Bug#501688: Getting dh-make-perl to use META.yml

[gregor herrmann]

On Sun, 16 Nov 2008 21:03:08 +1100, Paul Fenwick wrote:

> Firstly, this is my first time responding to a Debian bug.  If I've missed
> something, or misunderstood the bug process, please let me know; I'm eager
> to be educated.

That's fine, thanks for your comments.
 
> I'm one of the Module::Install developers, and I've also been bitten by
> dh-make-perl via Module::Depends::Intrusive failing to parse certain
> Makefile.PL files.  However I'm a little confused as to why we'd want to,
> since all modern CPAN modules should have a META.yml file.

I looked at the code, and it's a bit strange:
dh-make-perl uses the META.yml file -- but not for calculating the
dependencies. extract_depends() is even passed the meta hash but it's
never used then.
Don't ask my why, probably a phenomenon of "organically grown" :/
 
> It strikes me that dh-make-perl is best using the META.yml file if it
> exists, and then only falling back on Module::Depends::Intrusive and other
> techniques if required.

That's what dh-make-perl already does for getting the license, or the
abstract or the author ... so it seems logical for the dependencies
too.
But maybe there was/is a reason to do it differently that I'm not
aware of.

> If dh-make-perl is already moving toward META.yml support, then I'd be happy
> to offer assistance.  If it's not, but you think it's a good idea, then I'd
> be happy to do the coding, or find a volunteer who can.

We're always happy about improvements and patches.
If you want to take a look at dh-make-perl please grab the version
from our subversion repository:

svn {co,export} svn://svn.debian.org/svn/pkg-perl/trunk/dh-make-perl/dh-make-perl
or
http://svn.debian.org/viewsvn/pkg-perl/trunk/dh-make-perl/dh-make-perl?view=markup

Cheers,
gregor
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