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lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/FAQ.pod  view on Meta::CPAN

Alien-Base / Alien-Build team will continue to maintain this module,
(we will continue to fix bugs where appropriate), we aren't adding any
new features to this module.

This document serves to answer the most frequently asked questions made by L<Alien::Base> authors.

=head2 What is Alien and Alien::Base?

Alien is a Perl namespace for defining dependencies in CPAN for libraries and tools which are not "native"
to CPAN.  For a manifesto style description of the Why, and How see L<Alien>.  L<Alien::Base> is a base
class and framework for creating Alien distributions.  The idea is to address as many of the common challenges
to developing Alien modules in the base class to simplify the process.

=head2 How do I specify a minimum or exact version requirement for packages that use pkg-config?

The C<alien_version_check> attribute to L<Alien::Base::ModuleBuild> will be executed to determine if
the library is provided by the operating system.  The default for this is C<%{pkg_config} --modversion %n>
which simply checks to see if any version of that package is available, and prints the version
number.  You can use the C<--atleast-version>, C<--exact-version> options to require a specific range of versions,
but these flags do not work with the C<--modversion> flag, so be sure to invoke separately.