Recommended Project Layout

In order to avoid problems with syntax validation (such as packages reported missing) and the debugger (such as skipped breakpoints), it is best to organize your project according to the conventions of the core Perl distribution:

  • Keep your own modules in dedicated subtrees of your project. For example, create a subdirectory lib as the root of the subtree containing all *.pm files. Note that you can have more than one such subtree. For example, you could also create test/lib to store modules that are only imported by test scripts.

  • Add the root directories of your subtrees to the @INC path (see the section called “Perl Include Path”). For example, add the entries lib and test/lib there.

  • Map package names to paths in the subtree (and vice versa). For example, store code for the package Foo::Bar in file lib/Foo/Bar.pm and ensure that lib/Foo/Baz.pm contains only package Foo::Baz.

  • Store your Perl scripts anywhere you like in the project. For example, in subdirectory bin or cgi-bin.

  • To import from a package, use it, rather than require it. For example, use Foo::Bar; rather than require '../lib/Foo/Bar.pm';