In Variables§
See primary documentation in context for %?RESOURCES
%?RESOURCES
is a compile-time variable available to the code of a Distribution
.
It contains a hash that provides compile and runtime access to files associated with the Distribution of the current compilation unit. This hash is used to access a special storage for Distribution
-wide static files (such as examples of configuration files, templates or data files).
Files available via this variable need to be placed under the Distribution's resources
directory:
Module-Foo/ βββ lib β βββ Module β βββ Foo.rakumod βββ META6.json βββ README.md βββ resources βββ images βββ foo.jpg
Additionally, a relative path (starting from the root resources directory of a distribution) to a file may be specified under the "resources"
field in the META6.json
file:
"resources": [
"images/foo.jpg"
]
Every resource file is added to an installed Distribution and is accessible using a Hash
-like access to %?RESOURCES
, returning a Distribution::Resources
object:
my = <images/foo.jpg>; # gets an object you can slurpmy = <images/foo.jpg>.absolute; # gets an absolute path to a filemy = <images/foo.jpg>.open; # gets an opened IO::Handle to work with
Note that paths and names of resource files can be mangled in an installed distribution, so do not rely on their values in any other case besides using them as keys for the %?RESOURCES
variable.
The %?RESOURCES
variable is not implemented as a plain Hash
, but as an instance of the Distribution::Resources
type, so do not expect to see all available resource files in a distribution by printing or by using other ways to inspect its value. Instead, use the API described above to access particular files.
The %?RESOURCES
variable is only accessible inside of modules. If you want to access %?RESOURCES
outside of a module, you'll need to expose that API yourself. One way to do that is to create a routine in the lib
directory to return its value:
unit ;sub my-resources is export
Then create a test file, say, t/resources.t
, with contents:
use Test;use MyLib;my = my-resources;isa-ok , Distribution::Resources;
The contents of the compile-time hash are thus exposed to the runtime code.