How can I have Module::Build compile and link my small C program?

Question

I have a simple C source file in a src directory in my project. My Build.PL contains the following lines:

c_source => ['src'],
extra_compiler_flags => ['-std=c99']

However, all this does is compile it to a .o file in the src directory corresponding to the C file. What I'd really like is to have it compiled and linked to form an executable, then put in my bin directory.

Is this possible and advisable with Module::Build?

That builds an object file to be linked with Perl. It should have its own build process. You could launch that build process from M::B, I imagine, but I'm not sure how. — ikegami, Nov 21 '13 at 20:44

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 21 '13 at 22:21

Though ikegami said this is not the proper way to do things (and I agree it probably isn't...), I just ended up using the cbuilder getter on the Module::Build object to manually do the compilation. With only one C file, I figured it was a small sin, and this lets me move on!

my $b = $builder->cbuilder();

my $obj_file = $b->compile(
    source => 'src/myfile.c',
    extra_compiler_flags => ['-std=c99'],
    include_dirs => ['/my/path/zeromq-3.2.4/include']
);

my $lib_file = $b->link_executable(
    objects => $obj_file,
    extra_linker_flags => [
        '-lpthread',
        '-L/my/path/sw/zmq/lib/',
        '-lzmq'
    ],
    exe_file => 'my_file'
);

How can I have Module::Build compile and link my small C program?

1 Answers1