This is the topic of one of my TPJ columns: Making New Distributions.
I use Template Toolkit. I create a directory of templates that do exactly what I want then process it with ttree. I can make the templates any way that I like without fooling with someone else's idea of what they should be, and my template cooker script can set any variables it likes so I don't have to specify those with the command.
I've made it even easier since I wrote that article. I use it this like:
prompt> module_cooker Foo::Bar
Here's the code:
#!/usr/bin/perl
use Cwd;
use File::Spec;
my $module = $ARGV[0] || prompt( "Module name> " );
my $dist = $module; $dist =~ s/::/-/g;
my $file = $module; $file =~ s/.*:://; $file .= ".pm";
my $cwd = File::Spec->catfile( cwd(), $dist );
system
join " ",
"/usr/local/bin/ttree" ,
"-s ~/.templates/modules" ,
"-d $cwd" ,
"-define module='$module'" ,
"-define module_file='$file'" ,
"-define module_dist='$dist'"
;
chdir $dist;
( my $base = $module ) =~ s/.*:://;
rename
File::Spec->catfile( 'lib', 'Foo.pm' ),
File::Spec->catfile( 'lib', $file );
sub prompt
{
print join "\n", @_;
print "> ";
my $line = <STDIN>;
chomp $line;
$line;
}