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=pod

Lots of CPAN distributions require some kind of graphical
environment. Some of them even pop up windows, which not only very
annoying, but also sometimes fails if you're using a tiled window
manager.

To test such distributions on a machine where no graphical environment
is available or on your desktop while you're working and don't want to
get annoyed to death you can use a fake X server, like Xvfb.

The easiest way to do that is to run

  lang:Bash
  $ xvfb-run -a make test

instead of a plain C<make test>. That'll automatically create a fake
xserver, set up C<DISPLAY> and run C<make test> in that environment.

That works well for manually installing modules. When installing using
C<CPAN.pm> you can make things easier by writing a distropref.

First, tell cpan where your distroprefs are. I use C<~/.cpan/prefs>:

  lang:Bash
  $ cpan
  cpan[1]> o conf init prefs_dir
  [...]
  <prefs_dir>
  Directory where to store default options/environment/dialogs for
  building modules that need some customization? [] /home/rafl/.cpan/prefs
  cpan[3]> o conf commit
  commit: wrote '/home/rafl/.cpan/CPAN/MyConfig.pm'

Now write a distropref for the modules that need an X server and put
it into your prefs dir as C<X11.yml>

  ---
  match:
    distribution: |
      /(?x:Wx
        |Gtk2
        |Gnome2
        |... other modules requiring an X server
      )-\d|
  test:
    commandline: "xvfb-run -a make test"

Now the tests for Wx, Gtk2, Gnome2 and all other distributions you
list in that regex will be executed with a fake X server.

I have yet to figure out how to write a distropref that just prepends
to the test commandline instead of replacing it so I won't need to
have another pref for all modules using C<Module::Build>.

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