Strawberry Perl Home

Building your own "strawberry-like"
perl distribution (via MSM merge module)

What do I need?

Start with an installation of any version of Strawberry Perl 5.12.x (or higher). BEWARE:You'll need to install Strawberry Perl to a directory OTHER THAN C:\strawberry.

Install WiX-3.0 installer from http://wix.sourceforge.net/downloadv3.html

Install 4 modules, in this order:

What do I do after everything's installed?

There are two more things to do:

  • Create a script - let's call it build_perl.pl - like this:
    • package CustomPerlBuild;

use strict;
use warnings;
use File::Temp;
use File::Spec::Functions  qw( catdir catfile );
use File::Slurp            qw( write_file );
use parent 'Perl::Dist::Strawberry';

sub new {
  my ($class, $workdir) = @_;  
  die "FATAL: workdir name must be defined and can't contain spaces" if !$workdir || $workdir =~ / /;
  my %args = (
    # Set this to 2 for now. You can set it to 1 later.
    trace                => 2,
    temp_dir             => $workdir,
    image_dir            => catdir($workdir, 'strawberry'),
    perl_version         => '5142',
    # Change these as appropriate for what you want to call your distribution.
    app_publisher_url    => 'http://publisher.website.invalid/',
    app_id               => 'customperl',
    app_name             => 'Custom Perl',
    app_publisher        => 'Publisher Name',
    build_number         => 11, #the 4th digit in version 5.14.2.
    # These are the locations to pull down the msm. 
    bits                 => 32, #32|64 - should correspond to chosen MSM
    msm_to_use           => 'http://strawberryperl.com/package/kmx/p5.14.2.1-RC/strawberry-perl-5.14.2.1-32bit.msm',
    msm_zip              => 'http://strawberryperl.com/package/kmx/p5.14.2.1-RC/strawberry-perl-5.14.2.1-32bit.zip',
    msm_code             => '72014D7D-5EC7-3665-9F97-959C988CA754',
    fileid_perl          => 'F_exe_MzA1Mjk2NjIyOQ',
    fileid_relocation_pl => 'F_tab_Mzg0NDgwNzYyMQ',
    # Tasklist
    tasklist => [
      'final_initialization',
      'initialize_using_msm',
      'install_extra_modules',
      'install_win32_extras',
      'install_strawberry_extras',
      'install_relocation_information',
      'remove_waste',
      'install_readme',
      'regenerate_fragments',
      'write',
    ],
  );
  return $class->SUPER::new( \%args );
}

sub install_readme {  # README.txt is mandatory, must be included into Win32Extras fragment
  my $self = shift;
  write_file( $self->file('README.txt'), <add_to_fragment('Win32Extras', [$self->file('README.txt')]);
}

sub install_extra_modules {
  my $self = shift;
  #$self->install_module( name=>'YAML::XS' );        
  $self->install_module( name=>'Spreadsheet::ParseExcel', follow_deps=>1, force=>1 );
}

sub _build_output_base_filename { # the output filename for ZIP/MSI e.g. 'customperl-5.14.2.11-20111124-32bit'
  my $self = shift;
  my $string = $self->app_id . '-'
             . $self->perl_version_human . '.'
             . $self->build_number . '-'
             . $self->output_date_string . '-'
             . $self->bits . 'bit';
  return $string;
}
	  
package main;

my $dist = CustomPerlBuild->new( 'c:\buildtmp' );
$dist->run();
  • Run build_perl.pl + wait a few minutes, and you're done.

If you want to do more complicated things than just add additional modules, read the Perl::Dist::WiX documentation, and then e-mail us and we'll do our best to help you out.