Data files in a .par file

[BooK]

Warning: I'm rather new to PAR, so maybe I'm asking a FAQ (I don't think so).

How can a bundled module load some data files included with it in the .par file?

I'm developping a library for a client, let's call it Bam::Kapow. Some data files are needed, so I put them where I was sure I'd find them: in Bam/Kapow/, just below Bam/Kapow.pm.

Here are the few files (simplified as much as possible):

• lib/Bam/Kapow.pm

  package Bam::Kapow;
  
  use strict;
  use Carp;
  use File::Basename;
  use File::Spec::Functions;
  
  our $VERSION = "0.01";
  our %Info    = ();
  
  # load the data file
  for my $data (qw( motd issue ) ) {
      my $file = catfile( dirname( $INC{'Bam/Kapow.pm'} ), 'Kapow', $dat
  +a );
      open my $fh, $file
        or carp "Can't open $file: $!";
      $Info{$data} = join '', <$fh>;
      close $fh;
  }
  
  1;
  

• lib/Bam/Kapow/motd

  Message of the day: PAR rules!
  

• lib/Bam/Kapow/issue

  Well, I have this minor issue with PAR...
  

• example script.pl

  #!/usr/bin/perl
  use Bam::Kapow;
  
  print "Using Bam::Kapow version $Bam::Kapow::VERSION\n";
  print "MOTD: $Bam::Kapow::Info{motd}\n";
  print "Got Bam::Kapow from $INC{'Bam/Kapow.pm'}\n";
  

Creating a self-extracting script with the needed library is rather easy, once you know how to pack those additionnal files:

$ find lib/Bam/Kapow/ -type f > bam_kapow.lst</tt>
$ pp -o script.exe -A bam_kapow.lst -I lib script.pl
$ PATH= ./script.exe
Using Bam::Kapow version 0.01
MOTD: Message of the day: PAR rules!

Got Bam::Kapow from /tmp/par-ufwk/cache-e73b24e48419250052360127de57a0
+74/inc/lib/Bam/Kapow.pm

Now, I would like to package this as a .par file, rather than as a self-extractible script. The test script would become:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use PAR;
use lib 'Bam-Kapow';
use Bam::Kapow;

print "Using Bam::Kapow version $Bam::Kapow::VERSION\n";
print "MOTD: $Bam::Kapow::Info{motd}\n";
print "Got Bam::Kapow from $INC{'Bam/Kapow.pm'}\n";

First way to create the .par file and test:

$ zip -r Bam-Kapow.par lib
  adding: lib/ (stored 0%)
  adding: lib/Bam/ (stored 0%)
  adding: lib/Bam/Kapow/ (stored 0%)
  adding: lib/Bam/Kapow/motd (stored 0%)
  adding: lib/Bam/Kapow/issue (stored 0%)
  adding: lib/Bam/Kapow.pm (deflated 40%)
$ perl script2.pl
perl script2.pl

Can't open /tmp/par-ufwk/cache-51eaa99df530ab0d3b760931a92bb43c/Kapow/
+motd: No such file or directory at script2.pl line 4
Can't open /tmp/par-ufwk/cache-51eaa99df530ab0d3b760931a92bb43c/Kapow/
+issue: No such file or directory at script2.pl line 4
Using Bam::Kapow version 0.01
MOTD:
Got Bam::Kapow from /tmp/par-ufwk/cache-51eaa99df530ab0d3b760931a92bb4
+3c/a23f3e6c.pm

ls /tmp/par-ufwk/cache-51eaa99df530ab0d3b760931a92bb43c/
a23f3e6c.pm

This does not seem to work (the files are not extracted). Let's try something else:

$ pp -o Bam-Kapow.par -p -M Bam::Kapow -A bam_kapow.lst -I lib -e 1
$ perl script2.pl
Can't open /tmp/par-ufwk/cache-51eaa99df530ab0d3b760931a92bb43c/Kapow/
+motd: No such file or directory at script2.pl line 4
Can't open /tmp/par-ufwk/cache-51eaa99df530ab0d3b760931a92bb43c/Kapow/
+issue: No such file or directory at script2.pl line 4
Using Bam::Kapow version 0.01
MOTD:
Got Bam::Kapow from /tmp/par-ufwk/cache-51eaa99df530ab0d3b760931a92bb4
+3c/40599894.pm

Same problem, no surprise here.

Is PAR::read_file() my only option? That means that the module needs to detect if it was loaded with PAR or not (I have a test suite to run, after all), which may lead to more complicated (and buggy) code.

[Anonymous Monk]

If you look into the directory you used to "nmake test" when installing PAR, you will
find a contrib directory somewhere underneath. Somewhere under there you will find a
file called automated_pp_test.pl that has a multitude of tests. I believe the small -a
and large -A tests are made for what you want to do. You will find tests entitled

sub pp_test_small_minus_a {
sub pp_test_large_minus_A {

I believe the explaination blocks in the file are up to date. You can also use
perl -d (debugger) and step through the actual test code.

Good luck.

[rdfield]

PAR files are just Zip files, have you tried using Archive::Zip to extract the data file?

[Tortue]

Yes, a possible solution is to not use PAR at all! You can replace:

use PAR;
use lib 'Bam-Kapow';

(a.k.a. use PAR 'Bam-Kapow';) by:

BEGIN {
  use Archive::Zip;
  my $zip = new Archive::Zip('Bam-Kapow.par');
  $zip->extractTree('', 'shazam/');
  use lib 'shazam/lib';
}
END { use File::Path; rmtree 'shazam/'; }

which produces the output:

Using Bam::Kapow version 0.01
MOTD: Message of the day: PAR rules!

Got Bam::Kapow from shazam/lib/Bam/Kapow.pm

Of course, it would be nicer if PAR provided an option to do that, something like:

use PAR 'extract';

which would make it behave the same way it does when it's wrapped up in an executable.