Course of Raku / Advanced / Modules / Distributing modules 🆕

Publishing with fez

The previous topic introduced fez as a way to upload a distribution to the Raku ecosystem. You do not have to use fez — it is not the only way to publish — but it is the most common choice, and it does more than upload: it can also set a new distribution up for you and manage your author account. Install it with zef:

zef install fez

Starting a distribution

Rather than assembling a META6.json and the lib/ and t/ directories by hand, you can let fez scaffold them:

fez init My::Greeting

fez init initialises a new distribution to build on — a project directory with a ready-made META6.json and the standard layout already in place — so you can go straight to writing code under lib/ and tests under t/ instead of preparing the metadata file yourself.

Registering and logging in

Publishing needs an ecosystem account. You create one once with fez register (it asks for a username, email, and password) and sign in with fez login, which stores your key so that later commands are authenticated:

fez register
fez login

Your username matters: a distribution’s META6.json must carry an auth field set to zef:<username>, which is how the ecosystem knows the upload is really yours.

Uploading

With the account in place and the distribution ready, fez upload packages the current directory and submits it:

fez upload

After that, anyone can install it by name with zef install My::Greeting. Each version may be uploaded only once, so remember to raise the version in META6.json before publishing an update.

Other handy commands

A few more fez commands you will reach for:

• fez review — check a distribution for likely problems before uploading;
• fez list — show the distributions you have already published;
• fez refresh — rebuild META6.json from the files currently on disk.

All of these need fez installed and network access, and everything past init needs an ecosystem account.

Course navigation

← zef and the ecosystem   |   A META6 file →

💪 Or jump directly to the exercises in this section.