Process

Read the configuration data

Look in the current working directory for ".releaserc". See the Configuration section. If release cannot find the configuration file, it dies.

Various sanity checks

These are related to various mistakes I've made at some point.

        * am I allowed to release from this branch (so, not an experimental branch)
        * have I listed all the prereqs?
        * is the version greater than what I've already released?
    

Test and make the distribution

Run make realclean, perl Makefile.PL, make test, make dist, make disttest. If testing fails, release dies. make dist provides the name of the distribution if LOCAL_FILE is not provided on the command line. Too test the distribution against several perl binaries, see the "perls" configuration setting.

Check that source control is up-to-date

If there are modified files, added files, or extra files so that source control complains, fail.

Upload to PAUSE

This program used to use FTP uploads, but PAUSE has turned off that feature. Now it uploads through the web form.

Tag the repository

Use the version number (in the distribution name) to tag the repository. You should be able to checkout the code from any release.

Command-line switches

-a

Set $ENV{AUTOMATED_TESTING} to true. You can also set automated_testing in the configuration file.

-d

Show debugging information

-h

Print a help message then exit

-k

Skip the kwalitee checks. You can also set the skip_kwalitee directive to a true value in the configuration file.

Have you considered just fixing the kwalitee though? :)

-p

Skip the prereq checks. You can also set the skip_prereqs directive to a true value in the configuration file.

Have you considered just fixing the prereqs though? :)

-t

Run all checks then stop. Do not change any files or upload the distribution.

-T

Skip the tests. This is useful when you just want to upload.

-v

Print the program name and version then exit

-V

Skip the version check against CPAN

Configuration

release's own .releaserc looks like this:

    cpan_user BDFOY

If you would like to test with multiple perl binaries (version 1.21 and later), list them as a colon-separated list in the "perls" setting:

        perls /usr/local/bin/perl5.6.2:/usr/local/bin/perl5.10.0

release does not test the perls in any particular order.

allow_glob_in_perls

If true, expand globs in the "perls" configuration.

Default: 0

allow_branches

A comma-separated list of literal branch names that are allowed to release (requires Module::Release::Git 1.016).

allow_branches_regex

A Perl pattern to match version control branches that are allowed to release (requires Module::Release::Git 1.016).

automated_testing

Set "automated_testing" to the value you want for the $ENV{AUTOMATED_TESTING} setting. By default this is 0, so testing is started in interactive mode.

commit_message_format

A sprintf format for the message when "release" commits its changes. So far this takes one %s placeholder for the module version (requires Module::Release::Git 1.016).

cpan_user

The PAUSE user

perls

A colon-separated list of perls to test with. If "allow_glob_in_perls" is a true value, globs in paths will expand to their paths so you can specify many perls.

Default: the perl that's running "release".

release_subclass

DEPRECATED AND REMOVED. You should really just write your own release script. Fork this one even!

required

An optional list of comma-separated modules that are required to be available. These are checked before building "Makefile".

 required DBI,Text::CSV_XS,SQL::Statement
    

A list like this can be handy when testing against a lot of perl versions (see "perls" above) in which some do and some do not have all required modules installed. Another good reason to have this is when testing against optional modules.

skip_kwalitee

Set to a false value to skip kwalitee checks (such as for a script distribution with no modules in it).

skip_prereqs

Set "skip_prereqs" to 1 if you don't want to run the Test::Prereq checks. By default this is 0 and "release" will try to check prerequisites.

Environment

• AUTOMATED_TESTING

  Module::Release doesn't do anything with this other than set it for Test::Harness.

• CPAN_PASS

  release reads the "CPAN_PASS" environment variable to set the password for PAUSE. Of course, you don't need to set the password for a system you're not uploading to.

• RELEASE_DEBUG

  The "RELEASE_DEBUG" environment variable sets the debugging value, which is 0 by default. Set "RELEASE_DEBUG" to a true value to get debugging output.

• PERL

  The "PERL" environment variable sets the path to perl for use in the make; otherwise, the perl used to run release will be used.

• RELEASE_OPTS

  A string representing options to add to the command line.