masak / Proto

Proto -- making your Perl 6 work slightly easier

Proto is a hyper-lightweight dependency tracking and module installation system. It helps you set up a running environment where you can play with Rakudo Perl 6 and library modules with minimal hassle. It's not comprehensive like Parrot's Plumage will be, it's an unreliable prototype, as the name suggests. It is currently experimenting with the module ecosystem of Rakudo *, which should accommodate multiple instances of modules distinguished by :auth and :ver name parts.

Proto can bootstrap on Unix and Windows from a single file download, or by cloning its Github repository. It keeps terminal output concise and has few commands and options. You can use it to:

1. Download, compile and install Parrot and Rakudo
2. Download, compile, test and install Perl 6 modules
3. Create new modules (in projects, with tests)

To install Proto, get the main script with this command (or a browser) (all on one line without the \ if not in a Unix compatible shell):

perl -MLWP::UserAgent -e"LWP::UserAgent->new->mirror(
'http://github.com/masak/proto/raw/master/proto', 'proto.pl')"

To configure proto, type the following at the prompt:

perl proto.pl configure proto

To then install Rakudo (and Parrot), type the following at the prompt:

perl proto.pl install rakudo

If you already had a Rakudo installed, instead of having proto install it again, you can simply adjust ~/.perl6/proto/proto.conf to tell it where Rakudo and Parrot are on the system.

Installation of Parrot and Rakudo is merely a convenience; what proto was really built for is installing modules. The command

perl proto.pl install [ ...]

will look among its list of registered modules for , and download and build whatever it finds.

Should the downloaded module happen to explicitly depend on other modules, these will be downloaded and built before the dependent module is built. And so on, until it all bottoms out.

The upgrade command

perl proto.pl upgrade

will check the module and all that depend on it for upgrades, and rebuild them in the required order. Omit the name of the module, and all your installed modules will be upgraded.

See the file PIONEER for how to set up your project with proto, or let the create-new-project script make one semi-automatically. TODO: convert create-new-project (a bash script) into another Perl 6 module.

Removing a module is as simple as

perl proto.pl uninstall

If a dependency cycle is detected during the download process, the install is aborted and the dependency cycle is described. It might still be possible to install all modules despite the cycle, but the mere fact that there's a cycle merits human attention.

There are many things which proto does not do. Even so, it is the hope of its authors that it might be of some use, and make Perl 6 poets bold in splitting up their work into logical independent units.

How to add your project to projects.list and poc-projects.list:

1.) Fork the proto repository into your github account (press Fork button.) 2.) Clone your new repository to your local hard drive: $ git clone [email protected]:yourusername/proto.git ( don't forget to change yourusername to your own username.) 3.) Edit the projects.list file and add your project in YAML format. 4.) Commit your changes. $ git commit -a -m 'added my project' $ git push 5.) Checkout the pls branch: $ git fetch $ git checkout pls 6.) Edit the poc-projects.list file and add your project in JSON format. 7.) Commit your changes. $ git commit -a -m 'added my project' $ git push 8.) On your github page, click "Pull Request", and submit your request.

After sending the Pull Request, the Proto/pls developers will review your changes and merge them with the primary repo.

Proto is (C) Copyright 2010 by the Proto contributors (as listed in AUTHORS). The license is Artistic 2.0; see LICENCE.