Course of Raku / Advanced / Modules / Distributing modules 🆕

zef and the ecosystem

zef is Raku’s module installer. You have already used it to install modules by name; it also works on a local distribution directory. From inside a distribution you can test and install it directly:

zef test .
zef install .

zef test . runs the files under t/, and zef install . installs the distribution into your Raku so that other programs can use it. Installing by name — zef install Cro — does the same thing after first downloading the distribution from the ecosystem.

To publish your own distribution so that others can install it by name, you upload it to the ecosystem. The common tool for this is fez:

fez upload

This packages the current distribution and submits it to the Raku ecosystem, after which zef install Maths::Simple will work for anyone.

These commands need zef/fez installed and network access, and uploading needs an ecosystem account.

So the lifecycle of a shared module is: lay it out with a META6.json, test it with zef test, and publish it with fez upload. From then on it is just another name that anyone can zef install.

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