SYNOPSIS In dist.ini: ; it is recommended that the name of lump dist ends with '-Lumped' name=Perinci-CmdLine-Any-Lumped version=0.01 ; you should use minimal plugins and avoid those that munge files (e.g. ; OurVersion, PodWeaver, etc) [@Basic] [PERLANCAR::AddDeps] ; lump all modules from a single dist lump_dist = Perinci::CmdLine::Any ; lump all modules from a single dist and their recursive dependencies lump_dist_and_deps = Perinci::CmdLine::Any ; filter by author include_author = PERLANCAR ; all the lump_* and include_* configurations can be specified multiple times In your main module, e.g. "Perinci/CmdLine/Any/Lumped.pm" in lib: package Perinci::CmdLine::Any::Lumped; our $VERSION = 0.01; # LUMPED_MODULES # LUMPED_DISTS ... And in the built version the directives will be replaced with: our @LUMPED_MODULES = (...); # LUMPED_MODULES our @LUMPED_DISTS = (...); # LUMPED_DISTS You can also add in the POD area: =head1 LIST OF LUMPED MODULES # LUMPED_MODULES_POD =head1 LIST OF LUMPED DISTS # LUMPED_DISTS_POD And in the built version they will become: =head1 LIST OF LUMPED MODULES =over =item * ... =item * ... ... =back =head1 LIST OF LUMPED DISTS =over =item * ... =item * ... ... =back DESCRIPTION WARNING: EXPERIMENTAL This plugin will lump (add together) one or more module files to your dist during building. When done carefully, this can reduce the number of dists that users need to download and install because they are already included in your dists. The module file(s) to be added must be indexed on (your local) CPAN and installed on your local Perl installation, as they will be copied from the installed version on your local installation. They will thus be contained in their original distributions as well as on your lump dist. To avoid conflict, the lumped files on your lump dist will be excluded from indexing (using no_index in CPAN META) so PAUSE does not index them. How it works 1. Gather the module files to be added as specified in lump_dist and lump_dist_and_deps. To get a list of modules in a dist, or to get list of (recursive) dependencies, lcpan is used. Make sure you have lcpan installed and your local CPAN mirror is sufficiently up-to-date (use lcpan update regularly to keep it up-to-date). 2. Do some minimal munging on the files to be added: * If the POD indicates which dist the module is in, will replace it with our dist. For example if there is a VERSION section with this content: This document describes version 0.10 of Perinci::CmdLine::Any (from Perl distribution Perinci-CmdLine-Any), released on 2015-04-12. then the text will be replaced with: This document describes version 0.10 of Perinci::CmdLine::Any (from Perl distribution Perinci-CmdLine-Any-Lumped version 0.01), released on 2015-05-15. 3. Add all files into no_index metadata, so they don't clash with the original dists. 4. For all the dependencies found in #1 but excluded (not lumped), express them as dependencies. Other caveats/issues * Only module files from each distribution are included. This means other stuffs are not included: scripts/binaries, shared files, .pod files, etc. This is because PAUSE currently only index packages (~ modules). We have .packlist though, and can use it in the future when needed. * Currently all the dependency dists must be installed on your local Perl installation. (This is purely out of my coding laziness though. It could/should be extracted from the release file in local CPAN index though.) * Aside from adding the module files, your main module (which should be named Something::Lumped) should contain these directives: # LUMPED_MODULES # LUMPED_DISTS During building, the plugin will replace those directives with: our @LUMPED_MODULES = (...); # LUMPED_MODULES our @LUMPED_DISTS = (...); # LUMPED_DISTS The @LUMPED_MODULES array contains all the modules (packages) that are lumped in this lump dist. The purpose of this variable is to help tools like lint-prereqs. Lint-prereqs is a tool to warn if you underspecify/overspecify prereqs in dist.ini. If you put a lump module (e.g. Something::Lumped) as a prereq, lint-prereqs can load the module and read the @LUMPED_MODULES variable to see what other modules are lumped together in the lump dist. When you also specify one of those modules as prereqs, lint-prereqs can warn you that it is not necessary, since that module has already been included in the lump dist. Similarly, @LUMPED_DISTS array contains all the dists that are lumped in this lump dist. The purpose of this variable is to help tools like Dist::Zilla::Plugin::PERLANCAR::CheckDepDists. This plugin will look for all lump dists on the local installation (via searching for modules ending with ::Lumped). If one of the dists specified in @LUMPED_DISTS is the dist currently being built, then the plugin will issue a notification that the corresponding lump dist will need to be rebuilt. * If the lump dist is to be converted into a package-manager-based package (e.g. deb or RPM), the package should have a Provides to all the dists that are lumped (@LUMPED_DISTS) so they can conflict with the original distribution's packages. This is because the files do conflict. SEE ALSO lcpan