Set paths searched by `ExtUtils::Liblist::ext()`

[Flamefire]

I recently ran into a problem with Term::Readline::Gnu that picked up an (old) system libreadline found via ExtUtils::Liblist::ext()

We have an updated version of libreadline installed to a custom path and $LD_LIBRARY_PATH and $LIBRARY_PATH etc. (Linux system) set up so e.g. GCC, configure etc. finds it

However ExtUtils::Liblist::ext() seems to only use Config{libpth} which is set by Perl during the build of Perl itself. Hence it ignores the updated path variables.

Is there any way to consider different or at least prefer additional paths using an environment variable or commandline option?
Basically: Use $LIBRARY_PATH instead of Config{libpth}

[Leont]

Honestly, ExtUtils::Liblist keeps on causing issues, sometimes I wonder if we shouldn't add an option to disable it entirely and pass on flags as-is.

[mohawk2]

On Win32 (only) one can add to the LIBS an option of :nosearch which just passes things through. Allowing that to take effect on non-Win32 would be a small change that would then bypass things. The problem is, as always, back-compatibility, and one would really need to add a new argument like LIBS_NOSEARCH=>1. Really, the solution is to just fix Liblist, which is quite good.

[Flamefire]

Could this be done by the user, i.e. without modifying the source? Because that is the situation we are in

[Leont]

Could this be done by the user, i.e. without modifying the source? Because that is the situation we are in

Adding this to the Makefile.PL is the best suggestion I could give you (it will skip on LibList entirely)

sub MM::extliblist {
    my ($self, $lib) = @_;
    return ($lib, '', $lib, '');
}

Possibly you want to use $ENV{LIBRARY_PATH} as the fourth return value.

Alternatively, you can assign to $ExtUtils::MakeMaker::Config::Config{libpth} in the Makefile.PL

[Flamefire]

So if I generally add $ExtUtils::MakeMaker::Config::Config{libpth} = $ENV{LIBRARY_PATH} right after use ExtUtils::MakeMake.*\n this would work? That would be at least somewhat generic and not depend on the particular software

[Leont]

So if I generally add $ExtUtils::MakeMaker::Config::Config{libpth} = $ENV{LIBRARY_PATH} right after use ExtUtils::MakeMake.*\n this would work? That would be at least somewhat generic and not depend on the particular software

Yeah, but ExtUtils::MakeMaker::Config is explicitly documented as «FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY», so don't complain if we break it at some point in the future. I would recommend the other solution first.