The PerlPowerTools module

This is the README for the PerlPowerTools Perl module. This distribution provides pure-Perl implementations of popular Unix tools aimed at the less fortunate systems that don't come with them. By default, these install into ~/perlpowertools.

There are some other ways that might get you to the same thing (and are probably better supported):

• With the Windows Subsytem for Linux (WSL), you can run a linux right in a console

• The GNU coreutils

• Cygwin

• GNUWin

Documentation

To read about PerlPowerTools, look at the embedded documentation in the module itself. Inside the distribution, you can format it with perldoc:

% perldoc lib/PerlPowerTools.pm

If you have already installed the module, you can specify the module name instead of the file location:

% perldoc PerlPowerTools

You can read the documentation and inspect the meta data at MetaCPAN.

The standard module documentation has example uses in the SYNOPSIS section, but you can also look in the examples/ directory (if it's there), or look at the test files in t/.

Installation

You can install this module with a CPAN client, which will resolve and install the dependencies:

% cpan PerlPowerTools
% cpanm PerlPowerTools

You can also install directly from the distribution directory, which will also install the dependencies:

% cpan .
% cpanm .

You could install just this module manually:

% perl Makefile.PL
% make
% make test
% make install

If you didn't specify INSTALL_BASE, the modules go into your home directory under perlpowertools. You'll need to add this to PATH to be able to use them.

If you want to install them somewhere else, run the Makefile.PL with your installation location:

perl Makefile.PL INSTALL_BASE=/where/you/want/them/to/go

Source location

The meta data, such as the source repository and bug tracker, is in Makefile.PL or the META.* files it creates. You can find that on those CPAN web interfaces, but you can also look at files directly in the source repository: https://github.com/briandfoy/PerlPowerTools

If you find a problem, file a ticket in the issue tracker.

Starting with v1.046, PerlPowerTools now uses GitHub Attestations, which allow you to verify that the archive file you have was made from the official repo.

You need a GitHub account and the gh tool.

# download the distro file from GitHub, MetaCPAN, or a CPAN mirror
$ gh auth login
...follow instructions...
$ gh attestation verify PerlPowerTools-1.046.tar.gz --owner briandfoy

Getting help

Although I'm happy to hear from module users in private email, that's the best way for me to forget to do something.

Besides the issue trackers, you can find help at Perlmonks or Stackoverflow, both of which have many competent Perlers who can answer your question, almost in real time. They might not know the particulars of this module, but they can help you diagnose your problem.

You might like to read brian's Guide to Solving Any Perl Problem.

Copyright and License

You should have received a LICENSE file, but the license is also noted in the module files. About the only thing you can't do is pretend that you wrote code that you didn't.

Good luck!

Enjoy,

brian d foy, briandfoy@pobox.com