Re: [Win32] Feature request: acknowledge $ENV{LIBRARY_PATH}

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael G Schwern" <[email protected]>
To: "Sisyphus" <[email protected]>
Cc: "makemaker" <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, April 27, 2009 7:41 AM
Subject: Re: [Win32] Feature request: acknowledge $ENV{LIBRARY_PATH}


> Sisyphus wrote:
>> Could the attached patch (against version 6.50 of
>> ExtUtils/Liblist/Kid.pm) be applied ?

[snip]

> Alternatively, show me that ExtUtils::CBuilder does it (and tests it) and 
> I'll
> just follow their lead.

I don't know much about ExtUtils::CBuilder, though I would be surprised if 
it takes $ENV{LIBRARY_PATH} into consideration. Does it, like MakeMaker, 
insist on finding the library for itself before passing the link on to the 
rest of the build process ? If not, then setting $ENV{LIBRARY_PATH} would 
alone be sufficient, and there would not even be a need for 
ExtUtils::CBuilder to know anything about $ENV{LIBRARY_PATH}.

It's the fact that MakeMaker won't pass the link on if it can't find the 
library for itself, that's posing the problem. (I understand the reason that 
Makemaker does this - and I'm not suggesting the behaviour should change.)

Anyway, I can always amend Kid.pm in accordance with that patch for my own 
use (which is what I'll do for many, but probably not all, of my perls).

Unless it's a Win32 OS && has a LIBRARY_PATH environment variable set, that 
patch has no effect, so it's hard to see how it could possibly break 
anything. Even if the LIBRARY_PATH variable contained garbage, I don't think 
it would break anything (untested).  But, of course, I don't make any 
*guarantees*.

Cheers,
Rob