Perl .bundle files

Question

On my OSX machine, deep within a jungle of lib directories, I was able to see this

-r-xr-xr-x 1 user users 45700 Feb 01 1:47 LibXSLT.bundle*

1) What are these .bundle files ?

2) Who creates them ? CPAN modules ?

3) If so, then can we control its generation via some Makefile artifact ?

Answer 1

1. What are these .bundle files ?

The *.bundle files, in this case, are Mach-O universal binary files.

file can be used to check the file type including architectures.

file …/Perl/…/XML/LibXSLT/LibXSLT.bundle
# /LibXSLT.bundle: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures: 
#    [x86_64:Mach-O 64-bit bundle x86_64] 
#    [arm64e:Mach-O 64-bit bundle arm64e]

2. Who creates them ? CPAN modules ?

lipo is the tool used for combining one or more architecture specific executables into a Mach-O universal binary. (In general, although Perl may need the extension, the .bundle file extension is optional.)

which -a lipo
# /usr/bin/lipo

man lipo
# NAME
#        lipo - create or operate on universal files

3. If so, then can we control its generation via some Makefile artifact ?

The Apple article "Building a Universal macOS Binary" mentions how to use a (C/C++/Swift) makefile to create a universal binary by merging the resulting executable files together with the lipo tool.

The following example shows a makefile that compiles a single-source file twice—once for each architecture. It then creates a universal binary by merging the resulting executable files together with the lipo tool.

x86_app: main.c
    $(CC) main.c -o x86_app -target x86_64-apple-macos10.12
arm_app: main.c
    $(CC) main.c -o arm_app -target arm64-apple-macos11
universal_app: x86_app arm_app
    lipo -create -output universal_app x86_app arm_app

Conceptually, the above approach could be used with a ExtUtils::MakeMaker Makefile.PL.