Create a Perl Module Skeleton Using h2xs

The h2xs binary is used to convert C header files to Perl extensions, but it can also be used to create a Perl module template. Creating modules this way will save you a lot of time and make sure that your module is setup up correctly for submission to CPAN.

You can create your own module skeleton with h2xs using:

h2xs -A -X -n My::Module

This will create a directory called My-Module with the following files:

My-Module/lib/My/Module.pm
My-Module/Makefile.PL
My-Module/README
My-Module/t/My-Module.t
My-Module/Changes
My-Module/MANIFEST

Module.pm is your actual module, which you will edit and add your desired functionality into. Your module can be installed on your system by following these steps:

perl Makefile.PL

This creates the makefile

make test

This executes all tests, assuming you have created some.

make install

This will install the module in your system, you may have to execute this line as super user.

You can package up your module for submission to CPAN, or other distribution means by typing:

make tardist

This will create My-Module-0.01.tar.gz inside your project directory.