Getting an installed module to recognize changes to config files

Question

I have a package that uses config.json for some settings it uses. I keep the package locally rather than installing it from CPAN. My problem is when I make changes to config.json, the package doesn't recognize the changes since the config file's cached elsewhere, forcing me to run zef install --force-install or delete precomp. How can I ensure that the package always recognizes updates to the config file?

Answer 1

When you install packages using zef, it keeps them in the filesystem, but their names are converted into sha1, something like

/home/jmerelo/.rakudobrew/moar-2018.03/install/share/perl6/site/sources/81436475BD18D66BFD96BBCEE07CCCDC0F368879

zef keeps track of them, however, and you can locate them using zef locate, for instance:

zef locate lib/Zef/CLI.pm6

You can run that from a program, for instance this way:

sub MAIN( Str $file ) {
    my $location = qqx/zef locate $file/;
    my $sha1 = ($location ~~ /\s+ \=\> \s+ (.+)/);
    say "$file → $sha1[0]";
}

which will return pretty much the same, except it will give you the first location of the file you give it at the command line:

lib/Zef/CLI.pm6 → /home/jmerelo/.rakudobrew/moar-2018.03/install/share/perl6/site/sources/81436475BD18D66BFD96BBCEE07CCCDC0F368879

You probably need to install your config.json file in a resources directory (which is the preferred location) and then use something like that.

That said, probably actually installing a module you're testing is not the best strategy. If you're still testing things, it's probably better if you just keep it in the directory you're working with and use perl6 -I<that directory> or else use lib <that directory> is probably a better option. You can just delete that when you release, or keep it, since that only adds another directory to the search path and will not harm the released module.