NAME

       ExtUtils::Packlist - manage .packlist files

SYNOPSIS

          use ExtUtils::Packlist;
          my ($pl) = ExtUtils::Packlist->new('.packlist');
          $pl->read('/an/old/.packlist');
          my @missing_files = $pl->validate();
          $pl->write('/a/new/.packlist');

          $pl->{'/some/file/name'}++;
             or
          $pl->{'/some/other/file/name'} = { type => 'file',
                                             from => '/some/file' };

DESCRIPTION

       ExtUtils::Packlist provides a standard way to manage .packlist files.  Functions are provided to read and
       write .packlist files.  The original .packlist format is a simple list of absolute pathnames, one per
       line.  In addition, this package supports an extended format, where as well as a filename each line may
       contain a list of attributes in the form of a space separated list of key=value pairs.  This is used by
       the installperl script to differentiate between files and links, for example.

USAGE

       The hash reference returned by the new() function can be used to examine and modify the contents of the
       .packlist.  Items may be added/deleted from the .packlist by modifying the hash.  If the value associated
       with a hash key is a scalar, the entry written to the .packlist by any subsequent write() will be a
       simple filename.  If the value is a hash, the entry written will be the filename followed by the
       key=value pairs from the hash.  Reading back the .packlist will recreate the original entries.

FUNCTIONS

       new()
           This takes an optional parameter, the name of a .packlist.  If the file exists, it will be opened and
           the  contents  of  the file will be read.  The new() method returns a reference to a hash.  This hash
           holds an entry for each line in the .packlist.  In  the  case  of  old-style  .packlists,  the  value
           associated  with  each  key is undef.  In the case of new-style .packlists, the value associated with
           each key is a hash containing the key=value pairs following the filename in the .packlist.

       read()
           This takes an optional parameter, the name of the .packlist to be read.  If no file is specified, the
           .packlist specified to new() will be read.  If the .packlist does  not  exist,  Carp::croak  will  be
           called.

       write()
           This  takes an optional parameter, the name of the .packlist to be written.  If no file is specified,
           the .packlist specified to new() will be overwritten.

       validate()
           This checks that every file listed in the .packlist actually exists.  If an argument which  evaluates
           to  true  is  given, any missing files will be removed from the internal hash.  The return value is a
           list of the missing files, which will be empty if they all exist.

       packlist_file()
           This returns the name of the associated .packlist file

EXAMPLE

       Here's "modrm", a little utility to cleanly remove an installed module.

           #!/usr/local/bin/perl -w

           use strict;
           use IO::Dir;
           use ExtUtils::Packlist;
           use ExtUtils::Installed;

           sub emptydir($) {
               my ($dir) = @_;
               my $dh = IO::Dir->new($dir) || return(0);
               my @count = $dh->read();
               $dh->close();
               return(@count == 2 ? 1 : 0);
           }

           # Find all the installed packages
           print("Finding all installed modules...\n");
           my $installed = ExtUtils::Installed->new();

           foreach my $module (grep(!/^Perl$/, $installed->modules())) {
              my $version = $installed->version($module) || "???";
              print("Found module $module Version $version\n");
              print("Do you want to delete $module? [n] ");
              my $r = <STDIN>; chomp($r);
              if ($r && $r =~ /^y/i) {
                 # Remove all the files
                 foreach my $file (sort($installed->files($module))) {
                    print("rm $file\n");
                    unlink($file);
                 }
                 my $pf = $installed->packlist($module)->packlist_file();
                 print("rm $pf\n");
                 unlink($pf);
                 foreach my $dir (sort($installed->directory_tree($module))) {
                    if (emptydir($dir)) {
                       print("rmdir $dir\n");
                       rmdir($dir);
                    }
                 }
              }
           }

AUTHOR

       Alan Burlison <Alan.Burlison@uk.sun.com>

perl v5.38.2                                       2025-04-08                          ExtUtils::Packlist(3perl)