Daftar Isi

• NAME
• DESCRIPTION
• FINDING YOUR WAY AROUND
  • C code
  • Core modules
  • Tests
  • Documentation
  • Hacking tools and documentation
  • Build system
  • _AUTHORS_
  • _MANIFEST_

NAME

perlsource - A guide to the Perl source tree

DESCRIPTION

This document describes the layout of the Perl source tree. If you'rehacking on the Perl core, this will help you find what you're lookingfor.

FINDING YOUR WAY AROUND

The Perl source tree is big. Here's some of the thing you'll find init:

C code

The C source code and header files mostly live in the root of thesource tree. There are a few platform-specific directories whichcontain C code. In addition, some of the modules shipped with Perlinclude C or XS code.

See perlinterp for more details on the files that make up the Perlinterpreter, as well as details on how it works.

Core modules

Modules shipped as part of the Perl core live in four subdirectories.Two of these directories contain modules that live in the core, and twocontain modules that can also be released separately on CPAN. Moduleswhich can be released on cpan are known as "dual-life" modules.

• lib/

  This directory contains pure-Perl modules which are only released aspart of the core. This directory contains all of the modules andtheir tests, unlike other core modules.

• ext/

  This directory contains XS-using modules which are only released aspart of the core. These modules generally have their Makefile.PL andare laid out more like a typical CPAN module.

• dist/

  This directory is for dual-life modules where the blead source iscanonical. Note that some modules in this directory may not yet havebeen released separately on CPAN.

• cpan/

  This directory contains dual-life modules where the CPAN module iscanonical. Do not patch these modules directly! Changes to thesemodules should be submitted to the maintainer of the CPAN module. Oncethose changes are applied and released, the new version of the modulewill be incorporated into the core.

For some dual-life modules, it has not yet been determined if the CPANversion or the blead source is canonical. Until that is done, thosemodules should be in cpan/.

Tests

The Perl core has an extensive test suite. If you add new tests (or newmodules with tests), you may need to update the t/TEST file so thatthe tests are run.

• Module tests

  Tests for core modules in the lib/ directory are right next to themodule itself. For example, we have lib/strict.pm andlib/strict.t.

  Tests for modules in ext/ and the dual-life modules are in t/subdirectories for each module, like a standard CPAN distribution.

• t/base/

  Tests for the absolute basic functionality of Perl. This includesif, basic file reads and writes, simple regexes, etc. These are runfirst in the test suite and if any of them fail, something is reallybroken.

• t/cmd/

  Tests for basic control structures, if/else, while, subroutines,etc.

• t/comp/

  Tests for basic issues of how Perl parses and compiles itself.

• t/io/

  Tests for built-in IO functions, including command line arguments.

• t/mro/

  Tests for perl's method resolution order implementations (see mro).

• t/op/

  Tests for perl's built in functions that don't fit into any of theother directories.

• t/re/

  Tests for regex related functions or behaviour. (These used to live int/op).

• t/run/

  Tests for features of how perl actually runs, including exit codes andhandling of PERL* environment variables.

• t/uni/

  Tests for the core support of Unicode.

• t/win32/

  Windows-specific tests.

• t/porting/

  Tests the state of the source tree for various common errors. Forexample, it tests that everyone who is listed in the git log has acorresponding entry in the AUTHORS file.

• t/lib/

  The old home for the module tests, you shouldn't put anything new inhere. There are still some bits and pieces hanging around in here thatneed to be moved. Perhaps you could move them? Thanks!

• t/x2p

  A test suite for the s2p converter.

Documentation

All of the core documentation intended for end users lives in pod/.Individual modules in lib/, ext/, dist/, and cpan/ usuallyhave their own documentation, either in the Module.pm file or anaccompanying Module.pod file.

Finally, documentation intended for core Perl developers lives in thePorting/ directory.

Hacking tools and documentation

The Porting directory contains a grab bag of code and documentationintended to help porters work on Perl. Some of the highlights include:

• check*

  These are scripts which will check the source things like ANSI Cviolations, POD encoding issues, etc.

• Maintainers, Maintainers.pl, and Maintainers.pm

  These files contain information on who maintains which modules. Runperl Porting/Maintainers -M Module::Name to find out moreinformation about a dual-life module.

• podtidy

  Tidies a pod file. It's a good idea to run this on a pod file you'vepatched.

Build system

The Perl build system starts with the Configure script in the rootdirectory.

Platform-specific pieces of the build system also live inplatform-specific directories like win32/, vms/, etc.

The Configure script is ultimately responsible for generating aMakefile.

The build system that Perl uses is called metaconfig. This system ismaintained separately from the Perl core.

The metaconfig system has its own git repository. Please see its READMEfile in http://perl5.git.perl.org/metaconfig.git/ for more details.

The Cross directory contains various files related tocross-compiling Perl. See Cross/README for more details.

AUTHORS

This file lists everyone who's contributed to Perl. If you submit apatch, you should add your name to this file as part of the patch.

MANIFEST

The MANIFEST file in the root of the source tree contains a list ofevery file in the Perl core, as well as a brief description of eachfile.

You can get an overview of all the files with this command:

  % perl -lne 'print if /^[^\/]+\.[ch]\s+/' MANIFEST