WHAT? Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates (or just Templates for brevity) is a Dist-Zilla plugin allowing developers to insert Perl code fragments into arbitrary source text files, which become *templates*. When Dist::Zilla builds the distribution each code fragment is evaluated and replaced with result of evaluation. WHY? Because I was not satisfied with the existing solutions. GatherDir::Template (shipped as a part of Dist::Zilla) combines two tasks: it adds files to distribution *and* does template processing. Such coupling introduces some limitations: All the templates must be in a separate directory, you cannot freely mix template and non-template files. If you use source manifest and adds files to distribution with Manifest::Read or GatherFromManifest plugins, you cannot manifest your templates — it causes "attempt to add *filename* multiple times" error. TemplateFiles solves this problem, but has its own limitations. It requires to list all the templates individually, you cannot use Dist::Zilla file finders to declare all install modules (or all tests, or all files, etc). Both GatherDir::Template and TemplateFiles suffer from disadvantages of Dist::Zilla TextTemplate role: lack of control over Text::Template engine and awful error reporting. Thus, Templates plugin: * Uses TextTemplater role to provide better control over Text::Template engine and better error reporting. * Uses Dist::Zilla file finders to select files. NAMING perl-Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates is official software name. However, in Perl world prefix "perl-" is redundant and not used. For example, on meta::cpan this software is named as Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates. In the rest of the documentation shortened name Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates is used as synonym for full name perl-Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates. We are in the Perl world, aren't we? You may notice that name may be spelled with dashes (Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates) or with double colons (Dist::Zilla::Plugin::Templates). Strictly speaking, there is difference: the first one is software name, while the second is name of Perl package, but often these names are interchangeable especially if software consists of single package. FORMS You may face Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates in *source* or *distribution* forms. If you are going to treat source files as templates, you will likely be interested in *using* Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates *distribution*. If you are going to *develop* (or *hack*) the Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates itself, you will likely need the *source*, not distribution. Since Perl is an interpreting language, modules in the distribution *look* like sources. Actually, they are Perl source files. But they are not *actual* sources, because they are *built* (preprocessed or generated) by Dist-Zilla. How to distinguish source and distribution: * Source may contain Mercurial files and directories .hgignore, .hgtags, .hg/, while distribution should not. * Source should contain dist.ini file, while distribution may not. * Source should *not* contain xt/ directory, while distribution should. * Name of source directory does *not* include version (e. g. Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates), while name of distribution does (e. g. Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates-v0.7.1). SOURCE Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates source is in Mercurial repository hosted on fedorapeople.org. To clone the entire repository: $ hg clone https://vandebugger.fedorapeople.org/hg/perl-Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates Source Files Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates source files usually include a comment near the top of the file: This file is part of perl-Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates. Not all source files are included into distribution. Some source files are used at distribution build time only, and not required for installation. DISTRIBUTION Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates distributions are published on CPAN . Generated Files Distribution may contain files preprocessed or generated by Dist-Zilla and its plugins. Some generated files are made from Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates source, but some are generated from third-party templates. Files generated from third-party templates usually include a comment near the top of the file: This file was generated with NAME (where *NAME* is a name of the plugin generated the file). Such files are *not* part of Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates source, and Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates copyright and license are not applicable to such files. INSTALLING With cpanm cpanm tool is (probably) the easiest way to install distribution. It automates downloading, building, testing, installing, and uninstalling. To install the latest version from CPAN: $ cpanm Dist::Zilla::Plugin::Templates To install a specific version (e. g. *v0.7.1*) from CPAN: $ cpanm Dist::Zilla::Plugin::Templates@v0.7.1 To install locally available distribution (e. g. previously downloaded from CPAN or built from sources): $ cpanm ./Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates-v0.7.1.tar.gz To uninstall the distribution: $ cpanm -U Dist::Zilla::Plugin::Templates Manually To install distribution tarball manually (let us assume you have version *v0.7.1* of the distribution): $ tar xaf Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates-v0.7.1.tar.gz $ cd Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates-v0.7.1 $ perl Build.PL $ ./Build build $ ./Build test $ ./Build install See Also How to install CPAN modules HACKING For hacking, you will need Mercurial, Perl interpreter and Dist-Zilla (with some plugins), and likely cpanm to install missed parts. Clone the repository first: $ hg clone https://vandebugger.fedorapeople.org/hg/perl-Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates $ cd perl-Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates To build a distribution from the source, run: $ dzil build If required Dist-Zilla plugins are missed, the dzil tool will warn you and show the command to install all the required plugins, e. g.: Required plugin Dist::Zilla::Plugin::Test::EOL isn't installed. Run 'dzil authordeps' to see a list of all required plugins. You can pipe the list to your CPAN client to install or update them: dzil authordeps --missing | cpanm To run the tests (to check primary software functionality): $ dzil test To run extended tests (to check source code style, documentation and other things which are not too important for software end users): $ dzil xtest To install the distribution: $ dzil install or $ cpanm ./Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates-VERSION.tar.gz where *VERSION* is a version of built distribution. To clean the directory: $ dzil clean DOCUMENTATION Online The easiest way is browsing the documentation online at meta::cpan . Locally Installed If you have the distribution installed, use perldoc tool to browse locally installed documentation: $ perldoc Dist::Zilla::Plugin::Templates::Manual $ perldoc Dist::Zilla::Plugin::Templates Built from Source Build Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates first (see "HACKING"), then: $ cd Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates-VERSION $ perldoc Dist::Zilla::Plugin::Templates::Manual $ perldoc Dist::Zilla::Plugin::Templates where *VERSION* is a version of built distribution. FEEDBACK CPAN Request Tracker The quickest way to report a bug in Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates is by sending email to bug-Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates [at] rt.cpan.org. CPAN request tracker can be used via web interface also: Browse bugs Browsing bugs does not require authentication. Report bugs You need to be a CPAN author, have a BitCard account, or OpenID in order to report bugs via the web interface. (On 2015-04-27 I have logged in successfully with my LiveJournal OpenID, but my Google OpenID did not work for CPAN. I did not check other OpenID providers.) Send Email to Author As a last resort, send email to author: Van de Bugger . Please start message subject with "perl-Dist-Zilla-Plugin-Templates:". GLOSSARY CPAN Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a large collection of Perl software and documentation. See cpan.org , What is CPAN? . Distribution Tarball, containing Perl modules and accompanying files (documentation, metainfo, tests). Usually distributions are uploaded to CPAN, and can be installed with dedicated tools (cpan, cpanm, and others). Module Perl library file, usually with .pm suffix. Usually contains one package. See perlmod . Package Perl language construct. See package and perlmod .