NAME

HowToUseModuleResources - Demonstrates access to $?DISTRIBUTION "resources" for installed module distributions

SYNOPSIS

use HowToUseModuleResources;

demo # OUTPUT: «Usage: demo <number of lines [min 2] > | all␤»

DESCRIPTION

HowToUseModuleResources aims to demonstrate use of the special variable, $?DISTRIBUTION, to access files included in an installed module distribution.

This module has a binary executable, demo, which, when executed, shows the results of using the variable to access the following file (all text files, but any type file should work):

resources/file1      # <== listed in file C<META6.json> 
resources/file2      # <== listed in file C<META6.json>
resources/sdir/file3 # <== listed in file C<META6.json>
../lib/HowToUseModuleResources.rakumod  # <== listed in file C<META6.json>
../t/01-basic.rakutest  # <== B<NOT> listed in file C<META6.json> file

Notice some oddities in the file list above:

• File 't/01-basic.t'

  The file cannot be accessed because it is not listed in META6.json.

• File '../lib/HowToUseModuleResources.rakumod'

  The file's contents are available. The same is true for any file in the source code if it's listed in file META6.json in the "resources:" list. In that list its path must be shown relative to directory './resources'.

The provided subroutines may be used to provide users of the installed module with access to the contents of any file so listed as described above.

For reference, the applicable part of this distribution's META6.json is shown:

  "resources": [
    "file1",
    "file2",
    "sdir/file3",
    "../lib/HowToUseModuleResources.rakumod"
  ],

For the moment, authors must list the desired resources twice: once in the META6.json file and once in the source code's resources directory.

Eventally, App::Mi6's mi6 binary program's build command will ensure the META6.json's resources list is the exact duplicate of the source resources directory so the author will not have to maintain two lists. (See issue #176 at https://github.com/skaji/mi6.)

CREDITS

Thanks to Nick Logan (@ugexe on Github and IRC #raku) for his advice and his powerful zef program.

AUTHOR

Tom Browder tbrowder@acm.org

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

© 2023 Tom Browder

This library is free software; you may redistribute it or modify it under the Artistic License 2.0.