Install Perl modules that require customized options via CPAN

Question

a few times I've come across modules that require custom flags when installing. For example, now I'm stuck at Net::ZooKeeper which requires --zookeeper-include and --zookeeper-lib set. Is there a way I can set these within the cpan shell? Or do I just need to build manually?

Answer 1

There's an easy way to "build manually" but still let CPAN handle finding the latest release, downloading, and unpacking for you -- at the cpan shell do look Net::ZooKeeper, or with cpanminus do cpanm --look Net::ZooKeeper, and it'll be fetched and unpacked and then you'll get a shell in the directory it was unpacked into, at which point you can do the usual perl Makefile.PL; make; make install dance with whatever options you like, and then exit. It's pretty simple and probably the fastest possible thing if this is something you only need to do very rarely.

On the other hand, if this is an automated or repetitive process, then go ahead and follow eugene y's advice and create a distroprefs file for the modules that need custom configuration, and deploy it wherever it's needed, and then however and wherever those modules are installed they'll be configured properly and not fail the build :)