{"id":21307002,"url":"https://github.com/perlalien/alien-m4","last_synced_at":"2026-02-07T21:31:09.737Z","repository":{"id":23503812,"uuid":"26869505","full_name":"PerlAlien/Alien-m4","owner":"PerlAlien","description":"Find or build m4","archived":false,"fork":false,"pushed_at":"2024-12-22T23:56:57.000Z","size":57,"stargazers_count":2,"open_issues_count":2,"forks_count":0,"subscribers_count":1,"default_branch":"main","last_synced_at":"2025-04-14T19:12:38.374Z","etag":null,"topics":["alien","aliens","autotools","m4","perl"],"latest_commit_sha":null,"homepage":"","language":"Perl","has_issues":true,"has_wiki":null,"has_pages":null,"mirror_url":null,"source_name":null,"license":null,"status":null,"scm":"git","pull_requests_enabled":true,"icon_url":"https://github.com/PerlAlien.png","metadata":{"files":{"readme":"README.md","changelog":"Changes","contributing":null,"funding":null,"license":null,"code_of_conduct":null,"threat_model":null,"audit":null,"citation":null,"codeowners":null,"security":null,"support":null}},"created_at":"2014-11-19T16:09:03.000Z","updated_at":"2022-05-31T19:39:36.000Z","dependencies_parsed_at":"2022-08-22T01:30:46.979Z","dependency_job_id":null,"html_url":"https://github.com/PerlAlien/Alien-m4","commit_stats":null,"previous_names":[],"tags_count":19,"template":false,"template_full_name":null,"repository_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/PerlAlien%2FAlien-m4","tags_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/PerlAlien%2FAlien-m4/tags","releases_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/PerlAlien%2FAlien-m4/releases","manifests_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/PerlAlien%2FAlien-m4/manifests","owner_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/owners/PerlAlien","download_url":"https://codeload.github.com/PerlAlien/Alien-m4/tar.gz/refs/heads/main","host":{"name":"GitHub","url":"https://github.com","kind":"github","repositories_count":248943460,"owners_count":21186958,"icon_url":"https://github.com/github.png","version":null,"created_at":"2022-05-30T11:31:42.601Z","updated_at":"2022-07-04T15:15:14.044Z","host_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub","repositories_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories","repository_names_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repository_names","owners_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/owners"}},"keywords":["alien","aliens","autotools","m4","perl"],"created_at":"2024-11-21T16:29:18.727Z","updated_at":"2025-04-14T19:12:42.978Z","avatar_url":"https://github.com/PerlAlien.png","language":"Perl","funding_links":[],"categories":[],"sub_categories":[],"readme":"# Alien::m4 ![linux](https://github.com/PerlAlien/Alien-m4/workflows/linux/badge.svg) ![macos](https://github.com/PerlAlien/Alien-m4/workflows/macos/badge.svg) ![windows](https://github.com/PerlAlien/Alien-m4/workflows/windows/badge.svg) ![cygwin](https://github.com/PerlAlien/Alien-m4/workflows/cygwin/badge.svg) ![msys2-mingw](https://github.com/PerlAlien/Alien-m4/workflows/msys2-mingw/badge.svg)\n\nFind or build GNU m4\n\n# SYNOPSIS\n\nFrom a Perl script\n\n```perl\nuse Alien::m4;\nuse Env qw( @PATH );\nunshift @PATH, Alien::m4-\u003ebin_dir;  # m4 is now in your path\n```\n\nFrom Alien::Base Build.PL\n\n```perl\nuse Alien:Base::ModuleBuild;\nmy $builder = Module::Build-\u003enew(\n  ...\n  alien_bin_requires =\u003e {\n    'Alien::m4' =\u003e '0.07',\n  },\n  ...\n);\n$builder-\u003ecreate_build_script;\n```\n\n# DESCRIPTION\n\nThis package can be used by other CPAN modules that require GNU m4.\n\n# METHODS\n\n## exe\n\n```perl\nmy $m4 = Alien::m4-\u003eexe;\n```\n\nReturns the \"name\" of m4.  Normally this is `m4`, but on some platforms\nit may be gm4 or gnum4, or whatever is specified by `$ENV{M4}`.\n\n# HELPERS\n\n## m4\n\n```\n%{m4}\n```\n\nReturns the name of the m4 command.  Usually just `m4`.\n\n# CAVEATS\n\nWhy GNU m4?  Many Unixen come with BSD or other variants of m4 which are\nperfectly good.  Unfortunately, the main use case for this module is\n[Alien::Autotools](https://metacpan.org/pod/Alien::Autotools) and friends.  Autoconf requires the GNU m4, probably\nfor political reasons, possibly for technical reasons.  If you are using\none of these Unixen, don't despair, you can usually install the GNU\nversion of m4 either by building from source or by installing a binary\npackage, with either the name `gm4` or `gnum4`, and this module will\nfind it, and [Alien::Autotools](https://metacpan.org/pod/Alien::Autotools) will be able to use it.\n\n# AUTHOR\n\nGraham Ollis \u003cplicease@cpan.org\u003e\n\n# COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE\n\nThis software is copyright (c) 2017 by Graham Ollis.\n\nThis is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under\nthe same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.\n","project_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/projects/github.com%2Fperlalien%2Falien-m4","html_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/projects/github.com%2Fperlalien%2Falien-m4","lists_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/projects/github.com%2Fperlalien%2Falien-m4/lists"}