Several months ago I read a tutorial on module creation. It got me thinking about releasing some of my modules. I got to work getting my code organized. At the time I had all of my work in the directory for my site. So I moved my general purpose modules to their own directory and then started reading more about what is needed to get a module published on CPAN.

I first installed Module::Starter. It seemed like a good place to start, but then Dist::Zilla was suggested, so I installed it. Most recently Minilla suggested, and now it is installed. The problem is, I do not know which one to use. Do I use any of those at all, or is there yet another packaging module (with executable) out there?

Module::Starter (module-starter) appears to be for those starting with well thought out plans for what they want to write. I have been told Dist::Zilla (dzil) is not for a first time releaser. Minilla appears to be for those who have a complete package written and just need to get it compressed to send to CPAN.

I have also read Release::Checklist.

I know after the code, documentation, and tests are written; the rest should take maybe half an hour or less. I have lost all confidence I had several months ago when I thought it would be easy. I am drowning in an ocean of documentation that most might find to be only a wading pool. I am reaching out and grasping at whatever scrap I can find that might match my specific circumstances, but I keep getting bogged down. I am fairly sure releasing modules to CPAN should not cause tearful emotional breakdowns on a semi-regular basis, especially when it is just one module with less than 30 lines of code to it.

My circumstance is I have around 60 free floating .pm files I am thinking about publishing to CPAN. All have plain old documentation in various states of completion. All have at least their first tests written. (Only 2 have more than the use_ok test in a BEGIN block.)

The module I want to release first is Fancy::Open. It has a separate .pod file and one test file.

Where do I go from here? I am willing to do this all "by-hand" if need be since this is my very first package and release.

Apologies if this is not well written. I am so confused, but I do not want to give up like I have on other aspects of Perl.

I have sought wisdom on PerlMonks.

In my last post, a meta issue for modules: bug tracking, I had noticed a problem with the bug tracking link for a module and discussed that problem. In the comments, one person said he preferred rt.cpan.org. I began thinking about where to have bugs tracked for my modules. Since I have not published one yet, this is something I would like to know. I would like to know the good and bad and ugly of the various systems to make a more educated choice on issue tracking before my first release.

Are there specific issues with GitHub's, GitLab's, or other issue tracking systems making rt.cpan.org the more attractive choice?

On a side note, I prefer reporting issues on sites like GitHub and GitLab since my reply email is hidden and does not get spammed, or at least not yet. However, my cpan.org email address gets a lot of spam, so much spam I had to make a rule to send all email I receive through that address to junk mail. So, should I receive a reply to an issue I opened on rt.cpan, I may miss it since it ends up in my junk mail, which I do not check that often.

Where do you like bugs reported and why?