>
+ <varname>buildPerlPackage</varname> adds <literal>perl-</literal> to the start of the name attribute, so the package above is actually called <literal>perl-Class-C3-0.21</literal>. So to install it, you can say:
+ <screen>
+ <prompt>$ </prompt>nix-env -i perl-Class-C3
+ </screen>
+ (Of course you can also install using the attribute name: <literal>nix-env -i -A perlPackages.ClassC3</literal>.)
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ So what does <varname>buildPerlPackage</varname> do? It does the following:
+ <orderedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ In the configure phase, it calls <literal>perl Makefile.PL</literal> to generate a Makefile. You can set the variable <varname>makeMakerFlags</varname> to pass flags to <filename>Makefile.PL</filename>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ It adds the contents of the <envar>PERL5LIB</envar> environment variable to <literal>#! .../bin/perl</literal> line of Perl scripts as <literal>-I<replaceable>dir</replaceable></literal> flags. This ensures that a script can find its dependencies. (This can cause this shebang line to become too long for Darwin to handle; see the note below.)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ In the fixup phase, it writes the propagated build inputs (<varname>propagatedBuildInputs</varname>) to the file <filename>$out/nix-support/propagated-user-env-packages</filename>. <command>nix-env</command> recursively installs all packages listed in this file when you install a package that has it. This ensures that a Perl package can find its dependencies.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </orderedlist>
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ <varname>buildPerlPackage</varname> is built on top of <varname>stdenv</varname>, so everything can be customised in the usual way. For instance, the <literal>BerkeleyDB</literal> module has a <varname>preConfigure</varname> hook to generate a configuration file used by <filename>Makefile.PL</filename>:
+ <programlisting>
+ { buildPerlPackage, fetchurl, db }:
+
+ buildPerlPackage rec {
+ name = "BerkeleyDB-0.36";
+
+ src = fetchurl {
+ url = "mirror://cpan/authors/id/P/PM/PMQS/${name}.tar.gz";
+ sha256 = "07xf50riarb60l1h6m2dqmql8q5dij619712fsgw7ach04d8g3z1";
+ };
+
+ preConfigure = ''
+ echo "LIB = ${db.out}/lib" > config.in
+ echo "INCLUDE = ${db.dev}/include" >> config.in
+ '';
+ }
+ </programlisting>
+ </para>
<para>
- Nixpkgs has experimental support for cross-compiling Perl modules. In many cases, it will just work out of the box, even for modules with native extensions. Sometimes, however, the Makefile.PL for a module may (indirectly) import a native module. In that case, you will need to make a stub for that module that will satisfy the Makefile.PL and install it into <filename>lib/perl5/site_perl/cross_perl/${perl.version}</filename>. See the <varname>postInstall</varname> for <varname>DBI</varname> for an example.
+ Dependencies on other Perl packages can be specified in the <varname>buildInputs</varname> and <varname>propagatedBuildInputs</varname> attributes. If something is exclusively a build-time dependency, use <varname>buildInputs</varname>; if it’s (also) a runtime dependency, use <varname>propagatedBuildInputs</varname>. For instance, this builds a Perl module that has runtime dependencies on a bunch of other modules:
+ <programlisting>
+ ClassC3Componentised = buildPerlPackage rec {
+ name = "Class-C3-Componentised-1.0004";
+ src = fetchurl {
+ url = "mirror://cpan/authors/id/A/AS/ASH/${name}.tar.gz";
+ sha256 = "0xql73jkcdbq4q9m0b0rnca6nrlvf5hyzy8is0crdk65bynvs8q1";
+ };
+ propagatedBuildInputs = [
+ ClassC3 ClassInspector TestException MROCompat
+ ];
+ };
+ </programlisting>
</para>
+
+ <para>
+ On Darwin, if a script has too many <literal>-I<replaceable>dir</replaceable></literal> flags in its first line (its “shebang line”), it will not run. This can be worked around by calling the <literal>shortenPerlShebang</literal> function from the <literal>postInstall</literal> phase:
+ <programlisting>
+ { stdenv, buildPerlPackage, fetchurl, shortenPerlShebang }:
+
+ ImageExifTool = buildPerlPackage {
+ pname = "Image-ExifTool";
+ version = "11.50";
+
+ src = fetchurl {
+ url = "https://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/Image-ExifTool-11.50.tar.gz";
+ sha256 = "0d8v48y94z8maxkmw1rv7v9m0jg2dc8xbp581njb6yhr7abwqdv3";
+ };
+
+ buildInputs = stdenv.lib.optional stdenv.isDarwin shortenPerlShebang;
+ postInstall = stdenv.lib.optional stdenv.isDarwin ''
+ shortenPerlShebang $out/bin/exiftool
+ '';
+ };
+ </programlisting>
+ This will remove the <literal>-I</literal> flags from the shebang line, rewrite them in the <literal>use lib</literal> form, and put them on the next line instead. This function can be given any number of Perl scripts as arguments; it will modify them in-place.
+ </para>
+
+ <section xml:id="ssec-generation-from-CPAN">
+ <title>Generation from CPAN</title>
+
+ <para>
+ Nix expressions for Perl packages can be generated (almost) automatically from CPAN. This is done by the program <command>nix-generate-from-cpan</command>, which can be installed as follows:
+ </para>
+
+ <screen>
+ <prompt>$ </prompt>nix-env -i nix-generate-from-cpan
+ </screen>
+
+ <para>
+ This program takes a Perl module name, looks it up on CPAN, fetches and unpacks the corresponding package, and prints a Nix expression on standard output. For example:
+ <screen>
+ <prompt>$ </prompt>nix-generate-from-cpan XML::Simple
+ XMLSimple = buildPerlPackage rec {
+ name = "XML-Simple-2.22";
+ src = fetchurl {
+ url = "mirror://cpan/authors/id/G/GR/GRANTM/${name}.tar.gz";
+ sha256 = "b9450ef22ea9644ae5d6ada086dc4300fa105be050a2030ebd4efd28c198eb49";
+ };
+ propagatedBuildInputs = [ XMLNamespaceSupport XMLSAX XMLSAXExpat ];
+ meta = {
+ description = "An API for simple XML files";
+ license = with stdenv.lib.licenses; [ artistic1 gpl1Plus ];
+ };
+ };
+ </screen>
+ The output can be pasted into <filename>pkgs/top-level/perl-packages.nix</filename> or wherever else you need it.
+ </para>
+ </section>
+
+ <section xml:id="ssec-perl-cross-compilation">
+ <title>Cross-compiling modules</title>
+
+ <para>
+ Nixpkgs has experimental support for cross-compiling Perl modules. In many cases, it will just work out of the box, even for modules with native extensions. Sometimes, however, the Makefile.PL for a module may (indirectly) import a native module. In that case, you will need to make a stub for that module that will satisfy the Makefile.PL and install it into <filename>lib/perl5/site_perl/cross_perl/${perl.version}</filename>. See the <varname>postInstall</varname> for <varname>DBI</varname> for an example.
+ </para>
+ </section>
</section>
</section>