Testing CPAN modules

[Ziya Suzen]

On 9/28/07, tony.x.edwardson at jpmorgan.com <tony.x.edwardson at jpmorgan.com> wrote:
> Anyone knbow of a way to run the test suites which come with CPAN modules
> without access to the internet, make or a c compiler ?

Depends on the module. Some modules require native bindings hence they
require a cc. Some modules require make for build action. Recent
modules on the other hand usually use Module::Build, a pure Perl build
system. However, unless you are only one or two modules short, you
probably won't be able to get away without using a c compiler. There
are quite a few very useful modules with existing library bindings you
might like to use.

> I am trying to get a recent version of perl (5.8.8) installed on production
> machines which exist in a highly restricted environment.
> I can instll the modules directly on production because I am not allowed to
> have any development tools available.

For deployment I recommend using a packaging system (rpm, deb etc.)
Many CPAN modules has packages for target systems.

> So, I build perl with all the modules I want on a development box (400 in
> all), tar the installation up and get the tarball into production and untar
> it there.
> The problem is that the procedures require me to run tests on all of the
> modules I've introduced on the production box where make and gcc don't
> exist.
> Ideally, I'd like to use the test suites that come with each module but I
> can't use "make test" without make.
> There is "prove" , but not all of the module distributions have a "t"
> subdirectory - they have a test.pl script instead.
> I've played with the CPAN module but I can't find a way to use it without
> access to make.

I am a bit confused at this point. But it sounds like you need a
development and test environment similar (ideally identical) to your
production systems. And if your sys admins are so strict you should
start looking into releasing system packages (RPMs for example) for
deployment.

-ziya